in the Bishops Petition Now as unquestionably legal as a Petition is there may be an illegal Petition whether this were so or no the King desired should be legally tryed And a Tryal there was in which the direct Point as I am informed came not to Issue but Not guilty found upon no proof of matter of Fact A Peer too is mentioned to be treated as a Criminal for saying the Orders of a Popish Justice were not to be obeyed And all his Criminal treatment was to refer him to the ordinary course of Law where he likewise waved the direct Point by collateral Exceptions Where may the Oppression be and where the frightful Apprehensions of loss of Life Liberty Honor and Estate in all this Are Judicicial Proceedings already threatned and barr'd And must we have an Army to revenge the wrongs of the Bishops and a Peer who I believe themselves complain of none done them Nor can without complaining that the Law has wrong'd them even when it acquitted them What significations have been made and what Expedients proposed by their Highnesses to his Majesty is not come to my knowledge But if the same Advisers were used in their suggestions which have been in this Declaration it is very likely the King might be sensible they were too ill informed of the Affairs of England to take their Advice If Evil Counsellors have endeavoured to perswade the King that his Highness design'd to disturb the Quiet and Happiness of the Kingdom I am infinitely sorry he would be at all this pains to justifie them For 't is impossible to believe he actually came hither without design to come or that the War he brings with him will not disturb our Peace and the Miseries of it our Happiness What follows is past my understanding The last and great Remedy for all our Evils is the Calling of a Parliament So indeed all Englishmen think and so His Majesty thought who call'd One. Happy we if his Highness had been of the same Opinion but to our Misery he is not who when One was call'd would not let it sit but instead of it brought in Evils past the Remedy even of a Parliament For Votes are not Cannon proof But a Parliament could not yet compassed nor can it be easily brought about Too sadly true For it is neither easy nor possible to bring about a Parliament when defenceless People must break through a Foreign Army to meet and elect Before it was so possible to compass that it was compast Writs were actually gone out and Elections begun which were not stopt by Evil Counsellors But these Evil Counsellors apprehended they should be brought to an account for their Plots and Conspiracies against the Protestant Religion and have endeavoured under the specious pretence of Liberty of Conscience to sow Divisions among them between the Church of England and Dissenters that by their natural Quarrellings They might bring about their Designs both in the Election of Members and in the Parliament it self Why then they design'd a Parliament should sit as evil as they were and as much as they feared to be called to account But if Liberty of Conscience be a Plot against Protestants his Highness must needs be of it himself who declared for it Must we believe the same thing practised by His Majesty will divide Protestants and by his Highness establish a good Agreement Then the asking People their Opinion beforehand the Charters Popish Sheriffs and Mayors are brought in again only to conclude at last that no Parliament can be lawful for which the Elections and Returns are made by Papists and therefore as long as the Authority and Magistracy are in such hands it is not pâ—ssible to have any lawful Parliament How ill do they understand the Law of England who penn'd this Declaration Every body knows that Elections are made by Freeholders and Freemen not by Sheriffs and Mayors and that a Papist may elect as legally as any body and make a Return if he be in Office as valid Had his Highness suffered the Elections to go on we should have thought the Parliament very lawful but shall not think so of a Parliament made by the Law of Arms where we are chosen and sit with the Sword at our Throats we think there is neither legality nor freedom and that when for a Remedy of the impossibility of a lawful Parliament there is prescribed an impossibility that it should be lawful very ill State-Doctors have been called to Council The Declaration crowns all with the Birth of the Prince of Wales of which it says That great and violent Presumptions induce his Highness to believe that these evil Councellors have published the Queen hath brought forth a Son in order to their ill Designs and that not only his Highness himself but all the good Subjects of these Kingdoms do vehemently suspect that the pretended Prince of Wales was not born by the Queen Such things to come abroad with the Name of the Prince of Orange to them And yet it is but too true that there is a great deal of violence and vehemence in these Presumptions and Suspicions so true that there is in reality nothing else neither Presumption nor Suspicion indeed And this violence and this vehemence must needs be infinitely great which can pretend Suspicions not only utterly void of all Reason but so palpably against it that quite contrary to what the Declaration avers there is neither a good Subject nor a sensible Man who harbours any Doubt in the case And this Consideration I suppose has so long delayed doing any thing for publick Satisfaction As it was not indeed very proper for the King to regard idle Fictions invented and spread by purely obstinate Malice But now he has caused the business to be scanned if we should take toy and suspect without Reason I believe it would trouble his Highness to clear his own or the Princesses Birth as the Birth of the Prince of Wales is cleared And guess they would entertain the slightest suspicion with an impatient Scorn and not allow the greatest vehemence in the World to suspect them into the Children of other Mothers than the Princess of Orange and Duchess of York But as much to seek as we were for a Reason in all alledg'd before this questioning the Birth of the immediate Successor speaks plain We know now what brought his Highness hither and can give a shrewd guess at what will follow on his success For if they be the only good Subjects who believe not we have a Prince of Wales they are like to be in a bad condition who have either sense enough to perceive plain Truths or Conscience enough to boggle at Perjury or Memory enough to remember they have sworn Fidelity to the King and his lawful Successors Beginning now to wind up his Highness minds us of the great interest which the Princess Royal and himself have in this matter and of their Right to the Succession such as all the
this fully free Parliament his Highness will refer the inquiry into the Birth of the pretended Prince of Wales to Vote him I suppose a Prince Prettyman the Son of Nobody For we know what the References of Conquerors signifie and what the freedom of their Arbitrators But it is time to leave talking when such things are said and think of other Weapons than Pens Would his Highness be content to refer his own Birth For though there be nothing of suspicion in it yet the nothing on his side is nearer to something than on the side of the Prince of Wales For one may suspect that he who talks at this rate was not born of an English Mother But after all there wants something still His Highness designs new Laws but Acts barely prepared have not the perfection of Laws Suppose the King should prove resty somewhere and advise upon it Why his Highness has found an Expedient He will himself concur in every thing that may procure the Peace witness his War and Happiness of the Nation that is just what he pleases He will take care that a Parliament shall be called in Scotland He will study to bring Ireland into a state that the settlement be observed and the Protestant and British Interest secured And as soon as the state of the Nation will admit he promises to send back his Foreign Forces and in the mean time invites and requires all Peers and all Persons whatsoever to câ—me and assist him against all such as shall endeavour to â—ppose him That is in short He will be King of England For none pass Bills into Acts by their Concurrence but Kings To take care for calling Parliaments and for the settlement and security of the Kings Dominions belongs to none but the King And he who means to send his Forces away certainly means to stay himself And that we may not be ignorant in what condition he means to stay he takes the King upon him by way of Anticipation For no body can require the assistance of all his Subjects of all sorts but the King. So many Stories in the Declaration of a Prince which are the Entertainment of our Coffee-Houses and which we now perceive from whence they came so many dismal Idea's of our Misery who live a great deal more at ease thâ—n they do in Holland so much Trouble and so much Charge purely in Châ—â—y to our Neighbours for no other design than to have a free Parliament Assâ—mbled sounded untowardly and we could not forbear to suspect some deâ—ign â—t bottom though we had not found it own'd But if he had not told us â—o himself we should hardly have suspected that Interest could have drawn the Prince of Orange to dethrone the King unprince his Son and seize the Crown for himself But now we understand his Highness we will endeâ—vour his Highness shall understand us and our Protestant 〈…〉 better than he does We love our Princes for all we can be angry and talk more freely than they dare in other Countreys and will sooner dye at their Feet than Strangers shall injure much less dethrone them We love our Country and we love our Honour and before England shall become the Prey of Holland will take order they shall find nothing in it but Grass and Trees no Men for them to use as they did at Amboina We profess a Protestant Religion which teaches us not to rise in Arms against our King by whomsoever we are required but true Loyalty and Fidelity to him and his lawful Successors and to defend him against all attempts whatsoever against his Crown Person or Dignity and the World shall see we are no bad Scholars of so good a Mistress In a word we know and we Honour William Henry Prince of Orange but we know not William Henry King of England otherwise than for an Enemy Animadversions upon the Additional Declarations of his Highness THE Premises are so very plain that his Highness thought it necessary to take notice of them himself Against the Apprehensions of a Conquest he alledges the disproportion of his Forces and the joyning of English with him That disproportion is not his Fault and would have been tho he had brought Holland it self in his Fleet and all the Men in it But can he not design a Conquest for all that We were Conquered by the Normans and bare Twelve Thousand Suedes bid fair for the Conquest of Germany as little proportion as Normandy had to England or Sweden to Germany We can Conquer our selves tho Holland cannot which if we do we Conquer for him under whom we Fight For the General wins the Battel who ever Fight it And this of necessity his Highness must design unless he design to be beaten For Victory and Conquest are but two Names for one thing Neither is he a Man to be at all this ado to make a Conquest and not make the most of it when he was done neither can he do otherwise tho he would For as he has no Right to Act here by Law he must of necessity Act by Right of Conquest And we humbly beseech him not to declare us out of common Sense and into a belief that he is not capable of intending what we see he is actually doing But Enemies to their Country of all Men in the World one would least expect should be magnified for Integrity and Zeal and constant Fidelity and who cannot joyn in a wicked attempt of Conquest to make void their own lawful Titles to their Honours Estates and Interests Must we believe again they cannot joyn in an Attempt in which his Highness himself tells us they do joyn Nor void their Titles when they actually did void them the very moment of the first Overt Act which made it known they thought of that wicked Attempt And then the Fidelity the Integrity and Zeal of Treason is unintelligible Language in England But I have already observed that his Highness speaks in the Language of a Protestant Religion which is not Established here and in likelihood never will by a Parliament truly free The Kings Concessions are treated as a seeming Relief pretended Acts of Grace an imperfect Redress upon which no weight is to be laid because Solemn Promises have been broken a plain Confession of the Violation set forth in the Declaration and defective because they may again be taken up His Highness takes care that nothing shall be replyed upon breach of Promise by giving no instance where it was broken But to my grief here is greater Work in hand It had been shorter and not much plainer said I am resolved at any rate to come and be King. For as the pretence of the Declaration was that the King had taken up some things and the pretence of the Addition that he has laid them down 't is palpable that the Expedition was unalterably resolved without any care or thought of the good of England or its Concerns save only to borrow a pretence which might
THE Prince of Orange HIS DECLARATION SHEWING THE REASONS Why he Invades ENGLAND WITH A Short PREFACE AND SOME MODEST REMARKS on It. LONDON Published by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall MDCLXXXVIII The Prince of Orange's Declaration shewing the Reasons why He invades England with a short Preface and some modest Remarks on it THERE having been various Discourses about the Reasonableness and Iustice of the Dutch Invasion the Prince's great Love and special Care of the Protestant Religion and English Protestants set forth in the most Charming manner and the Desperateness of the Protestant State and Condition painted in the blackest and most frightful Colours Our Natural Leige Lord notwithstanding his Unparallel'd Grace to all represented as designing the greatest Cruelty against his own Subjects strange Stories of ill things whispered and nothing less than a Secret Lâ—â—gue between His Majesty of Great Britain and the French King to Extirpate all Protestants entred into These Reports are with so much Art and Cunning spread as to startle the most Considering Protestants of all Persuasions whence nothing could be more eagerly desired than a Sight of the Prince of Orange's Declaration For the Expectations of most Men are That some Extraordinary Secrets some hidden Works of Darkness should be reveal'd and brought to Light as generally those who yet never saw the Prince's Declaration do still believe But there not being one word of any such Treaty we cannot see why it is that the Prince comes Over and if others impartially Peruse the Declaration we doubt not but 't will Convince them that they give no Reason powerful enough to Iustifie so Bloody an Enterprise as this in the Issue must needs be We will therefore give you a true Copy of the Prince's Declaration word for word as it runs in the West THE DECLARATION OF HIS HIGHNES William Henry By the Grace of GOD PRINCE of ORANGE c. Of the REASONS inducing Him To appear in Armes in the Kingdome of England for Preserving of the Protestant Religion and for Restoring the Lawes and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland IT is both certain and Evident to all men that the Publike Peace and Happines of any State or Kingdome can not be preserved where the Lawes Liberties and Customs established by the Lawfull authority in it are openly Transgressed and Annulled More especially where the alteration of Religion is endeavoured and that a Religion which is contrary to Law is endeavoured to be introduced Upon which those who are most Immediatly Concerned in it are Indispensably bound to endeavour to Preserve and maintain the established Lawes Liberties and Customes and above all the Religion and Worship of God that is Established among them And to take such an effectual care that the Inhabitants of the said State or Kingdome may neither be deprived of their Religion nor of their Civill Rights Which is so much the more Necessary because the Greatnes and Security both of Kings Royall families and of all such as are in Authority as well as the Happines of their Subjects and People depend in a most especiall manner upon the exact observation and maintenance of these their Lawes Liberties and Customes Upon these grounds it is that we cannot any longer forbear to Declare that to our great regret we see that those Councellours who have now the chieffe credit with the King have overturned the Religion Lawes and Liberties of those Realmes and subjected them in all things relating to their Consciences Liberties and Properties to Arbitrary Government and that not only by secret and Indirect waies but in an open and undisguised manner Those Evil Councellours for the advancing and colouring this with some plausible pretexts did Invent and set on foot the Kings Dispencing power by vertue of which they pretend that according to Law he can Suspend and Dispence with the Execution of the Lawes that have been enacted by the Authority of the King and Parliament for the security and happines of the Subject and so have rendered those Laws of no effect Tho there is nothing more certain then that as no Lawes can be made but by the joint concurrence of King and Parliament so likewise lawes so enacted which secure the Publike peace and safety of the Nation and the lives and liberties of every subject in it can not be repealed or suspended but by the same authority For tho the King may pardon the punishment that a Transgressour has incurred and to which he is condemned as in the cases of Treason or Felony yet it can not be with any colour of reason Inferred from thence that the King can entirely suspend the execution of those Lawes relating to Treason or Felony Unless it is pretended that he is clothed with a Despotick and Arbitrary power and that the Lives Liberties Honours and Estates of the Subjects depend wholly on his good will and Pleasure and are entirely subject to him which must infallibly follow on the Kings having a power to suspend the execution of the Lawes and to dispence with them Those Evill Councellours in order to the giving some credit to this strange and execrable Maxime have so conducted the matter that they have obtained a Sentence from the Judges declaring that this Dispencing power is a Right belonging to the Crown as if it were in the power of the twelve Judges to offer up the Lawes Rights and Liberties of the whole Nation to the King to be disposed of by him Arbitrarily and at his Pleasure and expressly contrary to Lawes enacted for the security of the Subjects In order to the obtaining this Judgment those Evill Councellours did before hand examine secretly the Opinion of the Judges and procured such of them as could not in Conscience concurre in so pernicious a Sentence to be turned out and others to be substituted in their Rooms till by the chances which were made in the Courts of Judicature they at last obtained that Judgment And they have raised some to those Trusts who make open Profession of the Popish Religion though those are by Law Rendred Incapable of all such Employments It is also Manifest and Notorious that as his Majestie was upon his coming to the Crown received and acknowledged by all the subjects of England Scotland and Ireland as their King without the least opposition tho he made then open profession of the Popish Religion so he did then Promise and Solemnly Swear at his Coronation that he would maintain his subjects in the free enjoyment of their Lawes and Liberties and in particular that he would maintain the Church of England as it was established by Law It is likewise certain that there have been at diverse and sundry times several Lawes enacted for the preservation of those Rights and Liberties and of the Protestant Religion and among other Securities it has been enacted that all Persons whatsoever that are advanced to any Ecclesâ—astical Dignity or to bear Office in either University as likewise all other that should be put in
we had proposed an Expedient by which the Peace of those Kingdoms and a happy agreement among the Subjects of all Persuasions might have been setled but those Evil Councellours have put such ill Constructions on these our good Intentions that they have endeavoured to alienate the King more and more from us as if Wee had designed to disturb the quiet and Happiness of the Kingdome The last and great Remedy for all those Evils is the Calling of a Parliament for securing the Nation against the evil practises of those wicked Councellours but this could not be yet compassed nor can it be easily brought about For those Men apprehending that a lawful Parliament being once assembled they would be brought to an account for all their open violations of Law and for their Plots and Conspiracies against the Protestant Religion and the Lives and Liberties of the Subjects they have endeavoured under the specious Pretence of Liberty of Conscience first to Sow divisions among Protestants between those of the Church of England and the Dissenters The design being laid to engage Protestants that are all equally concerned to preserve themselves from Popish Oppression into mutual quarrellings that so by these some advantages might be given to them to bring about their Designs and that both in the Election of the Members of Parliament and afterwards in the Parliament it selfe For they see well that if all Protestants could enter into a mutual good Understanding one with another and Concurre together in the preserving of their Religion it would not be possible for them to compasse their wicked ends They have also required all Persons in the several Counties of England that either were in any Imployment or were in any Considerable Esteem to declare before hand that they would concur in the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws and that they would give their voices in the Elections to Parliament only for such as would concurre in it Such as would not thus Preingage themselves were turned out of all Imployments And others who entred into those engagements were put in their places many of them being Papists and contrary to the Charters and Priviledges of those Burroughs that have a Right to send Burgesses to Parliament they have ordered such Regulations to be made as they thought fit and necessary for assuring themselves of all the Members that are to be chosen by those Corporations and by this means they hope to avoid that Punishment which they have Deserved tho it is apparent that all Acts made by Popish Magistrates are null and Void of themselves So that no Parliament can be Lawful for which the Elections and Returns are made by Popish Sheriffs and Majors of Touns and Therefore as long as the Authority and Magistracy is in such hands it is not possible to have any Lawful Parliament And tho according to the Constitution of the English Government and Immemorial Custome all Elections of Parliament men ought to be made with an Entire Liberty without any sort of force or the requiring the Electors to choose such Persons as shall be named to them and the Persons thus freely Elected ought to give their Opinions freely upon all Matters that are brought before them having the good of the Nation ever before their Eyes and following in all things the dictates of their Conscience yet now the People of England can not expect a Remedy from a free Parliament Legally Called and Chosen But they may perhaps see one Called in which all Elections will be carried by Fraud or Force and which will be composed of such Persons of whom those Evil Councellours hold themselves well assured in which all things will be carried on according to their Direction and Interest without any regard to the Good or Happiness the Nation Which may appear Evidently from this that the same Persons tried the Members of the last Parliament to gain them to Consent to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Lawes and procured that Parliament to be dissolved when they found that they could not neither by Promises nor Threatnings prevail with the Members to Comply with their wicked Designs But to Crown all there are Great and Violent Presumptions inducing us to Beleeve that those Evil Councellours in order to the carrying on of their ill Designs and to the Gaining to themselves the more time for the Effecting of them for the encouraging of their Complices and for the discouraging of all Good Subjects have published that the Queen hath brought forth a Son tho there have appeared both during the Queens pretended Bigness and in the manner in which the Birth was managed so many just and Visible grounds of suspicion 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 Bigness and of the Birth of the Child and yet there was not any one thing done to Satisfy them or to put an end to their Doubts And since our Dearest and most Entirely Beloved Consort the Princesse 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 Vnited Provinces were invaded in a most unjust warre use their utmost Endeavours to put an end to that Warre 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 favour 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 Princesse and to Our selves Wee 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 Kingdomes and for the Securing to them the Continual Enjoyment of all their just Rights To the doing of which wee are most Earnestly Solicited by a Great many Lords both Spirituall and Temporall and by many Gentlemen and other subjects of all Ranks THEREFORE it is that wee have thought fit to goe 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 Evill Councellours AND WEE being desirous that our Intentions in this may be Rightly Understood have for this end prepared this Declaration in which as wee have hitherto given a True Account of the Reasons Inducing us to it So wee now think fit to DECLARE that this our Expedition is intended for no other Designe but to have a free and lawfull 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 custome 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 Borroughs of England shall return again to their Antient Prescriptions and Charters And more particularly that the Antient Charter of the Great and Famous City of London shall again be in Force and that the Writts for the Members of Parliament shall be addressed to the Proper Officers according to Law and Custome 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 Freedome That so the Two Houses may concurre in the preparing of such Lawes 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 Lawes as are necessary for the Security and Maintenance of the Protestant Religion as likewise for making such Lawes as may establish a good aggrement between the Church of England and all Protestant Dissenters as also for the covering and securing of all such who will live Peaceably under the Government as becomes gâ—od 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 Honour and Safety of the Nation so that there may be no more danger of the Nations salling at any time hereafter under Arbitrary Government To this Parliament wee will also referre 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 Wee for our part will concurre in every thing that may procure the Peace and Happines of the Nation which a Free and Lawfull Parliament shall determine Since wee 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 Lawes Rights and Liberties under a Just and Legall Government This is the designe that wee have Proposed to our selves in appearing upon this occasion in Armes In the Conduct of which Wee will keep the Forces under our Command under all the Strictnes of Martiall Discipline and take a speciall Care that the People of the Countries thro which wee must march shall not suffer by their means and as soon as the State of the Nation will admit of it Wee promise that we will send back all those Forreigne Forces that wee have brought along with us Wee doe therefore hope that all People will judge rightly of us and approve of these our Proceedings But wee chiefly rely on the blessing of God for the successe of this our undertaking in which Wee place our whole and only Confidence Wee do in the last place invite and require all Persons whatsoever All the Peers of the Realme both Spirituall and Temporall all Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants and all Gentlemen Citisens and other Commons of all ranks to come and assist us in order to the Executing of this our Designe against all such as shall Endeavour to Oppose us that so wee may prevent all those Miseries which must needs follow upon the Nations being 〈◊〉 vnder Arbitrary Government and Slavery And that all the Violeâ—ces and disorders which have overturned the whole Constitution of the English Government may be fully redressed in a FREE AND LEGALL PARLIAMENT And Wee do likewise resolve that as soon as the Nations are brought to a state of Quiet Wee 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 easy 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 endeavour 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 Honour and Happiness of those Nations may be established upon lasting Foundations Given under our Hand and Seal at our Court in the Hague the Tenth day of October in the year of our Lord 1688. WILLIAM HENRY PRINCE OF ORANGE By his Highnesses special Command C HUYGENS. THus you have an exact and full Account of the Prince of Orange's Declaration And can you find one word of a Treaty with France to extirpate all Protestants Or can you imagine that if they had the least reason for such a Talk they who aggravate every little thing would let this Declaration pass without the least mentioning of what is so momentous and important And is there any thing more than a Violent Presumption suggested about the Prince of Wales And is the very Noise of such a Presumption reason enough to justifie a real War As for the other things urg'd are they not Redressable by a Parliament and so far as it 's possible without one already Redressed 'T is a Parliament then that is the main thing to be insisted on which though Chosen as the last was would be too feeble an Argument to clear the present Invasion from the charge of being Injust and Unrighteous The Great Men of this Kingdom ever thought a Parliament Irregularly chosen more eligible than either a War or a rash Enquiry into the manner of the choise Did Queen Elizabeth's Parliament admit of a Words being spoken to bring Queen Mary's Parliament into doubt Did they not look on it as most dangerous to do so And although by the Triennial Bill the long Parliament in the late Kings Reign was actually dissolved Nine Months before it thought on the Repeal thereof yet even after 't was destroy'd by it the Dissolved Parliament sate and repealed the Dissolving Bill and made the Conventicle-Act the Test-Laws repealed the Writ De Haeretico Comburendo and pass'd the Habeas Corpus Bill into a Law. But was the Assembly that Acted thus Irregularly ever call'd to an Account for it or any of their Laws declared Void and Null Or was it ever esteemed a Good Reason for a War And yet this is much more than hath been ever done by His Present Majesty Besides 't was the late King that took away the Charters and those who were entring on Violent Courses for their Restauration were proclaimed Traytors and several executed for it whilst all the Pulpits throughout England sounded of the Horridness Blackness Vileness
by the Lords Spiritual not doubting but that if the Belief thereof prevail amongst the Mobile they 'll be all of an Opinion that the Prince's Grounds are most Iust and Reasonable so that though it cannot be made out by any thing particularly known yet this general carrying a thousand unheard-of Arguments in its Bowels cannot fail of success But what if this prove not True May we afterwards venture to believe his Highness in any thing which under a violent Temptation he may be as now moved to declare The Prince insists on it That many of the Lords Spiritual did most earnestly sollicite him to Invade us and yet the Lords Spiritual do not only declare That they look on this Invasion to be sinful but that they never sollicited his coming And it must be acknowledged That they could do no such thing without acting most contrary to their Avowed Principles and contrary to most solemn Oaths and Declarations and Men should take heed how they receive this Report against the Right Reverend Bishops the Design in which they are said to Embarque being founded on that very Principle in pursuance of which the Head of Charles the Blessed Martyr was brought to the Block and Embarque they cannot but by joyning with a Foreign Army the chief part of which is made up of those who though they would willingly enough ensnare our Bishops cannot be reasonably supposed to be true in the promises they make about supporting their Hierarchical Grandeur the utmost they must expect in the long-run can be no more than a turning their Lands into Money that to the end their dependance on the Government may be the more effectually secured in stead of their present Lands Leases c. they may have an Yearly Salary answerable to their worth and desert which as 't will be uncertain so it cannot be hop'd that its utmost heighth shall arise to the State and Degree of a Baron for Baronies go with their Lands By this you may see how unlikely any sort of Englishmen should by this Invasion gain any thing but Misery ANIMADVERSIONS UPON THE DECLARATION OF HIS HIGHNESS The PRINCE of ORANGE THE Great Preparations for War in Holland were long talk'd of here as very unconcerning News Besides the perpetual assurances of their Embassador that they were not designed this way every body knew the Influence which his Highness the Prince of Orange has upon that Country and it could not sink into their Heads that He who was Born of one Daughter of England and Married to another would ever suffer the Peace of a Country to be disturbed for which Nature Sollicited a Feeling Tenderness Even they who reflected that Politicks sometimes sway more than Nature as possible as they thought it that he might be moved to suffer it to be done by some body in whom it would shew less Shocking thought it absolutely impossible he should ever be moved to bring Fire and Sword into England himself and Personally Fight against his Father-in-Law and Uncle When we found our incredulity had deceived us we cast about to discover what unsufferable Provocations he had receiv'd what Injuries beyond Satisfaction what Affronts to be Reveng'd with no less than the Ruin of a Nation in fine what just cause of War there could be And we impatiently waited for the Declaration of his Highness in which we expected to find all this Now it is come we are more at a loss than before War must shed a great deal of Blood make numberless Widows and Orphans whose Tears will go up to Heaven and Cries be heard Desolate the Nation change our Plenty into Beggary and bring a Thousand Calamities This Blood and these Miseries will one Day be required from the Authors And we perceive nothing in the World to justifie all this but the very Stories which we hear from those who make it their business to Slander the Government and Incense the People of whom there are too many in every Nation and to whom we little thought his Highness would have afforded the Countenance of his Name Since he has thought fit to do it I shall in respect forbear to Contest it with his Highness as much as I perceive he is Misinformed farther than is just necessary for our own Resolutions and Actions His Declaration Sollicits us to joyn with his Arms and I conceive we ought to be very well assured the Reasons offer'd will justifie us to God and Man before we break our Natural and Sworn Allegeance and forfeit our Honour in this World and Interest in the next by Deserting or Fighting against our King and Gods Anointed before we tear out the Bowels of Our Mother Country with our own Hands and do things for which his Highness himself shall always think us and if he prevail one day Treat us as Traytors and Rebels For a Traytor is sure to be hated even by him who loves the Treason The Declaration begins with telling us That the Publick Peace cannot be preserved where the Laws are openly Transgressed and a Religion contrary to Law endeavoured to be intrâ—duâ—ed And that thâ—se who are most immediately concerned are indispensably bound to preserve them This may be as true as it will for any concern which England or his Highness has in it England whatever be is not the Country in which these things are done The â—xecution indeed of some Laws is Suspended Laws it seems not necessary to the Publick Peace since the Declaration inform us his Highness intends they should be taken awayâ— And this Suspension by those who should know is thought to be warranted not forbidden by Law and his Highness I fancy would be of their Opinion himself if the case were his own Happy we if nothing would subvert our Peace and transgress our Laws more than this Suspension But to make these things the Ground of an Invasion which must intirely subvert our Peace and if it prevail our Laws and leave us none but at the Mercy of an Arbitrary Sword which cannot begin without notoriously transgressing the Laws of God and Nations nor be abetted without undisguisable transgressing the Laws of the Land has palpably some other aim than the care of our Peace and Laws What endeavours to introduce Popery his Highness means I cannot tell The King to my thinking has bounded his Favour to that Religion with the single desire of seeing his Papist Subjects in the same condition with the rest and is pleas'd to bate even of that Had he design'd to introduce their Religion he would certainly never have made it impossible to be introduc't For an Universal Liberty unites the interest of every Religion against the prevailing of any one and Excludes Popery from all hopes of ever Domineering in England But let the designs of Papists be never so Irreligious booted Missionaries I take it are no Ministers of the Gospel in the Reformed Religion nor bare endeavours to do bâ—d Actions a Warrant actually to do bad Actions and the worst of
We Humbly pray his Highness in stead of the Liberty held forth by his Invasion to afford us the liberty of believing our own Eyes before the repetitions of his Historical Pen-men and to think we actually enjoy our Religion and our Laws as much as they would persuade us there is no such thing in England But thô our Case were as deplorable as their frightful Idea would make it what Remedy can we hope from the Declaration All Human Affairs are subject to the miscarriages inseparable from Human Nature When they happen among us the Wisdom of our Nation has always thought the best way of Redress is by Parliament But we could never think knocking out Mens Brains a proper remedy for miscariages about Religion nor plundring and burning apt to set right the sway'd Law. And we again pray his Highness rather to let us alone in our Misery than make us happy this way For as we are made the Happiness would be incomparably the more unsupportable Misery After all what would his Highness have done in the Case and what can be done more than to leave none of those things in being of which he complain'd And so much his Highness owns was done before he set Sail from Holland The Ecclesiastical Commission was broken the Suspension of the Bishop of London taken off Magdelene College restored Chancellors and Archdeacons discharged of their attendance Lord-Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants and the rest replaced and Charters returned As it is palpable that his Highness comes not to redress things which he knew were redress'd already it is palpable that we have Reasons of his coming alledged which are not his Reasons and too much ground to argue from one to all and conclude we have not one true Reason offered but are amused with pretences apt to work upon us but which no way move his Highness There is mention besides of Popish Chappels and Schools and Commissions all three consequences of Liberty of Conscience People cannot exercise their Religion without places in which to exercise it neither is there any complaint of the Meeting places of their fellow Dissenters nor can I understand why his Highness excepts against their Chappels who Declares he will not except them from the Liberty of Conscience Again Parents always breed up their Children in their own way And if Papists be not allow'd Schools at home they will be sent abroad to spend there what it were more for the benefit of the Nation should be laid out here and besides be train'd up to Foreign Customs and perhaps Foreign Principles not so grateful to the Nation whereas here they might be watcht But cannot the King and Parliament compose this matter without Bloodshed Is the Question whether a Boy shall go to School in England or Flanders so very material and so very intricate that nothing but Arms can decide it As for their Commissions it stands not with Nature that a King should not chuse some of his own way to trust with Commissions when he is persuaded he lawfully may With all my Heart I wish that the greater readiness and greater fidelity of others in the defence of their Prince and Country may convince him and all the World that he has made an ill choice But to see whither Exaggeration will go All Matters of Civil Iustice according to the Declaration are brought to great Vncertainties Evil Councellors â—â—ndered Masters of the Affairs of the Church the Government of the Nation and the Course of Iustice and all by these Commissions to Papists And yet all this signifies barely three or four Judges at most some Justices of Peace and some Officers in the Army Can a few and those puny Judges for there are no other master the Courts of Justice Can a few Officers most Subalterns with Soldiers not one to fifty of their Religion master the Affairs of the Church and enslave a Nation In which if all the Papists were armed and the rest naked their Pikes and Muskets could not defend them against a Volley of Stones Can Matters of Civil Justice be brought to great Uncertainties by the incapacity of Papists who have no incapacity upon them The Law indeed forbids them to be employed but if they be there is no invalidity laid upon their Acts. And for Military Incapacity if the Law had put it his Highness has dispens'd with it for an Invasion capacitates every body to save his Country as Fire breaking out to save his House But 't is incomprehensible that the Irish should be mentioned and the danger in which the Nation is of Slavery from them who if his Highness had not brought them in had never been here to fright us At worst the King's Subjects sure may be as safely here as absolute Foreigners and if Strangers tho' Subjects be inconsistent with our Freedom 't is certain that whatever be the business of his Highnesses Army our Freedom is not And this appears the more the farther we go All His Majesties Dominions are taken presently after into the care of his Highness and 't is represented as a dismal Matter that Papists are employed in Ireland and that the King's Power is in Scotland declared Absolute and Subjects to obey without Reserve Now these are the very words of a Law enacted in Scotland by a very free Parliament held under a Commissioner upon whom there never sell any imputation of Popery His Highness is sparing in this Point It is said farther by the Parliament That the Blessings of Scotlandâ— are next to God owing to the uninterrupted Line of the Kings and to that solid absolute Authority and that their Kings are invested with it by the first and fundamental Laws of their Monarchy But Parliaments it seems must exercise no freedom but according to the pleasure of a supervising Foreign Sword though I should think it somthing early to declare it In Ireland the Laws exclude not Papists from Employments and 't is again referr'd to the Conscience of his Highness Whether he would think it reasonable his Neighbours should exclaim and inflame the People against him for disposing Employments as the Law allows and themselves resolve the Matter to be so heinously unjust that any of them has right to revenge it upon his Country with the Miseries of War Who shall hope to please his Highness when he thinks fit at once to dislike breaking Laws in England making them in Scotland and keeping them in Ireland But these unsufferable Oppressions have put the Subjects under just Fears and made them look after such lawful Remedies as are allow'd of in all Nations I hope his Highness does not mean rising in Arms against their King and calling in Foreign Enemies by lawful Remedies Whatever other Nations do ours allows this for nothing but Treason and Rebellion nor I much suspect any Nation in the World besides And yet those lawful Remedies must sure be Remedies not authorized by Law for the Declaration makes such means barr'd by evil Counsellors The Instance is