43. A Brief Account of particulars occurring at the happy death of our late Soveraign Lord K. Ch. 2d in regard to Religion faithfully related by his then Assistant Mr. Jo. Huddleston 280 44. Some Reflections on His Majesty's Proclamation of the Twelfth of Feb. 1686 7. for a Toleration in Scotland together with the said Proclamation 281 45. His Majesty's Gracious Declaration to all his Loving Subjects for Liberty of Conscience 287 46. A Letter containing some Reflections on His Majesty's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience Dated April 4. 1687. 289 47. A Letter to a Dissenter upon Occasion of His Majesty's Late Gracious Declaration of Indulgence 294 48. The Anatomy of an Equivalent 300 49. A Letter from a Gentleman in the City to his Friend in the Countrey containing his Reasons for not reading the Declaration 309 50. An Answer to the City Minister's Letter from his Countrey Friend 314 51. A Letter from a Gentleman in Ireland to his Friend in London upon ocasion of a Pamphlet entituled A Vindication of the Present Government of Ireland under his Excellency Richard Earl of Tyrconnel 316 52. A Plain Account of the Persecution laid to the Charge of the Church of England 322 53. Abby and other Church Lands not yet assured to such possessors as are Roman-Catholicks dedicated to the Nobility and Gentry of that Religion 326 54. The King's Power in Ecclesiastical matters truly stated 331 55. A Letter writ by Mijn Heer Fagel Pensioner of Holland to Mr. James Stewart Advocate giving an Account of the Prince and Princess of Orange's thoughts concerning the Repeal of the Test and the Penal Laws 334 56. Reflections on Monsieur Fagel's Letter 338 57. Animadversions upon a pretended Answer to Mijn Heer Fagel's Letter 343 58. Some Reflections on a Discourse called Good Advice to the Church of England c. 363 59. The ill effects of Animosities 371 60. A Representation of the Threatning Dangers impending over Protestants in Great-Britain With an Account of the Arbitrary and Popish ends unto which the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in England and the Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland are designed 380 61. The Declaration of his Highness William Henry by the Grace of God Prince of Orange c. of the Reasons inducing him to appear in Arms in the Kingdom of England for preserving of the Protestant Religion and for restoring the Laws and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland 420 62. His Highnesses Additional Declaration 426 63. The then supposed Third Declaration of his Royal Highness pretended to be signed at his head Quarters at Sherborn-Castle November 28. 1688. but was written by another Person tho yet unknown 427 64. The Reverend Mr. Samuel Johnson's Paper in the year 1686. for which he was sentenc'd by the Court of Kings-Bench Sir Edward Herbert being Lord Chief Justice and Sir Francis Wythens pronouncing the Sentence to stand Three times on the Pillory and to be whipp'd from Newgate to Tyburn which barbarous Sentence was Executed 428 65. Several Reasons for the establishment of a standing Army and Dissolving the Militia by the said Mr. Johnson 429 66. To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty the Humble Petition of William Archbishop of Canterbury and divers of the suffragan Bishops of that Province then present with him in behalf of themselves and others of their absent Brethren and of the Clergy of their respective Diocesses with His Majesty's Answer 430 67. The Petition of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for the calling of a free Parliament together with His Majesty's Gracious Answer to their Lordships Ib. 68. The Prince of Orange's Letter to the English Army 431 69. Prince George his Letter to the King 432 70. The Lord Churchill's Letter to the King 432 71. The Princess Ann of Denmark's Letter to the Queen 433 72. A Memorial of the Protestants of the Church of England presented to their Royal Hignesses the Prince and Princess of Orange 433 73. Admiral Herbert's Letter to all Commanders of Ships and Seamen in His Majesty's Fleet. 434 74. The Lord Delamere's Speech 434 75. An Engagement of the Noblemen Knights and Gentlemen at Exeter to assist the Prince of Orange in the defence of the Protestant Religion Laws and Liberties of the People of England Scotland and Ireland 435 76. The Declaration of the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty at the Rendezvouz at Nottingham November 22. 1688. 436 77. His Grace the Duke of Norfolk's Speech to the Mayor of Norwich on the 1st of December in the Market-place of Norwich 437 78. The Speech of the Prince of Orange to some principal Gentlemen of Somersetshire and Dorsetshire on their coming to join his Highness at Exeter Novemb. 15. 1688. 437 79. The True Copy of a Paper delivered by the Lord Devonshire to the Mayor of Darby where he Quartered Novemb. 21. 1688. 438 80. A Letter from a Gentleman at Kings-Lynn Decemb. 7. 1688. to his Friend in London With an Address to his Grace the most Noble Henry Duke of Norfolk Lord Marshall of England Ibid. 81. His Grace's Answer with another Letter from Lynn-Regis giving the D. of Norfolk's 2d Speech there Decemb. 10. 1688. 439 82. The Declaration of the Lord 's Spiritual and Temporal in and about the Cities of London and Westminster Assembled at Guild-Hall Decemb. 11. 1688. Ibid. 83. A Paper delivered to his Highness the Prince of Orange by the Commissioners sent by His Majesty to treat with him and his Highness's Answer 1688. 440 84. The Recorder of Bristoll's Speech to his Highness the Prince of Orange Monday Jan. 7. 1688. 441. 85. The Humble Address of the Lieutenancy of the City of London to his Highness the Prince of Orange Decemb. 12. 1688. 442 86. The Humble Address of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons of the City of London in Common-Council Assembled to his Highness the Prince of Orange 443 87. The Speech of Sir Geo. Treby Knight Recorder of the Honourable City of London to his Highness the Prince of Orange Decemb. 20. 1688. Ibid. 88. His Highness the Prince of Orange's Speech to the Scotch Lords and Gentlemen with their Advice and his Highness's Answer with a true Account of what past at their meeting in the Council Chamber at White-Hall Jan. 7. 1688 9. 444 89. The Emperor of Germany's Account of K. James's Misgovernment in joining with the K. of France the Common Enemy of Christendom in his Letter to K. James 446 90. The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminster concerning the Misgovernment of K. James and filling up the Throne Presented to K. William and Q. Mary by the Right Honourable the Marquess of Hallifax Speaker to the House of Lords with His Majesty's Most Gracious Answer thereunto 447 91. A Proclamation Declaring William and Mary Prince and Princess of Orange to be King and Queen of England France and Ireland c. 449 92. The Declaration of the Estates of Scotland concerning the Misgovernment of K. James the 7th
certain that in all Absolute Governments the poorest Countreys are always most favourably dealt with When the Ancient Nobility and Gentry there cannot enjoy their Royalties their Shrevaldoms and their Stewardaries which they and their Ancestors have possessed for several hundreds of years but that now they are enjoyned by the Lords of the Council to make Deputations of their Authorities to such as are their known Enemies Can we expect to enjoy our Magna Charta long under the same Persons and Administration of Affairs If the Council-Table there can Imprison any Nobleman or Gentleman for several years without bringing him to Trial or giving the least Reason for what they do can we expect the same Men will preserve the Liberty of the Subject here I will acknowledge I am not well vers'd in the particular Laws of Scotland but this I do know that all the Nothern Countries have by their Laws an undoubted and inviolable Right to their Liberties and Properties yet Scotland hath out-done all the Eastern and Southern Countries in having their Lives Liberties and Estates subjected to the Arbitrary Will and Pleasure of those that Govern They have lately plundered and harrassed the richest and wealthiest Countries of that Kingdom and brought down the Barbarous Highlanders to devour them and all this without almost a colourable Pretence to do it Nor can there be found a Reason of State for what they have done but that those wicked Ministers designed to procure a Rebellion at any Rate which as they managed was only prevented by the miraculous Hand of God or otherwise all the Papists in England would have been Armed and the fairest Opportunity given in the just time for the Execution of that Wicked and Bloudy Design the Papists had and it is not possible for any Man that duly considers it to think other but that those Ministers that Acted that were as guilty of the Plot as any of the Lords that are in question for it My Lords I am forced to speak this the plainer because till the Pressure be fully and clearly taken off from Scotland 't is not possible for me or any Thinking Man to believe that Good is meant us here We must still be upon our Guard apprehending that the Principle is not changed at Court and that these Men that are still in Place and Authority have that Influence upon the Mind of our Excellent Prince that he is not nor cannot be that to us that his own Nature and Goodness would incline him to I know your Lordships can order nothing in this but there are those that hear me can put a perfect Cure to it until that be done the Scottish Weed is like Death in the Pot Mors in Olla But there is something too now I consider that most immediately concerns us their Act of Twenty two thousand Men to be ready to invade us upon all Occasions This I hear that the Lords of the Council there have treated as they do all other Laws and expounded it into a standing Army of Six thousand Men. I am sure we have Reason and Right to beseech the King that that Act may be better considered in the next Parliament there I shall say no more for Scotland at this time I am afraid your Lordships will think I have said too much having no concern there But if a French Noble-Man should come to dwell in my House and Family I should think it concern'd me to ask what he did in France for if he were there a Felon a Rogue a Plunderer I should desire him to live elsewhere and I hope your Lordships will do the same thing for the Nation if you find the same cause My Lords give me leave to speak two or three Words concerning our other Sister Ireland thither I hear is sent Douglas's Regiment to secure us against the French Besides I am credibly informed that the Papists have their Arms restored and the Protestants are not many of them yet recovered from being the suspected Party the Sea-Towns as well as the In-land are full of Papists That Kingdom cannot long continue in the English Hands if some better Care be not taken of it This is in your Power and there is nothing there but is under your Laws therefore I beg that this Kingdom at least may be taken in consideration together with the State of England For I am sure there can be no Safety here if these Doors be not shut up and made sure THE INSTRUMENT OR Writing of Association THAT THE True Protestants of ENGLAND entred into IN THE Reign of Q. Elizabeth FOrasmuch as Almighty God hath Ordained Kings Queens and Princes to have Dominion and Rule over all their Subjects and to preserve them in the Possession and Observation of the true Christian Religion according to his holy Word and Commandment And in like sort that all Subjects should Love Fear and Obey their Soveraign Princes being Kings or Queens to the utmost of their Power at all times to withstand pursue and suppress all manner of Persons that shall by any means intend and attempt any thing dangerous or hurtful to the Honour States or Persons of their Soveraigns Therefore we whose Names are or shall be subscribed to this Writing being Natural Born Subjects of this Realm of England and having so gracious a Lady our Soveraign Elizabeth by the Ordinance of God our most rightful Queen Reigning over us these many Years with great Felicity to our inestimable Comfort And finding lately by divers Depositions Confessions and sundry Advertisements out of Foreign Parts from credible Persons well known to her Majesties Council and to divers others That for the furtherance and Advancement of some pretended Title to the Crown it hath been manifested that the Life of our gracious Soveraign Lady Queen Elizabeth hath been most dangerously to the Peril of her Person if Almighty God her perpetual Defender of his Mercy had not revealed and withstood the same By whose Life we and all other her Majesties True and Loyal Subjects do enjoy an inestimable benefit of Peace in this Land do for the Reasons and Causes before alledged not only acknowledge our selves most justly bound with our Lives and Goods for her Defence in her Safety to persecute suppress and withstand all such Intenders and all other her Enemies of what Nation Condition and Degree whatsoever they shall be or by what Council or Title they shall pretend to be her Enemies or to attempt any Harm upon her Person but do further think it our bounden Duties for the great Benefit of Peace Wealth and Godly Government we have more plentifully received these many Years under her Majesties Government then any of our Forefathers have done in any longer time of any other Progenitors Kings of this Realm Do declare and by this Writing make manifest our bounden Duties to our said Sovereign Lady for her Safety And to that end We and every of us First Calling to Witness the Name of Almighty God do Voluntarily and
rather inclined to desire that a Party accused should be found guilty than that he should be declared innocent if he be so in truth Doubtless the King ought to wish in all Enquiries made after Treason Felonies c. that there were none to be found in his Kingdom and that whosoever is accused might be able to answer so well and truly for himself as to shew the Accusation to be erroneous or false and to be acquitted of it Something of this appears in the common Custom of England that the Clerks of the King's Courts of Justice when any man hath pleaded Not guilty to an Indictment prays forthwith that God would send him a good deliverance The destruction of every Criminal is a loss to a Prince and ought to be grievous to him in the common regard of humanity and the more particular Relation of his Office and the name of Father The King's Interest and Honour is more concerned in the protection of the Innocent than in the punishment of the Guilty This Maxime can never run them into excesses for it hath ever been lookt upon as a mark of great Wisdom and Vertue in some Princes and States upon several occasions to destroy all Evidences against Delinquents and nothing is more usual than to compose the most dangerous Distempers of Nations by Acts of general Amnesty which were utterly unjust if it were as great a Crime to suffer the Guilty to escape as to destroy the Innocent We do not only find those Princes represented in History under odious Characters who have basely murthered the Innocent but such as by their Spies and Informers were too inquisitive after the Guilty whereas none was ever blamed for Clemency or for being too gentle Interpreters of the Laws Tho Trajan was an excellent Prince endowed with all heroical Virtues yet the most Eloquent Writers and his best Friends found nothing more to be praised in his Government Tacit. lib. 1. Hist than that in his time all men might think what they pleased and every man speak what he thought and he had no better way of distinguishing himself from his wicked Predecessors than by hanging up the Spies and Informers whom they had employed for the discovery of Crimes But if the punishment of Offenders were as universally necessary as the protection of the Innocent he were as much to be abhorred as Nero and that Clemency which is so highly praised were to be lookt upon as the worst of Vices and those who have hitherto been taken for the best of Princes were altogether as detestable as the worst Moreover all humane Laws were ordained for the preservation of the Innocent and for their sakes only are punishments inflicted that those of our own Country do solely regard this was well understood by Fortescue who saith Fort. de Laud. Leg. Ang. ch 27. Indeed I could rather wish Twenty Evil-doers to â—â—ape death through pity than one man to be unjustly condemned Such Blood hath cried to Heaven for Vengeance against Families and Kingdoms and their utter destruction hath ensued If a Criminal build be acquitted by too great lenity caution or otherwise he may be reserved for future Justice from Man or God if be doth not repent but 't is impossible that satisfaction or reparation should be made for innocent Bloodshed in the forms of Justice Without all question the King 's only just Interest in the Evidence given against the Party accused and in the manner of taking it is to have the truth made manifest that Justice may thereupon be done impartially And if Accusations may be first examined in secret more strictly and exactly to prevent Fraud and Perjury than is possible to be done in open Court as hath before appeared then 't is for the King's benefit to have it so And nothing done in or by a Court about the Trial of the Accused is for the King in the sense of our Law unless it some way conduce to Justice in the case The Witnesses which the Prosecutor brings are no further for the King than they tell the truth and the whole truth impartially and by whomsoever any others may be called upon the Enquiry or the Trial to be examined if they sincerely deliver the truth of the matters in question they are therein the King's Witnesses though the Accused be acquitted by reason of their Testimonies If such as are offered by the Attorny-General to prove Treason against any man shall be found to swear falsly maliciously or for Reward or Promises though they depose positively Facts of Treason against the Accused yet they are truly and properly Witnesses against the King by endeavouring to prevent Justice and destroy his Subjects Their Malice and Villany being confessed or proved the King's Attorney ought ex Officio to prosecute them in the King's Name and at his Suit for their Offences against him in such Depositions pretended to have been for him and the legal Form of the Indictment ought to be for their swearing falsly and maliciously against the Peace of the King his Crown and Dignity The Prosecutors themselves notwithstanding their big words and assuming to themselves to be for the King if their Prosecution shall be proved to be malicious or by Conspiracy against the Life or Fortune of the Accused they are therein against the King and ought to be indicted at the King's Suit for such Prosecutions done against His Crown and Dignity And if an Attorney-General should be found knowingly guilty of abetting such a Conspiracy his Office could not excuse or legally exempt him from suffering the villanous Judgment to the destruction of him and his Family 'T is esteemed in the Law one of the most odious Offences against the King to attempt in his Name to destroy the Innocent for whose Protection he himself was ordained Queen Elizabeth had the true sense of our Law when the Lord Burleigh Co. Inst 3d part p. 79. upon Sir Edward Coke her then Attorney's coming into her presence told her This is he who prosecutes pro Domina Regina for our Lady the Queen and She said she would have the form of the Records altered for it should be Attornatus Generalis qui pro Domina veritate sequitur The Attorney-General who prosecutes for our Lady the Truth Whoever is trusted in that employment dishonours his Master and Office if he gives occasion to the Subjects to believe that his Master seeks other profits or Advantages by Accusations than the common Peace and Welfare He ought not to excite a jealousie in any of their minds that confiscations of Estates are designed or desired by any of the King's Ministers whosoever makes such advantages to the Crown their principal aim in accusing are either Robbers and Murtherers in the Scripture-sense in seeking innocent Blood for gain or in the mildest Construction supposing the Accusation to be on good grounds they shew themselves to be of corrupt minds and a scandal to their Master and the Government Profit or loss of
false Accusations followed without number Oppression and Injustice broke forth like a Flood And to gain the King's Favour they fill'd his Coffers The Indictments against them mentioned in Anderson's Reports Pa. 156 157 are worth reading whereby they are charged with Treason for Subverting the Laws and Customs of the Land in their proceedings without Grand Juries and procuring the murmuring and hatred of the People against the King to the great danger of him and the Kingdom Nothing could satisfy the Kingdom tho ' the King was dead whom they had flattered and served but such Justice done upon them and many of their Instruments and Officers as may for ever make the Ears of Judges to tingle And it is not to be forgotten that the Judges in Queen Eliz. time in the Case of R. Cavendish in Anderson's Reports P. 152 and 155. were as they told the Queen and her Councellors by the punishment of former Judges especially of Empson and Dudley deterred from obeying her illegal Commands The Queen had sent several Letters under her Signet Great Men pressed them to obey her Patent under the Great Seal and the Reasons of their disobedience being required they answered That the Queen her self and the Judges also had taken an Oath to keep the Laws And if they should obey her Commands the Laws would not warrant them and they should therein break their Oath to the Offence of God and their Country and the Common-wealth wherein they were born And say they if we had no fear of God yet the Examples and Punishments of others before us who did offend the Laws do remember and recall us from the like Offences Whosoever being in the like places may design or be put upon the like practices will do well to consider these Examples and not to think that he who obliquely Endeavours to render Grand Juries useless is less Criminal than he that would absolutely abolish them That which doth not act according to its Institution is as if it were not in being And whoever doth without prejudice consider this matter will see that it is not less pernicious to deny Juries the use of those Methods of discovering Truth which the Law hath appointed and so by degrees turn them into a meer matter of form than openly and avowedly to destroy them Surely such a gradual Method of destroying our Native Right is the most dangerous in its consequence The safety which our Fore-fathers for many hundred of years enjoyed under this part of the Law especially and have transmitted to us is so apparent to the meanest Capacity that whoever shall go about to take it away or give it up is like to meet with the fate of Ishmael to have every man's hand against him because he is against every Man Artifices of this Kind will ruine us more silently and so with less opposition and yet as certainly as the other more moved oppression This only is the difference that one way we should be slaves immediately and the other insensibly But with this further disadvantage too that our slavery should be the more unavoydable and the faster rivited upon us because it would be under colour of Law which Practice in Time would obtain Few men at first see the danger of little changes in Fundamentals and those who design them usually act with so much craft as besides the giving specious Reasons they take great Care that the true Reason shall not appear Every design therefore of changing the Constitution ought to be most warily observed and timely opposed Nor is it only the Interest of the People that such Fundamentals should be duly guarded for whose benefit they were at first so carefully layed and whom the Judges are sworn to serve but of the King too for whose sake those pretend to act who would subvert them Our Kings as well as Judges are sworn to maintain the Laws They have themselves in several Statutes required the Judges at their peril to administer Equal Justice to every Man notwithstanding any Letters or Commauds c. even from themselves to the contrary And when any failure hath been the greatest and most powerful of them have ever been the readiest to give Redress It appears by the Preface to the Statutes of 20th Ed. 3. that the Judicial proceedings had been perverted That Letters Writs and Commands had been sent from the King and great Men to the Justices and that Persons belonging to the Court of the King the Queen the Prince of Wales had maintained and abetted Quarrels c. whereby the Laws had been violated and many wrongs done But the King was so far from justifying his own Letters or those illegal practices That the preamble of those Statutes saith they were made for the relief of the People in their sufferings by them That brave King in the height of his glory and vigor of his Age chose rather to confess his Error than to continue in it as is evident by his own words Edward by the Grace of God c. Because by divers Complaints made unto us we have perceived that the Law of the Land which we by our Oath are bound to maintain is the less well kept and Execution of the same disturbed many times by maintenances and procurements as well in the Court as the Country We greatly moved of Conscience in this matter and for this Cause desiring as much for the pleasure of God and ease and quietness of our Subjects as to save our Conscience and for to save and keep our said Oath by the Assent c. Enact That Judges shall do Justice notwithstanding Writs Letters or Commands from himself c. and that none of the King's House or belonging to the King Queen or Prince of Wales do maintain Quarrels c. King James in his Speech to the Judges in the Starchamber Anno. 1616. told them That he had after many years resolved to renew his Oath made at his Coronation concerning Justice and the promise therein contained for maintaining the Law of the Land And in the next page save one says I was sworn to maintain the Law of the Land and therefore had been perjured if I had broken it God is my Judge I never intended it And His Majesty that now is hath made frequent Declarations and Protestations of his being far from all thoughts of designing an Arbitrary Government and that the Nation might be confident he would rule by Law Now if after all this any Officer of the Kings should pretend Instructions from his Master to demand so material an alteration of proceedings in the highest Cases against Law as are above mentioned And the Court who are required to slight and reject the most solemn Commands under the Great Seal if contrary to Law should upon a verbal Intimation allow of such a Demand and so break in upon this Bulwark of our Liberties which the Law has erected Might it not give too just an occasion to suspect that all the legal securities of our Lives
some cases a Promise is in the nature of a Covenant and then between equal parties the breach of it will bear a Suit but where the greatness of the Promiser is very much raised above the Level of equality there is no Forfeiture to be taken It is so far from the party grieved his being able to sue or recover Damages that he will not be allow'd to explain or expostulate and instead of his being relieved against the breach of Promise he will run the hazard of being punished for breach of Good Manners Such a difficulty is putting all or part of the Payment in the Fire where Men must burn their Fingers before they can come at it That cannot properly be called good payment which the party to whom it is due may not receive with ease and safety It was a King's Brother of England who refused to lend the Pope mony for this reason That he would never take the Bond of one upon whom he could not distrain The Argument is still stronger against the validity of a Promise when the Contract is made between a Prince and a Subject The very offering a King's Word in Mortgage is rather a threatning in case of Refusal than an inducing Argument to accept it it is unfair at first and by that giveth greater cause to be cautious especially if a thing of that value and dignity as a King's Word ought to be should be put into the hands of State-brokers to strike up a Bargain with it XXVIII When God Almighty maketh Coveant with Mankind His promise is a sufficient Security notwithstanding his Superiority and his power because first he can neither err nor do injustice It is the only Exception to his Omnipotence that by the Perfection of his being he is incapacitated to do wrong Secondly at the instant of His promise by the extent of his Foresight which cannot fail there is no room left for the possibility of any thing to intervene which might change his mind Lastly he is above the receiving either Benefit or Inconvenience and therefore can have no Interest or Temptation to vary from his Word when once he hath granted it Now though Princes are God's Vicegerents yet their Commission not being soo large as that these Qualifications are devolved to them it is quite another case and since the offering a Security implyeth it to be examined by the party to whom it is proposed it must not be taken ill that Objections are made to it even though the Prince himself should be the immediate Proposer Let a familiar Case be put Suppose a Prince tempted by a Passion to strong for him to resist should descend so as to promise Marriage to one of his Subjects and as Men are naturally in great haste upon such occasions should press to take possession before the necessary Forms could be complyed with would the poor Ladies Scruple be called Criminal for not taking the Security of the Royal Word Or would her Allegiance be tainted by her resisting the sacred Person of her Soveraign because he was impatient of delay Courtesie in this case might perswade her to accept it if she was so disposed but sure the just exercise of Power can never claim it XXIX There is one Case where it is more particularly a Duty to use very great occasion in accepting the security of a Promise and that is when Men are Authorized and trusted by others to act for them This putteth them under much greater restraints than those who are at liberty to treat for themselves It is lawful though it is not prudent for any man make an ill Bargain for himself but it is neither the one nor the other where the party contracting treateth on behalf of another by whom he is intrusted Men who will unwarily accept an ill security if it is for themselves forfeit their own discretion and undergo the Penalty but they are not responsible to any body else They lie under the Mortification and the loss of committing the error by which though they may expose their Judgment to some censure yet their Morality suffers no reproach by it But those who are deputed by others to treat for them upon terms of best advantage though the Considence placed in them should prevent the putting any limits to their power in their Commission yet the Condition implied if not expressed is that the Persons so trusted shall neither make an ill Bargain nor accept a slight Security The Obligation is yet more binding when the Trust is of a Publick Nature The aggravation of disappointing a Body of Men that rely upon them carrieth the Fault as high as it can go and perhaps no Crime of any kind can out do such a deliberate breach of Trust or would more justly make Men forfeit the protection of humane Society XXX I will add one thing more upon this Head which is that it is not always a true Preposition that 't is safe to rely upon a promise if at the time of making it it is the Interest of the Promiser to make it good This though many times it is a good Inducement yet iâ— hath these Exceptions to it First if the proposer hath at other times gone plainly against his Visible Interest the Argument will turn the other way and his former Mistakes are so many Warnings to others not to come within the danger any more let the Inducements to those Mistakes be never so great and generous that does not alter the Nature they are Mistakes still Interest is an uncertain thing It goeth and cometh and varieth according to times and circumstances as good build upon a Quick-sand as upon a presumption that Interest shall not alter Where are the Men so distinguished from the rest of Mankind that it is impossible for them to mistake their Interest Who are they that have such an Exemption from human frailty as that it can never happen to them not to see their Interest for want of Understanding or not to leap over it by excess of Zeal Above all Princes are most liable to mistake not out of any defect in their Nature which might put them under such an unfortunate distinction quite contrary the blood they derive from great and wise Ancestors does rather distingush them on the better side besides that their great Character and Office of Governing giveth a noble Exercise to their Reason which can very hardly fail to raise and improve it But there is one Circumstance annexed to their Glorious Calling which in this Respect is sufficient to outweigh all those Advantages it is that Mankind divided in most things else agree in this to conspire in their Endeavours to deceive and mislead them which maketh it above the Power of human Understanding to be so exactly guarded as never to admit a Surprize and the highest Applause that could ever yet be given to the greatest Men that ever wore a Crown is that they were no oftner deceived Thus I have ventured to lay down my Thoughts of
called The Publick Occurrences which came out to day and cannot but set you right as to his News about the Reading of the Declaration on Sunday He tells you That several Divines of the Church of England in and about this City eminent for their Piety and Moderation did yesterday Read his Majesties late Declaration in their Churches according to the Order in that behalf but some to the great surprize of their Parishoners were pleased to decline it You in the Country are from this Account to believe that it was Read here by the generality of the Clergie and by the eminent Men among them But I can and do assure you that this is one of the most impudent Lyes that ever was Printed For as to this City which hath above a Hundred Parishes in it it was Read only in Four or Five Churches all the rest and best of the Clergy refusing it every where I will spare their Names who read it but should I mention them it would make you who knows this City a little heartily to deride H. C's Account of them And for the Surprize he talks of the contrary of it is so true that in Woodstreet where it was read by one Dr. M. the People generally went out of the Church This I tell you that you may be provided for the future against such an Impudent Lyar who for Bread 〈…〉 and put about the Nation the falfest of things I am Yours AN ANSWER To the City Minister's LETTER from his Country Friend SIR IT is not for me now to acknowledge my private Debt to you for the favour of your Letter since the publick is as much concern'd in it as I and if I may judge of all by the compass of my Neighbourhood and Acquaintance I may assure you they are not insensible of your Obligation though they are ignorant of the Author The Country as far as my Intelligence reaches has followed the Example of the City and refused to read the Declaration of Indulgence according to a certain Order said to be the Kings which we in the Country can scarce believe to be His. For it has neither been signified to the Ordinaries according to the usual manner nor could those that dispersed it give any Account whence it came to them I have heard indeed that an Act of Council concerning it has been published in the Gazette which I never saw and if I had I should scarce have thought Authentick For I always took that Paper as for its Authority to have been all of a piece and that we were no more bound to take notice of any Order published there under any penalty than we are to believe all the News from Poland or Constantinople Nay though this Order had come to us in due form yet had we had great reason to suspect something of surreption and surprize upon his Majesty in this matter and that it could not proceed from his Majesty's free and full consent for we cannot yet forget his repeated professions of kindness to us and of satisfaction in our Principles and Duty and having done nothing since which might forfeit his goed Opinion we are unwilling to believe that it is His Majesties own mind and pleasure to loud us with such an Order as we cannot execute with any congruity safety or good Conscience I. As to his Majesties Declaration We of all his Majesties Subjects are the least concern'd in it and with all duty be it spoken we cannot see that our legal Establishment receives any Addition by this Declaration For there are yet thanks be to God no Penal Laws to which our Congregations are obnoxious and therefore we do not stand in need of any Toleration Yet it is upon us only that the Reading of it is imposed An Act which cannot well be construed otherwise than as a soliciting and tempting our own people to forsake our Communion If this Declaration must needs be read in any Religious Assemblies ' in reason surely it should be in those who wholly owe their substance to it It would better have become the Roman than the Protestan Chappels But in the Koman Church Indulgence hath another signification and belongs to those only that frequent their Churches but not to such as leave them for with them this is the only sin that is not capable of Indulgence But the Priests desire to be excus'd lest while they proclaim Toleration to others they bring an Interdict upon themselves Or why I pray was not Father Pen Ordered to publish it in his Meetings Or the worthy Mr. Lob the reputed Father of this Project why had not he the benefit of his own Invention and a Patent for being the sole Publisher of it within his own Pound Or why was not my Lord Mayor's private and elect Congregation thought worthy of so great a grace Surely it is not to draw upon us the envy of the Distenters that the honour of publishing this Declaration is impos'd upon us alone when it belongs to all other Communions in the Kingdom except our own And it we refuse it I hope it will be imputed to our Modesty for we are not ambitious of being impertinent or busie bodies in other mens matters A certain person much greaten than he deserves but perhaps not so high is said to have used the Words of Rabshaketh upon this occasion That the Church of England Clergy should eat their own Dung Isa 36.12 This sentence might better have become a Messenger of the King of Affyria than a pretended Counsellour of our own Prince though some make a question to which King he belongs But God be thanked we are not yet so straitly besieg'd as to be reduc'd to that extremity and though by the permission of God We should be reduc'd to so miserable a Condition We should I hope by the Grace of God be content to endure that and worse extremities if possible rather than Betray or Surrender the City of God But before that comes it is possible that the Throat that belch'd out this Nasty Insolence may be stopp'd with something which it cannot swallow II. Besides there are some passages in the Declaration which in Conscience we cannot read to our People though it be in the King's Name for among others we are to Read these Words We cannot but heartily wish as will easily be believed that all the People of our Dominions were Members of the Catholick Church Our People know too well the English of this and could not but be strangely surpriz'd to hear us tell them that it would be an acceptable thing to the King that they should leave the Truth and our Communion and turn Papists The Wish of a King when solemnly Declared is no light insignificant thing but has real influence and effect upon the minds of Men. It was but a Wish of Henry the Second that cut off F. Becket then Archbishop of Canterbury Councils and Courts of Justice too often bend to a King's Wishes though against their own
of so great an indiscretion or rather Imposture as to write such a Letter of his own Head The Letter it self Demonstrates that whoever writ it is no Fool and the Circumstances I have marked show that he is no Knave And indeed the Substance of it is not new it only repeats to his Majesty the same Answer which the Prince and Princess had formerly given to his Majesties Envoy there In short you may leave the whole Matter to this plain Issue If this Letter be a false one it will be disowned if a true one it will be owned Their Highnesses love not to do things that will not bear the Light It is evident they did not intend the Matter of it should be a Secret having told it to Monsieur D' Albeville as often as he in his discreet VVay necessitated them to do it But how it came to be printed I cannot inform you justly however you shall have my Conjecture I remember as soon as it was noised about Town that Mr. Stewart had received a Letter of such a Nature from Monsieur Fagle care was taken that the VVriter of the common News Letters which are dispersed over the Kingdom should insert in them that their Highnesses had declared themselves for the Repeal of the Test This Pia Fraus might I suppose give occasion to the printing of the Letter as the VVisdom and Policy of our States-men in putting Mr. Stewart on writting such Letters had procured 〈◊〉 I say Letters for Monsieur Fagel had five or six on that Subject before he answered so unwilling were they in Holland to return an Answer since they could not give one that was pleasing or do any thing that looked like medling The third thing you desired to be satisfied in is Whether the Dissenters may reâ—y on their Highnesses Word I am as apt to mistrust Princes Promises as you are But shall now give you my Reasons why I think the Dissenters may safely do it And at the same time because of the Affinity of the Matter I will tell you why I think we may all rely on their Highness for our Civil Liberties as well as the Dissenters may do for Liberty of Conscience Much of what I have to say is equally applicable to them both yet because I know you have had an Account of Her Royal Highness better than I can give you I shall for the most part speak only of the Prince My first Reason is the certainest of all Reasons That it will be His Highnesses Interest to settle Matters at Home which only can be done by a Legal Tolleration or Comprehension in Matters of Religion and by restoring the Civil Liberties of the Nation so much invaded of late That this will be his Interest is evident if his Designs lye abroad as it 's certain they do Designs at home and abroad at the same time are so inconsistent that we see his Majesty tho raised above his Fears at home by his late Victory and invited abroad by all that can excite his Appetite for Glory cannot reconcile them The Truth is one that would undertake it is in the same Condition with Officers that beat their Men to make them fight they have Enemies before and behind But you may happily object that Princes do not always follow their true Interests of which it is not difficult in this Age to give several fatal Instances I answer That it is to be presumed that Princes as well as other Men will follow their Interests till the contrary appear and if they be of an Age to have taken their Fold and have till such an Age kept firm to their Interests the Presumption grows strong but if their Inclinations the Maxims of their Families the Impressions of their Education and all their other Circumstances to side with their Interest and lead them the same way it is hardly credible they should ever quit it Now this being the present Case we have all the certainty that can be had in such Matters The Prince of Orange has above these 15 years given so great proof of his Firmness and Resolution as well as of his Capacity and Conduct in opposing the Grand Ravisher I may add the Betrayers too of Liberty and Religion that he is deservedly by all impartial Men owned to be the Head of the Protestant Interest A Headship which no Princes but the Kings of England should have and none but they would be without it Now one may rationally conclude That when the Prince shall joyn to his present Possession of this Headship a more natural Title by being in a greater Capacity to act he will not degrade himself nor lay aside Designs and Interests which ought to be the Glory of England as they are indeed the Glory of his Family acquired and derived to him by the Blood of his Ancestors and carried on and maintained by himself with so much Honour and Reputation I might add here That the Prince is a Man of a sedate even Temper full of Thoughts and Reflections one that precipitates neither in Thinking Speaking nor Acting is cautious in resolving and promising but firm to his Resolutions and exact in observing his Word Inform your self and you 'll find this a part of his Character and conclude from hence what may be presumed from his Inclinations Now as to the Maxims of his Family let us compare them a little where it may be decently done The French King broke his Faith to his Protestant Subjects upon this single Point of Vain glory that he might shew the World he was greater than most of his Predecessors who tho they had the same Inclinations were not potent enough to pursue them effectually as he has done to the everlasting Infamy of his Name and Reign The Maxims of the French Kings have been how to outvie each other in Robbing their Neighbours and Oppressing their Subjects by Perfidiousness and Cruelty But those of the Family of Orange on the contrary have been to Rescue Europe from its Oppressors and maintain the Protestant Interest by Vertue Truth Honour and Resolution knowing that such Methods are as necessary to make Protestant Princes and States flourish as Vice and Oppression are to maintain Popish Government No Popish Prince in Europe can pretend to have kept his Word to his Protestant Subjects as the Princes of Orange have always done to their Popish Subjects at Orange and elsewhere and the Papists have often broke their Word to that Family and have been and are its declared Enemies and tho the Princes two Great Grand-Fathers Admiral Coligny and Prince William were assassinated by the Authority and with the Approbation of that whole Party yet it cannot be made appear that ever the Princes of that Family failed in keeping their Word even to such Enemies or used their own Popish Subjects the worse for it in making distinction between them and their other Subjects or influenced the States to use theirs so I say the States who a low their R.
from the publick and established Religion As to the first it is sufficiently known that according to the judgment of the Church of Rome we are Hereticks and that Heresie being Crimen laesae Majestatis Divinae we are therefore the worst of Traitors and liable to the Penalties of the greatest High Treason And thereupon we are not only declared to be infamous and sentenced to be deprived of all Honor and Dignity and to be incapable of all Offices and have our Estates confiscated and seised but we are condemned to be burnt and if that cannot conveniently be effected it is both made lawful and meritorious to extirpate us by War or Massacre as shall be best and most safe for the Church of Rome In order whereunto not only all Laws made for our Security are declared to be null and that no promises made unto us ought to be kept but all Princes that neglect to destory and extirpate us are proclaimed to be deposed And sutable hereunto has their carriage been for many ages to such as differ from them in Articles of Faith and will not joyn in their Superstitions and Idolatries In proof where of I neither need to insist upon the infinite Murders committed by the Inquisition the most Devilish Engine of Cruelty that ever the World was acquainted with nor to reflect so far backward as the Parisian and Irish Massacres or the infinite Slaughters perpetrated heretofore in France Germany and the Low Countreys c. seeing we have such fresh and doleful evidences of the mercy and gentleness of the Papal Church in the ungrateful inhumane perjurious and salvage persecutions executed so lately in France and Piedmont If it be the effect of Royal and Paternal affection in the King of England to his Subjects that all he endeavoureth is to treat them as becomes a common Father without making any distinction between one and another as our Author is pleased to call it in his Testimony concerning him what cruel Parents must many Princes of the Roman Communion be who act with that difference towards their people that while they cherish and embrace some they tear out the Bowels and suck the blood of others And if no Society destitute of such tender and Christian affections can merit the name of a Church we hence learn where to fasten the character of being the Mother of Harlots In that we not only know whose Doctrine it is that whom She cannot convert She ought to destroy but that we have observed her to have been in all Ages drunk with the Blood of Saints All the commendations our Author bestows upon the King of England are not only either so many accusations of His Majesties insincerity in the Papal Faith or infallible indications that both the King pardon the expression and his Minister are Hypocritical Dissemblers but they are stabbing and twinging Satyr's against Mother Church and the Holy Father and against his Brittanick Majesties dear Brother and Ally the French King Nor can we be guilty either of Crime or Indecency in the worst we can say of the Church of Rome and the Most Christian King seeing we have in equivalent Terms a President for it both from so good a Catholick and so wise a Minister of a great Monarch as our honourable Author is And tho I begin to grow weary of conversing with so impertinent a man yet I am bound to wait upon him a little longer and while the Reader can reap no advantage by any thing he says to see whether it be not possible to lay hold of an occasion from his Ignorance and Folly to communicate things that may be more solid and instructive The sixth thing therefore whereof I accused him and for which I promised to call him to an account is his egregious ignorance in relation to Government Laws Customs and matters of Fact Mijn Heer Fagel tells us that the Test Laws being enacted by King and Parliament for the Security of the Reformed Religion and the Roman Catholicks receiving no prejudice by them but being meerly restrained from getting into a condition to subvert it therefore Their Highnesses could not consent to their Repeal And he further adds that there is no Kingdom Common-wealth or any constituted Body and Society in which there are not Laws made for the safety thereof which not only provide against all attempts that may disturb their peace but which prescribe such conditions as they judge necessary for the discerning who are qualified to bear Employments To which he again subjoins that there is a great difference between the conduct of these of the Reformed Religion towards Roman Catholicks which is moderate and only to prevent their getting into a capacity to do hurt and that of those of the Roman Catholick Religion towards the Reformed who not being satisfied to exclude them from places of Trust do both suppress the whole Exercise of their Religion and severely persecute all that profess it And he finally adds that both Reason and the Experience of the present as well as past Ages do shew that it is impossible for Roman Catholicks and those of the Reformed Religion when joyned together in places of Trust and publick Employment to maintain a good Correspondence live in mutual peace and to discharge their Offices quietly and to the publick Good Now from these several passages which carry their own evidence along with them our Author takes occasion both to vent his foolish and ridiculous Politicks and to proclaim his ignorance in History and of the most obvious matters of Fact However we shall have the patience to hearken to what he hath been pleased to say and shall examine it piece by piece as we go along And the first thing he does is to acquaint us with a mighty Mystery of State and which none but so great a Minister could have been able to have revealed namely that tho the King and Parliament upon the first Revolution with respect to Religion and the introducing and setting up the Reformed Religion thought fit to make those Laws which they judged necessary for its preservation yet that it does not follow that his present Majesty and a Parliament would be of the same mind but that they might enact Laws of a differing Nature from the former and re-establish Religion into the same State in which it was before the Reformed Doctrine and Worship was set up We are much obliged to our Author for this discovery though I must add that this it is to trust a Fool with secrets for he will be sure to be blabbing For tho he subjoin that he will not say that matters would be pushed so far yet he hath already told us enough to make us understand both what his own hopes are and what is designed by the Papal party if they could compass a Parliament of a Complexion and Temper to their mind But there are two fatal things which lye in their way One is that neither progressing nor closeting bribing nor threatning can
is in other Princes of the same Communion or that they are more regardless of Fame and less concerned how future Generations will brand their Memories than other Papal Monarchs seem to be that they have suffered themselves to be prevailed upon to violate the Promises and Oaths they were bound by to their Protestant Subjects seeing the Emperor is character'd for a Person of a meek and gentle Temper and of the goodness of whose Nature there remain some shadows interwoven with the bloody streaks of the Hungarian Persecution And the French King though he stand not much commended for Sweetness and Benignity of Disposition is known to be unmeasurably Ambitious of having his name transmitted to Posterity in Letters of Greatness and Honor which his behaviour towards his Subjects of the Reformed Religion is no ways adapted unto but calculated to make him hereafter listed with Nero and Julian As to the Duke of Savoy there seems by the whole course of his other Actions to be a certain Greatness of Mind in him not easily consisting with that savage and brutal Temper which the Cruelties he hath exercised upon the Protestants in Piedmont would intimate and denote But it ariseth from the Mischievousness and Pestilency of their Religion their Bigottry in it and their having put themselves so entirely under the conduct of the Clergy particularly of the Jesuits who are for the most part a Sett of Men especially the latter that through acting in the Prospect of no other Ends but the Grandeur Wealth and Domination of the Church of Rome do with an unlimited Rage and a peculiar kind of Malice persecute all that have renounced Fellowship with it and care not if they Sacrifice the Honor Glory and Safety of Monarchs and bring their Kingdoms into Contempt and Desolation by rending them weak poor and dispeopled provided they may wreek their Spleen and Revenge upon those whose Religion is not only dissonant from theirs but should it prevail to be the Religion of the Legislators and Rulers of Nations those Springs of Wealth would be immediately dried up by which their Superior Clergy and all their Religious Orders are enriched and fed up in Idleness And should the People come to be generally imbued with Principles of Gospel Light and Liberty they would immediately shake off a blind and slavish Dependence upon Pope and Priests and thereby subvert the Foundation upon which the Monarchick Grandeur of the Romish Church and their whole Religion is superstructed and destroy the Engine by which they are inabled to Lord it over the Bodies Estates and Consciences of Men. And if Protestants every where especially under Popish Rulers were not under a strange Infatuation they would look for no fairer Quarter from Papists than what their Brethren have met with in France and Piedmont nor would they rely upon the Faith of any King that stiles himself a Roman Catholick seeing Sacred Promises tremendous Oaths and the most Authentick Declarations are but Papal Arts and Tricks sanctified at Rome whereby to lull Subjects into a Security and delude them into a neglect of all means for preserving themselves and their Religion till their Rulers can be in a condition of obeying the Decrees of the fourth Lateran Council that enjoyns Kings to destroy and extirpate Hereticks under pain of Excommunication and of having both their Subjects absolved from Allegiance to them and their Territories given away to others and till without running any Hazard they may comply with the Ordinance of the Council of Constance which not only releaseth them from all Obligation of keeping Faith to Hereticks but requires them to violate it and accordingly made Sigismond break his Faith to John Hus whom in defiance of the Security given him by that King they caused to be condemned and Burn'd Nor is the Practice and late Example of the Great Louis designed for less than a Pattern by which all Popish Princes are to act and his Proceedings are to be the Copy and Moddel which they who would merit the name of Zealous Catholicks and be esteemed dutiful Sons of the Church are to transcribe and limn out in Lines of Force Violence and Blood and for the better corresponding with the Original to imploy Dragoons for Missionaries And tho I will not say but that there may be some Popish Princes who through an extraordinary Measure of good Nature and from Principles of Compassion woven into their Constitution previously to all notices of Revelation whether real or pretended and who through Sentiments imbib'd from a generous Education and their coming afterwards to be under the Influence and Management of wise and discreet Counsellors may be able to resist the malignant Impressions of their Religion and so be preserved from the Inhumanities towards those of different Perswasions from them in the things of God which their Priests would lay them under Obligations unto by the Doctrines of the Romish Faith yet there appears no reason why an understanding Man should be induced to believe that the King of England is likely to prove a Prince of that great and noble Temper there being more than enough both to raise a Jealousie and beget a Perswasion that there is not a Monarch among all those who are commonly stiled Catholicks from whom Protestants may justly dread greater Severities than from Him or look for worse and more Barbarous Treatments I am not ignorant with what Candor we ought by the Rules of Charity and good Manners to speak of all Men whatsoever their Religion is nor am I unacquainted with what Veneration and Deference we are to discourse of Crowned Heads but as I dare not give those flattering Titles unto any of which there are not a few in some of the late Addresses presented to the King by an inconsiderable and foolish sort of Dissenting Preachers so I should not know how to be accountable to God my own Conscience or the World should I not in my Station as a Protestant and as a Lover of the Laws and Liberties of my Country offer something whereby both to undeceive that weak and short-sighted People whom their own being accommodated for a Season by the Declaration of Indulgence hath deluded into an Opinion that His Majesty cherisheth no thoughts of subverting our Religion and also further to enlighten and confirm others in the just Apprehensions they are possessed with of the Design carrying on in Great Britain and Ireland for the Extirpation of Protestancy and that the late Declaration for Liberty of Conscience is emitted in Subserviency thereunto and calculated by the Court toward the paving and preparing the way for the more facile Accomplishment of it And while Mercenary Sycophants by their Flatteries infect and corrupt Princes and by their representing them to the World in Colours disagreeable from their Tempers and Dispositions and in milder and fairer Characters than any thing observable in them either deserveth or correspondeth with do delude Subjects into such Opinions of them as beget a neglect of
in open Arms or with Arms in their Houses or about their Persons or in any Office or Imployment Civil or Military upon any Pretence whatsoever contrary to the known Laws of the Land shall be treated by Us and our Forces not as Soldiers and Gentlemen but as Robbers Free-Booters and Banditti they shall be incapable of Quarter and intirely delivered up to the Discretion of our Soldiers And We do further declare that all Persons who shall be found any ways aiding and assisting to them or shall march under their Command or shall joyn with or submit to them in the Discharge or Execution of their Illegal Commissions or Authority shall be looked upon as Partakers of their Crimes Enemies to the Laws and to their Country And whereas we are certainly informed that great Numbers of armed Papists have of late resorted to London and Westminster and parts adjacent where they remain as we have reason to suspect not so much for their own Security as out of a wicked and barbarous Design to make some desperate Attempt upon the said Cities and their Inhabitants by Fire or a sudden Massacre or both or else to be the more ready to joyn themselves to a Body of French Troops designed if it be possible to land in England procured of the French King by the Interest and Power of the Jesuits in Pursuance of the Engagements which at the Instigation of that pestilent Society his most Christian Majesty with one of his Neighbouring Princes of the same Communion has entred into for the utter Extirpation of the Protestant Religion out of Europe Tho we hope we have taken such effectual care to prevent the one and secure the other that by God's Assistance we cannot doubt but we shall defeat all their wicked Enterprises and Designs We cannot however forbear out of the great and tender Concern We have to preserve the People of England and particularly those great and populous Cities from the cruel Rage and bloody Revenge of the Papists to Require and expect from all the Lord-Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace Lord-Mayors Mayors Sheriffs and all other Magistrates and Officers Civil and Military of all Counties Cities and Towns of England especially of the County of Middlesex and Cities of London and Westminster and parts adjacent that they do immediately disarm and secure as by Law they may and ought within their respective Counties Cities and Jurisdictions all Papists whatsoever as Persons at all times but now especially most dangerous to the Peace and Safety of the Government that so not only all Power of doing mischief may be taken from them but that the Laws which are the greatest and best Security may resume their Force and be strictly Executed And We do hereby likewise Declare that We will Protect and Defend all those who shall not be afraid to do their Duty in Obedience to these Laws And that for those Magistrates and others of what condition soever they be who shall refuse to assist Us and in Obedience to the Laws to Execute vigorously what we have required of them and suffer themselves at this Juncture to be cajoled or terrified out of ther Duty We will esteem them the most Criminal and Infamous of all Men Betrayers of their Religion the Laws and their Native Country and shall not fail to treat them accordingly resolving to expect and require at their hands the Life of every single Protestant that shall perish and every House that shall be burnt or destroyed by their Treachery and Cowardise William Henry Prince of Orange Given under our Hand and Seal at our Head-quarters at Sherburn Castle the 28th day of November 1688. By his Highness special Command C. HUYGENS. The following Paper was Published by Mr. Samuel Johnson in the Year 1686. for which he was Sentenc'd by the Court of King's Bench Sir Edward Herbert being Lord Chief Justice to stand three times on the Pillory and to be whipp'd from Newgate to Tyburn Which barbarous Sentence was Executed An Humble and Hearty Address to all the English Protestants in this present Army Gentlemen NExt to the Duty which we owe to God which ought to be the principal Care of Men of your Profession especially because you carry your Lives in your Hands and often look Death in the Face The second Thing that deserves your Consideration is The service of your Native Country wherein you drew your first Breath and breathed a free English Air. Now I would desire you to consider how well you comply with these two main Points by engaging in this present Service Is it in the Name of God and for his Service that you have joyned your selves with Papists who will indeed fight for the Mass-book but burn the Bible and who seek to Extirpate the Protestant Religion with Your Swords because they cannot do it with their Own And will you be Aiding and Assisting to set up Mass-houses to Erect that Popish Kingdom of Darkness and Desolation amongst us and to train up all our Children in Popery How can you do these Things and yet call your selves Protestants And then what Service can be done your Country by being under the Command of French and Irish Papists and by bringing the Nation under a Foreign Yoke Will you help them to make forcible Entry into the Houses of your Country-men under the Name of Quartering directly contrary to Magna Charta and the Petition of Right Will you be Aiding and Assisting to all the Murders and Outrages which they shall commit by their void Commissions Which were declared Illegal and sufficiently blasted by both Houses of Parliament if there had been any need of it for it was very well known before That a Papist cannot have a Commission but by the Law is utterly Disabled and Disarmed Will you exchange your Birth-right of English Laws and Liberties for Martial or Club-law and help to destroy all others only to be eaten last your selves If I know you well as you are English Men you hate and scorn these Things And therefore be not unequally yoaked with Idolatrous and Bloody Papists Be Valiant for the Truth and shew your selves Men. The same Considerations are likewise humbly offered to all the English Seamen who have been the Bulwark of this Nation against Popery and Slavery ever since Eighty Eight Several Reasons for the Establishment of a standing Army and Dissolving the Militia By Mr. S. Johnson 1. BEcause the Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants and the whole Militia that is to say the Lords Gentlemen and Free-holders of England are not fit to be trusted with their own Laws Lives Liberties and Estates and therefore ought to have Guardians and Keepers assigned to them 2. Because Mercenary Soldiers who fight for twelve Pence a Day will fight better as having more to lose than either the Nobility or Gentry 3. Because there are no Irish Papists in the Militia who are certainly the best Soldiers in the World for they have slain Men Women and Children
Consent of Parliament is against Law That the Subjects which are Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Condition and as allowed by Law That Election of Members of Parliament ought to be Free That the Freedom of Speech and Debates or Proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any Court or place out of Parliament That excessive Bail ought not to be required nor excessive Fines imposed nor cruel and unusual Punishments inflicted That Jurors ought to be duly empannell'd and return'd and Jurors which pass upon Men in Tryals for High-Treason ought to be Freeholders That all grants and promises of Fines and Forfeitures of particular Persons before Conviction are Illegal and Void And that for Redress of all Grievances and for the amending strengthening and preserving of the Laws Parliaments ought to be held frequently And they do claim demand and insist upon all and singular the Premises as their undoubted Rights and Liberties and that no Declarations Judgments Doings or Proceedings to the prejudice of the People in any of the said Premises ought in any wise to be drawn hereafter into Consequence or Example To which Demand of their Rights they are particularly encouraged by the Declaration of His Highness the Prince of Orange as being the only Means for obtaining a full redress and remedy therein Having therefore an intire Confidence that his said Highness the Prince of Orange will perfect the Deliverance so far advanced by Him and will still preserve them from the Violation of their Rights which they have here asserted and from all other Attempts upon their Religion Rights and Liberties The said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminster do resolve That William and Mary Prince and Princess of Orange be and be declared King and Queen of England France and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging to hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to them the said Prince and Princess during their Lives and the Life of the Survivor of them And that the sole and full Exercise of the Regal Power be only in and executed by the said Prince of Orange in the Names of the said Prince and Princess during their joynt lives and after their Deceases the said Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to be to the Heirs of the Body of the said Princess and for default of such Issue to the Princess Ann of Denmark and the Heirs of Her Body and for default of such Issue to the Heirs of the Body of the said Prince of Orange And the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons do pray the said Prince and Princess of Orange to accept the same accordingly And that the Oaths hereafter mentioned be taken by all Persons of whom the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy might be required by Law instead of them and that the said Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy be Abrogated I A. B. do sincerely promise and swear That I will be Faithful and bear true Allegiance to their Majesties King WILLIAM and Queen MARY So help me God I A. B. do swear That I do from my Heart Abhor Detest and Abjure as Impious and Heretical this Damnable Doctrin and Position That Princes Excommunicated or Deprived by the Pope or any Authority of the See of Rome may be Deposed or Murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do declare That no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preeminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm So help me God Jo. Browne Cleric ' Parl. Die Veneris 15 Feb. 1688. His Majesties Gracious Answer to the Declaration of both Houses My Lords and Gentlemen THIS is certainly the greatest proof of the Trust you have in Vs that can be given which is the thing that maketh us value it the more and we thankfully Accept what you have Offered And as I had no other Intention in coming hither than to preserve your Religion Laws and Liberties so you may be sure That I shall endeavour to support them and shall be willing to concur in any thing that shall be for the Good of the Kingdom and to do all that is in my Power to advance the Welfare and Glory of the Nation Jo. Browne Cleric ' Parliamentorum Die Veneris 〈◊〉 Februarii 1688. ORdered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Assembled at Westminster That His Majesties Gracious Answer to the Declaration of both Houses and the Declaration be forthwith Printed and Published And that His Majesties Gracious Answer this Day be added to the Engrossed Declaration in Parchment to be Enrolled in Parliament and Chancery A PROCLAMATION WHereas it hath pleased Almighty God in his Great Mercy to this Kingdom to Vouchsafe us a Miraculous Deliverance from Popery and Arbitrary Power and that our Preservation is due next under God to the Resolution and Conduct of His Highness the Prince of ORANGE whom God hath Chosen to be the Glorious Instrument of such an Inestimable Happiness to us and our Posterity And being highly sensible and fully persuaded of the Great and Eminent Vertues of Her Highness the Princess of ORANGE whose Zeal for the Protestant Religion will no doubt bring a Blessing along with Her upon this Nation And whereas the Lords and Commons now Assembled at Westminster have made a Declaration and Presented the same to the said Prince and Princess of ORANGE and therein desired them to Accept the Crown who have Accepted the same Accordingly We therefore the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons together with the Lord Mayor and Citizens of London and others of the Commons of this Realm do with a full Consent Publish and Proclaim according to the said Declaration WILLIAM and MARY Prince and Princess of ORANGE to be KING and QUEEN of England France and Ireland with all the Dominions and Cerritories thereunto belonging Who are accordingly so to be Owned Deemed Accepted and taken by all the People of the aforesaid Realms and Dominions who are from henceforward bound to Acknowledge and Pay unto them all Faith and true Allegiance Beseeching God by whom Kings Reign to Bless King WILLIAM and Queen MARY with Long and Happy Years to Reign over Vs. God Save King WILLIAM and Queen MARY Jo. Brown Cleric ' Parliamentorum The Declaration of the Estates of Scotland concerning the Misgovernment of King James the Seventh and filling up the Throne with King William and Queen Mary THAT King James the 7th had acted irregularly 1. By His Erecting publick Schools and Societies of the Jesuits and not only allowing Mass to be publickly said but also inverting Protestant Chapels and Churches to Publick Mass-houses contrary to the express Laws against saying and hearing of Mass 2. By allowing Popish Books to be Printed and Dispersed by a Gift to a Popish Printer designing him Printer to his Majesties Houshold College and Chapel contrary to the Laws
extraordinary Action of destroying the Queens Renunciation and then invading the Spanish Netherlands upon it An Action hardly to be paralell'd in the Story of the whole World for a Concurrence of so many enormous Circumstances There was in it The Publick Faith of the two Crowns which is the only Security of Government and the Bond of Humane Society There was in it The Solemnity of an Oath at the very Altar which is the most Sacred Tye of a Christian There was also The highest Profession and Assurance of Friendship imaginable which is accompted one of the most binding Obligations betwixt Man and Man And then there was a Brother a Cousin and an Infant in the Case which makes it Matter of Humanity and Honour And yet all these Cords were as easily broken as Bulrushes This single President may serve however for a warning to all Princes and States not to leave themselves at the mercy of Men of such Principles But his most Christian Majesty is not the only Prince that has been abused by Corrupt and Ambitious Ministers Your next observation was That they are the greatest Intermedlers in the World in other Peoples Affairs that they embroil all wherever they come and that there 's hardly any Rebellion but they are in the bottom of it For their Money walks in all the Courts and Councils of Christendom nay and beyond it too For 't is said that the last Grand Visâ—er was their Pensioner Was it not France that debauch'd Scotland first and afterwards England into the late Rebellion Nay did they not stand still and look on to see the Câ—owning of the Work which they themselves began in the Execrable Murther of the late King and did they not refuse to our Gracious and Persecuted Sovereign even a Retreat in their Dominions How did they prolong the War in Portugal What Havock have they made in Poland and what work in Hungary And are they not this Day in Counsel with the Port against the Empire and undermining the Bulwark of Christendom How have they dash'd England against Holland blinded the Eyes of several Princes of the Empire and baffled all Mediations towards a General Peace Did they not formerly under the Colour of Protecting Germany cut off Alsatia from the Empire and in a word this has been their Practice wheresoever they have come They covet Harbours in Spain says the Admirable Baron deâ— Isola Leagues in the Empire Factions in Poland Wars in England and Holland Passes into Italy and the Sovereign Arbitrage every where Their Quiet consists in the Trouble of all others and their Advantage is in the Publick Calamities Nor have they any other way then by dividing and weakening of the parts to master the whole which is the Capital Design And if so There 's no Fence against a Common Enemy but a Common Union It is already made appear by what is above said how dangerous they are to Mankind The next hint you gave me was to consider on 't Whether the English may reasonably expect any better Quarter from them then other People in which point I shall only lay the matter before you and leave you the Judge on 't The Four main Interests of a Nation are Religion Reputation Peace and Trade For the First of these we shall neither fare the better nor the worse but lose just as much for being of another Communion as his Catholick Majesty gets by being of the same The Question now on Foot is a Communion of State not of Faith The Alcoran and the Gospel go hand in hand and at the same time the Protestants are protected in Hungary and persecuted in France To say nothing of the Encouragements they give there to the Jansenists which may for ought we know prove the greatest Blow to the Church of Rome that ever it received since the Reformation But what do I talk of Religion in a Cause that is dipp'd in Christian Blood and in the Tears of Widows and Orphans A Cause that is propagated by Sacriledge Rapes Depopulation Slavery Oppression and at least a Million of Lives sacrificed to it already The very Thought of it is enough to strike the Soul of any Man with Horrour and Indignation If you would see how tenderly they have handled us in the Business of Reputation Pray do but cast an Eye upon the Character of an English-man in their Politique de France Quant a ce qui est des Anglois ils n'ont aucuns amis ce sont des gens sans Foy sans Religion sans Probite sans Justice aucune defians legers au dernier point Cruels Impatiens Gourmands Superbes Audacieux Avares Propres pour les coups de main et pour une promte execution mais incapables de conduire une Guerre avec judgment Leur Pais est assez bon pour vivre mais il n' est pas assez riche pour leur fournir les moyens de sortir de faire aucune conqueste aussi n' ont ils jamais rien conquis excepte L' Irelande dont les habitans sont fobiles mauvais Soldats c. i. e. As for the English they are a People without Friends without Faith Religion Honesty or Justice Distrustful and Fickle to the highest Degree imaginable Cruel Impatient Gluttonnous Proud Audacious they will do well enough for a Rubber at Cuffs or a sudden Exploit but they understand nothing at all of the Government of a War The Country is passable enough for them to live in but not rich enough to offer at any Conquest abroad nor did they ever make any but upon the Irish which are a weakly People and ill Soldiers I think it were not amiss in this place to desire our Impertinent Undertaker to turn back to the History of Philip de Valois and he shall there find there that our Edward the III. made a Shift with one Army to beat 60000 French and leave betwixt Thirty and forty Thousand of them upon the place and with another Army in the Bishoprick of Durham to defeat as many Scots and cut off 15000 of them too And it must not be here omitted that this Scotch Army was also animated by French Counsels I would not willingly run out a Letter into a Volume so that all other Reflections apart I shall only add that if the English had not once recovered the Field and another time made it good in two of the greatest Actions of late that have yet passed betwixt the Imperialists and the French 't is the Opinion of Wise Men that the later would not have had much to brag of upon the Success of this War And this in some degree is acknowledged by the Author of a French Relation of the Actions betwixt the two Armies in 1675 1676 and 1677 how Romantical soever in other Cases Speaking of the Battle under the Command of the Count de Lorge after the Death of the Vicount Turenne these are his words Et a rendre justice aux Anglois aux
prevent or Check the French will have an Army of at least 50000 Men about Lorain Luxenburg and Burgundy to face the Imperialists and at the same Time with as many more perhaps they will seize upon the Dutchy of Juliers and of Cleves and from thence pass the Rhine to countenance those that are of the French Cabal on the side of Westphalia and so in due time several other Princes of the Empire It is remarkable that in Three Years War against the Confederates his most Christian Majesty has not only stood his ground without losing so much as one Inch of his Ancient Patrimony but actually and almost without Opposition taken several Towns and some entire Provinces from the Principals of the Confederacy And made himself almost as considerable at Sea as he is at Land Not only in the Mediterranean and upon the Coasts of Spain and Italy but in America too where he has laid a Foundation of great Mischief both to England and Holland in the point of Commerce if not timely prevented And he does little less by his Money than by his Arms for he pays all and with French Money under pretext of Neutrality maintains considerable Armies in the very heart of the Empire which 't is feared will be ready enough upon any distaster to joyn with the Common Enemy It is the French Court that manages the Counsels of Poland and they govern the Swisse no less who by the Conquest of the Franche County are made little better then slaves And yet by a fatal Blindness that Republick still furnishes the French with the best of their Soldiers and helps forward the Destruction of Europe never dreaming that they themselves are to be undone too at last But it is no great matter you 'l say to impose upon the Swisse which are a heavy and Phlegmatick People but the French Charms have bewitch'd even Italy it self though a Nation the most Clear-sighted and suspicious of all others For their Republicks lie as quiet as if they were asleep though the Fire is already kindled in Sicily and the Danger brought home to their own Doors It is a wonder that they lay things no more to heart considering First the Passages the French have to favour their Entry Secondly That they are many and small States weak and easily to be corrupted if not so already Thirdly that though they have been formerly very brave and many particulars remain so still yet in the generality they are soft and effeminate And Fourthly that the French is there the Master of the Seas These Reflections methinks might convince any Man of the Condition they are in And certainly they that were not able to defend themselves against Charles the Eighth will be much less able to encounter Lewis the 14th Or if he gets in to drive him out again as they did the Other For they must do it wholly upon their own Strength having only the Turk in Condition to help them For Germany and Spain are sunk already And the Swisse will neither dare to venture upon 't nor are they able to do it if they had a mind tot As for Spain it is neither Populous nor fortifi'd and perhaps want of Provisions may keep it from an Invasion And yet for all that with a Body of Thirty or Forty Thousand Men by the way of Fontaraby and as many by Catalonia the French may if they please in two Campania's make themselves Masters of Navarre Arragon Catalonia and Valentia and then it is but fortifying the Frontiers and making his Catholick Majesty a Tributary in Castile Who must content himself to take what they please to give him over and above in consideration of his Dominions in Italy and the Spanish Indies A Possibility that England and Holland shall do well to think of For when he has the Mines in his Power and Europe under his Feet there will be no contending After this they have only the Swisse or the English to fall upon next For the Former they are neither fortified nor united in Affections or Religion As for England They are a People not naturally addicted to the French sensible of their Honour and of their Interest and the whole World is convinced of their Courage They are United under the Government of a Gracious Prince and their Concerns are at this Instant lodged in the hands of the most Loyal and Publick-spirited Representatives that ever acted in that Station beside the Strength of the Island by Situation So that the French would find it a hard matter either to make a Conquest here or if they should surprize it to keep it But yet they have finer Ways to Victory than by Force of Arms and their Gold has done them better Service than their Iron What have we now to do then but in a Common Cause to arm against a Common Oppression This is the time or never for Italy to enter into a League for their Common Safety and not only to keep but if possible to force the French from their Borders while the Imperial Army holds the Capital Power of France in Play And this is the time too for the Swisse to recal all their Troops out of the French Service and to strike a general League also for the Recovery of Burgundy the only Outwork of their Liberties and to expel the French Garrisons and deliver the places into the hands of the Right Owners And will it not concern Poland as much as any of the rest that stands and falls with the Empire as the Defence of Christendom against the Turks and whose own turn is next This Alarm methinks should call off the Princes from the Acquisitions they have made upon part of the Swedes Possessions in the Empire to the Assistance of the Spanish Netherlands and make all the French Mercenaries in the Empire to bethink themselves of returning from the Delusions which either the French Artifice or Money has imposed upon them He that has no regard for the Head will have less for the Dependences when he has them at his Mercy Nay the very French themselves should do well to contemplate the Slavery that is now prepar'd for them Their Laws and Liberties are trampled upon and till the French Government be reduc'd to the Bounds of its Ancient Constitution neither the People nor their Neighbours can ever be secure In this dangerous Crisis of Affairs it has pleas'd Divine Providence to leave England the Arbitress of the Fate of Europe and to annex such advantages to the Office that the Honour the Duty and Security of this Nation seem to be wrapt up together In the Point of Honour what can be more Generous than to succour the Miserable and the Oppress'd and to put a stop to that Torrent that threatens Christendom with an Universal Deluge Beside the Vindication of our selves for those Affronts and Indignities both Publick and Private that we have suffer'd upon our own Account And then in matter of Duty It is not only Christendom
by certain Noblemen and others of our Kingdom of Ireland suggesting Disorders and Abuses as well in the Proceedings of the late begun Parliament as in the Martial and Civil Government of the Kingdom We did receive with extraordinary Grace and Favour And by another Proclamation in the 12th year of his Reign Procl 12 Jac. he declares That it was the Right of his Subjects to make their immediate Addresses to him by Petition and in the 19th year of his Reign he invites his Subjects to it And in the 20th year of his Reign Procl Dat. 10 July 19. Jac. Procl Dat. 14. Feb. 20. Jac. he tells his People that his own and the Ears of his Privy Council did still continue open to the just Complaints of his People and that they were not confined to Times and Meetings in Parliament nor restrained to particular Grievances not doubting but that his loving Subjects would apply themselves to his Majesty for Relief to the utter abolishing of all those private whisperings and causless Rumors which without giving his Majesty any Opportunity of Reformation by particular knowledge of any Fault serve to no other purpose but to occasion and blow abroad Discontentment It appears Lords Journ Anno 1640. that the House of Lords both Spiritual and Temporal Nemine contradicente Voted Thanks to those Lords who Petitioned the King at York to call a Parliament And the King by his Declaration Printed in the same year Declar. 1644. declares his Royal Will and Pleasure That all his Loving Subjects who have any just cause to present or complain of any Grievances or Oppressions may freely Address themselves by their humble Petitions to his Sacred Majesty who will graciously hear their Complaints Since his Majesty's happy Restauration Temp. Car. 2. the Inhabitants of the County of Bucks made a Petition That their County might not be over-run by the Kings Deer and the same was done by the County of Surry on the same Occasion 'T is time for me to conclude your trouble I suppose you do no longer doubt but that you may joyn in Petition for a Parliament since you see it has been often done heretofore nor need you fear how many of your honest Countreymen joyn with you since you hear of Petitions by the whole Body of the Realm and since you see both by the Opinions of our Lawyers by the Doctrine of our Church and by the Declarations of our Kings That it is our undoubted Right to Petition Nothing can be more absurd than to say That the number of the Supplicants makes an innocent Petition an Offence on the contrary if in a thing of this Publick concernment a few only should address themselves to the King it would be a thing in it self ridiculous the great end of such Addresses being to acquaint him with the general desires of his People which can never be done unless multitudes joyn How can the Complaints of the diffusive Body of the Realm reach his Majesty's Ears in the absence of a Parliament but in the actual concurrence of every individual Person in Petition for the personal application of multitudes is indeed unlawful and dangerous Give me leave since the Gazette runs so much in your mind Stat. 13. Car. 2. c. 5. to tell you as I may modestly enough do since the Statute directs me what answer the Judges would now give if such another Case were put to them as was put to the Judges 2 Jacobi Suppose the Nonconformists at this day as the Puritans then did should sollicite the getting of the hands of Multitudes to a Petition to the King for suspending the Execution of the Penal Laws against themselves the present Judges would not tell you that this was an Offence next to Treason or Felony nor that the Offenders were to be brought to the Council-board to be punished but they would tell you plainly and distinctly That if the hands of more Persons than twenty were solicited or procured to such a Petition and the Offenders were convicted upon the Evidence of two or more credible Witnesses upon a Prosecution in the Kings-bench or at the Assizes or Quarter Sessions within six Months they would incur a Penalty not exceeding a 100 l. and three Months Imprisonment because their Petition was to change a matter establisht by Law But I am sure you are a better Logician than not to see the difference which the Statute makes between such a Petition which is to alter a thing establisht by Law and an innocent and humble Petition That a Parliament may meet according to Law in a time when the greatest Dangers hang over the King the Church and the State The Right Honourable the Earl of Shaftsbury 's Speech in the House of Lords March 25. 1679. My Lords YOU are appointing of the Consideration of the State of England to be taken up in a Committee of the whole House some day next Week I do not know how well what I have to say may be received for I never study either to make my Court well or to be Popular I always speak what I am commanded by the Dictates of the Spirit within me There are some other Considerations that concern England so nearly that without them you will come far short of Safety and Quiet at Home We have a little Sister and she hath no Breasts what shall we do for our Sister in the day when she shall be spoken for If she be a Wall we will build on her a Palace of Silver if she be a Door we will inclose her with Boards of Cedar We have several little Sisters without Breasts the French Protestant Churches the two Kingdoms of Ireland and Scotland The Foreign Protestants are a Wall the only Wall and Defence to England upon it you may build Palaces of Silver glorious Palaces The Protection of the Protestants abroad is the greatest Power and Security the Crown of England can attain to and which can only help us to give Check to the growing Greatness of France Scotland and Ireland are two Doors either to let in Good or Mischief upon us they are much weakened by the Artifice of our cunning Enemies and we ought to inclose them with Boards of Cedar Popery and Slavery like two Sisters go hand in hand sometimes one goes first sometimes the other in a doors but the other is always following close at hand In England Popery was to have brought in Slavery in Scotland Slavery went before and Popery was to follow I do not think your Lordships or the Parliament have Jurisdiction there It is a Noble and Ancient Kingdom they have an illustrious Nobility a Gallant Gentry a Learned Clergy and an Understanding Worthy People but yet we cannot think of England as we ought without reflecting on the Condition therein They are under the same Prince and the Influence of the same Favourites and Councils when they are hardly dealt with can we that are the Richer expect better usage for 't is
Nature and consequently the Ordinance of God but that the different forms of Government whether to reside in One Few or Many or whether it shall be continued by Succession or by Election together with the different measures and limitations of Power and Authority in Governours of the same kind in several Countries all these things I say are ordained by and purely depend upon positive and humane Laws From whence it will necessarily follow That the same human Authority residing in King Lords and Commons here in England which gave Being to those Laws for the good of the Community is Superintendent over them and both may and ought to make any Addition to or Alteration of them when the publick Good and Welfare of the Nation shall require it unless you will admit That an Human Authority establishing any thing intentionally for the common good of the Society which in tract of time by reason of unforeseen circumstances and emergencies proves destructive of it has by that Act concluded it self and made that accidental Evil moral and unchangeable which to affirm is sensless and repugnant And now Sir I hope by this time said the old Gentleman you begin to think that the Bill for disabling the Duke was not so unjust and unreasonable as was pretended and that the course of Succession being founded upon the same bottom with other Civil Constitutions might likewise as justly have been altered by the King Lords and Commons as any other Law or Custom whatever And here I might conclude but because a late Pensionary Pen has publickly arraign'd the Wisdom Loyalty and Justice of the Honourable House of Commons on the account of this Bill I will ex abundanti add a word or two more to that particular Whereupon he pluck'd a Paper out of his Pocket entituled Great and weighty Considerations relating to the Duke and Successor of the Crown c. Which as soon as he had read unto us You see here said he the true Temper of those men of whom I first gave you caution There never was an Endeavour though in a Legal and Parliamentary way after any Reformation either in Church or State but the Promoters of it were sure to be branded by them with the odious imputations of Fanaticism and Faction Nay if the Country-Electors of Parliament-men will not pitch upon such Rake-hells of the Nation as are usually proposed by them but on the contrary make use of their Freedom and Consciences in chusing able upright and deserving persons and if good men thus chosen do but according to their Duty in the House enquire into publick Grievances pursue in a legal course notorious Offenders and consult and advise the Security of the Government and Protestant Religion the high Church-man immediately swells and in a passion tells you That all this proceeds from the old Phanatick Leven not yet worn out amongst the People That we are going back again to Forty One and acting over afresh the Sins of our Forefathers Thus ignorantly do they complement the Times and Persons they endeavour to expose by appropriating to them such Virtues as were common to good men in all Ages But enough of this In the next place pray observe how hypocritically the Considerer puts this Question viz. Whether Protestant Religion was not settled in this Nation by the same mighty hand of God that establish'd Jeroboam in the Kingdom of Israel And then adds Whether we like that wicked King should so far despair of God's Providence in preserving the work of his own Hands as never to think it safe unless it be establish'd on the Quick-sands of our own wicked Inventions viz. the Bill against the Duke And throughout his whole Discourse he frequently calls all Care of preserving our Religion a Mistrust of God's Providence and on that score calls out to the Nation O ye of little Faith c. Now I will allow him That the least Evil is not to be done that the greatest and most important Good may ensue But that the Bill for disabling the Duke is highly justifiable both by the Laws of God and Constitution of our Government I think by my former Discourse I have left no room to doubt And the Considerer having scarce attempted to prove the contrary it 's preposterously done of him to give us his Use of Reproof before he has clear'd his Doctrine However I owe him many thanks for putting me in mind how Protestant Religion was first establish'd here in England it was indeed by the mighty Hand of God influencing the publick Councils of the Nation so that all imaginable care was taken both by Prince and People to rescue themselves from under the Romish Yoke and accordingly most excellent Laws were made against the usurpation and tyranny of that Man of Sin Our noble Ancestors in those days did not palliate a want of Zeal for their Religion with a lazy pretence of trusting in God's Providence but together with their Prayers to and Affiance in Heaven they joyned the Acts of their own Duty without which they very well knew they had no reason to expect a Blessing from it But now be pleased to take notice of the Candor of this worthy Considerer nothing less will serve his turn than the proving all the Voters for the Bill guilty of the highest Perjury For says he they have all sworn in the Oath of Allegiance to bear Faith and true Allegiance to His Majesty his Heirs and Successors but the Duke is Heir ergo c. A very hopeful Argument indeed But what if it should happen as it is neither impossible nor very improbable to imagin it that the next Heir to the Crown should commit Treason and conspire the Death of the present Possessor and for this Treason should not only be attainded by Parliament but executed too Pray Mr. Considerer would the Parliament in this case be guilty of Murder and Perjury I am confident you will not say it If therefore the next Heir become obnoxious to the Government in a lower degree why may not the same Authority proportion the Punishment and leave him his Life but debar him of the Succession This I say only to shew the absurdity of his Argument My Answer is this No man can bear Allegiance to two persons at the same time nor can Allegiance be ever due to a Subject and therefore my Obligation by the word Heir in the Oath does not commence till such Heir has a present Right to or actual Possession of the Crown which if he never attains either by reason of Death or any other Act that incapacitates and bars him then can my Obligation to him by the word Heir in the Oath never have a beginning But besides all this it cannot be denied but Mr. Considerer's Doctrine does bring great Inconveniences on Succession for the next Heir by his way of arguing is let loose from all the Restrictions and Penalties of Humane Laws and has no other tyes upon him not to snatch the Crown
not unknown to your Majesty how restless the Endeavours and how bold the Attempts of the Popish Party for many years last past have been not only within this but other your Majesties Kingdoms to introduce the Romish and utterly to extirpate the true Protestant Religion The several Approaches they have made towards the compassing this their Design assisted by the Treachery of perfidious Protestants have been so strangely successful that 't is matter of Admiration to Us and which we can only ascribe to an Over-ruling Providence that your Majesties Reign is still continued over Us and that We are yet assembled to consult the means of our preservation This bloody and restless Party not content with the great Liberty they had a long time enjoyed to excercise their own Religion privately amongst themselves to pertake of an equal Freedom of their persons and Estates with your Majesties Protestant Subjects and of an Advantage above them in being excused from chargeable Offices and Employments hath so far prevailed as to find countenance for an open and avowed practice of their Superstition and Idolatry without controul in several parts of this Kingdom Great swarms of Priests and Jesuits have resorted hither and have here exercised their Jurisdiction and been daily tampering to pervert the Consciences of your Majesties Subjects Their Opposers they have found means to disgrace and if they were Judges Justices of the Peace or other Magistrates to have them turned out of Commission and in contempt of the known Laws of the Land they have practised upon people of all Ranks and qualities and gained over divers to their Religion some openly to profess it others secretly to espouse it as most conduced to the service thereof After some time they became able to influence matters of State and Government and thereby to destroy those they cannot corrupt The continuance or Prorogation of Parliaments has been accommodated to serve the purposes of that Party Money raised upon the People to supply your Majesties extraordinary Occasions was by the prevalence of Popish Councils imployed to make War upon a Protestant State and to advance and augment the dreadful Power of the French King though to the apparent hazard of this and all other Protestant Countries Great numbers of your Majesties Subjects were sent into and continued in the service of that King notwithstanding the apparent Interest of your Majesties Kingdoms the Addresses of the Parliament and your Majesties gracious Proclamations to the contrary Nor can We forbear to mention how that at the beginning of the same War even the Ministers of England were made Instruments to press upon that State the acceptance of one demand among others from the French King for procuring their peace with him that they should admit the publick exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion in the United Provinces the Churches there to be divided and the Romish Priests maintained out of the publick Revenue At home if Your Majesty did at any time by the Advice of Your Privy-Council or of Your two Houses of Parliament Command the Laws to be put in Execution against Papists even from thence they gained advantage to their Party while the edge of those Laws was turned against Protestant Dissenters and the Papists escaped in a manner untoucht The Act of Parliament enjoining a Test to be taken by all Persons admitted into any Publick Office and intended for a security against Papists coming into Employment had so little effect that either by Dispensations obtained from Rome they submitted to those Tests and held their Offices themselves or those put in their places were so favourable to the same Interests that Popery it self has rather gained than lost ground since that Act. But that their business in hand might yet more speedily and strongly proceed at length a Popish Secretary since Executed for his Treasons takes upon him to set afoot and maintain correspondencies at Rome particularly with a Native Subject of Your Majesties promoted to be a Cardinal and in the Courts of other Forreign Princes to use their own form of Speech for the subduing that Pestilent Heresie which has so long domineered over this Northern World that is to root the Protestant religion out of England and thereby to make way the more easily to do the same in other Protestant Countries Towards the doing this great Work as Mr. Coleman was pleased to call it Jesuits the most dangerous of all Popish Orders to the Lives and Estates of Princes were distributed to their several Precincts within this Kingdom and held joint Councils with those of the same Order in all Neighbour Popish Countries Out of these Councils and Correspondencies was hatcht that damnable and hellish Plot by the good Providence of Almighty God brought to light above two Years since but still threatning us wherein the Traitors impatient of longer delay reckoning the prolonging of Your Sacred Majesties Life which God long Preserve as the Great Obstacle in the way to the Consummation of their hopes and having in their prospect a Proselyted Prince immediately to succeed in the Throne of these Kingdoms resolved to begin their Work with the Assassination of Your Majesty to carry it on with Armed Force to destroy Your Protestant Subjects in England to Execute a second Massacre in Ireland and so with ease to arrive at the suppression of our Religion and the subversion of the Government When this Accursed Conspiracy began to be discovered they began the smothering it with the Barbarous Murther of a Justice of the Peace within one of Your Majesties own Palaces who had taken some Examinations concerning it Amidst these distractions and fears Popish Officers for the Command of Forces were allowed upon the Musters by special Orders surreptitionsly obtained from Your Majesty but Counter-Signed by a Secretary of State without ever passing under the Tests prescribed by the aforementioned Act of Parliament In like manner above fifty new Commissions were granted about the same time to known Papists besides a great number of desperate Popish Officers though out of Command yet entertain'd at half pay When in the next Parliament the House of Commons were prepared to bring to a legal Tryal the principal Conspirators in this Plot that Parliament was first Prorogued and then Dissolved The Interval between the Calling and Sitting of this Parliament was so long that now they conceive Hopes of covering all their past Crimes and gaining a seasonable time and advantages of practising them more effectually Witnesses are attempted to be corrupted and not only promises of Reward but of the Favour of your Majesty's Brother made the Motives to their Compliance Divers of the most considerable of your Majesty's Protestant Subjects have Crimes of the highest nature forged against them the Charge to be supported by Subornation and Perjury that they may be destroyed by Forms of Law and Justice A Presentment being prepared for a Grand Jury of Middlesex against your Majesty's said Brother the Duke of York under whose Countenance all the
People in divers Parliaments holden heretofore Willing to ordain Remedy for the great Damages and Mischiefs which have happened and dayly do happen by the said Cause c. By the assent of all the great Men and Commonalty of his said Realm hath Ordained and Established c. In which preamble of the Statute we may observe 1. The intollerable grievance and burden which was occasion'd by the illegal Incroachments of the See of Rome 2. The many Complaints the People had made who in those dark times under Popery were sensible of groaning under those Burdens 3. The Endeavours used in vain by former Parliaments to Redress the same and to bring their Laws in being to have their Force and Effect 4. The acknowledgment of the King and Parliament that the Obligation hereto was upon the King 1. From the Right of the Crown which obliged every King to pass good Laws 2. The Statute in force 3. The King's Oath to keep the Old and pass New Laws for his Peoples safeguard which they should tender to him 4. From the sence of the People expressed in their Complaints and 5. From the Mischief and Damage which would otherwise ensue And therefore by the desire and accord of his People He passes this famous Law The Preamble whereof is here recited Another Statute to the same purpose you find 2 R. 2. No. 28. Also the Commons in Parliament pray That forasmuch as Petitions and Bills presented in Parliament by divers of the Commons could not heretofore have their Respective Answers That therefore both their Petitions and Bills in this present Parliament as also others which shall be presented in any future Parliament may have a good and gracious Answer and Remedy ordained thereupon before the departing of every Parliament And that to this purpose a due Statute be ensealed or Enacted at this present Parliament to be and remain in Force for all times to come To which the King replied The King's Answer THE King is pleased that all such Petitions deliver'd in Parliament of things or matters which cannot otherwise be determined A Good and Reasonable Answer shall be made and given before the departure of Parliament In which excellent Law we may observe 1. A Complaint of former remisness their Bills having aforetime been pass'd by their Grievances Unredressed by unseasonably Dissolving of Parliaments before their Laws could pass 2. That a Law might pass in that very Parliament to rectifie that Abuse for the future And 3. That it should not pass for a temporary Law but for perpetuity being of such absolute Necessity that before the Parliaments be dismissed Bills of common Right might pass And the King agreed hereto Suitable hereto we have my Lord Chief Justice Coke that great Oracle of the Law in his Instit 4. B. p. 11. asserting Petitions being truly preferr'd though very many have been Answered by the Law and Custom of Parliament before the end of Parliament This appears saith he by the Ancient Treatise De Modo tenendi Parliamentum in these Words faithfully Translated The Parliament ought not to be ended while any Petition dependeth undiscussed or at the least to which a determinate Answer is not made Rot. Par. 17. E. 3. No. 60. 25 E. 3. No. 60. 50 E. 3. No. 212. 2 R. 2.134 2 R. 2. No. 38. 1 H. 4.132 2 H. 4325.113 And that one of the principal ends of calling Parliaments is for redressing of Grievances that daily happen 36 E. 3. c. 10. 18 E. 3. c. 14. 50 E. 3. No. 17. Lyons Case Rot. Par. 1 H. 5. No. 17. 13 H. 4. No. 9. And that as concerning the departing of Parliaments It ought to be in such a manner faith Modus Tenendi viz. To be demanded yea and publiekly Proclaimed in the Parliament and within the Palace of the Parliament whether there be any that hath delivered a Petition to the Parliament and hath not received Answer thereto if there be none such it is to be supposed that every one is Satisfied or else Answered unto at the least so far forth as by the Law be may be And which custom was observed in after Ages as you have heard before Concerning the Antiquity and Authority of this Ancient Treatise called Modus tenendi Parliamentum saith my Lord Coke whereof we make often use in our Institutes Certain it is that this Modus was Rehearsed and Declared before the Conqueror at the time of his Conquest and by him approved for England and accordingly he according to Modus held a Parliament for England as appears 21 E. 3. so 60. Whereby you clearly perceive that these wholsome Laws are not only in full agreement with the Common Law and declarative thereof but in full accord with the Oath and Office of the Prince who has that great trust by the Law lodged with him for the good and benefit not hurt and mischief of the People viz. First These Laws are very suitable to the Duty and Office of a Ruler and the end for which he was instituted by God himself who commands him to do Judgment and Justice to all especially to the Oppressed and not to deny them any request for their relief protection or welfare 2 Sam. 22.3 1 Chron. 13.1 to 5.2 Chron. 9.8.19.5 c Est 1.13 Our Law-Books enjoyning the same as Bracton Lib. 1. c. 2. Lib. 3. c. 9. fol. 107 c. Fortiscue ch 9. fo 15. c. 7. fol 5.11 Coke 7. Book Reports Calvin's Case f. 11. Secondly They are also in full Harmony with the King's Coronation Oath solemnly made to all his Subjects viz. To grant fulfill and defend all rightful Laws which the Commons of the Realm shall choose and to strengthen and maintain them after his Power Thirdly These Laws are also in full agreement and oneness with Magna Charta it self that Ancient Fundamental Law which hath been Confirmed by at least Forty Parliaments viz. We shall deny We shall defer to no Man Justice and Right much less to the whole Parliament and Kingdom in denying or deferring to pass such necessary Bills which the Peoples needs call for Object But to all this which hath been said it may be objected That several of our Princes have otherwise practised by Dissolving or as laterly used by Prorogucing Parliaments at their pleasures before Grievances were Redressed and Publick Bills of Common Safety Passed and that as a Privilege belonging to the Royal Prerogative Answ To which it is Answered That granting they have so done First It is most manifest that deth not therefore create a right to them so to do according to that known Maxim a facto ad jus non valet Consequentia especially when such Actions are against so many express and positive Laws such Principles of Common Right and Justice and so many particular Tyes and Obligations upon themsâ—â—es to the contrary Secondly But if it had been so yet neither can Prerogative be pleaded to justify such Practices because the King has no Prerogative but what the Law gives
Land to cut off these workers of Iniquity whose Religion is Rebellion whose Faith is Faction whose practice is murthering of Souls and Bodies and to root them out of the Confines of this Kingdom VII All the Judges of England are bound by their Oath 18 Edw. III. 20 Edw. III. Cap. 1.2 and by the duty of their place to disobey all Writs Letters or Commands which are brought to them either under the little Seal or under the great Seal to hinder or delay common Right Are the Judges all bound in an Oath and by their places to break the 13 of the Romans VIII The Engagement of the Lords attending upon the King at York June 13. 1642. which was subscribed by the Lord Keeper and Thirty Nine Peers besides the Lord Chief-Justice Banks and several others of the Privy-Council was in these words We do engage our selves not to Obey any Orders or Commands whatsoever not warranted by the known Laws of the Land Was this likewise an Association against the 13 of the Romans IX A Constable represents the King's person and in the Execution of his Office is within the purview of the 13 of the Romans as all Men grant but in case he so far pervert his Office as to break the Peace and commit Murther Burglary or Robbery on the Highway he may and ought to be Resisted X. The Law of the Land is the best Expositor of the 13 of the Romans Here and in Poland the Law of the Land There XI The 13 of the Romans is receiv'd for Scripture in Poland and yet this is expressed in the Coronation Oath in that Country Quod si Sacramentum meum violavero Incola Regni nullam nobis Obedientiam praestare tenebuntur And if I shall violate my Oath the Inhabitants of the Realm shall not be bound to yield me any Obedience XII The Law of the Land according to Bracton is the highest of all the Higher Powers mentioned in this Text for it is superior to the King and made him King Lib. 3. Cap. 26. Rex habet superiorum Deum item Legem per quam factus est Rex item Curiam suam viz. Comites Barones and therefore by this Text we ought to be subject to it in the first place And according to Melancthon It is the Ordinance of God to which the Higher Powers themselves ought to be subject Vol. 3. In his Commentary on the Fifth Verse Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake He hath these words Neque vero haec tantum pertinent ad Subditos sed etiam ad Magistratum qui cum fiunt Tyranni non minus dissipant Ordinationem Dei quam Seditiosi Ideo ipsorum Conscientia fit rea quia non obediunt Ordinationi Dei id est Legibus quibus debent parere Ideo Comminationes hic positae etiam ad ipsos pertinent Itaque hujus mandati severitas moveat omnes ne violationem Politici status putent esse leve peccatum Neither doth this place concern Subjects only but also the Magistrates themselves who when they turn Tyrants do no less overthrow the Ordinance of God than the Seditious and therefore their Consciences too are guilty for not obeying the Ordinance of God that is the Laws which they ought to obey So that the Threatnings in this place do also belong to them wherefore let the severity of this Command deter all men from thinking the Violation of the Political Constitution to be a light Sin Corollary To destroy the Law and Legal Constitution which is the Ordinance of God by false and arbitrary Expositions of this Text is a greater Sin than to destroy it by any other means For it is Seething the Kid in his Mothers Milk CHAP. IV. Of LAWS I. THere is no Natural Obligation wereby one Man is bound to yield Obedience to another but what is founded in paternal or patriarchal Authority II. All the Subjects of a patriarchal Monarch are Princes of the Blood III. All the people of England are not Princes of the Blood IV. No Man who is Naturally Free can be bound but by his own Act and Deed. V. Publick Laws are made by publick consent and they therefore bind every man because every man's consent is involved in them VI. Nothing but the same Authority and Consent which made the Laws can Repeal Alter or Explain them VII To judge and determine Causes against Law without Law or where the Law is obscure and uncertain is to assume Legislative power VIII Power assumed without a Man's consent cannot bind him as his own Act and Deed. IX The Law of the Land is all of a piece and the same Authority which made one Law made all the rest and intended to have them all Impartially Executed X. Law on One Side is the Back-Sword of Justice XI The Best Things when Corrupted are the Worst and the wild Justice of a State of Nature is much more desirable than Law perverted and over-rul'd into Hemlock and Oppression Copies of Two Papers Written by the Late King CHARLES II. Published by His MAJESTIES Command Printed in the Year 1686. The First Paper THE Discourse we had the other Day I hope satisfied you in the main that Christ can have but one Church here upon Earth and I believe that it is as visible as that the Scripture is in Print That none can be that Church but that which is called the Roman Catholick Church I think you need not trouble your self with entring into that Ocean of particular Disputes when the main and in truth the only Question is Where that Church is which we profess to believe in the two Creeds We declare there to believe one Catholick and Apostolick Church and it is not left to every phantastical man's head to believe as he pleases but to the Church to whom Christ left the power upon Earth to govern us in matters of Faith who made these Creeds for our Directions It were a very Irrational thing to make Laws for a Country and leave it to the Inhabitants to be the Interpreters and Judges of those Laws For then every man will be his own Judge and by consequence no such thing as either right or wrong Can we therefore suppose that God Almighty would leave us at those uncertainties as to give us a Rule to go by and to leave every man to be his own Judge I do ask any ingenuous man whether it be not the same thing to follow our own Fancy or to interpret the Scripture by it I would have any man shew me where the power of deciding matters of Faith is given to every particular man Christ left his power to his Church even to forgive Sins in Heaven and left his Spirit with them which they exercised after his Resurrection First by his Apostles in these Creeds and many years after by the Council at Nice where that Creed was made that is called by that name and by the power which they
World the least consisting with equal Dealing viz. An incurable Partiality to herself which that it may arrive to its full Perfection is crowned with Infallibility At the first serting out she maketh her self uncapable of dealing upon Terms of Equality by the Power she claimeth of Binding and Loosing which hath been so often applied to Treaties as well as to Sins If the Definition of Justice is to deal equally she cannot be guilty of it without betraying her Prerogative and according to her Principles she giveth up the Superiority derived to her by Apostolical Succession if she degradeth her self so as to be judged by the Rules of Common Right especially if the Bargain should be with Hereticks who in her Opinion have forfâ—â—ted the Claim they might otherwise have had to it IX Besides her Taste hath been so spoiled by unreasonable Bargains that she can never bring down her Palate to any thing that is Fair or Equal She hath not only judg'd it an Equivalent but a great Bargain for the other side to give them Absolutions and Indulgences for the real Payment of great Sums for which she hath drawn Bills to have them repayed with Interest in Purgatory This Spiritual Bank hath carried on such a Trade upon these advantagious Terms that it can never submit to the small Profits an ordinary Bargain would produce The several Popes have in Exchange for the Peter-Pence and all their other Rents and Fines out of England sent sanctified Roses Reliques and other such Wonder-working Trifles And by Virtue of their Character of Holy Fathers have used Princes like Children by sending them such Rattles to play with which they made them buy at extravagant Rates besides which they were to be thankful too into the Bargain A Chip of the Cross a Piece of St. Laurence's Grid-iron a Hair of St. Peter have been thought Equivalents for much more substantial things The Popes being Masters of the Jewel-House have set the Rates upon them and they have passed though the whole Shop would not take up the Value of a Bodkin in Lombardstreet upon the Credit of them They are unconscionable Purchasers for they get all the Money from the Living by praying for them when they are dead And it is observable that the Northern Part of Christendom which best understandeth Trade were the first that refused to make any more Bargains with them so that it looketh as if the chief Quarrel to the Hereticks was not as they were ill Christians but as they were unkind Merchants in so discourteously rejecting the Commodities of the Growth of Rome To conclude this Head There is no bartering with Infallibility it being so much above Equality that it cannot bear the Indignity of a true Equivalent X. In all Bargains there is a Necessity of looking back and reflecting how far a present Proposal is reconcileable with a former Practice For Example if at any time a thing is offered quite differing from the Arguments used by the Proposer and inconsistent with the Maxims held out by him at other times Or in a publick Case if the same Men who promote and press a thing with the utmost Violence do in a little time after with as much Violence press the contrary and prosess a Detestation of the very thing for which they had before imployed all their Interest and Authority Or if in the Case of a Law already made there should be a Priviledge claimed to exempt those from the Obligation of observing it who yet should afterwards desire and press to have a new Law made in exchange for the old one by which they would not be bound and that they should propose a Security by a thing of the very same Nature as that which they did not allow to be any before These Incoherences must naturally have the Effect of raising Suspition or rather they are a certain Proof that in such Circumstances it is irrational for Men to expect an effectual Equivalent XI If whatsoever is more than ordinary is suspitious every thing that is unnatural is more so It is not only unnecessary but unatural too to perswade with Violence what it is Folly to refuse to push Men with Eagerness into a good Bargain for themselves is a Stile very much unsuitable to the Nature of the thing But it goeth further and is yet more absurd to grow angry with Men for not receiving a Proposal that is for their Advantage Men ought to be content with the Generosity of offering good Bargains and should give their Compassion to those who do not understand them but by carrying their good Nature so far as to be Cholerick in such a Case they would follow the Example of the Church of Rome where the Definition of Charity is very extraordinary In her Language the Writ de Haeretico Comburendo is a Love-Letter and burning Men for differing with them in Opinion howsoever miscalled Cruelty is as they understand it the Perfection of flaming Charity When Anger in these Cases lasteth long it is most probable that it is for our own Sakes Good Nature for others is one of those Diseases that is cured by Time and especially where it is offered and rejected but for our selves it never faileth and cannot be extinguished but with our Life It is fair if Men can believe that their Friends love them next to themselves to love them better is too much the Expression is so unnatural that it is cloying and Men must have no Sense who in this case have no Suspition XII Another Circumstance necessary to a fair Bargain is That there must be Openness and Freedom allowed as the Effect of that Equality which is the Foundation of Contracting There must be full Liberty of Objecting and making Doubts and Scruples If they are such as can be answered the Party convinced is so much the more confirmed and incouraged to deal instead of being hindred by them but it instead of an Answer to satisfie there is nothing but Anger for a Reply it is impossible not to conclude that there is never a good one to give so that the Objection remaining without being fully confuted there is an absolute Bar put to any further Treaty There can be no Dealing where one side assumeth a Priviledge to impose so as to make an Offer and not bear the Examination of it this is giving Judgment not making a Bargain Where it is called unmannerly to object or criminal to refuse the surest way is for Men to stay where they are rather than treat upon such Disadvantages If it should happen to be in any Country where the governing Power should allow Men Liberty of Conscience in the Choice of their Religion it would be strange to deny them Liberty of Speech in making a Bargain Such a Contradiction would be so discouraging that they must be unreasonably sanguine who in that case can entertain the Hopes of a fair Equivalent XIII An equal Bargain must not be a Mystery nor a Secret The Purchaser or Proposer
has been formerly thought the whole Constitution of this Church and Kingdom which we dare not do till we have the Authority of Parliament for it It is to recommend to our People the Choice of such Persons to sit in Parliament as shall take away the Test and Penal Laws which most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation have declared their Judgment against It is to condemn all those great and worthy Patriots of their Country who forfeited the dearest thing in the World to them next a good Conscience viz. The Favour of their Prince and a great many honorable and profitable Employments with it rather than consent to that Proposal of taking away the Test and Penal Paws which they apprehend destructive to the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and he who can in Conscience do all this I think need scruple nothing For let us consider further what the Effects and Consequences of our Reading the Declaration are likely to be and I think they are Matter of Conscience too when they are evident and apparent This will certainly render our Persons and Ministry infinitely contemptible which is against that Apostolical Canon Let no Man despise thee Titus 2.15 That is so to behave himself in his Ministereal Office as not to fall under Contempt and therefore this obliges the Conscience not to make our selves ridiculous nor to render our Ministry our Counsels Exhortations Preaching Writing of no Effect which is a thousand times worse than being silenced Our Sufferings will preach more effectually to the People when we cannot speak to them but he who for Fear or Cowardise or the Love of this World betrays his Church and Religion by undue Compliances and will certainly be thought to do so may continue to Preach but to no purpose and when we have rendred our selves ridiculous and contemptible we shall then quickly fall and fall unpitied There is nothing will so effectually tend to the final Ruine of the Church of England because our Reading the Declaration will discourage or provoke or misguide all the Friends the Church of England has can we blame any Man for not preserving the Laws and the Religion of our Church and Nation when we our selves will venture nothing for it Can we blame any Man for consenting to Repeal the Test and Penal Laws when we recommend it to them by Reading the Declaration Have we not reason to expect that the Nobility and Gentry who have already suffered in this Cause when they hear themselves condemned for it in all the Churches of England will think it time to mend such a Fault and reconcile themselves to their Prince and if our Church fall this way is there any reason to expect that it should ever rise again These Consequences are almost as evident as Demonstrations and let it be what it will in it self which I foresee will destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and Interest I think I ought to make as much Conscience of doing it as of doing the most immortal Action in Nature To say that these mischievous Consequences are not absolutely necessary and therefore do not affect the Conscience because we are not certain they will follow is a very mean Objection Moral Actions indeed have not such necessary Consequences as natural Causes have necessary Effects because no moral Causes act necessarily Reading the Declaration will not as necessarily destroy the Church of England as Fire burns Wood but if the Consequence be plain and evident the most likely thing that can happen if it be unreasonable to expect any other if it be what is plainly intended and designed either I must never have any regard to Moral Consequences of my Actions or if ever they are to be considered they are in this case Why are the Nobility and Gentry so extreamly averse to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws Why do they forfeit the King's Favour and their Honourable Stations rather than comply with it If you say that this tends to destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion I ask whether this be the necessary consequence of it whether the King cannot keep his promise to the Church of England if the Test and Penal Laws be Repealed We cannot say but this may be And yet the Nation does not think fit to try it and we commend those great men who deny it and if the same questions were put to us we think we ought in Conscience to deny them our selves And are there not as high probabilities that our Reading the Declaration will promote the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws as that such a Repeal will ruine our Constitution and bring in Popery upon us Is it not as probable that such a complyance in us will disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry who have hitherto been firm to us as that when the power of the Nation is put into Popish Hands by the Repeal of such Tests and Laws the Priests and Jesuirs may find some salvo for the King's Conscience and perswade him to forget his Promise to the Church of England and if the probable ill consequences of Repealing the Test and Penal Laws be a good reason not to comply with it I cannot see but that the as probable ill consequences of Reading the Declaration is as good a reason not to read it The most material Objection is that the Dissenters whom we ought not to provoke will expound our not Reading it to be the effect of a persecuting Spirit Now I wonder Men should lay any weight on this who will not allow the most probable consequences of our Actions to have any influence upon Conscience For if we must compare consequences to disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry by reading it is likely to be much more fatal than to anger the Diffenters and it is more likely and there is much more reason for it that one should be offended than the other For the Dissenters who are wise and considering are sensible of the snare themselves and though they desire Ease and Liberty they are not willing to have it with such apparent hazard of Church and State I am sure that tho' we were never so desirous that they might have their Liberty and when there is opportunity of shewing our inclinations without danger they may find that we are nations without danger they may find that we are not such Persecutors as we are represented yet we cannot consent that they should have it this way which they will find the dearest Liberty that ever was granted This Sir is our Case in short the Difficulties are great on both sides and therefore now if ever we ought to besiege Heaven with our Prayers for Wisdom and Counsel and Courage that God would protect his Church and Reformed Christianity against all the devices of their Enemies Which is the daily and hearty Prayer of SIR Your Friend and Brother May 22. 1â—88 POSTSCRIPT I Have just now seen H. Care 's Paper
pinches he is really concerned that Ireland is not altogether an independent Kingdom and in the Hands of its own Natives he longs till the Day when the English Yoak of Boudage shall be thrown off Of this he gives us broad Hints when he tells us That England is the only Nation in the World that impedes their Trade That a Man of English Interest will never Club with them as he phrases it or project any thing which may tend to their Advantage that will be the least Bar or Prejudice to the Trade of England Now why a Man of English Interest unless he will allow none of that Nation to be an able and just Minister to his Prince should be partial to ruine one Kingdom to avoid the least Inconveniency of the other contrary to the positive Commands of his King I cannot imagine For since it is the Governour 's Duty to Rule by Law and such Orders as he shall receive from His Majesty I know no Grounds for our Authors Arraigning the whole English Nation in saying That no one Man among them of what Perswasion soever will be true either to the Laws or his Majesty's positive Orders which shall seem repugnant to the smallest Conveniencies of England This is a glory reserved only as it seems for his Hero my Lord Tyrconnel The Imbargo upon the West India Trade and the Prohibition of Irish Cattel are the two Instances given It were to be wished indeed for the Good of that Kingdom that both were taken off and I question not but to see a Day wherein it shall seem proper to the King and an English Parliament to Repeal those Laws a Day wherein they will consider us as their own Flesh and Blood a Colony of their Kindred and Relations and take care of our Advantages with as little Grudging and Repining I am sure they have the same and no stronger Reason as Cornwal does at Yorkshire There are Instances in sevral Islands in the East-Indies as far distant as Ireland is from England that make up but one Kingdom and govern'd by the same Laws but the Wisdom of England will not judge it time fitting to do this till we of Ireland be one Mans Children either in Reality or Affection we wish the latter and have made many Steps and Advances towards it if the Natives will not meet us half way we cannot help it let the Event lie at their own Doors But after all I see not how those Instances have any manner of relation to the English Chief Governors in Ireland they were neither the Causes Contrivers nor Promoters of those Acts. The King and an English Parliament did it without consulting them if they had 't is forty to one my Lord of Ormond and the Council whose Stake is so great in Ireland would have hindred it as much as possible Our Author's Argument proves indeed That 't is detrimental to Ireland to be a subordinate Kingdom to England and 't is plain 't is that he drives at let him disguise it as much as he will but the conclusion he would prove cannot at all be deduced from it Shortly I expect he will speak plainer and in down right Terms propose That the two Kingdoms may be governed by different Kings Matters seem to grow ripe for such a dilloyal Proposition If these Acts and not the Subjection to an English King were the Grievances they would be so to the British there as well as to the Natives but though we wish them Repealed we do not repine in the mean time if the British who are the most considerable Trading part of that Nation and consequently feel the ill Effects of those Acts more sensibly can be contented why the Natives should not acquiesce in it unless it be for the forementioned Reasons I cannot see Our Author allows that there are different ways of obeying the King 't is a Point gained for us and proves there may be such a Partiality exercised in executing his Majesties Commands as may destroy the very Intent of them and yet taking the Matter strictly the King is obeyed but a good Minister will consider his Masters Intentions and not make use of a Word that may have a double Sence to the Ruine of a Kingdom nor of a Latitude of Power wherewith he is intrusted to the Destruction of the most considerable Party in it Far be it from us to think it was his Majesties Intentions to depopulate a flourishing Country to undo Multitudes of laborious thriving Families in it to diminish and destroy his own Revenue to put the Sword into Mad-mens Hands who are sworn Enemies to the British No! His Majesty who is willing that Liberty of Trade as well as Conscience should equally flourish in all parts of his Dominions that recommends himself to his Subjects by his Impartiality in distributing Offices of Trust and from that Practice raises his greatest Argument to move his People to Repeal the Penal Laws never intended that some general Commands of his should be perverted to the Destruction of that People his Intention is to protect His Majesty Great as he is cannot have two Consciences one calculated for the Latitude of England another for Ireland We ought therefore to conclude in respect to the King that his Commands have been ill understood and worse executed and this may be done as our Author confesses and the King undoubtedly obeyed but such an Obedience is no better than a Sacrifice of the best Subjects the King has in this Kingdom Our Author has given very good Reasons why the Natives may be well content with their present Governor but I cannot forbear laughing at those he has found out to satisfie the poor British with My Lord Tyrconnel's most Excellent Charitable English Lady His high sounding Name TALBOT in great Letters a Name that no less frightens the Poor English in Ireland then it once did the French a Name which because he is in possession of I will not dispute his Title to but I have been credibly informed that he has no relation to that most Noble Family of Shrewsbury though my Lord Tyrconnel presumes to bear the same Coat of Arms a Name in short which I hope in time Vox praetereae nihil A Second Reason is drawn from his Education We have heard and it has never yet been contradicted that my Lord Tyrconnel from his Youth upwards has constantly born Arms against the Brittish If our Author will assure us of the contrary I am apt to believe â—i Excellency will give him no thanks who lays the foundation of his Merit upon the Basis of his constant adherence to the Iâ—ish Party What use of Consolation can be drawn from this head by the Brittish is beyond my skill to conâ—preâ—â—nd A third Reason is drawn from his Stake in England the Author would do well to shew us in what Country this lies that we may know where to find Reprisals hereafter for since he offers this for our Security 't is fit
it hath been to cut the Tacklings and to steer contrary to the Pilot's Directions he thinks such safer by far shut up under Hatches then set at Liberty or employ'd to do mischief As for his supposition of 30000 men to be sent out of Ireland into Handers I cannot tell what to make on 't Let them crack the Shell that hope to find the Kernel in it For my part I despair though the readiness of the English Souldiers of Ireland who at twenty four hours warning came into England to serve His Majesty in the time of Monmouth's Rebellion ought to have been remembered to their advantage and might serve to any unprejudic'd person as a Pattern of the Loyalty and good Inclinations of all the Protestants in that Kingdom if his Majesty had had occasion for them VVhether the Parliament will Repeal the Test for those several weighty Reasons our Author says are fitter for contemplation than Discourse tho methinks it would be pleasant to see a House of Common sit like the Brethren at a silent Meeting is not my Province to determine As likewise VVhether they will so much consider that Grand Reason the King will have it so for his Conscience and theirs may differ or what the diffenters will do I cannot tell One thing I am sure of there will be no such Stumbling-block in the way of the King's desires when they meet as the present condition of Ireland they will be apt when His Majesty tells them they shall have their equal shares in Employments when they have Repealed the Laws to say Look at Ireland see what is done there where the Spirit of Religion appears bare fac'd and accordingly compute what may become of us when we have removed our own legal Fences since they now leap over those Hedges what may we expect when they are quite taken away Poyning's Law is a great grievance to our Author and here in one word he discovers that 't is the dependance this Kingdom has on England he quarrels at 'T is fit the Reader should understand that Law enacted when Poynings was Lord Deputy makes all the English Acts of Parliament of force in Ireland we are therefore so fond of that Law and cover so much to preserve our dependance on England that all the Arguments our Author can bring shall not induce us to part with it I will not reflect in the least on the Courage of the Irish I know there are several brave men among them but they have had the misfortune to fall under the Consideration of as our Author softens it but the plain sence is been beaten by a warlike Nation And I question not unless they behave themselves modestly in their Prosperity they will again fall under the Consideration of the same Nation 't is better we should live in peace and quietness but the Choice is in their hands and if they had rather come under our consideration again than avoid it let them look to the Consequence Another advantage which may accrue to Ireland by a Native as a Governour our Author reckons to be His personal knowledge of the Tories and their Harbourers and his being thereby better capacitated to suppress them Malicious People would be apt to infer from this Suggestion that his Excellency had occasion formerly to be familiarly acquainted with such sort of Cattle I have heard indeed that one of our bravest English Princes Henry the during the Extravagancies of his youth kept Company with publick Robbers and often shar'd both in the Danger and Booty But as soon as the Death of his Father made way for his Succession to the Crown he made use of his former acquaintance of their Persons and Haunts to the extirpating and dissolving the greatest knot of Highway-men that ever troubled England My Lord therefore in imitation of this great Prince no doubt will make use of his Experience that way to the same end And I readily assent to the Author that no English Governour can be so fit to clear that Kingdom of Tories and that for the same reason he gives us There are two other Advantages remaining one is his Excellency's having already made different Parties in that Kingdom the Objects of his Love and Hatred let the Offences of the one or the Merits of the other be never so conspicuous Whether the Brittish can draw any comfort from his Excellency's knowledge of them this way is fit to be debated The other is the probality of his getting the Statute for benefit of Clergy in favour of Cow-Stealers and House Robbers Repealed and where by the way there is a severe Rebuke given to our English Priests for their ill-placed Mercy to Irish Offenders A fault I hope they will be no more guilty of Whether these Advantages be so considerable as to move his Majesty to continue a Man for other more weighty Reasons absolutely destructive to this Kingdom or whether some of them might not be performed by an English Governour His Majesty is the only Judge Only this I am sure of The King if he were under any Obligations to His Minister has fully discharged them all and has shewed himself to be the best of Masters in giving so great and honourable an Employment to his Creature and continuing him in it so long notwithstanding the decrease of his own Revenue and the other visible bad effects of his Management the Impoverishment of that Kingdom amounting to at least two Millions of Mony And His Majesty may be now at liberty without the least imputation of Breach of promise to his Servant to restore us to our former flourishing condition by sending some English Nobleman among us whose contrary Methods will no doubt produce different effects To conclude methinks the comparison between His Majesty and Philip of Macedon when he was drunk is a little too familiar not to say unmannerly and that between Antipater and my Lord Tyrconnel is as great a Complement to the latter But provided my Lord be commended which was our Author's chief design he cares not tho' the comparison does not hold good in all points 't is enough that we know we are Govern'd by such a Prince that neither practises such Debauches himself nor allows of them in his Servants But we are not beholding to the Author for the knowledge of this should a Foreigner read his Pamphler or get it interpreted to him he would be apt and with reason to conclude that His Majesty as much resembled Philip in a Debauch as my Lord Tyrconnel doth sober Antipater I have now done with all that seems of any weight in our Author's Pamphlet and can see nething in his Postscript that deserves an Answer All that I will say is That his Recipes bear no proportion to our desperate Disease and he will prove not to be a Physitian but a pretending Quack who by ill applied Medicines will leave us in a worse Condition than he found us I shall conclude with telling you That your Letter which enclosed
the Face to turn them again upon you after they have made all this Noise for Liberty And the Church of England you may be assured will not any more trouble you but when a Protestand Prince shall come will joyn in the Healing of all our Breaches by removing all things out of the way which have long hindred that blessed Work They cannot meet together in a Body to give you this Assurance how should they without the Kings Authority so to do but every particular Person that I have discoursed withal which are not a few and you your selves would do well to ask them when you meet them profess that they see an absolute Necessity of making an end of these Differences that have almost undone us and will no longer contend to bring all Men to one Vniformity but promote an Vniform Liberty Do not imagine I intend to give meer Words I meâ—n honestly such a regular Liberty as will be the Beauty and Honour not the Blot and Discredit of our Religion To such a Temper the Archbishop of Canterbury with several other Bishops of his Province and their Clergy have openly declared they are willing to come And the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England have never been know to act deceitfully Our Religion will not at any time allow them to equivecate nor to give good VVords without a Meaning much less at such a time as this when our Religion is in great danger and we have nothing to trust unto but Gods Protection of sincere Persons Let Integrity and Vprightness preserve us is their constant Prayer They can hope for no Help from Heaven if they should prevaricate with Men. God they know would desert them if they should go about to delude their Brethren And they are not so void of common Sense as to adventure to incur his most high Displeasure when they have nothing to rely upon but his Favour In short Trust to those who own you for their Brethren as you do them for though they have been angry Brethren yet there is hope of Reconciliation between such near Relations But put no Confidence in those who not only utterly disown any such Relation to you but have ever treated you with an implacable Hatred as their most mortal Enemies unto whom it is impossible they should be reconciled Prov. 12.19 20. The Lips of Truth shall be established for ever but a lying tongue is but for a mâ—ment Lying Lips are an Abomination to the Lord but they that deal truly are his Delight Abby and other Church-Lands not yet assured to such Possessors as are Roman Catholicks Dedicated to the Nobility and Gentry of that Religion SInce it is universally agreed on that so great a Matter as the total Alienation of all the Abby-Lands c. in England can never be made legal and valid and such as will satisfie the reasonable Doubts and Scruples of a religious and conscientions Person except it be confirm'd by the Supreme Authority in this Church t is evident that the Protestants who assert the Church of England to be Autokephalos and such as allows of no Foreign Jurisdiction or Appeals having had these Lands confirmed to them by the King as Head of the Chuech the Convocation as the Church Representative and by the King and Parliament as the Supreme Legislative Power in this Realm have these Alienations made as valid to them as any Power on Earth can make them but the Members of the Church of Rome who maintain a Foreign and Supreme Jurisdiction either in a General Council or in the Bishop of Rome or both together cannot have these Alienations confirm'd to them without the Consent of one or both of these Superior Jurisdictions If therefore I shall make it appear that these Alienations in England were never confirm'd by either I do not see how any Roman Catholick in England can without Sacriledge retain them and his Religion together As to the first of these since there hath been no Council from the first Alienation of Abby-Lands in England to this Day that pretends to be general but that of Trent we need only look into that for the Satisfaction of such Roman Catholicke as esteem a General Council above the Bishop of Rome And I am sure that that Council is so far from confirming these Abby-Lands to the present Possessors that it expresly denounceth them accursed that detain them Sess 22. Decret de Ref. Cap. 11. Si quem c. If Covetousness the Root of all Evil shall so far possess any Person whatsoever whether of the Clergy or Laity though he be an Emperor or a King as that by Force Fear or Fraud or any Art or Colour whatsoever he presume to convert to his own Use and usurp the Jurisdiction Goods Estates Fruits Profits or Emoluments whatever of any Church or any Benefice Secular or Regular Hospital or Religious House or shall hinder that the Profits of the said Houses be not received by those to whom they do of right belong let him lie under an Anathema till the said Jurisdiction Goods Estates Rents and Prosits which he hath possessed and invaded or which have come to him any manner of way be restored to the Church and after that have Absolution from the Bishop of Rome So great a Terror did this strike into the English Papists that were Possessors of Church-Lands against whom this Anathema seems particularly directed that many of the zealous Papists began to think of Restitution and Sir William Peters notwithstanding his private Bull of Absolution from Pope Juâ—â—us the Fourth was so much startled at it as that the very next Year he endowed eight new Fellowships in Exeter-Colledge in Oxford Again the same Council Sess 25. Decret de Râ—f c. 2 â— Cupiens Sancta Synodus c. Decreeth and commandeth that all the Holy Ca 〈◊〉 and General Councils and Apostolick Sanctions in Favour of Ecclesiastical Persons and the Liberties of the Church and against those that violate them be exactly observed by eveâ—y 〈◊〉 and doth farther admonish the Emperor Kings Princes and all Persons of what Estate soever that they would observe the Rights of the Church as the Commands of God and defend them by their particular Patronage nor suffer them to be invaded by any Lords or Gâ—ntlemen whaâ—soever but severely punish all those who hinder the Liâ—â—wâ—â—ies Immâ—â—ities and Jurildictions of the Church and that they would imitate those excellent Princes who by their Authority and Bounty encreased the Revenues of the Church so far were they from suffering them to be invadâ—â— and in this let every one sedulously perform his part c. And now after so full and express Declaration of the Council of Trent I do not â—â—e how any of those Râ—man Catholicks who esteem a general Council to be the Supreme Authority in the Church and receive the Trent Council as such can any way excuse themselves in point of Conscience from these heavy Curses that are there denounc'd against all those
any thing clause or sentence in the said Act contained to the contrary â—â—ithstanding Sect. 3. Provided always and it is hereby Enacted That neither this Act nor any thing herein conâ—â—ined shall extend or be construed to ravive or give Force to the said Branch of the said Statute wade in the said First Year of the Reign of the said Late Queen Elizabeth mentioned in the said Act if Parliament made in the Seventeenth Year of the Reign of the said King Charles but that the said Branch of the said Statute made in the said First Year of the Reign of the said Late Queen Elizabeth scall stand and be Repealed in such sort as if this Act had never been made Sect. 4. Provided always and it is hereby Enacted That it shall not be lawful for any Arch-bishop Bishop Vicar-General Chancellor Commissary or any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Judge Officer or Minister or any other person having or exercising Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to Tender or Administer unto any Person whatsoever the Oath usually called Ex Officio or any other Oath whereby such person to whom the same is tendred or administred may be charged or compelled to confess or accuse or to purge him or herself of any Criminal matter or thing whereby he or she may be liable to Censure or Punishment any thing in this Statute or any other Law Custom or Vsage heretofore to the contrary hereof in any wise notwithstanding Sect. 5. Provided always That this Act or any thing therein contained shall not extend or be construed to extend to give unto any Arch Bishop Bishop or any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Judge Officer or other person or persons aforesaid any Power or Authority to Exercise Execute Inflict or Determine any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Censure or Coertion which they might not by Law have done before the Year of our Lord 1639. 2. Nor to abridge or diminish the Kings Majesties Supremacy in Ecclefiastical Matters and Affairs nor to confirm the Canons made in the Year 1640. nor any of them nor any other Ecclesiastical Laws or Canons not formerly confirmed allowed or enacted by Parliament or by the established Laws of the Land as they stood in the Year of our Lord 1639. From the Title of the Act and the Act it self considered I gather First That it is an Explanatory Act of the 17th of Car. 1. as to one particular Branch of it and not introductive of any new Law Secondly That the Occasion of making it was not from any Doubt that did arise VVhether the High Commission Court were taken away or whether the Crown had Power to erect any such like Court for the future but from a Doubt that was made that all ordinary Power of Coertion and Proceedings in Causes Ecclefiastical was taken away whereby Justice in Ecclesiastical Matters was obstructed and this Doubt did arise from a Clause in 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. Sect. 4. herein mentioned to be recited in the said Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Thirdly That this Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. as appears upon the Face of it was made to the intent the ordinary Jurisdiction which the Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Persens had always exercised under the Crown might not be infringed but not to restore to the Crown the power of Delegating the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Letters Patents to Lay persons or any others and as to this nothing can be plainer than the VVords of the Act it self Sect. 2. Whereby 17 Car. 1. is repealed but takes particular care to except what concerned the High Commission Court or the new Erection of some such Court by Commission Neither did the Law-makers think this Exception in that Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Sect. 2. to be sufficient but to put the Matter out of all doubt in the Third Section of the same Statute It is provided and Enacted That neither that Act nor any thing therein contained should extend or be construed to revive or give force to the Branch of 1 Eliz. 1. Sect. 18. but that the same Branch shâ—â—â— stand absolutely Repealed And if so then the power of the Crown to delegate the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is wholly taken away for it was vested in the Crown by 1 Eliz. 1. and taken away by 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. and is in no manner restored by 13 Car. 2.12 or any other But there may arise an Objection from the VVords in the Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. that saith That that Act shall not extend to abridge or diminish the Kings Majesties Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and Affairs VVhence some Men would gather that the same power still remains in the Crown that was in it before 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. To which Objection I give this Answer That every Law is to be so constructed that it may not be Felo de se and that for the Honour of the Legislators King Lords and Comment Now I would appeal to the Gentlemen themselves that assert this Doctrine VVhether they can so construe the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. as they pretend to do without offering Viâ—lence to their own Reason For when the 1 Car. 1. ca. 11. had absolutely repealed the Branch of 1 Eliz. 1. that vested the power in the Crown of Delegating the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Enacts That no such Commission shall be for the future and the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Repeals the 17 Car. 1. ca. 12. except what relates to that particular Branch there can no more of the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and Affairs be saved by the saving in the 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. but what was left in the Crown by 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. And now I hope I have sufficiently evinced That all the Proceedings before the Ecclesiastical Commissioners are CORAM NON JVDICE and therefore have sufficient Reason to believe That the same would never have been set on foot by his present Majesty who had always the Character of JAMES the Just and hath promised upon his Royal VVord That he will invade no Mans Property had he not been advised thereunto by them who are better versed in the Canons of the Church of ROME than in the Laws that relate to the CROWN and CHURCH of ENGLAND A LETTER Writ by Mijn Heer Fagel Pensioner of Holland to Mr. James Stewart Advocate Giving an Account of the Prince and Princes of Orange's Thoughts concerning the Repeal of the Test and the Penal Laws SIR I Am extream sorry that my ill health hath so long hindred me from Answering those Letters in which you so earnestly desired to know of me what their Highnesses thoughts are concerning the repeal of the Penal Laws and more particularlarly of that concerning the Test I beg you to assure your self that I will deal very plainly with you in this matter and without reserve since you say that your Letters were writ by the King's knowledge and allowance I must
C. Subjects all the Priviledges of their other Subjects only they are kept by a Test from having any share in the Government which is truly a Kindness done them considering that ill-natured humour of destroying all those that differ from them which is apt to break out when that Religion is in Power Now the 〈◊〉 of England may justly expect all sort of Protection and Countenance from the Succeâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 it's their Turn to give it they have a legal Right to it and impartial Dissenters 〈…〉 â—â—â—ledge that of late they have deserved it But as 〈…〉 Protestant Dissenters I think no honest Man amongst them will apprehend that their 〈…〉 who keep their Word to their Popish Enemies will break it to Protestant Subject◠〈…〉 from the publick Establishment The next thing I am to make good is That his Highnesses Education must have infused such Principles as side with his Interest There must be a fatal Infection in the English Crown if Matters miscarry in his Highnesses Hands his Veins are full of the best Protestant Blood in the VVorld The Reformation in France grew up under the Conduct and Influence of Coligni Prince William founded the Governmtnt of the United Netherlands on the Basis of Property and Liberty of Conscience his Highness was bred and lives in that State which subsists and flourishes by adhering steadily to the Maxims of its Founder He himself both in his publick and private Concerns as well in the Government of his Family and of such Principalities as belong to him as in that of the Army and in the Dispensing of that great Power which the States have given him has as great regard to Justice Vertue and true Religion as may compleat the Character of a Prince qualified to make those he governs happy It does not indeed appear that their Highnesses have any share of that devouring Zeal which hath so long set the VVorld on Fire and tempted thinking Men to have a Notion of Religion it self like that we have of the ancient Paradice as if it had never been more than an interced Blessing but all who have the Honour to know their Highnesses and their Inclinations in Matters of Religion are fully satisfied they have a truly Christian Zeal and as much as is consistent with Knowledge and Charity As to his Highnesses Circumstances they will be such when his Stars make way for him as may convince our Scepticks that certain persons times and things are prepared for one another I know not why we may not hope that as his Predecessors broke the York of the House of Austria from off the Neck of Europe The Honour of breaking that of the House of Bourbon is reserved for him I am confident the Nation will heartily joyn with him in his just Resentments Resentments which they have with so much Impatience long'd to find and have missâ—d with the greatest Indignation in the Hearts of their Monarchs His Highness has at present a greater Influence on the Councils of the most part of the Princes of Christendom than possibly any King of England ever had And this acquired 〈…〉 weight of his own personal Merit which will no doubt grow up to a glorious Authority when it is cloathed with Sovereign Power May I here mention to lay the Jealousies of the most unreasonable of your Friends that his Highness will have only a borrowed Title which we may suppose will make him more cautious in having Designs at Home and his wanting Children to our great Misfortune will make him less solicitous to have such Designs But after all it must be acknowledged that in Matters of this Nature the Premises may seem very strong and yet the Conclusion not follow Humane Infirmities are great Temptations to Arbitrariness are strong and often both the Spirit and Flesh weak Such fatal Mistakes have been made of late that the Successors themselves may justly pardon Mens jealousies A VVidow that has had a bad Husband will cry on her VVedding-day though she would be married with all her Heart But I am confident you will grant to me that in the Case of the present Successors the Possibilities are as remote and the Jealousies as ill grounded and that there is as much to ballance them as ever there was to be found in the prospect of any Successors to the Crown of England Now may I add To conclude the Reasons that I have given you why we may depend on their Highnesses that I know considerable Men who after great Enquiry and Observation do hope that their Highnesses being every way so well qualified for such an end are predestinated if I may speak so to make us happy in putting an end to our Differences and in fixing the Prerogative and in recovering the Glory of the Nation which is so much sunk and which now when we were big with Expectations we find sacrificed to unhappy partialities in matters of Religion The last thing you desire to know is What Effect this Letter has had But it is not yet old enough for me to judge of that I can better tell you what Effects it ought to have I find the moderate wise Men of all Perswasions are much pleased with it I know Roman Catholiks that wish to God Matters were setled on the Model given in it they see the great Difficulty of getting the Test Repealed And withal they doubt whether it is their Interest that it should be repealed or not They fear needy violent Men might get into Employments who would put his Majesty on doing things that might ruine them and their posterity They are certainly in the right of it It is good to provide for the worst A Revolution will come with a VVitness and its like it may come before the Prince of Wales be of Age to manage an unruly Spirit that I fear will accompany it Humane Nature can hardly digest what it is already necessitated to swallow such provocations even alters mens Judgments I find that Men who otherways hate severity begin to be of Opinion that Queen Elizabeths Lenity to the R. C's proves now Cruelty to the Protestants The whole Body of Protestants in the Nation was lately afraid of a Popish Successor and when they reflected on Queen Maries Reign thought we had already sufficient Experience of the Spirit of that Religion and took Self preservation to be a good Argument for preventing a second Tryal But now a handful of Roman Catholicks perhaps reflecting on Queen Elizabeths Reign are not it seems afraid of Protestant Successors But if some Protestants at that time from an Aversion to the Remedy hop'd that the Disease was not so dangerous as it proves I am confident at present all Protestants are agreed that henceforward the Nation must be saved not by Faith And therefore I would advise the R. C's to consider that Protestants are still Men that late Experiences at home and the Cruelties of Popish Princes abroad has given us a very terrible Idea of their Religion That
time be safely conducted thither Nor can I avoid pleasing my self with those joyful and hopeful thoughts when I reflect upon the various steps of Divine Providence by which they are brought into that nearness of legally inheriting these Crowns Certainly there is a voice that speaketh loud to this purpose not only in Gods denying a Legitimate Issue to the Late King and in his taking away from time to time all the Lawful Male Off-spring of his present Majesty but in the uniting their Highnesses in Marriage even to the crossing a certain Persons Inclinations whom I forbear to Name as well as to the disgusting of a Neighbouring Monarch and to the defeating the busie endeavours of the Popish Party But I must return to our Author whose Injustice to their Highnesses and his malice against their Honour Interest and Reputation knows neither end nor bounds For upon Monsieur Fagel's having ask'd Who would go about to advise him or any man else to endeavour to perswade their Highnesses whom God has so far honoured as to make them Defenders of his Church to approve and promote things so dangerous and hurtful both to the Reformed Religion and to the publick safety as the Repealing of the Test Laws would be our Author does hereupon with his wonted Friendship Equity and Candor to those Excellent Princes tells us that he hath not met with so bold a Declaration as this of calling them the Protectors of Gods Church and that the ascribing it to them is a detracting from the Honour of Kings and Monarchs who will not Abdicate from themselves to any other so glorious a Title And in pursuance of his rancour towards their Highnesses he runs out in his way of Wit and Learning into a most silly and impertinent Discourse about the Nature of a Church and accuseth the Prince and Princess as if by having this Character conferred upon them they had a design to usurp from his Majesty of Great Brittain the stile of Defenders of the Faith and to challenge to themselves the being the Protectors of the Church of England Surely this Gentleman does by vertue of his Popish Zeal and Irish Understanding believe that no Titles are due to Princes in reference to the Church of God but what are derived from the Papal Chair Whereas I dare say that Monsieur Fagel in bestowing this Title upon Their Highnesses did not dream of the Roman Pontif but had been taught it by God Almighty whom I take to be the Supream and true Fountain of Honour who is pleased to character such Princes as do cherish and favour his Church by the Name of Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers which is the term that the Pensionary useth in reference to their Highnesses And as it is their own merit which according to the Tenor of the Divine Creation hath entitled them to this glorious stile so they are neither to be ridicul'd nor hectored out of that duty of countenancing and supporting the Reformed Religion nor to be deterred by bold and empty words from those compassionate generous and Princely Offices to sincere Orthodox Believers by which they have deserved it And while others glory in the enjoyment of the Titles of most Christian and most Catholick Kings which their Vassalage to the See of Rome their contributing to the Exaltation of the Triple Crown and their being the Popes Executioners in the shedding the Blood of Saints hath procured unto them 't is enough for their Highnesses to be by the Suffrage of all true Protestants and that agreeably to the Doctrine and Authority of the Sacred Scriptures had in esteem and reverenced for Nutritii and Protectors of Gods Church Nor do they appropriate this stile to themselves tho' they account it the brightest among all their Titles but they acknowledge it to belong equally to many others and are afflicted at nothing more than that all Potentates may not justly claim a share in it And as the Pensionary's ascribing it unto their Highnesses was out of no design to usurp upon the King of Englands Title of Defender of the Faith nor to affix any Authority unto them over that Church so it will be no presumption to add that all of the Reformed Religion in that Kingdom how much soever differing in little and circumstantial things among themselves are yet so far sensible of the obligations they are under to Their Highnesses and of the benefits they have all the Assurance to expect from them hereafter that without meaning ill either to the King or to any one else they will unanimously join in stiling them Defenders of the Christian Reformed Faith and Protectors of Gods Church professing the Protestant Religion And they will easily know with whom they are to be angry and against whom to direct their Resentments Mijn Heer Fagel had said that if the Dissenters cannot during his Majesties Reign be eased from the Penal Laws unless the Tests be also abrogated that this will be an unhappiness unto them but for which the Roman Catholicks are only to be blamed who chuse rather to be contented that they and their Posterity should remain still obnoxious to the Penal Laws and exposed to the hatred of the whole Nation than be restrained from a capacity of attempting any thing against the peace and security of the Reformed Religion Our Author whose envy and injustice against Their Highnesses is not yet fully spent doth in his imprudent and indiscreet way obtrude from hence upon the World that the Nonconformists as well as the Roman Catholicks may hereby see where their true Interest stands and that they are extreamly obliged to those in whose Name this advice is given for the Consolation afforded them in the condition under which they are stated by Law Which is as much as if he should harangue the Nonconformists into discontentment against the Prince and Princess by assuring them that they are to hope for no relief against the Penal Laws by any favour of theirs Whereas the Dissenters are not only told that their Highnesses are willing to consent but that they do fully approve that they should have an entire Liberty for the full exercise of their Religion without being obnoxious to receive any prejudice trouble or molestation upon that account So that the heat which our Author would enflame the Dissenters unto against their Highnesses ought to turn and spend it self against the Papists who rather than part with the Tests which the Nonconformists are as much concerned to have maintained as they of the National Communion can be are resolved to keep all the Penal Laws in force and to leave the Dissenters under the dread and apprehension of them But this they may be fully perswaded of that if they can escape the edge of them during this Kings Reign they will be in no danger from them in case the Nation come once to be so happy as to see their Highnesses seated on the Throne For as much as they have not only their word which was hitherto
good a Title to be ravished from them either by Monks or Janizaries though authorised thereunto by the Princes Commission Even they who had formerly suffered themselves to be seduced to prove in a manner Betrayers of the Rights and Religion of their Country will now being undeceived not only in conjunction with others withstand the Court in its prosecution of Popish and Arbitrary Designs but through a generous exasperation for having been deluded and abused will judge themselves obliged in vindication of their Actings before to appear for the Protestant Religion and the Laws of England with a Zeal equal to that wherewith they contributed to the undermining and supplanting of them For they are not only become more sensible than they were of the Mischiefs of Absolute Government so as for the future to prize and assert the Priviledges reserved unto the people by the Rules of the Constitution and chalk'd out for them in the Laws of the Land but they have such a fresh view of Popery both in its Heresies Blasphemies Superstitions and Idolatries and in the Treachery Sanguinariness Violence and Cruelty which the Papal Principles mould influence and oblige Men unto that they not only entertain the greatest abhorrency and detestation imaginable for it but seem resolved not to cherish in their Bosom a Thing so abominable to God execrable to good Men and destructive to Humane as well as to Christian Societies Nor are the Dissenters meerly to believe that the Conformists are equally zealous as themselves for the Reformed Religion and English Rights but they are to consider them as the only great and united Body of Protestants in the Kingdom with whom all other parties compared bear no considerable proportion For though the Nonconformists considered abstractly make a vast number of honest and useful people yet being laid in the Scale with those of the Episcopal Communion they are but few and lye in a little room And whosoever will take the pains to ballance the one against the other even where Dissenters make the greatest Figure and may justly boast of their Multitude they will soon be convinced that the number of the other doth far transcend and exceed them And if it be so in Cities and Corporations where the greatest Bulk of Dissenters are it is much more so in Country Parishes where the latter bear not the proportion of one to a hundred Nor doth the Church of England more exceed the other parties in her number than she doth in the quality of her Members For whereas they who make up and constitute the separate Societies are chiefly persons of the middle Rank and Condition the Church of England doth in a manner vouch and claim all the Persons of Honour of the Learned professions and such as have valuable Estates for her Communicants And though the other sort are as necessary in the Common-wealth and contribute as much to its Strength Prosperity and Happiness yet they make not that Figure in the Government nor stand in that Capacity of having influence upon Publick Affairs For not only the Gentlemen of both the Gowns who by reason of their Calling and Learning are best able to defend our Religion and vindicate our Laws and Priviledges with their Tongues and Pens but they whose Estates Reputation and Interest recommendeth them to be elected Members of the great Senate of the Nation as well as they who by reason of their Honours and Baronages are Hereditary Legislators are generally if not all of the Communion of the Church of England So that they who conform to the established Worship and Discipline are to be look'd upon and acknowledged as the great Bulwark of the Protestant Religion in England and the Hedge and Fence of our Civil Liberties and Rights And though it be true that this great Breach made upon our Religion and Laws is fallen out under their hand while the poor Dissenters had neither accession to nor were in a condition to prevent it yet seeing their own Consciences do sufficiently load and charge them for it with Shame and Ignominy it were neither candid nor at this Juncture seasonable to upbraid it to them or improve it to their Dishonour and Reproach For as they have tamely look'd on and connived till our Religion and Liberties are so far undermined and supplanted so it is they alone who have been in a condition of stemming the Inundation of Idolatry and Tyranny with which we were threatned and of repairing our Breaches and reducing the Prerogative to its old Channel and making Popery sneak and retreat into its holes and corners again And should the Church of England have been overthrown and devoured what an easie Prey would the rest have been to the Romish Cormorants And could the King under the Conduct of the Jesuits and with the assistance of his Myrmidons have dissolved the established Worship and Discipline they of the Separation would have been in no capacity to support the Reformed Religion nor able to escape the common Ruine and Persecution 'T is therefore the Interest as well as the Duty of the Dissenters to help maintain and defend those Walls within the skreen and shelter whereof their own Huts and Cottages are built and stand And the rather seeing the Conformists are at last though to their own Religion's and the Nations Expence become so far enlightned as to see a necessity of growing more amicable towards them and to enlarge the Terms of their Communion grant an Indulgence to all Protestants that differ from them And as we ought to admire the Wisdom of God in those Providences by which Protestants are taught to lay aside their Animosities and let fall their Persecutions of one another so it would be a Contradiction both to the principles and repeated Protestations of Dissenters to aim at more than such a Liberty as is consistent with a National Ecclesiastick Establishment Yea it were to proclaim themselves both Villains and Hypocrites not to allow their Fellow-Protestants the Exercise of their Judgments with what further Profits and Emoluments the Law will grant them provided themselves may be discharged from all obnoxiousness to Penalties and Censures upon the account of their Consciences and be admitted a free and publick Practice of their own respective Modes of Discipline and be suffered to worship God in those ways which they think he hath required and enjoyned them And were England immediately to be rendred so happy as to have a Protestant Prince or Princess as we are not now quite out of hopes ascend the Throne and to enjoy a Parliament duly chosen and acting with freedom no one party of the Reformed Religion among us must ever expect to be established and supported to the denial of Liberty to others much less to be by Law empowered to ruine and destroy them Should it please Almighty God to bring the Princess of Orange to the Crown though the Church of England may in that case justly expect the being preserved and upheld as the National
which they cannot help but bear his Misfortune and Lot with Patience in himself and with Compassion and Charity towards them and have his Indignation raised only against that Court which forced them to be instrumental in their Oppression and Trouble The Protestant Dissenters could not be so far void of sense as to think that the Person lately in the Throne bore them any good-Will but his drift was to screw himself into a Supremacy and Absoluteness over the Law and to get such an Authority confessed to be vested in him as when he pleased he might subvert the Established Religion and set up Popery Forby the same Power that he can dispense with the Penal Statutes against the Nonconformists he may also dispense with those against the Roman Catholicks And whosoever owneth that he hath a Right to do the first doth in effect own that he hath a Right to do the last For if he be allowed a Power for the superseding some Laws made in reference to Matters of Religion he may challenge the like Power for the superseding others of the same kind And then by the same Authority that he can suspend the Laws against Popery he may also suspend those for Protestancy And by the same Power that he can in defiance of Law indulge the Papists the Exercise of their Religion in Houses he may establish them in the publick Celebration of their Idolatry in Churches and Cathedrals yea whereas the Laws that relate to Religion are enacted by no less Authority than those that are made for the Preservation of our Civil Rights should the K. be admitted to have an Arbitrary Power over the one it is very like that by the Logick of Whitehall he might have challeng'd the same Absoluteness over the other Nor do I doubt but that the eleven Judges who gratified him with a Despoticalness over the former would when required grant him the same over the latter I know the Dissenters have been under no small Temptations both by reason of being hindred from enjoying the Ordinances of the Gospel and because of many grievous Calamities which they suffer for their Nonconformity of making Applications to the K. for some Relief by his suspending the Execution of the Laws but they must give me leave to add that they ought not for the obtaining of a little Ease to have betrayed the Kingdom and Sacrifice the Legal Constitution of the Government to the Lust and Pleasure of a Popish Prince whom nothing less would serve than being Absolute and Despotical And had he once been in the quiet Possession of an Authority to dispense with the Penal Laws the Dissenters would not long have enjoyed the Benefit of it Nor could they have denied him a Power of reviving the Execution of the Law which is part of the Trust deposited with him as Supreme Magistrate who have granted him a Power of Suspending the Laws which the Rules of the Government precluded him from And as he might whensoever he pleased cause the Laws to which they were Obnoxious to be executed upon them so by virtue of having an Authority acknowledged in him of superceding the Laws he might deprive them of the Liberty of meeting together to the number of Five a Grace which the Parliament thought fit to allow them under all the other Severities to which they were subjected Nor needs there any further Evidence that the Prince's challenging such a Power was an Usurpation and that the Subjects making any Application by which it seem'd allowed to him was a betraying of the Ancient Legal Government of the Kingdom whereas the most Obsequious and Servile Parliament to the Court that ever England knew not only denied this Prerogative to the late King Charles but made him renounce it by revoking his Declaration of Indulgence which he had emitted Anno 1672. And as it will be to the perpetual Honour of some of the Dissenters to have chosen rather to suffer the Severities which the Laws make them liable unto than by any Act and Transaction of theirs to undermine and weaken either the Church or the State so it will be a means both of endearing them we hope not only to the Prince of Orange now by a miraculous Providence brought in amongst us but to future Parliaments and of bringing them and the Conformists into an Union of Counsels and Endeavours against Popery and Tyranny for ever which is at this season a thing so indispensibly necessary for their common Preservation Especially when through a new and more threatning Alliance and Confederacy with France than that in 72 the King had not only engaged to act by and observe the same Measures towards Protestants in England which that Monarch hath vouchsafed the World a Pattern and Copy of in his carriage towards those of the Reformed Religion in France but had promised to disturb the Peace and Repose of his Neighbours and to commence a War in conjunction with that Prince against Foreign Protestants For as the King 's giving Liberty and Protection to the Algerines to frequent his Havens and sell the Prizes which they take from the Dutch is both a most infamous Action for a Prince pretending to be a Christian and a direct Violation of his Alliance with the States General so nothing can be more evident than that he thereby sought to render them the weaker for him to assault and that he was resolved if some unforeseen and extraordinary Providence had not interposed and prevented to declare War against them the next Summer in order whereunto great Remises of Money were already ordered him from the French Court So that the Indulgence which he pretends to be inclinable to afford the Dissenters was not an effect of Kindness and Good-will but an Artifice whereby to oblige their Assistance in destroying those Abroad of the same Religion with themselves Which if he could once compass it were easie to foresee what Fate both the Dissenters and they of the Communion of the Church of England were to expect Who as they would not then have known whither to retreat for shelter so they would have been destitute of Comfort in themselves and deprived of Pity from others not only for having through their Divisions made themselves a Prey to the Papists at Home but for having been accessary to the Ruin of the Reformed State Abroad and which was the Asilum and Sanctuary of all those that were elsewhere oppressed and persecuted for Religion Gloria Deo Optimo Maximo Honos Principi nostri celcissimo pientissimo A Representation of the Threatning Dangers Impending over Protestants in Great Britain With an Account of the Arbitrary and Popish Ends unto which the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in England and the Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland are designed THey are great Strangers to the Transactions of the World who know not how many and various the Attempts of the Papists have been both to hinder all Endeavours towards a Reformation and to overthrow and subvert it
him and that 't is no wonder he should exact an Obedience without reserve from his Subjects in Scotland seeing he himself yields an Obedience without reserve to the Jesuits 'T is known how that by the Rules of their Institution no Jesuit is capable of the Mitre and that if the Ambition of any of them should tempt him to seek or accept the Dignity of a Prelate he must for being capacitated thereunto renounce his Membership in the Order Yet so great is His Majesties Passion for the Honor and Grandeur of the Society and such is their Domination and absolute Power over him that no less will serve him neither would they allow him to insist upon less than that the Pope should dispense with Father Peters being made a Bishop without his ceasing to be a Jesuit or the being transplanted into another Order And this the old Gentleman at Rome hath been forced at last to comply with and to grant a Dispensation whereby Father Peters shall be capable of the Prelature notwithstanding his remaining in the Ignatian Order the Jesuits through their Authority over the King not suffering him to recede from his Demand and His Majesty's Zeal for the Society not permitting him to comply either with the Prayers or the Conscience and Honor of the Supreme Pontiff Not only the King's Unthankfulness unto but his illegal Proceedings against and his Arbitrary invading the Rights of those who stood by him in all his Dangers and Difficulties and who were the Instruments of preventing his Exclusion from the Crown and the chief means both of his Advancement to the Throne and his being kept in it are so many new Evidences of the ill will he bears to all Protestants and what they are to dread from him as Occasions are Administred of Injuring and Oppressing them and may serve to convince all impartial and thinking People that his Popish Malice to our Religion is too strong for all Principles of Honor and Gratitude and able to cancel the Obligations which Friendship for his Person and Service to his Interest may be supposed to have laid him under to any heretofore Had it not been for many of the Church of England who stood up with a Zeal and Vigor for preserving the Succession in the right Line beyond what Religion Conscience Reason or Interest could conduct them unto he had never been able to have out-wrestled the Endeavors of Three Parliaments for ex-excluding him from the Imperial Crown of England And had it not been for their Abetting and standing by him with their Swords in their Hands upon the Duke of Monmouth's Descent into the Kingdom Anno 1685 he could not have avoided the being driven from the Throne and the having the Scepter wrested out of his Hand Whosoever had the Advantage of knowing the Temper and Genius of the late King and how afraid he was of embarking into any thing that might import a visible Hazard to the Peace of his Government and draw after it a general Disgust of his Person will be soon satisfied that if all his Protestant Subjects had united in their Desires and concurred in their Endeavors to have had the Duke of York debarred from the Crown that his late Majesty would not have once scrupled the complying with it and that his Love to his Dear Brother would have given way to the Apprehension and Fear of forfeiting a Love for himself in the Hearts of his People especially when what was required of him was not an Invasion upon the Fundamentals of the Constitution of the English Monarchy nor dissonant from the Practice of the Nation in many repeated Instances Nor can there be a greater Evidence of the present King 's ill Nature Romish Bigottry and prodigious Ingratitude as well as of the Design he is carrying on against our Religion and Laws than his Carriage and Behavior towards the Church of England tho I cannot but acknowledge it a righteous Judgment upon them from God and a just Punishment for their being not only so unconcerned for the Preservation of our Religion and Liberties in avoiding to close with the only Methods that were adapted thereunto but for being so Passionate and Industrious to hasten the Loss of them through putting the Government into ones hands who as they might have foreseen would be sure to make a Sacrifice of them to his beloved Popery and to his inordinate Lust after despotical and Arbitrary Power And as the only Example bearing any Affinity to it is that of Louis XIV who in recompence to his Protestant Subjects for maintaining him on the Throne when the late Prince of Conde assisted by Papists would have wrested the Crown from him hath treated them with a Barbarity whereof that of Antiochus towards the Jews and that of Diocletian and Maximian towards the Primitive Christians were but scanty and imperfect Draughts so there wants nothing for compleating the Parallel between England and France but a little more time and a fortunate Opportunity and then the deluded Church-men will find that Father Peters is no less skillful at Whitehall for transforming their Acts of Loyalty and Merit towards the King into Crimes and Motives of their Ruin than Pere de la Chaise hath shewn himself at Versailles where by an Art peculiar to the Jesuits he hath improved the Loyalty and Zeal of the Reformed in France for the House of Bourbon into a reason of alienating that Monarch from them and into a ground of his destroying that dutiful and obedient People It will not be amiss to call over some of his Majesty's Proceedings towards the Church of England that from what hath been already seen and felt both they and all English Protestants may the better know what they are to expect and look for hereafter Tho it be a Method very unbecoming a Prince yet it shews a great deal of Spleen to turn the former Persecution of Dissenters so maliciously upon the Prelatical and Conforming Clergy as his Majesty doth in his Letter to Mr. Alsop in stiling them a Party of Protestants who think the only way to advance their Church is by undoing those Churches of Christians that differ from them in smaller Matters Whereas the Severity that the Fanaticks met with had much of its Original at Court where it was formed and designed upon Motives of Popery and Arbitrariness and the Resentment and revengeful Humor of some of the old Prelates and other Church-men that had suffered in the late times was only laid hold of the better to justifie and improve it And tho it be too true that many of the dignified Rank as well as of the little Levites were both extremely fond of it and contentiously pleaded for it yet it is as true that most of them did it not upon Principles of Judgment and Conscience but upon Inducements of Retaliation for conceived Injuries and upon a belief of its being the most compendious Method to the next Preferment and Benefice and the fairest way of standing
Edward VI. but had the Royal Faith of Q. Mary laid to pledg in a Promise made to the Men of Suffolk that nothing should be done towards its Subversion or whereby they might be hindred in the free Exercise of it But as neither Law nor Promise could prove restraints upon Mary to hinder her from subverting Religion and burning Protestants so the Obligation of Gratitude that she was under to the Men of Suffolk for their coming in so seasonably to her Assistance against the D. of Northumb. who was in the field with an Army in the name of the Lady Jane Gray whom the Council had proclaimed Queen could not excuse them from sharing in the Severity that others met with it being observed that more of that County were Burnt for Religion than of any other Shire in England And 't is greatly to be feared that this piece of her Example will not escape being conform'd unto by the King in his Carriage towards those that eminently served him as well as all the rest of it in his Behaviour towards Protestants in general Nor is it possible to conceive that the Papists living at that ease and quietness which they did under his late Majesty of whose being of their Religion they were not ignorant as appears by the Proofs they have vouchsaf'd the World of it since his death would have been in so many plots for destroying him and at last have hastned him to his Fathers as can be demonstrated whensoever it is seasonable had they not been assur'd of more to be attempted by his Successor for the Extirpation of Protestants than Charles could be wrought up unto or prevail'd upon to expose his Person and Crown to the danger and hazard of For as it is not merely a Prince's being a Papist and mild gentle and favorable to Catholicks that will content the fiery Zealots of the Roman Clergy and the Regular Orders but he must both gratifie their Ambition in exalting them to a Condition above all others and serve their inhuman Lusts and brutal Passions in not suffering any to live in his Dominions that will not renounce the Northern Heresie so it is not more incredible that they should dispatch a Prince by an infusion in a Cup of Tea or Chocolate whom tho' they knew to be a Papist yet they found too cold and slow in promoting their Designs than that they should have murder'd another by a consecrated Dagger in the hand of Ravilliac the one being both more easie to be detected and likelier to derive an universal Hatred and Revenge upon them than the other And as the King 's being conscious of that parricide committed upon his Brother plainly tells us that there is nothing so abominable and barbarous which he hath not a Conscience that will swallow and digest so the Promotion of the Catholick Cause being the Motive to that horrid Crime we may be sure that what is hitherto done in favor of Papists falls much short of what is intended there being something more meritorious than all this amounts unto needful to attone for so barbarous a Villany which can be nothing else but the extirpating the Protestant Religion out of the three Kingdoms Nor is it probable that the present King who is represented for a Person ambitious of Glory would lose the Opportunities wherewith the present posture of Affairs in the World presents him of being the Umpire and Arbiter of Christendom and of giving check to the Grandeur and Usurpations of a neighboring Monarch to whom all Europe is in danger of becoming enslaved if he were not swallowed up in the Thoughts of a Conquest over the Consciences Laws and Liberties of his own People and of subjugating his Dominions to the Sea of Rome and had he not Hopes and Assurances of Aid and Assistance therein from that Monarch as he is emboldned and encouraged thereunto by his Pattern and Example What the Papists have all along been endeavoring for the Subversion of our Religion during and under the Reigns of Protestant Princes may yet farther inform and confirm us what they will infallibly attempt upon their having gotten one into the Throne who is not only in all things of their own Faith but of an Humor agreeable unto their Desires and of a Temper every way suited and adapted to their Designs Tho' the Protestant Religion had obtain'd some entrance into several States and Kingdoms and had made some considerable spread in Europe before it came to be generally received and established upon Foundations of Law in England yet they of other Countries were little able to defend themselves from the Power and Malice of the Church of Rome and of Popish Princes and many of them were very unsuccessful in Endeavors of that nature till England in Qu. Elizabeths time by espousing their Cause and undertaking their Quarrel not only wrought out their Safety but made them flourish This the Court of Rome and the Priests grew immediately sensible of and have therefore moulded all their Counsels ever since against England as being both the Bulwark of the Protestant Religion and the Ballance of Europe All the late attempts for the Extirpation of the Protestant Religion in France and elsewhere are much to be ascribed to the Confidence the Papists had in the late King and his Brother of their giving no Discouragement nor Obstruction to so holy a Design and thereupon as the first Edicts for infringing the Liberty and weakning and oppressing Protestants in France and the persecution in Hungary commenced and bore date with the Restoration of the Royal Family and multiplied and encreased from year to year as they grew into farther assurance of the Royal Brothers approving as well as conniving at what was done so that for the abolition of the Edict of Nants and the total Suppression of the Reformed Religion in France was emitted upon his present Majesty's being exalted to the Throne and the encouragement he gave them to a Procedure which as he now justifies he will hereafter imitate It were to suppose English Protestants exceedingly unacquainted with the History of their own Nation to give a long Deduction of what the Papists have attempted for the Extirpation of our Religion while we had Princes on the Throne whose Belief and Principles in Christianity led them to assert and defend the Reformation and who had Courage as well as Integrity to punish those that conspired against it Their many Conjurations against Queen Elizabeths Person and their repeated Endeavors of bringing in Foreigners and of betraying the Nation to the Spaniards who were to convert the Kingdom as they had done the West-Indies by killing the Inhabitants are sufficiently known to all who have allowed themselves leisure to read or who have been careful to remember what they have been often told by those that have inspected the Memoirs of those times The Gunpowder-plot with the Motives unto it and the extent of the mischief it was shapen for together with the insurrection they
were prepared for in case it had succeeded and the foreign aid they had been solliciting and were promised and all for the extirpation of English Hereticks are things so modern and which we have had so many times related to us by our Fathers that it is enough barely to intimate them The Irish Massacre in which above 200000 were murder'd in cold blood and to which there was no provocation but that of hatred to our Religion and furious zeal to extirpate Hereticks ought at this time to be more particularly reflected upon as that which gives us a true scheme of the manner of the Church of Rome's converting Protestant Kingdoms and being the Copy they have a mind to write after and that in such Characters and lines of blood as may be sure to answer the Original At the season when they both entred upon and executed that hellish conjuration they were in a quiet and peaceable enjoyment of the private exercise of their Religion yea had many publick meeting-places thro the means of the Queen and many great friends which they had at Court and were neither disturbed for not coming to Church nor suffered any severities upon the account of their Profession but that would not satisfie nor will any thing else unless they may be allowed to cut the throats or make bonefires of all that will not join with them in a blind obedience to the Sea of Rome and of worshipping S. Patrick The little harsh usages which the Papists at any time met with there or in England they derived them upon themselves by their Crimes against the State and for their Conspiracies against our Princes and their Protestant Subjects For till the Pope had taken upon him to depose Queen Elizabeth and absolve her Subjects from their Allegiance and till the Papists had so far approved that Act of his Holiness as to raise Rebellions at home and enter into treasonable confederacies abroad there were no Laws that could be stiled severe enacted in England against Papists and the making of them was the result of necessity in order to preserve our selves and not from an inclination to hurt any for matters of mere Religion Such hath always been the moderation of our Rulers and so powerful are the incitements to lenity which the generality of Protestants through the influence and impression of their Religion especially they of a more generous education have been under towards those of the Roman Communion that nothing but their unwearied restlesness to disturb the Government and destroy Protestants hath been the cause either of enacting those Laws against them that are stiled rigorous or of their having been at any time put into execution And notwithstanding that some such Laws were enacted as might appear to savour of severity yet could they have but submitted to have dwelt peaceably in the Land they would have found that their mere belief and the private practice of their Worship would not have much prejudiced or endangered them and that tho the Laws had been continued unrepealed yet it was only as a Hedge about us for our protection and as Bonds of obligation upon them to their good behaviour To which may be added that more Protestants have suffered in one year by the Laws made against Dissenters and to the utmost height of the penalties which the violation of them imported and that by the instigation of Papists and their influence over the late King and his present Majesty than there have Papists from the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign to this very day tho there was a difference in the punishments they underwent However we may from their many and repeated attempts against us while we had Princes that both would and could chasten their insolencies and inflict upon them what the Law made them obnoxious unto for their outrages gather and conclude what we are now to expect upon their having obtained a King imbu'd with all the persecuting and bloody principles of Popery and perfectly baptised into all the Doctrines of the Councils of Lateran and Constance And it may strengthen our faith as well as increase our fear of what is purposed against and impends over us in that they cannot but think that the suffering our Religion to remain in a condition to be at any time hereafter the Religion of the State and of the universality of the People may not only prove a means of retrieving Protestancy in France and of assisting to revenge the barbarities perpetrated there upon a great and innocent people but may leave the Roman Catholicks in England exposed to the resentment of the Kingdom for what they have so foolishly and impudently acted both against our Civil Rights and Established Religion since James II. came to the Crown and may also upon the Government 's falling into good hands and Magistrates coming to understand their true Interest which is for an English Prince to make himself the Head of the Protestant cause and to espouse their quarrel in all places give such a Revolution in Europe as will not only check the present Career of Rome but cause them repent the methods in which they have been engaged These things we may be sure the Papists are aware of and that having proceeded so far they have nothing left for their security from punishments because of crimes committed but to put us out of all capacity of doing our selves Right and them Justice and he must be dull who does not know into what that must necessarily hurry them It being then as evident as a matter of this nature is capable of what we are to expect and dread from the King both as to our Religion and Laws we may do more than presume that the late Declaration for liberty of Conscience and the Proclamation for a Toleration are not intended and designed for the benefit and advantage of the Reformed Religion and that whatsoever motives have influenced to the granting and emitting of them they do not in the least flow or proceed from any kindness and good will to Protestant Dissenters And though many of those weak and easie People may flatter themselves with a belief of an interest in the Kings favour and suffer others to delude them into a persuasion of his bearing a gracious respect towards them yet it is certain that they are People in the world whom he most hates and who when things are ripe for it and that he hath abused their credulity into a serving his Ends as far as they can be prevailed upon and as long as the present Juggle can be of any advantage for promoting the Papal Cause will be sure not only to have an equal share in his displeasure with their Brethren of the Church of England but will be made to drink deepest in the cup of fury and wrath that is mingling and preparing for all Protestants No provocation from their present behaviour tho it is such as might warm a person of very cool temper much less offences of another complexion
appeared both during the Queens Pretended Biggness and in the manner in which the Birth was managed so many just and visible Grounds of Suspition that not only we our selves but all the good Subjects of those Kingdoms do vehemently suspect that the Pretended Prince of Wales was not born by the Queen And it is notoriously known to all the World that many both doubted of the Queens Biggness and of the Birth of the Child and yet there was not any one thing done to satisfie them or to put an end to their Doubts And since our Dearest and most Entirely Beloved Consort the Princess and likewise we our selves have so great an Interest in this Matter and such a Right as all the World knows to the Succession to the Crown since also the English did in the Year 1672. when the States General of the United Provinces were Invaded in a most unjust War use their utmost Endeavors to put an end to that War and that in Opposition to those who were then in the Government and by their so doing they run the Hazard of losing both the Favor of the Court and their Imployments And since the English Nation has ever testified a most particular Affection and Esteem both to our Dearest Consort the Princess and to our selves We cannot excuse our selves from espousing their Interests in a matter of such high Consequence and from Contributing all that lies in us for the Maintaining both of the Protestant Religion and of the Laws and Liberties of those Kingdoms and for the Securing to them the continual Enjoyment of all their just Rights To the doing of which we are most earnestly solicited by a great many Lords both Spiritual and Temporal and by many Gentlemen and other Subjects of all Ranks Therefore it is that we have thought fit to go over to England and to carry over with us a Force sufficient by the Blessing of God to defend us from the Violence of those Evil Counsellors And we being desirous that our Intentions in this may be rightly understood have for this end prepared this Declaration in which as we have hitherto given a true Account of the Reasons inducing us to it So we now think fit to Declare that this our Expedition is intended for no other Design but to have a free and lawful Parliament assembled as soon as is possible and that in order to this all the late Charters by which the Elections of Burgesses are limited contrary to the Ancient Custom shall be considered as null and of no force And likewise all Magistrates who have been Injustly turned out shall forthwith resume their former Imployments as well as all the Boroughs of England shall return again to their Ancient Prescriptions and Charters And more particularly that the Ancient Charter of the Great and Famous City of London shall again be in Force And that the Writs for the Members of Parliament shall be addressed to the proper Officers according to Law and Custom That also none be suffered to choose or to be chosen Members of Parliament but such as are qualified by Law And that the Members of Parliament being thus lawfully chosen they shall meet and sit in full Freedom that so the Two Houses may concur in the preparing of such Laws as they upon full and free Debate shall judge necessary and convenient both for the confirming and executing the Law concerning the Test and such other Laws as are necessary for the Security and Maintenance of the Protestant Religion as likewise for making such Laws as may establish a good Agreement between the Church of England and all Protestant Dissenters as also for the covering and securing of all such who will live Peaceable under the Government as becomes good Subjects from all Persecution upon the account of their Religion even Papists themselves not excepted and for the doing of all other things which the Two Houses of Parliament shall find necessary for the Peace Honor and Safety of the Nation so that there may be no more danger of the Nations falling at any time hereafter under Arbitrary Government To this Parliament we will also refer the Enquiry into the Birth of the Pretended Prince of Wales and of all things relating to it and to the Right of Succession And we for our part will concur in every thing that may procure the Peace and Happiness of the Nation which a Free and Lawful Parliament shall determine Since we have nothing before our Eyes in this our Undertaking but the Preservation of the Protestant Religion the covering of all Men from Persecution for their Consciences and the Securing to the whole Nation the free Enjoyment of all their Laws Rights and Liberties under a Just and Legal Government This is the design that we have proposed to our selves in appearing upon this occasion in Arms In the Conduct of which we will keep the Forces under our Command under all the Strictness of Martial Discipline and take a special Care that the People of the Countries through which we must march shall not suffer by their means And as soon as the State of the Nation will admit of it we promise that we will send back all those Foreign Forces that we have brought along with us We do therefore hope that all People will judge rightly of us and approve of these our Proceedings But we chiefly rely on the Blessing of God for the Success of this our Undertaking in which we place our whole and only Confidence We do in the last place invite and require all Persons whatsoever all the Peers of the Realm both Spiritual and Temporal all Lords-Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants and all Gentlemen Citizens and other Commons of all Ranks to come and assist us in order to the Executing of this our Design against all such as shall endeavor to oppose us that so we may prevent all those Miseries which must needs follow upon the Nations being kept under Arbitrary Government and Slavery And that all the Violences and Disorders which have overturned the whole Constitution of the English Government may be fully redressed in a Free and Legal Parliament And we do likewise resolve that as soon as the Nations are brought to a State of Quiet we will take care that a Parliament shall be called in Scotland for the restoring the Ancient Constitution of that Kingdom and for bringing the Matters of Religion to such a Settlement that the People may live Easie and Happy and for putting an end to all the Injust Violences that have been in a course of so many Years committed there We will also study to bring the Kingdom of Ireland to such a State that the Settlement there may be Religiously observed and that the Protestant and British Interest there may be secured And we will endeavor by all possible means to procure such an Establishment in all the Three Kingdoms that they may all live in a Happy Union and Correspondence together and that the Protestant Religion and the Peace
Honor and Happiness of those Nations may be established upon Lasting Foundations Given under our Hand and Seal at our Court at the Hague the Tenth day of October in the Year 1688. William Henry Prince of Orange By His Highness's Special Command C. HUYGENS. His Highness's Additional Declaration AFter we had prepared and printed this our Declaration we have understood that the Subverters of the Religion and Laws of those Kingdoms hearing of our Preparations to assist the People against them have begun to retract some of the Arbitrary and Despotick Powers that they had assumed and to vacate some of their Injust Judgments and Decrees The Sense of their Guilt and the distrust of their Force have induced them to offer to the City of London some seeming Relief from their Great Oppressions hoping thereby to quiet the People and to divert them from demanding a Secure Re-establishment of their Religion and Laws under the shelter of our Arms. They do also give out that we intend to Conquer and Enslave the Nation And therefore it is that we have thought fit to add a few words to our Declaration We are Confident that no Persons can have such hard thought of us as to imagine that we have any other Design in this Undertaking than to procure a Settlement of the Religion and of the Liberties and Properties of the Subjects upon so sure a Foundation that there may be no danger of the Nations relapsing into the like Miseries at any time hereafter And as the Forces that we have brought along with us are utterly disproportioned to that wicked Design of Conquering the Nation if we were capable of intending it so the Great Numbers of the Principal Nobility and Gentry that are Men of Eminent Quality and Estates and Persons of known Integrity and Zeal both for the Religion and Government of England many of them being also distinguished by their constant Fidelity to the Crown who do both accompany us in this Expedition and have earnestly solicited us to it will cover us from all such Malicious Insinuations For it is not to be imagined that either those who have invited us or those that are already come to assist us can joyn in a wicked Attempt of Conquest to make void their own lawful Titles to their Honors Estates and Interests We are also confident that all Men see how little weight there is to be laid on all Promises and Engagements that can be now made since there has been so little regard had in time past to the most solemn Promises And as that imperfect Redress that is now offered is a plain Confession of those Violations of the Government that we have set forth so the Defectiveness of it is no less Apparent for they lay down nothing which they may not take up at Pleasure and they reserve entire and not so much as mentioned their Claims and Pretences to an Arbitrary and Despotick Power which has been the Root of all their Oppression and of the total Subversion of the Government And it is plain that there can be no Redress nor Remedy offered but in Parliament by a Declaration of the Rights of the Subjects that have been invaded and not by any Pretended Acts of Grace to which the Extremity of their Affairs has driven them Therefore it is that we have thought fit to declare That we will refer all to a Free Assembly of the Nation in a Lawful Parliament Given under our Hand and Seal at our Court in the Hague the 24th day of October in the Year of our Lord 1688. William Henry Prince of Orange By His Highness's Special Command G. HUYGENS. By his Highness William Henry Prince of Orange A Declaration Printed in the Year 1688. WE have in the course of our whole Life and more particularly by the apparent Hazards both by Sea and Land to which we have so lately exposed our Person given to the whole World so high and undoubted Proofs of our fervent Zeal for the Protestant Religion that we are fully confident no true English-man and good Protestant can entertain the least Suspicion of our firm Resolution rather to spend our dearest Blood and perish in the Attempt than not carry on the Blessed and Glorious Design which by the Favour of Heaven we have so successfully begun to Rescue England Scotland and Ireland from Slavery and Popery and in a Free Parliament to Establish the Religion the Laws and the Liberties of those Kingdoms upon such a sure and lasting Foundation that it shall not be in the Power of any Prince for the future to introduce Popery and Tyranny Towards the more easy Compassing this great Design we have not been hitherto deceived in the just Expectation we had of the Concurrence of the Nobility Gentry and People of England with Us for the Security of their Religion the Restitution of the Laws and the Re-establishment of their Liberties and Properties Great Numbers of all Ranks and Qualities having joyned themselves to us and others at great Distances from Us have taken up Arms and Declared for Us. And which we cannot but particularly mention in that Army which was Raised to be the Instrument of Slavery and Popery may by the special Providence of God both Officers and common Souldiers have been touched with such a feeling sense of Religion and Honour and of true Affection for their Native Country that they have already deserted the Illegal Service they were ingaged in and have come over to Us and have given us full Assurance from the rest of the Army That they will certainly follow this Example as soon as with our Army we shall approach near enough to receive them without the Hazard of being prevented and betray'd To which end and that we may the sooner execute this just and necessary Design we are ingaged in for the publick Safety and Deliverance of these Nations We are resolved with all possible Diligence to advance forward that a Free Parliament may be forthwith called and such Preliminaries adjusted with the King and all things first settled upon such a foot according to Law as may give Us and the whole Nation just Reason to believe the King is disposed to make such necessary Condescensions on his part as will give intire Satisfaction and Security to all and make both King and People once more happy And that we may effect all this in the way most agreeable to our Desires if it be possible without the Effusion of any Blood except of those execrable Criminals who have justly forfeited their Lives for betraying the Religion and Subverting the Laws of their Native Country We do think fit to declare That as we will offer no Violence to any but in our own necessary Defence so we will not suffer any Injury to be done to the Person even of a Papist provided he be found in such Place and in such Condition and Circumstances as the Laws require So we are resolved and do declare that all Papists who shall be found
and of which you have seen so fresh an instance that we need not put you in mind of it You know how many of your Fellow-Officers have been used for their standing firm to the Protestant Religion and to the Laws of England and you cannot flatter your selves so far as to expect to be better used if those who have broke their word so often should by your means be brought out of those Straits to which they are reduced at present We hope likewise that you will not suffer your selves to be abused by a false Notion of Honour but that you will in the first place consider what you owe to Almighty God and your Religion to your Country to your Selves and to your Posterity which you as Men of Honour ought to prefer to all private Considerations and Engagements whatsoever We do therefore expect that you will consider the Honour that is now set before you of being the Instruments of serving your Country and securing your Religion and We will ever remember the Service you shall do Us upon this Occasion and will promise unto you that We shall place such particular Marks of our Favour on every one of you as your Behaviour at this time shall deserve of Us and the Nation in which we will make a great Distinction of those that shall come seasonably to join their Arms with ours and you shall find us to be Your Well-wishing and Assured Friend W. H. P. O. Prince George 's Letter to the King SIR WITH a Heart full of Grief am I forced to Write what Prudence will not permit me to say to your Face And may I e'er find Credit with your Majesty and protection from Heaven as what I now do is free from Passion Vanity or Design with which Actions of this Nature are too often accompanied I am not ignorant of the frequent Mischiefs wrought in the World by factious pretences of Religion but were not Religion the most justifiable Cause it would not be made the most specious pretence And your Majesty has always shewn too uninterested a Sense of Religion to doubt the just Effects of it in one whose Practices have I hope never given the World cause to censure his real conviction of it or his backwardness to perform what his Honour and Conscience prompt him to How then can I longer disguise my just Concern for that Religion in which I have been so happily Educated which my Judgment throughly convinces me to be best and for the Support of which I am so highly interested in my Native Country And is not England now by the most endearing Tie become so Whilst the restless Spirits of the Enemies of the REFORMED RELIGION back'd by the cruel Zeal and prevailing Power of France justly alarm and unite all the Protestant Princes of Christendom and engage them in so vast an Expence for the support of it can I act so degenerous and mean a part as to deny my Concurrence to such worthy Endeavours for disabusing of your Majesty by the Reinforcement of those Laws and Establishment of that Government on which alone depends the well-being of your Majesty and of the PROTESTANT RELIGION in Europe This Sir is that irresistible and only Cause that cou'd come in Competition with my Duty and Obligations to your Majesty and be able to tear me from You whilst the same Affectionate Desire of serving You continues in me Could I secure your Person by the Hazard of my Life I should think it could not be better Employed And wou'd to God these Your distracted Kingdoms might yet receive that satisfactory Compliance from your Majesty in all their justifiable pretensions as might upon the only sure Foundation that of the Love and Interest of your Subjects establish your Government and as strongly Unite the Hearts of all your Subjects to You as is that of SIR Your Majesty's most Humble and most Obedient Son and Servant The Lord Churchill 's Letter to the King SIR SInce Men are seldom suspected of Sincerity when they act contrary to their Interests and though my dutiful Behaviour to your Majesty in the worst of Times for which I acknowledge my poor Services much over paid may not be sufficient to incline You to a charitable Interpretation of my Actions yet I hope the great Advantage I enjoy under Your Majesty which I can never expect in any other change of Government may reasonably convince Your Majesty and the World that I am acted by a higher Principle when I offer that violence to my inclination and interest as to desert Your Majesty at a time when your Affairs seem to challenge the strictest Obedience from all your Subjects much more from one who lies under the greatest personal Obligations imaginable to Your Majesty This Sir could proceed from nothing but the inviolable Dictates of my CONSCIENCE and a necessary concern for my RELIGION which no good man can oppose and with which I am instructed nothing ought to come in Competition Heaven knows with what partiality my dutiful Opinion of Your Majesty hath hitherto represented those unhappy Designs which inconsiderate and self-interested men have framed against Your Majesty's true Interest and the Protestant Religion But as I can no longer joyn with such to give a pretence by Conquest to bring them to effect so will I always with the hazard of my Life and Fortune so much your Majesty's due endeavour to preserve Your Royal Person and Lawful Rights with all the tender Concern and dutiful Respect that becomes SIR Your Majesty's most Dutiful and most Obliged Subject and Servant The Princess Ann of Denmark 's Letter to the Queen Madam I Beg your pardon if I am so deeply affected with the surprising News of the Princes being gon as not to be able to see You but to leave this Paper to Express my humble Duty to the King and your Self and to let You know that I am 〈◊〉 to absent my self to avoid the King's Displeasure which I am not able to bear â—ur ther against the Prince or my Self And I shall stay at so great a distance as not to return before I hear the happy News of a Reconcilement And as I am confident the Prince did not leave the King with any other design than to use all possible means for His Preservation so I hope You will do me the Justice to believe that I am uncapable of following Him for any other End Never was any one in such an unhappy Condition so divided between Duty and Affection to a Father and a Husband and therefore I know not what to do but to follow one to preserve the other I see the general falling off of the Nobility and Gentry who avow to have no other end than to prevail with the King to secure their Religion which they saw so much in danger by the Violent Counsels of the Priests who to promote their own Religion did not care to what dangers they exposed the King I am fully perswaded that the Prince of
Orange designs the King's safety and preservation and hope all things may be composed without more Blood-shed by the calling a Parliament God grant a happy End to these Troubles that the King's Reign may be prosperous and that I may shortly meet You in perfect peace and safety till when let me beg You to continue the same favourable Opinion that You have hitherto had of Your most Obedient Daughter and Servant ANNE A Memorial of the Protestants of the Church of England Presented to their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Orange YOur Royal Highnesses cannot be ignorant that the Protestants of England who continue true to their Religion and the Government Established by Law have been many ways troubled and vexed by restless contrivances and designs of the Papists under pretence of the Royal Authority and things required of them unaccountable before God and Man Ecclesiastical Benefices and Preferments taken from them without any other Reason but the King's Pleasure that they have been summoned and sentenced by Ecclesiastical Commissioners contrary to Law deprived of their Birth-Right in the free Choice of their Magistrates and Representatives divers Corporations dissolved the Legal Security of our Religion and Liberty established and ratified by King and Parliament annull'd and overthrown by a pretended Dispensing Power new and unheard of Maxims have been preached as if Subjects had no Right but what depends on the King's Will and Pleasure The Militia put into the Hands of persons not qualified by Law and a Popish Mercenary Army maintained in the Kingdom in time of Peace absolutely contrary to Law The Execution of the Law against several high Crimes and Misdemeanours superseded and prohibited the Statutes against Correspondence with the Court of Rome Papal Jurisdiction and Popish Priests suspended that in Courts of Justice those Judges are displaced who dare acquit them whom the King would have Condemned as happened to Judg Powel and Holloway for acquitting the Seven Bishops Liberty of chusing Members of Parliament notwithstanding all the Care taken and Provision made by Law on that behalf wholly taken away by Quo Warranto's served against Corporations and the three known Questions All things carried on in open view for the Propagation and Growth of Popery for which the Courts of England and France have so long joyntly laboured with so much Application and Earnestness Endeavours used to perswade your Royal Highnesses to consent to Liberty of Conscience and abrogating the Penal Laws and Tests wherein they fell short of their aim That they most humbly implore the Protection of your Royal Highnesses as to the 〈◊〉 ending and incroachments made upon the Law for maintenance of the Protestant Religion our Civil and Fundamental Rights and Priviledg and that Your Royal Highness would be pleased to insist that the Free Parliament of England according to Law may be restored the Laws against Papists Priests Papal Jurisdiction c. put in Execution and the Suspending and Dispensing Power declared null and void the Rights and Priviledges of the City of London the free Choice of their Magistrates and the Liâ—â—â—ties as well of that as other Corporations restored and all things returned to their 〈◊〉 Channel c. Admiral Herbert 's Letter to all Commanders of Ships and Seamen in His Majesties Fleet. Gentlemen I Have little to add to what his Highness has express'd in general Terms besides laying before you the dangerous way you are at present in where Ruin or Infamy must inevitably attend you if you don't joyn with the Prince in the Common Cause for the Defence of your Religion and Liberties for should it please God for the sins of the English Nation to suffer your Arms to prevail to what can your Victory serve you but to enslave you deeper and overthrow the true Religion in which you have liv'd and your Fathers dy'd Of which I beg you as a Friend to consider the Consequences and to reflect on the Blot and Infamy it will bring on you not only now but in all After-Ages That by Your means the Protestant Religion was destroy'd and your Country depriv'd of its Ancient Liberties And if it pleases God to bless the Prince's Endeavours with success as I don't doubt but he will consider then what their Condition will be that oppose him in this so good a Design where the greatest Favour they can hope for is their being suffer'd to end their Days in Misery and Want detested and despised by all good Men. It is therefore and for many more Reasons too long to insert here that I as a true English-man and your Friend exhort you to joyn your Arms to the Prince for the Defence of the Common Cause the Protestant Religion and the Liberties of your Country It is what I am well assured the major and best part of the Army as well as the Nation will do so soon as convenience is offered Prevent them in so good an Action whilst it is in your power and may it appear That as the Kingdom hath always depended on the Navy for its Defence so you will yet go further by making it as much as in you lies the Protection of her Religion and Liberties and then you may assure your selves of all Marks of Favour and Honour suitable to the Merits of so great and glorious an Action After this I ought not to add so inconsiderable a thing as that it will for ever engage me to be in a most particular manner Your faithful Friend and humble Servant AR. HERBERT Aboard the Leyden in the Gooree Lord Delamear 's Speech THE occasion of this is to give you my Thoughts upon the present Conjuncture which concerns not only you but every Protestant and Free-born Man of England I am confident that wishes well to the Protestant Religion and his Country and I am perswaded that every Man of you thinks both in danger and now to lie at stake I am also perswaded that every Man of you will rejoyce to see Religion and Property settled if so then I am not mistaken in my Conjectures concerning you Can you ever hope for a better Occasion to root out POPERY and SLAVERY than by joining with the P. of O. whose Proposals contain and speak the Desires of every Man that loves his Religion and Liberty And in saying this I will invite you to nothing but what I will do my self and I will not desire any of you to go any further than I will move my self neither will I put you upon any Danger where I will not take share in it I propose this to you not as you are my Tenants but as my Friends and as you are Englishmen No Man can love Fighting for its own sake nor find any pleasure in danger And you may imagine I would be very glad to spend the rest of my days in peace I having had so great a share in Troubles but I see all lies at stake I am to chuse whether I will be a Slave and a Papist or a
Protestant and a Free man and therefore the Case being thus I shall think my self false to my Country if I sit still at this time I am of Opinion that when the Nation is Deliver'd it must be by Force or by Miracle It would be too great a presumption to expect the latter and therefore our Deliverance must be by Force and I hope this is the Time for it a Price is now put into our Hands and if it miscarry for want of Assistance our Blood is upon our own Heads and he that is passive at this Time may very well expect that God will mock when the Fear of Affliction comes upon him which he thought to avoid by being indifferent If the King prevails farewel Liberty of Conscience which has hitherto been allowed not for the sake of the Protestants but in order to settle Popery You may see what to expect if he get the better and he hath lately given you of this Town a taste of the Method whereby he will maintain his Army And you may see of what sort of People he intends his Army to consist and if you have not a mind to serve such Masters then stand not by and see your Country-men perish when they are endeavouring to defend you I promise this on my Word and Honour to every Tenant that goes along with me That if he fall I will make his Lease 〈◊〉 good to his Family as it was when he went from home The thing then which â—â—se â—esire and your Country does expect from you is this That every Man that hath a toâ—rable Horse or can procure one will meet me on Boden-Downs to morrow where I Rendezvouz But if any of you is rendred unable by reason of Age or any other just Excuse then that he would mount a fitter person and put five Pounds in his Pocket Those that have not nor cannot procure Horse let them stay at home and assist with their Purses and send it to me with a particular of every Mans Contribution I impose on no Man but let him lay his Hand on his Heart and consider what he is willing to give to recover his Religion and Liberty and to such I promise and to all that go along with 〈…〉 if we prevail I will be as industrious to have him recompensed for his Charge and â—â—azard as I will be to seek it for my self This Advice I give to all that stay behind That when you hear the Papists have committed any Out-rage or any Rising that you will get together for it is better to meet your danger than expect it I have no more to say but that I am willing to lose my Life in the Cause if God see it good for I was never unwilling to die for my Religion and Country An Engagement of the Noblemen Knights and Gentlemen at Exeter to Assist the Prince of Orange in the Defence of the Protestant Religion Laws and Liberties of the People of England Scotland and Ireland WE do engage to Almighty God and to his Highness the Prince of Orange and with one another to stick firm to this Cause and to one another in the Defence of it and never to depart from it until our Religion Laws and Liberties are so far secured to us in a Free-Parliament that we shall be no more in danger of falling under Popery and Slavery And whereas we are engaged in the Common Cause under the Protection of the Prince of Orange by which means his Person may be exposed to Danger and to the desperate and cursed Designs of Papists and other bloody Men we do therefore solemnly engage to God and to one another That if any such Attempts be made upon him we will pursue not only those that made them but all their Adherents and all we find in Arms against us with the utmost Severity of just Revenge in their Ruin and Destruction and that the executing any such Attempt which God of his Infinite Mercy forbid shall not deprive us from pursuing this Cause which we do now undertake but that it shall encourage us to carry it on with all the Vigour that so Barbarous Approach shall deserve The Declaration of the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty at the Rendezvouz at Nottingham Nov. 22. 1688. WE the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of these Northern Counties assembled together at Nottingham for the Defence of the Laws Religion and Properties according to those free-born Liberties and Priviledges descended to us from our Ancestors as the undoubted Birth-right of the Subjects of this Kingdom of England not doubting but the Infringers and Invaders of our Rights will represent us to the rest of the Nation in the most malicious dress they can put upon us do here unanimously think it our Duty to declare to the rest of our Protestant Fellow-Subjects the Grounds of our present Undertaking We are by innumerable Grievances made sensible that the very Fundamentals of our Religion Liberties and Properties are about to be rooted out by our late Jesuitical Privy Council as hath been of late too apparent 1. By the King's dispensing with all the Establish'd Laws at his pleasure 2. By displacing all Officers out of all Offices of Trust and Advantage and placing others in their room that are known Papists deservedly made incapable by the Establish'd Laws of our Land 3. By destroying the Charters of most Corporations in the Land 4. By discouraging all Persons that are not Papists preferring such as turn to Popery 5. By displacing all honest and conscientious Judges unless they would â—â—ntrary to their Consciences declare that to be Law which was meerly arbitrary 〈…〉 By branding all Men with the name of Rebels that but offered to justifie the Law 〈…〉 a legal course against the arbitrary proceedings of the King or any of his corrupt Ministers 7. By burthening the Nation with an Army to maintain the Violation of the Rights of the Subjects 8. By discountenancing the Establish'd Reformed Religion 9. By forbidding the Subjects the benefit of Petitioning and constâ—â—ing them Libellers so rendring the Laws a Nose of Wax to serve their Arbitrary 〈…〉 And many more such-like too long here to enumerate We being thus made sadly sensible oâ— he Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government that is by the Influence of Jesuitical Counsels coming upon us do unanimously declare That not being willing to deliver our Posterity over to such a Condition of Popery and Slavery as the aforesaid Oppressions inevitably threaten we will to the utmost of our power oppose the same by joining with the Prince of Orange whom we hope God Almighty hath sent to rescue us from the Oppressions aforesaid will use our utmost Endeavours for the recovery of our almost ruin'd Laws Liberties and Religion And herein we hope all good Protestant Subjects will with their Lives and Fortunes be assistant to us and not be bugbear'd with the opprobrious Terms of Rebels by which they would fright us to become perfect Slaves to their Tyrannical Insolences and Usurpations
humbly Pray That His Majesty would Consent to this Expedient in order to a future Settlement And hope that such a Temperament may be thought of as that the Army now on Foot may not give any Interruption to the proceeding of a Parliament But if to the great Misfortune and Ruin of these Kingdoms it should prove otherwise we further declare That we will to our utmost defend the Protestant Religion the Laws of the Kingdom and the Rights and Liberties of the Subject A Letter from a Gentleman at King's-Lynn December 7. 1688. To his Friend in London Sir THE Duke of Norfolk came to Town on Wednesday Night with many of the chiefest of the County and yesterday in the Market-place received the Address following which was presented by the Mayor attended by the Body and many hundreds of the Inhabitants To his Grace the most Noble Henry Duke of Norfolk Lord Marshal of England My Lord THE daily Allarms we receive as well from Foreign as Domestick Enemies give us just Apprehensions of the approaching Danger which we conceive we are in and to apply with all earnestness to your Grace as your great Patron in all humble Confidence to succeed in our Expectations That we may be put into such a posture by your Grace's Directions and Conduct as may make us appear as zealous as any in the Defence of the Protestant Religion the Laws and Ancient Government of this Kingdom Being the desire of many hundreds who must humbly callenge a Right of your Grace's Protection His Grace's Answer Mr. Mayor I Am very much obliged to you and the rest of your Body and those here present for your good Opinion of me and the Confidence you have that I will do what in me lies to support and defend the Laws Liberties and Protestant Religion in which I will never deceive you And since the coming of the Prince of Orange hath given us an opportunity to declare for the defence of them I can only assure you that no Man will venture his Life and Fortune more freely for the Defence of the Laws Liberties and Protestant Religion than I will do and with all these Gentlemen here present and many more will unanimously concur therein and you shall see that all possible Care shall be taken that such a Defence shall be made as you require AFter which the Duke was with his Retinue received at the Mayor's House at Dinner with great Acclamations and his Proceedings therein have put our County into a Condition of Defence of which you shall hear further in a little time our Militia being ordered to be raised throughout the County Our Tradesmen Seamen and Mobile have this morning generally put Orange Ribbon on their Hats Ecchoing Huzza's to the Prince of Orange and Duke of Norfolk All are in a hot Ferment God send us a good Issue of it Lynn-Regis Decemb. 10. 1688. Sir BY mine of the 7th Instant I gave you an Account of the Address of this Corporation to his Grace the Duke of Norfolk and of his Grace's Answer thereto Since which his Grace has sent for the Militia Troops and put them in a posture of Defence as appears by the ensuing Speech The Duke of Norfolk's second Speech at Lynn I Hope you see I have endeavoured to put you in the posture you desired by sending both for Horse and Foot of the Militia and am very glad to see such an Appearance of this Town in so good a Condition And I do again renew my former Assurances to you that I will ever stand by you to Defend the Laws Liberties and the Protestant Religion and to procure a Settlement in Church and State in concurrence with the Lords and Gentlemen in the North and pursuant to the Declaration of the Prince of Orange And so God save the King The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in and about the Cities of London and Westminster Assembled at Guild-hall Dec. 1688. WE doubt not but the World believes that in this great and dangerous Conjuncture we are heartily and zealously concerned for the Protestant Religion the Laws of the Land and the Liberties and Properties of the Subject And we did reasonably Hope that the King having Issued His Proclamation and Writs for a Free Parliament we might have rested Secure under the Expectation of that Meeting But His Majesty having withdrawn Himself and as we apprehend in order to His Departure out of this Kingdom by the pernicious Counsels of Persons ill-affected to our Nation and Religion we cannot without being wanting to our Duty be silent under those Calamities wherein the Popish Counsels which so long prevailed have miserably Involved these Realms We do therefore Unanimously resolve to apply our Selves to His Highness the Prince of Orange who with so great Kindness to these Kingdoms so vast Expence and so much Hazard to his own Person hath Undertaken by endeavouring to procure a Free Parliament to rescue Us with as little Effusion as possible of Christian Blood from the Imminent Dangers of Popery and Slavery And we do hereby Declare That we will with our utmost Endeavours assist his Highness in the obtaining such a Parliament with all speed wherein our Laws our Liberties and Properties may be Secured the Church of England in particular with a due Liberty to Protestant Dissenters and in general the Protestant Religion and Interest over the whole World may be Supported and Encouraged to the glory of God the Happiness of the Established Government in these Kingdoms and the Advantage of all Princes and States in Christendom that may be herein concerned In the mean time we will endeavour to preserve as much as in us lies the Peace and Security of these great and populous Cities of London and Westminster and the Parts adjacent by taking care to Disarm all Papists and secure all Jesuits and Romish Priests who are in our about the same And if there be any thing more to be performed by us for promoting his Highness's generous Intentions for the Publick good we shall be ready to do it as occasion shall require W. Cant. Tho. Ebor. Pembroke Dorset Mulgrave Thanet Carlisle Craven Ailesbury Burlington Sussex Barkelay Rochester Newport Waymouth P. Winchester W. Asaph Fran. Ely Tho. Roffen Tho. Petriberg P. Wharton North and Grey Chandos Montague T. Jermyn Vaughan Carbery Culpeper Crewe Osulston WHereas His Majesty hath privately this Morning withdrawn Himself we the Lords Spiritual and Temporal whose Names are subscribed being assembled at Guild-hall in London having Agreed upon and Signed a Declaration Entituled The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in and about the Cities of London and Westminster Assembled at Guild-hall 11. Decemb. 1688. Do desire the Right Honourable the Earl of Pembroke the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Weymouth the Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of Ely and the Right Honourable the Lord Culpeper forthwith to attend his Highness the Prince of Orange with the said Declaration and at the same
to publish all his Arbitrary Declarations and in particular one that strikes at their whole Settlement and has ordered Process to be begun against all that disobey'd this illegal Warrant and has treated so great a number of the Bishops as Criminals only for representing to him the Reasons of their not obeying him if likewise the King is not satisfied to profess his own Religion openly though even that is contrary to Law but has sent Ambassadors to Rome and received Nuntio 's from thence which is plainly Treason by Law if likewise many Popish Churches and Chappels have been publickly opened if several Colledges of Jesuits have been set up in divers parts of the Nation and one of the Order has been made a Privy Counsellor and a principal Minister of State and if Papists and even those who turn to that Religion though declared Traitors by Law are brought into all the chief Employments both Military and Civil then it is plain That all the Rights of the Church of England and the whole establishment of the Protestant Religion are struck at and designed to be overturned since all these things as they are notoriously illegal so they evidently demonstrate That the great design of them all is the rooting out of this Pestilent Heresy in their stile I mean the Protestant Religion In the next place If in the whole Course of Justice it is visible that there is a constant practising upon the Judges that they are turned out upon their varying from the Intentions of the Court and if Men of no Reputation nor Abilities are put in their places if an Army is kept up in time of Peace and Men who withdraw from that illegal Service are hanged up as Criminals without any colour of Law which by consequence are so many Murders and if the Souldiery are connived at and encouraged in the most enormous Crimes that so they may be thereby prepared to commit greater ones and from single Rapes and Murders proceed to a rape upon all our Liberties and a destruction of the Nation if I say all these things are true in fact then it is plain that there is such a dissolution of the Government made that there is not any one part of it left found and entire and if all these things are done now it is easy to imagine what may be expected when Arbitrary Power that spares no Man and Popery that spares no Heretick are finally established Then we may look for nothing but Gabelles Tailles Impositions Benevolences and all sorts of illegal Taxes as from the other we may expect Burnings Massacres and Inquisitions In what is doing in Scotland we may gather what is to be expected in England where if the King has over and over again declared that he is vested with an Absolute Power to which all are bound to obey without reserve and has upon that annulled almost all the Acts of Parliament that passed in K. James the Ist's Minority though they were ratified by himself when he came to be of age and were confirmed by all the subsequent Kings not excepting the present We must then conclude from thence what is resolved on here in England and what will be put in execution as soon as it is thought that the Times can bear it When likewise the whole Settlement of Ireland is shaken and the Army that was raised and is maintained by Taxes that were given for an Army of English Protestants to secure them from a new Massacre by the Irish Papists is now all filled with Irish Papists as well as almost all the other Imployments it is plain That not only all the British Protestants inhabiting that Island are in daily danger of being butchered a second time but that the Crown of England is in danger of losing that Island it being now put wholly into the hands and power of the Native Irish who as they formerly offered themselves up sometimes to the Crown of Spain sometimes to the Pope and once to the Duke of Lorrain so are they perhaps at this present treating with another Court for the sale and surrender of the Island and for the Massacre of the English in it If thus all the several Branches of our Constitution are dissolved it might be at least expected that one part should be left entire and that is the Regal Dignity and yet even that is prostituted when we see a young Child put in the reversion of it and pretended to be the Prince of Wales concerning whose being born of the Queen there appear to be not only no certain Proofs but there are all the Presumptions that can possibly be imagined to the contrary No Proofs were ever given either to the Princess of Denmark or to any other Protestant Ladies in whom we ought to repose any Confidence that the Queen was ever with Child that whole matter being managed with so much Mysteriousness that there were violent and publick Suspitions of it before the Birth But the whole Contrivance of the Birth the sending away the Princess of Denmark the sudden shortning of the Reckoning the Queen 's sudden going to St. James's her no less sudden pretended Delivery the hurrying the Child into another Room without shewing it to those present and without their hearing it cry and the mysterious Conduct of all since that time no satisfaction being given to the Princess of Denmark upon her Return from the Bath nor to any other Protestant Ladies of the Queen's having been really brought to bed These are all such evident Indications of a base Imposture in this matter that as the Nation has the justest reason in the World to doubt of it so they have all possible reason to be at no quiet till they see a Legal and Free Parliament assembled which may impartially and without either Fear or Corruption examine that whole matter If all these Matters are true in fact then I suppose no Man will doubt that the whole Foundations of this Government and all the most sacred Parts of it are overturned And as to the truth of all these Suppositions that is left to every Englishman's Judgment and Sense The Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy no Badges of Slavery THE Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of the Crown of England having been invaded and broke in upon by the Power of the Court of Rome in K. Henry the Eighth 's time all Foreign Power was abolished and the Antient Legal Supremacy restor'd and by many additional Acts corroborated But all that was done of that kind in K. Henry the Eighth 's time was undone again in Queen Mary's and therefore in the first Year of Queen Elizabeth's Reign an Act of Parliament was made Intituled All Antient Jurisdiction restored to the Crown A Repeal of divers Statutes and Reviver of others and all foreign Power Abolished Which Act recites that whereas in the Reign of R. H. 8. divers good Laws were made and established as well for the utter extinguishment and putting away of all Vsurped and Foreign Powers and
into such Particulars as time and occasion required So that the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance not having altered the terms of Allegiance due from the People of England to their Princes if their Princes by antient Laws of the Realm and by the Practice of our Forefathers were liable to be deposed by the great Councils of the Nation for Male-administration Oppressions and other Exorbitances for not keeping their Coronation-Oaths for Insufficiency to govern c. then they continue still liable to be deposed in like manner the said Oaths or any Obligation contracted thereby notwithstanding For the Practice of former times I shall begin with a very antient Precedent in the Kingdom of the West-Saxons viz. Cudred King of West-Saxony being dead Sigebert his Kinsman succeeded him in that Kingdom and held it but a small time for being puft up with Pride by the Successes of King Cudred his Predecessor he grew insolent and became intolerable to his People And when he evil entreated them all manner of ways and either wrested the Laws for his own Ends or eluded them for his own Advantage Cumbra one of his chief Officers at the request of the whole People intimated their Complaints to the Savage King And because he persuaded the King to govern his People more mildly and that laying aside his Barbarity he would endeavour to appear acceptable to God and Man the King immediately commanded him to be put to Death and increasing his Tyranny became more cruel and intolerable than before whereupon in the beginning of the second Year of his Reign because he was arriv'd to an incorrigible pitch of Pride and Wickedness the NOBLES and the PEOPLE OF THE WHOLE KINGDOM assembled together and upon MATURE DELIBERATION did by UNANIMOUS CONSENT OF THEM ALL drive him out of the Kingdom In whose stead they chose Kenwolph an excellent Youth and of the Royal Blood to be King over the People and Kingdom of the West-Saxons Collect. p. 769 770. ibid. p. 795 796. Cudredo Rege West-Saxiae defuncto Sigebertus Cognatus ejus sibi in eodem Regno successit brevi tamen tempore Regnum tenens nam ex Cudredi Regis Precessoris sui eventibus tumefactus insolens intolerabilis suis fuit cum autem eos modis omnibus male tractaret legesque vel ad commodum suum depravaret vel pro commodo suo devitaret Cumbra Consul ejus Nobilissimus prece totius populi Regi fero eorum querimonias intimavit Et quia ipse Regi suaserat ut leniùs Populum suum regeret inhumanitate depositâ Deo hominibus amabilis appareret Rex eum impiâ nece mox interfici jubens populo saevior intolerabilior quà m priùs suam tyrannidem augmentavit unde in principio secundi Anni Regni sui cum incorrigibilis superbiae nequitiae esset Congregati sunt PROCERES POPVLVS totius REGNI eum PROVIDA DELIBERATIONE à Regno VNANIMI CONSENSV OMNIVM expellebant Cujus loco Kenwolfum juvenem egregium de Regiâ stirpe oriundum in Regem super Populum Regnum Wex-Saxiae elegerunt Collect. 769 770. ibidem p. 795 796. This Deposition of King Sigebert appears to have been done in a formal and orderly Manner viz. in a Convention of the Proceres and the Populus totius Regni and it was done providâ deliberatione unanimi Omnium Consensu and consequently was not an Act of Heat Rebellion or Tumultuary Insurrection of the People But was what the whole Nation apprehended to be Legal Just and according to the Constitution of their Government and no breach of their Oaths of Allegiance Nor have we any reason to wonder that the English Nation should free themselves in such a manner from Oppression if we consider that by an antient Positive Law Enacted in K. Edward the Conf. time and confirmed by William the Conqueror the Kings of England are liable to be deposed if they turn Tyrants The King because he is the Vicar of the Supream King is constituted to this end and purpose that he may govern his earthly Kingdom and the People of the Lord and especially to govern and reverence God's holy Church and defend it from Injuries and root out destroy and wholly to extirpate all Wrong-doers Which if he do not perform HE SHALL NOT RETAIN SO MUCH AS THE NAME OF A KING And a little after The King must act all things according to Law and by the Judgment of the Proceres Regni For Right and Justice ought to reign in the Realm rather than a perverse Will It is the Law that makes Right but Wilfulness Violence and Force is not Right The King ought above all things to fear and love God and to keep his Commandments throughout his Kingdom He ought also to preserve to cherish maintain govern and defend against its Adversaries the Church within his Kingdom entirely and in all freedom according to the Constitutions of the Fathers and of his Predecessors that God may be honoured above all things and always be had before Men's Eyes He ought also to set up good Laws and approv'd Customs and to abolish evil ones and put them away in his Kingdom He ought to do right Judgment in his Kingdom and maintain Justice by advice of the Proceres Regni sui All these things the King in proper Person looking upon and touching the Holy Gospels and upon the Holy and Sacred Relicks must swear in the Presence of his People and Clergy to do before he be crown'd by the Archbishops and Bishops of the Kingdom Lamb. of the Antient Laws of England pag. 142. Rex autem quia Vicarius summi Regis est ad hoc est constitutus ut Regnum terrenum Populum Domini super omnia sanctam veneretur Ecclesiam ejus regat ab injuriosis defendat maleficos ab eâ evellat destruat penitus disper Quod nisi fecerit nec nomen Regis in eo constabit Et paulò post Debet Rex omnia ritè facere in Regno per Judicium Procerum Regni Debet enim Jus Justitia magis regnare in Regno quà m voluntas prava Lex est semper quod Jus facit voluntas autem Violentia Vis non est Jus. Debet verò Rex Deum timere super omnia diligere mandata ejus per totum Regum suum servare Debet etiam sanctam Ecclesiam Regni sui cum omni integritate libertate juxta Constitutiones Patrum Praedecessorum servare fovere manutenere regere contrainimicos defendere it a ut Deus prae coeteris honoretur prae oculis semper habeatur Debet etiam bonas Leges Consuetudines approbat as erigere pravas autem delere omnes à Regno deponere Debet Judicium rectum in Regno suo facere Justitiam per Consilâ—um Procerum Regni sui tenere Ista verò debet omnia Rex in propriâ personâ inspectis tactis sacrosanctis Evangeli is
Establishment yet all other Protestants may very rationally promise themselves an Indulgence and that not only from the Mildness and compassionate Sweetness of her Temper but from the Influence which the Prince her Husband will have upon her who as he is descended from Ancestors whose Glory it was to be the Redeemers of their Country from Papal Persecution and Spanish Tyranny so his Education Generosity Wisdom and many Heroick Vertues dispose him to embrace all Protestants with an equal Tenderness and to erect his Interest upon the being Head and Patron of all that profess the Reformed Religion Had the late Duke of Monmouth been victorious against the Forces of the present King and inabled to have wrested the Scepter out of his Hand though all Protestants might thereupon have expected and would certainly have enjoyed an equal freedom without the liableness of any party to Penal Laws for matters of Religion yet he would have been careful and I have reason to believe that it was his purpose to have had the Church of Eng. preserved and maintained and that she should have suffered no alteration but what would have been to her Strength and Glory through an enlargement of the Terms of her Communion and what would have been to the Praise of her Moderation and Charity through her being perswaded to bear with such as differ from her in little things and could not prevail with themselves to partake with her in all Ordinances Upon the whole it is both the prudence and safety of Dissenters as they would escape Extirpation themselves and have Religion conveyed down to Posterity to unite their Strength and Endeavours to those of the Church of England for the upholding her against the assaults of Popish Enemies who pursue her Subversion As matters have been circumstanced and stated in England there hath not been an Affront or Injury offered or done unto her by the Court which did not at the same time reach and wound the Dissenters 'T is not her being for Episcopacy Ceremonies and imposed Set-Forms of Worship the things about which she and the Nonconformists differ that she hath been not long since maligned and struck at by the Man in Power and his Popish functo but it is for being Protestant Reformed and Orthodox Crimes under the Guilt whereof Dissenters were equally concerned and involved Being therefore in opposition to the common Cause of Religion that the late Court of Inquisition was erected over her Ecclesiasticks all Protestants jointly resented the Wrongs which she sustain'd and not only to sympathize with those dignified and lower Clergy which were called to suffer but to espouse her Quarrel with the same warmth that we would our own And as we are to look upon those of the Episcopal Communion to be the great Bulwark of the Protestant Religion and Reformed Interest in England so it was farther incumbent on Dissenters towards them and a Duty which they owe to God the Nation and themselves not to be accessary to any thing through which the legal Establishment of the Church of England might have been by an Act of pretended Regal Prerogative weakned and supplanted I never counsel the Dissenters to renounce their Principles nor to participate with the Prelatical Church in all Ordinances on the Terms to which they have straitned and narrowed their Communion For while they remain unsatisfied of the lawfulness of those Terms and Conditions they cannot do it without offending God and contracting Guilt upon their Souls nor will they of the Church of England in Charity Justice and Honesty expect it from them For whatsoever any Man believeth to be Sin it is so to him and will by God be imputed as such till he be otherwise enlightned and convinced nor are the Dissenters to be false and cruel to themselves in order to be kind and friendly to them But that which I would advise them unto is that after the maintaining the highest measure of Love to the conformable Congregations as Churches of Christ and the esteeming their Members as Christian Protestant Brethren notwithstanding the several things wherein they judge them to err and to be mistaken that they would not by any Act and Transactions of theirs betray them into a Despotical Power not directly nor indirectly acknowledge any Authority paramount unto and superseding the Laws by which the Church of England is established in its present Form Order and Mode of Jurisdiction Discipline and External Worship Whatsoever Ease arrived to the Dissenters through the Kings suspending the Execution of the Penal Laws without their Address and Application they might receive it with Joy and Humility in themselves and with thankfulness to God nor was there hereby any prejudice offered on their part to the Authority of the Law or Offence or Injury given or done to the conformable Clergy Nor is it without grief and regret that the Church-men have been forced to behold the harassing spoiling and imprisonment of the Nonconformists while in the mean time the Papists were suffered to assemble to the Celebration of their Idolatrous Worship without Censure and Controul And had it been in their power to remedy it and give Relief to their Protestant Brethren they would with delight and readiness have embrac'd the occasion and opportunity of doing it But alas instead of having an advantage put into their hand of contributing to the Relief of the Dissenters which I dare say many of them ardently wish and desire they were compelled contrary to their Inclination as well as their Interest to become instrumental in persecuting and oppressing them Nor does the late King covet a better and a more legal advantage against the Conformists than that they would refuse to pursue Dissenters and decline molesting them with Ecclesiastical Censures and civil Punishments So that their condition was to be pityed and bewailed in that they were hindered from acting against the Papists though both enjoyed by Law and influenced thereunto by Motives of self-Preservation as well as by tyes of Conscience while in the mean time they were forced to prosecute their fellow-Protestants or else to be suspended and deposed and put out of their Offices and Employments And tho I believe that they would at last have more Peace in themselves and be better accepted with God in the great Duty of their Account should they have refused to disturb and prosecute their Protestant Brethren and scorn to be any longer Court-Tools for weakning and undermining the Reformed Cause and Interest yet I could not but leave them to act in this as they should be perswaded in themselves and as they judged most agreeable to Principles of Wisdom and Conscience In the interim the Dissenters have all the Reason in the World to believe that the Proceedings of the Clergy and Members of the Church of England against them were not the Results of their Election and Choice but the Effects of moral Compulsion and Necessity Nor will any Dissenter that is prudent and discreet blame them for a matter