from those Contentions whilest every one pretended to all the Marks which are to attend upon the true Church except only that which is inseparable from it Charirity to one another My Lords and Gentlemen This Disquisition hath cost the King many a Sigh many a sad Hour when he hath considered the almost irreparable Reproach the Protestant Religion hath undergone from the Divisions and Distractions which have been so notorious within this Kingdom What pains he hath taken to compose them after several Discourses with learned and pious Men of different Perswasions you will shortly see by a Declaration He will publish upon that Occasion by which you will see His great Indulgence to those who can have any Protection from Conscience to differ with their Brethren And I hope God will so bless the Candor of His Majesty in the Condescentions he makes that the Church as well as the State will return to that Unity and Unanimity which will make both King and People as happy as they can hope to be in this World My Lords and Gentlemen I shall conclude with the Kings hearty thanks to you not only for what you have done towards Him which hath been very signal but for what you have done towards each other for the excellent correspondence you have maintained for the very seasonable Deference and Condescention you have had for each other which will restore Parliaments to the Veneration they ought to have And since His Majesty knows that you all desire to please him you have given him ample Evidence that you do so He hath appointed me to give you a sure Receipt to attain that good End it is a Receipt of His own prescribing and therefore is not like to fail Be but pleased your selves and perswade others to be so contrive all the ways imaginable for your own Happiness and you will make Him the best pleased and the most happy Prince in the World THE State of ENGLAND Both at HOME and ABROAD In Order to The Designs of France CONSIDERED To the READER THIS Discourse being imaginarily Scened and yet really performed out of the Treasure of a very great Minister of State 's Capacity it was thought fit to be Published now and not before because that Respect ought to be payed to the Secret of his Majesty's Affairs so as nothing should anticipate the King 's own Labours to give the People Satisfaction in his due time touching the tender Care that He is graciously pleased to take of all his Subjects in point of Honour Safety Freedom Union and Commerce which nothing could more advance then the Conclusion of the Treaty newly made betwixt England and the States of the United Provinces which without Flattery may be demonstrated to Men of Understanding to aim at nothing but the Good of His Subjects in general exempt from all manner of private Interest whatsoever Blessed be God then that it is so happily concluded and that we have a King whom nothing can ever alienate from the true Interest of his Realms nor no corrupt Counsellour let him be thought to be never so Powerful or Crafty in order to his own Advantages prevent the Wisdom and Integrity of such a Prince from prevailing above the Artifices and Frauds of those who would perswade the Nation were they competent Masters of their Art enough so to do that those Counsellors who are not interested can be less prudent or successful then such as did make it their Business to appropriate all to themselves and nothing to their Master The French King is much commended for his Parts and Activity but let us see him out-do the King of England in this particular of the Treaty both in Courage and Conduct and then I shall be apt to attribute his Grandeur as much to natural Abilities as extraordinary Fortune but not before THE State of England c. THE Adventure which happened unto me lately is of so extraordinary a nature and contains so many important Discoveries in relation to the publick Good in its Progress that I should prove defective towards my Countrey if I did not candidly publish all the Passages both touching the Occasion and Effects of what followed from this Accident Know then that a Peer of the Realm of England and one whose Merit Quality and the Place which he holds in the Administration of the Affairs of the Kingdom are remarkable did invite sundry of his Lordship's best Friends to a magnificent Feast and amongst the rest he had the kindness not to omit me out of the number where the excellence of the Chear which he made to his Guests after a most noble manner put the whole Company into such a refined humour of conversing together that the Entertainment was but one intire pleasing Debate how to express our compleat enjoying of each other I was not wanting with the uttermost of Vigour and Solace to uphold the Genious of this Conference But as the freest speakers do commonly come by the worst in Discourse and are the soonest exposed to enterfiering lashes I found my self to be attacqued in so many places at once with the swiftness of other Mens Reasons and Wits who held the opposite Arguments that although I were something heated yet there remained unto me presence of mind enough and success of Intervalls to get insensibly out of the Press whilst the Disorder and Confusion lasted which is usual at such Meetings into another room I retired then pursuing the Opportunity into a fair Gallery which surprised my Eyes with the rich Ornaments wherewith it was furnished but not without trouble neither and a Curiosity beyond the Opticks of the Place which increased there so as I was diverted from any farther Consideration of the Furniture because the Place seemed to lie too near the Enemy to dwell any longer upon those Objects Wherefore I went into another Chamber hard by which instantly filled me with new Apprehensions by the means of several large Looking-Glasses hanging on the Walls which shewed me my own proper Figure at length on every side and from thence imprinted in my wounded Imagination as many Adversaries as there were angular Reflections out of each Mirrour that appeared to pursue me so furiously that I ran on violently with my head forwards in order to some Escape to the door of another Chamber adjoyning thereunto which opened with such Resistance when I thrust against it as if it had been forced with a Petard And thus falling in the Attempt I was so stunned that it was a good while after before I could come to my self again But at last having partly recovered my spirits I was surprised with a fresh astonishment as much amazed me as the former had done that I repeated for when I began to open my eyes half way finding that till then they had been altogether unuseful to me I attributed the Disorder to want of Sight often feeling in regard of the Darkness of the Room to try whether they were still in my head or not
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
Commerce and therefore I conclude even from thence by an unerrable Consequence that Commerce ought to be the chief Object of our Jealousie and that we are bound to be as tender of the Conservation of this Benefit as of the Apples of our Eyes But then we must look far off how to prevent whatsoever may hinder the Progress of Trade or diminish the Abundance of this Commerce We have nothing to fear in this particular on the Account of Spain which applies little towards Traffick and leaveth almost all the Advantages thereof freely to the English in their own proper Ports But if this Interest should fall into the Power of an industrious and active Nation and a People covetous of Gain as the French are we are not to expect any Share of the Utility or to partake with France therein but rather that they will prescribe the Law of Commerce unto the English according to their own Will and Pleasure As soon as ever 't is known that we do treat of Conjunction with France one of these two things must necessarily happen either that Spain finding it self uncapable to resist the Union of both Forces will send a Blank to the French King to make such Conditions with them as he thinks best by conceding unto him all their Portion in the Low Countreys or that all the rest of the Powers of Europe justly apprehending so terrible an Union will joyn with Spain to stop the Torrent of our Designs In the first state of the Case then we shall quickly find our selves taken for persons deluded in this Negotiation and France only gather all the Fruit of the Couzenage of which the Shame of having been so grosly cheated can only remain to us when the whole World discerns that the desire of Prey hath prevailed with England above the Faith of those solemn Treaties which we have made with the Crown of Spain and thus shall we obtain no other Advantage by having made such a false step then to have facilitated the means for France to unite all the Low Countreys to that Crown without striking one Blow to the eternal and irreparable Damage of the Crown of England For who can assure us that from the same instant when we do declare unto France our intention to unite with them the French instead of uniting their Party with England will not rather prevail the sooner in their Pretensions with Spain to make the Spaniards because of this Apprehension disposed to accord to whatsoever France shall demand which is as the old Proverb says To keep the Mule at our Cost and hold the stirrup unto the French or play a ridiculous part in making use only of Scare-crows and give a false Alarm to favour the Designs of others Next who shall secure us that after Spain hath yielded because of this Apprehension the Low Countreys to the Disposition of France That the Spaniards and the French shall not then streightly unite together to be revenged of us and bring us down The affinity of Bloud Religion and the hopes which the Most Christian King may found to himself upon the Succession to this Monarchy if the Renunciation of the Queen once comes to be annulled are strong Links that may very well unite them together and the principal of the Division which is at present betwixt them having no other foundation but reciprocal Jealousie touching the Equality of their Power this Emulation will expire as soon as ever that France doth see Spain in a Condition to be no longer able to dispute the Sovereign Arbitrage of Christendom with them and the cause of their Hatred being taken away all the Effects thereof will cease likewise And then the common Interests of both will unite them in a Bond which is inseparable any more from whence our Ruine must infallibly arise because the Substance and Surety of England solely depends upon the Emulation of these two Powers as the Temperament of a humane Body consists in the Opposition of the Elementary Qualities But what shall we say of the States of the United Provinces Can we reasonably believe that they 'll remain without Motion or that they 'll not awaken at the noise only of this Negotiation which we shall carry on with France to the Destruction of Spain Since 't is evident they have no other course to take than to prevent us but by joyning themselves with France before we have finished this Treaty or else to bind their Interests fast with the Spanish Crown and the Empire on the first Occasion And then are we excluded from our Pretensions and all the hopes of our vast Conquests which we have fancied unto our selves And in the next place also shall we be replunged into a long and dangerous War from whence we came but just now as it were to escape with so much difficulty and damage France hath yet proposed nothing unto us directly touching the Ports of Ostend and Newport to be given to the English and 't is apparent as to England by sundry authentick Documents that the French have no mind to treat seriously with us on this Point unless that they do find us disposed to unite with Spain and the States of the United Provinces for the common Defence Whereas 't is no less certain that the French have expresly made the very same Propositions and more advantagious ones unto the said States by soliciting them to re-combine with France in order to their old Design of dividing the Low Countries mutually between each other to the entire Exclusion both of us and the Spaniards being fully agreed as to this particular at the beginning of the War past Whereby 't is clearly to be forseen that France considers us no farther then as the worst of their Prospects and that the French will always be ready to buy dearer the Amity of the States of the United Provinces than ours Would it not then be a great imprudence in us to serve them as Instruments on such disgraceful and disadvantagious Terms to contribute towards the engaging of the Hollanders to their Party It being out of doubt that the Jealousie which we should so give them of our Negotiation with France would be a powerful incitement to the States to put them upon being before hand with us in this Treaty and cut the Grass after this manner under our feet But admit all this should cease I do not see what Measures we can take at this time with France nor what Assurances or Precautions the French may give us in a Treaty so as to shelter England from the Danger of that known Maxim of theirs which is In all Confederations to be bound by no other Rule but their Interest meerly I avow that the Rupture of the Pyrenean Treaty frights me and the remembrance of their Proceeding held with us heretofore throughout all the Course of our late War with Holland hath made me so incredulous that they must shew me many miracles and evident ones too before I shall be converted to
she finds no Opposition in the approaches thereunto and Spain probably must sink under the burthen unless that Crown be succoured though it is as true also that the Mischief is easily to be prevented if Remedies be applied thereunto in due time and before that the Inconvenience root it self too deep All the Advantage which France hath gained in this last Campaign is no more than an effect of their Address and the over-grown Credulity of Spain rather than of their Valour and Power All the Places which they have conquered in Flanders are but great Country-Towns where the People being ever the strongest he that is Master of the Field carries always the Keys of them at his Girdle to enter when he pleases and the winning of one Battel recovers them back again France hath constantly yielded in every thing where she hath found a real Resistance without gaining any thing beyond what the fright of an incommodated Multitude hath holpen them to acquire by such a Surprising Invasion Spain hath yet great resorts to recur unto provided only they can gain time and the means of making them meet together and thus recover their Spirits We know that she hath made Contracts for considerable Sums of Money and that the Spaniards are now about to put themselves in a way to be able shortly to withstand the strongest Shocks of the War and by the little Diversion of the Forces of France which we may make without any prejudice to England we can certainly put Spain into a Condition of attacquing the French as well as of defending it self and so shall we reduce France into a necessity of demanding Peace Spain is not unprovided of Friends nor Allies The Emperour doth already make a great step in favour of the Circle of Burgundy by taking of it intirely under his Protection as a Member of his Body The States of the United Provinces are not asleep neither as to their own proper Interests upon this Conjuncture and after having tried in vain the sweeter ways of appeasing the Tempest they will not abandon themselves on so pressing an Occasion being that they do see well enough their Safety depends absolutely upon their Resolution We know that they desire a sincere Alliance with us and that they would make all the progresses necessary towards it could they but discern in us any real disposition not to reject the Offer Sweden which is weary to serve but as an Instrument to the Interests of France to the prejudice of their own Affairs will no doubt also follow our Motions and the most part whom rather Fear than Love doth tye unto the Motions of France will questionless take off the Mask as soon as ever they shall see a considerable Power on foot to protect them France is a Body replete with ill humours which will easily degenerate into an universal Corruption when the French are never so little shaken The Jealousie alone which our Fleet will give them must needs oblige them to employ the better part of their Troops to furnish their Maritime Coasts and consequently render them the weaker every where else Besides it is plain that in this last Campaign in which they thought to swallow all up at a bit they made all the Force that they were able and yet were not able notwithstanding to bring into the Field above Forty thousand men after having drawn out of their Garrisons and the Provision of their Towns all the strength almost that they had there whereby their Frontiers were left naked Judge then to what point they 'l be reduced when they 'l be put both to furnish their Places on all sides and divide their Troops too in Alsatia Italy the County of * or Catalonia Rossillon and Flanders and that in all these Countries they 'l meet with Enemies to fight against as well as a multitude of Male-contents at home no less formidable within the Center of their own proper Bowels For thus they can build no longer upon the strength of their Army which is destroyed very near already by Labour Sickness Diseases and want of Pay Wherefore they must begin anew and with fresh Charges raise more men because the ill usage which their Troops have received doth render them so barren of Souldiers that they are compelled to seek Recruits and as it were beg Supplies with vast sums of Money from other States And this Imaginary Fountain of Treasure of theirs which here is thought to be un-exhaustible will be found to have a bottom when our Fleet doth disturb their Commerce Which is the same thing as our Banquer and Farmers of the Customs the Credit which till then they may get with the Partisans by means of oppressing the People with Tax upon Tax will fail The Men of Business and the Natives being pressed to unsupportable Extremities will quickly either cast off the yoke or sink under the burthen and the weight of those Impositions Their incapacity to hold out any longer is well enough seen by the impossibility wherein they now find themselves to make good what they have promised the Portugueses whose Friendship hath been formerly so necessary unto them And if Spain as 't is hoped that it may do once shall take a Resolution to be delivered of this intestine War with Portugal by some Accommodation the Spaniards will soon be in a Condition of being useful to their Allies and feared by their Enemies But if we do suffer the Designs of France to pass by undiscovered and impunitively to permit them to conquer the Low Countries towards the total oppression of Spain then I cannot but avow that France thus will be most terrible unto us And in case at present we are afraid of drawing their Revenge on our heads then shall we have must juster cause to apprehend the future effects of their Ambition Wherefore at the Bottom of all these Reasons it seems to me that by the same Principle of Apprehension which you have of the French we are obliged to oppose these Progresses of theirs which if not stopped would yet render them more redoubtable If so be that we do fear them in the Field having so many Friends that do tender their Alliance unto us our fear were much more justifiable if after the rejecting of all those Offers we alone were exposed to their mercy or that our moderation could exempt us from their Out-rages but on the contrary rather give the French better Conveniencies of putting these Violences in Execution should such an insipid Counsel prevail for they 'l never consider us farther than we do make our selves Considerable They have printed Books of their Pretensions to England Experience teaches us even to this day that 't is enough with them to ground a War without giving them any other cause of Hostility That we have * Scotland and Ireland Kingdoms belonging to this Monarchy which may very well fit their Designs which is enough to invite the French to attack them whil'st England is weak
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
King make unto him certain propositions for taking away some heavy Taxes that had been imposed on them by his Father Solomon which he refusing to gratifie them in and following the Advice of Young Men Ten of the twelve Tribes immediately chose Jeroboam a Servant of Rehoboham's a meer Stanger and of mean Parentage and made him their King and God approved thereof as the Scriptures in express Words do testifie For when Rehoboam had raised an Army of One hundred and fourscore thousand Men intending by force of Arms to have justified his Claim God appeared unto Semaiah and commanded him to go to Rehoboam and to the House of Jadah and Benjamin saying Return every man to his house for this thing is of me saith the Lord. So that since God did permit and allow this in his own Commonwealth which was to be the Pattern for all others no doubt he will approve the same in other Kingdoms whenever his Service and Glory or the Happiness of the Weal-publick shall require it The next instance I shall give you shall be in Spain where Don Alonso de la Cerda having been admitted Prince of Spain in his Father's Life-time according to the Custom of that Realm married Blanoha Daughter of Lewis the First King of France and had by her two Sons Named Alonso and Hernando de la Cerda but their Father who was only Prince dying before Alonso the Ninth then King he recommended them to the Realm as lawful Heirs apparent to the Crown But Don Sancho their Fathers Younger Brother who was a great Warrier and Sirnamed El Bravo was admitted Prince and they put by in their Grandfathers Life-time by his and the States Consent and this was done at a Parliament held at Sagovia in the Year 1276. And in the Year 1284 Alonso the Ninth being dead Don Sancho was aknowledg'd King and the Two Princes Imprisoned but at the Mediation of Philip the Third King of France their Unkle they were set free and Endowed with considerable Revenues in Land and from them do descend the Dukes De Medina Celi at this Day and the present King of Spain that is in Possession descendeth from Don Sancho In France Lewis the Fourth had Two Sons Lothairin who succeeded him and Charles whom he made Duke of Lorrain Lothairin dying left an only Son named Lewis who dying without Issue after he had reigned Two Years the Crown was to have descended on his Unkle Charles Duke of Lorrain But the States of France did exclude him and chose Hugo Capetus Earl of Paris for their King and in an Oration made by their Embassadour to Charles of Lorrain did give an Account of their Reasons for so doing as it is related by Belforest a French Historian in these very words Every Man knoweth Lord Charles that the Sucession of the Crown and Kingdom of France according to the ordinary Rights and Laws of the same belongeth unto you and not unto Hugh Capet now our King But yet the same Laws which do give unto you such Right of Succession do judge you also unworthy of the same for that you have not endeavoured hitherto to frame your Life according to the Prescript of those Laws nor according to the Use and Custom of the Kingdom of France but rather have allied your self with the Germans our old Enemies and have accustomed your self to their vile and base Manners Wherefore since you have abandoned and forsaken the ancient Virtue Amity and Sweetness of your Countrey your Countrey has also abandoned and forsaken you for we have chosen Hugh Capet for our King and have put you by and this without any Scruple in our Consciences at all esteeming it for better and more just to live under Hugh Capet the possessor of the Crown with enjoying the ancient use of our Laws Customs Privileges and Liberties than under you the next Heir by Blood in Oppressions strange Customs and Cruelty For as they who are to make a Voyage in a Ship on a dangerous Sea do not so much respect whether the Pilot claims Title to the Ship or no but rather whether he be skilful valiant and like to bring them in safety to their ways end even so our principal care is to have a good Prince to lead and guide us happily in this way of Civil and Politick Life which is the end for which Princes are appointed And with this Message ended his Succession and Life he dying not long after in Prison And now I shall come home and give you an Instance or two in England since the Conquest and so conclude William Rufus second Son of William the Conqueror by the assistance of Lanfrank Archbishop of Canterbury who had a great opinion of his Virtue and Probity was admitted King by the consent of the Realm his elder Brother Robert Duke of Normandy being then in the War at Jerusalem William dying his younger Brother Henry by his ingenuity and fair carriage and by the assistance of Henry Earl of Warwick who had greatest interest in the Nobility and Maurice Bishop of London a leading-man amongst the Clergy obtained also the Crown And Robert Duke of Normandy was a second time excluded And though this King Henry could pretend no other Title to the Crown than the Election and Admission of the Realm yet he defended it so well and God prosper'd him with success that when his elder Brother Robert came to claim the Kingdom by force of Arms he beat him in a pitch'd-Battel took him Prisoner and so he died miserable in Bonds King Henry had one only Daughter named Maud or Matilda who was married to the Emperor and he dying without Issue she was afterwards married to Geofry Plantagenet Earl of Anjou in France by whom she had a Son named Henry whom his Grandfather declared Heir-apparent to the Crown in his Life-time yet after his Death Henry was excluded and Stephen Earl of Bulloine Son of Adela Daughter of William the Conqueror was by the States thought more fit to Govern than Prince Henry who was then but a Child And this was done by the perswasion of Henry Bishop of Winchester and at the solicitation of the Abbot of Glastenbury and others who thought they might do the same lawfully and with a good Conscience for the publick Good of the Realm But the Event did not prove so well as they intended for this occasioned great Factions and Divisions in the Kingdom for the quieting of which there was a Parliament held at Wallingford which passed a Law That Stephen should be King only during his Life and that Prince Henry and his Off-spring should succeed him and by the same Law debarred William Son of King Stephen from inheriting the Crown and only made him Earl of Norfolk Thus did the Parliament dispose of the Crown in those days which was in the year 1153 which sufficiently proves what I have asserted The sum of all I have said amounts to this That Government in general is by the Law of
State as to the legality of which they were themselves to be Judges and how far from degree to degree this at last may come to absolute Anarchy and how scandalous a thing as well as unsecure this new way may look in an Age wherein we are too much tracing the steps of our rebellious Progenitors in the last whose great defection and error was That they thought themselves and not the King the Authors of Reformation in Church and State And no man ever was barred by that that the way he was upon was not a lawful way for if it be allowed to every man to take his own way every man will think his own way to be the lawful way As to the Perjury it is founded on this First That Perjury may be committed not only by breaking an Oath but even in the swearing of it viz. To swear it with such Evasions as make the Oath ineffectual for which Sanderson is cited pag. 138. Alterum Perjurii genus est novo aliquo excogitato Commento Juramenti vim declinare aut eludere Jurans tenetur sub pâ—na Perjurii implere Secundum Intentionem deferentis both which are here For the Earl being bound by the very Oath to swear in the genuine meaning without any evasion he has sworn so as he has evaded every word there being not one word to which it can be said particularly he is bound as is said And it is undeniable that he has not sworn in the sense of the makers of the Law but in his own sense which is Perjury as is said And consequentially whatever sense may be allowed in ambiguous Cases yet there can be none where the Paper clearly bears Generals And where he declares That he takes it in his own sense His Majesties Advocate declares he will not burden himself that Copies were disperst tho it is certain since the very Paper it self by the giving in is chargeable with all that is above charged upon it Sir John Dalrymple's Defence and Plea for the Earl of Argyle by way of Reply upon the King's Advocate SIR John Dalrymple replies for the Pannel That since the solid grounds of Law adduced in the Defences have received no particular Answers in relation to the common consent of all Casuists viz. That a party who takes an Oath is bound in Conscience to clear and propose the terms and sense in which he does understand the Oath Nor in relation to the several Grounds adduced concerning the legal and rational Interpretation of dubious Clauses And since these have received no Answers the Grounds are not to be repeated but the Proctors for the Pannel do farther insist on these Defences 1. It is not alledged That any Explanation was given in by the Pannel to any person or any Copy spread before the Pannel did take the Test in Council So that it cannot be pretended That the many Scruples that have been moved concerning the Test did arise from the Pannel's Explication But on the contrary all the Objections that are answered and obviated in the Pannel's Explication were not only privately muttered or were the thoughts of single or illiterate persons but they were the difficulties proposed by Synods and Presbyteries long before the Pannel came from home or was required to take the Test So that the general terms of the Acts of Parliament founded upon in the Libel are not applicable to this Case For as these Laws in relation to Leasing-makers are only relative to atrocious wilful Insinuations or misconstructions of His Majesties Person or Government or the open depraving of his Laws so the restrictive Cause whereby sedition or misconstructions may be moved raised or engendered betwixt His Majesty and his Liedges cannot be applied to this Case where all these Apprehensions and Scruples were on foot and agitated long before the Pannel's Explanation As it cannot be pretended That any new dust was raised by the Pannel's Explanation so it is positively offered to be proved That there is not one word contained in this Explanation but that either these individual words or much worse had been publickly proposed and verbatim read in Council without the least discouragement or the least objection made by any Member of the Council And where a Writing ex proposito read in so high a Court was universally agreed upon without the alteration of a Syllable how can it be pretended That any person thereafter using the said individual terms in any Explanation and far easier terms that they shall incur the high and infamous Crimes libelled And the question is not here Whether the Council was a proper Judicature to have proposed or imposed a sense or allowed any Explanation of the Test to be published but that it is impossible that a sense they allowed or being publickly read before them and which the Kings Advocate did not controul that this should import Treason or any Crime And tho the Pannels Advocate will not pursue or follow the Reply that has been made to this point yet certainly no man of sober sense will think that it is fit to insinuate that so high a Judicature might have authorised or acquiesced in such Explanations as the Liedges thereafter should be entrapped to have used If the Pannel had officiously or ulteroneously offered a sense or Explanation of His Majesties Laws which the Laws themselves could not have born it might justly have been alledged that he was extra ordinem and medling in a matter he was not concerned in but where the Act of Council did enjoyn and he was required and cited to that effect It could neither be constructed as ostentation or to move or encourage Scruples or Resistance but it was absolutely necessary either for to have refused the Test or else to have declared what he thought to be the true and genuine meaning of it And there being so many objections publickly moved and known his Explanation was nothing else but to clear That he did not look upon these Scruples and Objections moved by others as well sounded and rational in themselves and therefore he was able to take the Test in that sense the Council had heard or allowed And it is not controverted that the sense of the Legislator is the genuine sense both of Laws and Oaths And if a person were only interpreting the meaning of either a Law or an Oath imposed he should deprave and misconstruct the Law and Oath if he rendred it wittingly and willingly in terms inconsistent with the meaning of the imposer But there is a great difference betwixt taking of Oaths and interpreting Oaths For when a man comes to take an Oath except his particular sense did agree with the genuine meaning of the imposer he cannot take that Oath tho he may very well interpret and declare what is the sense of the Legislator which he may know and yet perhaps not be able to take the Oath And therefore when there is any doubtfulness in an Oath and a party is bound to take it
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
desolationibus tam sanctae Eccles quam Reg. factis per hoc iniquum Concilium Domini Regis contra magnas Chartas tot toties multoties emptas redemptas concessas confirmatas per tot talia Juramenta Domini Regis nunc Dominorum Henrici Johannis ac per terribiles fulminationes Excommunicationis sententiae in transgressores communium libertatum Angliae quae in chartis praedictis continentur corroboratas cum spes praeconcepta de libertatibus illis observandis fideliter ab omnibus putaretur stabilis indubitata Rex conciliis malorum Ministrorum praeventus seductus easdem infringendo contravenire non formidavit credens deceptive pro numere absolvi à transgressione quod esset manifestum regni exterminium Aliud etiam nos omnes angit intrinsecus quod Justiciarii subtiliter ex malitia sua ac per diversa argumenta avaritiae intolerabilis superbiae Regem contra fideles suos multipliciter provocaverunt incitaverunt sanoque salubri consilio Ligeorum Angliae contrarium reddiderunt consilia sua vana impudenter praeponere affirmare non erubuerunt seu formidaverunt ac si plus habiles essent ad consulendam conservandam Rempublicam quam tota Universitas Regni in unum collecta Ita de illis possit vere dici viri qui turbaverunt terram concusserunt Regnum sub fuco gravitatis totum populum graviter oppresserunt praetextuque solummodo exponendi veteres Leges novas non dicam Leges sed malas consuetudines introduxerunt vomuerunt ita quod per ignorantiam nonnullorum ac per partialitatem aliorum qui vel per munera vel timorem aliquorum potentum innodati fuerunt nulla fuit stabilitas Legum nec alicui de populo Justitiam dignabantur exhibere opera eorum sunt opera nequitiae opus iniquitatis in manibus pedes eorum ad malum currunt festinant ac viam recti nescierunt Quid dicam non est judicium in gressibus suis Quam plurimi liberi homines terrae nostrae fideles Domini Regis quasi viles ultimae servi conditionis diversis Carceribus sine culpa commiserunt ibidem carcerandi quorum nonnulli in carcere fame maerore vinculorum pondere defecerunt extorquerunt pro Arbritrio insuper infinitam pecuniam ab eâ—â—dem pro redemptione sua crumenas aliorum ut suas impregnarent tam à divitibus quam pauperibus exhauserunt ratione quorum incurriverunt odium inexorabile formidabile imprecationes omnium quasi tale incommunicabile privilegium per Chartam detest abilem de non obstante obtinuerunt perquiviserunt ut à lege divina humanaque quasi ad libitum immunes essent Gravamen insuper solitum adhuc sive aliquo modo saevit omnia sunt venalia si non quasi furtiva proh dolor Quid non mortalia pectora cogit Auri sacra fames Ex ore meo contra vos O Impii tremebunda coeli decreta jam auditis Agnitio vultuum vestrorum accusat vos peccatum vestrum quasi Sodoma praedicavistis nec abscondistis vae animae vestrae vae qui condunt leges scribentes injustitiam scripserunt ut opprimerent in judicio pauperes vim facerent causae humilium populi ut essent viduae praeda eorum pupillos diriperent vae qui aedificant domum suam injusticia coenacula sua non in Judicio vae qui concupiverunt agros violenter tulerunt rapuerunt domos oppresserunt virum domum ejus imo virum Haereditatem suam vae Judices qui sicut Lupi vespere non relinquebant ossa in mane Justus Judex adducit Consiliarios in stultum finem Judices in stuporem mox alta voce justum Judicium terrae recipietis His auditis omnium aures tinniebant totaque Communitas ingemuerunt Vide Mat. West Anno 1289. p. 376 li. 13. dicentes heu nobis heu ubi est Angliae toties empta toties concessa toties scripta toties jurata Libertas Alii de Criminalibus sese à visibus populi subtrahentes in locis secretis cum amicis tacite latitaverunt Anno vero 1290. 18. Ed. 1. deprehensis omnibus Angliae Justiciariis de repetundis praeter Jo. Metingham Eliam de Bleckingham quos honoris ergo nominatos volui judicio Parliamenti vindicatum est in alios atque alios carcere exilio fortunarumque omnium dispendio in singulos mulcta gravissima amissione officii Spelmans Glossary p. 1. co 1. 416. alios protulerunt in medium unde merito fere omnes ab officiis depositi amoti unus à terra exulatus alii perpetuis prisonis incarcerati alii que gravibus pecuniarum solutionibus juste adjudicati fuerunt AFter that the King for the space of three Years and more had remained beyond Sea and returned out of Gascoign and France into England he was much vexed and disturbed by the continual clamour both of the Clergy and Laity desiring to be relieved against the Justices and other His Majesties Ministers of several oppressions and injuries done unto them contrary to the good Laws and Customs of the Realm whereupon King Edward by his Royal Letters to the several Sheriffs of England commanded that in all Counties Cities and Market Towns a Proclamation should be made that all who found themselves agrieved should repair to Westminster at the next Parliament and there shew their Grievances where as well the great as the less should receive fit Remedies and speedy Justice according as the King was obliged by the Bond of his Coronation Oath And now that great day was come that day of judging even the Justices and the other Ministers of the King's Council which by no Collusion or Reward no Argument or Art of Pleading they could elude or avoid The Clergy therefore and the People being gathered together and seated in the great Palace of Westminster the Archbishop of Canterbury a man of eminent Piety and as it were a Pillar of the holy Church and the Kingdom rising from his Seat and fetching a profound sigh spoke in this manner Let this Assembly know that we are called together concerning the great and weighty Affairs of the Kingdom too much alas of late disturbed and still out of Order unanimously faithfully and effectually with our Lord the King to treat and ordain Vide Fleta Cap. 17. p. 18 19. Authoritas Officium ordinarii Concilii Regis Ye have all heard the grievous complaints of the most intollerable injuries and oppressions of the daily desolations committed both on Church and State by this corrupt Council of our Lord the King contrary to our great Charters so many and so often purchased and redeemed granted and confirmed to us by the several Oaths of our Lord the King that now is and of our Lords King Henry and John and corroborated by the dreadful thundrings of the sentence of Excommunication against the
the Nature of a Bargain and the due Circumstances belonging to an Equivalent and will now conclude with this short Word Where Distrusting may be the Cause of provoking Anger and Trusting may be the Cause of bringing Ruine the Choice is too easie to need the being explained A LETTER From a Gentleman in the City To his Friend in the Country Containing his Reasons for not Reading the Declaration SIR I Do not wonder at your Concern for finding an Order of Council published in the Gazette for Reading the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in all Churches and Chappels in this Kingdom You desire to know my Thoughts about it and I shall freely tell them for this is not a time to be reserved Our Enemies who have given our Gracious King this Counsel against us have taken the most effectual way not only to ruine us but to make us appear the Instruments of our own Ruine that what Course soever we take we shall be undone and one side or other will conclude that we have undone our selves and fall like Fools To lose our Livings and Preferments nay our Liberties and our Lives in a plain and direct Opposition to Popery as suppose for refusing to read Mass in our Churches or to swear to the Trent Creed is an honorable way of falling and has the Divine Comforts of Suffering for Christ and his Religion and I hope there is none of us but can chearfully submit to the Will of God in it But this is not our present Case to read the Declaration is not to read the Mass nor to profess the Romish Faith and therefore some will judge that there is no hurt in Reading it and that to suffer for such a Refusul is not to fall like Confessors but to suffer as Criminals for disobeying the Lawful Commands of our Prince but yet we judge and we have the concurring Opinions of all the Nobility and Gertry with us who have already suffered in this Cause that to take away the Test and Penal Laws at this time is but one step from the introducing of Popery and therefore to read such a Declaration in our Churches though it do not immediately bring Popery in yet it sets open our Church Doors for it and then it will take its own time to enter So that should we comply with this Order all good Protestants would despise and hate us and men we may be easily crushed and shall soon fall with great Dishonour and without any Pity This is the Difficulty of our Case we shall be censured on both sides but with this Difference We shall fall a little sooner by not Reading the Declaration if our Gracious Prince resent this as an Act of an obstinate and peevish or factious Disobedience as our Enemies will be sure to represent it to him We shall as certainly fall and not long after if we do read it and then we shall fall unpitied and despised and it may be with the Curses of the Nation whom we have ruined by our Compliance and this is the way never to rise more And may I suffer all that can be suffered in this World rather than contribute to the sinal Ruine of the best Church in the World Let us then examine this Matter impartially as those who have no mind either to ruine themselves or to ruine the Church I suppose no Minister of the Church of England can give his Consent to the Declaration Let us then consider whether Reading the Declaration in our Churches be not an Interpretative Consent and will not with great Reason be interpreted to be so For First By our Law all Ministerial Officers are accountable for their Actions The Authority of Superiors though of the King himself cannot justifie inferior Officers much less the Ministers of State if they should execute any illegal Commands which shews that our Law does not look upon the Ministers of Church or State to be meer Machines and Tools to be managed wholly by the Will of Superiors without exercising any Act of Judgment or Reason themselves for then inferior Ministers were no more punishable than the Horses are which draw an innocent Man to Tyburn and if inferior Ministers are punishable then our Laws suppose that what we do in obedience to Superiors we make our own Act by doing it and I suppose that signifies our Consent in the Eye of the Law to what we do It is a Maxime in our Law That the King can do no Wrong and therefore if any Wrong be done the Crime and Guilt is the Ministers who does it for the Laws are the King 's publick Will and therefore he is never supposed to command any thing contrary to Law nor is any Minister who does an illegal Action allowed to pretend the King's Command and Authority for it and yet this is the only Reason I know why we must not obey a Prince against the Laws of the Land or the Laws of God because what we do let the Authority be what it will that commands it becomes our own Act and we are responsible for it and then as I observed before it must imply our own Consent Secondly The Ministers of Religion have a greater Tye and Obligation than this because they have the Care and Conduct of Mens Souls and therefore are bound to take Care that what they publish in their Churches be neither contrary to the Laws of the Land nor to the Good of the Church For the Ministers of Religion are not look'd upon as Common Cryers but what they Read they are supposed to recommend too though they do no more than Read it and therefore to read any thing in the Church which I do not consent to and approve nay which I think prejudicial to Religion and the Church of God as well as contrary to the Laws of the Land is to misguide my People and to dissemble with God and Men because it is presum'd that I neither do nor ought to read any thing in the Church which I do not in some degree approve Indeed let Mens private Opinions be what they will in the Nature of the thing he that reads such a Declaration to his People teaches them by it For is not Reading Teaching Suppose then I do not consent to what I read yet I consent to Teach my People what I Read and herein is the Evil of it for it may be it were no Fault to Consent to the Declaration but if I consent to Teach my People what I do not consent to my self I am sure that is a great one And he who can distinguish between consenting to Read the Declaration and consenting to Teach the People by the Declaration when Reading the Declaration is teaching it has a very subtile Distinguishing Conscience Now if consenting to Read the Declaration be a Consent to Teach it my People then the natural Interpretation of Reading the Declaration is That he who Reads it in such a solemn Teaching-manner Approves it If this be not
about him who thrust the last King out of the Throne to make room for his present Majesty much scruple to put a Protestant Successor by it if they can find another Papist as Bigotted as this to advance unto it However were they on the Throne to morrow here is both a Foreign Jurisdiction brought in and set up to Rival and control theirs and they are deprived of all means of being secured of the Loyalty and Fealty of a great number of their Subjects Nor will His Majesty's certain Knowledge and long Experience whereof he boasts in the Scots Proclamation that the Catholicks as it is their Principle to be good Christians so it is to be dutiful Subjects be enough for their Royal Highnesses to rely upon their Religion obliging them to the contrary towards Princes whom the Church of Rome hath adjudged to be Hereticks A second Instance wherein this pretended Royal Prerogative is exercised Paramount to all Laws and which nothing but a claim of Absolute Power in his Majesty can support and an Acknowledgment of it by the Subjects make them approve the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and the Proclamation for Toleration is the stopping disabling and suspending the Statutes whereby the Tests were enacted and thereby letting the Papists in to all Benefices Offices and Places of Trust whether Civil Military or Ecclesiastick I do not speak of Suspending the Execution of those Laws whereby the being Priests or taking Orders in the Church of Rome or the being reconciled to that Church or the Papists meeting to celebrate Mass were in one degree or another made Punishable tho the King 's dispensing with them by a challenged Claim in the Crown be altogether Illegal for as divers of these Laws were never approved by many Protestants so nothing would have justified the making of them but the many Treasons and Conspiracies that they were from time to time found guilty of against the State And as the Papists of all Men have the least cause to complain of the Injustice Rigor and Severity of them considering the many Laws more Cruel and Sanguinary that are in Force in most Popish Countries against Protestants and these enacted and executed merely for their Opinions and Practices in the Matters of God without their being chargeable with Crimes and Offences against the Civil Government under which they live so were it necessary from Principles of Religion and Policy to relieve the Roman Catholicks from the forementioned Laws yet it ought not to be done but by the Legislative Authority of the Kingdoms and for the King to assume a Power of doing it in the vertue of a pretended Prerogative is both a high Usurpation over the Laws and a Violation of his Coronation Oath Nor is it any Commendation either of the Humanity of the Papists or of the Meekness and Truth of their Religion that while they elsewhere treat those who differ from them in Faith and Worship with that Barbarity they should so clamorously inveigh against the Severities which in some Reformed States they are liable unto and which their Treasons gave the Rise and Provocation unto at first and have been at all times the Motives to the Infliction of But they alone would have the Allowance to be Cruel wherein they act consonantly to their own Tenets and I wish that some Provision might be made for the future for the Security of our Religion and our Safety in the Profession of it without the doing any thing that may unbecome the Merciful Principles of Christianity or be unsuitable to the meek and generous Temper of the English Nation and that the Property of being Sanguinary may be left to the Church of Rome as its peculiar Priviledge and Glory and as a more distinguishing Character than all the other Marks which she pretends unto That which I am speaking of is the Suspending the Execution of those Laws by which the Government was secured of the Fidelity of its Subjects and by which they in whom it could not confide were merely shut out from Places of Power and Trust and were made liable to very small Damages themselves and only hindered from getting into a Condition of doing Mischief to us All Governments have a Right to use means for their own Preservation provided they be not such as are inconsistent with the Ends of Government and repugnant to the Will and Pleasure of the Supreme Sovereign of Mankind and it is in the Power of every Legislative Assembly to declare who of the Community shall be capable or incapable of publick Imploys and of possessing Offices upon which the Peace Welfare and Security of the whole Politick Body does depend Without this no Government could subsist nor the People be in Safety under it but the Constitution would be in constant danger of being Subverted and the Privileges Liberties and Religion of the Subjects laid open to be overthrown And should such a Power in Legislators be upon weak Suspitions and ill grounded Jealousies carried at any time too far and some prove to be debarred from Trusts whose being imployed would import no Hazard yet the worst of that would be only a disrespect shewn to individual Persons who might deserve more Favor and Esteem but could be of no Prejudice to the Society there being always a sufficient number of others fit for the discharge of all Offices in whom an entire Confidence may be reposed And 't is remarkable that the States General of the United Provinces who afford the greatest Liberty to all Religions that any known State in Europe giveth yet they suffer no Papists to come into Places of Authority and Judicature nor to bear any Office in the Republick that may either put them into a Condition or lay them under a Temptation of attempting any thing to the Prejudice of Religion or for the betraying the Liberty of the Provinces And as 't is Lawful for any Government to preclude all such Persons from publick Trusts of whose Enemity and ill Will to the Establishment in Church or State they have either a moral Certainty or just Grounds of Suspition so 't is no less lawful to provide Tests for their Discovery and Detection that they may not be able to mask and vizor themselves in order to getting into Offices and thereupon of promoting and accomplishing their mischievous and malicious Intentions Nor is it possible in such a case but that the Tests they are to be tried by must relate to some of those Principles by which they are most eminently distinguished from them of the National Settlement and in reference whereunto they think it most piacular to dissemble their Opinion Nor have the Papists cause to be offended that the Renouncing the Belief of Transubstantiation should be required as the distinguishing Mark whereby upon their refusal they may be discerned when all the Penalty upon their being known is only to be excluded from a Share in the Legislation and not to be admitted to Employments of Trust and Profit
Fear or Courtship have enrolled themselves into the List of Addressers and under pretence of giving thanks to the King for his promise of protecting the Archbishops Bishops and Clergy and all other of the Church of England in the free exercise of their Religion as by Law established have cut the throat of their Mother at whose breasts they have suck'd till they are grown fat both by acknowledging the usurped Prerogative upon which the King assumes the Right and Authority of emitting the Declaration and by exchanging the legal standing and security of their Church into that precarious one of the Royal Word which they fly unto as the bottom of her Subsistence and trust to as the wall of her defence And as most of the Members of the Separate Societies are free from all accession to Addressing and the few that concurred were merely drawn in by the wheedle and importunity of their Preachers so they who are of the chiefest Character and greatest reputation for Wisdom and Learning among the Ministers have preserved themselves from all folly and treachery of that kind The Apostle tells us that not many wise not many noble are called which as it is verified in many of the Dissenting Addressers so it may serve for some kind of Apology for their low and sneaking as well as for their indiscreet and imprudent behaviour in this matter And it is the more venial in some of them as being not only a means of ingratiating themselves as they fansie with the King who heretofore had no very good opinion of them but as being both an easie and compendious method of Attoning for Offences against the Crown of which they were strongly suspected and a cheap and expenceless way of purchasing the pardon of their Relations that had stood actually accused of High Treason Nor is it to be doubted but that as the King will retain very little favour and mercy for Fanaticks when once he has served his Ends upon them so they will preserve as little kindness for the Papists if they can but obtain relief in a legal way And as there is not a People in the Kingdom that will be more loyal to Princes while they continue so to govern as that Fealty by the Laws of God or Man remains due to them so there are none of what Principles or Communion soever upon whom the Kingdom in its whole interest come to lye at stake may more assuredly and with greater confidence depend than upon the generality of Dissenting Protestants and especially upon those that are not of the Pastoral Order The severities that the Dissenters lay under before and their deliverance from Oppression and Disturbance now seconded with the Kings expectation and demands of thanksgiving Addresses were strong Temptations upon men void of generosity and greatness of spirit and who are withal of no great political Wisdom nor of prospect into the Consequences of Councils and Tricks of State to act as illegally in their thanks as his Majesty had done in his bounty So that whatsoever Animadversion they may deserve should they be proceeded against according to their demerit yet it is to be hoped that both they and the Addressers of the former stamp may all find room in an Act of Indemnity and that the Mercy of the Nation towards them will triumph over and get the better of its Justice As it would argue a strange and judicial infatuation should they proceed to farther excesses and think to escape the Punishment due to one Crime by committing and taking sanctuary in another thro improving their Complements into actions of Treachery so all their hope of Pardon as well as of Lenity and Moderation from a true Protestant and rightly constituted Authority depends upon their conduct and behaviour henceforward and their not suffering themselves to be hurried and deluded into a cooperation with the Court for the obtaining of a Popish Parliament All their endeavours of that kind would but more clearly detect and manifest their treachery to Religion and the Kingdom it not being in their power to out-vote the honest English part of the People so as to help the King to such a House of Commons as he desires and were it possible that thro their assistance in conjunction with violence and tricks used in Elections and Returns by the Court such a House of Commons might be obtained as would be serviceable to Arbitrary and Papal Ends yet neither the King nor they would be the nearer the compassing what is aim'd at it being demonstrable that the majority of the House of Lords are never to be wrought over to justifie this illegal Declaration or to grant the King a Power of Suspending Laws at his pleasure nor to give their Assent to a Bill for Repealing the Test Acts and the Statutes that enjoyn and require the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy And if they should be so far left of God and betray'd by those among themselves whom the Court hath gained as to become guilty of so enormous an act of folly and villany and should the Election of the next Parliament be the happy juncture they wait for and the improving their interest as well as the giving their own Votes for the Choice of Papists into the House of Commons be what they mean by an essential proof of their Loyalty and of the sincerity of their humble Addresses See Mr. Alsop's Speech to the King and that whereby they intend to demonstrate that the greatest thing they have promised is the least thing they will perform for his Majesties service and satisfaction as in that case they will deserve to forfeit all hopes of being forgiven so it would be an infidelity to God and Men and a cruelty to our selves and our Posterity not to abandon them as betrayers of Religion expunge them out of the Roll of Protestants strip them of all that wherein free Subjects have a Legal Right and not to condemn them to the utmost punishments which the Laws of the Kingdom adjudge the worst of Traitors and Malefactors unto There are some who thro hating of them do wish their miscarrying and offending to so unpardonable a degree that they may hereafter be furnished with an advantage both of ruining them and the whole Dissenting Party for their sakes But as the love that I bear unto them and the perswasion and belief I have of the truth of their Religious Principles do make me exceeding sollicitous to have them kept and prevented from being hurried and transported into so fatal and criminal a behaviour so I desire to make no other excuse for my plain dealing towards them but that of Solomon who tells us that faithful are the wounds of a friend while the kisses of an Enemy are deceitful and that he who rebukes a man shall find more favour afterwards than he who flattereth with the tongue POSTSCRIPT SInce the foregoing Sheets went to the Press and while they were Printing off there is come to my hands a new
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
Cesar 's and both St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans and St. Peter in his General Epistle have very positively condemned that pernicious Maxim but without any formal Declarations made of the Rules or Measures of Government And since both the People and Senate of Rome had acknowledged the Power that Augustus had indeed violently usurped it became Legal when it was thus submitted to and confirmed both by the Senate and People and it was established in his Family by a long Prescription when those Epistles were writ so that upon the whole matter all that is in the New Testament upon this Subject imports no more but that all Christians are bound to acquiesce in the Government and submit to it according to the Constitution that is settled by Law XI We are then at last brought to the Constitution of our English Government so that no general Considerations from Speculations about Sovereign Power nor from any Passages either of the Old and New Testament ought to determin us in this matter which must be fixed from the Laws and Regulations that have been made among us It is then certain that with relation to the executive Part of the Government the Law has lodged that singly in the King so that the whole Administration of it is in him but the Legislative Power is lodged between the King and the Two Houses of Parliament so that the Power of making and repealing Laws is not singly in the King but only so far as the Two Houses concur with him It is also clear that the King has such a determined extent of Prerogative beyond which he has no Authority as for instance if he levies Money of his People without a Law impowring him to it he goes beyond the Limits of his Power and asks that to which he has no right so that there lies no obligation on the Subject to grant it and if any in his Name use Violence for the obtaining it they are to be looked on as so many Robbers that invade our Property and they being violent Aggressours the Principle of Self-preservation seems here to take place and to warrant as violent a Resistance XII There is nothing more evident than that England is a free Nation that has its Liberties and Properties reserved to it by many positive and express Laws if then we have a right to our Property we must likewise be supposed to have a right to preserve it for those Rights are by the Law secured against the Invasions of the Prerogative and by consequence we must have a right to preserve them against those Invasions It is also evidently declared by our Law that all Orders and Warrants that are issued out in opposition to them are null of themselves and by consequence any that pretend to have Commissions from the King for those ends are to be considerd as if they had none at all since those Commissions being void of themselves are indeed no Commissions in the Construction of the Law and therefore those who act in vertue of them are still to be considered as private Persons who come to invade and disturb us It is also to be observed that there are some Points that are justly disputable and doubtful and others that are so manifest that it is plain that any Objections that can be made to them are rather forced Pretences than so much as plausible Colours It is true if the Case is doubtful the Interest of the publick Peace and Order ought to carry it but the Case is quite different when the Invasions that are made upon Liberty and Property are plain and visible to all that consider them XIII The main and great Difficulty here is that though our Government does indeed assert the Liberty of the Subject yet there are many express Laws made that lodg the Militia singly in the King that make it plainly unlawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King or any commissioned by him And these Laws have been put in the form of an Oath which all that have born any Employment either in Church or State have sworn and therefore those Laws for the assuring our Liberties do indeed bind the King's Conscience and may affect his Ministers yet since it is a Maxim of our Law that the King can do no wrong these cannot be carried so far as to justify our taking Arms against him be the Transgressions of Law ever so many and so manifest And since this has been the constant Doctrine of the Church of England it will be a very heavy Imputation on us if it appears that though we held those Opinions as long as the Court and the Crown have favoured us yet as soon as the Court turns against us we change our Principles XIV Here is a true Difficulty of this whole Matter and therefore it ought to be exactly considered 1. All general Words how large soever are still supposed to have a tacit exception and reserve in them if the Matter seems to require it Children are commanded to obey their Parents in all things Wives are declared by the Scripture to be subject to their Husbands in all things as the Church is unto Christ And yet how comprehensive soever these Words may seem to be there is still a reserve to be understood in them and though by our Form of Marriage the Parties swear to one another till Death them do part yet few doubt but that this Bond is dissolved by Adultery though it is not named for odious things ought not to be suspected and therefore not named upon such Occasions But when they fall out they carry still their own force with them 2. When there seem to be a Contradiction between two Articles in the Constitution we ought to examin which of the two is the most evident and the most important and so we ought to fix upon it and then we must give such an accommodating sense to that which seems to contradict it that so we may reconcile those together Here then are two seeming Contradictions in our Constitution The one is the Publick Liberty of the Nation the other is the renouncing of all Resistance in case that were invaded It is plain that our Liberty is only a thing that we enjoy at the King's Discretion and during his Pleasure if the other against all Resistance is to be understood according to the utmost extent of the Words Therefore since the chief Design of our whole Law and of all the several Rules of our Constitution is to secure and maintain our Liberty we ought to lay that down for a Conclusion that it is both the most plain and the most important of the two And therefore the other Article against Resistance ought to be so softned as that it do not destroy this 3. Since it is by a Law that Resistance is condemned we ought to understand it in such a sense as that it does not destroy all other Laws And therefore the intent of this Law must only
a mind to Conquer us I read in the Scripture so base a Character of none as of them who are neither hot nor cold And able Statesmen have always reproved this kind of Tepidness or Half-conduct to be both unuseful and dangerous Media via nec Amicos parat nec Inimicos tollit Wherefore England must of necessity either preserve the Low-Countries against the Usurpation of the French which is our Bulwark or raise a new Fence that shall shelter us from being conquered To preserve the first then Spain must be assisted from hence and to make a new Rampart we must divide the Spoil with France Experience hath sufficiently shewn us that our Ports are not inaccessible and Reason demonstrates that those can never be secure from the like Attempts but by keeping a powerful Fleet out at Sea that we may be absolute Masters there 'T is a Maxim also which admits neither of exception nor diminution That a well-governed Kingdom is obliged to arm when War is kindled in the Neighbourhood And though we should resolve to take part neither with the one Interest nor the other yet we must be in a Posture to hinder the Torrent from coming upon our Land that so the Conquerour may not have a mind to extend his Conquests hitherwards Here then is the Charge of Arming which on this Conjuncture is inevitable the equipping of a Fleet and raising of Souldiers to be mutually entertained at the charge of the People if we do not speedily take some Party and all this Expence without Glory or hope to get any fruit by so unprofitable a Counsel wherein our Souldiers will never learn the Discipline of War or extract any Utility from such Prizes as being uncapable after this manner to share in the Booty or in the Victories and Treaties of Accommodation according to their several events Whereas by taking part either with Spain or France the Charge would be much less because he whom we aid would largely contribute towards it and the Prizes gotten at Sea might help to discharge the Expence both of the Naval and the Land-Forces And thus would our Souldiers be exercised and our Nation make a noise again abroad and regain the Reputation which we have of late but too ignominiously lost in the World For when our men shall be trained up daily in strict Discipline beyond Seas we shall by this means establish a Seminary of good and able fighting men at the Cost of others which will be the firm Pillars of the Party and render us considerable in the eyes of all our Neighbours Besides this course may be a vent so to discharge the Realm of ill humours and a great company of Idle persons which now being without Employment are a burthen to the Publick and who one day are capable too of disturbing the domestick Tranquility of the State whereas on the contrary what Success soever this War shall have we shall always find our Accompt in the end of an Accommodation whereof being thus prepared we cannot fail of having the principal benefit and part All these Considerations then seem unto me to be so convincing that they do oblige me absolutely to condemn the Opinion of Neutrality as inconsistent with our Glory Safety and Fundamental Reasons of State by concluding positively that we ought to lend an ear to those Propositions which shall be made unto us from all Parties and embrace those which shall be found to be most agreeable and convenient to the Interest of the Kingdom And in the interim to be the more considered by both these great Parties and better assured against all manner of Attempts my Advice is That without any longer loss of time a strong Fleet should be presently got ready and that as many days as we have to spare before the next Campagne since now every hour is precious that is not well spent as to this purpose may be employed to render us henceforwards necessary unto them whose Cause we shall resolve to embrace and as formidable to those against whom we intend to declare so that on both sides we may be the Commanders of the whole Affairs and give it respite or motion by the sole Rule of the Interests of England After that he had spoken thus I did observe by the Countenance of the other two persons that had not yet spoken that this Discourse did not displease them wherefore without any farther Reflection one of them briskly began to speak to this effect Your Reasons said he are so convincing that I do not only render my consent unto them without any Reply but mean to make use of them to serve as the Bass and Foundation of that Edifice which I have a long time meditated upon in order to the fundamental Maxims of State of this Nation Therefore without more ceremony or delay I see that we must act and take one of the two Parties For any other Counsel would be dangerous and destructive by exposing of us to a thousand Inconveniencies which all the humane Prudence imaginable cannot be capable of preventing or avoiding in process of time I remain also agreed with you that in the choice of which Party we are to take we ought not to consider more than just what our own Interest properly is which is the Rule of that conduct of Monarchs that as the Soul and the Spirit vivifying the whole Figure before us gives it motion in the Body of the State It rests then to Form the Consequences upon these Principles and decide which of the two Parties is the most convenient France offers Roses unto us Spain nothing but Thorns The first presents us with a Scheme of Conquests without Dangers the last with prospect of Dangers without Profit The one invites us to be their Companions of assured Victories of which they have already beaten the way the other doth sollicite us and implore our Aid only to help them out of the mire without any other Benefit than as the old Proverb says There 's your labour for your pains at the price of our Bloud and Lives If we shall engage in the Assistance of Spain in succouring them we run a Risco of being lost our selves without yet being able to re-establish them but by joyning with France we shall partake of the Spoiles with them which we can never by force be able to take out of their hands since the Progress of France is now arrived at such a point of Effect that all our Powers combined together are not sufficient to stop it and then both our Resistances and Succours will serve but to ruine the Spaniards the sooner and bring the Vengeance of the French upon our own heads And if Spain comes to sink under the Weight of the War all the burthen of that Fall centers upon England alone In fine 't is agitated therefore singly as to this particular Whether we will needs chuse to embark in a Vessel so driven with storms or in a Ship which sails at ease with
full Sails seconded with the favourable Gales of Fortune But in case all these material Objections cannot divert us from engaging in the ill Fortune of the Spaniards let us see on what Terms at least we can assist them usefully If we shall send Troops into the Low Countreys to their Aid 't is in effect to overwhelm them by the very weight and charge of those Succours and sacrifice so many of our own Subjects to Famine and Misery as we do thus send Souldiers unto them because they have neither Countrey enough left to Lodge them in when they come thither nor the means to Entertain them after once they are there If we succour them meerly by Sea that kind of help will not hinder France from taking of their Towns in the mean time one by one and so though we should a little incommodate France we shall not ease Flanders at all and such an Assistance will in Conclusion prove none because 't is an Application of the Plaister too remotely and on the wrong side of the Wound If then the Loss of the Low Countreys be inevitable let us do what we can were it not much better that we should have our share in the Parcels of so great a Shipwrack then to suffer France to ingross them all to themselves since supposing that we do divide Booties with the French on this Occasion the Places which by this means must necessarily fall into our hands will be so many new Bulwarks to England which may shelter us for the future against their vast Designs of which the Partisans of Spain make a Chimerical Monster to intimidate the English from taking part with their best and properest Interest in the Case But when once we are entered into a Communion of Conquests with the French the subduing of Flanders will serve us as Ladders to arrrive at other Projects by wherein we may probably hope to find our Profit and Satisfaction mutually together as well as the Pleasure of a just Revenge I set aside the Conquest of the Indies which we could not fail to encompass whil'st France doth hold all the Forces of Spain in play both at Sea and Land and so occupied that they 'll never be able to retain what they hold in the New World no more than that remainder of Territories which yet they stand possessed of nearer hand Wherefore as to what regards the Interest of this Kingdom what I have last urged methinks might suffice to make you of my Opinion And if we do impartially consider that of the Royal Family What can be more important and convenient for it than to have at their Devotion a Neighbouring Power hard by which is so formidable and that is able to protect them in a few hours from all manner of Revolutions that they may and perhaps not without cause neither apprehend at home by thus commanding both the Treasures and the Armies of France whenever they shall have any need of them to put a Bridle in the mouths of all such as do seek to check their Authority I avow that our properest Interest were to hold the Ballance equal between Spain and France if we could but we should then have thought sooner of that whil'st these matters were in a condition to be disputed For at present the Weight of the Case inclining totally to one side so that we can no longer oppose France with Spain as a Barricado against their Designs we must now think how to become our selves the Counterpoise of France and the Defence of Europe by establishing of our Power beyond Seas on solid Foundations that all other Princes may consider us hereafter as the only People who are capable of resisting the Design of the Universal Monarchy and so as France it self may not be able impunitively to thwart England in this Resolution because then our Safety will be much more firmly setled by our own Strength than with the Force of others and all those who apprehend the Progress of France will conjoyn with us and become tyed to the Fortune of England as they would be at this instant to Spain if they saw that Monarchy in a Condition to be able to maintain them So that all those Reasons do oblige me to conclude that we must no longer hesitate on this point of taking part with France and accept of those Advantagious Offers which the French make unto us both in respect of the publick Good of Christendom as well as our own particular Security since by being united to them in a Knot of such inseparable Conditions and on such a Conjuncture of Affairs because of which they dare refuse us nothing that we ask what need we fear from the opposite Conjunction of any other Parties All the Assistents at this Conference began to express Indignation against this part of his Discourse and shewed by their Unquietness all the while that he spake thus that they had much ado to keep from interrupting of him or to refrain from answering tumultuously before that he had made an end But as they offered to reply in heat all at once to deliver their thoughts on this Subject the Master of the House who had not yet delivered his sense to the Company broke silence and with a little smile which had something in it grave and scornful dexterously intermingled together addressing himself to him who had spoken with so much length just before held on the Debate as follows I know your Prudence my Lord too well says he and your Lordship 's disinteressed Zeal for the good of the State to believe that you can mean seriously what you have urged on the behalf of France but rather am perswaded and that easily too that with an ingenious Artifice you have thus disguised your own true Sentiments of this Case the better to penetrate into the bottom of our ours and so give Opportunity to see clearlier through all the Reasons and the Doubts which may be formed there upon touching this Matter of which we do now treat since the truth of any Argument doth never so well appear and endure the light as when it is sifted to the very root and that the Reflexion thereof is exalted by the Opposition of the contrary sense So that in combating with your Opinion I shall still think that we do not disagree but rather to dissent in the Exposition of a vain Phantasm which you erected for sport sake to divert us and give the Company Recreation Allow me then to tell you that this Project upon which you have thus exercised the accuteness of your Wit with so great a grace is both unprofitable and chimerical no less then shameful and unjust and ruinous towards England to all intents and purposes whatsoever whereas the Design of succouring Spain is facil honourable profitable necessary and suitable to the Fundamental Maxims of our State And if you please to afford me never so little attention it will not be difficult for me to prove unto you very clearly according
to your own Judgment what I shall propose of this Nature that we shall perfectly accord in one and the same Result and convince you fully of the Truth thereof The Design which you mention is of the like nature that it were to demolish an old strong Edifice to build an new Castle in the Air or like his who to renew his Youth consented to be cut into pieces and put his several members into an Alembick of Glass To follow your Counsel then we must alter the whole Constitution of our Politicks from innovated Interests and Foreign Maxims by turning all things upside down even from the Accidents to the very Genius of the Nation and distil more modern Bloud into the veins of the People then that which they have hereditarily received from Father to Son But let us I beseech you examine on what ground and with what Materials this new Edifice is to be raised That Earth which you have proposed unto us to make it out of is a moving sort of Sand or a Floating Island in which we can never fix on any firm Bottom 'T is upon France that you would have us establish our Fortune to found a Power which one day may counterbalance the Power of the French or at least shelter us from their vast Designs Nay you will needs have France made the Instrument of a greatness in a Neighbour which they ought to suspect if they be not besotted by so putting England into a state to be able e're long to stop their Progresses and erect a Bulwark in us against themselves As if France that is our hereditary Enemy and hath so often tried what we are able to do against the Enlarging of their Empire who have graven deep in their hearts the injury of the Title which to their shame England carries in all publick Treaties and her Trophees in reference to that Crown this very France which hath no greater desire then to take the Dominion of the Sea from us and the Precedency in Commerce will help us as you believe to conquer the Indies in which one third part of his Realm is interessed and of which they do suck away all the Marrow with the semination of their Baubles by the ill husbandry of the Spaniards She who just now comes from Joyning with our Enemies against us after she had first contrived how to broach the Quarrel between England and the States of the United Provinces under divers false motions who snatched the Victory out of our hands when we were morally certain of beating the Dutch who reduced the Bishop of Munster to a necessity of separating from us in this War after that he had received our Assistance in large Sums of Money debauched Denmark from our party hindred the Swedes to arm in our favour and contrived the whole Fabrick of that Affront which we received in the River of Thames Can you after all these demonstrations of the Rancour which they bear in their hearts against England be so uningenuous as to believe that the French will make a Bridge for us on the other side of the Sea as sincerely intending by this means to make us participate of their conquests with them or ever to unite in a sound Amity with our Interests For God's sake then disabuse your self as soon as you can out of this gross Errour if it be so that it hath got the least Fixation in your mind since you cannot cordially reason thus or have the least hope of such an Incongruity in the Reason of State of other Nations without conceiving at the same time that the French have lost both their Wits and Judgment of which yet there is no great reason why we should think as they have handled us in this matter of Negotiations of late for therein I am sure that we do find them to have more than common sense France indeed will be glad to have us for the Instruments of their Ambition but never for Companions of their Glory or Rivals to their Greatness The French do I confess seek to make use of us to pull the Chesnut out of the Fire to save the burning of their fingers but when that is done the French will not endure that we should eat any bit of the Kernel And the work which they do now make for us both at home and abroad is so incompatible with our Interest and Designs as well as their own that their Professions towards us at this time cannot possibly be sincere except they be grown so kind on a suddain as to overthrow all their Fundamental Laws and in favour of England change the whole face of their Designs which they have hitherto been forming upon Europe They pretend that the Low-Countries are entirely fallen to them by the right of Devolution which France hath forged to belong to its self Then are all those Provinces by consequence united to the French Crown nor can their King divide or alienate any part of them If this be true to our advantage though he would never so fain but that it must be subject still to return again to their Tribunal they have annulled the Renunciation of the Infanta of Spain and thereby have formed a Right to the Succession of that Monarchy in case the young King should come to fail of a Successor So that the most Christian King can give us no share in the dismembring of Spain without doing prejudice to a Right which he pretends to be acquired unalienably to his Crown and whereof he himself may not otherwise dispose Next let us view the Materials which we are to have to build this new Edifice with Either we must undertake this War at our own Charge or at the Expence of France If it be undertaken at the Cost of France we must be their Hirelings at best as the Tartars be to the Ottomons and cannot move one step beyond What and How they 'l have us act France on these terms will always hold the Bridle in our Teeth and the Cavessan upon our Noses to make us stop turn and wind in the middle of the Courses just as they please From the very first moment that we shall grow burthensome unto them they have but to withdraw their Supplies to make us fall headlong to the Ground and then the Share which we pretend in their Conquests doth purely and arbitrarily depend on their discretion But if we shall underake to carry on this Design out of our own proper Purse who shall furnish us with the Means of doing it Do you believe that the Parliament and the People will give away their Substance to act against the true Interests of the Realm and that they 'l Bleed to quench the ambitious Thirst of the French or destroy Spain from whence all the abundance of our Commerce is derived and which even at this Instant grants unto us such notable Advantages by a Treaty which is solemnly ratified The part which France doth offer us in the Conquests of Ostend and Neuport
is a vast Liberality indeed but still of other folks Goods It would become them far better to restore back Dunkirk to England which they cheated us of by Surprize or the Town of Callis which they have dismembred from our ancient Dominion They take from us what is our own already and present us with nothing but what is not in their power to give because they cannot bestow either the Title or the Possession of what they do offer in this Kind upon us which if we will have we must gain it by the Point of the Sword And this Train which they do shew us is of the same nature with that sort of Temptations with which the Devil tempted our Saviour from the top of the Pinnacle But do not you discover that this is a subtil Artifice to imbroil us again in a now War with the States of the United Provinces who have the Interest to defend these two Places as much as if either Amsterdam or Flushing were so designed upon And without an absolute Naval Victory we can never hope to conquer them and such a Conquest at Sea too as shall put the Hollanders out of all manner of possibility to afford any Succours in this Case This is a very hard bone which France doth cast in for us to gnaw whil'st they eat all the Marrow of it In fine when the Arms of France joyned to our Forces shall have put us possession of these two Places yet they 'll be totally unuseful to England when France is possessed of all the rest Because thus the French will shut us quite out of the whole Traffick of the Low Countreys and will be always in a Condition to drive the English away from thence unless we do resolve continually to keep a Fleet at Sea for the conserving of them If this Design be hollow and visionary it is not less shameful then airy and full of Injustice We have no manner of Pretention on the Monarchy of Spain nor is it our Genius to whet our Spirits to form Castles in the Clouds of Chimerical Rights What Glory can it be to our Arms to help to oppress a King in Minority of six years old by surprize only because we find him now to be rudely attacqued and unprovided on a frivolous Pretext immediately after the French had given the Queen his Mother and his principal Ministers of State at Madrid such solemn assurances to the contrary as well as at Paris touching the inviolable continuation of a good Peace and a sincere Friendship The manner which Spain hath held and acted with us newly in relation to England when we were assaulted by three powerful Enemies at one time ought to oblige us at least to be deaf to the artificial Allurements of France For although the French have tried by all the ways imaginable and with Offers incomparably more advantagious than those which they do make to us at present to the end that so they might have gained the Forces of Spain to unite with them to our inevitable Oppression yet was it never in their Power to shake the unalterable Amity which the Spanish Nation have for us by a kind of natural Sympathy which one knows not how better to express than by the Immutability of it whether we do oblige or disoblige them Would it not then be an Ingratitude totally inconsistent with the Honour and the Hospitality of the English Temper so soon to forget this Kindness since at the same instant that Spain was the deepliest engaged against Portugal they did notwithstanding openly oppose the Designs of France which seemed to the prejudice of England by refusing them in contemplation of us firmly and with great Resolution Passage for those Troops of theirs which they sent to ruine the Bishop of Munster our Ally and Confederate then We cannot complain of any Injury or Attempt wherein the Spaniards have tampered against England No League nor ancient Treaty doth oblige us to second the Designs of France and we cannot conclude new Aliances with the French to this purpose without directly contravening that Treaty which we have lately ratified with Spain Let us see then what the Herald is to say to the Spaniards that shall be sent to denounce War unto them on this Occasion from England or with what Reasons we shall be able to fill a Manifesto which we would offer to the Publick whereby to justifie the Causes of this Rupture Wherefore I leave the Care my Lord to you being that you seem to be the Author of this Counsel to found it well in the point of Justice But pray see that you perform it better and with more grace than the Writer of the Queen of France's Prepensions hath done I say farther yet That this Design is both prejudicial and destructive and that it carries along with it most pernicious Consequences as well in the present time as the time to come For from the very moment that we do break with Spain our Commerce will cease with the Effects of all those great Advantages which the Spaniards have * By the Treaty last ratified at Madrid by the Earl of Sandwich His Majesty's Embassadour there newly granted unto us and the Merchants of this Realm who trade there will justly be confiscated since all the Profit that we draw from thence must on these terms infallibly redound in favour of the Hollanders whilest our Arms do busie the Spaniards in the Low Countries and the French as they do their utmost against Spain at the same instant will seize their principal Ports into their Power and thus become absolute Masters of the Commerce by putting themselves into a Posture to ereâ—â—â— Doâ—â—â—nion over th◠〈◊〉 which we can never afterwards be able to resist Not above three Years agâ— France was hardly able to set forth twenty Ships that is to say Men of War 〈◊〉 â—ow they have sixty large Vessels ready furnished and well armed and do apply all their Industry and Pains in every part to augment the number Could the Ghost of Queen Elizabeth return back into the World again she would justly reproach us who are the Ministers of State here in England for having abandoned her good Maxims by tamely suffering before our Eyes a Maâ—itim Power to increase which she so diligently kept down throughout the whole Course of her Reign Whereas you are so far from opposing the Growth of this Power that you rather seem to desire England should facilitate the ways to make it grow the faster and render it yet more formidable than it is by the Acquisition of the Sea Ports which in conclusion must infallibly bring France to be Mistress of the Commerce of the Indies All the World knows the vast quantity of Money and Arms which the French have accumulated to that end alone out of the richest Purses of that Kingdom I agree to what hath been said before very prudently in this Conference that our Power and Greatness doth principally consist in the matter of
have the least good Opinion of the Sincerity of their Faith and Dealing That which you have alledged touching the Support which the Royal House of England may particularly hope for from the Amity of France is both a delicate and a dangerous Stone to stir The Glory and the Safety of our King doth only consist in the Love of his People and a streight Union betwixt His Majesty and his present Parliament since He hath no other sound Interest to rely upon but that of the Kingdom having need of no other Arms or Assistance The hearty affections of His Subjects and His own Royal Vertues will be as so many Cittadels erected to maintain His Authority and any other project is contrary both to His Genious and His admirable Prudence For all those who shall dare to inspire any other thoughts into His Majesty will infallibly undergo the weight of His Displeasure as Enemies to His Fame and Quiet But at the Bottom of all what help can He rationally expect from France should He come to need it which God defend after their unworthy abandoning of the King His Father in His great Distress and of the King which now is likewise when the Wheel of Fortune ran against them even to the Exstirpation of the Royal Line had not He by whom Kings reign wonderfully restored them to the Throne of their Ancestors It was that shameful Treaty which the French ratified with those Usurpers then that sacrificed Charles the First to the Ambition of the Tyrant Oliver Cromwel who had snatched the Scepter from the right Owners and Proprietors thereof Nay to such a Degree was the Inhospitability of France grown at that time though His Father were thus execrably Murthered before the Eyes of the French our King 's own Cousin-german refused Him a Retreat that might be secure for His own Person Therefore 't is fit that the English should be disabused once for all by being better informed since France is so far from being assisting or useful unto us upon this Conjuncture that in truth they do seek only to increase our Divisions and Troubles For 't is both their Interest and Maxim so to do which Conduct hath been exactly and hereditarily observed in their Counsels for many Ages together and newly in the last Civil War here since all the Baits which they do present unto us are but so many Apples of Discord which the French Emissaries cast up and down among us purposely to embroil us with our Neighbours or else with one another Next let us consider at present whether we shall find our Accompt better with Spain 'T is evident that solid Reason of State doth totally incline us to leave that other way and you cannot but all acknowledge this to be our true Fundamental Maxim whereby we may keep the Balance in aequilibrio and that our Safety doth most consist in such an aequilibrium why then should we swerve from thence out of vain hopes or quit the Body for the Shadow The Interest of Commerce no way invites us to take part with France and this Truth is so notorious to all the people of England that there is no Eloquence able to perswade them contrary to their own Experience therein The Cause is just and favourable A young * The King of Spain Pupil unworthily oppressed a Peace so solemnly and piously established as lightly violated by a Process of Cavils and Legerdemain by a Proceeding thereupon full of Surprisals and Violence as well as Pretensions unjustly revived after an Authentick †Vide The Buckler of State and Justice Art 4. Renunciation are so many voices which speak to the Root of our Consciences to call us to that which we owe to Justice Pitty good Neighbourhood the Publick Cause of Christendom and our selves For in this matter is concerned no less than the Case of Royal Successions which France will needs have submitted to the Customs of ordinary Citizens and the Conservation of that Bulwark which is common to all these parts of Europe against this Torrent which threatens the whole Vicinity with a great Inundation and the assuring the Tranquility of the Christian Republick against an unquiet Nation that will never desist from disturbing of it until their Insolence shall be abated The Foundation then being so solid because we shall in this Opposition have to treat with a Nation that makes profession of Honour and Generosity which hath never yet been accused to be guilty of having violated any Publick Treaty and that would rather ‖ The remarkable Integrity of Spain hazzard the loss of their Monarchy than their Reputation the Advantage is both secure and considerable whereas on the account of France we shall appear but as little Accessories and the French will carry us on as the First Motion only according to the rapidness of their Progress by applying us meerly in the course of their Game to their own Ends and thus shall we become the Ministers of their Ambition and be made use of like a pair of Stairs on which they do mean to tread in order to their obtaining the Universal Monarchy In fine their Interests if that we are still predestinated to be thus grosly deluded must be the Rule of ours and our future Conduct too and Operations But in taking part with Spain we shall be the Arbitrators of Peace and War and enabled to give the whole weight unto the Resolutions of each Party Then will France consider us with terrour and the apprehension of what our Arms may do and Spain by the addition of our Succours If we do desire Conquests we cannot hope for more lawful ones nor easier Victories than to re-unite by this means our ancient Dominion in France which have formerly been dismembred from the Crown of England But if we shall limit our Designs to the sole establishment of a Peace we can find the Accompt both of Glory and Safety likewise therein since it appears by Authentick Letters of Monsieur de Lionn's writing that France is resolved to be content with Reason as soon as ever they do see England fixed to joyn with Spain and the States of the United Provinces So that 't is in our choice whether to make an advantagious War or procure an honest Peace at the first appearance of our preparations in Arms. Whereas on the contrary 't is evident by the Interception of the aforesaid Dispatches that they will despise all manner of Offices and Mediations that are not Armed but rather pursue vigorously their Course whither Fortune shall drive it on so long as they do meet with no powerful Obstacles in the way Therefore because you seem to believe that Spain is reduced to so low a Condition that our Relief would be altogether unuseful to them and serve for nothing but to bring down the Vengeance of France exasperated upon us for God's sake cure your self of this Pannick fear as soon as you can 'T is France endeavours to erect a formidable Power if
given to such Papists as inhabit in Corporations there 5. That your Majesties Letters of the 28th of September 1672. and the Order of Council thereupon whereby your Subjects are required not to prosecute any Actions against the Irish for any Wrongs or Injuries committed during the late Rebellion may likewise be recalled 6. That Colonel Talbot who hath notoriously assumed to himself the Title of Agent of the Roman Catholicks in Ireland be immediately dismissed out of all Command Military and Civil and forbidden Access to your Majesties Court. 7. That your Majesty would be pleased from time to time out of your Princely Wisdom to give such further Order and Directions to the Lord Lieutenant or other Governour of Ireland for the time being as may best conduce to the Encouragement of the English Planters and Protestants Interest there and the Suppression of the Insolencles and Disorders of the Irish Papists there These our humble Desires we present to your Majesty as the best means to preserve the Peace and Safety of that your Kingdom which hath been so much of late in Danger by the Practices of the said Irish Papists particularly Richard and Peter Talbot and we doubt not but your Majesty will find the happy Effects thereof to the great Satisfaction and Security of your Majesties Person and Government which of all earthly things is most dear to your Majesties most Loyal Subjects Ordered October 20. 1673. THat an Address be made to his Majesty by such Members of this House as are of his Majesties Privy-Council to acquaint his Majesty that it is the humble desire of this House that the intended Marriage of his Royal Highness with the Dutchess of Modena be not consummated and that he may not be Married to any Person but of the Protestant Religion And the same Day the Parliament was Prorogued till Monday next The Address of the Parliament to his Majesty WE your Majesties most Humble and Loyal Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament assembled being full of Assurance of your Majesties gracious Intentions to provide for the Establishment of Religion and the Preservation of your People in Peace and Security and foreseeing the dangerous Consequences which â—ay follow the Marriage of his Royal Highness the Duke of York with the Princess of â—â—â—dena or any other of the Popish Religion we hold our selves bound in Conscience â—â—d Duty to represent the same to your Sacred Majesty not doubting but these constant Testimonies which we have given your Majesty of our true and loyal Affections to your Sacred Person will easily gain a Belief that these our humble Desires proceed from Hearts still full of the same Affections toward your sacred Majesty and with intentions to establish your Royal Government upon those true Supports of the Protestant Religion and the Hearts of your People with all Humility desiring your Majesty to take the same into your Princely Consideration and to relieve your Subjects from those Fears and Apprehensions which at present they lie under from the Progress hath been made in that Treaty We do therefore humbly intreat your Majesty to consider that if this Match do proceed it will be a means to disquiet the Minds of your Protestant Subjects at home and to fill them with endless Jealousies and Discontents and will bring your Majesty into such Alliances abroad as will prove highly prejudicial if not destructive to the Interest of the very Protestant Religion it self And we find by sad Experience that such Marriages have encreased and encouraged Popery in this Kingdom and given opportunity to Priests and Jesuits to propagate their Opinions and seduce great Numbers of your Majesties Subjects And we do already observe how much the Party is animated with the hopes of this Match which were lately discouraged by your gracious Concessions in the last Meeting in this Parliament That we greatly fear this may be an Occasion to lessen the Affections of the People to his Royal Highness who is so nearly related to the Crown and whose Honour and Esteem we desire may always be intirely preserved That for another Age more at the least this Kingdom will be under the continual Apprehensions of the Growth of Popery and the Danger of the Protestant Religion Lastly We consider that this Princess having so near a Relation and Kindred to many Eminent Persons of the Court of Rome may give them great Opportunities to promote their Designs and carry on their Practices among us and by the same means penetrate into your Majesties most Secret Counsels and more easily discover the State of the whole Kingdom And finding that by the Opinions of very Learned Men it is generally admitted that such Treaties and Contracts by Proxies are dissolvable of which there are several Instances to be produced We do in all humbleness beseech your Majesty to put a stop to the Consummation of this intended Marriage And this we do the more importunately desire because we have not yet the Happiness to see any Issue of your Majesty's that may succeed in the Government of these Kingdoms which Blessings we most heartily pray Almighty God in his due time to bestow upon your Majesty and these Kingdoms to the unspeakable Joy and Comfort of all your Majesty's Subjects who desire nothing more than to continue under the Reigns of your Majesty and your Royal Posterity for ever October 30. 1673. Mr. Secretary Coventry brought from his Majesty an Answer to the Address presented to him touching the Duke of York as followeth C. R. HIS Majesty having received an Address from the House of Commons presenting their humble Desire that the intended Marriage betwixt his Royal Highness and the Princess of Modena may not be Consummated Commanded this Answer to be returned That he perceived the House of Commons have wanted a full Information of this Matter the Marriage not being barely intended but Compleated according to the Forms used amongst Princes and by His Royal Consent and Authority Nor could He in the least suppose it disagreeable to His House of Commons His Royal Highness having been in the view of the World for several Months engaged in a Treaty of Marriage with another Catholick Princess and yet a Parliament held during the time and not the least Exception taken at it An Address ordered to be presented to His Majesty concerning a Marriage between his Royal Highness and the Princess of Modena and a Committee appointed to that purpose A Committee appointed for preparing a Bill for a general Test to distinguish between Protestants and Papists and those that shall refuse to take it be incapable to enjoy any Office Military or Civil or to sit in either Houses of Parliament or to come within five miles of the Court. The House adjourned till Monday October 31. 1673. Resolved That the House considering the present Condition of the Nation will not take into any further Debate the Consideration of any Aid or Supplies or Charge upon the Subjects before the time of Payment of
and undoubted Priviledges of the People have been lately invaded by the Judges that now sit in Westminster-hall they have Espoused Proclamation against Law they have discountenanced and opposed several legal Acts that tended to the sitting of this Honourable House they have grasped the Legislative Power into their own Hands as in that Instance of Printing the Parliament was considering that matter but they in the interim made their private Opinion to be Law to supersede the Judgment of this House They have discharged Grand Juries on purpose to quel their Presentments and shelter great Criminals from Justice and when Juries have presented their Opinion for the sitting of this Parliament they have in disdain thrown them at their Feet and told them they would be no Messengets to carry such Petitions and yet in a few days after have encouraged all that would spit their Venom against the Government they have served an Ignorant and Arbitrary Faction and been the Messengers of Abhorrences to the King Mr. Speaker What we have now to do is to load them with shame who have bid defiance to the Law they are guilty of Crimes against Nature against the King against their Knowledge and against Posterity The whole frame of Nature doth loudly and daily petition to God their Creator and Kings like God may be addressed to in like manner by Petition not Command They likewise knew it was lawful to petition Ignorance can be no Plea and their Knowledge aggravates their Crimes The Children unborn are bound to curse such Proceedings for 't was not petitioning but Parliaments they abhorr'd The Atheist pleads against a God not that he disbelieves a Deity but would have it so Tresilian and Belknap were Judges too their Learning gave them Honour but their Villanies made their Exit by a Rope The end of my Motion therefore is That we may address warmly to our Prince against them let us settle a Committee to enquire into their Crimes and not fail of doing Justice upon them that have perverted it let us purge the Fountain and the Streams will issue pure November the 17th being appointed for consideration of His Majesty's Message the Order being read it was moved by a worthy Member THAT as long as Popery hangs over us we could do nothing and we ought to represent our condition to the King and then when we had secured our Religion and Property we should be ready to do any thing that might make the King happy and great A Second I am sorry that Tangier that is a Supply is moved for at so unseasonable a time I confess Tangier is of great moment but we have now in hands that which is of greater moment than ten Tangiers put together The consideration of that before we are secure in our Religion at home is as when an Enemy was landed we should afterwards go to fortifie the Coasts of Kent And being told us by His Majesty we should secure our selves against Popery by all ways but meddling with the Succession and should rest there we are prevented of what is our preservation And the providing for Tangier now will be the weakening of our Security When Tangier was put into the hands of the English first there was an Article that there should continue a Popish Church and the Religion that belonged to it to continue their Lives but not to be replenish'd with new And if it be enquir'd into I believe it will be found the number of them is not yet decreased It is not long since there was a Popish Governour there many Papists and Souldiers gone thither lately from Ireland It is not a little Sum that will do what is needful there and if it should be a considerable one that should be given for it it may be made use of to raise an Army there so that we run into a great Inconveniency by providing for it I think we ought to consider well of it before we do And yet I am not for sullenly saying we will raise no Money but for clearly stating the Case by an Address to the King A Third I am only to acquaint you That Tangier is not to be maintained without your Support A Fourth All things are to be considered comparatively and if it be made an Argument against the Duke's Bill that is at the Head of an Army in Scotland and that in Ireland there are ten Papists to one Protestant his great interest in the Fleet and being Admiral and Tangier being a Seminary of Papists then sure you have a special Argument to take Tangier into your Consideration and Money may be for that Service But then this Parliament do not ask Petitions of Grace but of Right And will you part with your Money without any Security You have often done so and what are you the better for it I long for the time when we may give Money to make the King great but if things must go on as they do I am for a plain Bargain to know what we shall have for our Money For my part I only desire our Security but if we should give Money I suppose you will take care what hands we put it in and there ought to be a Trust Let us Address His Majesty A Fifth We are told Tangier is of Importance it is a Nursery of Papists And we are likewise told The Irish sent thither a part of the Irish Army and they take the Oath that is no Security Was not the Lord Bellassis Governour of Tangier and Hull and the Pensioners Captain all at a time and took the Oaths those Souldiers for ought I know may be brought hither and the asking for a Supply for it at this time is very unreasonable because Parliaments have been put off two or three years and whilst there are people that dare make a difference between the King and this House we shall never be safe Let us represent our Condition as boldly as may stand with good manners It is not to be endured to see the Duke preferred before the King as he was as if Arguments of his Greatness and Power were Arguments strong enough to hinder the Bill He hath violated the Law and we needed not to have gone this way to work if we could have had Justice against him but he is too great for that let us Address His Majesty A Smith If Tangier be wholly under the Duke's Care and Protection and such a Seminary for Papists as hath been represented I think no motion to have a Supply for it is unseasonable and am against it order the bringing in the state of it A Seventh I spoke the fence of the City formerly and do so now again and in the name of the greatest part of the Commonalty of the City of London and we do declare That we are ready to give Money half we have nay all and be content to set up again and get new Estates if we can but be secured The burning of London justly laid upon the Papists and
the strictest and severest Tryal To which Petition they never received any Answer To make appear to your Majesty that these things were done for private and finistrous Designs and not upon account of the ill effectedness or factious Dispositions of the Men as was pretended Your Majesty is humbly prayed to take notice of these Particulars following First There are three of the most considerable of these very Persons who had been charged with so great Crimes admitted since that time by bribing the Dutchess of Lauderdale into a Trust in your Majesty's Affairs in Scotland more eminent and considerable than any Trust the Town of Edenburgh can confer viz. The paying off your Majesty's Forces and bringing in your Majesty's Excise Secondly No sooner were these Twelve Men turned out of the Town-Council but after many great and essential Informalities with the recital of which it is needless to trouble your Majesty they elected for Magistrates Men of no Reputation either for Parts Estate or Honesty And though these Bonds and Securities which had been demanded from the others and consented to by them was formerly pretended to be of great importance for your Majesty's Service yet they were not so much as once demanded either by the Duke of Lauderdale or the Lord Hatton from these Men who were now chosen Thirdly These new Magistrates were not long in their Seats when off comes the Mask and the true design of getting Money appears For by an Act of the Town-Council there is about 5000 l. Sterlin disposed on amongst their nameless Friends which were the Duke of Lauderdale the Lord Hatton and some other of their Friends A great Sum to be got from that City considering that the Duke of Lauderdale had got before that about 12000 l. Sterlin from them The Dutchess of Lauderdale did also since that time endeavour to get more Money from them and did with great Wrath threaten the Magistrates in plain Terms for not giving her a Present notwithstanding all the Good she said she had done for them reckoning the Favours your Majesty hath at any time been pleased to bestow upon them as done by her self Thus hath that poor Town been abused and doth now lie having Magistrates without either Conduct or Courage in a time when the Disorders of that Nation doth require Persons to be imployed there of eminent Fidelity and Capacity to serve your Majesty His Majesty's Declaration for the Dissolution of his late Privy Council And for Constituting a New one made in the Council-Chamber at White Hall April the twentieth 1679. By His Majesty's Special Command My Lords HIS Majesty hath called you together at this time to communicate unto you a Resolution he hath taken in a matter of great Importance to his Crown and Government and which he hopes will prove of the greatest Satisfaction and Advantage to his Kingdoms in all Affairs hereafter both at Home and Abroad and therefore he doubts not of your Approbation however you may seem concerned in it In the first place His Majesty gives you all Thanks for your Service to him here and for all the good Advices you have given him which might have been more frequent if the great number of this Council had not made it unfit for the Secrecy and Dispatch that are necessary in many great Affairs This forced him to use a smaller number of your in a Foreign Committee and sometimes the Advices of some few among them upon such Occasions for many Years past He is sorry for the ill success he has found in this Course and sensible of the ill Posture of Affairs from that and some unhappy Accidents which have raised great Jealousies and Dissatisfaction among his good Subjects and thereby left the Crown and Government in a Condition too weak for those Dangers we have reason to fear both at home and abroad These his Majesty hopes may be yet prevented by a Course of wise and steady Counsels for the future and these Kingdoms grow again to make such a Figure as they have formerly done in the World and as they may always do if our Union and Conduct were equal to our Force To this end he hath resolved to lay aside the use he may have hitherto made of any single Ministry or private Advices or Foreign Committees for the general direction of his Affairs and to constitute such a Privy-Council as may not only by its number be fit for the Consultation and Digestion of all business both Domestick and Foreign but also by the Choice of them out of the several Parts this State is composed of may be the best informed in the true Constitutions of it and thereby the most able to counsel him in all the Affairs and Interests of this Crown and Nation And by the constant Advice of such a Council his Majesty is resolved hereafter to govern his Kingdoms together with the frequent use of his Great Council of Parliament which he takes to be the true ancient Constitution of this State and Government Now for the greater Dignity of this Council his Majesty resolves their constant number shall be limited to that of Thirty And for their greater Authority there shall be Fifteen of his chief Officers who shall be Privy Counsellors by their places And for the other Fifteen he will choose Ten out of the several Ranks of the Nobility and Five Commoners of the Realm whose known Abilities Interest and Esteem in the Nation shall render them without all suspicion of either mistaking or betraying the true Interests of the Kingdom and consequently of advising him ill In the first place therefore and to take care of the Church his Majesty will have the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of London for the time being and to inform him well in what concerns the Laws the Lord Chancellor and one of the Lord Chief Justices For the Navy and Stores wherein consists the chief Strength and Safety of the Kingdom the Admiral and Master of the Ordnance for the Treasury the Treasurer and Chancellor of the Exchequer or whenever any of these Charges are in Commission then the first Commissioner to serve here in their room the rest of the Fifteen shall be the Lord Privy-Seal the Master of the Horse Lord Steward and Lord Chamberlain of his Houshold the Groom of the Stole and the two Secretaries of State And these shall be all the Offices of his Kingdom to which the Dignity of Privy-Counsellor shall be annexed The others his Majesty has resolved and hopes he has not chosen ill His Majesty intends besides to have such Princes of his Blood as he shall at any time call to this Board being here in Court A President of the Council whenever he shall find it necessary and the Secretary of Scotland when any such shall be here But these being uncertain he reckons not of the constant number of Thirty which shall never be exceeded To make way for this new Council his Majesty hath now resolved to Dissolve this old one
the King to be Presented and Delivered by which Petition it was shown that whereas there had been and was a most damnable Plot against the Royal Person of our said Soveraign Lord the King the Protestant Religion and well Established Government of this Realm for which Plot several of the Principal Conspirators were impeached by Parliament and whereby it was humbly prayed that the Parliament which was prorogued to the 26th day of January next ensuing in the said Year might then sit to Try the Offenders and to redress the pressing Grievances not otherwise to be Redressed And that Thomas Whitfield late of the said Parish of St. Martin's in the Fields in the Liberty aforesaid and the County aforesaid Yeoman John Smallbones late of the said Parish within the Liberty aforesaid in the County aforesaid Woodmonger and William Laud late of the Parish aforesaid in the County aforesaid Yeoman being persons ill-affected and Contriving Devising and Intending as much as in them lay to hinder the sitting of the said Parliament as was prayed by the said Petition and also to hinder the Trial of the said Offenders and Redressing the said Grievances the said 20th day of December in the said one and Thirtieth Year of the Reign of our said Soveraign Lord the King as Rioters and Disturbers of the Peace of our Soveraign â—ord the King for the Disturbing of the Peace of our said Soveraign Lord the King with Force and Arms at the said Parish within the Liberty aforesaid in the County aforesaid Unlawfully and Riotously did Assemble themselves and being so then and there assembled with Force and Arms then and there Unlawfully Riotously and Injuriously the said Petition being delivered by one William Horsley to them the said Thomas Whitfield John Smallbones and William Laud at their Request and for the subscribing their Names thereunto if they should think fit did Tear in pieces in contempt of our said Sovereign Lord the King and of his Laws to the evil Example of all others in the like Cases offending and against the Peace of our said Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity The Names of the Grand-Jury that found the Bill are these William Jacob Thomas Trevor Erasmus Browne Henry Dugley Richard Streete John Henly John Weston Martin Frogg John Pierce Robert Pinke Nathanael Wilkinson Edward Whitefoot John Gentle Thomas Harris William Fortune Roger Higdon James Harrold Cornelius Rickfield ☞ George Wright Apothecary ☞ Walter Wright Apothecary ☞ Adam Langley Apothecary Upon Wednesday the 7th of this instant January many Gentlemen and eminent Citizens who had been concerned for managing the Petition for the Sitting of the Parliament upon the 26th instant met together and agreed upon the method of finishing the same and of nominating fit Persons for the Presenting it to His Majesty which being accordingly done these Gentlemen following viz. Sir Gilbert Gerrard Baronet Son-in-Law to the late Bishop of Durham Francis Charlton Esq John Ellis Esq John Smith Esq Johnson of Stepney Esq Ellis Crispe Esq Anthony Selby Esq Henry Ashurst Esq Tho. Smith Esq Gentlemen of good Worth and Estates and several of whom have been eminent Sufferers for His Majesty did this 13th of January attend His Majesty with it at Whitehall when being introduced to His Royal Presence Sir Gilbert Gerrard kneeling presented this Petition To the King 's most Excellent Majesty The humble Petition of Your Majesty's most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects Inhabitants in and about the City of London whose Names are here-under subscribed Sheweth THat whereas there has been and still is a most Damnable and Hellish Popish Plot branched forth into the most Horrid Villianies against Your Majesty's most Sacred Person the Protestant Religion and the well Established Government of this Your Realm for which several of the principal Conspirators stand now impeached by Parliament Therefore in such a time when Your Majesty's Royal person as also the Protestant Religion and the Government of this Nation are thus in most imminent Danger We Your Majesty's most Dutiful and Obebient Subjects in the deepest sense of our Duty and Allegiance to Your Majesty Do most humbly and earnestly pray That the Parliament which is prorogued until the 26th day of January may then sit to Try the Offenders and to redress all our most important Grievances no otherwise to be redressed And Your Petitioners shall ever pray for Your Majesty's long and prosperous Reign 〈◊〉 expressed himself to this effect Sir I have a Petition from many thousands of your Majesty's Dutiful and Loyal Subjects in and about Your City of London which I 〈…〉 in their Names and desire Your Majesty would be pleased to read it To which His Majesty gave this Gracious answer I know the substance of it already I am Head of the Government and will take care of it and then received the Petition it being a great Roll of above 100 Yards in length and carried it away in His Hand The Judgment and Decree of the University of Oxford pass'd in their Convocation July 21. 1683. against certain Pernicious Books and Damnable Doctrines destructive to the Sacred Persons of Princes their State and Government and of all Human Society Published by Command ALtho' the barbarous Assassination lately enterprized against the person of his Sacred Majesty and his Royal Brother engage all our thoughts to reflect with utmost detestation and abhorrence of that execrable Villainy hateful to God and Man and pay our due acknowledgements to the Divine Providence which by extraordinary methods brought it to pass that the breath of our Nostrils the anointed of the Lord is not taken in the pit which was prepared for him and that under his shadow we continue to live and enjoy the Blessings of his Government Yet notwithstanding we find it to be a necessary duty at this time to search into and lay open those impious Doctrines which having of late been studiously disseminated gave rise and growth to those nefarious attempts and pass upon them our solemn publick Censure and Decree of Condemnation Therefore to the honour of the holy and undivided Trinity the preservation of Catholick truth in the Church and that the King's Majesty may be secur'd from the attempts of open and bloudy enemies and the machinations of Traiterous Hereticks and Schismaticks We the Vice Chancellor Doctors Proctors and Masters Regent and not Regent met in Convocation in the accustom'd manner time and place on Saturday the 21 of July in the Year 1683. concerning certain Propositions contained in divers Books and Writings published in English and also in the Latin tongue repugnant to the holy Scriptures Decrees of Councils Writings of the Fathers the Faith and Profession of the Primitive Church and also destructive of the Kingly Government the safety of his Majesty's Person the Publick Peace the Laws of Nature and bonds of humane Society By our Unanimous assent and consent have Decreed and Determin'd in manner and form following Proposition 1. All Civil Authority is derived originally from
shall Act not only contrary to but to the Destruction of the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom And how Harmonious such Justice will be the Text tells us Deut. 27.17 Cursed be he that removeth his Neighbours Land mark and all the People shall say Amen That this present Session may have a happy Issue to answer the great ends of Parliaments and therein our present Exigencies and Necessities is the incessant Cry and longing Expectation of all the Protestants in the Land The Security of English-mens Lives or the Trust Power and Duty of the Grand Juries of England Explained according to the Fundamentals of the English Government and the Declarations of the same made in Parliament by many Statutes THE Principal Ends of all Civil Government and of Humane Society were the Security of Mens Lives Liberties and Properties mutual assistance and help each unto other and provision for their common benefit and advantage and where the Fundamental Laws and Constitution of any Government have been wisely adapted unto those Ends such Countries and Kingdoms have increased in Vertue Prowess Wealth and Happiness whilst others through the want of such excellent Constitutions or negect of preserving them have been a Prey to the Pride Lust and Cruelty of the most Potent and the People have had no assurance of Estates Liberties or Lives but from their Grace and Pleasure They have been many times forced to welter in each other's Blood in their Master's quarrel for Dominion and at best they have served like Beasts of burthen and by continual base subserviency to their Master's Vices have lost all sense of true Religion Virtue and Manhood Our Ancestors have been famous in their Generations for Wisdom Piety and Courage in forming and preserving a Body of Laws to secure themselves and their Posterities from Slavery and Oppression and to maintain their Native Freedoms to be subject only to the Laws made by their own Consent in their general Assemblies and to be put in execution chiefly by themselves their Officers and Assistants to be guarded and defended from all Violence and Force by their own Arms kept in their own hands and used at their own charge under their Prince's Conduct entrusting nevertheless an ample Power to their Kings and other Magistrates that they may do all the good and enjoy all the happiness that the largest Soul of man can honestly wish and carefully providing such means of correcting and punishing their Ministers and Councellors if they transgressed the Laws that they might not dare to abuse or oppress the People or design against their freedom or welfare This Body of Laws our Ancestors always esteemed the best Inheritance they could leave to their Posterities well knowing that these were the sacred Fence of their Lives Liberties and Estates and an unquestionable Title whereby they might call what they had their own or say they were their own Men The inestimable value of this Inheritance moved our Progenitors with great resolution bravely from Age to Age to defend it and it now falls to our lot to preserve it against the Dark Contrivances of a Popish Faction who would by Frauds Sham-Plots and Infamous Perjuries deprive us of our Birth-rights and turn the points of our Swords our Laws into our own Bowels they have impudently scandalized our Parliaments with Designs to overturn the Monarchy because they would have excluded a Popish Successor and provided â—or the Security of the Religion and Lives of all Protestants They have caused Lords and Commoners to be for a long time kept in Prisons and suborned Witnesses to swear matters of Treason against them endeavouring thereby not only to cut off some who had eminently appeared in Parliament for our ancient Laws but through them to blast the Repute of Parliaments themselves and to lessen the Peoples Confidence in those great Bulwarks of their Religion and Government The present purpose is to shew how well our Worthy Fore-fathers have provided in our Law for the safety of our Lives not only against all attemps of open Violence by the severe punishment of Robbers Murtherers and the like but the secret poisonous Arrows that fly in the dark to destroy the Innocent by false Accusation and Perjuries Our Law-makers foresaw both their dangers from the Malice and Passion that might cause some of private condition to accuse others falsly in the Courts of Justice and the great hazards of Worthy and Eminent Mens Lives from the Malice Emulation and Ill Designs of Corrupt Ministers of State or otherwise potent who might commit the most odious of Murthers in the form and course of Justice either by corrupting of Judges as dependant upon them for their Honour and great Revenue or by bribing and hiring men of depraved Principles and desperate Fortunes to swear falsly against them doubtless they had heard the Scriptures and observed that the great men of the Jews sought out many to swear Treason and Blasphemy against Jesus Christ They had heard of Ahab's Courtiers and Judges who in the Course and Form of Justice by false Witnesses murthered Naboth because he would not submit his Property to an A bitrary Power Neither were they ignorant of the Ancient Roman Histories and the pestilent false Accusers that abounded in the Reign of some of those Emperors under whom the greatest of Crimes was to be virtuous Therefore as became good Legislators they made as prudent Provinon as perhaps any Country in the World enjoys for equal and impartial Administration of Justice in all the concerns of the Peoples Lives that every man whether Lord or Commoner might be in safety whilst they lived in due obedience to the Laws For this purpose it is made a Fundamental in our Government that unless it be by Parliament See Lâ— Cook 's Instit 3d part p. 40. See Mag. Chart. Cooke's â—d part of Insâ—â—t p. 50 51. no man's Life should be touched for any Crime whatsoever save by the Judgment of at least 24 Men that is 12 or more to find the Bill of Indictment whether he be Peer of the Realm or Commoner and 12 Peers or above if a Lord if not 12 Commoners to give the Judgment upon the general Issue of not guilty joined of these 24 the first 12 are called the Grand Inquest or the Grand Jury for the extent of their power and in regard that their number must be no more than 12 sometimes 23 or 25 never were less than 13. Twelve whereof at least must agree to every Indictment or else 't is no legal Verdict If 11 of 21 or of 13 should agree to find a Bill of Indictment it were no Verdict The other Twelve in Commoners Cases are called the Petit-Jury and their number is ever Twelve but the Jury for a Peer of the Realm may be more in number though of like Authority The Office and Power of these Juries is Judicial they only are the Judges from whose Sentence the Indicted are to expect Life or Death upon their Integrity and Understanding
and Modesty there would be no great danger of many Divisions but this is the great Secret of the providence of God that men are still men and both Pastors and People mix their Passions and Interests so with matters of Religion that as there is a great deal of Sin and Vice still in the World so that appears in the Matters of Religion as well as in other things but the ill Consequences of this tho' they are bad enough yet are not equal Effects that ignorant Superstition and Obedient Zeal have produced in the World Witness the Rebellions and Wars for establishing the Worship of Images the Croissades against the Saracens in which many Millions were lost those against Hereticks and Princes deposed by Popes which lasted for some Ages and the Massacre of Paris with the Butcheries of the Duke of Alva in the last Age and that of Ireland in this which are I suppose far greater Mischiefs than any that can be imagined to arise out of a small Diversion of Opinions and the present State of this Church notwithstanding all those unhappy Rents that are in it is a much more desirable thing than the gross Ignorance and blind Superstition that reigns in Italy and Spain at this day IX All these reasonings concerning the Infallibility of the Church signifie nothing unless we can certainly know whither we must go for this Decision for while one Party shews us that it must be in the Pope or is no where and another Party says it cannot be in the Pope because as many Popes have erred so this is a Doctrine that was not known in the Church for a thousand Years and that has been disputed ever since it was first asserted we are in the right to believe both sides first that if it is not in the Pope it is no where and than that certainly it is not in the Pope and it is very Incongruous to say that there is an Infallible Authority in the Church and that yet it is not certain where one must seek for it for the one ought to be as clear as the other and it is also plain that what Primacy soever St. Peter may be supposed to have had the Scripture says not one word of his Successors at Rome so at least this is not so clear as a matter of this Consequence must have been if Christ had intended to have lodged such an Authority in that See X. It is no less Incongruous to say that this Infallibility is in a General Council for it must be somewhere else otherwise it will return only to the Church by some starts and other long intervals and as it was not in the Church for the first Three Hundred and Twenty years so it has not been in the Church these last 120 years It is plain also that there is no Regulation given in the Scriptures concerning this great Assembly who have a right to come and Vote and what forfeits this right and what numbers must concur in a Decision to assure us of the Infallibility of the Judgment It is certain there was never a General Council of all the Pastors of the Church for those of which we have the Acts were only the Council of the Roman Empire but for those Churches that were in the South of Africk or the Eastern parts of Asia beyond the bounds of the Roman Empire as they could not be summoned by the Emperours Authority so it is certain none of them were present unless one or two of Persia at Nice which perhaps was a Corner of Persia belonging to the Empire and unless it can be proved that the Pope has an Absolute Authority to cut off whole Churches from their right of coming to Councils there has been no General Council these last 700 years in the World ever since the Bishops of Rome have Excommunicated all the Greek Churches upon such trifling Reasons that their own Writers are now ashamed of them and I will ask no more of a Man of a Competent Understanding to satisfie him that the Council of Trent was no General Council acting in that Freedom that became Bishops than that he will be at the pains to read Card. Pallavicin's History of that Council XI If it is said that this Infallibility is to be fought for in the Tradition of the Doctrine in all Ages and that every particular Person must examine this here is a Sea before him and instead of examining the small Book of the New Testament he is involved in a study that must cost a Man an Age to go thro' it and many of the Ages thro' which he carries this Enquiry are so dark and have produced so few Writers at least so few are preserved to our days that it is not possible to find out their Belief We find also Traditions have varied so much that it is hard to say that there is much weight to be laid on this way of Conveyance A Tradition concerning Matters of Fact that all People see is less apt to fail than a Tradition of Points of Speculation and yet we see very near the Age of the Apostles contrary Traditions touching the Observation of Easter from which we must conclude that either the Matter of Fact of one side or the other as it was handed down was not true or at least that it was not rightly understood A Tradition concerning the Use of the Sacraments being a visible thing is the more likely to be exact than a Speculation concerning their Nature and yet we find a Tradition of giving Infants the Communion grounded on the indispensible necessity of the Sacrament continued 1000 years in the Church A Tradition on which the Christians founded their Joy and Hope is less like to be changed than a more remote Speculation and yet the first Writers of the Christian Religion had a Tradition handed down to them by those who saw the Apostles of the Reign of Christ for a Thousand Years upon Earth and if those who had Matters at second hand from the Apostles could be thus mistaken it is more reasonable to apprehend greater Errors at such a distance A Tradition concerning the Book of the Scriptures is more like to be exact than the Expositions of some passages in it and yet we find the Church did unanimously believe the Translation of the 70 Interpreters to have been the effect of a miraculous Inspiration till St. Jerome examined this matter better and made a New Translation from the Hebrew Copies But which is more than all the rest it seems plain that the Fathers before the Council of Nice believed the Divinity of the Son of God to be in some sort inferiour to that of the Father and for some Ages after the Council of Nice they believed them indeed both equal but they considered these as two different Beings and only one in Essence as three men have the same Humane Nature in common among them and that as one Candle lights another so the one flowed from another and
so I desire to know why I may not read an Homily for Transubstantiation or Invocation of Saints or the Worship of Images if the King sends me such good Catholick Homilies and commands me to read them And thus we may instruct our People in all the Points of Popery and recommend it to them with all the Sophistry and Artificial Infintrations in Obedience to the King with a very good Conscience because without our Consent If it be said this would be a Contradiction to the Doctrine of our Church by Law established so I take the Declaration to be And if we may read the Declaration contrary to Law because it does not imply our Consent to it so we may Popish Homilies for the bare Reading them will not imply our Consent no more than the Reading the Declaration does But whether I consent to the Doctrine or no it is certain I consent to teach my People this Doctrine and it is to be considered whether an honest Man cand do this Thirdly I suppose no Man will doubt but the King intends that our Reading the Declaration should signifie to the Nation our Consent and Approbation of it for the Declaration does not want Publishing for it is sufficiently known already but our Reading it in our Churches must serve instead of Addresses of Thanks which the Clergy generally refused though it was only to Thank the King for his Gracious Promises renewed to the Church of England in His Declaration which was much more innocent than to publish the Declaration it self in our Churches This would perswade one that the King thinks our Reading the Declaration to signifie our Consent and that the People will think it to be so And he that can satisfie his 〈◊〉 to do an Action without Consent which the Nature of the Thing the Design and intention of the Command and the Sense of the People expound to be a Consent may I think as well satisfie himself with Equivocations and mental Reservations There are two things to be answered to this which must be considered 1. That the People understand our Minds and see that this is Matter of Force upon us and meer Obedience to the King To which I answer 1. Possibly the People do understand that the Matter of the Declaration is against our Principles But is this any Excuse that we read that and by Reading recommend that to them which is against our own Consciences and Judgments Reading the Declaration would be no Fault at all but our Duty whâ—â— the King commands it did we approve of the Matter of it but to consent to teach our People such Doctrines as we think contrary to the Laws of God or the Laws of the Land does not lessen but aggravate the Fault and the People must be very good natured to think this an Excuse 2. It is not likely that all the People will be of a Mind in this Matter some may excuse it others and those it may be the most the best and the wifest Men will condemn us for it and then how shall we justifie our selves against their Censures when the World will be divided in their Opinions the plain way is certainly the best to do what we can justifie our selves and then let Men judge as they please No Men in England will be pleased with our Reading the Declaration but those who hope to make great Advantage of it against us and against our Church and Religion others will severely condemn us for it and censure us as false to our Religion and as Betrayers both of Church and State and besides that it does not become a Minister of Religion to do any thing which in the Opinion of the most charitable Men can only be excused for what needs an Excuse is either a Fault or looks very like one besides this I say I will not trust Mens Charity those who have suffered themselves in this Cause will not excuse us for fear of suffering those who are inclined to excuse us now will not do so when they consider the thing better and come to feel the ill Consequences of it when our Enemies open their Eyes and tell them what our Reading the Declaration signified which they will then tell us we ought to have seen before though they were not bound to see it for we are to guide and instruct them not they us II. Others therefore think that when we read the Declaration we should publickly profess that it is not our own Judgment but that we only Read it in Obedience to the King and then our Reading it cannot imply our Consent to it Now this is only Protestatio contra sactum which all People will laugh at and scorn us for for such a solemn Reading it in time of Divine Service when all Men ought to be most grave and serious and far from dissembling with God or Men does in the Nature of the thing imply our Approbation and should we declare the contrary when we read it what shall we say to those who ask uâ— why then do you read it But let those who have a mind to try this way which for my part I take to be a greater and more unjustifiable Provocation of the King than not to read it and I suppose those who do not read it will be thought plainer and honester Men and will 〈◊〉 as well as those who read it and protest against it and yet nothing less than an express Protestation against it will salve this Matter for only to say they read it meerly in Obedience to the King does not express their Dissent It signifies indeed that they would not have read it if the King had not commanded it but these Words do not signifie that they disapprove of the Declaration when their Reading it though only in Obedience to the King signifies their Approbation of it as much as Actions can signifie a Consent let us call to mind how it fared with those in King Charles the First 's Reign who read the Book of Sports as it was called and then preached against it To return then to our Arguments if Reading the Declaration in our Churches be in the Nature of the Action in the Intention of the Command in the Opinion of the People an interpretative Consent to it I think my self bound in Conscience not to read it because I am bound in Conscience not to approve it It is against the Constitution of the Church of England which is established by Law and to which I have subscribed and therefore am bound in Conscience to Teach nothing contrary to it while this Obligation lasts It is to teach an unlimitâ—d and universal Toleration which the Parliament in 72. Declared illegal and which has been condemned by the Christian Church in all Ages It is to teach my People that they need never come to Church more but have my free Leave as they have the King 's to go to a Conventicle or Mass It is to teach the Dispencing Power which alters what
the Pamphlet whereof I have here given you my thoughts was more than a Fortnight on the way or else you had received this sooner I am Dubâ—â— 1688. SIR Your most Humble Servant A PLAIN ACCOUNT OF THE PERSECUTION Laid to the CHARGE of the Church of England THE Desire of Liberty to serve God in that Way and Manner which Men judge to be most acceptable to him is so Natural and Reasonable that they cannot but be extreamly provoked against those who would force them to serve him in any other But the Conceit withal which most Men have that their Way of Serving God is the only acceptable Way naturally inclines them when they have Power to use all Means to constrain all other to serve him in that way only So that Liberty is not more desired by all at one time than it is denied by the very same Persons at another Put them into different Conditions and they are not of the same Mind but have different Inclinations in one State from what they have in another As will be apparent by a short View of what hath passed in these Churches and Kingdoms within our Memory II. Before the late Civil Wars there were very grievous Complaints made of the Bishops that they pressed the Ceremonies so strictly as to inflict heavy Censures upon those called Puritans who could not in Conscience conform to them Now no sooner had those very Persons who thus complaned got their Liberty to do as they pleased but they took it quite away from the other and suquestred all those who would not enter into their Holy League and Covenant for the reforming all things according to the Model which they propounded Nay they were not willing to bear with Five Dissenting Brethren among themselves who could not conform to the Presbyterial Government And when these Dissenting Brethren commonly known by the Name of Independants had got a Party strong enough which carried all before them they would not allow the use of the Common Prayer in any Parish no not to the King himself in his own Chappel not grant to one of the old Clergy so much Liberty as to teach a School c. Which things I do not mention God knows to reproach those who were guilty of them but only to put them in mind of their own Failings that they may be humbled for them and not insult over the Church of England nor severely upbraid them with that which when time was they acted with a higher Hand themselves If I should report all that the Presbyterians did here and in Scotland and all that the Independants did here and in New England it would not be thought that I exceed the Truth when I say they have been more Guilty of this Fault than those whom they now charge with it Which doth not excuse the Church of England it must be confessed but doth in some Measure mitigate her Fault For the Conformable Clergy having met with such very hard Usage in that disinal Time wherein many of them were oppressed above Measure no wonder if the Smart of it then fresh in their Minds something imbittered their Spirits when God was preased by a wonderful Revolution to put them into Power again III. Then a stricter Act of Vnifamity was made and several Laws pursuant to it for the enforeing that Uniformity by severe Penalties But let it be remembred that none were by those Laws constrained to come to Church but had Liberty left them to serve God at Home and some Company with them in their own Way And let it be farther remembred that the Reâ—ion why they were denied their Liberty of meeting in greater Assemblies was because such Assemblies were represented as greatly endangering the publick Peace and Safety as the Words are in the very first Act of this Nature against â—uakers in the Year 1662. Let any one read the Oxford Act as it is commonly called made in the Year 1665. and that at Westminster in the Year 16â—â— and he will find them intended against Sedâ—â—ous Conventicles That is they wâ—â—â— made them were perswâ—dâ—d by the Jâ—suâ— Iâ—terest at first to look upon such Meetings as Nurseries of Sedition where bad Principles were infused into Mens Minds destructive to the Civil Government If it had not been for this it doth not appear that the Contrivers of these Laws were inclined to such Severities as were thereby enacted but the Nâ—nconformists might have enjoyed a larger Liberty in Religion It was not Religion alone which was considered and prerended but the publick Peace and Settlement with respect to which they were tyed up so straitly in the Exercise of their Religion Which to deal clearly I do not believe would have raught Rebellion but this was constantly insinuated by the Court Agents and it is no wonder if the Parliament who remembred how the Ministers of that Perswasion though indeed from the then Appearance of Popery had been the Principal Incouragers of that Defensive War against the King were easily made to believe that they still retained the same Principles and would propagate them if they were suffered among the People Certainly it is also that the Court made it their Care to have those Acts passed though at the same time they hindred their Execution that they might keep up both Parties in the height of their Animosities and especially that they might make the Church of England be both hated and despised by the Dissenters IV. Thus things continued for some time till wise Men began to see into the Secret and think of a Reconciliation But it was always hindred by the Court who never thought of giving Liberty by a Law but only by the Prerogative which could as casâ—ly take it away There was a time for instance when a Comprehension c. was projected by several great Men both in Church and State for the taking as many as possible into Union with us and providing Ease for the rest Which so netled the late King that meeting with the then Arch-bishop of Canterbury he said to him as I perfectly remember What my Lord you are for a Comprehension To which he making such a Reply as signified he heard some were about it No said the King I will keep the Church of England pure and unmixed that is never suffer a Reconciliation with the Dissenters And when the Lords and Commons also had not many years ago passed a Bill for the Repealing of the most heavy of all the Penal Laws against Dissenters viz. the Statute of 35 Eliz. 1. which by the Parliament is made against the Wicked and dangerous Practices of Seditiâ—â—â— Sectaries and disloyal Persons his late Majesty so dealt with the Clerk of the Parliament that it was shuffled away and could not be found when it was to have been presented to him among other Bills for his Royal Consent unto it A notable Token of the Abhorrence the Court then had of all Penal Laws and of their great Kindness to Dissenters V. Who may
Their Highnesses who shall blame them for any inconveniency that may arise from thence since they have declared themselves so freely on this Subject and that so much to the advantage even of the Roman Catholicks And since the Settlements of matters sticks at this single point that Their Highnesses cannot be brought to consent to things that are so contrary to Laws already in being and that are so dangerous and so hurtful to the Protestant Religion as the admitting of Roman Catholicks to a share in the Government and to places of Trust and the repealing of those Laws that can have no other effect but the Securing of the Protestant Religion from all the Attempts of the Roman Catholicks against it would be You Write That the Roman Catholicks in these Provinces are not shut out from Employments and places of Trust But in this you are much mistaken For our Laws are express excluding them by name from all share in the Government and from all Employments either of the Policy or Justice of our Country It is true I do not know of any express Law that shuts them out of Military Employments that had indeed been hard since in the first Formation of our State they joyned with us in defending our publick Liberty and did us eminent service during the Wars therefore they were not shut out from those Military Employments for the publick sifety was no way endanger'd by this both because their numbers that served in our Troops were not great and because the States could easily prevent any Inconvenience that might arise out of that which could not have been done so easily if the Roman Catholicks had been admitted to a share in the Government and in the Policy or Justice of our State I am very certain of this of which I could give very good proofs that there is nothing which Their Highnesses desire so much as that his Majesty may reign happily and in an intire Confidence with his Subjects and that his Subjects being perswaded of his Majesties fatherly affection to them may be ready to make him all the returns of duty that are in their Power But their Highnesses are convinced in their Consciences that both the Protestant Religion and the safety of the Nation would be exposed to most certain Dangers if either the Tests or those other Penal Laws of which I have made frequent mention should be repealed Therefore they cannot consent to this nor concur with his Majesties Will for they believe they should have much to Answer for to God if the consideration of any present advantage should carry them to consent and concur in things which they believe would be not only dangerous but mischievous to the Protestant Religion Their Highnesses have ever paid a most profound duty to his Majesty which they will always continue to do for they consider themselves bound to it both by the Laws of God and of Nature But since the matter that is now in hand relates not to the making of new Laws but to the total Repealing of those already made both by King and Parliament they do not see how it can be expected of them that they should consent to such a Repeal to which they have so just an aversion as being a thing that is contrary to the Laws and Customs of all Christian States whether Protestants or Papists who receive none to a share in the Governments or to publick Employments but those who profess the publick and established Religion and that take care to secure it against all attempts whatsoever I do not think it necessary to demonstrate to you how much their Highnesses are devoted to his Majesty of which they have given such real Evidences as are beyond all verbal ones and they are resolved still to continue in the same Duty and Affection or rather to encrease it if that is possible I am SIR Yours c. Nov. 4. 1687. Reflexions on Monsieur Fagel's Letter SIR I Shall endeavour to Answer yours as fully and briefly as possible 1. You desire to know whether the Letter I sent you be truly Monsieur Fagel's or not 2. Whether their Highnesses gave him Commission to Write it 3. How far the Dissenters may rely on their Highnesses word 4. What effects it has on all sorts of People Sir Roman Catholicks may be pardoned if they endeavour to make that Letter pass for an Imposture it is their Interest so to do and they are seldom wanting to promote that let the methods be never so indirect which they are forced to make use of It does indeed spoil many hopeful Projects of theirs But how any Protestant among us can really doubt the truth of it is strange to me Some things carry their own evidence along with them I take this Letter to be one of that kind I do not desire you to believe me upon my bare affirmation that I know it to be genuine tho this be most true but shall offer my Reasons to convince you that it cannot be otherwise First The Letter is like its Author the matter is weighty the Reasoning solid the Stile grave full and clear like that of a Lawyer It has an Air all over which as well shews the Religion and Temper of its Writer as the Matter and Method of it do his Capacity and Judgment Now all these Qualities make up the Character of Monsieur Fagel Secondly There are the same grounds to believe this Letter to be M. Fagel's as there are to believe any thing you have not seen Viz. The constant Asseverations of Persons of undoubted Credit that come from Holland who all agree in it and assure us of it M. Fagel own'd it to several English Gentlemen and many both here and in Holland knew two Months ago that such a Letter was written a Forgery would before this time have been detected especially such a one as ruines the Designs of the Triumphing Party Thirdly It was written by M. Fagel in answer to Letters from Mr. Stewart sent by his Majesties special Orders and Mr. Stewart had both an English and Latin Copy sent him Therefore the English Copy is not called a Translation but it is a sort of Original For you are not to doubt but the matter was ordered so that her Royal Highness might peruse it as well as his Majesty In the next place you would know whether their Highnesses gave Order to Monsieur Fagel to write it I wish Sir you would take the pains to read the Letter over again and consider who this Monsieur Fagel is He is Pensionary of Holland and first Minister of State raised to that Dignity by the Prince's Favour he Answers Letters written to him which are ordered by his Majesty to be Communicated to their Highnesses In his Answer he gives an Account of their Highnesses Opinions about the Repeal of the Penal Laws and Test matters of a National Concern and of the greatest Importance Now you must have a strange Opinion of Monsieur Fagel if you think him capable
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
Opportunity is precious and very slippery and if they let the present Occasion pass by they can hardly ever hope that it will be possible for them to recover it That their Fathers and Grand-fathers would have thought themselves in Heaven to have had such an Offer as this is in any of the four last Reigns and therefore that they had better be contented with Half a Loaf than no Bread I mean it will be their VVisdom to embrace this Golden Occasion of putting themselves on a Level with all other English Men at least as to their private Capacity and to disarm once for all the severity of those Laws which if ever they should come to be in good earnest executed by a Protestant Successor will make England too hot for them And therefore I should particularly advise those among them who have the Honour to approach his Majesty to use their Credit to prevail with him to make this so necessary a step in Favour of the Nation since the Successors have advanced two Thirds of the way for effecting so good and pious a VVork Then and not till then the R. C's may think themselves secured and his Majesty may hope to be great by translating Fear and Anger from the Breasts of his Subjects to the Hearts of his Own and the Nations Enemies But if an evil Genius which seems to have hovered over us now a long time will have it otherwise if I were a R. C. I could meddle no more but live quiet at home and caress my Protestant Neighbours and in so doing I should think my self better secured against the Resentments of the Nation than by all the Forces Forts Leagues Garranties and even Men Children that His Majesty may hope to leave behind him As for the Protestant Dissenters I am confident the Body of them will continue to behave themselves like Men who to their great Honour have ever preferred the Love of their Country and Religion to all Dangers and Favours whatsoever but there are both weak and interested Men among all great Numbers I would have them consider how much the state of things is altered upon the coming out of this Letter for if hitherto they have been too forward in giving Ear to Proposals on this Mistake that they could never have such a favorable Juncture for getting the Laws against them repealed I hope now they are undeceived since the Successors have pawn'd their Faith and Honour for it which I take to be a better security as Matters go at present than the so much talked of Magna Charta for Liberty of Conscience would be tho got in a legal way for our Judges have declared That Princes can dispense with the Obligation of Laws but they have not yet given their Opinion that they can dispense with the Honour of their Word nor have their Highnesses any Confessor to supply such an Omission However it is not to be charged on their Highnesses if such a Magna Charta be not at present given them provided the Test be let alone but I fear the Roman Catholicks Zeal will have all or nothing and the Test too must be repealed by wheedling the Dissenters to joyn with willing Sheriffs in violating the Rights of Elections which are the Root of the Liberties of England prudent way of recommending their Religion to all true English Men. But if any of the Dissenters be so destitute of Sense and Honesty as to prefer a Magna Charta so obtained Void and Null in it self to their own Honour and Conscience to the Love and Liberties of their Countrey to the present Kindness of all good Men and their Countenance at another time and above all to the Favour and Word of the Successors who have now so generously declared themselves for them We may pronounce that they are Men abandoned to a reprobate Sence who will justly deserve Infamy and the hatred of the Nation at present and its Resentments hereafter Is it possible that any Dissenter who either deserves or loves the Reputation of an honest Man can be prevailed with by any pretences of Insinuations how plausible soever to make so odious and pernicious a Bargain as that of buying a precarious pretended Liberty of Conscience at the price of the Civil Liberties of their Country and at the price of removing that which under God is the most effectual Bar to keep us from the Dominion of a Religion that would as soon as it could force us to abandon our own or reduce us to the miserable Condition of those of our Neighbours who are glad to forsake all they have in the World that they may have their Souls and Lives for a Prey As for the Church of England their Clergy have of late opposed themselves to Popery with so much Learning Vigor Danger and Success that I think all honest Dissenters will lay down their Resentments against them and look on that Church as the present Bulwark and Honour of the Protestant Religion I wish those high Men among them who have so long appropriated to themselves the Name and Authority of the Church of England and have been made Instruments to bring about Designs of which their present Behaviour convinces me they were ignorant as I suppose many of the Dissenters are whose turn it is now to be the Tools I say I wish such Men would consider to what a pass they have brought Matters by their Violences or rather the Violences of these whose Property they were and at length be wise They cannot but be sensible of the Advantages they receive by this Letter I suppose they apprehend I am sure they ought to do it that the Ruine of their Church is resolv'd onâ— But if the Dissenters upon this Letter withdraw themselves the R. C's have neither Hearts to keep firm to such a Resolution nor Hands to execute it Since therefore they themselves have unhappily brought their Church into such Precepices by provoking the Dissenters it is in a particular manner their Duty as well as their Interest to endeavour to soften them by assisting the Letter and promoting the Design of it But if the old Leaven still remain and they continue to argue as formerly if the Surplice be parted with the Church of England is lost if the Penal Laws be repealed the Test wâ—â— follow and comfort themselves with this most Christian Reflection that the R. Câ—â— will 〈◊〉 accept of what is offered them such Men deserve all the Misery that is preparing for them and will perish without Pity and give thinking Men occasion to remember the Proveâ—â— But a Fool or a Zealot in a Mortar yet his Foolishness will not depart from him But the Disseâ—â—â—â— ought not to be much concerned at this they have their own Bigots and the Church â—â—â—land theirs there will be Tools whilst there are Workmen This is a time for Wisdom to be justified of her Children when honest Men 〈…〉 off minding the lesser Interests of this or that particular Church and
Treason or Felony yet it cannot be with any colour of Reason inferred from thence that the King can entirely Suspend the Execution of those Laws relating to Treason or Felony Unless it is pretended that he is cloathed with a Despotick and Arbitrary Power and that the Lives Liberties Honors 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 King 's having a Power to Suspend the Execution of Laws and to Dispense with them Those Evil Counsellors in order to the giving some Credit to this strange and execrable Maxim have so conducted the Matter that they have obtained a Sentence from the Judges declaring that this Dispensing Power is a Right belonging to the Crown as if it were in the Power of the Twelve Judges to offer up the Laws Rights and Liberties of the whole Nation to the King to be disposed of by him Arbitrarily and at his Pleasure and expresly contrary to Laws enacted for the Security of the Subjects In order to the obtaining this Judgment those Evil Counsellors did before-hand examine secretly the Opinion of the Judges and procured such of them as could not in Conscience concur in so pernicious a Sentence to be turned out and others to be substituted in their rooms till by the Changes 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 tho those are by Law rendred Incapable of all such Employments It is also Manifest and Notorious that as his Majesty 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 Laws Rights 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 Laws 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 Ecclesiastical Dignity or to bear Office in either University as likewise all others that should be put in any Imployment Civil or Military should declare that they were not Papists but were of the Protestant Religion and that by their taking of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Test yet these Evil Counsellors have in effect annulled and abolished all those Laws both with relation to Ecclesiastical and Civil Employments In order to Ecclesiastical Dignities and Offices they have not only without any colour of Law but against most express Laws to the contrary set up a Commission of a certain number of Persons to whom they have committed the Cognisance and Direction of all Ecclesiastical Matters in the which Commission there has been and still is one of His Majesties Ministers of State who makes now publick Profession of the Popish Religion and who at the time of his first professing it declared that for a great while before he had believed that to be the only true Religion By all this the deplorable State to which the Protestant Religion is reduced is apparent since the Affairs of the Church of England are now put into the Hands of Persons who have accepted of a Commission that is manifestly Illegal and who have executed it contrary to all Law and that now one of their chief Members has abjured the Protestant Religion and declared himself a Papist by which he is become incapable of holding any Publick Employment The said Commissioners have hitherto given such proof of their Submission to the Directions given them that there is no reason to doubt but they will still continue to promote all such Designs as will be most agreeable to them And those Evil Counsellors take care to raise none to any Ecclesiastical Dignities but Persons that have no Zeal for the Protestant Religion and that now hide their Unconcernedness for it under the specious Pretence of Moderation The said Commissioners have Suspended the Bishop of London only because he refused to obey an Order that was sent him to Suspend a Worthy Divine without so much as citing him before him to make his own Defence or observing the common Forms of Process They have turned out a President chosen by the Fellows of Magdalen College and afterwards all the Fellows of that College without so much as citing them before any Court that could take legal Cognisance of that Affair or obtaining any Sentence against them by a Competent Judge And the only reason that was given for turning them out was their refusing to chuse for their President a Person that was recommended to them by the Instigation of those Evil Counsellors tho the Right of a Free Election belonged undoubtedly to them But they were turned out of their Freeholds contrary to Law and to that express provision in the Magna Charta That no Man shall loose Life or Goods but by the Law of the Land And now these Evil Counsellors have put the said College wholly into the Hands of Papists tho as is abovesaid they are incapable of all such Employments both by the Law of the Land and the Statutes of the College These Commissioners have also cired before them all the Chancellors and Arch-deacons of England requiring them to certifie to them the Names of all such Clergy-men as have read the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and of such as have not read it without considering that the reading of it was not enjoyned the Clergy by the Bishops who are their Ordinaries The Illegality and Incompetency of the said Court of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners was so notoriously known and it did so evidently appear that it tended to the Subversion of the Protestant Religion that the Most Reverend Father in God William Archbishop of Canterbury Primate and Metropolitan of all England seeing that it was raised for no other end but to oppress such Persons as were of eminent Vertue Learning and Piety refused to sit or to concur in it And tho there are many express Laws against all Churches or Chappels for the Exercise of the Popish Religion and also against all Monasteries and Convents and more particularly against the Order of the Jesuits yet those Evil Counsellors have procured orders for the building of several Churches and Chappels for the Exercise of that Religion They have also procured diverse Monasteries to be erected and in contempt of the Law they have not only set up several Colleges of Jesuits in diverse places for the corrupting of the Youth but have raised up one of the Order to be a Privy Counsellor and a Minister of State By all
by Hundreds of Thousands at once 4. Because the Dragooners have made more Converts than all the Bishops and Clergy of France 5. The Parliament ought to establish one standing Army at the least because indeed there will be need of Two that one of them may defend the People from the other 6. Because it is a thousand pities that a brave Popish Army should be a Riot 7. Unless it be Established by Act of Parliament The Justices of Peace will be forced to suppress it in their own Defence for they will be loth to forfeit an hundred Pounds every day they rise out of Complement to a Popish Rout. 13 H. 4. c. 7. 2 H. 5. c. 8. 8. Because a Popish Army is a Nullity For all Papists are utterly disabled and punishable besides from bearing any Office in Camp Troop Band or Company of Soldiers and are so far disarmed by Law that they cannot wear a Sword so much as in their Defence without the allowance of four Justices of the Peace of the County And then upon a March they will be perfectly Inchanted for they are not able to stir above five Miles from their own Dwelling-house 3. Jac. 5. Sect. 8.27 28 29.35 Eliz. 2.3 Jac. 5. Sect. 7. 9. Because Persons utterly disabled by Law are utterly Unauthorized and therefore the void Commissions of Killing and Slaying in the Hands of Papists can only enable them to Massacre and Murder 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 fit 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 ciously 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 PETITION of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for the Calling of a Free Parliament Together with his Majesty's Gracious Answer to their Lordships To the KING 's most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal whose Names are subscribed May it please your Majesty WE your Majesty's most loyal Subjects in a deep sense of the Miseries of a War now breaking forth in the Bowels of this your Kingdom and of the Danger to which your Majesty's Sacred Person is thereby like to be exposed and also of the Distractions of your People by reason of their present Grievances do think our selves bound in Conscience of the duty we owe to God and our holy Religion to your Majesty and our Country most humbly offer to your Majesty That in our Opinion the only visible Way to preserve your Majesty and this your Kingdom would be the Calling of a Parliament Regular and 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 likewise 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. 29. 1688. 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 concur 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 ruin 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 Soldiers in Ireland and by the Irish Soldiers being brought over to be put in your places
our just and due Acknowledgments for the happy Relief You have brought to us and that we may not be wanting in this present Conjuncture we have put our selves into such a Posture that by the Blessing of God we may be capable to prevent all ill Designs and to preserve this City in Peace and Safety till your Highness's Happy Arrival We therefore humbly desire that your Highness will please to repair to this City with what convenient speed you can for the perfecting the great Work which Your Highness has so happily begun to the general Joy and Satisfaction of us all December the 17th 1688. THE said Committee this day made Report to the Lieutenancy that they had presented the said Address to the Prince of Orange and that His Highness received them very kindly December the 17th 1688. By the Lieutenancy Ordered That the said Order and Address be forwith Printed Geo. Evans To his Highness the Prince of Orange The Humble Address of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons of the City of London in Common Council assembled May it please Your Highness WE taking into Consideration your Highness's fervent Zeal for the Protestant Religion manifested to the World in your many and hazardous Enterprizes which it hath pleased Almighty God to bless You with miraculous Success We render our deepest Thanks to the Divine Majesty for the same And beg leave to present our most humble Thanks to your Highness particularly for your appearing in Arms in this Kingdom to carry on and perfect your glorious Design 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 these Kingdoms upon a sure and lasting Foundation We have hitherto look'd for some Remedy for these Oppressions and Imminent Dangers We together with our Protestant Fellow-Subjects laboured under from His Majesty's Concessions and Concurrences with Your Highness's Just and Pious purposes expressed in Your gracious Declaration But herein finding Our Selves finally disappointed by his Majesty's withdrawing Himself We presume to make Your Highness Our Refuge And do in the Name of this Capital CITY implore Your Highness's Protection and most humbly beseech Your Highness to vouchsafe to repair to this CITY where Your Highness will be received with Universal Joy and Satisfaction The Speech of Sir George Treby Kt. Recorder of the Honourable City of London to his Highness the Prince of Orange Dec. 20. 1688. May it please your Highness THE Lord Mayor being disabled by Sickness your Highness is attended by the Aldermen and Commons of the Capital City of this Kingdom deputed to Congratulate your Highness upon this great and glorious Occasion In which labouring for Words we cannot but come short in Expression Reviewing our late Danger we remember our Church and State over-run by Popery and Arbitrary Power and brought to the Point of Destruction by the Conduct of Men that were our true Invaders that brake the Sacred Fences of our Laws and which was worst the very Constitution of our Legislature So that there was no Remedy left but the Last The only Person under Heaven that could apply this Remedy was Your Highness You are of a Nation whose Alliances in all Times has been agreeable and prosperous to us You are of a Family most Illustrious Benefactors to Mankind To have the Title of Soveraign Prince Stadtholder and to have worn the Imperial Crown are among their lesser Dignities They have long enjoyed a Dignity singular and transcendent viz. To be Champions of Almighty God sent forth in several Ages to vindicate his Cause against the greatest Oppressions To this Divine Commission our Nobles our Gentry and among them our brave English Soldiers rendred themselves and their Arms upon your appearing GREAT SIR When we look back to the last Month and contemplate the Swiftness and Fulness of our present Deliverance astonish'd we think it miraculous Your Highness led by the Hand of Heaven and called by the Voice of the People has preserved our dearest Interests The Protestant Religion which is Primitive Christianity restor'd Our Laws which are our ancient Title to our Lives Liberties and Estates and without which this World were a Wilderness But what Retribution can We make to your Highness Our Thoughts are full-charged with Gratitude Your Highness has a lasting Monument in the Hearts in the Prayers in the Praises of all good Men among us And late Posterity will celebrate your ever-glorious Name till Time shall be no more Chapman Mayor Cur ' special ' tent ' die Jovis xx die Decemb ' 1688. Annoque RR. Jacobi Secundi Angl ' c. quarto THIS Court doth desire Mr. Recorder to print his Speech this day made to the Prince of Orange at the time of this Court 's attending his Highness with the Deputies of the several Wards and other Members of the Common Council Wagstaffe His Highness the Prince of Orange's Speech to the Scots 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 Whitehall January 7th 168â— His Highness the Prince of Orange having caused Advertise such of the Scots Lords and Gentlemen as were in Town met them in a Room at St. James's upon Monday the Seventh of January at Three of the Clock in the Afternoon and had this Speech to them My Lords and Gentlemen THE only Reason that induced me to undergo so great an Vndertaking was That I saw the Laws and Liberties of these Kingdoms overturned and the Protestant Religion in Imminent Danger And seeing you are here so many Noblemen and Gentlemen I have called you together that I may have your Advice what is to be done for Securing the Protestant Religion and Restoring your Laws and Liberties according to my Declaration As soon as his Highness had retired the Lords and Gentlemen went to the Council-Chamber at Whitehall and having chosen the Duke of Hamilton their President they fell a consulting what Advice was fit to be given to his Highness in this Conjuncture And after some hours Reasoning they agreed upon the Materials of it and appointed the Clerks with such as were to assist them to draw up in Writing what the Meeting thought expedient to advise his Highness and to bring it in to the Meeting the next in the Afternoon Tuesday the Eighth Instant the Writing was presented in the Meeting And some time being spent in Reasoning about the fittest way of Coveening a General Meeting of the Estates of Scotland At last the Meeting came to agree in their Opinion and appointed the Advice to be writ clean over according to the Amendments But as they were about to part for that Dyet the Earl of Arran proposed to them as his Lordship's Advice that they should move the Prince of Orange to desire the King to return and call a Free Parliament which would be the best way to secure the Protestant Religion and Property and to