State the Care whereof is also entrusted to him was in the highest manner concerned that the said Kingdom might continue in Tranquillity and that all misunderstanding between the King and the Nation might be taken away That His Highness well knowing that to succeed in so Important and Laudable a Cause and not to be hindred and prevented by those that were evil inclined towards it it was necessary to pass over into that Kingdom accompanied with some Military Forces hath thereupon made known his Intentions to their Highnesses and desired Assistance from their Highnesses that their Highnesses having maturely weighed all things and considered that the King of France and Great Britain stood in very good Correspondence and Friendship one with the other which their Highnesses have been frequently very well assured of and in a strict and particular Alliance and that their Highnesses were informed and advertised that their Majesties had laboured upon a Concert to divide and separate this State from its Alliances and that the King of France hath upon several occasions shew'd himself dissatisfied with this State which gave cause to fear and apprehend that in case the King of Great Britain should happen to compass his Aim within his Kingdom and obtain an absolute Power over his People that then both Kings out of Interest of State and Hatred and Zeal against the Protestant Religion would endeavour to bring this State to Confusion and if possible quite to subject it have resolved to commend His Highness in his undertaking of the abovesaid Designs and to grant to him for his Assistance some Ships and Militia as Auxil aries that in pursuance thereof His Highness hath declared to their Highnesses that he is resolved with God's Grace and Favour to go over into England not with the least insight or intention to invade or subdue that Kingdom or to remove the King from his Throne much less to make himsâ—lf Master thereof or to invert or prejudice the Lawful Succession as also not to drive thence or persecute the Roman-Catholicks but only and solely to help that Nation in re-establishing the Laws and Priviledges that have been broken as also in maintaining their Religion and Liberty and to that end to further and bring it about that a free and lawful Parliament may be Call'd in such manner and of such persons as are regulated and qualified by the Laws and Form of that Government and that the said Parliament may deliberate upon and establish all such Matters as shall be judged necessary to assure and secure the Lords the Clergy Gentry and People that their Rights Laws and Priviledges shall be no more violated or broken that their High and Mightinesses hope and trust that with God's Blessing the Repose and Unity of that Kingdom shall be re-established and the same be thereby brought into a condition to be able powerfully to concur to the common benefit of Christendom and to the restoring and maintaining of Peace and Tranquillity in Europe That Copies hereof be delivered to all their Foreign Ministers residing here to be used by them as they shall see occasion The P. O's Letter to the English Army Gentlemen and Friends WE have given you so full and so true an Account of Our Intentions in this Expedition in Our Declaration that as We can add nothing to it so We are sure you can desire nothing more of Us. We are come to preserve your Religion and to restore and establish your Liberties and properties and therefore We cannot suffer Our selves to doubt but that all true English-Men will come and coneur with Us in Our desire to secure these Nations from POPERY and SLAVERY You must all plainly see that you are only made use of as Instruments to enslave the Nation and ruine the Protestant Religion and when that is done you may judge what ye your selves ought to expect both from the cashiering of all the Protestant and English Officers and Souldiers in Ireland and by the Irish Souldiers being brought over to be put in your places 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 slatter 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. An Account of a wicked design of Poysoning the Prince of Orange before he came out of Holland ALSO A Relation from the City of Orange of a strange METEOR representing a Crown of Light that was there seen in the Air May the 6th 1688. In a Letter from a Gentleman in Amsterdam to his Friend in London Octob. 1. 1688. SIR THE two inclosed Relations are sent me from an Eminent Divine now at the Hague you will do well to make them publick The Poysoning Business I doubt not but was contriv'd by a sort of Men that in all Ages stick at nothing to carry on their Bloody Religion An Account of a Design of Poisoning the PRINCE of ORANGE THere is a Man of Lunenburg Wolfenbuttel who being fallen in Debt in Amsterdam upon his Fathers Death his Brother taking no Care of him was put in Prison and brought extream low yet he was brought out by the means of a Friend And soon after a man who pretended to know him and to have seen him before though the German believes he never saw him seem'd to take pitty on him seeing him in a Coffee-House and gave him a Ducatoon and promised he should never want so he entred into a great familiarity with him but would never let him know where he lodged only he gave him Appointments in Coffee-Houses and Taverns and fed him from time to time with Mony At last after some weeks he drew him into a secret Walk in the Grounds that are not yet built and
A Collection of Papers Relating to the Present Juncture of Affairs in England VIZ. 1. The Humble Petition of Seven Bishops to his Majesty 2. Articles recommended by the Archbishop of Canterbury to all the Bishops and Clergy within his Jurisdiction 3. Proposals of the Arch-Bishop with some orher Bishops to his Majesty 4. Petition of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for Calling a Free Parliament With his Majesty's gracious Answer 5. Vindication of the aforesaid Petition 6. Extract of the States General their Resolution 7. The Prince of Orange his Letter to the English Army 8. Account of a Design to poison the Prince of Orange before he came out of Holland 9. A Relation of a strange Meteor representing a Crown of Light seen in the Air near the City of Orange 10. Lord Delamere's Speech to his Tenants 11. The Prince of Denmark's Letter to the King. 12. The Lord Churchil's Letter to the King. 13. Princess Anne's Letter to the Queen 14. A Memorial of the Protestants of England to the Prince and Princess of Orange 15. Prince of Orange his Declaration of Novemb. 28. 1688. from Sherborn-Castle The Third Edition Licensed and Entred according to Order London printed and are to be sold by Richard Janeway in Queen's-head-Court in Pater-noster-Row 1689. To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of William Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and divers of the Suffragan Bishops of that Province now present with him in behalf of themselves and others of their absent Brethren and of the Clergy of their respective Diocesses Humbly sheweth THAT the great averseness they find in themselves to the distributing and publishing in all their Churches your Majesty's late Declaration for Liberty of Conscience proceeds neither from any want of Duty and Obedience to your Majesty our Holy Mother the Church of England being both in her Principles and in her constant Practice unquestionably Loyal and having to her great Honour been more than once publickly acknowledg'd to be so by your Gracious Majesty Nor yet from any want of due tenderness to Dissenters in relation to whom they are willing to come to such a Temper as shall be thought sit when that Matter shall be considered and settled in Parliament and Convocation But among many other Considerations from this especially because that Declaration is founded upon such a Dispensing Power as has been often declared Illegal in Parliament and particularly in the Years 1662 and 1672 and in the beginning of your Majesty's Reign and is a matter of so great Moment and Consequence to the whole Nation both in Church and State that your Petitioners cannot in Prudence Honour or Conscience so far make themselves Parties to it as the distribution of it all over the Nation and the solemn publication of it once and again even in God's House and in the Time of his Divine Service must amount to in common and reasonable Construction Your Petitioners therefore most humbly and earnestly beseech your Majesty that you will be graciously pleased not to insist upon their distributing and reading your Majesty's said Declaration And Your Petitioners as in Duty bound shall ever pray Will. Cant. Will. Asaph Fr. Ely. Jo. Cicestr Tho. Bathon Wellen. Tho. Peterburgen Jonath Bristol His Majesties Answer was to this effect I Have heard of this before but did not believe it I did not expect this from the Church of England especially from some of you If I change my Mind you shall hear from me if not I expect my Command shall be obeyed THE ARTICLES Recommended by the ARCH-BISHOP of CANTERBVRY To all the Bishops within his Metropolitan Jurisdiction the 16th of July 1688. SIR YEsterday the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury delivered the Articles which I send you inclosed to those Bishops who are at present in this place and ordered Copies of them to be likewise sent in his Name to the absent Bishops By the Contents of them you will see that the Storm in which he is does not frighten him from doing his Duty but rather awakens him to do it with so much the more vigour and indeed the Zeal that he expresses in these Articles both against the Corruptions of the Church of Rome on the one hand and the unhappy Differences that are among Protestants on the other are such Apostolical Things that all good Men rejoice to see so great a Prelate at the Head of our Church who in this Critical Time has had the Courage to do his Duty in so signal a manner I am Sir Yours London July 27. 1688. Some Heads of Things to be more fully insisted upon by the Bishops in their Addresses to the Clergy and People of their respective Diocesses I. THat the Clergy often read over the Forms of their Ordination and seriously consider what Solemn Vows and Professions they made therein to God and his Church together with the several Oaths and Subscriptions they have taken and made upon divers occasions II. That in Compliance with those and other Obligations they be active and zealous in all the Parts and Instances of their Duty and especially strict and exact in all holy Conversation that so they may become Examples to the Flock III. To this end that they be constantly Resident upon their Cures in their incumbent Houses and keep sober Hospitality there according to their Ability IV. That they diligently Catechise the Children and Youth of their Parishes as the Rubrick of the Common-Prayer-Book and the 59th Canon enjoyn and so prepare them to be brought in due time to Confirmation when there shall be Opportunity and that they also at the same time expound the Grounds of Religion and the common Christianity in the Method of the Catechism for the Instruction and Benefit of the whole Parish teaching them what they are to believe and what to do and what to pray for and particularly often and earnestly inculcating upon the Importance and Obligation of their Baptismal Vows V. That they perform the daily Office publickly with all Decency Affection and Gravity in all Market and other Great Towns and even in Villages and less populous Places bring People to publick Prayers as frequently as may be especially on such Days and at such Times as the Rubrick and Caâ—â—ns appointed on Holy Days and their Eves on Ember and Rogation Days on Wednesdays and Fridays in each Week and especially in Advent and Lent. VI. That they use their utmost Endeavour both in their Sermons and by private Applications to prevail with such of their Flock as are of competent Age to receive frequently the Holy Communion and to this end that they administer it in the greater Towns once in every Month and even in the lesser too if Communicants may be procured or how-ever as often as they may and that they take all due Care both by Preaching and otherwise to prepare all for the worthy receiving of it VII That in their Sermons they teach and inform their People four times a Year at the least as what the
Free in all its Circumstances We therefore do most earnestly beseech your Majesty That you would be graciously pleased with all speed to Call such a Parliament wherein we shall be most ready to promote such Counsels and Resolutions of Peace and Settlement in Church and State as may conduce to your Majesty's Honour and Safety and to the quieting the Minds of your People We do likelise humbly beseech your Majesty in the mean time to use such means for the preventing the Effusion of Christian Blood as to your Majesty shall seem most meet And Your Petitioners shall ever pray c. W. Cant. Grafton Ormond Dorset Clare Clarendon Burlington Anglesey Rochester Newport Nom. Ebor. W. Asaph Fran. Ely. Tho. Roffen Tho. Petriburg Tho. Oxon. Paget Chandois Osulston Presented by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Arch-Bishop of York Elect the Bishop of Ely and the Bishop of Rochester the 17th of November 1688. His Majesty's most Gracious Answer My LORDS WHAT You ask of Me I most passionately desire And I promise You upon the Faith of a King That I will have a Parliament and such an One as You ask for as soon as ever the Prince of Orange has quitted this Realm For How is it possible a Parliament should be Free in all its Circumstances as You Petition for whil'st an Enemy is in the Kingdom and can make a Return of near an Hundred Voices The Lords Petition with the King's Answer may be printed Novemb. 20. 1688. A Modest Vindication of the Petition of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for the Calling of a Free Parliament THIS Defence is grounded upon three Fundamental Principles I. The Right of Petitioning II. The Necessity III. The Duty I. It is the undoubted Right of the Subjects to Petition being founded upon an Act of Parliament and the highest Reason in the World for that is a very monstrous Government where the People must not approach their King and acquaint him with their Grievances The People have the greatest Property in the Land and therefore the most concern'd when a Foreign Enemy is upon it their Welfare is the Supream Law and yet they must not desire to meet in order to consult their own Preservation The Jesuits the sworn Enemies to the English Nation will take care of us and our Posterity therefore why should we trouble our selves at this Juncture They can levy Mony with a Proclamation they can dispense with all Laws and what should we do with a Parliament when the whole Statute-Book serves for no other End but to wipe the Tails of these Reverend Satyrs who fly into their Dens and Thickets at the very sound of a House of Commons II. The Necessity and that an indispensible one The Government turn'd Topsy-Turvy no Law no Rule all in a state of War all Treaties broken all Obligations ceas'd and yet the People must not come together to know why or wherefore they Fight or how they may avoid destroying one another they must hack and cut one another to pieces blindfold and to no other End but to save the Jesuits and the Knaves and to ruin themselves But the most Reverend Bishops are told that they shall have a Free Parliament as soon as ever the Prince of Orange has quitted this Realm that is such a Free Parliament as they were like to have had before the Prince came hither shufft'd cut and pack'd by Mr. Brent and his Missionaries or perhaps ten times worse or rather none at all for the Church of Rome is grown such an infamous Bankrupt that no Body will trust her further than they can command her She may be compar'd to the Tyger which fawns sneaks and lurks as long as the Hunter is arm'd with his Spear and his Gun but when once the Weapons are laid down the Beast flies upon the unwary Forester tears and devours him III. The Duty For what better Office could those pious Prelats and Patriots of their Country do for the Publick-Good than to make all People Friends to save the Lives of many Thousands and to heal all our Wounds and Sores which they of the Roman Faith have inslicted upon a People too kind and good natur'd for such ravenous Monsters who go about seeking whom they may devour France Ireland Hungary and the Valleys of Piedmont are still reeking with the Blood of their poor innocent Preys and ecchoing with the Lamentations of a People ruin'd by trusting these Crocodiles too much and if God in his infinite Mercy had not watch'd over these Kingdoms and sent a Gabriel to guard them they had certainly fallen a Victim to the intollerable Pride the lawless Fury and untractable Barbariety of a sort of Animals call'd Catholicks subtile and treacherous by Custom and Discipline not to be chain'd by any Law either of God or Man and therefore every Body knows how far we may rely upon them when the Arch-Angel leaves us Exeter Nov. 21. 1688. Extract of the States General their Resolution Thursday 28th October 1688. UPon mature Deliberation it is found fit and resolved that notice be given to all their Ministers abroad of all the Reasons which induce their H. and M. to assist the Prince of Orange going over to England in Person with Ships and Forces with Orders to the said Ministers to make use thereof in the several Courts where they reside as they shall think most convenient and that it be also writ to the said Ministers that it is known to all the World that the English Nation hath a good while very much murmured and complained that the King no doubt with the Evil Counsel and Inducement of his Ministers had gained upon their Fundamental Laws and laboured through the violation thereof and by the bringing in the Roman Catholick Religion to oppress their Liberty and to ruine the Protestant Religion and to bring all under an Arbitrary Government That as this inverted and unjust Conduct was carried on more and more and the Apprehensions thereupon were still greater and that thereby such Diffidence and Aversion was stirred up against the King that nothing was to be expected in that Kingdom but general Disorder and Confusion His Highness the Prince of Orange upon the manifold Representations and the reiterated and earnest Desire which was made to His Highness by several Lords and other Persons of great Consideration in that Kingdom as also upon the account that Her Royal Highness and His Highness Himself are so highly concerned in the Welfare of that Kingdom could not well endure that through Strife and Disunion they should run the danger however it went of being excluded from the Crown held himself obliged to watch over the Welfare of that Kingdom and to take care thereof and also had the thoughts of assisting the Nation and giving them a helping-hand upon so many just and good Grounds against the Government that oppressed them in all manner of ways that lay in his Highness's Power for that His Highness was perswaded that the Welfare of this