most willingly bind our selves every one of us to the other joyntly and severally in the Band of one Firm and Loyal Society And do hereby Vow and Promise by the MAJESTY OF ALMIGHTY GOD That with our whole Powers Bodies Lives and Goods and with our Children and Servants We and every of us will faithfully serve and humbly obey our said Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth against all States Dignities and Earthly Powers whatsoever and will as well with our joynt and particular Forces during our Lives withstand offend and pursue as well by Force of Arms as by all other means of Revenge all manner of Persons of what State soever they shall be and their Abettors that shall attempt any Act Council or Consent to any thing that shall tend to the Harm of her Majesties Royal Person and will never desist from all manner of Forcible Pursuit against such Persons to the utter Extermination of them their Counsellors Aiders and Abettors And if any such wicked Attempt against her most Royal Person shall be taken in hand or procured whereby any that have may or shall pretend Title to come to this Crown by the untimely Death of her Majesty so wickedly procured which God for his Mercy sake forbid may be avenged We do not only bind our selves both joyntly and severally never to Allow Accept or Favour any such pretended Successor by whom or for whom any such detestable Act shall be Attempted or Committed as unworthy of all Government in any Christian Realm or Civil State But do also further Vow and Protest as we are most bound and that in the Presence of the Eternal and Everlasting God to Prosecute such Person and Persons to Death with our joynt or particular Forces and to ask the utmost Revenge upon them that by any means we or any of us can devise and do or cause to be devised and done for their utter Overthrow and Extirpation And to the better Corroboration of this our Loyal Band and Association We do also testifie by this Writing that we do confirm the Contents hereof by our Oaths corporally taken upon the Holy Evangelist with this express Condition That no one of us shall for any respect of Persons or Causes or for Fear or Reward separate our selves from this Association or fail in the Prosecution thereof during our Lives upon pain of being by the rest of us prosecuted and supprest as perjur'd Persons and as Publick Enemies to God our Queen and to our Native Country To which Punishment and Pains we do voluntarily submit ourselves and every of us without Benefit of any Colour or Pretence In Witness of all which Premises to be inviolably kept we do to this Writing put our Hands and Seals and shall be most ready to accept and admit any other hereafter to this Society and Association The ACT of Parliament of the 27th of Queen Elizabeth in Confirmation of the same FOrasmuch as the good Felicity and Comfort of the whole Estate of this Realm consisteth only next under God in the Surety and Preservation of the Queens most excellent Majesty And for that it hath manifestly appeared that sundry wicked Plots and Means have of late been devised and laid as well in Foreign Parts beyond the Seas as also within this Realm to the great indangering of his Highness most Royal Person and to the utter Ruine of the whole Commonweal if by Gods merciful Providence the same had not been revealed Therefore for preventing of such great Perils as might hereafter otherwise grow by the like detestable and divilish Practices at the humble Suit and earnest Petition and Desire of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same Parliament Be it Enacted and Ordained if at any Time after the end of this present Session of Parliament any open Invasion or Rebellion shall be had or made into or within any of Her Majesties Realms or Dominions or any Act attempted tending to the hurt of her Majesties most Royal Person by or for any Person that shall or may pretend any Title to the Crown of this Realm after her Majesties Decease or if any thing shall be compassed or imagined tending to the hurt of her Majesties Royal Person by any person or with the Privity of any person that shall or may pretend Title to the Crown of this Realm that then by Her Majesties Commission under Her Great Seal the Lords and other of Her Highness Privy Council and such other Lords of Parliament to be Named by her Majesty as with the said Privy Council shall make up the Number of Four and twenty at the least ving with them for their Assistance in that behalf such of the Judges of the Courts of Record at Westminster as Her Highness shall for that purpose assign and appoint or the more part of the same Council Lords and Judges shall by virtue of the Act have Authority to examine all and every the Offences aforesaid and all Circumstances thereof and thereupon to give Sentence or Judgment as upon good proof the matter shall appear unto them And that after such Sentence or Judgment given and Declaration thereof made and published by Her Majesties Proclamation under the Great Seal of England all persons against whom such Sentence or Judgment shall be so given and published shall be excluded and disabled for ever to have or claim or to pretend to have or claim the Crown of this Realm or of any Her Majesties Dominions any former Law or Statute whatsoever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And that thereupon All Her Highness Subjects shall and may lawfully by virtue of this Act and Her Majesties Direction in that behalf by forcible and possible means pursue to Death every such wicked person by whom or by whose means assent or privity any such Invasion or Rebellion shall be in Form aforesaid denounced to have been made or such wicked Act attempted or other thing compassed or imagined against Her Majesties Person and all their Aiders Comforters and Abettors And if any such detestible Act shall be Executed against her Highness most Royal Person whereby Her Majesties Life shall be taken away which God of his great mercy forbid that then every such person by or for whom any such Act shall be executed and their Issues being any wise assenting or privy to the same shall by virtue of this Act be excluded and disabled for ever to have or claim or pretend to have or claim the said Crown of this Realm or of any other Her Highness Dominions any former Law or Statute whatsoever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And that all the Subjects of this Realm and all other Her Majesties Dominions shall and may lawfully by virtue of this Act by all forcible and possible means pursue to Death every such wicked Person by whom or by whose means any such detestible Fact shall be in Form hereafter expressed denounced to have been
committed and also their Issues being any way assenting or privy to the same and all their Aiders Comforters and Abettors in that behalf And to the end that the intention of this Law may be effectually Executed if Her Majesties Life shall be taken away by any violent or unnatural means which God defend Be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That the Lords and others which shall be of Her Majesties Privy Council at the time of such Her Decease or the more part of the same Council joyning unto them for their better Assistance five other Earls and seven other Lords of Parliament at the least foreseeing that none of the said Earls Lords or Council be known to be persons that may make any Title to the Crown those persons which were Chief Justices of either Bench Master of the Rolls and Chief Baron of the Exchequer at the time of Her Majesties Death or in Default of the said Justices Master of the Rolls and Chief Baron some other of those which were Justices of some of the Courts of Records at Westminster at the time of Her Highness Decease to supply their Places or any Four and twenty or more of them whereof Eight to be Lords of the Parliament not being of the Privy Council shall to the uttermost of their Power and Skill examine the cause and manner of such Her Majesties Death and what persons shall be any way Guilty thereof and all Circumstances concerning the same according to the true meaning of this Act and thereupon shall by open Proclamation publish the same and without any delay by all forcible and possible means prosecute to Death all their Aiders and Abettors And for the doing thertof and for the withstanding and suppressing of all such Power and Force as shall any way be levied or stirred in Disturbance of the due Execution of this Law shall by virtue of this Act have Power and Authority not only to raise and use such Forces as shall in that behalf be needful and convenient but also to use all other means and things possible and necessary for the maintenance of the same Forces and prosecution of the said Offenders And if any such Power and Force shall be levied or stirred in Disturbance of the due Execution of this Law by any person that shall or may pretend any Title to the Crown of this Realm whereby this Law may not in all things be fully Executed according to the effect and true meaning of the same That then every such person shall by virtue of this Act be therefore excluded and disabled for ever to have or claim or to pretend to have or claim the Crown of this Realm or of any other Her Highness Dominions any former Law or Statute whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid and all and every the Subjects of all Her Majesties Realms and Dominions shall to the uttermost of their Power aid and assist the said Councel and all other the Lords and other Persons to be adjoyned to them for Assistance as is aforesaid in all things to be done and executed according to the effect and intention of this Law And that no Subject of this Realm shall in any wise be impeached in Body Lands or Goods at any time hereafter for any thing to be done or executed according to the Tenour of the Law any Law or Statute heretofore made to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And whereas of late many of Her Majesties good and faithful Subjects have in the Name of God and with the Testimonies of good Consciences by one Uniform manner of Writing under their Hands land Seals and by their several Oaths voluntarily taken joyned themselves together in one Bond and Association to withstand and revenge to the uttermost all such malicious Actions and Attempts against Her Majesties most Royal Person Now for the full Explaining of all such Ambiguities and Questions as otherwise might happen to grow by reason of any sinister or wrong Construction or Interpretation to be made or inferred of or upon the words or meaning thereof Be it Declared and Enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament That the same Association and every Article and Sentence therein contained as well concerning the Disallowing Excluding or Disabling any Person that may or shall pretend any Title to come to the Crown of this Realm as also for the pursuing and taking Revenge of any person for any such wicked Act or Attempt as is mentioned in the same Association shall and ought to be in all things expounded and adjudged according to the true intent and meaning of this Act and not otherwise nor against any other person or persons A Word without Doors concerning the BILL for SUCCESSION SIR I AM very sensible of the great Honour you were pleas'd to do me in your last which I received immediately after our late unhappy Dissolution but could have wished you would have laid your Commands on some more able Person to have given you Satisfaction in the matter you there propose relating to the Duke who you seem to insinuate was like if the Parliament had continued to have received hard measure I must ingeniously confess to you I was not long since perfectly of your Opinion and thought it the highest Injustice imaginable for any Prince to be debar'd of his Native Right of Succession upon any pretence whatsoever But upon a more mature Deliberation and Enquiry I found my Error proceeded principally from the falso Notions I had took up of Government it self and from my Ignorance of the Practiâ—â—â— of all Communities of Men in all Ages whenever Self-preservation and Necessity of their Affairs obliged them to declare their Opinion in Cases of the like Nature To the knowledge of all which the following Accident I shall relate to you did very much contribute My Occasions obliging me one day to attend the coming of a Friend in a Coffee-house near Charing-Cross there happened to sit at the same Table with me Two Ingenious Gentlemen who according to the Frankness of Conversation now used in the Town began a Discourse on the same Subject you desire to be more particularly informed in and having Extolled the late House of Commons as the best number of Men that had ever sate within those Walls and that no House had ever more vigorously maintained and asserted English Liberty and Protestant Religion than they had done as far as the nature of the things that came before them and the Circumstances of time would admit to all which I very readily and heartily assented they then added That the great Wisdom and Zeal of that House had appeared in nothing more than in Ordering a Bill to be brought in for debarring the Duke of Y. from inheriting the Crown A Law they affirmed to be the most just and reasonable in the World and the only proper Remedy to establish this Nation on a true and solid Interest both Relation to the present
they that make Leasings to his Grace of his Lords Barons and Leiges Act 134. Par. 8. James 6. May 22. 1584. Anent Slanderers of the King his Progenitors Estate and Realm FOrasmuch as it is understood to our Soveraign Lord and his three Estates assembled in this present Parliament what great harm and inconveniency has fallen in this Realm chiefly since the beginning of the Civil troubles occurred in the time of his Highness minority through the wicked and licentious publick and private speeches and untrue calumnies of divers of his Subjects to the disdain contempt and reproach of His Majesty his Council and proceedings and to the dishonour and prejudice of his Highness his Parents Progenitors and Estate stirring up his Highness's Subjects thereby to misliking sedition unquietness and to cast off their due obedience to His Majesty to their evident peril tinsil and destruction his Highness continuing always in love and clemency toward all his good Subjects and most willing to seek the safety and preservation of them all which wilfully needlessly and upon plain malice after his Highness's mercy and pardon oft times afore granted has procured themselves by their treasonable deeds to be cut off as corrupt Members of this Commonwealth Therefore it is statute and ordained by our Soveraign Lord and his three Estates in this present Parliament that none of his Subjects of whatsoever Function Degree or Quality in time coming shall presume or take upon hand privately or publickly in Sermons Declanations and familiar Conferences to utter any false slanderous or untrue Speeches to the disdain reproach and contempt of His Majesty his Council and proceedings or to the dishonour hurt or prejudice of his Highness his Parents and Progenitors or to meddle in the Affairs of his Highness and his Estate present by-gone and in time coming under the pains contained in the Acts of Parliament anent makers and tellers of Leasings certifying them that shall be tryed contraveeners thereof or that hear such slanderous Speeches and reports not the same with diligence the said pain shall be executed against them with all rigour in example of others Act 205. Par. 14 King James 6. June 8. 1594. Anent Leasing-makers and Authors of Slanders OUR Soveraign Lord with advice of his Estates in this present Parliament ratifies approves and for his Highness and Successors perpetually confirms the Act made by his Noble Progenitors King James the First of Worthy Memory against Leasing-makers the Act made by King James the Second entituled Against Leasing-makers and tellers of them the Act made by King James the Fifth entituled Of Leasing-makers and the Act made by his Highness's self with advice of his Estates in Parliament upon the 22d day of May 1584. entituled For the punishment of the Authors of Slanders and untrue Calumnies against the Kings Majesty his Council and proceedings to the dishonour and prejudice of his Highness his Parents Progenitors Crown and Estate as also the Act made in his Highness's Parliament holden at Linlithgow upon the 10th of December 1585. entituled Against the Authors of slanderous Speeches or Writs and statutes and ordains all the said Acts to be published of new and to be put in execution in time coming with this addition That whoever hears the said Leasings Calumnies or slanderous Speeches or Writs to be made and apprehends not the Authors thereof if it lies in his power and reveals not the same to his Highness or one of his Privy Council or to the Sheriff Steward or Bayliff of the Shire Stewards in Regality or Royalty or to the Provost or any of the Bayliffs within Burgh by whom the same may come to the knowledge of his Highness or his said Privy-Council where through the said Leasing makers and Authors of slanderous Speeches may be called tryed and punished according to the said Acts The hearer and not apprehender if it lye in his power and concealer and not revealer of the said Leasing makers and Authors of the said slanderous Specches or Writs shall incur the like pain and punishment as the principal Offender Act 107. Par. 7. King James 1. March 1. 1427. That none interpret the Kings Statutes wrongously ITem the King by deliverance of Council by manner of Statute forbids That no man interpret his Statutes otherwise than the Statutes bear and to the intent and effect that they were made for and as the maker of them understood and who so does in the contrary shall be punished at the Kings will Act 10. Par. 10. King James 6. Dec. 10. 1585. Authors of slanderous Speeches or Writs should be punished to the Death IT is statuted and ordained by our Soveraign Lord and three Estates that all his Highness's Subjects content themselves in quietness and dutiful obedience to his Highness and his Authority and that none of them presume or take upon hand publickly to declaim or privately to speak or write any purpose of reproach or slander of His Majesties Person Estate or Government or to deprave his Laws and Acts of Parliament or misconstrue his proceedings whereby any misliking may be moved betwixt his Highness and his Nobility and loving Subjects in time coming under the pain of Death certifying them that do in the contrary they shall be reputed as seditious and wicked Instruments enemies to his Highness and the Commonwealth of this Realm and the said pain of Death shall be executed upon them with all rigour in example of others Act for preservation of His Majesties Person Authority and Government May 1662. And further it is by His Majesty and Estates of Parliament declared statuted and enacted That if any person or persons shall by writing printing praying preaching libelling remonstrating or by any malicious or advised speaking express publish or declare any words or sentences to stir up the people to the hatred or dislike of His Majesties Royal Prerogative and Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastical or of the Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops as it is now settled by Law That every such person or persons so offending and being legally Convicted thereof are hereby declared incapable to enjoy or exercise any place or employment Civil Ecclesiastick or Military within this Church and Kingdom and shall be liable to such further pains as are due by the Law in such Cases Act 130. Par. 8. James 6. May 22. 1584. Anent the Authority of the three Estates of Parliament THE Kings Majesty considering the Honour and the Authority of his Supreme Court of Parliament continued past all memory of man unto their days as constitute upon the free Votes of the three Estates of this ancient Kingdom by whom the same under God has ever been upholden Rebellious and Traiterous Subjects punished the Good and Faithful preserved and maintained and the Laws and Acts of Parliament by which all men are governed made and established And finding the Power Dignity and Authority of the said Court of Parliament of late years called in some doubt at least some curiously travelling
Earl unless they had his Royal Highness's and their Lordships special License and Warrant to that effect which is usual in the like Cases And by the said Petition humbly supplicated that his Highness and the Council would give special Order and Command to the said Sir George Lockhart the said Earls ordinary Advocate to consult and plead for him in the foresaid Criminal Process without incurring any hazard upon that account His Royal Highness and Lords of the said Privy Council did refuse the desire of the said Petition but allowed any Lawyers the Petitioner should employ to consult and plead for him in the Process of Treason and other Crimes to be pursued against him at the instance of His Majesties Advocate And also the said Alexander Dunbar having and holding in his hands another Act of the said Lords of Privy Council of the date the 24th of the said month relative to and narrating the said first Act and proceeding upon another supplication given in by the said Earl to the said Lords craving That his Royal Highness and the said Lords would interpose their Authority by giving a positive and special Order and Warrant to the said Sir George Lockhart to consult and plead with him in the foresaid Criminal Process conform to the tenor of the Acts of Parliament mentioned and particularized in the said Petition and frequent and known practice in the like cases which was never refused to any Subjects of the meanest quality His Royal Highness and Lords of Privy Council having considered the foresaid Petition did by the said Act adhere to their former Order allowing Advocates to appear for the said Earl in the Process foresaid as the said Acts bear and produced the said Acts and Procuratory foresaid to the said Sir George Lockhart who took the same in his hands and read them over successive and after reading thereof the said Alexander Dunbar Procurator and in name and behalf foresaid solemnly required the said Sir George Lockhart as the said Noble Earls ordinary Advocate and as a Lawyer and Advocate upon the said Earls reasonable expence to consult and advise the said Earls said Process at any time and place the said Sir George should appoint to meet thereupon conform to the foresaid two Acts of Council and Acts of Parliament therein mentioned appointing Advocates to consult in such matters which the said Sir George Lockhart altogether refused Whereupon the said Alexander Dunbar as Procurator and in Name foresaid asked and took Instruments one or more in the hands of me Notary publick undersubscribed And these things were done within the said Sir George Lockhart's Lodging on the South side of the Street of Edinburgh in the Lane-Mercat within the Dining-room of the said Lodging betwixt Four and Five hours in the Afternoon Day Month Year Place and of His Majesties Reign respective foresaid before Robert Dicksone and John Lesly Servitors to John Camphell Writer to His Majesties Signet and Dowgall Mac. Alester Messenger in Edinburgh with divers others called and required to the Premisses Ita esse Ego Johannes Broun Notarius publicus in Premissis requisitus Attestor Testantibus his meis signo subscriptione manualibus solitis consuetis Broun Witnesses Robert Dicksone Dowgall Mac. Alester John Lesly Decemb. 5. 1682. The Opinion of divers Lawyers concerning the Case of the Earl of Argyle WE have considered the Criminal Letters raised at the instance of His Majesties Advocate against the Earl of Argyle with the Acts of Parliament contained and narrated in the same Criminal Letters and have compared the same with a Paper or Explication which is libelled to have been given in by the Earl to the Lords of His Majesties Privy-Council and owned by him as the sense and explication in which he did take the Oath imposed by the late Act of Parliament Which Paper is of this tenor I have considered the Test and am very desirous to give chedience as far as I can c. And having likewise considered that the Earl after he had taken the Oath with the explication and sense then put upon it it was acquiesced to by the Lords of Privy-Council and he allowed to take his place and to sit and Vote And that before the Earls taking of the Oath there were several papers spread abroad containing objections and alledging inconsistencies and contradictions in the Oath and some thereof were presented by Synods and Presbyteries of the Orthodox Clergy to some of the Bishops of the Church It is our humble Opinion that seeing the Earls design and meaning in offering the said Explication was allenarly for the clearing of his own Conscience and upon no facrious or seditious design and that the matter and import of the said paper is no contradiction of the Laws and Acts of Parliament it doth not at all import any of the Crimes libelled against him viz. Treason Leasing making depraving of His Majesties Laws or the Crime of Perjury but that the glosses and inferences put by the Libel upon the said paper are altogether strained and unwarrantable and inconsistent with the Earls true design and the sincerity of his meaning and intention in making of the said Explication Wednesday the 12th of December the day of compearance assigned to the Earl being now come he was brought by a guard of Souldiers from the Castle to the place appointed for the Trial and the Justice Court being met and fenced the Earl now Marquess of Queensberry then Justice-General the Lords Nairn Collingtoun Forret Newtoun and Hirkhouse the Lords of Justitiary sitting in Judgment and the other formalities also performed the Indictment above set down Num. 24. was read and the Earl spoke as follows The Earl of Argyle's Speech to the Lord Justice General and the Lords of the Justitiary after he had been arraigned and his Indictment read My Lord Justice General c. I Look upon it as the undeniable priviledge of the meanest Subject to explain his own words in the most benign sense and even when persons are under an ill Character the misconstruction of words in themselves not ill can only reach a presumption or aggravation but not any more But it is strange to alledge as well as I hope impossible to make any that know me believe that I could intend any thing but what was honest and honourable suitable to the Principles of my Religion and Loyalty tho I did not explain my self at all My Lord I pray you be not offended that I take up a little of your time to tell you I have from my Youth made it my business to serve His Majesty faithfully and have constantly to my power appeared in his Service especially in all times of difficulty and have never joined nor complied with any Interest or Party contrary to His Majesties Authority and have all along served him in his own way without a frown from His Majesty these thirty years As soon as I passed the Schools and Colledges I went to travel to France and Italy and
go the same length And if any such thing were argued it might be argued ten times more strongly from a simple refusing of the Oath as if any thing were enjoyned which were so hard that it is not possible to comply with it And yet such implications are most irrational and inconsequential and neither in the case of a simple and absolute refusing of the Oath nor in the Case of an Explication of the parties sense wherein he is willing to take the Oath is there any impeachment of the Justice and prudence of the Legislator who imposeth this Oath but singly a declaration of the scrupulosity and weakness of the party why he cannot take the Oath in other terms and such Explications have been allowed by the Laws and Customs of all Nations and are advised by all Divines of whatsoever principles for the solace and security of a Mans Conscience 2. As to that point of the Explication libelled That I am confident the Parliament never intended to impose contradictory Oaths it respects the former answer which considering the plain and downright Objections that were spread abroad and made against the Oath as containing inconsistencies and contradictions was an high Vindication of the Justice and prudence of the Parliament 3. As to these words And therefore I think no body can explain it but for himself The plain and clear meaning is nothing else but that the Oath being imposed by Act of Parliament it was of no private interpretation and that therefore every man who was to take it behooved to take it in that sense which he apprehended to be the genuine sense of the Parliament And it is impossible without impugning common sense that any man could take it in any other fence it being as impossible to see with anothers mans eyes as to see with his private Reason And a mans own private sense and apprehension of the genuine sense was the only proper way wherein any man could rationally take the Oath And as to these words That he takes it as far as it is consistent with it self and the Protestant Religion The Pannel neither intended nor exprest more but that he did take it as a true Protestant and he hopes all men have taken it as such And as to that Clause wherein the Pannel is made to declare That he does not bind up himself in his Station in a lawful way to wish and endeavour any alteration he thinks to the advantage of Church or State not repugnant to the Protestant Religion and his Loyalty It is answered There is nothing in this expression that can import the least Crime or give the least umbrage for any mistake For 1. It is most certain it is impossible to elicite any such thing from the Oath but that it was the intention of the Parliament That persons notwithstanding of the Oath might concur in their stations and in a lawful way in any Law to the advantage of Church and State And no rational man ever did or can take the Oath in other terms that being contrary to his Allegiance and Duty to His Sacred Majesty and Prince 2. There is nothing in the said expression which does touch in the least point at any alteration in the Fundamentals of Government either in Church or State but on the contrary by the plain and clear words and meaning rather for its perpetuity stability and security The expression being cautioned to the utmost scrupulosity as that it was to be done in a lawful manner that it was to be to the advantage of Church or State that it was to be consistent with the Protestant Religion and with his Loyalty which was no other but the Duty and Loyalty of all faithful Subjects and which he has signally and eminently expressed upon all occasions So that how such an expression can be drawn to import all or any of the Crimes libelled passeth all Natural Understanding And as to the last words And this I understand as a part of my Oath which is libelled to be a treasonable Invasion and assuming of the Legislative power It is answered it is most unwarrantable and a parties declaring the sense and meaning in which he was free to take an Oath does not at all respect or invade the Legislative power of which the Pannel never entertained a thought but has an absolute abhorrence and detestation of such practices But the plain and clear meaning is That the sense and explication was a part of his Oath and not of the Law imposing the Oath these being as distant as the two Poles and which sense was taken off the Earls hands and he accordingly was allowed to take his place at the Council-Board and therefore repeats the former general Defences And to convince the Lords of Justitiary that there is nothing in the pretended explication libelled which can be drawn to import any Crime even of the lowest size and degree and that there is no expression therein contained that can be detorted or wrested to import the same is evident from the learned Vindication published and spread abroad by an eminent Bishop and which was read in the face of the Privy Council and does contain expressions of the same nature and to the same import contained in the pretended Explication libelled as the ground of this Indictment libelled against the Pannel And it is positively offered to be proven That these terms were given in and read and allowed to be printed and without taking notice of the whole tenor of the said Vindication which the Lords of Justitiary are humbly desired to peruse and consider and compare the same with the Explication libelled the same acknowledgeth that scruples had been raised and spread abroad against the Oath and also acknowledgeth that there were expressions therein that were dark and obscure and likewise takes notice that the Confession ratified Par. 1. James 6. to which the Oath relates was hastily made and takes notice of that Authority that made it and acknowledges in plain terms that the Oath does not hinder any regular endeavour to regulate or better the Establisht Government but only prohibits irregular endeavours and attempts to invert the substance or body of the Government and does likewise explain the Act of Parliament anent His Majesties Supremacy that it does not reach the alteration of the external Government of the Church And the Pannel and his Proctors are far from insinuating in the least that there is any thing in the said Vindication but what is consistent with the exemplary Loyalty Piety and Learning of the Writer of the same And tho others perhaps may differ in their private opinion as to this interpetation of the Act of Parliament anent the Kings Supremacy yet it were most absurd and irrational to pretend that whether the mistake were upon the interpretation of the Writer or the sense of others as to that point that such mistakes or misapprehensions upon either hand should import or infer against them the Crimes of Leasing making or
if then he gives in an Explication of the sense which in his private judgment doth apprehend to be the genuine meaning if that private sense be disconform to the Legislators sense in the Oath then the Imposer of the Oath or he that has power to offer it to the party if he consider the parties sense disconform he ought to reject the Oath as not fulfilling the intent of the Law imposing it But it is impossible to state that as a Crime That a party should neither believe what is proposed in the Oath nor be able to take it And he can run no farther hazard but the penalty imposed upon the Refuser And therefore in all Oaths there must be a concourse both of the sense imposed by Authority and of the private Sense Judgment or Conscience of the party And therefore if a party should take an Oath in the Sense proposed by Authority contrary to his own sense he were perjured whereby it is evident that the sense of Authority is not sufficient without the acquiescence and consent of the private person And therefore it is very strange why that part of the Pannel's Explanation should be challenged that he takes it in his own Sense the posterior words making it as plain as the light that that sense of his own is not what he â—pleases to make of the Oath for it bears expresly that no body can explain it but for himself and reconcile it as it is genuine and agrees in its own sense So that there must be a Reconciliation bewixt his own sense and the genuine sense which upon all hands is acknowledged to be the Sense of Authority And if the Pannel had been of these lax and debaucht Principles that he might have evaded the meaning and energy of the Oath by imposing upon it what sense he pleased certainly he would have contented himself in the general refuge of Equivocation or Mental Reservation and he would never have exposed his sense to the world in which he took this Oath whereby he became absolutely fixed and determined to the Oath in that particular sense and so had no latitude of shuffling off the Energy or Obligation of the Oath And it is likewise acknowledged That the Cases alledged in the Reply are true viz. That the person is guilty of Perjury si aliquo novo Commento he would elude his Oath or who doth not fulfil the Oath in the sense of the Imposer But that does not concern this Case For in the foresaid Citation a person after he has taken an Oath finding out some new conceit to elude it he is perjured but in this Case the Pannel did at and before his taking the Test declare the tâ—â—â—s in which he understood it So that this was not novo aliquo commento to elude it And the other Case where a party takes it in the sense of Authority but has some subterfuge or concealed Explanation it is acknowledged to be Perjury But in this Case there was no concealed Explanation but it was publickly exprest and an Explanation given which the Pannel designed and understood as the meaning of Authority and had ground to believe he was not mistaken since upon that Explanation he was received and allowed to sit and vote in Council And as to that part of the Reply that explains the Treason there can be no Treason in the Pannel's Case because the express Act of Parliament founded upon doth relate only to the Constitution of the Parliament And I am sure His Majesties Advocate cannot subsume in theâ—e terms And therefore in the Reply he recurs to the general Grounds of the Law That the usurping of His Majesties Authority in making a part of the Law and to make alterations in general and without the King are high and treasonable words or designs and such as the party pleases and such designs as have been practised the late times And that even the adjection of fair and safe words as in the Covenant does not secure from treasonable Designs and that it was so found in Balmerino's Case tho it bear a fair Narrative of an humble Supplication It is replied That the usurpation of making of Laws is undoubtedly treasonable but no such thing can be pretended or subsumed in this Case For albeit the Pannel declares his Explanation to be a part of his Oath yet he never meaned to impose it as even a part of the Law or that his Explanation should be a thing distinct or a separate part of his Oath For this Explanation being but exegetick of the several parts of the Oath it is no distinct thing from the Oath but declared to be a part of the Oath de natura rei And it was never pretended That he that alledged any thing to be de natura rei did say That that was distinct and separate which were a contradiction And therefore the Argument is retorted the Pannel having declared this Explanation was de natura rei implied in the Oath he necessarily made this Explanation no addition or extention of the Oath So that for all this Explanation the Oath is neither broader nor longer than it was And as to these words I do not mean to bind up my self in my station and in a lawful way to wish and endeavour any alteration I think to the advantage of Church or State not repugnant to the Protestant Religion and my Loyalty It is a strange thing how this Clause can be drawn in question as treasonable when it may with better Reason be alledged That there is not good Subject but is bound to say it And albeit the words to endeavour in my station be words contained in the Covenant yet that is no Reason why two words in the Covenant may not be made use of in another very good and loyal sense And there is no man that shall have the honour either to be entrusted by His Majesty in his Council or any other Judicature or to be a Member of Parliament but he is bound by his Loyalty to say the same thing And there was never a Clause more cautiously exprest for the words run to endeavour any alteration I shall think to the advantage of Church and State And tho that was sufficient yet the Clause is so cautiously conceived that it contains another Restriction not repugnant to Religion and his Loyalty So that except it could be alledged That a man by lawful means to the advantage of Church and State consistent with his Religion and Loyalty could make treasonable alterations and invasions upon the Government and Monarchy which are the highest Contradictions imaginable there can be nothing against the Pannel And albeit the Clause any alterations might without the Restrictions and Qualifications foresaid be generally extended yet the preceeding words of lawful way and the rational Interpretation of the emission of words especially before a solemn Judicatory leaves no place or shadow to doubt that these alterations were no fundamental or treasonable alterations but such as
of the Kings Officers cannot prejudg his Interest It is answered The Pannel is very confident that neither the Lords of His Majesties Privy Council consisting of persons of eminent Loyalty and Judgment nor His Majesties Officers were capable of any such escape as is pretended and if the tenor of the Pannel's Explication did in the least import the high and infamous Crimes libelled as beyond all peradventure it does not it were strange how the same being contained in the aforesaid Vindication and the whole Clauses thereof justified that this should have been looked on as no Crime and allowed to be published And the Pannel neither does nor needs to make farther use thereof but to convince all dis-interested persons that his Explication can import no Crime And whereas it is pretended That the Crime of Treason is inferred from the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and from that Clause of the Pannel's Explication whereby he declares he is not bound up by any thing in this Oath not to endeavour any alteration in a lawful way which being an indefinite proposition is equipollent to an universal and is upon the matter coincident with a Clause which was rebellious in its consequences contained in the Solemn League and Covenant It is answered That it is strange how such a plain and innocent Clause whereby beyond all question he does express no more than was naturally imported the Crime of Treason which no Lawyer ever allowed except where it was founded upon express Law Luce Meridiana Clarior And indeed if such stretches and inferences can make men guilty of Treason no man can be secure And the words in the Pannel's Declaration are plain and clear yet non sunt cavillanda and import no more but that in his station and in a lawful way and consistent with the Protestant Religion and his Loyalty he might endeavour any alteration to the advantage of Church and State And was there ever any loyal or rational Subject that does or can doubt that this is the natural import of the Oath And indeed it were a strange Oath if it were capable of another sense and being designed for the security of the Government should bind up mens hands to concur for its advantage And how was it possible that the Pannel or any other in the capacity of a Privy-Councellor or a Member of the Parliament would have satisfied his Duty and Allegiance in other terms And whereas it is pretended that there was the like case in the pretended League and Covenant it is answered The Assertion is evidently a Mistake and tho it were the Argument is altogether inconsequential For that League and Covenant was treasonable in it self as being a Combination entred into without His Majesties Authority and was treasonable in the glosses that were put upon it and was imposed by absolute violence on the Subjects of this Kingdom And how can the Pannel be in the least supposed to have had any respect to the said League and Covenant when he had so often taken the Declaration disowning and renouncing it as an unlawful and sinful Oath and concurred in the many excellent Laws and Acts of Parliament made by His Majesty condemning the same as seditious and treasonable And whereas it is pretended That the Pannel is guilty of Perjury having taken the Oath in another sense than was consistent with the genuine sense of the Parliament and that by the Authority cited he doth commento eludere Juramentum which ought always to be taken in the sense of him that imposeth the Oath It is answered The Pretence is most groundless and Perjury never was nor can be inferred but by the commission or omission of something directly contrary to the Oath And altho it is true That where an Oath is taken without any Declaration of the express sense of the persons who take it it obliges sub poena Perjurii in the sense not of the taker but of the imposer of the Oath because expressing no Sense Law and Reason presumes there is a full acquiescence in the sense and meaning of the imposer of the Oath and then if an Oath be not so taken he that takes it is guilty of Perjury Yet there was never Lawyer nor Divine Popish or Protestant but agree in this That whatever be the tenor of the Oath if before the taking thereof the party in express terms does publickly and openly declare the sense in which he takes it it is impossible it can infer the Crime of Perjury against him in any other sense this not being Commentum excogitatum after the taking of the Oath And if this were not so how is it possible in Sense and Reason that ever any Explication or Sense could solve the Scruples of a mans Conscience For it might be always pretended That notwithstanding of the express sense wherein he took it he should be guilty of Perjury from another sense And that this is the irrefragable opinion of all Divines of whatever peswasion is not only clear from the Authority above-mentioned even those who allow of reserved senses but more especially by the universal suffrage of all Protestant Divines who tho they do abominate all thoughts of Subterfuges or Evasions after taking of the Oath yet they do always allow and advise for the safety and security of a doubting and scrupulous Conscience that they should express and declare before the taking of the Oath the true sense and meaning wherein they have freedom to take it and for which Sandersone de Juramento is cited Prelct 6. Sect. 10. pag. 75. where his words are Sane ut inter Jurandum omnia recte fiant expedit ut de verborum sensu inter omnes partes quarum interest liquido constet quod veteribus dictum liquido Jurare And an Oath being one of the highest Acts of Devotion containing Cultum Latriae there is nothing more consonant to the Nature of all Oaths and to that Candor Ingenuity and Chrstian simplicity which all Law and Religion requires in such cases The Kings Advocate 's Third Plea against the Earl of Argyle HIS Majesties Advocate conceives he has nothing to answer as to depraving Leasing-making and mis-interpreting c. save that this Oath was only designed to exclude Recusants and consequently the Pannel may thereby be debarred from his Offices but not made guilty of a Crime To which he Triplies 1. If ever the Earl had simply refused that had been true but that did not at all excuse from defaming the Law for a defamer is not punished for refusing but for defaming 2. It he had simply refused the Government had been in no more hazard but if men will both retain their places and yet take the same in such words as secure not the Government it were strange to think that the design of the Law being to secure against mens possessing who will not obey that yet it should allow them possession who do not obey Nor is the refuser here in a better case than the Earl
of the Peace and Vnity of this Realm 3. And that such Person or Persons so to be Named Assigned Authorised and Appointed by Your Highness Your Heirs or Successors after the said Letters Patents to him or them made and delivered as is aforesaid shall have full Power and Authority by Vertue of this Act and of the said Letters Patents under Your Highness Your Heirs and Successors to exercise use and execute all the premisses according to the Tenor and Effect of the said Letters Patents any matter or cause to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding So that I take it that all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was in the Crown by the Common Law of England and declared to be so by the said Act of 1 Eliz. 1. and by that Act a Power given to the Crown to assign Commissioners to exercise this Jurisdiction which was accordingly done by Queen Elizabeth and a High Commission Court was by her erected which sate and held Plea of all Causes Spiritual and Ecclesiastical during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth King James the First and King Charles the First till the 17th Year of his Reign Which leads me to consider the Statute of 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. which Act recites the Title of 1 Eliz. ca. 1. and Sect. 18. of the same Act and recites further Section 2. That whereas by colour of some Words in the aforesaid Branch of the said Act whereby Commissioners are authorised to execute their Commission according to the Tenor and Effect of the Kings Letters Patents and by Letters Patents grounded thereupon the said Commissioners have to the great and insufferable Wrong and Oppression of the Kings Subjects used to Fine and Imprison them and to exercise other Authority not belonging to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction restored by that Act and divers other great Mischiefs and Inconveniences have also ensued to the Kings Subjects by occasion of the said Branch and Commissions issued thereupon and the Executions thereof Therefore for the repressing and preventing of the aforesaid Abuses Mischiefs and Inconveniences in time to come by Sect. 3. the said Clause in the said Act 1 Eliz. 1. is Repealed with a Non obstante to the said Act in these Words Be it Enacted by the Kings most excellent Majesty and the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That the aforesaid Branch Clause Article or Sentence contained in the said Act and every Word Matter and thing contained in that Branch Clause Article or Sentence shall from henceforth be Repealed Annulled Revoked Annihilated and utterly made Void for ever any thing in the said Act to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And in Sect. 5. of the same Act it is Enacted That from and after the first of August in the said Act mentioned all such Commissions shall be void in these Words And be it further Enacted That from and after the said first Day of August no new Court shall be erected ordained or appointed within this Realm of England or Dominion of Wales which shall or may have the like Power Jurisdiction or Authority as the said High Commission Court now hath or pretendeth to have but that all and every such Letters Patents Commissions and Grants made or to be made by his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and all Powers and Authorities granted or pretended or mentioned to be granted thereby And all Acts Sentences and Decrees to be made by virtue or Colour thereof shall be utterly void and of none effect By which Act then the Power of Exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Commissioners under the Broad-Seal is so taken away that it provides no such Power shall ever for the future be Delegated by the Crown to any Person or Persons whatsoever Let us then in the last place consider Whether the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12 hath restored this Power or not And for this I take it that it is not restored by the said Act or any Clause in it and to make this evident I shall first set down the whole Act and then consider it in the several Branches of it that relate to this Matter The Act is Entituled An Act for Explanation of a Clause contained in an Act of Parliament made in the 17th Year of the Late King Charles Entituled An Act for Repeal of a Branch of Statute in Primo Elizabethae câ—ncerning Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical The Act it self runs thus Whereas in an Act of Parliament made in the Seventeenth Year of the Late King Charles Intituled An Act for Repeal of a Branch of a Stature primo Elizabethae concerning Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical It is amongst other things Enacted that no Arch-bishop Bisâ—â—p or Vicar-General nor any Chancellor nor Commissary of any Arch-Bishop Bishop or Vicar-General nor any Ordinary whatsoever nor any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Judge Officer or Minister of Justice nor any other Person or Persons whatsoever exercising Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power Authority or Jurisdiction by any Grant Lisence or Commission of the Kings Majesty His Heirs or Successors or by any Power or Authority derived from the King his Heirs or Successors or otherwise shall from and after the First Day of August which then should be in the Year of our Lord God 1641. Award Impose or Inflict any Pain Penalty Fine Amercement Imprisonment or other Corporal Punishment upon any of the Kings Subjects for any Contempt Misdemeanor Crime Offence Matter or Thing whatsoever belonging to Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Cognizance or Jurisdiction 2. Whereupon some Doubt hath been made that all ordinary Power of Coertion and proceeding in Causes Ecclesiastital were taken away whereby the ordinary Course of Justice in Causes Ecclesiastical hath been obstructed 3. Be it therefore Declared and Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority thereof That neither the said Act nor any thing therein contained doth or shall take away any ordinary Power or Authority from any of the said Arch-Bishops Bishops or any other Person or Persons named as aforesaid but that they and every of them exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction may proceed determine Sentence execute and exercise all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and all Censures and Coertions appertaining and belonging to the same before any making of the Act before recited in all Causes and Matters belonging to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction according to the Kings Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws used and practised in this Realm in as ample Manner and Form as they did and might lawfully have done before making of the said Act. Sect. 2. And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That the afore recited Act of Decimo Septimo Car. and all the Matters and Clauses therein contained excepting what concerns the High Commission Court or the new Erection of some such like Court by Commission shall be and is thereby repealed to dlintents and purposes whatsoever
consult their own good but he comes only at the time of Enacting bringing his Royal Authority with him as it were to set the Seal thereof to the Indenture already prepared by the People for the King is Head of the Parliament in regard of his Authority not in regard of his Reason or Judgment as if it were to be opposed to the Reason or Judgment of both Houses which is the Reason both of King and Kingdom and therefore do they as consult so also interpret Laws without him supposing him to be a Person replenished with Honour and Royal Authority not skilled in Laws nor to receive Information either of Law or Councel in Parliamentary Affairs from any saving from that supreme Court and highest Councel of the King and Kingdom which admits no counterpoise being intrusted both as the wisest Counsel and justest Judicature Fourthly either the choise of the People in Parliament is to be the Ground and Rule of the Kings Assent or nothing but his Pleasure and so all Bills tho' never so necessary for publick Good and Preservation and after never so much pains and consultation of both Houses may be rejected and so they made meer Cyphers and we brought to that pass as neither to have no Laws or such only as come immediately from the King who oft is a man of Pleasure and little seen in publick Affairs to be able to judge and so the Kingdoms great Councel must be subordinated either to his meer Will and then what Difference between a free Monarchy and an absolute saving that the one rules without Councel and the other against it or at the best but to a Cabinet Councel consisting commonly of Men of private Interests but certainly of no publick Trust Ob. But if the King must consent to such Laws as the Parliament shall chuse eo nomine they may then propound unreasonable things to him as to consent to his own Deposing or to the lessening his own Revenue c. Ans So that the issue is whether it be fitter to trust the Wisdom and Integrity of our Parliament or the Will and Pleasure of the King in this case of so great and publick Concernment In a word the King being made the Fountain of Justice and Protection to his People by the fundamental Laws or Constitution of this Kingdom he is therefore to give life to such Acts and Things as tend thereunto which Acts depend not upon his Pleasure but though they are to receive their greater Vigour from him yet are they not to be suspended at pleasure by him for that which at first was intended by the Kingdom for an honourable way of Subsistence and Administration must not be wrested contrrry to the nature of this Polity which is a free and mist Monarchy and not absolute to its Destruction and Confusion so that in case the King in his Person should decline his Duty the King in his Courts is bound to perform it where his Authority properly resides for if he refuse that Honour which the Republick by its fundamental Constitution hath conferred upon him and will not put forth the Acts of it for the end it was given him viz. for the Justice and Safety of his People this hinders not but that they who have as fundamentally reserved a Power of being and well-being in their own hands by the Concurrence of Parliamentary Authority to the Royal Dignity may thereby provide for their own Subsistence wherein is acted the Kings juridical Authority though his personal pleasure be withheld for his legal and juridical Power is included and supposed in the very being and consequently in the Acts of Courts of Justice whose being he may as well suspend as their Power of Acting for that without this is but a Cypher and therefore neither their being nor their acting so depend upon him as not to be able to act and execute common Justice and Protection without him in case he deny to act with them and yet both so depend upon him as that he is bound both in Duty and Honour by the Constitution of this Polity to act in them and they for him so that according to that Axiom in Law The King can do no wrong because his juridical Power and Authority is always to controle his personal Miscarriages London's Flames Revivd OR AN ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL INFORMATIONS Exhibited to a Committee appointed by PARLIAMENT September the 25th 1666. To Enquire into the BURNING of LONDON WITH Several other Informations concerning other Fires in Southwark Fetter-Lane and elsewhere UPon the Second of September 1666. the Fire began in London at one Farriner 's House a Baker in Pudding-Lane between the Hours of One and Two in the Morning and continued burning until the Sixth of September following consuming as by the Surveyors appears in Print Three hundred seventy three Acres within the Walls of the City of London and Sixty three Acres and Three Roods without the Walls There remains Seventy five Acres and Three Roods yet standing within the Walls unburnt Eighty nine Parish Churches besides Chappels burnt Eleven Parishes within the Walls yet standing Houses burnt Thirteen thousand and two hundred Per Jonas Moore Ralph Gatrix Surveyors UPon the 18th Day of September 1666. the Parliament came together And upon the 25th of the same Month the House of Commons appointed a Committee to enquire into the Causes of the late Fire before whom the following Informations were given in and proved before the Committee as by their Report will more clearly appear bearing date the 22th of January 1666. and upon the 8th of February following the Parliament was Prorogued before they came to give their Judgment thereupon Die Martis 25 Septembris 1666. 18 Car. 2. Resolved c. THat a Committee be appointed to enquire into the Causes of the late Fire and that it be referred to Sir Charles Harbord Mr. Sandys Col. Birch Sir Robert Brook Sir Thomas Littleton Mr. Prin Mr. Jones Sir Solomon Swale Sir Thomas Tomlins Mr. Seymour Mr. Finch Lord Herbert Sir John Heath Mr. Milward Sir Richard Ford Mr. Robert Milward Sir William Lowther Sir Richard Vatley Sir Rowland Beckley Sir Thomas Allen Mr. Whorwood Mr. Coventry Serj. Maynard Sir John Talbot Mr. Morley Mr. Garraway Sir Francis Goodrick Col. Strangeways Sir Edward Massey Sir Edmond Walpool Sir Robert Atkins Sir Thomas Gower Mr. Trevor Sir Thomas Clifford Sir Henry Caesar Sir John Monson Sir John Charleton Lord Ancram Mr. Pepis Sir Richard Everard Mr. Crouch Mr. Merrel Sir William Hickman Sir Richard Brown Mr. Maynard And they are to meet to Morrow at Two of the Clock in the After-noon in the Speaker's Chamber and to send for Persons Papers and Records William Goldsbrough Cler. Dom. Com. October 9. 1666. Ordered that these Members following be added to the Committee appointed to Enquire into the Causes of the late Fire viz. Sir John Pelham Mr. Hugh Buscowen Mr. Giles Hungerford Sir William Lewis Sir Gilbert Gerrard Sir John Brampstone Mr. Milward Mr. Buscowen
houses in Holborn at the same time That he was at the Fire in the Temple but was not engaged to do any thing in it And said that Gyfford told him that there were English French and Irish Roman Catholicks enough in London to make a very good Army and that the King of France was coming with 60000 Men under pretence to shew the Dauphin his Dominions but it was to lay his Men at Deep Bulloign Callis and Dunkirk to be in an hours Warning to be Landed in England and he doubted not but it would be by the middle of June and by that time all the Catholicks here will be in readiness all were to rise in order to bring him in That the Papists here were to be distinguished by Marks in their Hatts that the said Father Gyfford doubted not but he should be an Abbot or a Bishop when the work was over for the good service he hath done That at their Meeting Father Gyfford used to tell them it was no more sin to kill a Heretick then a Dog and that they did God good Service in doing what Mischiefs they could by firing their houses That it was well Sir Edmondbury Godfrey was Murdered for he was their Devilish Enemy That Coleman was a Saint in Heaven for what he had done And saith he is fearful he shall be Murthered for this Confession Father Gyfford having sworn him to Secresie and told him he should be Damned if he made any Discovery and should be sure to be killed and that he should take the Oaths because he was a House-keeper and that it was no sin And saith That Gyfford and Roger _____ told him when their Forces meet about the middle of June then have at the VOTES and ADDRESSES Of the Honourable House of Commons ASSEMBLED IN PARLIAMENT Made this present Year 1673 Concerning Popery and other Grievances March 29. 1673. The Parliaments Address to his Majesty for the Removal of Grievances in England and Ireland WE your Majesties most Loyal Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament assembled conceiving our selves bound in necessary Duty to your Majesty and in Discharge of the Trust reposed in us truly to inform your Majesty of the Estate of your Kingdom And though we are abundantly satisfied that it hath been your Royal Will and Pleasure that your Subjects should be governed according to the Laws and Customs of this Realm yet finding that contrary to your Majesties gracious Intention some Grievances and Abuses are crept in We crave Leave humbly to represent them to your Majesties Knowledge and Desire 1. That the Imposition of 12 d. per Chaldron upon Coals for the providing of Convoys by Vertue of an Order from Council dated the 15th of May 1672 may be recalled and all Bonds taken by Virtue thereof cancelled 2. That your Majesties Proclamation of the 24th of December 1672 for preventing of Disorders which may be committed by Soldiers and whereby the Soldiers now in your Majesties Service are in a manner exempted from the ordinary Course of Justice may likewise be recalled 3. And whereas great Complaints have been made out of several parts of this Kingdom of divers Abuses committed in Quartering of Soldiers That your Majesty would be pleased to give Order to redress those Abuses and in particular that no Soldiers be hereafter Quartered in any private Houses and that due Satisfaction may be given to the Inn-keepers or Victuallers where they lye before they remove 4. And since the continuance of Soldiers in this Nation will necessarily produce many Inconveniences to your Majesties Subjects We do humbly present it as our Petition and Advice That when this present War is ended all your Souldiers which have been raised since the last Session of Parliament may be Disbanded 5. That your Majesty would be likewise pleased to consider of the Irregularities and Abuses in pressing Soldiers and to give Order for the Prevention thereof for the future 6. And although it hath been the Course of former Parliaments to desire Redress in their Grievances before they proceeded to give a Supply yet we have so full Assurance of your Majesties Tenderness and Compassion towards your People that we humbly prostrate our selves at your Majesties feet with these our Petitions desiring your Majesty to take them into your Princely Consideration and to give such Orders for the Relief of your Subjects and the Removing these Pressures as shall seem lest to your Roâ—al Wisdâ—m Address touching Ireland WE your Majesties most Loyal Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament assembled taking into Consideration the great Calamities which have formerly befallen your Majesties Subjects of the Kingdom of Ireland from the Popish Recusants there who for the most part are profest Enemies to the Protestant Religion and the English Interest and how they make use of your Majesties gracious Disposition and Clemency are at this time grown more insolent and presumptuous than formerly to the apparent Danger of that Kingdom and your Majesties Protestant Subjects there the Consequence whereof may likewise prove very fatal to this your Majesties Kingdom of England if not timely prevented And having seriously weighed what Remedies may be most properly applied to those growing Distempers do in all Humility present your Majesty with these our Petitions 1. That for the Establishment and Quieting the Possessions of your Majesties Subjects in that Kingdom your Majesty would be pleased to maintain the Act of Settlement and Explanatory Act thereupon and to recall the Commission of Enquiry into Irish Affairs bearing Date the 17th of January last as containing many new and extraordinary Powers not only to the Frejudice of particular Persons whose Estates and Titles are thereby made liable to be questioned but in a manner to the Overthrow of the Acts of Settlement And if pursâ—â—d may be the Occasion of great Charge and Attendance to many of your Subjects in Ireland and shake the Peace and Security of the whole 2. That your Majesty would give Order that no Papist be either continued or hereafter admitted to be Judges Justices of the Peace Sheriffs Coroners or Mayors Sovereigns or Portrieves in that Kingdom 3. That the Titular Popish Archbishops Bishops Vicars-General Ablâ—â—s and all other exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by the Popes Authority and in particular Peter Talbot pretended Archbishop of Dublin for his notorious Disloyalty to your Majesty and Disobedience and Contempt of your Laws may be commanded by Proclamation forthwith to depart out of Ireland and all other your Majesties Dominions or otherwise to be prosecuted according to Law And that all Convents Seminaties and Publick Popish Scholes may be dissolved and suppressed and the Secular Priests commanded to depart under the Penalty 4 That no Irish Papist be admitted to inhabit in any part of that Kingdom unless duly licensed according to the aforesaid Acts of Settlemenâ— and that your Majesty would be pleased to recall your Letters of the 26th of February 1671. And the Proclamation thereupon whereby general Licence is
to have been perverted from the Protestant to the Popish Religion whereby not only great Encouragement hath been given to the Popish Party to enter into and carry on most Devilish and Horrid Plots and Conspiracies for the Destruction of His Majesties Sacred Person and Government and for the Extirpation of the True Protestant Religon But also if the said Duke should succeed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm nothing is more manifest than that a Total Change of Religion within these Kingdoms would ensue For the Preservation whereof Be it Enacted by the King 's Most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That the said James Duke of York shall be and is by the Authority of this present Parliament Excluded and made for ever uncapable to Inherit Possess or Enjoy the Imperial Crown of this Realm and of the Kingdoms of Ireland and the Dominions and Territories to them or either of them belonging or to have exercise or enjoy any Dominion Power Jurisdiction or Authority in the same Kingdoms Dominions or any of them And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That if the said James Duke of York shall at any time hereafter challenge claim or attempt to possess or enjoy or shall take upon him to use or exercise any Dominion Power or Authority or Jurisdiction within the said Kingdoms or Dominions or any of them as King or Chief Magistrate of the same That then he the said James Duke of York for every such Offence shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and shall suffer the Pains Penalties and Forfeitures as in case of High Treason And further That if any Person or Persons whatever shall assist or maintain abett or willingly adhere unto the said James Duke of York in such challenge claim or attempt or shall of themselves attempt or endeavour to put or bring the said James Duke of York into the Possession or Exercise of any Regal Power Jurisdiction or Authority within the Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid or shall by Writing or Preaching advisedly publish maintain or declare That he hath any Right Title or Authority to the Office of King or Chief Magistrate of the Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid that then every such Person shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and that he suffer and undergo the Pains Penalties and Forfeitures aforesaid And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That he the said James Duke of York shall not at any time from and after the Fifth of November 1680 return or come into or within any of the Kingdoms or Dominions aforesaid And then he the said James Duke of York shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and shall suffer the Pains Penalties and Forfeitures as in case of High Treason And further That if any Person or Persons whatsoever shall be aiding or assisting unto such Return of the said James Duke of York That then every such Person shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and shall suffer as in Cases of High Treason And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That he the said James Duke of York or any other Person being guilty of any of the Treasons aforesaid shall not be capable of or receive Benefit by any Pardon otherwise than by Act of Parliament wherein they shall be particularly named and that no Nole prosequi or Order for stay of Proceedings shall be received or allowed in or upon any Indictment for any of the Offences mentioned in this Act. And be it further Enacted and Declared And it is hereby Enacted and Declared That it shall and may be lawful to and for any Magistrates Officers and other Subjects whatsoever of these Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid and they are hereby enjoyned and required to apprehend and secure the said James Duke of York and every other Person offending in any of the Premisses and with him or them in case of Resistance to fight and him or them by Force to subdue For all which Actings and for so doing they are and shall be by virtue of this Act saved harmless and indemnified Provided and it is hereby Declared That nothing in this Act contained shall be construed deemed or adjudged to disenable any other Person from inheriting and enjoying the Imperial Crown of the Realms and Dominions aforesaid other than the said James Duke of York But that in case the said James Duke of York should survive his now Majesty and the Heirs of his Majesty's Body The said Imperial Crown shall descend to and be enjoyed by such Person or Person successarily during the Life of the said James Duke of York as should have inherited and enjoyed the same in case the said James Duke of York were naturally dead any thing contained in this Act to the contrary notwithstanding And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That during the Life of the said James Duke of York this Act shall be given in charge at every Assizes and General Sessions of the Peace within the Kingdoms Dominions and Territories aforesaid and also shall be openly Read in every Cathedral Church and Parish Church and Chappels within the aforesaid Kingdoms Dominions and Territories by the several respective Parsons Vicars Curates and Readers thereof who are hereby required immediately after Divine Service in the Fore-noon to read the same twice in every year that is to say on the 25th of December and upon Easter-day during the Life of the said James Duke of York This BILL was Read Three Times and Passed and sent up to the Lords for their Concurrence Some particular Matters of Fact relating to the Administration of Affairs in Scotland under the Duke of LAUDERDALE Humbly offered to Your Majesty's Consideration in Obedience to Your Royal Commands 1. THE Duke of Lauderdale did grosly misrepresent to your Majesty the Condition of the Western Countries as if they had been in a state of Rebellion though there had never been any opposition made to your Majesty's Authority nor any Resistance offered to your Forces nor to the execution of the Laws But he purposing to abuse your Majesty that so he might carry on his sinistrous Designs by your Authority advised your Majesty to raise an Army against your peaceable Subjects at least did frame a Letter which he sent to your Majesty to be signed by your Royal Hand to that effect which being sent down to your Council Orders was thereupon given out for raising an Army of Eight or Nine thousand men the greatest part whereof were Highblanders and notwithstanding that to avert threatning the Nobility and Gentry of that Country did send to Edenburgh and for the security of the Peace did offer to engage that whatsoever should be sent to put the Laws in execution should meet with no affront and that they would become Hostages for their safety yet
for securing all these appointed a Test to be taken by all who should be entrusted with the Government which bears expresly That the same should be taken in the plain and genuine sense and meaning of the words We were very careful not to suffer any to take the said Oath or Test with their own Glosses or Explications But the Earâ— of Argyle having after some delays come to Council to take the said Oath as a Privy-Councellor spoke some things which were not then heard nor adverted to and when his Lordship at his next offering to take it in Council as one of the Commissioners of Your Majesties Treasury was commanded to take it simply he refused to do so but gave in a Paper shewing the only sense in which he would take it which Paper we all considered as that which had in it gross and scandalous Reflections upon that excellent Act of Parliament making it to contain things contradictory and inconstant and thereby depraving Your Majesties Laws misrepresenting Your Parliament and teaching Your Subjects to evacuate and disappoint all Laws and Securities that can be enacted for the preservation of the Government suitable to which his Lordship declares in that Paper That he means not to bind up himself from making any alterations he shall think fit for the advantage of Church or State and which Paper he desires may be looked upon as apart of his Oath as if he were the Legislator and able to add a part to the Act of Parliament Upon serious perusal of which Paper we found our selves obliged to send the said Earl to the Castle of Edinburgh and to transmit the Paper to Your Majesty being expresly obliged to both these by Your Majesties express Laws And we have commanded your Majesties Advocate to raise a pursuit against the said Earl for being Author and having given in the said Paper And for the further prosecution of all relating to this Affair we expect Your Majesties Commands which shall be most humbly and faithfully obeyed by Edinburgh Nov. 8. 1681. Your Majesties most Humble most Faithful and most Obedient Subjects and Servants Sic Subscribitur Glencairne Winton Linlithgow Perth Roxburgh Ancram Airlie Levingstoun Jo. Edinburgen Ross Geo. Gordoun Ch. Maitland G. Mekenzie Ja. Foulis J. Drumond Novemb. 15. 1681. The Kings Answer to the Councils Letter C. R. MOst dear c. Having in one of your Letters directed unto us of the 8. Instant received a particular account of the Earl of Argyle's refusing to take the Test simply and of your proceedings against him upon the occasion of his giving in a Paper shewing the only sense in which he will take it which had in it gross and scandalous Reflections upon that excellent late Act of our Parliament there by which the said Test was enjoyned to be taken we have now thought fit to let you know that as we do hereby approve these your Proceedings particularly your sending the said Earl to our Castle of Edinburgh and your commanding our Advocate to raise a Pursuit against him for being Author of and having given in the said Paper so we do also authorize you to do all things that may concern the further prosecution of all relating to this Affair Nevertheless it is our express Will and Pleasure That before any Sentence shall be pronounced against him at the Conclusion of the Process you send us a particular account of what he shall be found guilty of to the end that after our being fully informed thereof we may signifie our further pleasure in this matter For doing whereof c. But as notwithstanding the Councils demanding by their Letter His Majesties allowance for prosecuting the Earl they before any return caused His Majesties Advocate to exhibit an Indictment against him upon the points of slandering and depraving as hath been already remarked so after having received His Majesties answer the design grows and they thought fit to order a new Indictment containing beside the former points the Crimes of Treason and Perjury which accordingly was exhibited and is here subjoyned the difference betwixt the two Indictments being only in the particulars above noted The Copy of the Indictment against the Earl of Argyle Archibald Earl of Argyle YOU are Indicted and Accused That albeit by the Common Law of all well-govern'd Nations and by the Municipal Laws and Acts of Parliament of this Kingdom and particularly by the 21st and by the 43d Act Par. 2 James 1. and by the 83d Act Par. 6. James 5. and by the 34th Act Par. 8. James 6. and the 134th Act Par. 8. James 6. and the 205th Act Par. 14. James 6. All Leasing-makers and tellers of them are punishable with tinsel of Life and Goods like as by the 107th Act Par. 7. James 1. it is statuted That no man interpret the Kings Statutes otherwise than the Statute bears and to the intent and effect that they were made for and as the makers of them understood and who so does in the contrary to be punished at the Kings will And by the 10th Act Par. 10. James 6. it is statuted That none of His Majesties Subjects presume or take upon him publickly to declare or privately to speak or write any purpose of reproach or slander of His Majesties Person Estate or Government or to deprave his Laws or Acts of Parliament or misconstrue his proceedings whereby any mistaking may be moved betwixt his Highness his Nobility and loving Subjects in time coming under pain of death certifying them that does in the contrary they shall be reputed as seditious and wicked Instruments enemies to his Highness and to the Commonwealth of this Realm and the said pain of death shall be executed against them with all rigour to the example of others And by the second Act Ses 2. Par. 1. Char. 2. it is statuted That whosoever shall by Writing Libelling Remonstrating express publish or declare any words or sentences to stir up the people to the dislike of His Majesties Prerogative and Supremacy in causes Ecclesiastick or of the Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops as it is now settled by Law is under the pain of being declared incapable to exercise any Office Civil Ecclesiastick or Military within this Kingdom in any time coming Like as by the fundamental Laws of this Nation by the 130th Act Par. 8. James 6. it is declared That none of His Majesties Subjects presume to impugn the Dignity or Authority of the three Estates or to procure innevation or diminution of their Power and Authority under the pain of Treason And that it is much more Treason in any of His Majesties Subjects to presume to alter Laws already made or to make new Laws or to add any part to any Law by their own Authority that being to assume the Legislative Power to themselves with His Majesties highest and most incommunicable Prerogative Yet true it is that albeit His Sacred Majesty did not only bestow on you the said Archibald Earl of Argyle
to have introduced some Innovation there anent His Majesties firm will and mind always being as it is yet That the Honour Authority and Dignity of his said three Estates shall stand and continue in their own Integrity according to the ancient and laudable custom bygone without any alteration or diminution Therefore it is statuted and ordained by our said Soveraign Lord and his said three Estates in this present Parliament That none of his Leiges or Subjects presume or take upon hand to impugn the Dignity and Authority of the said three Estates or to seek or procure the innovation or diminution of the Power and Authority of the same three Estates or any of them in time coming under the pain of Treason The Earl of Argyle 's first Petition for Advocates or Council to be allowed him To his Royal Highness His Majesties High Commissioner and to the Right Honourable the Lords of His Majesties Privy-Council The Humble Petition of Archibald Earl of Argyle SHEWETH THat your Petitioner being Criminally Indicted before the Lords Commissioners of Justitiary at the instance of His Majesties Advocate for Crimes of an high Nature And whereas in this Case no Advocate will readily plead for the Petitioner unless they have your Royal Highness's and Lordships Special License and Warrant to that effect which is usual in the like Cases It is therefore humbly desired that Your Royal Highness and Lordships would give special Order and Warrant to Sir George Lockhart his ordinary Advocate to consult and plead for him in the foresaid Criminal Process without incurring any hazard upon that account and your Petitioner shall ever pray Edinburgh Novemb. 22. 1681. The Councils Answer to the Earl of Argyl's first Petition about his having Advocates allowed him HIS Royal Highness his Majesties High Commissioner and Lords of Privy-Council do refuse the desire of the above-written Bill but allows any Lawyers the Petitioners shall employ to consult and plead for him in the Process of Treason and other Crimes to be pursued against him at the instance of His Majesties Advocate Extr. By me Will. Paterson The Earl of Argyl's second Petition for Council to be allowed him To His Royal Highness His Majesties High Commissioner and to the Right Honourable the Lords of His Majesties Privy-Council The humble Petition of Archibald Earl of Argyle SHEWETH THat your Petitioner having given in a former Petition humbly representing That he being Criminally Indicted before the Lords Commissioners of Justitiary at the instance of His Majesties Advocate for Crimes of an high Nature And therefore desiring that Your Royal Highness and Lordships would give special Warrant to Sir George Lockbart to consult and plead for him Whereupon your Royal Highness and Lordships did allow the Petitioner to make use of such Advocates as he should think fit to call Accordingly your Petitioner having desired Sir George Lockhart to consult and plead for him he hath as yet refused your Petitioner And by the 11. Patliament of King James the VI. Cap. 38. As it is the undeniable priviledge of all Subjects accused for any Crimes to have liberty to provide themselves of Advocates to defend their Lives Honour and Lands against whatsoever accusation so the same Priviledge is not only by Parliament 11. King James the VI. Cap. 90. Farther asserted and confirmed but also it is declared That in case the Advocates refuse the Judges are to compel them least the party accused should be prejudged And this being an affair of great importance to your Petitioner and Sir George Lockhart having been not only still his ordinary Advocate but also by his constant converse with him is best known to your Petitioners Principles and of whose eminent abilities and fidelity your Petitioner as many others have hath had special proof all along in his Concerns and hath such singular confidence in him that he is most necessary to your Petitioner at this occasion May it therefore please Your Royal Highness and Lordships to interpose your Authority by giving a special Order and Warrant to the said Sir George Lockhart to consult and and plead for him in the said Criminal Process conform to the tenor of the said Acts of Parliament and constant known practice in the like Cases which was never refused to any Subject of the meanest quality even to the greatest Criminals And your Royal Highness's and Lordships Answer is humbly craved Edinburgh Novemb. 24. 1681. The Councils Answer to the Earl of Argyle 's second Petition HIS Royal Highness His Majesties High Commissioner and Lords of Privy Council having considered the foresaid Petition do adhere to their former Order allowing Advocates to appear for the Petitioner in the Process foresaid Extr. By me Will. Paterson The Earl of Argyle 's Letter of Attorney constituting Alexander Dunbar his Procurator for requiring Sir George Lockhart to plead for him WE Archibald Earl of Argyle do hereby substitute constitute and ordain Alexander Dunbar our Servitor to be our Procurator to pass and require Sir George Lockhart Advicate to consult and plead for us in the Criminal Process intended against us at the instance of His Majestics Advocate and to compear with us before the Lords Commissioners of Justitiary upon the 12th of December next conform to an Act of Council dated the 22d of Novemb. instant allowing any Lawyers that we should employ to consult and plead for us in the said Process and to another Act of Council of the 24th of Novemb. instant relative to the former and conform to the Acts of Parliament In witness whereof we have Subscribed these presents at Edinburgh-Castle Nov. 26. 1681. before these Witnesses Duncan Camphell Servitor to James Glen Stationer in Edinburgh and John Thom Merchant in the said Burgh ARGYLE Witnesses Duncan Camphell John Thom Witnesses An Instrument whereby the Earl of Argyle required Sir George Lockhart to appear and plead for him Apud Edenburgum vigesimo sexto die Mensis Novembris Anno Domini millesimosex centesimo octuagesimo primo Anno Regni Car. 2. Regis trigesimo tertio THE which day in presence of me Notar publick and Witnesses under subscribed compeared personally Alexander Dunbar Servitor to a Noble Earl Archibald Earl of Argyle as Procurator and in name of the said Earl conform to a Procuration subscribed by the said Earl at the Castle of Edinburgh upon the twenty first day of November 1681. making and constituting the said Alexander Dunbar his Procurator to the effect under-written and past to the personal presence of Sir George Lockhart Advocate in his own Lodging in Edinburgh having and holding in his hands an Act of His Majesties Privy Council of the date the 22d of November 1681. instant proceeding upon a Petition given in by the said Earl of Argyle to the said Lords shewing That he being Criminally Indicted before the Lords Commissioners of Justitiary at the instance of His Majesties Advocate for Crimes of an high Nature and whereas in that Case no Advocates would readily plead for the said
before his being required or appearing to take the Oath there were spread abroad such Scruples and Objections by some of the Orthodox Clergy and others so that the Earl can never in any sense be construed in his Explication wherein he took the Oath to have done it animo infamandi and to declaim against the Government for the Scruples and Objections that were spread abroad by others were a fair and rational occasion why the Earl in any sense or explication which he offered might have said that he was confident the Parliament never intended to impose contradictory Oaths and this is so far from importing the insinuation and inferenâ— made by the Libel that thereby the Parliament were so impious as to impose contradictory Oaths as on the contrary considering the circumstances fore-mentioned that there were papers spread abroad insinuating That there were inconsistencies and contradictions contained therein the said expression was an high Vindication of the Honour and Justice of the Parliament against the Calumnies and Mis-representations which were cast upon it and was also a just Rise for the Pannel for the clearing and exonoration of his own Conscience in the various senses and apprehensions which he found were going abroad as to the said Test humbly to offer his sense in which he was clear and satisfied to take the Oath 7. To the Libel in so far as it is founded upon the Act of Parliament viz. Act 130. Par. 8. James 6. declaring That none should presume to impugn the Dignity or Authority of the three Estates of Parliament or procure any Invasion or diminution thereof under the pain of Treason as also in so far as it is pretended in the Libel That the Pannel by offering the sense and explication libelled has assumed the Legislative power which is incommunicable and has made a Law or a part of a Law It is answered The Libel is most groundless and irrelevant and against which the Act of Parliament is opponed which is so plain and evident upon the reading thereof that it neither is nor can be subject to the least cavillation And the plain meaning whereof is nothing else but to impugn the Authority of Parliaments as if the King and Parliament had not a Legislative Power or were not the highest Representative of the Kingdom or that any of the three Estates were not essentially requisite to constitute the Parliament And besides there is nothing more certain than that the occasion of the said Act its being made was in relation to the Bishops and Clergy and there is nothing in the pretended Explanation that can be wrested to import the least Contravention of the said Act or to be an impugning of the three Estates of Parliament or a seeking any innovation therein And it is admired with what shadow of Reason it can be pretended that the Pannel has assumed a Legislative power or made a part of a Law seeing all that is contained in the alledged Explication libelled is only a Declaration of the Earls sense in which he was satisfied to take the Oath and so respected none but himself and for the clearing of his own Conscience which justly indeed the Word of God calls a Law to himself without any incroaching upon the Legislative power And where was it ever debated but that a man in the taking of an Oath if as to his apprehensions he thought any thing in it deserved to be cleared might declare the same or that his exhibiting at the time of the taking of the Oath his sense and explication wherein he did take it was ever reputed or pretended to be the assuming of a Legislative power it being the universal practice of all Nations to allow this liberty and which sense may be either rejected or accepted as the Legislator shall think fit importing no more but a parties private sense for the exoneration of his own Conscience And as to that Member of the Libel founded upon Act 19. Par. 3. Queen Mary it contains nothing but a Declaration of the pain of Perjury and there is nothing in the Explication libelled which can in the least be inferred as a Contravention of the said Act in respect if it should be proved That the Pannel at the time of the taking of the Oath did take it in the words of the said Explication as his sense of the Oath it is clear that the sense being declared at the time of taking the Oath and allowed as the sense wherein it was taken the Pannel can only be understood to have taken it in that sense And although publick Authority may consider whether the sense given by the Pannel does satisfie the Law or not yet that can import no more though it was found not to satisfie but to hold the Pannel as a Refuser of the Oath but it is absolutely impossible to infer the Crimes of perjury upon it being as is pretended by the Libel the â—annel did only take it with the Declaration of the Sense and Explication Libelled 8. As the Explication libelled does not at all import all or any of the Crimes contained in the said Libel so by the common principles of all Law where a person does emit words for the clearing and exoneration of his own Conscience altho there were any ambiguity or unclearness or involvedness in the tenor or import of the expressions or words yet they are ever to be interpreted Interpretatione benigna favorabili according to the general Principles of Law and Reason And it never was nor can be refused to any person to interpret and put a congruous sense upon his own words especially the Pannel being a person of eminent Quality and who hath given great demonstration and undeniable evidences of his fixt and unalterable Loyalty to His Majesties Interest and Service and at the time of emitting the said Explication was invested and intrusted in publick Capacities And it is a just and rational interpretation and caution which Sanderson that judicious and eminent Casuist gives Praelect 2. That dicta facta principum parentum rectorum are ever to be looked upon as benignae Interpretationis and that Dubia sunt interpretanda in meliorem partem And there is nothing in the Explication libelled which without detortion and violence and in the true sense and design of the Pannel is not capable of this benign Interpretation and construction especially respect being had to the Circumstances wherein it was emitted and given after a great many Objections Scruples and alledged Inconsistencies were owned vented and spread abroad which was a rise to the Earl for using the expressions contained in the pretended Declaration libelled 10. These words whereby it is pretended the Pannel declares he was ready to give obedience as far as he could first do not in the least import That the Parliament had imposed any Oath which was in it self unlawful but only the Pannels scrupulosity and unclearness in matter of Conscience And it is hoped it cannot be a Crime because all men cannot
than the fore-mentioned of Religion Law and Reason which the Earl did of himself profer As for what His Majesty's Advocate adds That under such professions and reserves the late Rebellions and disorders have all been câ—rried on and fomented It is but a meer vapour for no Rebellion ever was or can be without a breach of one or other of the Earl's qualifications which doth sufficiently vindicate that part of the Earl's Explanation The Advocate insists much that Any is equivalent to All and that All comprehends Every particular under it which he would have to be the deadly Poyson in the Earl's words And yet the Earl may defy him and all his detracters to find out a Case of the least undutifulness much less of Rebellion that a Man can be guilty of while he keeps within the excellent Rules and Limitations wherewith his words are cautioned I could tell you further that so imaginary or rather extravagant and ridiculous is this pretended Treason that there is not a person in Scotland either of those who have refused or who by the Act are not called to take the Test that may not upon the same ground and words be impeach't viz. That they are not bound and so without doubt both may and do say it by the Test in their station c. to wish and endeavour any alteration c. Nay I desire the Advocate to produce the Man among those that have taken the Test that will affirm that by taking it he hath bound up himself never to wish or endeavour any alteration c. according to the Earl's qualifications and I shall name Hundreds to whom his Highness as you have heard may be added that will say they are not bound up So that by this conclusion if it were yielded all Scotland are equally guilty of Treason the Advocate himself to say nothing of His Royal Highness not excepted Or if he still think he is I wish he would testify under his hand to the World that by his Oath he is bound up never to wish nor endeavour any alteration he thinks to the advantage of Church or State in a lawful way nor in his station though neither repugnant to the Protestant Religion nor his Loyalty And if this he do he does as a Man if not of Sense at least of Honour but if not I leave a blank for his Epithets But that you may see that this whole affair is a deep Mystery pray notice what is objected against the last part of the Explanation This I understand as a part of my Oath Which says the Advocate is a Treasonable invasion upon the Royal Legislative power as if the Earl could make to himself an Act of Parliament since he who can make any part of an Act may make the whole And then say I farewell all Takers of the Test with an Explanation whether the Orthodox Clergy or Earl Queensberry tho himself Justice General who were allowed by the Council so to do seeing that whether they hold their Explanation for a part of their Oath or not yet others may and in effect all men of sense do understand it so And thus in the Advocate 's Opinion they have Treasonably invaded the Legislative Power and made an Act of Parliament to themselves Neither in that Case can the Councils allowance excuse them seeing not only the Earl had it as well as they but even the Council it self cannot make an Act of Parliament either for themselves or others But Sir I protest I am both ashamed and wearied of this trifling and therefore to shut up this Head I shall only give a few remarks First you may see by the Acts of Parliament upon which the Advocate founds his Indictment That as to Leasing-making and depraving Laws all of them run in these plain and sensible terms The inventing of Narrations the making and telling of Lies the â—ttering of wicked and untrue Calumnies to the slander of King and Government the depraving of his Laws and misconstruing his Proceedings to the engendering of discord moving and raising of batred and dislike betwixt the King and his People And as to Treason in these yet more positive terms That none impugn the dignity and authority of the Three Estates or seek or procure the innovation or diminution thereof Which are things so palpable and easily discerned and withal so infinitely remote both from the Earl's words and intentions or any tollerable construction can be put on either that I confess I never read this Indictment but I was made to wonder that its forger and maker was not in looking on it deterred by the just apprehensions he might have not only to be sometime accused as a manifest depraver of all Law but to be for ever accounted a gross and most disingenuous perverter of common sense The Earl's words are sober respectful and dutifully spoken for the exoneration of his own Conscience without the least insinuation of either reflection or slander much less the impugning of the Authority of Parliament as the Earl may appeal not only to His Majesty's true and Royal sense but to the most scrupulous and nice affecters of the exactest discerning besides that they were first formally tendered in Council for their approbation and by them directly allowed How then can any Man think that they could be charged with the greatest and vilest of crimes Leasing-making Depraving Perjury and Treason But the Advocate tells us That there are some things which the Law commonly forbids in general and that some inferences are as natural and strong and reproach as soon or sooner than the plainest defamations But what of all this Must therefore such generals be left to the phantastick application of every wild imagination to the confounding of the use of Speech and subverting of humane Society and not rather be still submitted to the judgment of common sense for their true and right understanding and the deducing thence these strong and natural inferences talk'd of Of which good sense if the Advocate do but allow a grain weight it is evident that the inferences he here Libels against the Earl must infallibly be cast and by all rational unbiassed men be found strange unnatural and monstrous For Sir Secondly pray observe these rational and sound Maxims he founds his Inferences on and they are manifestly these First That he who says he will only obey as far as be can invents a new way whereby no man is at all bound to obey 2dly That he who in the midst of Hundreds of exceptions and contradictions objected against an Oath injoyned by Act of Parliament and still unanswered says That he is confident the Parliament never intended to impose contradictory Oaths reproaches the Parliament 3dly That he that says he must explain an ambiguous Oath for himself before he take it renders all Laws and Oaths useless and makes himself the Legislator 4thly That he that says that he takes this Oath as far as it is consistent with it self and the Protestant
and too apt to make constructions in such according to the favour or malice they bear to the Person or Cause Are not some men apt to construct that to tend to their dishonour which was designed for their honour and to think every thing an innovation of Law or Privilege which checks their inclination and design Whereas some Judges are so violent in their Loyalty as to imagine the meanest mistakes do tend to an opposition against Authority and thus Zeal Jealousie Malice or Interest would become Judges 4. Men are so silly or may be in such haste or so confounded and the best are subject to such mistakes as that no Man could know when he were innocent simplicity might oft times become a Crime and the fear of offending might occasion offence and how uncomfortably would the people live if they knew not how to be innocent 2dly P. 47. l. 9. Of the same Book he says That the eighth point of Treason is to impugn the Dignity and Authority of the three Estates or to seek and procure the innovation and diminution of their Power and Authority Act 103. Ja. 6. p. 6. Now this being another of the Crimes charged upon the Earl hear how the Advocate there understands it But this he adds immediately is to be understood of a N. B. direct impugning of their Authority as if it were contended that Parliaments were not necessary or that one of the three Estates might be turned out Which how vastly different from his indirect forced and horrible inferences in the Earl's Case is plain and obvious 3dly Ibid. p. 58 l. 2. After having said That according to former Laws no sort of Treason was to be pursued in absence before the Justices and urging it to be reasonable he adds ' Nor is it imaginable but if it had been safe it had been granted formerly And l. 31. he says The Justices are never allowed even by the late Act of Parliament to proceed to sentence against absents but such as are pursued for Rising in Arms against the King The true reason whereof he tells us is that the Law is not so inhumane as to punish equally presumed and real guilt And that it hath been often found that men have absented themselves rather out of fear of a prevailing Faction or corrupt Witnesses c. than out of consciousness of guilt Reasons which albeit neither true nor just seeing that the Law punishes nothing even in case of absence but either manifest contumacy or Crimes fully proven And that the only reason why it allows no other Crime save Perduellion to be proceeded against in absence is because it judges no other Crime tanti yet you see how this whole passage quadrats with the Earl's Case who being neither pursued for Perduellion nor present at giving Sentence was yet sentenced in absence as a most desperate Traytor 4thly Ibid. p. 60. l. 24. Speaking of the Solemnities used in Parliament at the pronouncing Sentences for Treason viz. That the Pannel receives his Sentence kneeling and that after the doom of Forfaulture pronounced against him the Lyon and his Brethren the Heraulds in their Formalities come and tear his Coat of Arms at the Throne and thereafter hang up his Escutchion ranversed upon the Mercat-Cross He adds But this I think should only hold in the Crime of Perduellion and then goes on to add That the Children of the Delinquent are declared incapable to bruik any Office or Estate is another Speciality introduced in the punishment of Perduellion only And yet both these terrible Solemnities were practised against the Earl even by a Court of Justitiary and not in Parliament albeit he was not accused of Perduellion nor be indeed more guilty of any Crime than all the World sees 5thly Ibid. page 303. ult He says That verbal injuries are these that are committed by unwarrantable expressions as to call a Man a Cheat a Woman Whore But because expressions may vary according to the intention of the speaker therefore except the words can allow of no good sense as Whore or Thief or that there be strong presumptions against the speaker the injuriandi animus or design of injuring as well as the injuring words must be proven and the speaker will be allowed to purge his guilt by declaring his intention and his declaration without an Oath will be sufficient 2dly The pursuer should libel the design and prove it except the words clearly infer it 3dly The pursuer is presently to resent the injury and if at first the words be taken for no injury they cannot afterward become such Which things being applied to the Earl's words do evidently say That unless his words could allow of no good sense or that there were strong presumptions against him or that he could not purge his guilt by declaring his intention or that his words did clearly infer the guilt there could be no Crime of Slandering Reproaching or Depraving charged against him except the injuriandi animus as well as the words had been both libelled and proven But so it is that his words do manifestly allow of a good sense that there is not the least presumption of injury can be alledged against him That he did most plainly purge himself of all suspition of guilt by declaring his sound and upright intention and that his words do not infer either clearly or unclearly the smallest measure of guilt and withal neither was the injuriandi animus at all proven But on the contrary the words at first were taken for no injury so that they could not afterward become such as is above fully cleared Ergo Even the Advocate being Judge the Earl is no Slanderer 6thly If it were necessary I could further tell you several things that he alledges to be sufficient for purging a Man of any criminal intention As where he says Ibid. p. 563. l. 2. That in matters of fact persons even judicious following the Faith of such as understand are to be excused And l. 30. That if it appear by the meanness of the crime he should say the smallness of the deed And what can be less than the uttering of a few words in the manner that the Earl spoke them that there was no design of transgression And that the committer designed not for so small a matter to commit a crime much less such horrid ones as Depraving and Treason In that case the meanness of the transgression or deed ought to defend against the relevancy c. But to give you one instance for all how much the Advocate may one day or other be obliged to plead the innocence of his intentions to free himself of words downright in themselves slanderous and depraving an Act of Parliament much better nor he understands it and in fresh and constant observance Ibid. p. 139. towards the middle speaking of the 151 Act Ja. 6. P. 12. Whereby it is Statute That seeing divers exceptions and objections rises upon criminal Libels and parties are frustrate of Justice by the
Good and Faithful Subjects to Us and our Royal Predecessors by hazarding and many of them actually losing their Lives and Fortunes in their Defence though of another Religion and the Maintenance of their Authority against the Violences and Treasons of the most violent Abettors of these Laws Do therefore with Advice and Consent of Our Privy Council by Our Soveraign Authority Prerogative Royal and Absolute Power aforesaid Suspend Stop and disable all Laws or Acts of Parliament Customs or Constitutions made or executed against any of our Roman Catholick Subjects in any time past to all intents and purposes making void all Prohibitions therein mentioned pains or penalties therein ordain'd to be Inflicted so that they shall in all things be as free in all Respects whatsoever not only to Exercise their Religion but to enjoy all Offices Benefices and others which We shall think fit to bestow upon them in all time coming Nevertheless it is our Will and Pleasure and we do hereby command all Catholicks at their highest Pains only to Exercise their Religious Worship in Houses or Chappels and that they presume not to Preach in the open Fields or to invade the Protestant Churches by force under the pains aforesaid to be inflicted upon the Offenders respectively nor shall they presume to make Publick Processions in the High-Streets of any of Our Royal Burghs under the Pains above mentioned And whereas the Obedience and Service of our good Subjects is due to Us by their Allegiance and Our Soveraignty and that no Law Custom or Constitution Difference in Religion or other Impediment whatsoever can exempt or discharge the Subjects from their Native Obligations and Duty to the Crown or hinder us from Protecting and Employing them according to their several Capacities and Our Royal Pleasure nor Restrain Us from Conferring Heretable Rights and Priviledges upon them or vacate or annul these Rights Heretable when they are made or conferred And likewise considering that some Oaths are capable of being wrested by men of sinistrous Intentions a practice in that Kingdom fatal to Religion as it was to Loyalty Do therefore with Advice and Consent aforesaid Cass Annul and Discharge all Oaths whatsoever by which any of Our Subjects are incapacitated or disabled from holding Places or Offices in our said Kingdom or enjoy their Hereditary Right and Priviledges discharging the same to be taken or given in any time coming without Our special Warrant and Consent under the pains due to the Contempt of Our Royal Commands and Authority And to this effect We do by Our Royal Authority aforesaid Stop Disable and Dispense with all Laws enjoyning the said Oaths Tests or any of them particularly the first Act of the first Session of the first Parliament of King Charles the Second the Eleventh Act of the foresaid Session of the foresaid Parliament the sixth Act of the third Parliament of the said King Charles the twenty first and twenty fifth Acts of that Parliament and the thirteenth Act of the first Session of * Our late Parliament in so far allanerly as concerns the taking the Oaths or Tests therein prescrib'd and all others as well not mentioned as mentioned and that in place of them all our good Subjects or such of them as We or our Privy Council shall require so to do shall take and swear the following Oath allanerly I A. B. do acknowledge testifie and declare that JAMES the Seventh by the Grace of God King of Scotland England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. is rightful King and Supream Governour of these Realms and over all persons therein and that it is unlawful for Subjects on any pretence or for any cause whatsoever to rise in Arms against Him or any Commissionated by Him and that I shall never so rise in Arms nor assist any who shall so do and that I shall never resist His Power or Authority nor ever oppose His Authority to His Person as I shall answer to God but shall to the utmost of my power Assist Defend and Maintain Him His Heirs and Lawful Successors in the Exercise of their Absolute Power and Authority against all Deadly So help me God And seeing many of Our good Subjects have before Our pleasure in these Matters was made publick incurred the Guilt appointed by the Acts of Parliament above-mentioned or others We by Our Authority and Absolute Power and Prerogative Royal above-mentioned of Our certain Knowledge and innate Mercy give Our ample and full Indemnity to all those of the Roman Catholick or Popish Religion for all things by them done contrary to Our Laws or Acts of Parliament made in any time past relating to their Religion the Worship and Exercise thereof or for being Papists Jesuits or Traffickers for hearing or saying of Mass concealing of Priests or Jesuits breeding their Children Catholicks at home or abroad or any other thing Rite or Doctrine said performed or maintained by them or any of them And likewise for holding or taking of Places Employments or Offices contrary to any Law or Constitution Advices given to Us or our Council Actions done or generally any thing perform'd or said against the known Laws of that Our Ancient Kingdom Excepting always from this Our Royal Indemnity all Murthers Assassinations Thefts and such like other Crimes which never used to be comprehended in Our General Acts of Indemnity And We command and require all Our Judges or others concerned to explain this in the most ample Sense and Meaning Acts of Indemnity at any time have contained Declaring this shall be as good to every one concerned as if they had Our Royal Pardon and Remission under Our Great Seal of that Kingdom And likewise indemnifying Our Protestant Subjects from all pains and penalties due for hearing or preaching in Houses providing there be no Treasonable Speeches uttered in the said Conventicles by them in which case the Law is only to take place against the Guilty and none other present providing also that they Reveal to any of Our Council the Guilt so committed As also excepting all Fines or Effects of Sentences already given And likewise Indemnifying fully and freely all Quakers for their Meetings and Worship in all time past preceeding the publication of these presents And we doubt not but Our Protestant Subjects will give their Assistance and Concourse hereunto on all Occasions in their Respective Capacities In consideration whereof and the ease those of Our Religion and others may have hereby and for the Encouragement of Our Protestant Bishops and the Regular Clergy and such as have hitherto lived orderly We think fit to declare that it never was Our Principle nor will We ever suffer Violence to be offered to any Man's Conscience nor will We use Force or Invincible Necessity against any Man on the account of his Perswasion nor the Protestant Religion but will protect Our Bishops and other Minsters in their Functions Rights and Properties and all Our Protestant Subjects in the free Exercise of their
Power in Ecclesiastical Matters truly stated HIS present Majesty having erected an High-Commission Court to enquire of and make redress in Ecclesiastical Matters c. Q. Whether such a Commission as the Law now stands be good or not And I hold that the Commission is not good And to maintain my Opinion herein I shall in the first place briefly consider what Power the Crown of England had in Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Matters for I take them to be synonymous Terms before 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. And Secondly I shall particularly consider the Act of 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. And Thirdly I shall consider 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. And by that time I have fully considered these three Acts of Parliament it will plainly appear that the Crown of England hath now no Power to erect such a Court. I must confess and do agree That by the Common Law all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was lodged in the Crown and the Bishops and all Spiritual Persons derived their Jurisdiction from thence And I cannot find that there were any Attempts by the Clergy to divest the Crown of it till William the First 's Time and his Successors down to King John the Pope obtained four Points of Jurisdiction First Sending of Legates into England Secondly Drawing of Appeals to the Court of Rome Thirdly Donation of Bishopricks and other Ecclesiastical Benefices And Fourthly Exemption of Clerks from the Secular Power Which four Points were gained within the space of an hundred and odd Years but with all the Opposition imaginable of the Kings and their People and the Kingdom never came to be absolutely inslaved to the Church of Rome till King John's Time and then both King and People were and so continued to be in a great measure in Henry the Third's Time and so would in all likelihood have continued had not wise Edward the First opposed the Pope's Usurpation and made the Statute of Mortmain But that which chiefly brake the Neck of this was That after the Pope and Clergy had endeavoured in Edward the Second's Time and in the beginning of Edward the Third to usurp again Edward the Third did resist the Usurpation and made the Statutes of Provisors 25 Ed. 3. and 27 Ed. 3. And Richard the Second backed those Acts with 16 Rich. 2. ca. 5. and kept the Power in the Crown by them Laws which being interrupted by Queen Mary a bloody Bigot of the Church of Rome during her Reign there was an Act made in 1 Eliz-ca 1. which is Intituled Keeble's Stat. An Act to restore to the Crown the ancient Jurisdiction over the Estate Ecclesiastical and Spiritual and abolishing all foreign Powers repugnant to the same From which Title I collect three things First That the Crown had anciently a Jurisdiction over the Estate Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Secondly That that Jurisdiction had for some time been at least suspended and the Crown had not exercised it Thirdly That this Law did not introduce a new Jurisdiction but restored the old but with restoring the old Jurisdiction to the Crown gave a Power of delegating the Exercise of it And as a Consequence from the whole that all Jurisdiction that is lodged in the Crown is subject nevertheless to the Legislative Power in the Kingdom I shall now consider what Power this Act of 1 Eliz. 1. declares to have been anciently in the Crown and that appears from Sect. 16 17 18. of the same Act. Section 16. Abolisheth all Foreign Authority in Cases Spiritual and Temporal in these VVords And to the intent that all the Vsurped and Foreign Power and Authority Spiritual and Temporal may for ever be clearly extinguished and never to be used or obeyed within this Realm or any other Your Majesties Dominions or Countries 2 May it please Your Highness that it may be further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate Spiritual or Temporal shall at any time after the last Day of this Session of Fâ—â—liament use enjoy or exercise any manner of Power Jurisdiction Superiority Authority Preheminence or Priviledge Spiritual or Ecclesiastical within this Realm or within any other Your Majesties Dominions or Countries that now be or hereafter shall be but from thenceforth the same shall be clearly Abolished out of this Realm and all other Your Highness's Dominions for ever any Statute Ordinance Custom Constitutions or any other Matter or Cause whatsoever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And after the said Act hath abolished all Foreign Authority in the very next Section Sect. 17. It annexeth all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Crown in these VVords And that also it may likewise please your Heghness That it may be Established and Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That such Jurisdictions Priviledges Superiorities and Preheminencies Spiritual and Ecclesiastical as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power or Authority hath heretofore been or may lawfully be exercised or used for the Visitation of the Ecclesiastical State and Persons and for Reformation Order and Correction of the same and of all manner of Errors Heresies Schisms Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities shall for ever by Authority of this present Parliament be Vnited and Annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm From these VVords That such Jurisdiction c. as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power or Authority had then-to-fore been exercised or used were annexed to the Crown I observe That the Four things aforesaid wherein the Pope had incroached were all restored to the Crown and likewise all other Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction that had been exercised or used in this Kingdom and did thereby become absolutely vested in the Crown Then Section 18. Gives a Power to the Crown to assign Commissioners to excrcise this Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in these VVords And that Your Highness Your Heirs and Successors Kings or Queens of this Realm shall have full Power and Authority by Virtue of this Act by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England to Assign Name and Authorize when and as often as Your Highness Your Heirs or Successors shall think meet and convenient and for such and so long time as shall pleass Your Highness your Heirs or Successors such Person or Persons being natural born Subjects to Your Highness Your Heirs or Successors as Your Majesty Your Heirs or Successors shall think meet to Exercise Vse Occupy and Execute under Your Highness Your Heirs and Succâ—ssors all manner of Jurisdictions Priviledges and Preheminencies in any wise touching or concerning any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction within these Your Realms of England and Ireland or any other Your Highness's Dominions and Countries 2. and to visit Reform Redress Order Correct and Amend all such Errors Heresies Schisms Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities whatsoever which by any manner of Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power Authority or Jurisdiction can or may lawfully be Reformed Ordered Redressed Corrected Restrained and Amended to the pleasure of Almighty God the Increase of Vertue and the Conservation
emitted his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience there were Commissions of Reprisal prepared and ready to be granted to the English East-India Company against the Hollanders but which were suppressed upon the Court 's finding that they whom the suspending the Execution of so many Laws and the granting such Liberties Rights and Immunities to the Papists had disgusted and provoked were far more numerous and their resentments more to be apprehended than they were whose murmurings and discontents they had silenced and allay'd by the liberty that was granted Now as it will be at this juncture when the Protestant Interest is so low in the World and the Reformed Religion in so great danger of being Destroyed a most wicked as well as an imprudent Act to contribute help and aid to the Subjugating a People that are the chief Protectors of the Protestant Religion that are left and almost the only Asserters of the Rights and Liberties of Mankind so it may fill the Addressers with confusion and shame that they should have not only justified an Act of His Majesty's that is plainly designed to such a mischievous End but that they should by the Promises and Vows that they have made Him have emboldned His Majesty to continue his purposes and resolutions of a War against the Dutch Which as it must be funestous and fatal to the Protestant Cause in case he should prosper and succeed so howsoever it should issue yet the Addressers who have done what in them lyes to give encouragement unto it will be held betrayers of the Protestant Religion both abroad and at home and judged guilty of all the Blood of those of the same Faith with them that shall be shed in this Quarrel That Liberty ought to be allowed to men in matters of Religion is no Plea whereby the King 's giving it in an illegal and Arbitrary manner can be maintained and justified Since ever I was capable of exercising any distinct and coherent acts of Reason I have been always of that mind that none ought to be persecuted for their Consciences towards God in matters of Faith and Worship Nor is it one of those things that lye under the power of the Sovereign and Legislative Authority to grant or not to grant but it is a Right setled upon Mankind antecedent to all Civil Constitutions and Humane Laws having its foundation in the Law of Nature which no Prince or State can legitimately violate and Infringe The Magistrate as a Civil Officer can pretend or claim no Power over a People but what he either derives from the Divine Charter wherein God the Supreme Institutor of Magistracy has chalk'd out the Duty of Rulers in general or what the People upon the first and original Stipulation are supposed to have given him in order to the Protection Peace and Prosperity of the Society But as it does no where appear that God hath given any such Power to Governors seeing all the Revelations in the Scripture as well as all the Dictates of Nature speak a contrary Language so neither can the People upon their chusing such a one to be their Ruler be imagined to transfer and vest such a Power in him forasmuch as they cannot divest themselves of a Power no more than of a Right of believing things as they arrive with a Credibility to their several and respective Understandings As it is in no Man's Power to believe as he will but only as he sees cause so it is the most irrational Imagination in the World to think they should transfer a Right to him whom they have chosen to govern them of punishing them for what it is not in their power to help Nor can any thing be plainer than that God has reserved the Empire over Conscience to himself and that he hath circumscribed the Power of all Humane Governors to things of a civil and inferior Nature And had God convey'd a Right unto Magistrates of commanding Men to be of this or that Religion and that because they are so and will have others to be of their mind it would follow that the People may conform to whatsoever they require tho by all the Lights of Sense Reason and Revelation they are convinced of the Falshood of it Seeing whatsoever the Sovereign rightfully Commands the Subjects may lawfully obey But tho the persecuting People for Matters of mere Religion be repugnant to the Light of Nature inconsistent with the Fundamental Maxims of Reason directly contrary to the Temper and Genious as well as to the Rules of the Gospel and not only against the Safety and Interest of Civil Societies but of a Tendency to fill them with Confusion and to arm Subjects to the cutting of one anothers Throats yet Governors may both deny Liberty to those whose Principles oblige them to destroy those that are not of their mind and may in some measure Regulate the Liberty which they vouchsafe to others whose Opinions tho they do not think dangerous to the Peace of the Community yet through judging them Erroneous and False they conceive them dangerous to the Souls of Men. As there is a vast difference betwixt Tolerating a Religion and approving the Religion that is Tolerated so what a Government doth not approve but barely permits and suffers may be brought under Restrictions as to time place and number of those professing it that shall assemble in one Meeting which it were an Undecency to extend to those of the justified and established way Now whatsoever Restrictions or Regulations are enacted and ordained by the Legislative Authority in reference to Religions or Religious Assemblies they are not to be stop'd disabled or suspended but by the same Authority that enacted and ordained them The King says very truly That Conscience ought not to be constrained nor People forced in matters of mere Religion But it does not from thence follow unless by the Logick of Whitehall that without the concurrence of a Parliament he should suspend and dispense with the Laws and by a pretended Prerogative relieve any from what they are Obnoxious unto by the Statutes of the Realm His saying that the forcing People in matters of Religion spoils Trade depopulates Countries discourageth Strangers and answers not the End of bringing all to an Uniformity for which it is employ'd would do well in a Speech to the Houses of Parliament to perswade them to Repeal some certain Laws or might do well to determine his Majesty to assent to such Bills as a Parliament may prepare and offer for relieving Persons in matters of Conscience but does not serve for what it is alledged nor can it warrant his suspending the Laws by his single Authority And by the way I know when these very Arguments were not only despised by his Majesty and rediculed by those who took their Cue from Court and had Wit to do it as by the present Bishop of Oxford in a very ill-natur'd Book called Ecclesiastical Polity but when the daring to have mentioned them would
their Lives Liberties Honors and Estates if they should go about to preserve themselves from this Oppression by Petitions Representations or other means authorised by Law Thus did they proceed with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other Bishops who having offered a most Humble Petition to the King in Terms full of Respect and not exceeding the number limited by Law in which they set forth in short the Reasons for which they could not obey that Order which by the Instigation of those Evil Counsellors was sent them requiring them to appoint their Clergy to read in their Churches the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience were sent to Prison and afterwards brought to a Trial as if they had been guilty of some enormous Crime They were not only obliged to defend themselves in that pursuit but to appear before professed Papists who had not taken the Test and by consequence were Men whose Interest led them to condemn them and the Judges that gave their Opinion in their Favors were thereupon turned out And yet it cannot be pretended that any Kings how great soever their Power has been and how Arbitrary and Despotick soever they have been in the Exercise of it have ever reckoned it a Crime for their Subjects to come in all Submission and Respect and in a due Number not exceeding the Limits of the Law and represent to them the Reasons that made it impossible for them to obey their Orders Those Evil Counsellors have also treated a Peer of the Realm as a Criminal only because he said that the Subjects were not bound to obey the orders of a Popish Justice of Peace tho it is evident that they being by Law rendred incapable of all such Trust no regard is due to their orders This being the Security which the People have by the Law for their Lives Liberties Honors and Estates that they are not to be subjected to the Arbitrary Proceedings of Papists that are contrary to Law put into any Employments Civil or Military Both we our selves and our Dearest and most Entirely Beloved Consort the Princess have endeavored to signifie in Terms full of Respect to the King the just and deep Regret which all these Proceedings have given us and in Compliance with His Majesties Desires signified to us we declared both by word of Mouth to his Envoy and in Writing what our Thoughts were touching the Repealing of the Test and Penal Laws which we did in such a manner that we hoped we had proposed an Expedient by which the Peace of those Kingdoms and a happy Agreement among the Subjects of all Perswasions might have been settled but those Evil Counsellors have put such ill Constructions on these our good Intentions that they have endeavored to alienate the King more and more from us as if we had designed to disturb the Quiet and Happiness of the Kingdom The last and great Remedy for all those Evils is The calling of a Parliament for securing the Nation against the Evil Practises of those wicked Counsellors but this could not be yet compassed nor can it be easily brought about For those Men apprehending that a lawful Parliament being once assembled they would be brought to an account for all their open Violations of Law and for their Plots and Conspiracies against the Protestant Religion and the Lives and Liberties of the Subjects they have endeavored under the specious Pretence of Liberty of Conscience first to sow Divisions among Protestants between those of the Church of England and the Dissenters The design being laid to engage Protestants that are all equally concerned to preserve themselves from Popish Oppression into mutual Quarrellings that so by these some Advantages might be given to them to bring about their Designs and that both in the Election of the Members of Parliament and afterwards in the Parliament it self For they see well that if all Protestants could enter into a mutual good Understanding one with another and concur together in the Preserving of their Religion it would not be possible for them to compass their wicked ends They have also required all Persons in the several Counties of England that either were in any Imployment or were in any considerable Esteem to declare before-hand that they would concur in the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws and that they would give their Voices in the Elections to Parliament only for such as would concur in it Such as would not thus pre-ingage themselves were turned out of all Imployments and others who entered into those Engagements were put in their places many of them being Papists And contrary to the Charters and Privileges of those Boroughs that have a Right to send Burgesses to Parliament they have ordered such Regulations to be made as they thought fit and necessary for assuring themselves of all the Members that are to be chosen by those Corporations and by this means they hope to avoid that Punishment which they have deserved tho it is apparent that all Acts made by Popish Magistrates are null and void of themselves so that no Parliament can be Lawful for which the Elections and Returns are made by Popish Sheriffs and Mayors of Towns and therefore as long as the Authority and Magistracy is in such Hands it is not possible to have any Lawful Parliament And tho according to the Constitution of the English Government and Immemorial Custom all Elections of Parliament-men ought to be made with an entire Liberty without any sort of Force or the requiring the Electors to chuse such Persons as shall be named to them and the Persons thus freely elected ought to give their Opinions freely upon all Matters that are brought before them having the good of the Nation ever before their Eyes and following in all things the Dictates of their Conscience yet now the People of England cannot expect a Remedy from a Free Parliament legally Called and Chosen But they may perhaps see one called in which all Elections will be carried by Fraud or Force and which will be composed of such Persons of whom those Evil Counsellors hold themselves well assured in which all things will be carried on according to their Direction and Interest without any regard to the Good or Happiness of the Nation Which may appear evidently from this that the same Persons tried the Members of the last Parliament to gain them to consent to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws and procured that Parliament to be dissolved when they found that they could not neither by Promises nor Threatnings prevail with the Members to comply with their wicked Designs But to Crown all there are great and violent Presumptions inducing us to believe that those Evil Counsellors in order to the carrying on of their ill Designs and to the gaining to themselves the more time for the effecting of them for the encouraging of their Complices and for the discouraging of all Good Subjects have published that the Queen hath brought forth a Son tho there have
such Assemblies which times are as ancient as any Memory of the Nation it self hence I infer that no Summons from the King can be thought to have been necessary in those days because it was altogether needless Secondly The Succession to the Crown did not in those days nor till of late years run in a course of Lineal Succession by right of Inheritance But upon the death of a Prince those Persons of the Realm that Composed the then Parliament Assembled in order to the choosing of another That the Kingdom was then Elective though one or other of the Royal Blood was always chosen but the next in Lineal Succession very seldom is evident from the Genealogies of the Saxon Kings from an old Law made at Calchuyth appointing how and by whom Kings shall be chosen and from many express and particular Accounts given by our old Historians of such Assemblies held for Electing of Kings Now such Assemblies could not be Summon'd by any King and yet in conjunction with the King that themselves set up they made Laws binding the King and all the Realm Thirdly After the Death of King William Rufus Robert his Elder Brother being then in the Holy Land Henry the younger Son of King William the First procured an Assembly of the Clergy and People of England to whom he made large Promises of his good Government in case they would accept of him for their King and they agreeing that if he would restore to them the Laws of King Edward the Confessor then they would consent to make him their King He swore that he would do so and also free them from some oppressions which the Nation had groan'd under in his Brothers and his Fathers time Hereupon they chose him King and the Bishop of London and the Archbishop of York set the Crown upon his Head Which being done a Confirmation of the English Liberties passed the Royal Assent in that Assembly the same in substance though not so large as King John's and King Henry the Third's Magna Charta's afterwards were Fourthly After that King's Death in such another Parliament King Stephen was Elected and Mawd the Empress put by though not without some stain of perfidiousness upon all those and Stephen himself especially who had sworn in her Fathers Life-time to acknowledge her for their Soveraing after his decease Fifthly In King Richard the First 's time the King being absent in the Holy Land and the Bishop of Ely then his Chancellor being Regent of the Kingdom in his Absence whose Government was intolerable to the People for his Insolence and manifold Oppressions a Parliament was convened at London at the Instance of Earl John the Kings Brother to treat of the great and weighty affairs of the King and Kingdom in which Parliament this same Regent was depos'd from his Government and another set up viz. the Arch-Bishop of Roan in his stead This Assembly was not conven'd by the King who was then in Palaestine nor by any Authority deriv'd from him for then the Regent and Chancellor must have call'd them together but they met as the Historian says expresly at the Instance of Earl John And yet in the Kings Absence they took upon them to settle the publick Affairs of the Nation without Him Sixthly When King Henry the 3d. died his Eldest Son Prince Edward was then in the Holy Land and came not home till within the third year of his Reign yet immediately upon the Fathers Death all the Prelates and Nobles and 4 Knights for every Shire and 4 Burgesses for every Borough Assembled together in a great Council and setled the Government till the King should return Made a new Seal and a Chancellor c. I infer from what has been said that Writs of Summons are not so Essential to the being of Parliaments but that the People of England especially at a time when they cannot be had may by Law and according to our old Constitution Assemble together in a Parliamentary way without them to treat of and settle the publick Affairs of the Nation And that if such Assemblies so conven'd find the Throne Vacant they may proceed not only to set up a Prince but with the Assent and Concurrence of such Prince to transact all Publick business whatsoever without a new Election they having as great Authority as the People of England can deligate to their Representatives II. The Acts of Parliaments not Formal nor Legal in all their Circumstances are yet binding to the Nation so long as they continue in Force and not liable to be questioned as to the Validity of them but in subsequent Parliaments First The two Spencers Temp. Edvardi Secundi were banished by Act of Parliament and that Act of Parliament repealed by Dures Force yet was the Act of Repeal a good Law till it was Annulled 1 Ed. 3. Secondly Some Statutes of 11 Rich. 2. and attainders thereupon were repealed in a Parliament held Ann. 21. of that King which Parliament was procured by forced Elections and yet the Repeal stood good till such time as in 1 Henry 4. the Statutes of 11 Rich. 2. were revived and appointed to be firmly held and kept Thirdly The Parliament of 1 Hen. 4. consisted of the same Knights Citizens and Burgesses that had served in the then last dissolved Patliament and those Persons were by the Kings Writts to the Sheriffs commanded to be returned and yet they passed Acts and their Acts tho never confirmed continue to be Laws at this day Fourthly Queen Mary's Parliament that restored the Popes Supremacy was notoriously known to be pack'd inso much that it was debated in Queen Elizabeth's time whether or no to declare all their Acts void by Act of Parliament That course was then upon some prudential considerations declined and therefore the Acts of that Parliament not since repealed continue binding Laws to this day The reason of all this is Because no inferiour Courts have Authority to judge of the Validity or Invalidity of the Acts of such Assemblies as have but so much as a colour of Parliamentary Authority The Acts of such Assemblies being Entred upon the Parliament-Roll and certified before the Judges of Westminster-Hall as Acts of Parliament are conclusive and binding to them because Parliaments are the only Judges of the Imperfections Invalidities Illegalities c. of one another The Parliament that call'd in King Charles the Second was not assembled by the Kings Writ and yet they made Acts and the Royal assent was had to them many of which indeed were afterwards confirmed but not all and those that had no Confirmation are undoubted Acts of Parliament without it and have ever since obtained as such Hence I inferr that the present Convention may if they please assume to themselves a Parliamentary Power and in conjunction with such King or Queen as they shall declare may give Laws to the Kingdom as a legal Parliament The Thoughts of a Private Person about the Justice of the Gentlemens Vndertaking
suffer upon a mighty reasonable account For first It is the best way to overcome my Faith can Triumph so by no other Victory as by Death for that is a Victory never to be lost again 2. Though I die the Tyrant hath not his end but is by that means utterly defeated of it And 3. I shall be an infinite gainer by it for I shall have an infinite Reward for what I suffer and what I lose But there is a vast difference between suffering for the Faith of Christ and for the frame of a Political Government for if I may not resist I am overcome 2. If I am overcome the Tyrantgets his End namely an Arbitrary Power And 3. He has promis'd no Reward for such Voluntary entering into Bondage or owning an usurped Authority The Church and the frame of the State stand upon Two several Bottoms God has promised to support the Church and there needs no Arm of flesh to defend it under the worst of governments But the frame of every government is a Humane Structure and though God does impower and authorize every government yet he has left the Choice of the several kinds to the parties and has promised to bless them in the just Administration of their several Choices but no where has he promised to support the particular frame they chose that as their prudence raised it or it must fall at every King's pleasure and when they have chosen out the Frame God that approves it grants neither the King nor the people greater priviledges than the Frame it self expresses which in diverse Nations is different some submitting to be governed by the will of him they Voluntarily chose Others to one that will govern by Laws of their own making and his approving Others to one of their precedent Kings Race or Line Others to a multitude Others to a few of the best and presumptively wisest Persons and every peoples choice must be the measure of their Obedience if they have made an ill Bargain they must stand to it and if they have made a good one they may stand for it If therefore any Governor challenge more of the Subject than is in the Submission That Subjects may by the Laws of God and Man deny to yield it And if the Prince deny to give the Subject as much as in the Grant the Subject may challenge his Right and if by Force or Fraud contrary to the Frame of the government the Governor will force the governed from his Right the Obligation of subjection ceases so far and he may defend himself from the oppression and injustice as well as he can Obj. 2. But he must defend himself in God's way his defence must be without Sin And that is either by Prayers to God or Intreaties to the Prince or by Suffering for the Scripture says all Power are of God and they that resist the Power resist the Ordinance of God Rom. 13.2 And St. Peter gives Christians in Charge that they submit to every Odinance of Man for the Lord's sake Answ All Powers indeed are of God that is every Government has God's Warrant to proceed according to the Frame of the government to the End of the government which is the publick Good The Power is of God but the Restraint of the Power is in the Frame of the government and the Frame is an humane Ordinance or Structure as the Apostle elegantly Expresses it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he therefore that resisteth the government proceedeth according to the Frame of thegovernment resisteth the Ordinance of God But if the Governor proceed neither according to the Frame of the government nor to the End but against it such Process cannot be the Ordinance of God unless God have two contradictory Ordinances of Force at one time in the same Government and then the command may be true and false and the Subjects duty good and evil and men would be perpetually distracted with serving two Masters This would make the Government God's and the Devil 's and as no less than to put a Blasphemous Juggle upon the Ordinance of God which is always simple and at one with it self These Scriptures therefore can tye us to obey the Governor contrary to the Government because they tye us to obey the government and that this is all they tye us from resisting is evident by the Reason St. Paul gives which is because the Resisters resist the Ordinance of God and therefore it is warily exprest if it were but as warily read for it is not whosoever resisteth the person or the will of the Governor but whosoever resisteth the Power and that Power is neither more nor less than the Frame of the government expresses resisteth the Ordinance of God and to this Resistance the Penalty is annexed But it does not follow because I may not resist the Ordinance of God that I may not resist the powerless and inauthoritative unjust Attempts of Superiours upon me for then a Souldier might not resist his Captain that would rob him nor a Married Man-servant his Master that would force his Wise This I think evidences That to resist a Superiour and his evil Instruments and Accomplices while they Act contrary to the Frame of the Government is not to resist the Power of God or the Ordinance of God but to keep off those who usurp upon the Power of God and the Frame of the Government and the just Rights of others For I would fain know of the Doctors of Non resistance whether the Act that contains the Test have the stamp of God's Authority upon it or no if it have not the Power of the King and Parliament is no Power of God if it have then to resist that is to resist the Ordinance of God And those Commissions that are contrary to it have no power from God If the affirmative be true the negative is of no force And therefore to resist such Commissions is not to resist the Ordinance of God unless God's Ordinances be contradictory and that would render God guilty of double dealing as well as the Jesuits Which being utterly impossible it must be concluded That the resisting such Commissions and the Instruments acting by them is not to resist Lawful Authority but to remove Unlawful not to do evil but to hinder it not to sin but to prevent Sinners for doing mischief and it would be very hard measure for a Man to be damn'd for doing such a good Office Bishop Bilson therefore speaking of this Text says It is not resisting the King's Will against Law but according to Law that is forbidden And both Barclay and Grotius affirm That the People may in diverse Cases resist Kings that are tyed to govern by Law which they could not do did they think these Scriptures forbad all resistance Much indeed is said from the Practice of the Jews and the Primitive Christians and the Subjection of Servants but nothing to the purpose for their Case is not ours more than their frame of
Authorities out of this Realm as also for restoring and uniting to the Imperial Crown of this Realm the antient Jurisdictions Authorities Superiorities and Preheminences to the same of Right belonging and appertaining by reason whereof the Subjects of this Realm were kept in good order and disburthened of divers great and intolerable Charges and Exactions until such time as all the said good Laws and Statutes by one Act of Parliament made in the first and second Years of the Reigns of King Philip and Queen Mary were clearly repealed and made void by reason of which Act of Repeal the Subjects of England were eftsoons brought under an usurped Foreign Power and Authority and yet remained in that Bondage to their intolerable Charges and then Enacts that for the repressing of the said usurped Foreign Power and the restoring of the Rights Jurisdictions and Preheminences appertaining to the Imperial Crown of this Realm The said Act made in the first and second Years of the said late King Philip and Queen Mary except as therein is excepted be repealed void and of none effect The said Act of Primo Elizabethae proceeds First to revive by express words many Statutes that had been made in King Henry the Eighth's time and repealed in Queen Mary's and Secondly to abolish all Foreign Authority in these words viz. And to the intent that all Vsurped and Foreign Power and Authority Spiritual and Temporal may for ever be clearly extinguished and never to be used or obeyed within this Realm c. May it please your Highness that it may be Enacted That no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate Spiritual or Temporal shall at any time after the last day of this Session of Parliament use enjoy or exercise any manner of Power Jurisdiction Superiority Authority Preheminence or Priviledg Spiritual or Ecclesiastical within this Realm c. but the same shall be clearly abolished out of this Realm c. Any Statute Custom c. to the contrary notwithstanding Thirdly The said Act restores in the next Paragraph to the Imperial Crown of this Realm such Jurisdictions Priviledges Superiorities c. Spiritual and Ecclesiastical as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power or Authority had heretofore been or might lawfully be exercised or used c. Fourthly the Act impowers the Queen to assign Commissioners to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction And Fifthly For the better observation and maintenance of this Act imposes upon Ecclesiastical and Temporal Officers and Ministers c. the Oath commonly call'd the Oath of Supremacy which runs thus viz. The Oath of SUPREMACY I A. B. do utterly testify and declare in my Conscience that the Queen's Highness is the only Supream Governour of this Realm and of all other her Highness's Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things and Causes as Temporal and that no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preheminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm And therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all Foreign Jurisdictions Powers Superiorities and Authorities and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear Faith and true Allegiance to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and lawful Successors and to my Power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminencies and Authorities granted or belonging to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm So help me God and by the Contents of this Book It cannot but be obvious to every impartial Peruser of the Statute especially if he have the least knowledg of what Condition the Government of this Nation was reduced to by Papal Encroachments and Usurpations That the Makers of this Law and the Sense of this Oath was no other in general than that the People of this Realm should bear Faith and true Allegiance even in Matters relating to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and lawful Successors and not to the Pope or any foreign pretended Jurisdiction What the several Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Queen her Heirs and Successors are in particular and what the Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities United and Annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm are in particular is not material here to be discoursed of though the several Statutes made in King Henry the Eighth's time and King Edward the Sixth's and revived in Queen Elizabeth's will unfold many of them and clear the distinction which the OATH makes betwixt Authorities granted or belonging to the King and Authorities united and annexed to the Imperial Crown and Mr. Prynn's History of the Pope's intolerable Usurpations upon the Liberties of the Kings and Subjects of England and Ireland together with Sir Roger Twisden's Historical Vindication of the Church of England in point of Schism will in a great measure acquaint the Curious how matters stood with us here with respect to Church-Government before the Pope had wrested the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction almost wholly out of the hands of our Kings our Parliaments and Courts of Justice In short those Jurisdictions c. are such as the Antient Laws Customs and Usages of the Realm or latter Acts of Parliament have Created Given Limited and Directed The Makers of this Law did not design to impose upon the People of England any new Terms of Allegiance but to secure the old ones exclusive of any Pretences of the Pope or See of Rome Nor are there any words in this Oath more strong more binding to Duty and Allegiance than are words which the old Oath of Fealty is conceived in which all Men were antiently obliged and may yet be required to take to the King in the Court-Leet at twelve years of Age which runs thus viz. You shall swear that from this day forward you shall be true and faithful to our Soveraign Lord King James and his Heirs And Faith and Truth shall bear of Life and Limb and terrene Honour And you shall not know nor hear of any ill or damage intended to him that you shall not defend So help you Almighty God This is as full and comprehensive as the Oath of Supremacy I do promise that I shall bear faith and true Allegiance to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and lawful Successors and to my power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions c. So that the true sense and meaning of the Oath of Supremacy is this viz. I will be true and faithful to our Soveraign Lord the King his Heirs and lawful Successors and will to my Power assist and defend all his Rights notwithstanding any pretence made by the Pope or any other Foreign Power to exercise Jurisdiction within the Realm all which Foreign Power I utterly renounce in Matters Ecclesiastical as well as Temporal The Oath of Allegiance is appointed by the Act of 3 Jac. 1. Chap. 4. Intituled An Act for discovering and repressing of Popish Recusants It
STATE TRACTS Being a Farther COLLECTION OF Several Choice Treatises Relating to the GOVERNMENT From the YEAR 1660. to 1689. Now Published in a Body to shew the Necessity and clear the Legality of the Late REVOLUTION and Our present Happy SETTLEMENT under the Auspicious Reign of Their MAJESTIES King William and Queen Mary LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by RICHARD BALDWIN near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane MDCXCII PREFACE to the READER THE Main and Principal Design of making this following Collection was to preserve entire in this Second Volume some other Excellent Tracts of equal esteem and value with the former which made that Book so much obtain among the Learned and Curious as that the whole Impression of it is already near sold And as it cannot but be very entertaining to Vs in the reading of them who do yet so sensibly remember what we then felt and looked for worse to fall on us every day than other so it will certainly be of great Benefit and Advantage to our Posterities in future who may considerably profit themselves by our Misfortunes This is a Collection that in the general will set forth the true and Legal Constitution of our Ancient Famous English Government which of all the Countries in Europe Memoirs of Philip de Comines Kt. lib. 5. cap. 18. p. 334. in Octavo Printed 1674. where I was ever acquainted says the Noble Lord of Argenton is no-where so well managed the People no-where less obnoxious to Violence nor their Houses less liable to the Desolations of War than in England for there the Calamities fall only upon the Authors 'T was a true Observation that this Great Man made of the Justice of our Gallant Ancestors in his days how miserable the Successive Generations have deviated from the vertue of their steps how much the strict Piety of their Manners and the noble Bravery of their Spirits Tempers and Complexions have been enervated and dissolved by the later looseness supine carelesness and degeneracy the present Age hath great reason to bewail and 't is hoped that those to come will be hereby cautioned to grow wiser and better by those past Follies and Miscarriages In particular Here will be seen the dangerous Consequences of keeping up a standing Army within these Kingdoms in a time of Peace without consent of Parliament The Trust Power and Duty of Grand Juries and the great Security of English-mens Lives in their faithful discharge thereof The Right of the Subject to Petition their King for Redress of their Wrongs and Oppressions and that Access to the Sovereign ought not to be shut up in case of any Distresses of his People The Spring of all our late private Mischievous Councils and Cabals and the Special Tools that were thought fittest for Preferment to be imployed under a colour of Authority to put all those concerted Designs in motion and execution The Parliament's Care in appointing a Committee to examine the Proceedings of the Forward and Active Judges upon several Cases that were brought before them of grand importance to the Common-weal Peace and Safety of the Nation ☞ and the Resolution of the House of Commons upon their Report That the Judges said Proceedings were Arbitrary and Illegal destructive to Publick Justice a high and manifest Violation of their Oaths a Scandal to the Reformation an usurpation of the Legislative Power to themselves and a means to subvert the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom And the several Grievances that this Nation hath long been labouring under for the Advancement of Popery Arbitrary Dominion and the unmeasurable Growth and Power of France There are likewise interspersed in this Volume several Matters of Fact relating to the Male-Admininistration of Affairs in Scotland under Duke Lauderdale and his Favourites as also a Large and Faithful Account of the late Earl of Argyle's Tryal Escape and Sentence with divers other things for the better clearing of his Case In a word This Collection will discover to us the Mysteries of the Monarchy in the two Late Reigns and the Abused Trust of Government in those Princes by a Dispencing Power both in Ecclesiastical and Civil Matters to Tyrannize over their Subjects who in the mean while were taught by sâ—me Passive-Obedience and Non-Resistance Doctrine-holders That all their Duty was tamely to submit to and patiently sigh under their daily Sufferings and Oppressions and I think we bore them so long till we were within one throw more of loosing all our good old Laws and Constitutions and even the Government it self Our Miseries were lately so great and many as you will find here that it is impossible for any one better and more fully to express them than in the words of a very Learned and Judicious Author who hath thus given us a just and lively Representation of them Our Laws says he were trampled under foot and upon the matter abolished to set up Will and Pleasure in their room under the Cant and Pretence of Dispencing Power Our Constitution was overthrown by the Trick of New Charters and by closetting and corrupting Members of Parliament Men were required under pain of the highest Displeasure to consent Some Considerations about the most proper way of raising Money in the present Conjuncture Printed Octob. 1691. and concur to the sacrificing their Religion and the Liberty of their Countrey The worthiest honestest and bravest Men in England had been barbarously murthered and to aggravate the Injustice which was done them all bad been varnished over with a Colour of Law and the Formality of Tryals not unlike the Case of Naboth and Ahab Those whom the Law declared Traytors were in defiance of the National Authority introduced into our Councils and the Conduct of Affairs put into their hands Our Vniversities were invaded by open Force those who were in the lawful possession of the Government of Colledges turned out and Papists sent thither in their room And if that Attempt had throughly prospered the Churches and Pulpits would soon have followed It were vain to go about to enumerate Particulars In a word the Nation was undone All was lost The Judges were suborned or threatned to declare that the King was Master of all the Laws and the Bishops were required to publish this New-created Prerogative in all the Churches of England by the Mouths of the Clergy which when some of them refused to do representing to the King with the utmost submission and modesty that neither Conscience nor Justice permitted them to do what he desired they were prosecuted at Law as if they had been guilty of some great Crime Letters were written and intercepted by which it appeared evidently that the change of our Religion was determined and that Popery was to be brought in with all speed least the opportunity should be lost And for the better compassing this pious design our Civil and Parliamentary Rights were to be taken away in Ordine ad Spiritualia And when the Nation and those who were concerned
Parliament guilty of exercising an arbitrary Power if their Proceedings be not regulated by written Laws but by Salus Populi Ans For the Parliament to be bound up by written Laws is both destructive and absurd First it is destructive it being the Fundamental Court and Law or the very Salus Populi of England and ordained as to make Laws and see them executed so to supply their Deficiency according to the present Exigency of things for publick Preservation by the Prerogative of Salus Populi which is universally in them and but particularly in particular Laws and Statutes which cannot provide against all future Exigents which the Law of Parliaments doth and therefore are not they to be limits to this And it would yet be further destructive by cutting the Parliament short of half its Power at once for it being a Court both of Law and Equity as appears by the Power of making Laws which is nothing but Equity reduced by common Consent into Polity when ever it is circumscribed by written Laws which only is the Property of inferiour Courts it ceaseth to be supreme and divests it self of that inherent and uncircumscribed Power which Salus Populi comprehends Secondly as it is destructive so also it is absurd for the Legislative Power which gives Laws is not to receive Laws saving from the nature and end of its own Constitution which as they give it a being so they endow it with Laws of Preservation both of it self and the whole which it represents I would not herein be mis-understood as if the Parliament when as it only doth the Office of inferiour Courts judging between Party and Party were not limitted by written Laws there I grant it is because therein it only deals between meum and tuum which particular written Laws can and ought to determine so that its superlative and uncircumscribed Power I intend only as relating to the Universe and the Affairs thereof wherein it is to walk by its fundamental Principles not by particular Precepts or Statutes which are made by the Parliament between King and People not between People and Parliament they are ordained to be Rules of Government to the King agreeing with the Liberty and Property of the People and Rules of Obedience to the People without detainment of their Freedom by the Exercise of an illegal usurped and unconsented Power whereunto Kings especially in hereditary Monarchies are very prone which cannot be suspected by a Parliament which is representatively the Publick intrusted for it and which is like to partake and share with the Publick being but so many private Men put into Authority pro tempore by common Consent for common Good Nor is the Parliament hereby guilty of an arbitrary Government or is it destructive to the Petition of Right when as in providing for Publick-weal it observes not the letter of the Law First because as aforesaid that Law was not made between Parliament and People but by the People in Parliament between the King and them as appears by the whole tenour of it both in the complaining and praying parts which wholly relate to the King Secondly because of the common Consent that in the representative Body the Parliament is given thereunto wherein England in her Polity imitates Nature in her Instincts who is wont to violate particular Principles for publick Preservation as when light things descend and heavy ascend to prevent a Vacuum And Thirdly because of the equitable Power which is inherent in a Parliament and for publick Good is to be acted above and against any particular Statute or all of them And Fourthly because the end of making that Law to wit the publick Preservation is fulfilled in the breaking of it which is lawful in a Parliament that is chosen by the whole for the whole and are themselves also of the Body though not in a King for therein the Law saith Better a mischief than an inconvenience But it may be objected Though it be not arbitrary for the Parliament to go against written Law yet is it not so when they go against the Kings Consent which the Law even the fundamental Law supposeth in Parliamentary Proceedings This hath been answered That the King is juridically and according to the intention of the Law in his Courts so that what the Parliament consults for the publick Good That by Oath and the Duty of his Office and Nature of this Polity he is to consent unto and in case he do deny it yet in the Construction of the fundamental Law and Constitutions of this Kingdom he is conceived to grant it supposing the Head not be so unnatural to the Body that hath chosen it for good and not for evil But it will be answered Where is the Kings Negative Voice if the Parliament may proceed without his Consent I answer That there is no known nor written Law that gives him any and things of that nature are willingly believed till they be abused or with too much Violence claimed That his Majesty hath fundamentally a Right of Consent to the Enacting of Laws is true which as aforesaid is part of that honourable Trust constituted in him And that this Royal Assent is an Act of Honour and not of Absolute and Negative Power or Prerogative appears by these following Reasons First by his Oath at the Coronation mentioned in one of the Parliaments Declarations where he doth or should swear to confirm and grant all such good Laws as his People shall choose to be observed not hath chosen for First The word concedis in that Oath were then unnecessary the Laws formerly Enacted being already granted by foregoing Kings and so they need no more Concession or Confirmation else we must run upon this Shelf that all our Laws die with the old King and receive their being anew by the new Kings Consent Secondly hereby the first and second Clause in that Interrogatory viz. Concedis justas leges permittas protegendas are confounded and do but idem repetere Thirdly Quas Vulgus elegerit implies only the Act of the People in a disjunctive sense from the Act or Consent of the King but Laws already made have more than Quas Vulgus elegerit they have also the Royal Consent too so that that Phrase cannot mean them wherein the Act or Consent of the King is already involved Secondly by the Practise of requiring the Royal Assent even unto those very Acts of Subsidies which are granted to himself and for his own use which it is supposed he will accept of and yet Honoris gratia is his Royal Assent craved and contributed thereunto Thirdly by the Kings not sitting in Parliament to debate and consult Laws noâ— are they at all offered him by the Parliament to consider of but to consent to which yet are transmitted from one House to another as well to consult as consent to shewing thereby he hath no part in the consultory part of them for that it belongs only to the People in Parliament to discern and
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 future Times To which I could not but Reply That I begged their Pardon if I differed from them in Opinion and did believe that how honestly soever the House of Commons might intend in that matter yet that the point of Succession was so Sacred a thing and of so high a Nature that it was not subjected to their Cognizance That Monarchy was of Divine Right That Princes succeeded by Nature and Generation only and not by Authority Admission or Approbation of the People and consequently that neither the Merit or Demerit of their Persons nor the different influences from thence upon the People were to be respected or had in consideration but the Common-wealth ought to obey and Submit to the next Heir without any further Inquisition and if he proved a Worthy Vertuous and Just Prince it was a great Happiness if Unjust Barbarous and Tyrannical there was no other Remedy but Prayer Patience and an intire Submission to so difficult a Dispensation of Gods Providence I had no sooner ended my Discourse but one of the Gentlemen that was the most serious in the Company seeing me a Young Man gravely Replied That he could not but be extreamly concerned to hear that such pernicious Notions against all lawful Government had been taught in the World That he believed they were in me purely the Effects of an University-Education and that it had been my Misfortune to have had a very high Church-man for my Tutor who had endeavoured as it was their constant Practice to all Young Gentlemen under their Care to debauch me with such Principles as would enslave my mind to their Hierarchy and the Monarchical part of the Government without any Regard at all to the Aristocratical and Popular and that fat Parsonages Prebendships Deanaries and Episcopal Sees were the certain and constant Rewards of such Services That the Place we were in was a little too Publick for Discourses of this Nature but if I would accept of a Bottle of Wine at the next Tavern he would undertake to give me juster measures adding it was pity so hopeful a Gentleman should be tainted with bad Principles My Friend coming in at the same Time proved to be one of their particular Acquaintance and both he and I readily complied with so generous a motion We had no sooner drank a Glass round but the Old Gentleman was pleased to renew his Discourse and said it was undoubtedly true that the inclination of Mankind to live in Company from whence come Towns Cities and Common-wealths did proceed of Nature and consequently of God the Author of Nature So likewise Government and the Jurisdiction of Magistrates in general which does necessarily flow from the living together in Society is also of Nature and ordained by God for the common Good of Mankind but that the particular Species and Forms of this or that Government in this or that manner To have many few or one Governour or that they should have this or that Authority more or less for a longer or a shorter time or whether ordinarily by Succession or by Election All these things he said are Ordained and Diversified by the particular positive Laws of every Country and are not Establish'd either by Law Natural or Divine but left by God unto every Nation and Country to pitch upon what Form of Government they shall think most proper to promote the common good of the whole and best adapted to the Natures Constitutions and other Circumstances of the People which accordingly for the same Reasons may be altered or amended in any of its parts by the mutual Consent of the Governours and Governed whenever they shall see reasonable cause so to do all which appears plainly both from the diversity of Governments extant in the World and by the same Nations living sometimes under one sort of Government and sometimes under another So we see God himself permitted his peculiar People the Jews to live under divers Forms of Government as First under Patriarchs then under Captains then under Judges then under High-Priests next under Kings and then under Captains and High-Priests again until they were conquered by the Romans who themselves also first lived under Kings and then Consuls whose Authority they afterwards limitted by a Senate by adding Tribunes of the People and in extraordinary Emergencies of the Commonwealth they were governed by Dictators and last of all by Emperors So that it 's plain no Magistrate has his particular Government or an Interest of Succession in it by any Institution of Nature but only by the particular Constitution of the Commonwealth within it self And as the kinds of Government are different so also are the measures of Power and Authority in the same kind in different Countries I shall begin said he with that of the Roman Empire which though it be the first in Dignity among Christian Princes yet it is so restrained and limited by the particular Laws of the Empire that he can do much less in his State than other Kings in theirs He can neither make War nor exact any Contribution of Men or Money but by the Consent of all the States of the German Diet And as for his Children and Relations they have no Interest or Pretence to succeed but only by Election if they shall be thought worthy Nay the chiefest Article the Emperour swears to keep at his Admission to that Honour is That he shall never endeavour to make the Dignity of the Empire Hereditary to his Family In Spain and in France the Priviledges of Kings are much more eminent both in Power and Succession their Authority is more absolute every Order of theirs having the Validity of a Law and their next of Bloud does ordinarily inherit though in a different manner In Spain the next Heir cannot succeed but by the Approbation of the Nobility Bishops and States of the Realm In France the Women are not admitted to succeed let them be never so lineally descended In England our Kings are much more limited and confined in their Power than either of the two former for here no Law can be made but by Consent and Authority of Parliament and as to the Point of Succession the next of kin is admitted unless in extraordinary Cases and when important Reason of State require an Alteration And then the Parliaments of England according to the ancient Laws and Statutes of the Realm have frequently directed and appointed the Succession of the Crown in other manner than in course it would have gone of which I shall give you some Examples in Order But first let us look abroad and see how things have been carried as to this Point in other Countries Amongst the Jews the Law of Succession did ordinarily hold and accordingly Rehoboam the Lawful Son and Heir of Solomon after his Fathers Decease went to Sichem to be crowned and admitted by the People and the whole Body of the People of Israel being there gathered together did before they would admit him their lawful
being accompanied with several other Lords at the Delivery thereof thus expressed himself The Earl of Essex's Speech at the Delivering the following Petition to His most Sacred Majesty Jan. 25. 1680. May it please your Majesty THe Lords here present together with divers other Peers of the Realm taking notice that by Your late Proclamation Your Majesty has declared an intention of calling a Parliament at Oxford and observing from History and Records how unfortunate many Assemblies have been when called at a Place remote from the Capital City as particularly the Congress in Henry the Second's time at Clarendon Three several Parliaments at Oxford in Henry the Third's time and at Coventry in Henry the Sixth's time With divers others which have proved very fatal to those Kings and have been followed with great mischief on the whole Kingdom And considering the present posture of affairs the many jealousies and discontents which are amongst the People We have great Cause to apprehend that the consequences of a Parliament now at Oxford may be as fatal to Your Majesty and the Nation as those others mentioned have been to the then Reigning Kings and therefore we do conceive that we cannot answer it to God to Your Majesty or to the People If we being Peers of the Realm should not on so Important an Occasion humbly offer our advice to Your Majesty that if possible Your Majesty may be prevailed with to alter this as we apprehend unseasonable Resolution The Grounds and Reasons of our Opinion are contained in this our Petition which We humbly Present to Your Majesty To the King 's most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition and Advice of the Lords under-named Peers of the Realm Humbly Sheweth THat whereas Your Majesty hath been pleased by divers Speeches and Messages to Your Houses of Parliament rightly to represent to them the Dangers that Threatned Your Majesty's Person and the whole Kingdom from the Mischievous and wicked Plots of the Papists and the sudden Growth of a Foreign Power unto which no stop or remedy could be Provided unless it were by Parliament and an Union of Your Majesty's Protestant Subjects in one Mind and one Interest And the Lord Chancellor in Pursuance of Your Majesty's Commands having more at large Demonstrated the said Dangers to be as great as we in the midst of our Fears could Imagine them and so pressing that our Liberties Religion Lives and the whole Kingdom would be certainly Lost if a speedy Provision were not made against them And Your Majesty on the 21st of April 1679. Having called unto your Council many Honourable and Worthy Persons and declared to them and the whole Kingdom That being sensible of the evil Effects of a single Ministry or private Advice or Forreign Committee for the General Direction of your Affairs Your Majesty would for the future Refer all things unto that Council and by the constant Advice of them together with the frequent use of your great Council the Parliament Your Majesty was hereafter Resolved to Govern the Kingdoms We began to hope we should see an end of our Miseries But to our unspeakable Grief and Sorrow we soon found our Expectations Frustrated The Parliament then subsisting was Prorogued and Dissolved before it could perfect what was intended for our Relief and Security and though another was thereupon called yet by many Prorogations it was put off till the 21st of October past and notwithstanding Your Majesty was then again pleased to acknowledge that neither Your Person nor Your Kingdom could be safe till the matter of the Plot was gone thorow It was unexpectedly Prorogued on the 10th of this Month before any sufficient Order could be taken therein all their Just and Pious Endeavours to save the Nation were overthrown the good Bills they had been Industriously preparing to Unite all Your Majesties Protestant Subjects brought to nought The discovery of the Irish Plot stifled The Witnesses that came in frequently more fully to declare That both of England and Ireland discouraged Those Forreign Kingdoms and States who by a happy conjunction with us might give a Check to the French Power disheartned even to such a Despair of their own Security against the growing greatness of that Monarch as we fear may induce them to take new Resolutions and perhaps such as may be fatal to us The Strength and Courage of our Enemies both at home and abroad increased and our selves left in the utmost danger of seeing our Country brought into utter Desolation In these Extremities we had nothing under God to comfort us but the Hopes that Your Majesty being touched with the Groans of Your perishing People would have suffered Your Parliament to meet at the Day unto which it was Prorogued and that no further interruption should have been given to their Proceedings in Order to their saving of the Nation But that failed us too For then we heard that Your Majesty by the private suggestion of some Wicked Persons Favourers of Popery Promoters of French Designs and Enemies to Your Majesty and the Kingdom without the Advice and as we have good Reason to believe against the Opinion even of Your Privy-Council had been prevailed with to Dissolve it and to call another to meet at Oxford where neither Lords nor Commons can be in Safety but will be daily exposed to the Sword of the Papists and their Adherents of whom too many are crept into Your Majesties Guards The Liberty of speaking according to their Consciences will be thereby Destroyed and the Validity of all their Acts and Proceedings consisting in it left Disputable The Straitness of the Place no way admits of such a concourse of Persons as now follows every Parliament the Witnesses which are necessary to give Evidence against the Popish Lords such Judges or others whom the Commons have Impeached or had resolved to Impeach can neither bear the Charge of going thither nor trust themselves under the Protection of a Parliament that is it self Evidently under the power of Guards and Soldiers The Premises considered We Your Majesties Petitioners out of a Just Abhorrence of such a dangerous and pernicious Council which the Authors have not dared to avow and the direful Apprehensions of the Calamities and Miseries that may ensue thereupon do make it our most Humble Prayer and Advice That the Parliament may not sit at a Place where it will not be able to Act with that Freedom which is necessary and especially to give unto their Acts and Proceedings that Authority which they ought to have amongst the People and have ever had unless Impaired by some Awe upon them of which there wants not Precedents And that Your Majesty would be graciously pleased to Order It to Sit at Westminster it being the usual Place and where they may Consult and Act with Safety and Freedom And your Petitioness shall ever Pray c. Monmouth Kent Huntington Bedford Salisbury Clare Stanford Essex Shaftsbury Mordant Evers Paget Grey Herbert Howard Delamer The Counties
those vast Lands Jurisdictions and Superiorities justly forfaulted to His Majesty by the Crimes of your deceased Father preferring your Family to those who had served His Majesty against it in the late Rebellion but also pardoned and remitted to you the Crimes of Leasing-making and misconstruing His Majesties and his Parliaments proceedings against the very Laws above-written whereof you were found guilty and condemned to die therefore by the High Court of Parliament the 25th of August 1662. and raised you to the Title and Dignity of an Earl and being a Member of all His Majesties Judicatures Notwithstanding of all these and many other favours you the said Archibald Earl of Argyle being put by the Lords of His Majesties Privy-Council to take the Test appointed by the Act of the last Parliament to be taken by all persons in publick Trust you instead of taking the said Test and swearing the same in the plain genuine sense and meaning of the words without any equivocation mental reservation or evasion whatsoever you did declare against and defame the said Act and having to the end you might corrupt others by your pernicious sense drawn the same in a Libel of which Libel you dispersed and gave abroad Copies whereby ill impressions were given of the King and Parliaments proceedings at a time especially when His Majesties Subjects were expecting what submission should be given to the said Test and being desired the next day to take the same as one of the Commissioners of His Majesties Treasury you did give into the Lords of His Majesties Privy-Council and owned twice in plain judgment before them the said defamatory Libel against the said Test and Act of Parliament declaring That you had considered the said Test and was desirous to give obedience as far as you could whereby you clearly insinuated that you was not able to give full obedience In the second Article of which Libel you declare That you were confident the Parliament never intended to impose contradictory Oaths thereby to abuse the people with a belief that the Parliament had been so impious as really and actually to have imposed contradictory Oaths and so ridiculous as to have made an Act of Parliament which should be most deliberate of all humane actions quite contrary to their own intentions after which you subsumed contrary to the nature of all Oaths and to the Acts of Parliament above cited that every man must explain it for himself and take it in his own sense by which not only that excellent Law and the Oath therein specified which is intended to be a Fence to the Government both of Church and State but all other Oaths and Laws shall be rendered altogether useless to the Government If every man take the Oaths imposed by Law in his own sense then the Oath imposed is to no purpose for the Legislator cannot be sure that the Oath imposed by him will bind the takers according to the design and intent for which he appointed it and the Legislative Power is taken from the Imposers and settled in the taker of the Oath and so he is allowed to be the Legislator which is not only an open and violent depraving of His Majesties Laws and Acts of Parliament but is likewise a settling of the Legislative Power on private Subjects who are to take such Oaths In the third Article of that Paper you declare That you take the Test in so far only as it is consistent with it self and the Protestant Religion by which you maliciously intimate to the people That the said Oath is inconsistent with it self and with the Protestant Religion which is not only a down right depraving of the said Act of Parliament but is likewise a misconstruing of His Majesties and the Parliaments proceedings and misrepresenting them to the people in the highest degree and in the tenderest points they can be concerned and implying that the King and Parliament have done things inconsistent with the Protestant Religion for securing of which that Test was particularly intended In the Fourth Article you do expresly declare that you mean not by taking the said Test to bind up your self from wishing and endeavouring any alteration in a lawful way that you shall think fit for advancing of Church and State whereby also it was designed by the said Act of Parliament and Oath That no man should make any alteration in the Government of Church and State as it is now established and that it is the Duty of all good Subjects in humble and quiet manner to obey the present Government Yet you not only declare your self but by your example you invite others to think themselves loosed from that Obligation and that it is free for them to make any alteration in either as they shall think fit concluding your whole Paper with these words And this I understand as a part of my Oath which is a treasonable invasion upon the Royal Legislative Power as if it were lawful for you to make to your self an Act of Parliament since he who can make any part of an Act may make the whole the Power and Authority in both being the same Of the which Crimes above mentioned you the said Archibald Earl of Argyle are Actor Art and Part which being found by the Assize you ought to be punished with the pains of Death fortâ—ulture and escheat of Lands and Goods to the terror of others to commit the like hereafter An Abstract of the several Acts of Parliament upon which the Indictment against the Earl of Argyle was grounded Concerning raisers of Rumours betwixt the King and his people Chap. 20.1 Statutes of King Robert 1. IT is defended and forbidden That no man be a Conspirator or Inventer of Narrations or Rumours by the which occasion of discord may arise betwixt the King and his people And if any such man shall be found and attainted thereof incontinent be shall be taken and put in Prison and there shall be surely keeped up ay and while the King declare his will anent him Act 43. of Par. 2. King James 1. March 11. 1424. Leasing-makers forfault Life and Goods ITem It is ordained by the King and whole Parliament that all Leasingmakers and tellers of them which may engender discord betwixt the King and his people wherever they may be gotten shall be challenged by them that power has and ryne Lâ—â—e and Goods to the King Act 83. Par. 6. James 5. Dec. 10. 1540. Of Leasing-makers ITem Touching the Article of Leasing-makers to the Kings Grace of his Barons great men and Leiges and for punishment to be put to them therefore the Kings Grace with advice of his three Estates ratifies and approves the Acts and Statutes made thereupon before and ordains the same to be put in execution in all points and also Statutes and ordains That if any manner of person makes any evil Information of his Highness to his Barons and Leiges that they shall be punished in such manner and by the same punishment as
the Pannel before he was called and required by the Lords of His Majesties Privy-Council to take Oath did ever by word or practice use any reproachful speeches of the said Act of Parliament or of His Majesties Government But being required to take the Oath he did humbly with all submission declare what he apprehended to be the sense of the Act of the Parliament enjoyning the Test and in what sense he had freedom to take the same 3. The Act of Parliament enjoyning the Test does not enjoyn the same to be taken by all persons whatsoever but only prescribes it as a qualification without which persons could not assume or continue to act in publick Trust Which being an Oath to be taken by so solemn an invocation of the Name of Almighty God it is not only allowable by the Laws and customs of all Nations and the Opinion of all Divines and Casuists Popish or Protestant but also commended that where a Party has any scrupulosity or unclearness in his conscience as to the matter of the Oath that he should exhibit and declare the sense and meaning in which he is willing and able to take the Oath And it is not at all material whether the scruples of a mans conscience in the matter of an Oath be in themselves just or groundless it being a certain maxim both in Law and Divinity that Conscientia etiam erronea ligat And therefore tho the Pannel had thought fit for the clearing and exoneration of his own conscience in a matter of the highest concern as to his peace and repose to have exprest and declared the express sense in which he could take the Oath whether the said sense was consistent with the Act of Parliament or not yet it does not in the least import any matter of reproach or reflection upon the justice or prudence of the Parliament in imposing the said Oath but alenarly does evince the weakness and scrupulosity of a mans conscience who neither did nor ought to have taken the Oath but with an explanation that would have saved his conscience to his apprehension Otherwise he had grosly sinned before God even tho it was Conscientia errans And this is allowed and prescribed by all Protestant Divines as indispensibly necessary and was never thought to import any crime and is also commended even by Popish Casuists themselves who tho they allow in some cases of mental reservations and equivocations yet the express declaration of the sense of the party is allowed and commended as much more ingenious and tutius Remedium Conscientiae ne illaqueeter as appears by Bellarmine de Juramento and _____ upon the same Title de Interpretatione Juramenti and Lessius that famous Casuist de Justitia Jure Dubitatione 8 9. utrum si quis salvo animo aliquid Juramento promittat obligetur quale peccatum hoc sit And which is the general opinion of all Casuists and all Divines as may appear by Amesius in his Treatise de Conscientia Sanderson de Juramento Praelectione secunda And such an express Declaration of the sense and meaning of any party when required to take an Oath for no other end but for the clearing and exoneration of his own Conscience was never in the opinion of any Lawyer or any Divine construed to be the Crime of Leasing-making or of defamatory Libels or depraving of publick Laws or reproaching or misconstruing of the Government but on the contrary by the universal suffrage of all Protestant Divines there is expresly required in Cases of a scrupulous Conscience an abhorrence and detestation of all reserved senses and of all Amphibologies and Equivocations which are in themselves unlawful and reprobate upon that unanswerable Reason that Juramentum being the highest Act of Devotion and Religion in eo requiritur maxima simplicitas and that a party is obliged who has any scruples of Conscience publickly and openly to clear and declare the same 4. Albeit it is not controverted but that a Legislator imposing an Oath or any publick Authority before whom the Oath is taken may after hearing of the Sense and Explication which a person is willing to put upon it either reject or accept of the same if it be conceived not to be consistent with the genuine sense of the Oath Yet tho it were rejected it was never heard of or pretended that the offering of a sense does import a Crime but that notwithstanding thereof Habetur pro Recusante and as if he had not taken the Oath and to be liable to the certification of Law as if he had been a Refuser 5. The Pannel having publickly and openly declared the sense in which he was free to take the Oath it is offered to be proved that he was allowed and did accordingly proceed to the taking of the Oath and did thereafter take his place and sit and Vote during that Sederunt of Privy Council So as the pretended Sense and Explication which he did then emit and give can import no Crime against him 6. It is also offered to be proved that before the Pannel was required to take the Oath or did appear before his Royal Highness and Lords of Privy-Council to take the same there were a great many Papers spread abroad from persons and Ministers of the Orthodox Clergy and as the Pannel is informed some thereof presented to the Bishops of the Church in the name of Synods and Presbyteries which did in downright terms charge the Test and Oath with alledged contradictions and inconsistencies And for satisfaction whereof some of the Learned and Reverend Bishops of the Church did write a learned and satisfying Answer called A Vindication of the Test for clearing the Scruples Difficulties and Mistakes that were objected against it And which Vindication and Answer was exhibited and read before the Lords of His Majesties Privy Council and allowed to be printed and from which the Pannel argues 1. That it neither is nor can be pretended in this Libel that the alledged Explication wherein he did take the Oath does propose the scruples of his Conscience in these terms which were proposed by the Authors of these Objections which do flatly and positively assert that the Oath and Test do contain matters of inconsistency and contradiction whereas all that is pretended in this Libel with the most absolute violence can be put upon the words is arguing Implications and Inferences which neither the words are capable to bear nor the sincerity of the Earls intention and design nor the course of his by-past life can possibly admit of And yet none of the persons who were the Authors of such papers were ever judged or reputed Criminal or Guilty and to be prosecuted for the odious and infamous Crimes libelled of Treason Leasing-making Perjury and the like 2. The Pannel does also argue from the said matter of Fact that the alledged Explication libelled can neither in his intention and design nor in the words infer or import any Crime against him because
upon the King and the Government For the writing an answer is no allowance but a condemning Nor can the Council allow any more than they can remit And tho it may justly be denied that the Council heard even the Earls own Explanation yet the hearing or allowing him to sit is no Relevant Plea because they might very justly have taken a time to consider how far it was fit to accuse upon that Head And it is both just and fit for the Council to take time and by express Act of Parliament the negligence of the King Officers does not bind them For if this were allowed Leading men in the Council might commit what Crimes they pleased in the Council which certainly the King may quarrel many years after And tho all the Council had allowed him that day any one Officer of State might have quarrelled it the next day As to the Opinion of Bellarmine Sanderson and others it is ever contended that the principles of the Covenant agree very well with those of the Jesuites and both do still allow Equivocations and Evasions But no solid Orthodox Divine ever allowed That a man who was to swear without any Evasion should swear so as he is bound to nothing as it is contended the Earl is not for the Reasons represented And as they still recommend That when men are not clear they might abstain as the Earl might have done in this case so they still conclude That men should tell in clear terms what the sense is by which they are to be bound to the State Whereas the Earl here tells only in the general and in most ambigious terms That he takes it as far as he can obey and as far as it is consistent with the Protestant Religion and that he takes it in his own sense and that he is not bound by it from making alterations but as far as he thinks it for the advantage of Church or State which sense is a thousand times more doubtful than the Test and is in effect nothing but what the taker pleases himself As to the Treason founded on His Majesties Advocate founds it first upon the Fundamental and Common Laws of this and all Nations whereby it is Treason for any man to make any alteration he shall think for the advantage of Church or State which he hopes is a principle cannot be denied in the general And whereas it is pretended That this cannot be understood of mean alterations and of alterations to be made in a lawful way It is answered That as the thing it self is Treason so this Treason is not taken off by any of these qualifications because he declares he will wish and endeavour any alteration he thinks fit and any alteration comprehends all alterations that he thinks fit Nam propositio indefinita aequipollet universali And the word any is general in its own nature and is in plain terms a reserving to himself to make alterations both great and small And the restriction is not all alterations that the King shall think fit or are consistent with the Laws and Acts of Parliament but he is still to be Judge of this and his Loyalty is to be the Standard Nor did the Covenanters in the last Age nor do these who are daily executed decline that they are bound to obey the King simply but only that they are bound to obey him no otherwise than as far as his Commands are consistent with the Law of God of Nature and of this Kingdom and with the Covenant And their Treason lies in this And when it is asked them Who shall be judge in this they still make themselves Judges And the reason of all Treason being that the Government is not secure it is desired to be known what way the Government can be secured after this paper since the Earl is still Judge how far he is obliged and what is his Loyalty And if this had been sufficient the Covenant had been a very excellent paper for they are there bound to endeavour in their several stations to defend the Kings person but when the King challenged them how they came to make War against him their great Refuge was That they were themselves still Judges as to that And for illustrating this power the Lords of Justitiary are desired to consider Quid Juris if the Earl or any man else should have reserved to himself in this Oath a liberty to rise in Arms or to oppose the lineal Succession tho he had added In a lawful manner for the thing being in it self unlawful this is but sham and Protestatio contraria facto And if these be unlawful notwithstanding of such additions so much more must this general reservation of making any alterations likewise be unlawful notwithstanding of these additions For he that reserves the general power of making any alteration does a fortiori reserve power to make any alteration tho never so fundamental For all particulars are included in the General and whatever may be said against the particulars may much more strongly be said against the general 2. The 130. Act Par. 8. James VI is expressly founded on because nothing can be a greater diminution of the power of the Parliament than to introduce a way or means whereby all their Acts and Oaths shall be made insignificant and ineffectual as this paper does make them for the Reasons represented Nor are any of the Estates of Parliament secure at this rate but that they who reserved a general power to make all alterations may under that â—eneral come to alter any of them 3. What can be a greater impugning of the Dignity and Authority of Parliaments than to say That the Parliament has made Acts for the security of the Kingdom which are in themselves ridiculous inconsistent with themselves and the Protestant Religion And as to what is answered against invading the Kings Prerogative and the Legislative power in Parliaments in adding a part to an Oath or Act is not relevantly inferred since the sense of these words And this I understand as a part of my Oath is not to be understood as if any thing were to be added to the Law but â—â—ly to the Oath and to be an interpretation of the Oath It is replied That after this no man needs to add a Caution to the Oath in Parliament But when he comes to take the Oath do the Parliament what they please he will add his own part Nor can this part be looked upon as a sense for if this were the sense before this paper he needed not understand it as a part of it for it wanted not that part And in general as every man may add his own part so the King can be secure of no part But your Lordships of Justitiary are desired to consider how dangerous it would be in this Kingdom and how ill it would sound in any other Kingdom That men should be allowed to reserve to themselves liberty to make any alteration they thought fit in Church or
Justice is exactly kept VII And lastly Never to ingage themselves in the beginning of a Cause but reserve themselves unprejudged till the whole business be heard Then the Earl goes on and makes notes for Additional Defences reducible to these Heads I. The absolute innocence af his Explication in its true and genuine meaning from all crime or offence far more from the horrible Crimes libelled II. The impertinency and absurdity of His Majesty's Advocate 's Arguings for inferring the Crimes libelled from the Earl's words III. The reasonableness of the Exculpation IV. The Earl's Answers to the Advocate 's groundless Pretences for aggravating of his Case As to the first The Earl waving what hath been said from common Reason and Humanity it self and from the whole tenour and circumstances of his Life comes close to the point by offering that just and genuine Explanation of his Explication which you have above Num. 21. I have delayed hitherto to take the Oath appointed by the Parliament to be taken betwixt and the first of January next But now being required near two months sooner to take it this day peremptorily or to refuse I have considered the Test and have seen several Objections moved against it especially by many of the Orthodox Clergy notwithstanding whereof I have endeavoured to satisfy my self with a just Explication which I here offer that I may both satisfy my Conscience and obey Your Highness and your Lordships Commands in taking the Test though the Act of Parliament do not simply command the thing but only under a certification which I could easily submit to if it were with Your Highness's favour and might be without offence But I love not to be singular and I am very desirous to give obedience in this and every thing as far as I can and that which clears me is that I am confident whatever any man may think or say to the prejudice of this Oath the Parliament never intended to impose contradictory Oaths and because their sense they being the Framers and Imposers is the true sense and this Test enjoined is of no private interpretation nor are the King's Statutes to be interpreted but as they bear and to the intent they are made therefore I think no man that is no private Person can explain it for another to amuse or trouble him with it may be mistaken glosses But every man as he is to take it so is to explain it for himself and to endeavour to understand it notwithstanding all these Exceptions in the Parliament's which is its true and genuine sense I take it therefore notwithstanding any scruple made by any as far as it is consistent with it self and the Protestant Religion which is wholly in the Parliament's sense and their true meaning Which being present I am sure was owned by all to be the securing of the Protestant Religion founded on the Word of God and contained in the Confession of Faith recorded J. 6. p. 1. c. 4. And not out of Scruple as if any thing in the Test did import the contrair But to clear my self from Cavils as if thereby I were bound up further than the true meaning of the Oath I do declare That by that part of the Test that there lies lies no obligation on me c. I mean not to bind up my self in my station and in a lawful way still disclaiming all unlawful endeavours To wish and endeavour any alteration I think According to my Conscience to the advantage of Church or State not repugnant to the Protestant Religion and my Loyalty And by my Loyalty I understand no other thing than the words plainly bear to wit the duty and allegiance of all Loyal Subjects and this Explanation I understand as a part not of the Test or Act of Parliament but as a qualifying part of my Oath that I am to swear and with it I am willing to take the Test if your Royal Highness and your Lordships allow me Or otherwise in submission to your Highness and the Councils pleasure I am content to be held as a Refuser at present Which Explanation doth manifestly appear to be so just and true without violence or straining so clear and full without the least impertinency so notore and obvious to common sense without any Commentary so loyal and honest without ambiguity and lastly so far from all or any of the Crimes libelled that it most evidently evinceth that the words thereby explained are altogether innocent And therefore it were lost time to use any Arguments to enforce it Yet seeing this is no trial of wit but to find out common sense let us examine the Advocate 's fantastical Paraphrase upon which he bottoms all the alledged Crimes and see whether it agrees in one jot with the true and right meaning of the Earl's words and as you may gather from the Indictment it is plainly thus I have considered the Test which ought not to be done and am very desirous to give obedience as far as I can but am not willing to give full obedience I am confident the Parliament never intended to impose contradictory Oaths that is I am confident they did intend to impose contradictory Oaths and therefore I think no man can explain it but for himself that is to say every man may take it in any sense he pleases to devise and thereby render this Law and also all other Laws tho not at all concerned in this Affair useless and so make himself a Legislator and usurp the Supreme Authority And I take it in so far as it is consistent with it self and the Protestant Religion whereby I suppose that it is not at all consistent with either nor was ever intended by the Parliament it should be consistent And I declare that by taking this Test I mean not to bind up my self in my station and in a lawful way to wish or endeavour any alteration I think to the advantage of Church or State not repugnant to the Protestant Religion and my Loyalty Whereby I declare my self and all others free from all obligation to the Government either of Church or State as by Law established and from the duty and Loyalty of good Subjects Resolving of my self to alter all the Fundamentals both of Law and Religion as I shall think fit And this I understand as a part of my Oath that is as a part of the Act of Parliament by which I take upon me and usurp the Royal Legislative Power Which sense and Explanation as it consists of the Advocate 's own words and was indeed every word necessar to infer these horrible Crimes contained in the Indictment so to speak with all the modesty that truth will allow I am sure it is so violent false and absurd that the greatest difficulty must be to believe that any such thing was alledged far more received and sustained in judgment by Men professing only reason far less Religion But thirdly If neither the Earl's true genuine and honest sense nor this
violent corrupt and false sense will satisfy let us try what transprosing the Earl's Explanation will do and see how the just contrary will look And it must be thus I Have considered the Test nor am I at all desirous to give obedience so far as I can I am confident the Parliament intended to impose contradictory Oaths And therefore I think every man can explain it for others as well as for himself and take it without reconciling it either to it self or his own sense of it And I do take it tho it be inconsistent with it self and the Protestant Religion And I declare that I mean thereby to bind up my self never either in my station or in any lawful way whatsoever to wish or endeavour in the least any alteration tho to the advantage of Church or State and tho never so suitable and no way repugnant to the Protestant Religion and my Loyalty And tho this be the express quality of my Swearing yet I understand it to be no part of my Oath Now whether this contradictory Conversion be not Treason or highly Criminal at best I leave all the World to judge and to make both sides of a contradiction that is both the Affirmative and Negative of the same Proposition Treason is beyound ordinary Logick Escobar finds two contrary ways may both be probable and safe ways to go to Heaven but neither he nor the Devil himself have hitherto adventured to declare two contradictory Propositions both damnable and either of them a just cause to take away mens Lives Honours and Fortunes But where the Disease is in the Will it is lost labour to apply Remedies to the Understanding and must not this be indeed either the oddest Treason or strangest Discovery that ever was heard of The Bishop of Edinburgh sees it not witness his Vindication saying the same and more nor many of the Orthodox Clergy witness their Explanations nor his Royal Highness in private nor at first in Council nor all the Councellors when together at the Council-board nor the President of the Council nor the then President of the Session now Chancellor though he rose from his Seat to be sure to hear nor any of the most learned Lawyers witness their signed Opinion nor the most learned of the Judges on the Bench nor the generality of the knowing Persons either in Scotland or England wonderful Treason one day seen by none another day seen by so many A Stander-by hearing the Trial and the Sentence said He believed the Earl's words were by Popish Magick transubstantiate for he saw them the same as before Another answered that he verily thought it was so for he was confident none could see Treason in the words that would not when ever it was a proper time readily also profess his belief of Transubstantiation but he believed many that professed both believed neither The second Head of the Earl's Additional Defence contains the impertinencies and absurdities of the Advocate 's Arguings And here you must not expect any solid debate For as there is no disputing with those that deny Principles so as little with those who heap up phantastical and inconsequential Inferences without all shadow of reason If a Stone be thrown though it may do hurt yet having some weight it may be thrown back with equal or more force But if a man trig up a feather and fling it it is in vain to throw it back and the more strength the less success It shall therefore serve by a cursory Discourse to expose his Arguments which are in effect easier answered than understood and without any serious arguing which they cannot bear rather leave him to be wise in his own eyes than by too much empty talk hazard to be like him He alledges first That the Earl instead of taking the Test in its plain and genuine meaning as he ought doth declare against and defame the Act that enjoined it which is certainly a great Crime But now Inasmuch says the Advocate as he tells us That he had considered the Test Which I have indeed heard say was his greatest Crime and that he ought to have taken it with a profound and devout ignorance as some of our most inventive Politicians boasted they had done But the Earl says that he was desirous to give obedience as far as he could whereby says the Advocate he insinuates that he was not able to give full obedience This is not the meaning but what if it were and that indeed he could not Have not thousands given no obedience yet even in Law are guiltless And ought not that to please his Highness and the Council that is accepted of God Almighty and is all any Mortal can perform But the Earl says the Advocate goes on That he was confident the Parliament never intended to impose contradictory Oaths whereby says the Advocate he abuses the People with a belief that the Parliament did intend to impose such Wonderful reasoning All men know that Parliaments neither are nor pretend to be infallible And in our present Case hundreds of Loyal Subjects complain of Contradictions and Inconsistencies some way or other crept into this Oath And even the Council have yielded so far to their Exceptions as to make an alteration upon it for satisfying those scruples far beyond any thing the Earl said and such an alteration as I believe few dreamed of and I am certain none durst have attempted without their express command and authority and yet in the midst of all this the Earl's charitable and honest Opinion in behalf of the Parliaments good Intentions must be perverted to a direct slander But the Earl says That every man must explain it for himself and so no doubt he must if the Test be either in it self or in his apprehension ambiguous otherwise how can he swear in Judgment But this the Advocate will have to be a man 's own sense and thereupon runs out That hereby this Law and Oath and all Laws and Oaths are rendred useless and to no purpose And further the Legislative Power is taken from the Imposer and setled in the Taker of the Oath which certainly is a most treasonable presumption But first although there be no reason to strain or mistake the Expression yet the Earl did not say That every man must take the Test in his own sense II. The Council hath now explained the Test for the Clergy Might not then the Earl before their Explanation was devised say by the Councils allowance which he had That he might explain it for himself For if an ambiguous Proposition the Test for example may be reconciled to it self two different ways must not the Taker reconcile it as in his own sense he thinks it doth best agree with the genuine meaning of the words themselves and with the sense he conceives was intended by the Parliament that formed it especially before the Parliament emit their own Explanation And is it not juster to do it so than in any other
Religion swears nothing 5thly That he that declares himself not tied up by the Test from endeavouring in a lawful way such alterations as he thinks to the advantage of Church and State consistent with Religion and Loyalty declares himself and all others loosed from the Government and all duty to it and free to make any and all alterations that be pleases And 6thly That he that takes the Test with an explanation and holds it to be a part of his Oath invades the Legislative Power and makes Acts of Parliament Upon which rare and excellent Propositions I dare say The Earl is content according to the best Judgment that you and all unbiassed Men can make either of their Truth or of my ingenuity in excerping them to be adjudged Guilty or not Guilty without the least fear or apprehension of the issue And in the third and last place I shall only intreat you to try how the Advocate 's reasoning will proceed in other Cases and what brave work may be wrought by so useful a Tool Suppose then a Man refuse the Test simply or falls into any other kind of Non-conformity either Civil or Ecclesiastick or pays not the King's Custom or other dues or lastly understands an Act otherwise than the Advocate thinks he should Is not his Indictment already formed and his Process as good as made viz. That he regards not the Law That he thinks it is unjustly or foolishly Enacted That he will only obey as far as he can and as he pleases and thereby renders all Laws useless and so reproaches the King and Parliament and impugns their Authority and assumes to himself the Legislative Power and therefore is guilty of Leasing-making Depraving His Majesty's Laws and of Treason of which crimes above-mentioned or one or other of them he is Actor Art and Part Which being found by an Assize he ought to be punished with the pains of Death Forfaulture and Escheat of Lands and Goods to the terror of others to do or commit the like hereafter And if there be found a convenient Judge the poor Man is undoubtedly lost But Sir having drawn this Parallel rather to retrieve the Earl's Case than to make it a precedent which I hope it shall never be and chusing rather to leave the Advocate than follow him in his follies I forbear to urge it further These things considered must it not appear strange beyond expression how the Earl's Explanation such as it is did fall under such enormous and grievous misconstructions For setting aside the Councils allowance and approbation which comes to be considered under the next Head suppose the Earl or any other person called before the Council and there required to take the Test had in all due humility said either that he could not at all take it or at least not without an Explanation because the Test did contain such things as not noly he but many other and those the best of the Loyal and Orthodox Clergy did apprehend to be Contradictions and Inconsistencies And thereupon had proponed one or two such as the Papers above set down do plainly enough hold out and the Bishop in his Explanation rather evades than answers would it not be hard beyond all the measures of Equity and Charity to look upon this as a designed Reflection far more a malicious and wicked Slander and the blackest Treason We see the Act of Parliament doth not absolutely injoin the taking of the Test but only proposeth it to such as are intrusted in the Government with the ordinary certification either of losing or holding their Trusts at their option We know also that in Cases of this nature it is far more suitable both to our Christian Liberty and the respect we owe to a Christian Magistrate to give a reason of our conscientious non-compliance with meekness and fear than by a mute compearance to fall under the censure of a stubborn obstinacy And Iustly It is certain and may safely be affirmed without the least reproach that Parliaments are not infallible as witness the frequent changes and abrogations of their own Acts and their altering of Oaths imposed by themselves and even of this Oath after it was presented which the Earl was not for altering so much as it was done as I told you before How then can it be that the Earl appearing before a Christian Council and there declaring in terms at the worst a little obscure because too tender and modest his Scruples at an Oath presented to him either to be freely taken or refused should fall under any Censure If the Earl had in this occasion said he could not take the Test unless liberty were given him first to explain himself as to some Contradictions and Inconsistencies which he conceived to be in it tho he had said far more than is contained in his contraverted Explanation yet he had said nothing but what Christian Liberty hath often freely allowed and Christian Charity would readily construe for an honest expression of a commendable tenderness without any imputation of reproach against either King or Parliament How much more then is his part clear and innocent when albeit so many thought the Contradictions to be undeniable yet such was his well-tempered respect both to God and Man to his own Conscience and His Majesty's Authority that before and not after the taking of this Oath to clear himself in the midst of the many Exceptions and Scruples raised of all ambiguitles in swearing he first applies himself for a satisfying Explanation to the Parliament the prime Imposers their true intentions and genuine meaning and then gathering it very rationally from the Oath 's consistency with it self and with the Protestant Religion the Parliament's aim and scope and so asserting the King and Parliament's truth and honour he places the relief and quiet of his own Conscience in his taking the Test with this Explanation and in declaring its congruity with his Oath and duty of Allegiance The third Head of the Earl's additional Defences is the further clearing and improving of his grounds of Exculpation above adduced and repelled Which were first that before the Earl did offer his Explanation to the Council a great many Papers were spread abroad by some of the Orthodox Clergy charging the Test with Contradictions and Inconsistencies 2dly That there was a Paper penned by a Reverend Bishop and presented and read in Council and by them allowed to be printed which did contain the same and far more important things than any can be found in the Earl's Explanation And consequently far more obnoxious to all His Majesty's Advocate 's Accusations 3dly That the Explanation upon which he was indicted was publickly by himself declared in Council and by the Council allowed so that the Oath was administrat to him and he received to sit in Council and vote by his Highness and the rest of the Members with and under this express qualification But to all urged for the Earl's Exculpation the Advocate makes
him and it can give none to destroy its self and those it protects but the contrary Bracton in his Comments pag. 487. tells us Bracton p. 487. That although the Common Law doth allow many Prerogatives to the King yet it doth not allow any that He shall wrong or hurt any by His Prerogative Therefore 't is well said by a late Worthy Author upon this point That what Power or Prerogative the Kings have in Them ought to be used according to the true and genuine intent of the Government that is for the Preservation and Interest of the People And not for the disappointing the Councils of a Parliament towards reforming Grievances and making provision for the future Execution of the Laws and whenever it is applied to frustrate those ends it is a Violation of Right and Infringement of the King's Coronation Oath who is obliged to Pass or Confirm those Laws His People shall cluse And tho he had such a Prerogative by Law yet it should not be so used especially in time of Eminent danger and distress The late King in His Advice to His Majesty that now is in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 239. Tells him That his Prerogative is best shewed and exercised in Remitting rather than exacting the Rigor of the Laws there being nothing worse than Legal Tyranny Nor would he have him entertain any Aversion or Dislike of Parliaments The Late King's advice to His Majesty which in their right Constitution with freedom and Honour will never Injure or Diminish His Greatness but will rather be as interchangings of Love Loyalty and Confidence between a Prince and His people It is true some Flatterers and Traytors have presumed in defiance to their Countries Rights to assert that such a boundless Prerogative belongs to Kings As did Chief Justice Trisilian c. in R. 2â—s time Advising him that he might Dissolve Parliaments at pleasure and that no Member should be called to Parliament nor any Act past in either House without His Approbation in the first place and that whoever advis'd otherwise were Traytors But this Advice you read was no less fatal to himself than pernicious to his Prince Bakers Chron. p. 147 148 and 159. King James in His Speech to the Parliament 1609. Gives them assurance That he never meant to Govern by any Law but the Law of the Land tho it be disputed among them as if he had an intention to alter the Law and Govern by the absolute power of a King but to put them out of doubt in that matter tells them That all Kings who are not Tyrants or Perjured will bound themselves within the limits of their Laws And they that persuade the contrary are Vipers and Pests both against them and the Commonwealth Wilson K. J. p. 46. The Conclusion 1. IF this be so That by so great Authority viz. so many Statutes in force The sundamental of the Common Law the Essentials of the Government it self Magna Charta The King's Coronation Oath so many Laws of God and Man The Parliament ought ro sit to Redress Grievances and provide for Common Safety especially in times of Common Danger And that this is eminently so who can doubt that will believe the King so many Parliaments The Cloud of Witnesses the Publick Judicatures their own sense and experience of the manifold Mischiefs which have been acted and the apparent Ruine and Confusion that impends the Nation by the restless Attempts of a bloody Interest if speedy Remedy is not applied Then let it be Queried Whether the People having thus the Knife at the Throat Cities and Habitations Fired and therein their Persons fried Invasions and Insurrections threatned to Destroy the King and Subjects Church and State and as so lately told us upon Mr. Fitz Harris's Commitment the present Design on Foot was to Depose and Kill the King and their only remedy hoped for under God to give them relief Relief thus from time time cut off viz. Their Parliaments who with so much care cost and pains are Elected sent up and Intrusted for their help turned off ré infecta and rendred so insiguificant by those frequent Prorogations and Dissolutions Are they not therefore justified in their important Cries in their many Humble Petitions to their King Fervent Addresses to their Members earnest Claims for this their Birth-right here Pleaded which the Laws of the Kingdom consonant to the Laws of God and Nature has given them 2. If so what then shall be said to those who advise to this high Violation of their Countries Rights to the infringing so many just Laws and exposing the Publick to those desperate hazards if not a total Ruine If King Alfred as Andrew Horne in his Mirror of Justice tells us hanged Darling Segnor Cadwine Cole and Forty Judges more for Judging contrary to Law and yet all those false Judgments were but in particular and private Cases What death do those Men deserve who offer this violence to the Law it self and all the Sacred Rights of their Country If the Lord Chief Justice Thorp in Ed. 3d's time for receiving the Bribery of One hundred pounds was adjudged to be Hanged as one that had made the King break his Oath to the People How much more guilty are they of making the King break His Coronation Oath that persuade him to Act against all the Laws for holding Parliaments and passing Laws therein which he is so solemnly sworn to do And if the Lord Chief Justice Tresilian was Hanged Drawn and Quartered for Advising the King to Act contrary to some Statutes only What do those deserve that advise the King to Act not only against some but against all these Ancient Laws and Statutes of the Realm And if Blake the King's Council but for assisting in the matter and drawing up Indictments by the King's Command contrary to Law tho it is likely he might Plead the King's Order for it yet if he was Hang'd Drawn and Quartered for that What Justice is due to them that assist in the Total Destruction of all the Laws of the Nation and as much in them lies their King and Country too And if Vsk the under-Sheriff whose Office is to Execute the Laws for but endeavouring to aid Tresilian Blake and their Accomplices against some of the Laws was also with Five more Hang'd Drawn and Quartered What punishment may they deserve that Aid and endeavour the Subversion of all the Laws of the Kingdom And if Empson and Dudley in Henry the Eighth's time tho two of the King 's Privy Council were Hanged for Procuring and Executing an Act of Parliament contrary to the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and to the great vexation of the People so that tho they had an Act of Parliament of their side yet that Act being against the known Laws of the Land were Hang'd as Traytors for putting that Statute in Execution Then what shall become of those who have no such Act to shelter themselves under and who
for Instances of his guilt If then all his private Papers and Notes to help his Memory in his Plea and Defence shall be taken from him by the Gaoler or the Court and given to his Prosecutors And all Advice and Assistance from Councils or Friends and his nearest Relations shall be denied him and none suffered by word or writing to inform him of the indifferency or honesty or the partiality or malice of the Pannels returned whom the Law allows him to challenge or refuse either peremptorily or for good Reasons offered should he be thus deprived of all the good provisions of the Law for his safety To what Frauds Perjuries and Subornations is not he and every man Exposed who may be accused What Deceits may there not be put upon Juries and what Probability is there of finding Security in Innocence What an admirable Execution would this be of their Commission To make diligent Inquisition after all manner of Falshoods Deceipts Wrongs and Frauds and thereupon to do Justice according to Law When at the same Time if so Managed a Method would be introduced of ruining and destroying any Man in the form of Justice Such practices would be the highest dishonour to the King imaginable whose name is used and so far Misrepresent the Kingly Office as to make that appear to have been Erected to vex and destroy the People which was intended and ordained to help and preserve them The Law so far abhors such proceedings that it intends that every Man should be strictly bound to be exactly just in their several Imployments relating to the Execution of Justice The Serjeant of the King's Council Sir George Jefferys among the rest who prosecute in the King's name and are consulted in the forming Bills of Indictment and advise about the Witnesses and their Testimonies against the Accused These if they would remember it when they are made Serjeants take an Oath Cokes 2d Institutes Pag. 214. as well and truly to serve the People whereof the party accused is one as the King himself and to minister the King's matters duely and truly after the course of the Law to their Cunning Not to use their Cunning and Craft to hide the Truth and destroy the accused if they can They are also obliged by the Statute of Westm 1. Cap. 29. To put no manner of Deceit or Collusion upon the King's Court nor secretly to consent to any such Tricks as may abuse or beguile the Court or the party be it in Causes Civil or Criminal And it is ordained that if any of them be convicted of such practices he shall be imprisoned for a year and never be heard to plead again in any Court and if the Mischievous consequence of their Treacheries be great they are Subject to further and greater punishments Our Antient Law Book called the Miror of Justice Cap. 2. Sect. 4. says That every Serjeant Pleader is chargeable by his Oath not to maintain or defend any Wrong or Falshood to his Knowledge but shall leave his Client when he shall perceive the wrong intended by him Also that he shall not move or proffer any false Testimony nor consent to any Lyes Deceits or Corruptions whatsoever in his pleadings As a further Security unto the People against all Attempts upon their Laws Exemplary Justice hath been done in several Ages upon such Judges and Justiciaries as through Corruption Submission unto unjust Commands or any other Sinister consideration have dared to swerve from them The punishments of these wicked Men remain upon Record as Monuments of their Infamy to be a Terror unto all that shall succeed them In the Reign of the Saxons the most notable Example was given by King Alfred who caus'd above forty Judges to be hanged in a Short Space for several wrongs done to the People as is related in the Mirror of Justice Some of them suffered for imposing on Juries and forcing them to give Verdicts according to their will And one as it seems had taken the Confidence to examine a Jury that he might find which of them would Submit to his Will and setting aside him who would not condemned a Man upon the Verdict of Eleven Since the Coming of the Normans our Parliaments have not been less severe against such Judges as have suffered the course of Justice to be perverted or the Rights and Liberties of the People to be invaded In the time of Edward the 1st Anno 1289. The Parliament finding That all the Judges except Two had swerv'd from their duty condemned them to several punishments according unto their Crimes Ex Chron. Anno 10. Ed. 1. ad finem As Banishment Perpetual Imprisonment or the loss of all their Estates c. Their Particular Offences are specified in a Speech made by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in Parliament They had broken Magna Charta Incited the King against his People Violated the Laws under pretence of expounding them and impudently presumed to prefer their own Councils to the King before the Advices of Parliament as appears by the speech c. Hereunto annext The like was done in Ed. the 2d Time when Hugh De Spencer was charged for having prevailed with the King to break his Oath to the People in doing Things against the Law by his own Authority In Edward the 3d. Time Judge Thorpe was hang'd for having in the like manner brought the King to break his Oath Dan. History p. 260 261. And the happy Reign of that great King affords many Instances of the like nature amongst which the punishment of Sir Henry Green and Sir William Skipwith deserve to be observed and put into an Equal Rank with those of his brave and victorious Grand-father In Richard the Second's Time Eleven of the Judges See all the English Histories of Walsingham Fabian Speed c. in the 11 and 12 years of Richard II. forgetting the dreadful Punishments of their Predecessors subscrib'd malicious Indictments against Law and gave false Interpretations of our Ancient Laws to the King thereby to bring many of his most Eminent and worthiest Subjects to suffer as Traytors at his Will Subjected the Authority and very Being of Parliaments to his absolute pleasure And made him believe that all the Laws lay in his own breast Hereupon sentence of death passed upon them and tho upon their repentance and confessing they had been swayed by fear and threatnings from the King Two only were Executed all the others were for ever banished as unworthy to enjoy the benefit of that Law which they had so perfidiously and basely betrayed It were an Endless work to recite all the Examples of this kind that are found in our Histories and Records but that of Empson and Dudley must not be omitted They had craftily contriv'd to abolish Grand Juries and to draw the Lives and Estates of the People into question without Indictments by them and by surprise and other wicked practices they gained an Act of Parliament for their countenance Hereupon
and Properties are unable to protect us And may not such fears rob the King of his greatest Treasure and Strength the Peoples hearts when they dare not rely upon him in his Kingly Office and trust for safety and protection by the Laws Our English History affords many instances of those that have pretended to serve our King in this manner by undermining the Peoples Right and Liberties whose practices have sometimes proved of fatal consequence to the Kings themselves but more frequently ended in their own destruction But after all imagining it could be made out that this Method of private Examinations by a Grand Jury which from what has been said before hath appeared to be so extremely necessary for the publick good and to every private man's security were inconvenient or mischievous and therefore fit to be changed yet being so Essential a part of the Common Law it is no otherwise alterable than by Parliament We find by Presidents that the bare forms of Indictments could not be reformed by the Judges The words Depopulatores agrorum Insidiator es viarum Vi Armis Baculis Cultellis Arcubus sagittis could not be left out but by advice of the Kingdom in Parliament A Writ issued in the time of K. Ed. 3. giving power to hear and determine Offences and all the Justices resolved Cok. 4. Inst Pag. 164. That they could not lawfully act having their Authority by Writ where they ought to have had it by Commission Tho' it was in the form and words that the Legal Commission ought to be John Knivett Chief Justice by Advice of all the Judges resolved that the said Writ was Contra Legem And where divers Indictments were before them found against T.S. the same and all that was done by colour of that Writ was Damned If in such seeming little Things as these and many others that may be instanced the Wisdom of the Nation hath not thought fit to intrust the Judges but reserved the Consideration of them to the Legislative Power It cannot be imagined that they should subject to the discretion and pleasure of the Judges those important Points in the Established course of the administring Justice whereupon depends the safety of all the Subjects Lives and Fortunes If Judges will take upon themselves to alter the constant practice they must either alter the Oath of the Grand Jury or continue it If they should alter it so as to make it sail with any such new Method and thus in appearance charitably provide that the Grand Jury should not take a mock Oath or forswear themselves they then make an incroachment upon the Authority of Parliaments who only can make new or change old Legal Oaths and all the proceedings thereupon would be void If they should continue constantly to impose the same Oath as well when they have notice from the King that the Jury shall not be bound to keep his Secrets and their own as when they have none they must assume to make the same form of Law to be of force and no force and the same words to bind the Conscience as they will have them whereby they would prophane the Natural Religion of an Oath and bring a foul scandal upon Christianity by trifling worse than Heathens in that sacred matter and whilst the Judges find themselves under the necessity of administring the Oath unto Grand Juries and not suffer them to observe it according unto their Consciences they would confess the illegality of their own Proceedings and can never be able to repair the Breaches by pretending a tacite Implication if the King will but must unavoidably fall under that approved Maxim of our Law Maledicta est Interpretatio quae corrumpit Textum It is a Cursed Interpretation that dissolves the Text. There are Two Vulgar Errours concerning the duty of Grand Juries which if not removed will in time destroy all the benefit we can expect from that Constitution by turning them into a meer matter of form which were designed for so great Ends. Many have of late thought and affirmed it for Law that the Grand Jury is neither to make so strict inquiry into matters before them nor to look for so clear Evidence of the Crime as the Petit Jury but that of their Presentments being to pass a second Examination they ought to Indict upon a superficial Inquiry and bare probabilities Whereas should either of these Opinions be admitted the prejudice to the Subject would be equal to the total laying aside Grand Juries there being in truth no difference between arraigning without any Presentment from them at all and their Presenting upon slight grounds For the first that Grand Juries ought not to make so strict Inquiry it were to be wisht that we might know how it comes to pass that an Oath should be obligatory unto a Petit Jury and not unto the Grand Or in what Points they may lawfully and with good Conscience omit that Exactness whether in relation to the Witnesses and their credibility Or the fact and all its circumstances Or the Testimony and its weight Or lastly in reference to the Prisoner and Probability of his guilt And withal upon what grounds of Law or Reason their Opinion is founded On the contrary he that will consider either the Oath they take or the Commission where their duty is described will find in all Points that there lies an equal Obligation upon them and the Petit Juries They swear diligently to inquire and true Presentment make c. and to Present the Truth the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth c. And in the Commission of Oyer and Terminer their duty with that of the Commissioners is thus described Ad Inquirendum per Sacramentum Proborum legalium hominum c. per quos rei veritas melius sciri poterit de quibuscunque proditionibus c. confoederationibus Falsis allegantiis nec non Accessoriis Eorundem c. per quoscunque qualitercunque habit fact perpetrat sive Commiss Et per quos Et per quem cui vel quibus quando qualiter vel quomodo de aliis articulis Circumstantiis praemis eorum aliquod vel aliqua qualitercunque concernen To inquire by the Oath of honest and lawful Men c. By whom the Truth of the matter may be best known of all manner of Treasons c. Confederacies false Testimonies c. As also the Accessories c. by whomsoever or howsoever done perpetrated or committed by whom or to whom how in what way or in what manner And of other Articles and Circumstances premised and of any other Thing or Things howsoever concerning the same Now for any Man after this to maintain that Grand Juries are not to inquire or not carefully is as much as in plain terms to say they are bound to act contrary to the Commission and their Oath And to affirm that they can discharge their duty according to the Obligations of Law and Conscience which they
Land to cut off these workers of Iniquity whose Religion is Rebellion whose Faith is Faction whose practice is murthering of Souls and Bodies and to root them out of the Confines of this Kingdom VII All the Judges of England are bound by their Oath 18 Edw. III. 20 Edw. III. Cap. 1.2 and by the duty of their place to disobey all Writs Letters or Commands which are brought to them either under the little Seal or under the great Seal to hinder or delay common Right Are the Judges all bound in an Oath and by their places to break the 13 of the Romans VIII The Engagement of the Lords attending upon the King at York June 13. 1642. which was subscribed by the Lord Keeper and Thirty Nine Peers besides the Lord Chief-Justice Banks and several others of the Privy-Council was in these words We do engage our selves not to Obey any Orders or Commands whatsoever not warranted by the known Laws of the Land Was this likewise an Association against the 13 of the Romans IX A Constable represents the King's person and in the Execution of his Office is within the purview of the 13 of the Romans as all Men grant but in case he so far pervert his Office as to break the Peace and commit Murther Burglary or Robbery on the Highway he may and ought to be Resisted X. The Law of the Land is the best Expositor of the 13 of the Romans Here and in Poland the Law of the Land There XI The 13 of the Romans is receiv'd for Scripture in Poland and yet this is expressed in the Coronation Oath in that Country Quod si Sacramentum meum violavero Incola Regni nullam nobis Obedientiam praestare tenebuntur And if I shall violate my Oath the Inhabitants of the Realm shall not be bound to yield me any Obedience XII The Law of the Land according to Bracton is the highest of all the Higher Powers mentioned in this Text for it is superior to the King and made him King Lib. 3. Cap. 26. Rex habet superiorum Deum item Legem per quam factus est Rex item Curiam suam viz. Comites Barones and therefore by this Text we ought to be subject to it in the first place And according to Melancthon It is the Ordinance of God to which the Higher Powers themselves ought to be subject Vol. 3. In his Commentary on the Fifth Verse Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake He hath these words Neque vero haec tantum pertinent ad Subditos sed etiam ad Magistratum qui cum fiunt Tyranni non minus dissipant Ordinationem Dei quam Seditiosi Ideo ipsorum Conscientia fit rea quia non obediunt Ordinationi Dei id est Legibus quibus debent parere Ideo Comminationes hic positae etiam ad ipsos pertinent Itaque hujus mandati severitas moveat omnes ne violationem Politici status putent esse leve peccatum Neither doth this place concern Subjects only but also the Magistrates themselves who when they turn Tyrants do no less overthrow the Ordinance of God than the Seditious and therefore their Consciences too are guilty for not obeying the Ordinance of God that is the Laws which they ought to obey So that the Threatnings in this place do also belong to them wherefore let the severity of this Command deter all men from thinking the Violation of the Political Constitution to be a light Sin Corollary To destroy the Law and Legal Constitution which is the Ordinance of God by false and arbitrary Expositions of this Text is a greater Sin than to destroy it by any other means For it is Seething the Kid in his Mothers Milk CHAP. IV. Of LAWS I. THere is no Natural Obligation wereby one Man is bound to yield Obedience to another but what is founded in paternal or patriarchal Authority II. All the Subjects of a patriarchal Monarch are Princes of the Blood III. All the people of England are not Princes of the Blood IV. No Man who is Naturally Free can be bound but by his own Act and Deed. V. Publick Laws are made by publick consent and they therefore bind every man because every man's consent is involved in them VI. Nothing but the same Authority and Consent which made the Laws can Repeal Alter or Explain them VII To judge and determine Causes against Law without Law or where the Law is obscure and uncertain is to assume Legislative power VIII Power assumed without a Man's consent cannot bind him as his own Act and Deed. IX The Law of the Land is all of a piece and the same Authority which made one Law made all the rest and intended to have them all Impartially Executed X. Law on One Side is the Back-Sword of Justice XI The Best Things when Corrupted are the Worst and the wild Justice of a State of Nature is much more desirable than Law perverted and over-rul'd into Hemlock and Oppression Copies of Two Papers Written by the Late King CHARLES II. Published by His MAJESTIES Command Printed in the Year 1686. The First Paper THE Discourse we had the other Day I hope satisfied you in the main that Christ can have but one Church here upon Earth and I believe that it is as visible as that the Scripture is in Print That none can be that Church but that which is called the Roman Catholick Church I think you need not trouble your self with entring into that Ocean of particular Disputes when the main and in truth the only Question is Where that Church is which we profess to believe in the two Creeds We declare there to believe one Catholick and Apostolick Church and it is not left to every phantastical man's head to believe as he pleases but to the Church to whom Christ left the power upon Earth to govern us in matters of Faith who made these Creeds for our Directions It were a very Irrational thing to make Laws for a Country and leave it to the Inhabitants to be the Interpreters and Judges of those Laws For then every man will be his own Judge and by consequence no such thing as either right or wrong Can we therefore suppose that God Almighty would leave us at those uncertainties as to give us a Rule to go by and to leave every man to be his own Judge I do ask any ingenuous man whether it be not the same thing to follow our own Fancy or to interpret the Scripture by it I would have any man shew me where the power of deciding matters of Faith is given to every particular man Christ left his power to his Church even to forgive Sins in Heaven and left his Spirit with them which they exercised after his Resurrection First by his Apostles in these Creeds and many years after by the Council at Nice where that Creed was made that is called by that name and by the power which they
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
Laws a Penalty in any one particular Law can have no effect but what is precarious It may have a loud Voice to threaten but it has not an Hand to give a Blow for as long as the Governing Power is in possession of this Prerogative let who will chuse the Meat if they chuse the Cooks it is they that will give the Taste to it So that it is clear that the Rigor of a Penalty will not in all cases fix a Bargain neither is it universally a true Position that the Increase of Punishment for the Breach of a new Law is an Equivalent for the Consent to part with an old one XVIII In most Bargains there is a Reference to the time to come which is therefore to be considered as well as that which cometh within the Compass of the present Valuation Where the Party contracting hath not a full Power to dispose what belongeth on him or them in Reversion who shall succeed after him in his Right he cannot make any part of what is so limited to be the Condition of the Contract Further he cannot enjoyn the Heir or Successor to forbear the Exercise of any Right that is inherent to him as he is a Man neither can he restrain him without his own Consent from doing any Act which in it self is lawful and liable to no Objection For Example a Father cannot stipulate with any other Man that in Consideration of such a thing done or to be done his Son shall never Marry because Marriage is an Institution established by the Laws of God and Man and therefore no Body can be so restrained by any Power from doing such an Act when he thinketh fit being warranted by a Authority that is not to be controuled XIX Now as there are Rights inherent in Mens Persons in their single Capasities there are Rights as much fixed to the Body Politick which is a Creature that never dieth For instance There can be no Government without a Supream Power that Power is not always in the same Hands it is in different Shapes and Dresses but still where ever it is Lodged it must be unlimited It hath â—â—â—risdiction over every thing else but it cannot have it above it self Supream Power can be no more limited than Infinity can be measured because it ceaseâ—h to be the thing it s very being is dissolved when any bounds can be put to it Where this Supreme Power is mixed or divided the shape only differeth the Argument is still the same The present State of Venice cannot restrain those who succeed them in the same power from having an entire and unlimited Sovereignty they may indeed make present Laws which shall retrench their present Power if they are so disposed and those Laws if not repealed by the same Authority that enacted them are to be observed by the succeeding Senate till they think fit to abrogate them and no longer for if the Supreme Power shall still reside in the Senate perhaps composed of other Men or of other minds which will be sufficient the necessary consequence is that one Senate must have as much right to alter such a Law as another could have to make it XX. Suppose the Supreme Power in any State should make a Law to enjoyn all subsequent Law-makers to take an Oath never to alter it it would produce these following Absurdities First All Supreme Power being instituted to promote the safety and benefit and to prevent the prejudice and danger which may fall upon those who live under the protection of it the consequence of such an Oath would be that all Men who are so trusted shall take God to witness that such a Law once made being judged at the time to be advantagious for the publick though afterwards by the vicissitude of times or the variety of accidents or interests it should plainly appear to them to be destructive they will suffer it to have its course and will never repeal it Secondly If there could in any Nation be found a set of Men who having a part in the Supreme Legislative Power should as much as in them lieth betray their Country by such a criminal engagement so directly opposite to the nature of their Power and to the Trust reposed in them If these Men have their power only for life when they are dead such an Oath can operate no farther and though that would be too long a Lease for the Life of such a Monster as an Oath so composed yet it must then certainly give up the Ghost It could Bind none but the first makers of it another generation would never be tied up by it Thirdly In those Countries where the Supreme Assemblies are not constant standing Courts but called together upon occasions and composed of such as the People chuse for that time only with a Trust and Character that remaineth no longer with them than that Assembly is regularly dissolved such an Oath taken by the Members of a Senate Diet or other Assembly so chosen can have very little effect because at the next meeting there may be quite another set of Men who will be under no Obligation of that kind The Eternity intended to that Law by those that made it will be cut off by new Men who shall succeed them in their power if they have a differing Taste or another Interest XXI To put it yet further Suppose a Clause in such a Law that it shall be criminal in the last degree for any Man chosen in a subsequent Assembly to propose the repealing it and since nothing can be Enacted which is not yet first proposed by this means it seemeth as if a Law might be created which should never die But let this be Examined First Such a Clause would be so destructive to the being of such a Constitution as that it would be as reasonable to say that a King had right to give or sell his Kingdom to a Foreign Prince as that any number of Men who are intrusted with the Supreme Power or any part of it should have a right to impose such shackles upon the Liberty of those who are to succeed them in the same Trust The ground of that Trust is that every Man who is chosen into such an Assembly is to do all that in him lieth for the good of those who chose him The English of such a Clause would be that he is not to do his best for those that chose him because though he should be convinc'd that it might be very fatal to continue that Law and therefore very necessary to repeal it yet he must not repeal it because it is made a Crime and attended with a Penalty But secondly to shew the emptiness as well as injustice of such a Clause it is clear that although such an Invasion of Right should be imposed it will never be obeyed There will only be Deformity in the Monster it will neither sting nor bite Such Law-givers would only have the honour of attempting a contradiction
has been formerly thought the whole Constitution of this Church and Kingdom which we dare not do till we have the Authority of Parliament for it It is to recommend to our People the Choice of such Persons to sit in Parliament as shall take away the Test and Penal Laws which most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation have declared their Judgment against It is to condemn all those great and worthy Patriots of their Country who forfeited the dearest thing in the World to them next a good Conscience viz. The Favour of their Prince and a great many honorable and profitable Employments with it rather than consent to that Proposal of taking away the Test and Penal Paws which they apprehend destructive to the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and he who can in Conscience do all this I think need scruple nothing For let us consider further what the Effects and Consequences of our Reading the Declaration are likely to be and I think they are Matter of Conscience too when they are evident and apparent This will certainly render our Persons and Ministry infinitely contemptible which is against that Apostolical Canon Let no Man despise thee Titus 2.15 That is so to behave himself in his Ministereal Office as not to fall under Contempt and therefore this obliges the Conscience not to make our selves ridiculous nor to render our Ministry our Counsels Exhortations Preaching Writing of no Effect which is a thousand times worse than being silenced Our Sufferings will preach more effectually to the People when we cannot speak to them but he who for Fear or Cowardise or the Love of this World betrays his Church and Religion by undue Compliances and will certainly be thought to do so may continue to Preach but to no purpose and when we have rendred our selves ridiculous and contemptible we shall then quickly fall and fall unpitied There is nothing will so effectually tend to the final Ruine of the Church of England because our Reading the Declaration will discourage or provoke or misguide all the Friends the Church of England has can we blame any Man for not preserving the Laws and the Religion of our Church and Nation when we our selves will venture nothing for it Can we blame any Man for consenting to Repeal the Test and Penal Laws when we recommend it to them by Reading the Declaration Have we not reason to expect that the Nobility and Gentry who have already suffered in this Cause when they hear themselves condemned for it in all the Churches of England will think it time to mend such a Fault and reconcile themselves to their Prince and if our Church fall this way is there any reason to expect that it should ever rise again These Consequences are almost as evident as Demonstrations and let it be what it will in it self which I foresee will destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and Interest I think I ought to make as much Conscience of doing it as of doing the most immortal Action in Nature To say that these mischievous Consequences are not absolutely necessary and therefore do not affect the Conscience because we are not certain they will follow is a very mean Objection Moral Actions indeed have not such necessary Consequences as natural Causes have necessary Effects because no moral Causes act necessarily Reading the Declaration will not as necessarily destroy the Church of England as Fire burns Wood but if the Consequence be plain and evident the most likely thing that can happen if it be unreasonable to expect any other if it be what is plainly intended and designed either I must never have any regard to Moral Consequences of my Actions or if ever they are to be considered they are in this case Why are the Nobility and Gentry so extreamly averse to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws Why do they forfeit the King's Favour and their Honourable Stations rather than comply with it If you say that this tends to destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion I ask whether this be the necessary consequence of it whether the King cannot keep his promise to the Church of England if the Test and Penal Laws be Repealed We cannot say but this may be And yet the Nation does not think fit to try it and we commend those great men who deny it and if the same questions were put to us we think we ought in Conscience to deny them our selves And are there not as high probabilities that our Reading the Declaration will promote the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws as that such a Repeal will ruine our Constitution and bring in Popery upon us Is it not as probable that such a complyance in us will disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry who have hitherto been firm to us as that when the power of the Nation is put into Popish Hands by the Repeal of such Tests and Laws the Priests and Jesuirs may find some salvo for the King's Conscience and perswade him to forget his Promise to the Church of England and if the probable ill consequences of Repealing the Test and Penal Laws be a good reason not to comply with it I cannot see but that the as probable ill consequences of Reading the Declaration is as good a reason not to read it The most material Objection is that the Dissenters whom we ought not to provoke will expound our not Reading it to be the effect of a persecuting Spirit Now I wonder Men should lay any weight on this who will not allow the most probable consequences of our Actions to have any influence upon Conscience For if we must compare consequences to disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry by reading it is likely to be much more fatal than to anger the Diffenters and it is more likely and there is much more reason for it that one should be offended than the other For the Dissenters who are wise and considering are sensible of the snare themselves and though they desire Ease and Liberty they are not willing to have it with such apparent hazard of Church and State I am sure that tho' we were never so desirous that they might have their Liberty and when there is opportunity of shewing our inclinations without danger they may find that we are nations without danger they may find that we are not such Persecutors as we are represented yet we cannot consent that they should have it this way which they will find the dearest Liberty that ever was granted This Sir is our Case in short the Difficulties are great on both sides and therefore now if ever we ought to besiege Heaven with our Prayers for Wisdom and Counsel and Courage that God would protect his Church and Reformed Christianity against all the devices of their Enemies Which is the daily and hearty Prayer of SIR Your Friend and Brother May 22. 1â—88 POSTSCRIPT I Have just now seen H. Care 's Paper
called The Publick Occurrences which came out to day and cannot but set you right as to his News about the Reading of the Declaration on Sunday He tells you That several Divines of the Church of England in and about this City eminent for their Piety and Moderation did yesterday Read his Majesties late Declaration in their Churches according to the Order in that behalf but some to the great surprize of their Parishoners were pleased to decline it You in the Country are from this Account to believe that it was Read here by the generality of the Clergie and by the eminent Men among them But I can and do assure you that this is one of the most impudent Lyes that ever was Printed For as to this City which hath above a Hundred Parishes in it it was Read only in Four or Five Churches all the rest and best of the Clergy refusing it every where I will spare their Names who read it but should I mention them it would make you who knows this City a little heartily to deride H. C's Account of them And for the Surprize he talks of the contrary of it is so true that in Woodstreet where it was read by one Dr. M. the People generally went out of the Church This I tell you that you may be provided for the future against such an Impudent Lyar who for Bread 〈…〉 and put about the Nation the falfest of things I am Yours AN ANSWER To the City Minister's LETTER from his Country Friend SIR IT is not for me now to acknowledge my private Debt to you for the favour of your Letter since the publick is as much concern'd in it as I and if I may judge of all by the compass of my Neighbourhood and Acquaintance I may assure you they are not insensible of your Obligation though they are ignorant of the Author The Country as far as my Intelligence reaches has followed the Example of the City and refused to read the Declaration of Indulgence according to a certain Order said to be the Kings which we in the Country can scarce believe to be His. For it has neither been signified to the Ordinaries according to the usual manner nor could those that dispersed it give any Account whence it came to them I have heard indeed that an Act of Council concerning it has been published in the Gazette which I never saw and if I had I should scarce have thought Authentick For I always took that Paper as for its Authority to have been all of a piece and that we were no more bound to take notice of any Order published there under any penalty than we are to believe all the News from Poland or Constantinople Nay though this Order had come to us in due form yet had we had great reason to suspect something of surreption and surprize upon his Majesty in this matter and that it could not proceed from his Majesty's free and full consent for we cannot yet forget his repeated professions of kindness to us and of satisfaction in our Principles and Duty and having done nothing since which might forfeit his goed Opinion we are unwilling to believe that it is His Majesties own mind and pleasure to loud us with such an Order as we cannot execute with any congruity safety or good Conscience I. As to his Majesties Declaration We of all his Majesties Subjects are the least concern'd in it and with all duty be it spoken we cannot see that our legal Establishment receives any Addition by this Declaration For there are yet thanks be to God no Penal Laws to which our Congregations are obnoxious and therefore we do not stand in need of any Toleration Yet it is upon us only that the Reading of it is imposed An Act which cannot well be construed otherwise than as a soliciting and tempting our own people to forsake our Communion If this Declaration must needs be read in any Religious Assemblies ' in reason surely it should be in those who wholly owe their substance to it It would better have become the Roman than the Protestan Chappels But in the Koman Church Indulgence hath another signification and belongs to those only that frequent their Churches but not to such as leave them for with them this is the only sin that is not capable of Indulgence But the Priests desire to be excus'd lest while they proclaim Toleration to others they bring an Interdict upon themselves Or why I pray was not Father Pen Ordered to publish it in his Meetings Or the worthy Mr. Lob the reputed Father of this Project why had not he the benefit of his own Invention and a Patent for being the sole Publisher of it within his own Pound Or why was not my Lord Mayor's private and elect Congregation thought worthy of so great a grace Surely it is not to draw upon us the envy of the Distenters that the honour of publishing this Declaration is impos'd upon us alone when it belongs to all other Communions in the Kingdom except our own And it we refuse it I hope it will be imputed to our Modesty for we are not ambitious of being impertinent or busie bodies in other mens matters A certain person much greaten than he deserves but perhaps not so high is said to have used the Words of Rabshaketh upon this occasion That the Church of England Clergy should eat their own Dung Isa 36.12 This sentence might better have become a Messenger of the King of Affyria than a pretended Counsellour of our own Prince though some make a question to which King he belongs But God be thanked we are not yet so straitly besieg'd as to be reduc'd to that extremity and though by the permission of God We should be reduc'd to so miserable a Condition We should I hope by the Grace of God be content to endure that and worse extremities if possible rather than Betray or Surrender the City of God But before that comes it is possible that the Throat that belch'd out this Nasty Insolence may be stopp'd with something which it cannot swallow II. Besides there are some passages in the Declaration which in Conscience we cannot read to our People though it be in the King's Name for among others we are to Read these Words We cannot but heartily wish as will easily be believed that all the People of our Dominions were Members of the Catholick Church Our People know too well the English of this and could not but be strangely surpriz'd to hear us tell them that it would be an acceptable thing to the King that they should leave the Truth and our Communion and turn Papists The Wish of a King when solemnly Declared is no light insignificant thing but has real influence and effect upon the minds of Men. It was but a Wish of Henry the Second that cut off F. Becket then Archbishop of Canterbury Councils and Courts of Justice too often bend to a King's Wishes though against their own
ordinary capacity needs not put his Natural Talent on the Rack to refute them The very first position of the paper viz. That Ireland is in a better way of Thriving under the Government of a Native than an Englishman by which I suppose you mean one not barely so by Birth but by Inclination Interest Education Religion c. is so false that it contradicts the Experience and Reason of Mankind and disgusts one so much in the front of the Letter that I was tempted to fling it away unread judging it not worth the loss of so much time if the rest should prove of the same kind as indeed I found it upon perusal but having ventured through it I looked upon my self obliged to say something by way of Answer since in the opinion of some sort of Men the not Answering though even the most trifling Pamphlet is given out to be the Inability of the party to reply to the weight of such Arguments as are contained in it I will not insist much upon the constant practice of all the predecessors of our English Kings and their Counsellors ever since the Conquest of Ireland who made it an establisht Maxim in relation to that Kingdom That none but an Englishman should be Chief Governour insomuch that till within these two Years that practice gave occasion to the common erroneous opinion That a man born in Ireland however otherwise qualified was thereby incapacitated from being Lord Deputy It is certain that long before the Reformation when Matters of Religion made no distinction between the Natives of each Country this was the settled and unalter'd Rule Have we any reason then to alter it now that Religion is put into the Scale and become the additional weight which never fails giving the advantage to the side it espouses and adheres to or rashly to condemn the wise proceedings of the Ancestours of our Kings and contrary to the opinion of the VVorld judge our Author's Irish Understanding better than all the English ones that have been heretofore Our Author will certainly allow Ireland to be a conquered Country and consequently that the Conquerors have Right to establish Laws with such Restrictions and Limitations as shall seem fitting and convenient towards the keeping it in their Hands and the Welfare of the Inhabitants which are of two Sorts the British Planters and the Natives I shall prove that it has been and still is the Advantage of both these that Ireland should be governed by an English Man By the way I would have it understood that I do not pretend to put these two Interests into any Ballance I know the British Interest does so far outweigh the other that it were a Wrong done it to bring them into any Competition more than two parts of three of the Lands of Ireland being by the several Rebellions of the Irish in British Hands and for the Quality Temper Industry c. there is no Comparison besides that if one of two Parties is to be pleased though by the Detriment of the other 't is but just that the Conquerors who have Right to give Law should be indulged how much more when it is consistent with the Welfare of the Irish themselves if they understood their own Good I am convinced that whatever has been done in favour of the Natives is pure Grace and cannot be claimed as a just Debt any otherwise than since it has been confirmed by our Laws and Acts of Parliament He that reflects on 1641. will readily assent to this which makes me admire at the pertness of our Author in Capitulating as if we stood upon even Ground with them but 't is plain he considers the Interest but of one Party in that Kingdom and though he names Ireland often he means the Native Irish Papist only But I proceed To prove that it is the Interest of the British that Ireland should be governed by an Englishman Ineed say no more than that they all ardently desire it and People are the best Judge of their own Necessities The common Maxim That Interest will not lye holds good here to some purpose The ill Effects the contrary Method has had on their Persons and Estates is but too visible Whoever had seen Ireland four Years ago and would compare its Condition with what it is now from the most thriving and flourishing Country of Europe from a place of the briskest Trade and best paid Rents in Christendom it is fallen in one Year and a half 's time to Ruine and Desolation in the most frequent Cities empty Houses and melancholly Countenances in the best people'd Counties unmanur'd neglected Fields and Solitariness Such a one I say might justly exclaim Heu Quantum mutatus ab illo But it would be impertinent to insist any longer on this I must now prove That 't is the Advantage of the very Natives themselves who have long been uneasie under the English Government and often endeavour'd to shake it off to be ruled and guided by that Nation they hate so much They are beholding to us for reducing them from a State of Barbarity which left but little difference between them and Brutes We taught them to Live to Eat Drink and Lodge like humane Creatures if they esteem this any Advantage and do not really prefer their Native Wildness to all the Benefits of civil Society Trade Agriculture Merchandizing Learning c. and if the Gentleness of the English Government could have had any Influence on them they had no reason to be discontented at it They had the equal Protection of the Laws in relation to their Estates and Persons they bore but their just Proportion in all Taxes and Cesses Their Lands improved in Value by the Means of their British Neighbours and their Rents were much better paid than formerly whilest themselves were Masters of the whole Island They had a large Connivance for the Exercise of their Religion and were even allowed to hold a National Synod of their own Clergy in Dublin Anno 1666. The poor Natives were not oppressed when their severe Land-Lords the Irish Gentry by their cruel Extortions Casherings Duties and Days Labour ruined them who as soon as the English Manners prevailed among them as they were introduced with Difficulty enough there was need of the Authority of Acts of Parliament to constrain them for their own Good lived plentifully and in convenient Houses had their Share of the current Coin and proportion of all other Necessaries to the Life and Well-being of Man which now they want insomuch that several of them have been heard to curse my Lord Tyrconnel for to his Government they attribute their Misery and acknowledge they never lived so well as under the Direction of the English Rulers nor expected to do so again till they were restored to the Helm See the Force of Truth which compels the Confession of it even from the Mouths of its Adversaries One may easily perceive by our Authers manner of arguing where the Shoo
any thing clause or sentence in the said Act contained to the contrary â—â—ithstanding Sect. 3. Provided always and it is hereby Enacted That neither this Act nor any thing herein conâ—â—ined shall extend or be construed to ravive or give Force to the said Branch of the said Statute wade in the said First Year of the Reign of the said Late Queen Elizabeth mentioned in the said Act if Parliament made in the Seventeenth Year of the Reign of the said King Charles but that the said Branch of the said Statute made in the said First Year of the Reign of the said Late Queen Elizabeth scall stand and be Repealed in such sort as if this Act had never been made Sect. 4. Provided always and it is hereby Enacted That it shall not be lawful for any Arch-bishop Bishop Vicar-General Chancellor Commissary or any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Judge Officer or Minister or any other person having or exercising Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to Tender or Administer unto any Person whatsoever the Oath usually called Ex Officio or any other Oath whereby such person to whom the same is tendred or administred may be charged or compelled to confess or accuse or to purge him or herself of any Criminal matter or thing whereby he or she may be liable to Censure or Punishment any thing in this Statute or any other Law Custom or Vsage heretofore to the contrary hereof in any wise notwithstanding Sect. 5. Provided always That this Act or any thing therein contained shall not extend or be construed to extend to give unto any Arch Bishop Bishop or any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Judge Officer or other person or persons aforesaid any Power or Authority to Exercise Execute Inflict or Determine any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Censure or Coertion which they might not by Law have done before the Year of our Lord 1639. 2. Nor to abridge or diminish the Kings Majesties Supremacy in Ecclefiastical Matters and Affairs nor to confirm the Canons made in the Year 1640. nor any of them nor any other Ecclesiastical Laws or Canons not formerly confirmed allowed or enacted by Parliament or by the established Laws of the Land as they stood in the Year of our Lord 1639. From the Title of the Act and the Act it self considered I gather First That it is an Explanatory Act of the 17th of Car. 1. as to one particular Branch of it and not introductive of any new Law Secondly That the Occasion of making it was not from any Doubt that did arise VVhether the High Commission Court were taken away or whether the Crown had Power to erect any such like Court for the future but from a Doubt that was made that all ordinary Power of Coertion and Proceedings in Causes Ecclefiastical was taken away whereby Justice in Ecclesiastical Matters was obstructed and this Doubt did arise from a Clause in 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. Sect. 4. herein mentioned to be recited in the said Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Thirdly That this Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. as appears upon the Face of it was made to the intent the ordinary Jurisdiction which the Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Persens had always exercised under the Crown might not be infringed but not to restore to the Crown the power of Delegating the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Letters Patents to Lay persons or any others and as to this nothing can be plainer than the VVords of the Act it self Sect. 2. Whereby 17 Car. 1. is repealed but takes particular care to except what concerned the High Commission Court or the new Erection of some such Court by Commission Neither did the Law-makers think this Exception in that Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Sect. 2. to be sufficient but to put the Matter out of all doubt in the Third Section of the same Statute It is provided and Enacted That neither that Act nor any thing therein contained should extend or be construed to revive or give force to the Branch of 1 Eliz. 1. Sect. 18. but that the same Branch shâ—â—â— stand absolutely Repealed And if so then the power of the Crown to delegate the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is wholly taken away for it was vested in the Crown by 1 Eliz. 1. and taken away by 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. and is in no manner restored by 13 Car. 2.12 or any other But there may arise an Objection from the VVords in the Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. that saith That that Act shall not extend to abridge or diminish the Kings Majesties Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and Affairs VVhence some Men would gather that the same power still remains in the Crown that was in it before 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. To which Objection I give this Answer That every Law is to be so constructed that it may not be Felo de se and that for the Honour of the Legislators King Lords and Comment Now I would appeal to the Gentlemen themselves that assert this Doctrine VVhether they can so construe the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. as they pretend to do without offering Viâ—lence to their own Reason For when the 1 Car. 1. ca. 11. had absolutely repealed the Branch of 1 Eliz. 1. that vested the power in the Crown of Delegating the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Enacts That no such Commission shall be for the future and the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Repeals the 17 Car. 1. ca. 12. except what relates to that particular Branch there can no more of the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and Affairs be saved by the saving in the 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. but what was left in the Crown by 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. And now I hope I have sufficiently evinced That all the Proceedings before the Ecclesiastical Commissioners are CORAM NON JVDICE and therefore have sufficient Reason to believe That the same would never have been set on foot by his present Majesty who had always the Character of JAMES the Just and hath promised upon his Royal VVord That he will invade no Mans Property had he not been advised thereunto by them who are better versed in the Canons of the Church of ROME than in the Laws that relate to the CROWN and CHURCH of ENGLAND A LETTER Writ by Mijn Heer Fagel Pensioner of Holland to Mr. James Stewart Advocate Giving an Account of the Prince and Princes of Orange's Thoughts concerning the Repeal of the Test and the Penal Laws SIR I Am extream sorry that my ill health hath so long hindred me from Answering those Letters in which you so earnestly desired to know of me what their Highnesses thoughts are concerning the repeal of the Penal Laws and more particularlarly of that concerning the Test I beg you to assure your self that I will deal very plainly with you in this matter and without reserve since you say that your Letters were writ by the King's knowledge and allowance I must
earnest to have those Laws maintained in their full and due vigour and think that the chief Security of the established Religion consists in the preserving of them Sacred and unshaken It is certain that there is no Kingdom Common-Wealth or any constituted Body or Assembly whatsoever in which there are not Laws made for the Safety thereof and that provide against all Attempts whatsoever that disturb their peace and that prescribe the Conditions and Qualities that they judge necessary for all that shall bear Employments in that Kingdom State or Corporation And no man can pretend that there is any Injury done him that he is not admitted to Imployments when he doth not satisfie the Conditions and Qualities required Nor can it be denied that there is a great difference to be observed in the conduct of those of the Reformed Religion and of the Roman Catholicks towards one another The Roman Catholicks not being satisfied to exclude the Reformed from all places of Profit or of Trust they do absolutely suppress the whole Exercise of that Religion and persecute all that profess it and this they do in all those places where it is safe and without danger to carry on that rigour And I am sorry that we have at this present so many deplorable Instances of this severity before our Eyes that is at the same time put in practice in so many different places I would therefore gladly see one single good reason to move a Protestant that fears God and that is concerned for his Religion to consent to the Repealing of those Laws that have been enacted by the Authority of King and Parliament which have no other tendency but to the security of the Reformed Religion and to the restraining of the Roman Catholicks from a capacity of overturning it these Laws inflict neither Fines nor Punishments and do only exclude the Roman Catholicks from a share in the Government who by being in Employments must needs study to encrease their party and to gain to it more Credit and Power which by what we see every day we must conclude will be extreamly dangerous to the Reformed Religion and must turn to its great prejudice Since in all places those that are in publick Employments do naturally Favour that Religion of which they are either more or less And who would go about to perswade me or any man else to endeavour to move Their Highnesses whom God hath honoured so far as to make them the Protectors of his Church to approve of or to consent to things so hurtful both to the Reformed Religion and to the publick Safety Nor can I Sir with your good leave in any way grant what you apprehend That no prejudice will thereby redound to the Reformed Religion I know it is commonly said that the number of the Roman Catholicks in England and Scotland is very inconsiderable and that they are possessed only of a very small number of the places of Trust Tho even as to this the case is quite different in Ireland Yet this you must of necessity grant me that if their numbers are small then it is not reasonable that the publick Peace should be disturbed on the account of so few persons especially when so great a favour may be offered to them such as the free Exercise of their Religion would be And if their numbers are greater then there is so much the more reason to be afraid of them I do indeed believe that Roman Catholicks as things at present stand will not be very desirous to be in publick Offices and Imployments nor that they will make any attempts upon the Reformed Religion both because this is contrary to Law and because of the great inconveniencies that this may bring at some other time both on their Persons and their Estates yet if the Restraints of the Law were once taken off you would see them brought into the Government and the chief Offices and Places of Trust would be put in their hands nor will it be easie to his Majesty to resist them in this how stedfast soever he may be for they will certainly press his hard in it and they will represent this to the King as a matter in which his Conscience will be concerned and when they are possessed of the publick Offices what will be left for the Protestants to do who will find no more the support of the Law and can expect little Encouragement from such Magistrates And on the other hand the advantages that the Roman Catholicks would find in being thus set loose from all restraints are so plain that it were a loss of time to go about the proving it I neither can nor will doubt of the sincerity of his Majesties intentions and that he has no other design before him in this matter but that all his Subjects may enjoy in all things the same Rights and Freedom But plain Reason as well as the Experience of all Ages the present as well as the past shews that it will be impossible for Roman Catholicks and Protestants when they are mixed together in places of Trust and publick Employments to live together peaceably or to maintain a good Correspondence together They will be certainly always jealous of one another For the Principles and the Maxims of both Religions are so opposite to one another that in my opinion I do not see how it will be in the power of any Prince or King whatsoever to keep down those Suspitions and Animosities which will be apt to arise upon all occasions As for that which you apprehend that the Dissenters shall not be delivered from the Penal Laws that are made against them unless at the same time the Test be likewise repealed This will be indeed a great unhappiness to them but the Roman Catholicks are only to blame for it who will rather be content that they and their Posterity should lie still under the weight of the Penal Laws and exposed to the hatred of the whole Nation than he still restrained from a capacity of attempting any thing against the Peace and the Security of the Protestant Religion And be deprived of that small advantage if it is at all to be reckoned one of having a share in the Government and publick Enjoyments since in all places of the World this has been always the priviledge of the Religion that is established by Laws and indeed these Attempts of the Roman Catholicks ought to be so much the more suspected and guarded against by Protestants in that they see that Roman Catholicks even when liable to that Severity of Penal Laws do yet endeavour to perswade his Majesty to make the Protestants whether they will or not dissolve the Security which they have for their Religion And to clear a way for bringing in the Roman Caâ—â—â—licks to the Government and to publick Employments In which case there would remain no relief for them but what were to be expected from a Roman Catholick Government Such then will be very unjust to
there that injustice in it which our Author does imagine For not being satisfied to remain disobedient and refractory to an Edict and Decree of the Arch-Duke Matthias and the Council of State who Anno 1578. had appointed that wheresoever there were a hundred Families of those professing the Reformed Religion that they should there be allowed a Church or Chappel for the exercise of their Worship they not only broke all their capitulations made with the Protestants thro oppressing them in various severe unjust method's and in denying them a decent and convenient place in which they might bury their dead but they were found to be still inclining to the Spanish Interest and ready to espouse it upon the first convenient opportunity And therefore the Protestants who were by much the majority partly to relieve themselves from the sufferings which were daily inflicted upon them contrary to stipulations and Articles and partly to prevent the mischiefs which would have ensued to the whole Country should that City have been betrayed again into the power and hands of the Spaniards assumed the Government to themselves and eased the other party of the Trust which they had so unwisely and unrighteously managed Nor can our Author deny but that since they took on them the Ruling Authority they have exercised it with all the moderation that can be expressed And have been so far from returning to the Roman Catholicks the like measures which themselves had met with that they have in no one thing given them cause to complain unless they should quarrel that they are kept out of capacity of doing the mischief their priests would otherway's be ready to excite them unto and which their Religion would countenance them in But it is now time that I should proceed to the fourth thing for which I promised to call our Anonymous Answerer to an account And were he not of a singular Forehead and of a peculiar complexion from all others he could not have had the impudence to endeavour to deceive the world into a belief that the Protestant Dissenters in England stand listed by their Highnesses into the same rank with the Papists and that they are hereafter to expect to be shut up into the same state and condition Certainly he must either have an Antipathy woven into his nature against all truth and sincerity or else thro having long accustomed himself to the misreporting of persons and to the giving false representations of things he must at last have acquired an incurable Habit otherwise it were impossible to prevaricate to that degree from truth in every thing he medleth with and which he undertaketh to say For Mijn Heer Fagel having declared that the reason why their Highnesses can not agree to the Repeal of the Test Laws is because they are of no other tendency than to secure the Reformed Religion from the designs of the Roman Catholicks and that they contain only conditions and provisions whereby men may be qualified to be Members of Parliament and to bear publick Offices Our Author hereupon tells us That the Nonconformists as well as the Roman Catholicks do apprehend that they receive a great deal of damage by those Laws and do account them extremely prejudicial to their Persons and Families And where as Monsieur Fagel had said that he would be glad to hear one good Reason whereby a Protestant fearing God and concerned for his Religion could be prevailed upon to consent to the Repealing of these Laws which have been enacted by the Authority of King and Parliament and that have no other tendency save the providing for the safety of the Reformed Religion and the hindring Roman Catholicks from being in a capacity to subvert it Our Author in way of reflection upon this tells us that it is not only a Childish demand but that it is to be hop'd that the pensionary will from hence be brought to acknowledg how trifling and weak all those Reasons are by which he would preclude the Nonconformists as well as the Roman Catholicks from publick Employments So that by these and many other passages equally false and disingenuous in our Author 's pretended Answer which for brevity's sake I forbear to mention it is apparent that he endeavours to perswade the world into a belief that the Dissenters are staed by their Highnesses in the same rank and condition with the Papists and are to expect to be treated in the same manner in case it please the Almighty God to bring Their Highnesses to the Throne One would wonder at this sudden and strange change in the opinion and conduct of the Papists towards the Nonconformists that they who were represented by them a while ago ' as unfit to live in His Majesties Dominions should now come to be accounted the Kings best and most Faithful Subjects and worthy to be advanced to the chief Trusts and Employ's 'T is but a few years since that all the Laws enacted against them were judged to be too few and gentle and therefore they had Laws executed upon them to which the Legislators had never made them obnoxious but now the Roman Catholicks are become so tender of their ease and safety that out of pure kindness unto them if any will be so foolish as to believe it they must have Laws abrogated which in the worst times and during the most illegal and barbarous procedures against them they were never affected with nor suffered the least prejudice by And whereas it was the only way for persons heretofore to make their Court at St. James's by declaiming against the Dissenters as Rebels and Traitors and by putting them into a salvage Dress to be run upon as beasts of prey it is now grown the only method of becoming gracious at Whitehall to proclaim their Loyalty and to cry them up for the only people in whom his Majesty with safety to his Person and Crown can repose a confidence But under all the Shapes which the Papists do assume they may be easily discovered to retain the same malice to the Reformed Religion and only to act those various and opposite parts in order the better to subvert it And the Dissenters being harassed and oppressed before and indulged and caressed now was upon the same motive of hatred unto it and in subserviency to its extirpation The method's are altered but the design is one and tho they have changed their Tools yet they remain constant in the pursuance of the same End While they of the Church of England were found compliant with the ways which the Factors for Rome thought serviceable thereunto they were not only the Favourites of the Court and of the whole Popish party but were gratified at least as was pretended with a rigorous execution of the Penal Laws upon Dissenters But there remaining several steps to be taken for the introduction of Popery and the extirpation of the Reformed Religion which they of the National Communion would not go along with them in they are forced to
while ago to see connived at in the exercise of their Worship in private Houses are allowed now to practise their Idolatry openly in our chief Towns and in the Metropolitan City of the Kingdom to usurp the publick Churches and Cathedrals Those Catholick Gentlemen whom heretofore it was matter of surprise to see countenanced with the private Favour of the Prince are now advanced to the supream Commands in the Army and the principal Trust in Civil Affairs The Recusant Lords whose enlargement out of the Tower we could not but look upon as an unpresidented Violation both of the Laws of the Land and of the Rights and Jurisdiction of Parliament being committed thither by the Authority of the House of Lords upon a Charge and Impeachment of High Treason by the Commons of England in Parliament assembled were now honoured to be Members of the Privy Council and exalted to be chief Ministers of State They whom the Statutes of the Realm make subject to the severest Penalties for Apostacy to Rome are not only protected from the edg of the Laws but maintained in Parochial Incumbencies and Headships of Colledges Our Orthodox Clergy are not only inhibited to preach against Popery but are illegally Reprimanded Silenced and Suspended for discharging that Duty which their Consciences Offices Oaths and the Laws of the Kingdom oblige them unto And such whom neither the Ecclesiastical nor Westminster Courts can arraign and proceed against we have a new Court of Inquisition erected for the adjudging and punishing of them So that it is not the Dissenters who are the only Persons to be struck at and ruined but the Conformists are to be treated after the same manner and to share in the common Lot whereunto all honest and sincere Protestants are destined and designed Even they who were the Darlings of Whitehall and St. Jameses and recompensed with Honours and Titles for betraying the Rights and Priviledges of Corporations persecuting Dissenters and heading Addresses wherein Parliaments were reproached the Course of Justice against Popish Offenders was slandered the illegal and arbitrary procedures of the Court applauded and justified and all that were zealous for our Laws and Liberties stigmatized with the names of Villains and Traitors are now themselves for but discouraging Popish Assemblies and attempting to put the Laws in execution against Priests who had publickly celebrated Mass not only check'd and rebuked but punished with Seisure and Imprisonment Nor are our Religion and Civil Liberties meerly supplanted and undermined by illegal Tricks glossed over with the Varnish of judicial Forms but they are assaulted and battered in the face of the Sun without so much as a palliation to give their procedures a plausible figure And the King being brought to a despair of managing the Parliament to his barefaced Purpose of Popery and Arbitrariness and of prevailing with them to establish Tyranny and Idolatry by Law notwithstanding their having been as industriously pack'd and chosen to answer such a Design as Art Bribery and Authority could reach and notwithstanding their having been obsequious in their first Session to an excess that has proved unsafe to themselves and the Nation he became resolved not to allow them to meet any more but to set up a-la-mode de France and to his personal Commands seconded with the Assent of his durante-beneplacito-Judges to be acknowledged and obeyed for Laws So that they who were formerly seduced into a good Opinion of him are not only undeceived but provoked to warm Resentments for having had their credulity and easiness of belief so grosly abused And as the converting so vast a number of well-meaning but wofully deluded People who had suffered themselves to be hoodwink'd and fatally hurried to betray their Religion Country and Posterity to the Ambition and Popish Bigottry of the Court was a design becoming the Compassion Mercy and Wisdom of God so the Method's and Means whereby they are come to be enlightned and proselyted are a signal vindication of the Sapience and Righteousness of God in all those tremendous steps of his Providence by which our Enemies have been emboldned to detect and discover themselves For though their continuing so long to have a good opinion of the present King and their abetting him so far in the undermining our Religion and invading our Liberties may seem to have proceeded not so much from their Ignorance as from their Obstinacy and Malice yet God who penetrates into the Hearts of Men may have discovered some degrees of sincerity in their Pretentions and Carriages though accompanied with a great deal of folly and unmanliness Nor are the Lords ways like to ours to give Persons over as unteachable and irreclaimable upon their withstanding every measure of Light and the resisting even those Means which were sufficient and proper for their Conviction but he will try them by new and extraordinary Methods and see whether Feeling and doleful Experience may not convert those upon whom Arguments and Moral Evidence could make no impressions And there being among those formerly misled and deluded Protestants many who retained a Love for their Country a Care for their Posterity and a Zeal for the Gospel and Reformed Religion even when their Actions imported the contrary and seem'd to betray them the singling and weeding out such from among the Court-Faction and Party is a compensation both for the defeatment of all endeavours for the prevention of the Evils that have overtaken us and for the Distresses and Calamities under which we do at present lie and groan And if there be joy in Heaven upon the conversion of a Sinner with what thankfulness to God and joy in themselves should they who have so many years wrestled against the encroachments of Popery and Arbitrariness and who have deeply suffered in their Names Persons and Estates upon that account welcome and embrace their once erring and misled but now enlightned reclaimed and converted Brethren And in stead of remembring or upbraiding them with the opposition and rancour which they expressed against our Persons Principles and Ways let there be no Language heard from us but what may declare the joy we have in our selves for their conversion and the entire trust and confidence which we put in them The first Duty incumbent therefore upon Dissenters towards those of the Church of England is to believe that notwithstanding there have been many of them so long Advocates and Partisans for the Court through ignorance of what was aimed at and intended they are nevertheless as really concerned as any others and as truly zealous for the preservation of the Protestant Religion and for maintaining the legal Rights and Liberties of the Subject and when occasion shall offer will approve themselves accordingly 'T is a ridiculous as well as a mischievous Fancy for one Party to confine all Religion only to themselves or to circumscribe all the ancient English Ardor for the common Rights of the Nation to such as are of their particular Fellowship and Perswasion
Establishment yet all other Protestants may very rationally promise themselves an Indulgence and that not only from the Mildness and compassionate Sweetness of her Temper but from the Influence which the Prince her Husband will have upon her who as he is descended from Ancestors whose Glory it was to be the Redeemers of their Country from Papal Persecution and Spanish Tyranny so his Education Generosity Wisdom and many Heroick Vertues dispose him to embrace all Protestants with an equal Tenderness and to erect his Interest upon the being Head and Patron of all that profess the Reformed Religion Had the late Duke of Monmouth been victorious against the Forces of the present King and inabled to have wrested the Scepter out of his Hand though all Protestants might thereupon have expected and would certainly have enjoyed an equal freedom without the liableness of any party to Penal Laws for matters of Religion yet he would have been careful and I have reason to believe that it was his purpose to have had the Church of Eng. preserved and maintained and that she should have suffered no alteration but what would have been to her Strength and Glory through an enlargement of the Terms of her Communion and what would have been to the Praise of her Moderation and Charity through her being perswaded to bear with such as differ from her in little things and could not prevail with themselves to partake with her in all Ordinances Upon the whole it is both the prudence and safety of Dissenters as they would escape Extirpation themselves and have Religion conveyed down to Posterity to unite their Strength and Endeavours to those of the Church of England for the upholding her against the assaults of Popish Enemies who pursue her Subversion As matters have been circumstanced and stated in England there hath not been an Affront or Injury offered or done unto her by the Court which did not at the same time reach and wound the Dissenters 'T is not her being for Episcopacy Ceremonies and imposed Set-Forms of Worship the things about which she and the Nonconformists differ that she hath been not long since maligned and struck at by the Man in Power and his Popish functo but it is for being Protestant Reformed and Orthodox Crimes under the Guilt whereof Dissenters were equally concerned and involved Being therefore in opposition to the common Cause of Religion that the late Court of Inquisition was erected over her Ecclesiasticks all Protestants jointly resented the Wrongs which she sustain'd and not only to sympathize with those dignified and lower Clergy which were called to suffer but to espouse her Quarrel with the same warmth that we would our own And as we are to look upon those of the Episcopal Communion to be the great Bulwark of the Protestant Religion and Reformed Interest in England so it was farther incumbent on Dissenters towards them and a Duty which they owe to God the Nation and themselves not to be accessary to any thing through which the legal Establishment of the Church of England might have been by an Act of pretended Regal Prerogative weakned and supplanted I never counsel the Dissenters to renounce their Principles nor to participate with the Prelatical Church in all Ordinances on the Terms to which they have straitned and narrowed their Communion For while they remain unsatisfied of the lawfulness of those Terms and Conditions they cannot do it without offending God and contracting Guilt upon their Souls nor will they of the Church of England in Charity Justice and Honesty expect it from them For whatsoever any Man believeth to be Sin it is so to him and will by God be imputed as such till he be otherwise enlightned and convinced nor are the Dissenters to be false and cruel to themselves in order to be kind and friendly to them But that which I would advise them unto is that after the maintaining the highest measure of Love to the conformable Congregations as Churches of Christ and the esteeming their Members as Christian Protestant Brethren notwithstanding the several things wherein they judge them to err and to be mistaken that they would not by any Act and Transactions of theirs betray them into a Despotical Power not directly nor indirectly acknowledge any Authority paramount unto and superseding the Laws by which the Church of England is established in its present Form Order and Mode of Jurisdiction Discipline and External Worship Whatsoever Ease arrived to the Dissenters through the Kings suspending the Execution of the Penal Laws without their Address and Application they might receive it with Joy and Humility in themselves and with thankfulness to God nor was there hereby any prejudice offered on their part to the Authority of the Law or Offence or Injury given or done to the conformable Clergy Nor is it without grief and regret that the Church-men have been forced to behold the harassing spoiling and imprisonment of the Nonconformists while in the mean time the Papists were suffered to assemble to the Celebration of their Idolatrous Worship without Censure and Controul And had it been in their power to remedy it and give Relief to their Protestant Brethren they would with delight and readiness have embrac'd the occasion and opportunity of doing it But alas instead of having an advantage put into their hand of contributing to the Relief of the Dissenters which I dare say many of them ardently wish and desire they were compelled contrary to their Inclination as well as their Interest to become instrumental in persecuting and oppressing them Nor does the late King covet a better and a more legal advantage against the Conformists than that they would refuse to pursue Dissenters and decline molesting them with Ecclesiastical Censures and civil Punishments So that their condition was to be pityed and bewailed in that they were hindered from acting against the Papists though both enjoyed by Law and influenced thereunto by Motives of self-Preservation as well as by tyes of Conscience while in the mean time they were forced to prosecute their fellow-Protestants or else to be suspended and deposed and put out of their Offices and Employments And tho I believe that they would at last have more Peace in themselves and be better accepted with God in the great Duty of their Account should they have refused to disturb and prosecute their Protestant Brethren and scorn to be any longer Court-Tools for weakning and undermining the Reformed Cause and Interest yet I could not but leave them to act in this as they should be perswaded in themselves and as they judged most agreeable to Principles of Wisdom and Conscience In the interim the Dissenters have all the Reason in the World to believe that the Proceedings of the Clergy and Members of the Church of England against them were not the Results of their Election and Choice but the Effects of moral Compulsion and Necessity Nor will any Dissenter that is prudent and discreet blame them for a matter
which they cannot help but bear his Misfortune and Lot with Patience in himself and with Compassion and Charity towards them and have his Indignation raised only against that Court which forced them to be instrumental in their Oppression and Trouble The Protestant Dissenters could not be so far void of sense as to think that the Person lately in the Throne bore them any good-Will but his drift was to screw himself into a Supremacy and Absoluteness over the Law and to get such an Authority confessed to be vested in him as when he pleased he might subvert the Established Religion and set up Popery Forby the same Power that he can dispense with the Penal Statutes against the Nonconformists he may also dispense with those against the Roman Catholicks And whosoever owneth that he hath a Right to do the first doth in effect own that he hath a Right to do the last For if he be allowed a Power for the superseding some Laws made in reference to Matters of Religion he may challenge the like Power for the superseding others of the same kind And then by the same Authority that he can suspend the Laws against Popery he may also suspend those for Protestancy And by the same Power that he can in defiance of Law indulge the Papists the Exercise of their Religion in Houses he may establish them in the publick Celebration of their Idolatry in Churches and Cathedrals yea whereas the Laws that relate to Religion are enacted by no less Authority than those that are made for the Preservation of our Civil Rights should the K. be admitted to have an Arbitrary Power over the one it is very like that by the Logick of Whitehall he might have challeng'd the same Absoluteness over the other Nor do I doubt but that the eleven Judges who gratified him with a Despoticalness over the former would when required grant him the same over the latter I know the Dissenters have been under no small Temptations both by reason of being hindred from enjoying the Ordinances of the Gospel and because of many grievous Calamities which they suffer for their Nonconformity of making Applications to the K. for some Relief by his suspending the Execution of the Laws but they must give me leave to add that they ought not for the obtaining of a little Ease to have betrayed the Kingdom and Sacrifice the Legal Constitution of the Government to the Lust and Pleasure of a Popish Prince whom nothing less would serve than being Absolute and Despotical And had he once been in the quiet Possession of an Authority to dispense with the Penal Laws the Dissenters would not long have enjoyed the Benefit of it Nor could they have denied him a Power of reviving the Execution of the Law which is part of the Trust deposited with him as Supreme Magistrate who have granted him a Power of Suspending the Laws which the Rules of the Government precluded him from And as he might whensoever he pleased cause the Laws to which they were Obnoxious to be executed upon them so by virtue of having an Authority acknowledged in him of superceding the Laws he might deprive them of the Liberty of meeting together to the number of Five a Grace which the Parliament thought fit to allow them under all the other Severities to which they were subjected Nor needs there any further Evidence that the Prince's challenging such a Power was an Usurpation and that the Subjects making any Application by which it seem'd allowed to him was a betraying of the Ancient Legal Government of the Kingdom whereas the most Obsequious and Servile Parliament to the Court that ever England knew not only denied this Prerogative to the late King Charles but made him renounce it by revoking his Declaration of Indulgence which he had emitted Anno 1672. And as it will be to the perpetual Honour of some of the Dissenters to have chosen rather to suffer the Severities which the Laws make them liable unto than by any Act and Transaction of theirs to undermine and weaken either the Church or the State so it will be a means both of endearing them we hope not only to the Prince of Orange now by a miraculous Providence brought in amongst us but to future Parliaments and of bringing them and the Conformists into an Union of Counsels and Endeavours against Popery and Tyranny for ever which is at this season a thing so indispensibly necessary for their common Preservation Especially when through a new and more threatning Alliance and Confederacy with France than that in 72 the King had not only engaged to act by and observe the same Measures towards Protestants in England which that Monarch hath vouchsafed the World a Pattern and Copy of in his carriage towards those of the Reformed Religion in France but had promised to disturb the Peace and Repose of his Neighbours and to commence a War in conjunction with that Prince against Foreign Protestants For as the King 's giving Liberty and Protection to the Algerines to frequent his Havens and sell the Prizes which they take from the Dutch is both a most infamous Action for a Prince pretending to be a Christian and a direct Violation of his Alliance with the States General so nothing can be more evident than that he thereby sought to render them the weaker for him to assault and that he was resolved if some unforeseen and extraordinary Providence had not interposed and prevented to declare War against them the next Summer in order whereunto great Remises of Money were already ordered him from the French Court So that the Indulgence which he pretends to be inclinable to afford the Dissenters was not an effect of Kindness and Good-will but an Artifice whereby to oblige their Assistance in destroying those Abroad of the same Religion with themselves Which if he could once compass it were easie to foresee what Fate both the Dissenters and they of the Communion of the Church of England were to expect Who as they would not then have known whither to retreat for shelter so they would have been destitute of Comfort in themselves and deprived of Pity from others not only for having through their Divisions made themselves a Prey to the Papists at Home but for having been accessary to the Ruin of the Reformed State Abroad and which was the Asilum and Sanctuary of all those that were elsewhere oppressed and persecuted for Religion Gloria Deo Optimo Maximo Honos Principi nostri celcissimo pientissimo A Representation of the Threatning Dangers Impending over Protestants in Great Britain With an Account of the Arbitrary and Popish Ends unto which the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in England and the Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland are designed THey are great Strangers to the Transactions of the World who know not how many and various the Attempts of the Papists have been both to hinder all Endeavours towards a Reformation and to overthrow and subvert it
Means for preserving themselves 't is become a necessary Duty and an indispensible Service to Mankind to deal plainly and above-board that so by describing Kings as they are and setting them in a true and just Light we may prevent the Peoples being further imposed upon or if through suffering themselves to be still deceived they come to fall under Miseries and Persecutions they may lay all their Distresses and Desolations at the Door of their own Folly in not having taken care how to avoid what they were not only threatned with but whereof they were warned and advertised History of the Times For as I am not of Sir Roger l'Estrange's mind That if we cannot avoid being distrustful of our Safety yet it is extremely Vain foolish and extravagant to talk of it so I am very sensible how many of the French Ministers by painting forth their King more like a God than a Man and by possessing their People with a belief of Wisdom Justice Grace and Mercy in Him of which they knew him destitute they both emboldned Him to attempt what he hath perpetrated and laid them under Snares which they knew not how to disentangle themselves from in order to escape it Nor would the King of England have acted with that neglect of the future Safety of the Papists nor have exposed them to the Resentment and hereafter Revenge of three Nations by the Arbitrary and Illegal Steps he hath made in their Favor if he intended any thing less than the putting Protestants for ever out of Capacity and Condition of calling them to a Reckoning and exacting an Account of them which neither He nor they about him can have the weakness to think they have sufficiently provided against without compelling us by an Order of à la mode France Missionaries to turn Catholicks or by adjudging us to Mines and Galleys according to the Versailles President for our Heretical Stubbornness or which is the more expeditious way of Converting three Kingdoms to cause Murther the Protestant Inhabitants according to the Pattern which his Loyal Irish Catholicks endeavored to have set anno 1641. for the Conversion of that Nation Had his Majesty been contented with the bare avowing and publishing himself to be of the Communion of the Church of Rome and of challenging a Liberty though against Law for the Exercise of his Religion it might have awakened our Pity and Compassion to see him embrace a Religion where there are so many Impediments of Salvation and in doing whereof he was become obnoxious unto the Imprecation of his Grandfather who wished the Curse of God to fall upon such of his Posterity as should at any time turn Papists but it would have raised no intemperate Heats in the Minds of any against him much less have alienated them from the Subjection and Obedience which are due unto their Sovereign by the Laws of the several Kingdoms and the Fundamental Rules of the respective Constitutions Or could He have been contented with waving the rigorous Execution of the Laws against Papists of whatsoever Quality Rank or Order they were and with the bestowing personal and private Favors upon those of his Religion it would have been so far from begetting Rancor or Discontent in his Protestant Subjects that they would not only have connived at and approved such a Procedure and those little Benignities and Kindnesses but had the Papists quietly acquiesced in them and modestly improved them it might have been a means of reconciling the Nation to more Lenity towards them for the future and might have influenced our Legislators when God shall vouchsafe us a Protestant on the Throne to moderate the Severities to which by the Laws in being they are obnoxious and to render their Condition as easie and safe as that of other Subjects and only to take care for precluding them such Places of Power and Trust as should prevent their being able to hurt us but could bring no damage or inconvenience upon themselves But the King instead of terminating here and allowing only such Graces and Immunities to the Papists as would have been enough for the placing them in the private Exercise of their Religion with Security to them and without any threatning Danger to us He hath not only suspended all the penal Laws against Roman Catholicks but He hath by an usurped Prerogative that is paramount to the Rules of the Constitution and to all Acts of Parliament dispensed with and disabled the Laws that enjoin the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy and which appoint and prescribe the Tests that were the Fences which the Wisdom of the Nation had erected for preserving the Legislative Authority securing the Government and keeping Places of Power Magistracy and Office in the hands of Protestants and thereby of continuing the Protestant Religion and English Liberties to our selves and the Generations that shall come after us And as if this were not sufficient to awaken us to a Consideration of the danger we are in of having our Religion supplanted and overthrown He hath not only advanced the most violent Papists unto all Places of Military Command by Sea and Land but hath establish'd many of them in the chief Trusts and Offices of Magistracy and Civil Judicature so that there are scarce any continued in Power and Employment save they who have either promised to turn Roman Catholicks or who have engaged to concur and assist to the Subverting our Liberties and Religion under the Mask and Disguise of Protestants 'T is already evident that it is beyond the help and relief of all Peaceable and Civil means to preserve and uphold the Protestant Religion in Ireland and that nothing but Force and an intestine War can retrieve it unto and re-establish it there in any degree of Safety Nor is it less apparent from the Arbitrary and Tyrannous Oath ordained to be required of His Majesties Protestant Subjects in Scotland whereby they are to swear Obedience to Him without Reserve that our Religion is held only precariously in that Kingdom and that whensoever He shall please to command the Establishment of Popery and to enjoin the People to enter into the Communion of the Church of Rome he expects to have his Will immediately conformed unto and not to be disputed or controlled But lest what we are to expect from the King as to the Extirpation of the Reformed Religion and the inflicting the utmost Severities upon his Protestant Subjects that Papal Rage armed with Power can inable him unto may not so fully appear from what hath been already intimated as either to awaken the Dissenters out of the Lethargy into which the late Declaration hath cast them or to quicken those of the Church of England to that zealous care vigilancy and use of all Lawful means for preserving themselves and the Protestant Religion that the impendent Danger wherewith they are threatned requires at their hands I shall give that farther Confirmation of it from Topicks and Motives of Credibility Moral Political
seeing it hath been and still is their Custom to require the Belief of the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament as that upon the not Acknowledgment whereof we are to be accounted Hereticks and to stand condemned to be Burnt which is somewhat worse than the not being allowed to sit in the Two Houses of Parliament or to be shut out from a Civil or Military Office Neither are they required to Declare much less to Swear that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation is False or that there is no such thing as Transubstantiation as is affirmed in a Scurrilous Paper written against the Loyalty of the Church of England but all that is enjoyned in the Test Acts is that I A. B. do declare that I do believe that there is not any Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper or in the Elements of Bread and Wine at or after the Consecration thereof by any Prrson whatsoever Tho the Parliament was willing to use all the Care they could for the discovering Papists that the Provision for our Security unto which those Acts were designed might be the more effectual yet they were not so void of Understanding as to prescribe a Method for it which would have exposed them to the World for their Folly 'T is much different to say Swear or Declare that I do believe there is not any Transubstantiation and the saying or declaring that there is not a Transubstantiation the former being only expressive of what my Sentiment or Opinion is and not at all affecting the Doctrine it self to make or unmake it other than what it is independently upon my Judgment of it whereas the latter does primarily Affect the Object and the Determination of its Existence to such a Mode as I conceive it and there are a thousand things which I can say that I do not believe but I dare not say that they are not Now as 't is the dispensing with these Laws that argues the King's assuming an Absolute Power so the Addressing by way of Thanks for the Declaration wherein this Power is exerted is no less than an owning and acknowledging of it and that it rightfully belongs to him There is a third thing which Shame or Fear would not suffer them to put into the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in England but which they have had the Impudence to insert into the Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland which as it carries Absolute Power written in the forehead of it so it is such an unpresidented Exercise of Despoticalness as hardly any of the Oriental Tyrants or even the French Leviathan would have ventured upon For having stop'd disabled and suspended all Laws enjoyning any Oaths whereby our Religion was secured and the Preservation of it to us and our Posterity was provided for he imposeth a new Oath upon his Scots Subjects whereby they are to be bound to defend and maintaim him his Heirs and lawful Successors in the Exercise of their Absolute Power and Authority against all deadly The imposing an Oath upon Subjects hath been always look'd upon as the highest Act of Legislative Authority in that it affects their Consciences and requires the Approbation or Disapprobation of their Minds and Judgments in reference to whatsoever it is enjoyned for whereas a Law that affects only Mens Estates may be submitted unto tho in the mean time they think that which is exacted of them to be Unreasonable and Unjust And as it concerns both the Wisdom and Justice of Law-givers to be very tender in ordaining Oaths that are to be taken by Subjects and that not only from a care that they may not prostitute the Name of God to Prophanation when the matter about which they are imposed is either light and trivial or dubious and uncertain but because it is an Exercise of Jurisdiction over the Souls of Men which is more than if it were only exercised over their Goods Bodies and Privileges so never any of our Kings pretended to a Right of enjoyning and requiring an Oath that was not first enacted and specified in some Law and it would have been heretofore accounted a good Plea for refusing such or such an Oath to say there was no Statute that had required it It was one of the Articles of High Treason and the most material charged upon the Earl of Strafford that being Lord Deputy of Ireland he required an Oath of the Scots who inhabited there which no Law had ordained or prescribed which may make those Counsellors who have advised the King to impose this new Oath as well as all others that shall require it to be taken upon his Majesty's bare Authority to be a little apprehensive whether it may not at some time rise in Judgment against them and prove a Forfeiture of their Lives to Justice And as the imposing an Oath not warranted by Law is an high Act of Absolute Power and in the King an altering of the Constitution so if we look into the Oath it self we shall find this Absolute Power strangely manifested and displayed in all the Parts and Branches of it and the People required to Swear themselves his Majesty's most obedient Slaves and Vassals By one Paragraph of it they are required to Swear that it is unlawful for Subjects on any pretence or for any Cause whatsoever to rise in Arms against him or any Commissioned by him and that they shall never resist his Power or Authority which as it may be intended for a Foundation and means of keeping Men quiet when he shall break in upon their Estates and overthrow their Religion so it may be designed as an Encouragement to his Catholick Subjects to set upon the Cutting Protestants Throats when by this Oath their Hands are tied up from hindering them It is but for the Papists to come Authorised with his Majesty's Commission which will not be denied them for so meritorious a Work and then there is no Help nor Remedy but we must stretch out our Necks and open our Breasts to their Consecrated Swords and Sanctified Daggers Nay if the King should transfer the Succession to the Crown from the Rightful Heir to some zealous Romanist or Alienat and dispose of his Kingdoms in way of Donation and Gift to the Pope or to the Society of the Jesuits and for the better securing them in the Possession hereafter should invest and place them in the Enjoyment of them while he lives the Scots are bound in the virtue of this Oath tamely to look on and calmly to acquiesce in it Or should his Physicians advise him to a nightly Variety of Matrons and Maids as the best Remedy against his malignant and venomous Heats all of that Kingdom are bound to surrender their Wives and Daughters to him with a dutiful Silence and a profound Veneration And if by this Oath he can secure himself from the Opposition of his Dissenting Subjects in case through recovery of their Reason a Fit of ancient Zeal should surprize them he is otherways
secured of an Asiatick Tameness in his Prelatical People by a Principle which they have lately imbib'd but neither learned from their Bibles nor the Statutes of the Land For the Clergy upon thinking that the Wind would always blow out of one quarter and being resolved to make that a Duty by their Learning which their Interest at that season made convenient have preached up the Doctrine of Passive Obedience to such a boundless height that they have done what in them lyes to give up themselves and all that had the Weakness to believe them fettered and bound for Sacrifices to Popish Rage and Despotical Tyranny But for my self and I hope the like of many others I thank God I am not tainted with that slavish and adulatory Doctrine as having always thought that the first Duty of every Member of a Body Politick is to the Community for whose Safety and Good Governors are instituted and that it is only to Rulers as they are found to answer the main Ends they are appointed for and to Act by the legal Rules that are Chalk'd out unto them Whether it be from my Dullness or that my Understanding is of a perverser make than other Mens I cannot tell but I could never yet be otherways minded than that the Rules of the Constitution and the Laws of the Republick or Kingdom are to be the Measures both of the Sovereign's Commands and of the Subjects Obedience and that as we are not to invade what by Concessions and Stipulations belongs unto the Ruler so we may not only Lawfully but we ought to defend what is reserved to our selves if it be invaded and broken in upon And as without such a Right in the Subjects all legal Governments and mix'd Monarchies were but empty Names and ridiculous things so wheresoever the Constitution of a Nation is such there the Prince who strives to subvert the Laws of the Society is the Traytor and Rebel and not the People who endeavor to preserve and defend them There is yet another Branch of the foresaid Oath that is of a much more unreasonable Strain than the former which is That they shall to the utmost of their Power assist defend and maintain him in the Exercise of this Absolute Power and Authority which being tack'd to our Obeying without reserve make us the greatest Slaves that eitheâ— are or ever were in the Universe Our Kings were heretofore bound to Govern according to Law and so is his present Majesty if a Coronation Oath and faith to Hereticks were not weaker than Sampson's cords proved to be but instead of that here is a new Oath imposed upon the Subjects by which they are bound to protect and defend the King in his ruling Arbitrarily It had been more than enough to have required only a calm submitting to the exercise of Absolute Power but to be enjoined to swear to assist and defend his Majesty and Successors in all things wherein they shall exert it is a plain destroying of all natural as well as civil Liberty and a robbing us of that freedom that belongs unto us both as we are men and as we are born under a free and legal Government For by this we become bound to drag our Brethren to the Stake to cut their Throats plunder their Houses imbrew our hands in the Blood of our Wives and Children if his Majesty please to make these the Instances wherein he will exert his Absolute Power and require us to assist him in the exercise of it As it was necessary to cancel all other Oaths and Tests as being directly inconsistent with this so the requiring the Scots to swear this Oath is the highest revenge he could take for their Solemn League and Covenant and for all other Oaths that lust after Arbitrariness and Popish Bigottry will pronounce to have been injurious to the Crown But no words are sufficient to express the mischiefs wrapt up in that new Oath or to declare the abhorrency that all who value the Rights and Liberties of Mankind ought to entertain for it nor to proclaim the Villany of those who shall by Addresses give thanks for the Proclamation There may a fourth thing be added whereby it will appear that his Majesty's assuming Absolute Power stands recorded in Capital Letters in his Declaration for liberty of Conscience For not being contented to omit the requiring the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Test Oaths to be taken nor being satisfied to suspend for a season the enjoining any to be demanded to take them he tells us that it is his Royal will and pleasure that the aforesaid Oaths shall not at any time hereafter be required to be taken which is a full and direct Repealing of the Laws in which they are Enacted It hath hitherto passed for an undoubted Maxim that eorum est tollere quorum est condere they can only abrogate Laws who have Power and Authority to make them and we have heretofore been made believe that the Legislative power was not in the King alone but that the two Houses of Parliament had at least a share in it whereas here by the disabling and suspending Laws for ever the whole Legislative Power is challenged to be vested in the King and at one dash the Government of England is Subverted and changed Tho it hath been much disputed whether the King had a liberty of refusing to Assent to Bills relating to the benefit of the Publick that had passed the two Houses and if there be any sense in those words of the Coronation Oath of his being bound to Govern according to the Laws quas vulgus Elegerit he had not yet none till now that his Majesty doth it had the impudence to affirm that he might abrogate Laws without the concurrence and assent of the Lords and Commons For to say that Oaths enjoined by Laws to be required to be taken shall not at any time hereafter be required to be taken is a plain Cancelling and Repealing of these Laws or nothing of this World ever was or is nor can the wisdom of the Nation in Parliament Assembled find words more emphatical to declare their Abrogation without saying so which at this time it was necessary to forbear for fear of allarming the Kingdon too far before his Majesty be sufficiently provided against it For admitting them to continue still in being and force tho the King may promise for the non execution of them during his own time which is even a pretty bold undertaking yet he cannot assure us that the Oaths shall not be required to be taken at any time hereafter unless he have provided for an eternal Line of Popish Successors which God will not be so unmerciful as to plague us with or have gotten a Lease of a longer Life than Methusalah's which is much more than the full Century of years wished him in a late Dedication by one that stiles himself an Irishman a thing he might have forborn telling us because the Size
have provok'd the then Duke of York's Indignation and have exposed the Party that did it to Discountenance and Disgrace The Question is not what is convenient to be done in some measure and degree and in reference to those whose Religion does not oblige them to destroy all that differ from them when they have opportunity for it but the Point in debate is who hath the legal Power of doing it and of fixing its Bounds and Limits It was never pretended that the King ought to be shut out from a Share in Suspending and Repealing Laws but that the sole Right of doing it belongs to him is what cannot be allowed without changing the Constitution and placing the whole Legislative Authority in His Majesty And as it is an Usurpation in the King to challenge it and a Treachery in English Subjects to acknowledge it so the Inconveniences that this or that Party are in the mean time exposed unto through the Laws remaining in Force are rather to be endured than that a Power of giving Ease and Relief farther than by Connivance should be confessed to reside in any one in whom the Laws of the Community have not placed it 'T is better to undergo Hardships under the Execution of unjust Laws than be released from our Troubles by a Power Usurped over all Laws For by the one the Measures of Government as well as the Rights and Privileges of a Nation are destroy'd whereas by the other only a part of the People are Afflicted and unduly dealt with While we are govern'd by Laws tho several of them may be Injust and Inconvenient yet we are under a Security as to all other things which those Laws have not made liable but when we fall under an illimited Prerogative and Absolute Power we have no longer a Title unto or a hedge about any thing but all lies open to the Lust and Pleasure of him in whom we have owned that Power to be seated A Liberty is what Dissenters have a Right to Claim and which the Legislative Authority is bound by the Rules of Justice and Duty as well as by Principles of Wisdom and Discretion to grant And I am sorry that while they stood so fair to obtain it in a Legal and Parliamentary way any of them by acknowledging a Right in another to give it and that in a manner so Subversive of the Authority of Parliaments should have rendred themselves unworthy to receive it from them to whom the Power of Bestowing it does belong Not but that a Toleration will be always due to their Principles but I know not whether the particular Men of those Principles who have by their Addresses betray'd the Kingdom may not come to be judged to have forfeited all Share in it for their Crime committed against the Constitution and the whole Politick Society Nor is there any thing more Just and Equal than that they who surrender and give away the Rights both of Legislators and Subjects should lose all Grace and Favor from the former and all Portion among the latter And how much soever some Protestant Dissenters may please themselves with the Liberty that at present they enjoy in the virtue of the two Royal Papers yet this may serve to moderate them in their Transports of Gladness that they have no solid Security for the Continuance of it For should a Parliament null and make void the Declaration for Liberty and impeach the Judges for declaring a Power vested in the King to suspend so many Laws and for forbearing upon the King's Mandat to execute them the Freedom that the Dissenters possess would immediately vanish and have much the same Destiny that the Liberty had which was granted unto them by the Declaration of Indulgence Anno 1672. Or should the Parliament be willing to grant Ease and Indulgence to all Protestants by a Bill prepared for Repealing of all the Laws formerly made against them and should only be desirous to preserve in force the Laws relating to the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Statutes which enjoyn the Tests of whose Execution we never more wanted the Benefit in order to our Preservation from Popery and which an English Parliament cannot be supposed willing to part with at a time when our Lives Estates and Religion are so visibly threatned to be swallowed up and destroyed by the Papists In that case we may confidently believe that the King instead either of Assenting to such a Bill for separate Favor to Protestants or persevering in his Compassion and Kindness of continuing the Suspension of the Laws against Dissenters he would from an inveterate Enmity as well as from a new contracted Resentment be stirred up and enraged to the putting the Laws in Execution with greater Rigor and Severity than hath been seen or felt heretofore And all that the Addressers would then reap by the Declaration would be to undergo the furious Effects of Brutal Rage in their Persecutors and to be unpitied by the Kingdom and unlamented by their fellow Protestants Or should his Majesty in favor to his good Catholicks resolve against the Meeting of a Parliament or to Adjourn and Prorogue them whensoever he shall find that instead of confirming what he hath done they shall make null his Declaration vote his pretended Prerogative Illegal and Arbitrary and fall upon those Mercenary and Perjured Villains who have allowed him a Power transcendent to Law yet even upon that Supposal which is the best that can be made to support Mens hopes in the continuance of the present Liberty the Protestant Dissenters would have but slender Security all the Tenure they have for the Duration of their Freedom being only Precarious and depending merely upon the King's Word and Promise which there is small ground to rely upon Nor can He be true to them without being false to his Religion which not only gives Him leave to break his Faith with Hereticks but obligeth Him to it and to destroy them to boot and that both under the pain of Damnation and of forfeiting his Crown and losing his Dominions And how far the Promise and Royal Word of a Catholick Monarch is to be trusted unto and depended upon we have a modern Proof and Evidence in the Behavior of Louis de Grand towards his Reformed Subjects not only in Repealing the many Edicts made and confirmed by himself as well as his Ancestors for the free Exercise of their Religion but in the Methods he hath always observed namely to promise them protection in the profession of their Faith and practice of their Worship when he was most stedfastly resolved to subvert their Religion and was about making some fresh advance and taking some new step for its Extirpation Thus when he had firmly purposed not to suffer a Minister to continue a year in the Kingdom he at the same time published an Edict requiring Ministers to serve but three Years in one Place and not to return to the Church where they had first Officiated
till after the expiration of twenty Years In the same manner when he had resolved to Repeal the Edict of Nantes and had given injunction for the Draught by which it was to be done he at the same season gave the Protestants all assurances of Protection and of the said Edicts being kept Inviolable To which may be added that shameful and detestable Chicanery in passing his Sacred and Royal Word that no violence should be offered any for their Religion tho at that very moment the Dragoons were upon their March with orders of exercising all manner of Cruelties und Barbarities upon them So that his Majesty of Great Britain hath a Pattern lately sent him and that by the Illustrious Monarch whom he so much admires and whom he makes it his Ambition and Glory to imitate Nor are we without proofs already how insignificant the King's Promises are except to delude and what little confidence ought to be put in them The disabling and suspending the 13th Statute of his late Parliament in Scotland wherein the Test was Confirmed and his departing from all his Promises Registred in his Letter as well as from those contained in the Speech made by the Lord Commissioner pursuant to the Instructions which he had undoubtedly receiv'd together with his having forgotten and receded from all his Promises made to the Church of England both when Duke of York and since he came to the Crown are undeniable evidences that his Royal Word is no more Sacred nor Binding than that of some other Monarchs and that whosoever of the Protestants shall be so foolish as to rely upon it will find themselves as certainly disappointed and deceived as they of the Reformed Religion elsewhere have been And while they of the Established way find so small security by the Laws which the King is bound by his Coronation Oath to observe the Dissenters cannot expect very much from a naked Promise which as it hath not a solemn Oath to enforce it so 't is both Illegal in the making and contrary to the principles of his Religion to keep Nor is it unworthy of observation that he hath not only departed from his Promises made to the Church of England but that we are told in a late Popish Pamphlet Intituled A New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty Published as it self says by Authority that they were all conditional to wit by vertue of some Mental Reservation in his Majesty's Breast and that the Conformable Clergy having failed in performing the Conditions upon which they were made the King is absolved and discharged from all Obligation of observing them The Church of England says he must give his Majesty leave not to nourish a Snake in his Bosom but rather to withdraw his Royal Protection which was promised upon the account of her constant fidelity Which as it is a plain threatning of all the Legal Clergy and a denunciation of the unjust and hard measure they are to look for so it shakes the Foundation upon which all credit unto and reliance upon his Majesty's Word can be any ways placed For tho Threatnings may have tacit Reserves because the right of executing them resides in the Threatner yet Promises are incapable of all latent conditions because every Promise vests a Right in the Promisee and that in the virtue of the words in which it is made But it is the less to be wondred at if his Majesty fly to Equivocations and Mental Reserves being both under the conduct of that Order and a Member of the Society that first taught and practised this treacherous piece of Chicanery However it may inform the Dissenters that if they be not able to answer the End for which they are depended upon or be not willing in the manner and degree that is expected or if it be not for the Interest of the Catholick Cause to have them indulged in all these cases and many more the King may be pronounced acquitted and discharged from all the Promises he hath given them as having been merely stipulatory and conditional And as he will be sure then finem facere ferendae alienae personae to lay aside the disguise that he hath now put on so if they would reflect either upon his temper or upon his Religion they might now know haud gratuitam in tanta superbia comitatem that a person of his pride would not stoop to such Flattery as his Letter to Mr. Alsop expresseth but in order to some design But what need other proof of the fallaciousness of the two Royal Papers and that no Protestants can reasonably depend upon the Royal Word there laid to pledge for the continuation of their Liberty but to look into these too Papers themselves where we shall meet expressions that may both detract from our belief of his Majesty's sincerity and awaken us to a just jealousie that the Liberty and Toleration granted by them are intended to be of no long standing and duration For while he is pleased to tell us that the granting his Subjects the free use of their Religion for the time to come is an addition to the perfect Enjoyment of their Property which has never been invaded by His Majesty since his coming to the Crown He doth in effect say that His Fidelity Truth and Integrity in what he grants in reference to Religion is to be measured and judged by the Verity that is in what He rells us as to the never having Invaded our Property And that I may Borrow an Expression from Mr. Alsop and to no less Person than to the King himself namely That tho we pretend to no refined Intellectuals nor presume to Philosophise upon Mysteries of Government yet we make some pretence to the Sense of Feeling and whatever our Dullness be can discern between what is exacted of us according to Law and what we are rob'd of by an Exerclse of Arbitrary Power For not to insist upon the violent Seisure of Mens Goods by Officers as well as Soldiers in all parts of England which looks like an Invasion upon the Properties of the Subject nor to dwell upon his keeping an Army on foot in time of Peace against the Authority as well as without the Countenance of Law which our Ancestors would have stiled an Invasion upon the whole Property of the Kingdom I would fain know by what Name we are to call his Levying the Customs and the Additional Excise before they were granted unto him by the Parliament all the legal Establishment of them upon the Nation having been only during the late King's Life till the Settlement of them upon the Crown was again renewed by Statute It were also worth his Majesties telling us what Titles are due to the Suspending the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge a Beneficio and the turning the President of Magdalen's in Oxford out of his Headship and the Suspending Dr. Fairfax from his Fellowship if there be not an Invasion upon our Property seeing every part of this is against all
the known Laws of the Kingdom and hath been done by no legal Court but by a Sett of Mercenary Villains armed with an Arbitrary Commission and who do as Arbitrarily exercise it And as the End unto which that Inquisition-Court was instituted was to rob us of our Rights and Privileges at the mere Pleasure of the King so the very Institution of it is an Invasion both upon all our Laws and upon the whole Property of the Nation and is one of the highest Exercises of Despotical Power that it is possible for the most Absolute and unlimited Monarch to exert Among all the Rights reserved unto the Subjects by the Rules of the Constitution and whereof they are secured by many repeated Laws and Statutes there are none that have been hitherto less disputed and in reference to which our Kings have been farther from claiming any Power and Authority than those of levying Money without the Grant as well as the Consent of Parliament and of Absolving and Discharging Debtors from paying their Creditors and of Acquitting them from being Sued and Imprisoned in case of Non-payment and yet in Defiance of all Law and to the Subverting the Rights of the People and the most essential Privilege and Jurisdiction of Parliaments and to a plain changing the ancient legal Constitution into an Absolute and Despotical Governing Power the King they say is assuming to himself an Authority both of imposing a Tax of 5 l. per Annum upon every Hackney Coach and of Releasing and Discharging all Debtors of whom their Creditors cannot claim and demand above 10 l. Sterling which as they will be signal Invasions upon Property and leading Cases for the raising Money in what other Instances he pleaseth by a Hampton-Court or a Whitehall Edict without standing in need of a Parliament or being obliged to a Dependance upon their Grant for all Taxes to be levied upon the Subjects as his Predecessoâ—s have heretofore been so they may serve fully to instruct us what little Security either the Dissenters have as to being long in the Possession of their present Liberty or Protestants in general of having a Freedom continued unto them of professing the Reformed Religion if we have nothing more to rely upon for preventing our being abridged and denied the Liberty of our Religion than we have had for preserving our Property from being Invaded and broken in upon We may subjoyn to the Clause already mentioned that other Expression which occurs in the foresaid Declaration viz. That as he freely gives them leave to meet and serve God after their own way and manner so they are to take special care that nothing be preached or taught amongst them which may any ways tend to alienate the Hearts of the People from his Majesty or his Government Which words as they import the Price at which the Dissenters are to purchase their Freedom whereof we shall discourse anon so they admirably serve to furnish the King with a Pretence of retrenching their Liberty whensoever he pleaseth nor are they inferted there for any other End but that upon a Plea of their having abused his Gracious Indulgence to the alienating the Hearts of his People from him they may be adjudged to have thereby deservedly forfeited both all the Benefits of it and of his Royal Favor Nor is it possible for a Protestant Minister to preach one Sermon which a Popish Critick or a Romish Bigot may not easily misconstrue and pervert to be an Alienation of the Peoples Hearts from the King's Person and Government And of which as we have heard many late Examples in France so it will be easie to draw them into President and to imitate them in England I might add the Observation of the ingenious Author of the Reflections on his Majesty's Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland Namely that whereas the King gives all Assurance to his Scots Subjects that he will not use invincible Necessity against any Man on the account of his Perswasion he does thereby leave himself at a liberty of Dragooning Torturing Burning and doing the utmost Violences all these being vincible to a Person of an ardent love to God and of a lively Faith in Jesus Christ and which accordingly many Thousands have been triumphantly Victorious over Nor is it likely that this new and uncouth Phrase of not using an invinsible Necessity would have found room in a Paper of that nature if it had not been first to conceal some malicious and mischievous Design and then to justifie the Consistency of its Execution with what is promised in the Proclamation Moreover were there that Security intended by these two Royal Papers that Protestant Dissenters might safely rely upon or did the King act with that Sincerity which he would delude his People into a Belief of there would then be a greater Agreeableness than there is betwixt the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in England and the Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland The Principle his Majesty pretends to act from That Conscience ought not to be constrained and that none ought to be persecuted for mere matters of Religion would oblige him to act uniformly and with an equal extention of Favor to all his Subjects whose Principles are the same and against whom he hath no Exception but in matters merely Religious Whereas the Disparity of Grace Kindness and Freedom that is exercised in the Declaration from that which is exerted in the Proclamation plainly shews that the whole is but a Trick of State and done in Subserviency to an end which it is not yet seasonable to discover and avow For his circumscribing the Toleration in Scotland to such Presbyterians as he stiles Moderate is not only a taking it off from its true Bottom matters of mere Religion and a founding it upon an internal Quality of the mind that is not dissernable but it implies the reserving a Liberty to himself of withdrawing the Benefits of it from all Scots Dissenters through fastening upon them a contrary Character whensoever it shall be seasonable to revive Persecution And even as it is now exerted to these Moderate ones it is attended with Restrictions that his Indulgence in England is no ways clog'd with All that the Declaration requires from those that are indulged is That their Assemblies be peaceably openly and publickly held that all Persons be freely admitted to them that they signifie and make known to some Justice of the Peace what places they set apart for these uses and that nothing be preached or taught amongst them which may any ways tend to alionate the Hearts of the People from the King or his Government Whereas the Proclamation not only restrains the Meetings of the Scots Presbyterians to private Houses without allowing them either to build Meeting-Houses or to use Out-houses or Barns but it prohibits the hearing any Ministers save such as shall be willing to swear That they shall to the utmost of their power assist defend and maintain the King in the
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
we were Sworn and stood bound to be hereby subverted and changed and that thereupon we are not only Absolved and Acquitted from the Allegiance and Fealty we were formerly under to his Majesty but are indispensably obliged by the Ties and Engagements that are upon us of maintaining and defending the Constitution and Government to apply our selves to the use of all Means and Endeavors against him as an Enemy of the People and a Subverter of the legal Government wherein all the Interest he had or could lawfully claim was an Official Trust and not an Absolute Power or a Despâ—tical Dominion the first whereof he hath deposed and abdicated himself from by challenging and usurping the latter And should any Scots Dissenter either in his entrance upon the Liberty granted by this Proclamation or in Addressing by way of Thankfulness for it take the least notice of this Freedoms flowing from the King which cannot be done without Recognising this Absolute Power in his Majesty as the Fountain of it he is to be look'd upon as the worst of Traitors and deserves to be proceeded against both for his Accession unto and justifying the Subversion of the Laws Liberties and Government of his Country and for betraying the Rights of all Free-born Men. For those few Reflections in the foregoing Sheets which this new Proclamation may not only seem to render useless and frustrate the end whereunto they were intended but may make the publishing any Animadversions upon that which the King by departing from does himself Censure and Condemn be esteemed both a failure in Ingenuity and Candor and a want of regard to those Measures of Justice which ought to be observed towards all Men and more especially towards Crowned Heads I shall only say that as the Proclamation arrived with me too late to hinder and prevent the Communication of them to the Publick so I have this farther to add in Justification of their being published that it will thereby appear that what his Majesty stiles Sinistruous Interpretations made of some Restrictions mentioned in his former are no other than the just natural genuine and obvious Constructions which they lye open unto and are capable of and which a Man cannot avoid fastning upon them without renouncing all Sense and Reason And while the King continues to disparage and asperse all sober and judicious Reflections upon that Royal Paper by charging upon them the unjust and reproachful Character of Sinistruous Interpretations it is necessary as well as equal that the whole matter should be plainly and impartially represented to the World and that the Dection be remitted and left to the understanding and unbyass'd part of Mankind who are the Calumniators and Slanderers they who accuse the Proclamation of importing such Principles Consequences and Tendencies or he and his Ministers who think they have avoided and answered the Imputations fastened upon it when they have loaded them with hard and uncivil Terms For tho he be pleased to assume to himself an Absolute Power which all are bound to obey without reserve and in the virtue of which he Suspends Stops and Disables what Laws he pleaseth yet I do not know but that his Intellectuals being of the Size of other Mens and that seeing neither his Sovereignty nor Catholicalness have vested in him an Inerrability why we may not enter our Plea and Demur to the Dictates of his Judgment tho we know not how to withstand the Efforts of his Power Nor shall I subjoyn any more save that whereas his Majesty declares so many Laws to be disabled to all Intents and Purposes he ought to have remembred that beside other Intents and Purposes that several of them may hereafter serve unto as the Papists may possibly come to have Experience there is one thing in reference to which he cannot even at present hinder and prevent their Usefulness and Efficacy and that is not only their raising and exciting all just Resentments in the minds of free-born and generous Men for his challenging a Power to Suspend and Cassate them but their remaining and continuing Monuments of his Infidelity to the Trust reposed in him of his departure from all Promises made at and since his entering upon the Government and of his Invading and Subverting all the Rules of the Constitution The Declaration of His Highness William Henry by the Grace of God Prince of Orange c. Of the Reasons inducing him to appear in Arms in the Kingdom of England for Preserving of the Protestant Religion and for Restoring the Laws and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland IT is both certain and evident to all Men that the Publick Peace and Happiness of any State or Kingdom cannot be preserved where the Laws Liberties and Customs established by the Lawful Authority in it are openly Transgressed and Annulled More especially where the Alteration of Religion is endeavored and that a Religion which is contrary to Law is endeavored to be introduced Upon which those who are most immediately concerned in it are Indispensably bound to endeavor to preserve and maintain the established Laws Liberties and Customs and above all the Religion and Worship of God that is established among them And to take such an effectual Care that the Inhabitants of the said State or Kingdom may neither be deprived of their Religion nor of their Civil Rights Which is so much the more Necessary because the Greatness and Security both of Kings Royal Families and of all such as are in Authority as well as the Happiness of their Subjects and People depend in a most especial manner upon the exact Observation and Maintenance of these their Laws Liberties and Customs Upon these grounds it is that we cannot any longer forbear to Declare That to our great Regret we see that those Counsellors who have now the chief Credit with the King have overturned the Religion Laws and Liberties of those Realms and subjected them in all things relating to their Consciences Liberties and Properties to Arbitrary Government and that not only by Secret and Indirect ways but in an open and undisguised manner Those Evil Counsellors for the advancing and colouring this with some plausible Pretexts did invent and set on foot the King 's Dispensing Power by virtue of which they pretend that according to Law he can Suspend and Dispence with the Execution of the Laws that have been enacted by the Authority of the King and Parliament for the Security and Happiness of the Subject and so have rendered those Laws of no Effect Tho there is nothing more certain than that as no Laws can be made but by the joynt Concurrence of King and Parliament so likewise Laws so enacted which secure the Publick Peace and Safety of the Nation and the Lives and Liberties of every Subject in it cannot be Repealed or Suspended but by the same Authority For tho the King may pardon the Punishment that a Transgressor has incurred and to which he is condemned as in the cases of
in your Kingdoms as here in the Roman Empire But now we refer it even to your Majesty to judg what condition we can be in to afford you any Assistance we being not only Engaged in a War with the Turks but finding our selves at the same time unjustly and barbarously Attacked by the French contrary to and against the Faith of Treaties they then reckoning themselves secure of England And this ought not to be concealed that the greatest Injuries which have been done to our Religion have flowed from no other than the French themselves who not only esteem it lawful for them to make perfidious Leagues with the sworn Enemies of the Holy Cross tending to the destruction both of us and of the whole Christian World in order to the checking our Endeavours which were undertaken for the glory of God and to stop those Successes which it hath pleased Almighty God to give us hitherto but further have heaped one Treuchery upon another even within the Empire it self The Cities of the Empire which were Surrendred upon Articles signed by the Dauphin himself have been exhausted by excessive Impositions and after their being exhausted have been Plundred and after Plundring have been Burned and Razed The Palaces of Princes which in all times and even in the most destructive Wars have been preserved are now burnt down to the ground The Churches are Robbed and such as submitted themselves to them are in a most Barbarous manner carried away as Slaves In short It is become a Diversion to them to commit all manner of Insolences and Cruelties in many places but chiefly in Catholick Countries exceeding the Cruelties of the Turks themselves which having imposed an absolute necessity upon us to secure our selves and the holy Roman Empire by the best means we can think on and that no less against them than against the Turks we promise our selves from your Justice ready assent to this That it ought not to be imputed to us if we endeavour to procure by a just War that security to our selves which we could not hitherto obtain by so many Treaties and that in order to the obtaining thereof we take measures for our mutual Defence of Preservation with all those who are equally concerned in the same Design with us It remains that we beg of God that he would Direct all things to his glory and that he would grant your Majesty true and solid Comforts under this your great Calamity we embrace you with tender Affections of a Brother At Vienna the 9th of April 1689. The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminster concerning the Misgovernment of King James and filling up the Throne Presented to King William and Queen Mary by the right Honourable the Marquess of Hallifax Speaker to the House of Lords With His Majesties most gracious Answer thereunto WHereas the late King James the Second by the Assistance of divers Evil Counsellors Judges and Ministers Imploy'd by Him did endeavour to Subvert and Extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom By Assuming and Exercising a Power of Dispensing with and Suspending of Laws and the Execution of Laws without consent of Parliament By Committing and Prosecuting divers Worthy Prelates for humbly Petitioning to be Excused from concurring to the said assumed Power By 〈◊〉 and causing to be executed a Commission under the great Seal for erecting a Court called The Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes By Levying Mony for and to the Use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative for other time and in other manner than the same was granted by Parliament By raising and keeping a standing Army within this Kingdom in the time of Peace whithout consent of Parliament and Quartering Soldiers contrary to Law By causing several good Subjects being Protestants to be Disarmed at the same time when Papists were both Armed and Imployed contrary to Law By violating the Freedom of Election of Members to serve in Parliament By Prosecutions in the Court of King's-Bench for Matters and Causes cognizable only in Parliament and by divers other Arbitrary and Illegal Courses And whereas of late Years Partial Corrupt and Unqualified Persons have been returned and served on Juries in Tryals and particularly divers Jurors in Tryals for High-Treason which were not Free-holders And Excessive Bail hath been required of Persons committed in Criminal Cases to elude the Benefit of the Laws made for the Liberty of the Subjects And Excessive Fines have been Imposed And Illegal and Cruel Punishments inflicted And several Grants and Promises made of Fines and Forfeitures before any Convictions or Judgment against the Persons upon whom the same were to be Levied All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known Laws and Statutes and Freedom of this Realm And whereas the said late K. James the Second having abdicated the Government and the Throne being thereby vacant His Highness the Prince of Orange whom it hath pleased Almighty God to make the glorious Instrument of Delivering this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power did by the Advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and divers principal Persons of the Commons cause Letters to be written to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being Protestants and other Letters to the several Counties Cities Universities Burroughs and Cinque-Ports for the Chusing of such Persons to represent them as were of Right to be sent to Parliament to Meet and Sit at Westminster upon the 22d Day of January in this Year 1688 in order to such an Establishment as that their Religion Laws and Liberties might not again be in danger of being Subverted Upon which Letters Elections having been accordingly made And thereupon the said Lord's Spiritual and Temporal and Commons pursuant to their respective Letters and Elections being now Assembled in a Full and Free Representative of this Nation taking into their most serious Consideration the best Means for attaining the Ends aforesaid do in the first place as their Ancestors in like Case have usually done for the Vindicating and Asserting their Ancient Rights and Liberties Declare That the pretended Power of Suspending of Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority without Consent of Parliament is Illegal That the pretended Power of Dispensing with Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority as it hath been assumed and exercised of late is Illegal That the Commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes and all other Commissions and Courts of the like Nature are Illegal and Pernicious That levying of Mony for or to the Use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative without grant of Parliament for longer time or in other manner than the same is or shall be granted is Illegal That it is the Right of the Subjects to Petition the King and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning are Illegal That the Raising or Keeping a standing Army within the Kingdom in time of Peace unless it be with
3. By taking the Children of Protestant Noblemen and Gentlemen sending them abroad to be bred Papists making great Funds and Donations to Popish Schools and Colleges abroad bestowing Pensions on Priests and perverting Protestants from their Religion by Offers of Places Preferments and Pensions 4. By disarming Protestants while at the same time he employed Papists in the Places of greatest Trust Civil and Military such as Chancellor Secretaries Privy Councellors and Lords of Session thrusting out Protestants to make room for Papists and intrusting the Forts and Magazines of the Kingdom in their hands 5. By Imposing Oaths contrary to Law 6. By giving Gifts and Grants for exacting of Mony without Consent of Parliament or Convention of Estates 7. By Levying and keeping on foot a standing Army in time of Peace without consent of Parliament which Army did exact Locality free and day Quarters 8. By Employing the Officers of the Army as Judges through the Kingdom and imposing them where there were held Offices and Jurisdictions by whom many of the Leiges were put to Death summarily without legal Tryal Jury or Record 9. By imposing exorbitant Fines to the Value of the Parties Estates exacting extravagant Bail and disposing Fines and Forfaulture before any Process or Conviction 10. By Imprisoning Persons without expressing the Reason and delaying to put them to Tryal 11. By causing pursue and forfault several Persons upon stretches of old and obsolete Laws upon frivolous and weak pretences upon lame and defective Probations as particularly the late Earl of Argyle to the scandal and reproach of the Justice of the Nation 12. By Subverting the Right of the Royal Boroughs the Third Estate of Parliament imposing upon them not only Magistrates but also the whole Town Council and Clerks contrary to the Liberties and express Charters without the pretence either of Sentence Surrender or Consent So that the Commissioners to Parliaments being chosen by the Magistrates and Councils the King might in effect as well nominate that entire Estate of Parliament many of the said Magistrates put in by him were avowed Papists and the Burghs were forced to pay Mony for the Letters imposing these Illegal Magistrates and Council upon them 13. By sending Letters to the chief Courts of Justice not only ordering the Judges to stop and desist sine die to determine Causes but also ordering and commanding them how to proceed in Cases depending before them contrary to the express Laws And by changing the Nature of the Judges Gifts ad vitam aut culpam and giving them Commissions ad bene placitum to dispose them to compliance by Arbitrary Courses turning them out of their Offices when they did not comply 14. By granting Personal Protections for Civil Debts contrary to Law All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known Laws Freedoms and Statutes of this Realm Therefore the Estates of the Kingdom of Scotland find and declare That King James the Seventh being a profest papist did assume the Regal Power and acted as a King without ever taking the Oath required by Law and have by advice of Evil and Wicked Counsellors invaded the Fundamental Constitution of the Kingdom and altered it from a Legal limited Monarchy to an Arbitrary and Despotick Power and hath exercised the same to the subversion of the Protestant Religion and the violation of the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom Inverting all the Ends of Government whereby he hath forfaulted the Right to the Crown and the Throne is become vacant And whereas his Royal Highness William then Prince of Orange now King of England whom it hath pleased the Almighty God to make the glorious Instrument of delivering these Kingdoms from Popery and Arbitrary Power did by advice of several Lords and Gentlemen of this Nation at London for the time call the Estates of this Kingdom to meet the Fourteenth of March last in order to such an Establishment as that their Religion Laws and Liberties might not be again in danger of being subverted And the said Estates being now assembled in a full and free Representative of this Nation taking to their most serious consideration the best means for attaining the Ends aforesaid Do in the first place as their Ancestors in the like cases have usually done for the vindicating and asserting their Ancient Rights and Liberties declare That by the Law of this Kingdom no Papist can be King or Queen of the Realm nor bear any Office whatsoever therein nor can any Protestant Successor exercise the Regal Power until he or she swear the Coronation Oath That all Proclamations asserting an Absolute Power to cass annul and disable Laws the erecting Schools and Colleges for Jesuits the inverting Protestant Chapels and Churches to publick Mass-houses and the allowing Mass to be said are contrary to Law That the allowing Popish Books to be printed and dispersed is contrary to Law That the taking the Children of Noblemen Gentlemen and others sending and keeping them abroad to be bred Papists The making Funds and Donations to Popish Schools and Colleges the bestowing Pensions on Priests and the perverting Protestants from their Religion by offers of Places Preferments and Pensions are contrary to Law That the disarming of Protestants and imploying Papists in the Places of greatest Trust both Civil and Military the thrusting out Protestants to make room for Papists and the entrusting Papists with the Forts and Magazines of the Kingdom are contrary to Law That the Imposing Oaths without Authority of Parliament is contrary to Law That the giving Gifts or Grants for raising of Mony without the Consent of Parliament or Convention of Estates is contrary to Law That the employing Officers of the Army as Judges through the Kingdom or imposing them where there were several Offices and Jurisdictions and the putting the Lieges to death summarily and without legal Tryal Jury or Record are contrary to Law That the imposing extraordinary Fines the exacting of exorbitant Bail and the disposing of Fines and Forfaultures before Sentence are contrary to Law That the Imprisoning Persons without expressing the reason thereof and delaying to put them to Tryal are contrary to Law That the causing pursue and forfault Persons upon Stretches of old and obsolete Laws upon frivolous and weak Pretences upon lame and defective Probation as particularly the late Earl of Argyle are contrary to Law That the nominating and imposing Magistrates Councils and Clerks upon Burghs contrary to the Liberties and express Charters is contrary to Law That the sending Letters to the Courts of Justice ordaining the Judges to stop or desist from determining Causes or ordaining them how to proceed in Causes depending before them and the changing the Nature of the Judges Gifts ad vitam aut culpam unto Commissions Durante bene placito are contrary to Law That the granting Personal Protections for Civil Debts is contrary to Law That the forcing the Lieges to depone against themselves in Capital Crimes however the Punishment be restricted is contrary to Law
That the using Torture without Evidence or in ordinary Crimes is contrary to Law That the sending of an Army in a Hostile manner upon any part of the Kingdom in a peaceable time and exacting of Locality and any manner of free Quarter is contrary to Law That the charging the Lieges with Law-burroughs at the King's instance and the imposing of Bands without the Authority of Parliament and the suspending the Advocates from their Imployments for not compearing when such Bands were offered were contrary to Law That the putting of Garisons on private Mens Houses in a time of peace without the consent of the Authority of Parliament is contrary to Law That the opinion of the Lords of Session in the two Causes following were contrary to Law viz. 1. That the concerting the demand of a Supply for a Forfaulted Person although not given is Treason 2. That Persons refusing to discover what are their private thoughts and judgments in relation to points of Treason or other Mens actions are guilty of Treason That the fining Husbands for their Wives withdrawing from the Church was contrary to Law That Prelacy and Superiority of any Office in the Church above Presbyters is and hath been a great and unsupportable Grievance and Trouble to this Nation and contrary to the Inclinations of the Generality of the People ever since the Reformation they having Reformed from Popery by Presbyters and therefore ought to be abolished That it is the Right and Privilege of the Subjects to protest for remand of Law to the King and Parliament against Sentences pronounced by the Lords of Session providing the same do not stop execution of the said Sentences That it is the Right of the Subjects to Petition the King and that all Imprisonments and Prosecutions for such Petitions are contrary to Law That for redress of all Grievances and for the amending strengthning and preserving of the Laws Parliaments ought to be frequently called and allowed to sit and the freedom of Speech and Debate secured to the Members And they do claim and demand and insist upon all and sundry the Premisses as their undoubted Right and Liberties and that no Declarations Doings or Proceedings to the prejudice of the People in any of the said Premisses ought in any ways to be drawn hereafter in consequence and example but that all Forfaultures Fines loss of Offices Imprisonments Banishments Pursuits Persecutions and Rigorous Executions be considered and the Parties seized be redressed To which demand of the Rights and Redressing of their Grievances they are particularly incouraged by his Majesty the King of England his Declaration for the Kingdom of Scotland of the _____ day of October last as being the only means for obtaining a full Redress and remead therein Having therefore an entire Confidence That his said Majesty the King of England will perfyte the Deliverance so far advanced by him and will still preserve them from the Violation of the Rights which they have here asserted and from all other Attempts upon their Religion Laws and Liberties The said Estates of the Kingdom of Scotland do resolve That William and Mary King and Queen of England France and Ireland â—e and Be Declared King and Queen of Scotland to Hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdom of Scotland to them the said King and Queen during their Lives and the longest Liver of them and that the sole and full exercise of the Royal Power be only in and exercised by him the said King in the Names of the said King and Queen during their joynt lives And after their deceases the said Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdom to be to the Heirs of the Body of the said Queen Which failing to the Princess Ann of Denmark and the Heirs of her Body Which also failing to the Heirs of the Body of the said William King of England And they do pray the said King and Queen of England to accept the same accordingly And that the Oath hereafter mentioned be taken by all Protestants of whom the Oath of Allegiance and any other Oaths and Declarations might be required by Law instead thereof And that the said Oath of Allegiance and other Oaths and Declarations may be Abrogated I A. B. Do sincerely Promise and Swear That I will be Faithful and bear True Allegiance to Their Majesties King William and Queen Mary So help me God A Proclamation declaring William and Mary King and Queen of England to be King and Queen of Scotland Edinburgh April 11. 1689. WHereas the Estates of this Kingdom of Scotland by their Act of the Date of these Presents have Resolved That WILLIAM and MARY King and Queen of England France and Ireland Be and Be declared King and Queen of Scotland to hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdom of Scotland to them the said King and Queen during their Lives and the longest Liver of Them and that the Sole and Full Exercise of the Regal Power be only in and Exercised by the said King in the Names of the said King and Queen during their joynt Libes As also the Estates having Resolved and Enacted an Instrument of Government or Claim of Right to be presented with the Offer of the Crown to the said King and Queen They do Statute and Ordain that William and Mary King and Queen of England France and Ireland be accordingly forthwith Proclaimed King and Queen of Scotland at the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh by the Lyon King at Arms or his Deputs his Brethren Heraulds Macers and Pursevants and at the Head-Burghs of all the Shires Stewarties Bailliaries and Regalities within the Kingdom by Messengers at Arms. Extracted forth of the Meeting of the Estates by me Ja. Dalrymple Cls. God save King WILLIAM and Queen MARY The Manner of the King and Queen taking the Scotish Coronation Oath May 11. 1689. THis day being appointed for the publick Reception of the Commissioners viz. The Earl of Argyle Sir James Montgomery of Skelmerly and Sir John Dalrymple of Stair younger who were sent by the Meeting of the Estates of Scotland with an Offer of the Crown of that Kingdom to Their Majesties they accordingly at three of the Clock met at the Council-Chamber and from thence were Conducted by Sir Charles Cotterel Master of the Ceremonies attended by most of the Nobility and Gentry of that Kingdom who reside in and about this place to the Banqueting-House where the King and Queen came attended by many Persons of Quality the Sword being carried before them by the Lord Cardrosse and Their Majesties being placed on the Throne under a Rich Canopy they first presented a Letter from the Estates to his Majesty then the Instrument of Government Thirdly a Paper containing the Grievances which they desired might be Redressed and Lastly an Address to His Majesty for turning the Meeting of the said Estates into a Parliament All which being Signed by his Grace the Duke of Hamilton as President of the Meeting and
Not by the Law of the Land Answ Yes By the Law of the Land a Petty Constables word would justifie Resistance better then the Kings Commission could justifie the illegal Attempt But suppose there were no Person that had the least Authority and that the resistance could not be within the prescribed Form of government yet because the force is an unauthoritative force and because there is greater necessity of the End of the government than of the Form Men may by the Law of Nature and the Law of Reason proceed to the End not without all Form but without the Political Form for those proceedings that are according to Reason are not simply under no Law but under a more extensive Law and that Law justifies resistance even of Superiors when there is no other way of defence left the people If the Case will admit of Intreaties or sober Counsels or legal Appeals they are to be used but if there be no room for these or if they take no place but illegal force be used that force may nay must be resisted or evil is consented to For he that will not serve the publick by that means when there is no other does actually consent to the ruine of it He that has his house on fire and will not stir to quench the flames though he be able is willing sure it should be burnt The Rules of prudence indeed are to be observed for if there be no probability that resistance will prevent the Evil the attempt is Folly and if resistance will do more harm than good it is inserviceable and if there be any other means effectual it is unreasonable for it ought to be the last refuge and then if the Cause be good Necessity justifies proceeding to the End Not by illegal Means but by suspending the Political Form and appealing to the Reason of Mankind and introducing the Law of Nature And this is no more than when Judgment at Common-Law is reversed in Chancery the Form of the Law gives place to Equity and sound Reason Obj. 6. But is it Rebellion Answ I Answer Rebellion is resisting the just Power of the Government and if so then it is no Rebellion to resist the unjust and usurped Power for then it would be Rebellion to resist Rebellion and there could be no such thing as a just defence against the exorbitant Power of Princes and then the King might Commission a Captain or a Collonel to role up and down in the Country and Plunder and it would be Rebellion in the Posse Cum. at least in any private Family to resist them And a private Commission to cut our Throats would tye our hands till the business were done But the resisting such Force as has neither Moral nor political power is no more Rebellion than to fight against a Wild Beast that came with Strength but no Authority to devour them The Papists indeed have taken up Arms without and against the just power of this Land not only against the Form of Law but to the overthrow of the Laws and Fundamental Rights of this Government directly against the Letter the Power and the End of the Law which is as inslaving to the Subjects as an usurping Conquest and it is no more Rebellion to resist them than Wat Tyler or Jack Cade They are Rebels who Arm against the government not they that defend it by Arms Obj. 7. But this is to usurp the Power of the Sword which by the Frame of the Government is wholly in the Kings Hand Answ The Political Power of the Sword indeed is in the King but that does not devest the Subject of all defence by Arms but only of such defence as is against or inconsistent with the Political Power If force be offered that wants Political Power whoever does it does it but in the Nature of a private Person and private Persons may resist such The Right of Self-defence is a precedent Right to all Policy and every Man has so much of it still as is not given up unto the Political Power he lives under They therefore that have given themselves up to be governed by Law only have Right to defend themselves not only against the private Assailant which is allowed in all Governments but also against illegal Force And this Resistance is no Usurpation upon the Magistrates Power because it is not an Act of Civil Authority but of Natural Right And if thousands joyn in the Attempt they are all Voluntiers a Multitude but no body Corporate and such as challenge no Authority over those they resist but deny Subjection to such unauthoritative Force For such Force wanting Political Power has no Power but Strength and Strength authorizes none to injure but Natural Right authorizes every one to defend himself so that in this case the Resister has a moral Power or Warrant but the illegal Invader none at all Obj. 8. But the Resisters ought not to do an unlawful Act to suppress such illegal Force Answ I Answer That Act is not simply Unlawful that wants Political Power the Law is made for the publick Good as the End and therefore if the prescribed means be not sufficient for the End the Law permits that other reasonable means be used otherwise People might dwell upon the Shadow till they 've lost the Substance The Posse Com. ought not by the prescribed form of Law to go into another County but if the other Country at that time had no Sheriff whereby the power of that County could not be raised to defend it self or if there were Ships in the Borders of the next County to which the Plunderers might escape if they were not hotly pursued I question not but the Posse Com. might do a commendable Act to pursue them and take them in the next County The Law was made for the publick Good and not the Publick Good for the Law and therefore when the Law cannot answer its own End or prescribes ineffectual Means any just and honest Means may be used and this is not destructive of the Law but suppletory not a violating the Form prescribed but an improving it And though a Man may be called to account for doing a Good Act in such a manner I suppose it is but to know the Truth of the Matter and to preserve the Reverence of the Laws for he is already cleared in his own Conscience and in the Breasts of all Good Men and a Pardon in that case does but declare it is so and ought of Right not of Grace to be granted For it is not necessary in respect of any Crime but in respect of some defect in the Law which had not made sufficient provision for the Publick Good Object 9. But it is against true Allegiance and an Oath must be kept though it be to our own hurt Answ True Allegiance must be proportioned to the Frame of the Government and the end of that Frame Therefore if the Frame be to restrain Arbitrary Power the Subject cannot
owe Arbitraty Allegiance Allegiance is more in some Places and less in others but no Man can owe so much Duty to his Prince as not to have a Salvo for God and his Life and here we can owe none that is against our Laws and the Publick Good for that would destroy the Government Our Allegiance therefore must be bounded by our Laws and not by the King's Word or Will No Man can swear to obey the King's Word or Will simply but according to Law It would be Sin to tye our selves to think or speak or do what he would have us at large Our Allegiance therefore must be such as will consist with the Frame of our Government and that must be such as is couched in the Body of our Laws Other Allegiance there can be none but what is wrapt up in Courtesies and Formalities For it seems the King as well as the People is under the Law in some Sense under the direction of it though not under the constraint and therefore at his Coronation he does a kind of Fealty to the Laws and Government and swears Allegiance to them as to a Supream Lord. The Oath is not only Will you grant the Laws but will you grant and keep the Laws and Customs of England and the Answer is I grant and promise to keep them It is certain therefore no Allegiance to the King can be against Law to which he himself owes Allegiance The Case being thus far clear That the Allegiance sworn to is no other but our Legal Duty it does not hinder but that we may resist illegal Force When the King of the Scots swore allegiance to our King it did not deprive him of a just defence of his just Right by taking up arms if he were opprest And the King of England when he swore allegiance to the King of France made no scruple to take up arms against his Liege Lord in defence of his just Rights And the Old Lawyers tell us That the very Villain might in case of Rape and Murther arm against his Lord and if the Law arm a Villain against his Lord Subjects are worse than Villains if they may not arm against their Soveraign Lord's illegal Forces in defence of their Laws Lives Estates and the publick good but what makes it most evident is the Clause in King Henry's Charter which says If the King invade those Rights it is Lawful for the Kingdom to rise against him and do him what injury they can as though they owed him no Allegiance The Words are these if my Author fail me not Licet omnibus de Regno nostro contra nos insurgere omnia agere quae gravamen noster respiciant ac si nobis in nullo tenerentur Much to the same purpose is in King John's Charter which I find thus quoted Et Illi Barones cum communa totius terrae distringent gravabunt Nos Modis omnibus quibus poterunt scilicet per captionem Castrorum terrarum possessionum etalis modis quibus potuerint donet fuerint emendatum secundum Arbitrium eorum salva persona nostra Reginae nostrae Liberorum nostrorum Much may be said of this Nature about the Old Allegiance which was all couched in Homage and Fealty but this is enough to show that true Allegiance does not tye us from resisting illegal Force and Intolerable Incroachments upon our just Rights Obj. 10. But such Resistance would be against the Declaration which says It is not Lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King c. Answ The Latitude of the word Lawful causes the Scruple which at first View seems to tell us That it is sinful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up arms against the King c. But it is no good consequence to say That it is sinful because it is unlawful unless the Discourse be restrained to the Laws of God I must confess it is politically unlawful for Subjects in any Case or for any Cause whatever to take up arms against the King and those Commission'd by him because such a taking up arms here can have no political authority But it is morally lawful in all limited Governments to resist that Force that wants political power The regal power is irresistable in all Persons from the King to the petty Constable but it does not hinder but that all these Persons may be resisted when they do what they have no political power to They that have a limited power and a prescribed Duty may either act against or beyond their Commission and when they so do they may be resisted For such acts have no political power in them though the Persons have to other purposes If a Commission should be granted to a Company of Ruffians to plunder and massacre they might have something more of the King's Affections but no more of his authority than Private Robbers had and consequently might be resisted with equal Honesty None therefore can make this Declaration in its full Latitude but upon this presumption That the King and his Ministers keep perpetually within the Bounds of the Law otherwise they declare the King has an arbitrary power which is against the Fundamental Laws of this Land and a kind of Treason against the State For if he may not be resisted in any Case he may be under some moral restraint but under no political restraint and consequently the political frame of the Government must be arbitrary The meaning therefore of this Declaration can be no other but that a Man can have no Civil power or authority in any Case to take up arms against the King c. But this does not debar any man of the Natural Right of Self-defence by private arms against Inauthoritative Force Obj. 11. To this some reply that seeing God hath placed the Governing though limited Power in the King's Hand no Man may by any Natural Right or Private Defence resist his illegal Force God s Power must not be resisted though abused Answ There is a great difference between the abuse of power and the want of power and therefore this argument either supposes the power greater than it is or concludes ill The King and Parliament have indeed an arbitrary power I do not say Infinite but as Extensive as the frame of government will bear and therefore if they make a very grievous Law though they ought not for they are under a moral restraint though no political neither the King nor any of his Ministers may be resisted in the due Execution of it But the King has no power to burden us beyond or against Law and we may thank our own Weakness if ever he have Strength to do it This shows us there is a great difference betwixt the abuse of political power and the want of it Abused power must not be resisted but Force without power may The political power of arbitrary Princes is more extensive than their moral power And this tyes the Subject to Non-resistance when
as long as the King is safe and his just Power and Prerogatives the Government is in no danger and there is not the least Colour imaginable that those that have surrendered their Offices and Honours the Court and the King's Favour for preserving the Government and are now ready to hazard their Lives in defence of it will ever alter it No their design is to preserve it a greater Evidence of which they could not give at present than to petition for a Free Parliament Obj. 17. But this casts dirt upon the Frame of the Government leaving room for perpetual quarrelling Answ 1. Neither this nor any other Government that I know of affords absolute means of Peace and Preservation The Government is effectual enough so far as it reaches but it is not extensive enough If the Monarch were Arbitrary then no Cause could introduce Resistance the Nation might be at Peace but the Subjects could not be safe and Liberty and Property would be lost Therefore if Safety Liberty and Property be worth the preserving they must be defended when wicked Men would wrest them from us The Constitution of this Government is such That if the King and Parliament or the King and the Subjects differ about Fundamental Rights they have no way to reconcile the Difference but by their own Consent If the King without the Parliament could determine the Difference he would be Arbitrary and if the People or the Parliament could determine it without him they would be Supream and then it could be no Monarchy and if the Judges had the determining Power they would get the Supremacy from both and if a Foreigner were to decide the Matter he would seek his own Advantage so that they must either condescend for Peace sake to one anothers Proposals so as not to destroy the Government or they must suffer the Grievance and let the Quarrel fall for a time till the injurious can be worn to a compliance or they must fight it out for that is their going to Law the Souldiers are their Jury-men and Victory is their Verdict For the Question is not about breach of Government but whether that be the Government or no and seeing this Cause transcends the executive Part of the Government it cannot be decided by Legal Progress but by Law-makers and if they cannot agree Men are at liberty to join with that side they judg in the right Reason and Conscience must be their Guide the Law cannot and they that proceed on this ground are their own Warrants on either side for neither have a Legal Power to determine the other Therefore the Power of Judging is neither Authoritative nor Civil and so argues no Superiority in those that judg but only a Power residing in reasonable Creatures or judging of their own Act of which they never were devested by any lawful Authority and therefore may lawfully use upon such Occasions and though the Government does not Warrant a Civil War in such a case yet the End and Reason of this Government does For it being fram'd to prevent the exorbitant Power of the Prince for the publick Good he that fights for the publick Good against an Usurped Power or an Arbitrary Invader of the Governments Rights is justified by the design and intendment of the Frame and consequently by the Equity of the Government though not by any prescribed Form For seeing many things are morally honest and profitable that are not reduced into positive Laws Men cannot proceed to those things if at any time they become necessary by prescribing Forms of Law because they have none and so in this case the Question being not about Breach of Law but what is Law And the Law not able to satisfy both King and People each claiming contrary Rights from the same Laws the Decision of this Case though it be very good and profitable for this Nation yet has no prescribed form of Law to direct us to and therefore both King and People are to proceed according to moral Honesty to the end of the Government that is the publick Good The Conclusion of all which is That seeing resisting of Illegal and Arbitrary Forces in defence of the Laws and Publick Interest of the Land is not against the Scriptures and consequently no Sin nor against moral Honesty and consequently no Crime not against Law but Law-breakers not against true Allegiance or any Prerogative of the Crown no Rebellion no Usurpation of the Sword nor Criminal Disobedience and not incommodious or unsafe for the Publick in respect of the impendant Injuries and Hazards it removes nor inconsistent with the Frame of Government which cannot otherwise decide an obstinate Difference betwixt King and People I cannot but conclude it is a very worthy and virtuous Act to be in Arms for defence of the Laws the King 's just Rights and the Publick Good and consequently that those Gentlemen who are in Arms for defence of our Laws Liberties and Lives against Illegal Forces Arbitrary Commands and Usurped Powers are in a virtuous Post For if the Subjects Right might not be defended by this means it would be all lost it being all one in these days to have no Right and to have no sufficient means to defend it The Doctrine of Non-resistance plainly puts all we have into an ill King's hands and the good Ones will scarce part with what they are apt to love so dearly and we parted with so freely should we therefore preach this Doctrine to our Princes and tell them that they might take what we have without danger or opposition we should teach them to try our Patience if all must be referr'd to their Consciences they will soon without the help of a Jesuit find case enough and cause enough to secure that and leave the examination of them to the latter Day hatred of our Persons love of our Estates disgust at our Words or Actions or dislike of our Religion will soon judg us unworthy of our Liberty and Property as well as it has already done of our Offices Honours and Preferments Passion and Scorn Pride and Ambition Covetousness and Prodigality would all prey upon what we had with a quiet though not with a good Conscience but especially if the King were poor and necessitous either by wilful Profuseness or Negligence for Nature would even tell him in such a Case That we had all better want than he and then farewel Property the worst you could do him was but to pet and cry a bit and perhaps that might become a Pleasure to him too and then you had nothing to rest on but that God would give you the Kingdom of Heaven for beggering your selves impoverishing the Church and giving what you had to the Devil's Service an ill Ground for such costly Hopes to stand upon 2. This Doctrine renders Government prejudicial to the greatest part of Mankind depriving them of all just Defence For the illegal Force bars them of legal Defence and the Doctrine of Non-resistance
relate to the Executive Power which is in the King and not to the Legislative in which we cannot suppose that our Legislators who made that Law intended to give up that which we plainly see they resolved still to preserve entire according to the Antient Constitution So then the not resisting the King can only be applied to the Executive Power that so upon no pretence of ill Administrations in the Execution of the Law it should be lawful to resist him but this cannot with any reason be extended to an Invasion of the Legislative Power or to a total Subversion of the Government For it being plain that the Law did not design to lodg that Power in the King it is also plain that it did not intend to secure him in it in case he should set about it 4. The Law mentioning the King or those Commissionated by him shews plainly that it only designed to secure the King in the Executive Power for the word Commission necessarily imports this since if it is not according to Law it is no Commission and by consequence those who act in virtue of it are not commissionated by the King in the Sense of the Law The King likewise imports a Prince clothed by Law with the Regal Prerogative but if he goes to subvert the whole Foundation of the Government he subverts that by which he himself has his Power and by consequence he annuls his own Power and then he ceases to be King having endeavoured to destroy that upon which his own Authority is founded XV. It is acknowledged by the greatest Assertors of Monarchial Power that in some Cases a King may fall from his Power and in other Cases that he may fall from the Exercise of it His deserting his People his going about to enslave or sell them to any other or a furious going about to destroy them are in the opinion of the most Monarchical Lawyers such Abuses that they naturally divest those that are guilty of them of their whole Authority Infancy or Phrenzy do also put them under the Guardianship of others All the crowned Heads of Europe have at least secretly approved of the putting the late King of Portugal under a Guardianship and the keeping him still Prisoner for a few Acts of Rage that had been fatal to a very few persons And even our Court gave the first countenance to it though of all others the late King had the most reason to have done it at least last of all since it justified a younger Brother's supplanting the Elder yet the evidence of the thing carried it even against Interest Therefore if a King goes about to subvert the Government and to overturn the whole Constitution he by this must be supposed either to fall from his Power or at least from the Exercise of it so far as that he ought to be put under Guardians and according to the Case of Portugal the next Heir falls naturally to be the Guardian XVI The next thing to be considered is to see in Fact whether the Foundations of this Government have been struck at and whether those Errors that have been perhaps committed are only such Malversations as ought to be imputed only to human Frailty and to the Ignorance Inadvertencies or Passions to which all Princes may be subject as well as other Men. But this will best appear if we consider what are the Fundamental Points of our Government and the chief Securities that we have for our Liberties The Authority of the Law is indeed all in one word so that if the King pretends to a Power to dispence with Laws there is nothing left upon which the Subject can depend and yet as if Dispensing Power were not enough if Laws are wholly suspended for all time coming this is plainly a repealing of them when likewise the Men in whose hands the Administration of Justice is put by Law such as Judges and Sheriffs are allowed to tread all Laws under foot even those that infer an Incapacity on themselves if they violate them this is such a breaking of the whole Constitution that we can no more have the Administration of Justice so that it is really a Dissolution of the Government since all Trials Sentences and the Executions of them are become so many unlawful Acts that are null and void of themselves The next thing in our Constitution which secures to us our Laws and Liberties is a free and Lawful Parliament Now not to mention the breach of the Law of Triennial Parliaments it being above three years since we had a Session that enacted any Law Methods have been taken and are daily a taking that render this impossible Parliaments ought to be chosen with an entire Liberty and without either Force or Preingagements whereas if all Men are required beforehand to enter into Engagements how they will vote if they are chosen themselves or how they will give their Voices in the Electing of others This is plainly such a preparation to a Parliament as would indeed make it no Parliament but a Cabal if one were chosen after all that Corruption of Persons who had preingaged themselves and after the Threatning and Turning out of all Persons out of Imployments who had refused to do it and if there are such daily Regulations made in the Towns that it is plain those who manage them intend at last to put such a number of Men in the Corporations as will certainly chuse the Persons who are recommended to them But above all if there are such a number of Sheriffs and Mayors made over England by whom the Elections must be conducted and returned who are now under an Incapacity by Law and so are no Legal Officers and by consequence those Elections that pass under their Authority are null and void if I say it is clear that things are brought to this then the Government is dissolved because it is impossible to have a Free and Legal Parliament in this state of things If then both the Authority of the Law and the Constitution of the Parliament are struck at and dissolved here is a plain Subversion of the whole Government But if we enter next into the particular Branches of the Government we will find the like Disorder among them all The Protestant Religion and the Church of England make a great Article of our Government the latter being secured not only of old by Magna Charta but by many special Laws made of late and there are particular Laws made in K. Charles the First and the late King's time securing them from all Commissions that the King can raise for Judging or Censuring them if then in opposition to this a Court so condemned is erected which proceeds to judg and censure the Clergy and even to disseise them of their Freeholds without so much as the form of a Trial though this is the most indispensable Law of all those that secures the Property of England and if the King pretends that he can require the Clergy
be miserably diminish'd sooner than we are aware But there remains yet another part of our Message which we have to impart to you on the behalf of your People They find in an antient Statute and it has been done in fact not long ago That if the King through any Evil Counsel or foolish Contumacy or out of Scorn or some singular petulant Will of his own or by any other irregular Means shall alienate himself from his People and shall refuse to be govern'd and guided by the Laws of the Realm and the Statutes and laudable Ordinances thereof together with the wholsom Advice of the Lords and great Men of his Realm but persisting head-strong in his own hare-brain'd Counsels shall petulantly prosecute his own singular humour That then it shall be lawful for them with the common assent and consent of the People of the Realm to depose that same King from his Regal Throne and to set up some other of the Royal Blood in his room H. Knight Coll. 2681. No Man can imagine that the Lords and Commons in Parliament would have sent the King such a Message and have quoted to him an old Statute for deposing Kings that would not govern according to Law if the People of England had then apprehended that an Obedience without reserve was due to the King or if there had not been such a Statute in being And though the Record of that Excellent Law be lost as the Records of almost all our Antient Laws are yet is the Testimony of so credible an Historian who lived when these things were transacted sufficient to inform us that such a Law was then known and in being and consequently that the Terms of English Allegiance according to the Constitution of our Government are different from what some Modern Authors would persuade us they are This Difference betwixt the said King and his Parliament ended amicably betwixt them in the punishment of many Evil Counsellors by whom the King had been influenced to commit many Irregularities in Government But the Discontents of the People grew higher by his After-management of Affairs and ended in the Deposition of that King and setting up of another who was not the next Heir in Lineal Succession The Articles against King Richard the Second may be read at large in H. Knighton Collect. 2746 2747 c. and are yet extant upon Record An Abridgment of them is in Cotton's Records pag. 386 387 388. out of whom I observe these few there being in all Thirty three The First was His wasting and bestowing the Lands of the Crown upon unworthy Persons and overcharging the Commons with Exactions And that whereas certain Lords Spiritual and Temporal were assign'd in Parliament to intend the Government of the Kingdom the King by a Conventicle of his own Accomplices endeavoured to impeach them of High-Treason Another was For that the King by undue means procured divers Justices to speak against the Law to the destruction of the Duke of Glocester and the Earls of Arundel and Warwick at Shrewsbury Another For that the King against his own Promise and Pardon at a solemn Procession apprehended the Duke of Glocester and sent him to Calice there to be choaked and murthered beheading the Earl of Arundel and banishing the Earl of Warwick and the Lord Cobham Another For that the King's Retinue and a Rout gathered by him out of Cheshire committed divers Murders Rapes and other Felonies and refused to pay for their Victuals Another For that the Crown of England being freed from the Pope and all other Foreign Power the King notwithstanding procured the Pope's Excommunication on such as should break the Ordinances of the last Parliament in derogation of the Crown Statutes and Laws of the Realm Another That he made Men Sheriffs who were not named to him by the Great Officers the Justices and others of his Council and who were unfit contrary to the Laws of the Realm and in manifest breach of his Oath Another For that he did not repay to his Subjects the Debts that he had borrowed of them Another For that the King refused to execute the Laws saying That the Laws were in his Mouth and Breast and that himself alone could make and alter the Laws Another For causing Sheriffs to continue in Office above a Year contrary to the tenor of a Statute-Law thereby incurring notorious Perjury Another For that the said King procured Knights of the Shires to be returned to serve his own Will Another For that many Justices for their good Counsel given to the King were with evil Countenance and Threats rewarded Another For that the King passing into Ireland had carried with him without the Consent of the Estates of the Realm the Treasure Reliques and other Jewels of the Realm which were used safely to be kept in the King 's own Coffers from all hazard And for that the said King cancelled and razed sundry Records Another For that the said King appear'd by his Letters to the Pope to Foreign Princes and to his Subjects so variable so dissembling and so unfaithful and inconstant that no Man could trust him that knew him insomuch that he was a Scandal both to himself and the Kingdom Another That the King would commonly say amongst the Nobles that all Subjects Lives Lands and Goods were in his hands without any forfeiture which is altogether contrary to the Laws and Vsages of the Realm Another For that he suffered his Subjects to be condemned by Martial-Law contrary to his Oath and the Laws of the Realm Another For that whereas the Subjects of England are sufficiently bound to the King by their Allegiance yet the said King compell'd them to take new Oaths These Articles with some others not altogether of so general a concern being considered and the King himself confessing his Defects the same seemed sufficient to the whole Estates for the King's Deposition and he was depos'd accordingly The Substance and Drift of all is That our Kings were antiently liable to and might lawfully be deposed for Oppression and Tyranny for Insufficiency to govern c. in and by the great Council of the Nation without any breach of the old Oath of Fealty because to say nothing of the nature of our Constitution express and positive Laws warranted such Proceedings And therefore the Frame of our Government being the same still and the Terms of our Allegiance being the same now that they were then without any new Obligations superinduced by the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy a King of England may legally at this day for sufficient cause be deposed by the Lords and Commons assembled in a Great Council of the Kingdom without any breach of the present Oaths of Supremacy or Allegiance Quod erat demonstrandum MANTISSA WHen Stephen was King of England whom the People had chosen rather than submit to Mawd tho the Great Men of the Realm had sworn Fealty to her in her Father's life-time Henry Duke of Anjou Son of the said Mawd afterwards King Henry the Second invaded the Kingdom An. Dom. 1153 which was towards the latter-end of King Stephen's Reign and Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury endeavoured to mediate a Peace betwixt them speaking frequently with the King in private and sending many Messages to the Duke and Henry Bishop of Winchester took pains likewise to make them Friends Factum est autem ut mense Novembris in fine mensis EX PRAECEPTO REGIS ET DUCIS Collect. pag. 1374 1375. convenirent apud Wintoniam Praesules Principes Regni ut ipsi jam initae paci praeberent assensum unanimiter juramenti Sacramento confirmarent i.e. It came to pass that in the Month of November towards the latter end of the Month at the summons of the King and of the Duke the Prelats and Great Men of the Kingdom were assembled at Winchester that they also might assent to the Peace that was concluded and unanimously swear to observe it In that Parliament the Duke was declared King Stephen's adopted Son and Heir of the Kingdom and the King to retain the Government during his Life I observe only upon this Authority That there being a Controversy betwixt the King and the Duke which could no otherwise be determined and settled but in a Parliament the Summons of this Parliament were issued in the Names of both Parties concerned Quisquis habet aures ad audiendum audiat FINIS
to publish all his Arbitrary Declarations and in particular one that strikes at their whole Settlement and has ordered Process to be begun against all that disobey'd this illegal Warrant and has treated so great a number of the Bishops as Criminals only for representing to him the Reasons of their not obeying him if likewise the King is not satisfied to profess his own Religion openly though even that is contrary to Law but has sent Ambassadors to Rome and received Nuntio 's from thence which is plainly Treason by Law if likewise many Popish Churches and Chappels have been publickly opened if several Colledges of Jesuits have been set up in divers parts of the Nation and one of the Order has been made a Privy Counsellor and a principal Minister of State and if Papists and even those who turn to that Religion though declared Traitors by Law are brought into all the chief Employments both Military and Civil then it is plain That all the Rights of the Church of England and the whole establishment of the Protestant Religion are struck at and designed to be overturned since all these things as they are notoriously illegal so they evidently demonstrate That the great design of them all is the rooting out of this Pestilent Heresy in their stile I mean the Protestant Religion In the next place If in the whole Course of Justice it is visible that there is a constant practising upon the Judges that they are turned out upon their varying from the Intentions of the Court and if Men of no Reputation nor Abilities are put in their places if an Army is kept up in time of Peace and Men who withdraw from that illegal Service are hanged up as Criminals without any colour of Law which by consequence are so many Murders and if the Souldiery are connived at and encouraged in the most enormous Crimes that so they may be thereby prepared to commit greater ones and from single Rapes and Murders proceed to a rape upon all our Liberties and a destruction of the Nation if I say all these things are true in fact then it is plain that there is such a dissolution of the Government made that there is not any one part of it left found and entire and if all these things are done now it is easy to imagine what may be expected when Arbitrary Power that spares no Man and Popery that spares no Heretick are finally established Then we may look for nothing but Gabelles Tailles Impositions Benevolences and all sorts of illegal Taxes as from the other we may expect Burnings Massacres and Inquisitions In what is doing in Scotland we may gather what is to be expected in England where if the King has over and over again declared that he is vested with an Absolute Power to which all are bound to obey without reserve and has upon that annulled almost all the Acts of Parliament that passed in K. James the Ist's Minority though they were ratified by himself when he came to be of age and were confirmed by all the subsequent Kings not excepting the present We must then conclude from thence what is resolved on here in England and what will be put in execution as soon as it is thought that the Times can bear it When likewise the whole Settlement of Ireland is shaken and the Army that was raised and is maintained by Taxes that were given for an Army of English Protestants to secure them from a new Massacre by the Irish Papists is now all filled with Irish Papists as well as almost all the other Imployments it is plain That not only all the British Protestants inhabiting that Island are in daily danger of being butchered a second time but that the Crown of England is in danger of losing that Island it being now put wholly into the hands and power of the Native Irish who as they formerly offered themselves up sometimes to the Crown of Spain sometimes to the Pope and once to the Duke of Lorrain so are they perhaps at this present treating with another Court for the sale and surrender of the Island and for the Massacre of the English in it If thus all the several Branches of our Constitution are dissolved it might be at least expected that one part should be left entire and that is the Regal Dignity and yet even that is prostituted when we see a young Child put in the reversion of it and pretended to be the Prince of Wales concerning whose being born of the Queen there appear to be not only no certain Proofs but there are all the Presumptions that can possibly be imagined to the contrary No Proofs were ever given either to the Princess of Denmark or to any other Protestant Ladies in whom we ought to repose any Confidence that the Queen was ever with Child that whole matter being managed with so much Mysteriousness that there were violent and publick Suspitions of it before the Birth But the whole Contrivance of the Birth the sending away the Princess of Denmark the sudden shortning of the Reckoning the Queen 's sudden going to St. James's her no less sudden pretended Delivery the hurrying the Child into another Room without shewing it to those present and without their hearing it cry and the mysterious Conduct of all since that time no satisfaction being given to the Princess of Denmark upon her Return from the Bath nor to any other Protestant Ladies of the Queen's having been really brought to bed These are all such evident Indications of a base Imposture in this matter that as the Nation has the justest reason in the World to doubt of it so they have all possible reason to be at no quiet till they see a Legal and Free Parliament assembled which may impartially and without either Fear or Corruption examine that whole matter If all these Matters are true in fact then I suppose no Man will doubt that the whole Foundations of this Government and all the most sacred Parts of it are overturned And as to the truth of all these Suppositions that is left to every Englishman's Judgment and Sense The Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy no Badges of Slavery THE Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of the Crown of England having been invaded and broke in upon by the Power of the Court of Rome in K. Henry the Eighth 's time all Foreign Power was abolished and the Antient Legal Supremacy restor'd and by many additional Acts corroborated But all that was done of that kind in K. Henry the Eighth 's time was undone again in Queen Mary's and therefore in the first Year of Queen Elizabeth's Reign an Act of Parliament was made Intituled All Antient Jurisdiction restored to the Crown A Repeal of divers Statutes and Reviver of others and all foreign Power Abolished Which Act recites that whereas in the Reign of R. H. 8. divers good Laws were made and established as well for the utter extinguishment and putting away of all Vsurped and Foreign Powers and