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A45577
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A charge given at the general quarter sessions of the peace for the county of Surrey holden at Dorking on Tuesday the 5th day of April 1692, and in the fourth year of Their Majesties reign / by Hugh Hare.
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Hare, Hugh, 1668-1707.; England and Wales. Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace (Surrey)
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1692
(1692)
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Wing H760; ESTC R25410
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29,639
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42
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Pope interposes his Authority in Excommunicating or deposing any Protestant Prince whom out of their Catholick Charity they are pleased to call Hereticks they fail not when an Opportunity offers to rise in Rebellion against them and as they did in Queen Elizabeth's Time to joyn with any Foreigner whom the Pope Commissions to invade their Native Countrey and reduce it to an Italian a Spanish or which is worst of all a French Slavery How much their Loyalty is to be relyed on their Principles and their Practices especially in the Reigns of that Glorious Queen and her peaceful Successor do abundantly testifie and I hope while the Spanish Invasion and the Gun-power-Treason continue recorded in our History as undeniable matters of Fact while Papists deservedly lie under an Exclusion from all Offices of Trust and Profit and even from the Privilege of Voting in Parliament as Peers which some Mercenary Time servers in the late Reign were pleased to call their Natural Birth-Right and inseparable from their Persons while I say these things remain as they are and while we remember as I hope we allways shall the great dangers the Church and Nation were lately in by the bigotted zeal of a Popish Prince and the inveterate Malice of the Roman Catholicks then armed with Power I hope we shall not fail on all Occasions but especially at this time to have a watchfull Eye over their Conduct All the Mercies our present King hath extended to them both here and in Ireland Mercies to be paralleled by none but those of the Almighty cannot yet unhinge them from their dependance upon France and their Subjection to Rome nor put an end to their vain Expectations of seeing our present happy settlement wholly unravelled and their own Religion again establish'd and ours utterly extirpated by the the victorious return which they with for and we all deprecate of the late King and his pretended Son Therefore since nothing will make them Friends to this Government Prudence directs us to use the best Caution we can against their Hellish Designs and since there are many good Laws in Force against them there is great Reason that they suffer those Penalties especially such of them as stand out in defyance to the Government that are provided for them And Gentlemen it is your Business to enquire and present all Popish Recusants and I doubt not but you will express your Affection to the Government by doing your Duty in this Particular By Protestant Recusants I mean those Protestant Subjects of England who refuse to take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy to the present King and Queen It may I confess seem a Paradox that notwithstanding the many Calamities we felt in the Late Reign and those more grievous ones we daily expected when the making and repealing of Laws should have been in the Power of a Pack'd Parliament and when the protection of our Religion the defence of our Rights the disposal of our Lives Liberties and Estates and in a Word the Administration of Justice should have been entirely commmited to a French and Irish Army and to a Cabinet Council of Jesuits notwithstanding this gloomy Prospect which reduced us even to the Brink of Despair notwithstanding the Miraculous deliverance out of these Extremities that the Divine Providence afforded us at the critical Instant notwithstanding those returns of Gratitude which we owe to God the Author and to our present King the successful Instrument of so great a Mercy notwithstanding the late King's refusal to do his Subjects that Justice which his Coronation Oath obliged him to and which the Prince out of great kindness to this Nation at a vast Expence and an inexpressible hazard to his own Person came over to demand notwithstanding the Late King 's Voluntary Desertion his throwing up the Reins of Government and leaving us in a state of Anarchy and Confusion notwithstanding the calm deliberate and free Proceedings in Calling Chusing and Convening our Representatives notwithstanding the Regular and considerate Methods that wise Assembly follow'd in determining the great Point of the Abdication and placing their present Sacred Majesty's in the vacant Throne notwithstanding the manifest Reason all private Men have in such Cases to submit their own Opinions to the Publick Decision of so August a Body notwithstanding the many Dangers and Difficulties Fatigues and Hazards the indefatigable Labour and incessant Diligence and anxious Cares which have ever since that time denyed his Majesty that Ease Repose and Comfort which the meanest Man here enjoys notwithstanding all this was undertaken meerly for our Benifit and Safety Peace and Preservation for excepting our Saviour and the Bl. Martyr K. Charles the 1st never did any Prince wear a Crown so full of Thorns notwithstanding I say the King 's Personal Merits which without Flattery I speak it deserve an Universal Empire upon Earth and doubtless will be rewarded hereafter with one of the brightest Crowns in Heaven notwithstanding all this and much more which I could add would the time permit me it may I say seem Paradox but yet 't is too notorious that there are some Protestant Recusants who will not be perswaded they owe any Allegiance or Duty to this Prince His Royal Endowments and Accomplishments shine so bright that as much his Enemies as they are they are forc'd to acknowledge that he possesses them in the highest Degree and though they cannot love they must admire him for them But all this while they think him an Intruder on the Rights of another and some of them are so bold as to call his Glorious Reign a Prosperous Usurpation and not a whit more to be justified then that execrable one of Cromwell I have not time nor is it my Business at present nor indeed is there any need of it after so many excellent Treatises have been written upon the Subject to argue in defence of the Revolution and the present Settlement of the Nation Those that are its Friends require no farther Satisfaction and those that are its Enemies are resolved to continue so though its Advocates had the Energy and Eloquence of Angels Some of them indeed but how few are they I am so charitable as to believe cannot comply with this Government out of an Error of their understandings rather than a perverse Obstinacy of their Will and those who are so unhappy as to be under this mistake form no Cabals against the Government encourage no seditious Conventicles send no traiterous Embassies to France offer no incense of Flattery to that proud Tyrant make no publick Assignations for Rioting and Debauchery on such Days as their Majesties appoint for a National Humiliation nor in a Word make it more their Business to incense the People against the Present Government and to involve us in the Calamities of a Civil-War that we may be the easier Prey to the great Leviathan of Europe than to keep a Conscience void of Offence towards God and towards Men. This Gentlemen is
against whom the Offences which you are to enquire of and present are High-Treasons Praemunire's and Misprisions of Treason High-Treason is a Crime punishable with Death and whoever compasseth or imagineth the death of the King or Queen and declares it by some Overt Act whoever levyeth War against the King whoever shall counterfeit the King or Queen Regnants Great Seal Sign Manual Privy Segnet or Privy Seal whoever shall counterfeit the Coyn of this Realm or any other Coyn permitted by the King's consent to be current in this Kingdom or whoever shall bring over from beyond the Seas any counterfeit Coyn knowing it to be false and shall make payment thereof in deceit of the King and his People or shall clip impair or falsifie any such Coin as aforesaid or whoever shall obtain or receive from the Bishop of Rome or any Authority of that See any Bull Writing or Instrument Written or Printed or shall Use Publish or put it in Ure or shall be reconciled to the Bishop or See of Rome by virtue of any such Bull or shall perswade any Person to be reconciled by vertue of such Bull or shall abett or conceal such Offenders and Offences or whoever shall by any other ways or means withdraw or endeavour to withdraw any to the Romish Religion or whoever shall be so withdrawn or whoever being a Jesuit Seminary Priest or any other Priest Deacon Religious or Ecclesiastical Person of the Church of Rome and being a Native of this Realm shall come hither or into any of their Majesties Dominions or lastly whosoever during the Present War with the French King shall Send Load Transport or Deliver or cause to be Sent Laden Transported or Delivered for the use of the said French King or any of his Subjects residing in any part of his Dominions or in any place in his Possession any Arms Ordnance Powder Bullets Pitch Tarr Hemp Masts Cordage Iron Coals Lead or Salt-Peter or whoever of their Majesties Subjects shall without License from their Majesties voluntarily go or repair or imbark in any Vessel with an intent to go into France or any Dominions of the French King Whosoever Gentlemen commits any of the Facts abovementioned and all their Aiders Abetters Counsellors and Maintainers are guilty of High-Treason And by the Statute of the 25 th of Edw. the 3d. it is likewise High-Treason to kill the Chancellor Treasurer or any of the Justices Assigned to hear and determine being in their Places doing their Offices All these Facts Gentlemen are High-Treason and you are to enquire and present them In the next place Gentlemen you are to enquire of such Offences against the King and Queen which fall within the Statutes of Praemunire's This Law was made to preserve the Crown of England from the papal Incroachments and Usurpations and to prevent Foreign Appeals in Cases determinable in the King's Courts So jealous were our wise Ancestors of the freedom and independancy of the Regal Power and of their own Liberties that near two Hundred Years before the Reformation in the darkest times of Popery there was no less a Penalty than being put out of the King's Protection being fined at the King's Pleasure and being imprisoned without Bail till that Fine should be paid and their Lands Goods and Possessions Forfeited to the King unless they should come in and receive their Tryal within two Months after Summons no less a Penalty I say than this was provided for all such as should Sue to any Foreign Court or to any Spiritual Court within this Realm to defeat or impeach the Judgment given in the King's Court as also for all such as should on this account purchase or pursue in the Court of Rome or elsewhere any Excommunication Bull or other Instrument against the King his Crown or Realm or should bring receive notifie or execute them here in England and for all their Procurers Maintainers Abettors and Counsellors For in Treasons Murthers and Praemunire's all the Offenders are Principals and are so punishable It would be too tedious Gentlemen to receite to you the several Statutes that have been made especially since the Reformation concerning Praemunire's It is enough to inform you in the General that they are mostly levell'd at Popish Recusants and at such as by word of Mouth or Writing shall defend the Authority the Pope or any Foreign Prince may pretend to have over the King and People of England And Gentlemen I must not omit taking notice to you that an Act made in the last Sessions of Parliament Entituled An Act against Corresponding with their Majesties Enemies Declares That if any Person during the present War with the French King shall Send Load Transport or Deliver or cause to be Sent Laden Transported or Delivered for the use of the said French King or any of his Subjects residing in any part of his Dominions or in any place in his Possession any Goods Merchandizes Wares Or Commodities shall incurr the Pain and Forfeiture of a Praemunire This Act is so exceeding useful for the Nation in this present juncture that I must particularly recommend it to you diligently to enquire and present all Offenders against it In the next place Gentlemen you are to enquire and present all Misprisions of Treason which Word signifieth in our Law Negligence or Oversight in not revealing to the King his Council or some Magistrate a Treason which any Man knows to be committed or about to be committed for it is a high Crime and the Consequences may be very dangerous for any one though not consenting to it for that comes within the Statutes of Treasons to conceal so Capital an Offence Therefore for Misprision of Treason the Offender shall forfeit to the King his Goods and Chattels for ever and the profits of his Lands during his Life and also shall be imprisoned during his Life And Gentlemen now I am discoursing to you concerning such Offences as do most immediately strike at the Persons and Government of the King and Queen I must take notice to you of three sorts of Men of whom we have at this time no small Reason to be Apprehensive and they are these Popish Recusants Protestant Recusants and Protestants who though they have taken the Oaths to their present Majesties and enjoy the Benefit of their Protection do yet make it their business to libel and censure the Government and in their Words and daily Behaviour shew themselves disaffected and to give them their due Character are but one Degree from Traytors By Popish Recusants I mean those Subjects of England who divide their Allegiance between the King and the Bishop of Rome whom they look upon as Christ's Vicar on Earth and of whose Church and Communion they are On this Account they refuse to take the Oath of Supremacy which excludes the Pope's Power in spiritual Matters to any Prince though of their Perswasion and if the