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by one Act of Parliament made in the first and second Years of the Reigns of King Philip and Queen Mary were clearly repealed and made void by reason of which Act of Repeal the Subjects of England were eftsoons brought under an usurped Foreign Power and Authority and yet remained in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Act made in the first and second Years of the said late King Philip and Queen Mary except as therein is excepted be repealed void and of none effect The said Act of Primo Elizabethae proceeds First to revive by express words many Statutes that had been made in King Henry the Eighth's time and repealed in Queen Mary's and Secondly to abolish all Foreign Authority in these words viz.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
History likewise doth shew us how that all our Alliances with the house of Burgundy have still been glorious and useful and all those with France unfortunate and prejudicial 'T is ever more dangerous to go out of the beaten Road to travel through By-lanes unknown and dark untried Paths You 'l easily agree with me that the Union of the United Provinces with France is the thing of all others which we ought the most to apprehend as fatal to our Crown and therefore by consequence nothing can be more safe for England than to disunite them Heaven furnishes us now with an occasion of doing that which we shall never be able to recover again should it be neglected and if we do suffer it to slip away we shall bring that Republick into a necessity of tying this fatal Knot with France stronglier than ever it was fastned before This Union therefore above all others must be the Object of our Care as it hath of late demonstratively been the cause of our Misfortunes I conclude then upon solid Foundations without hesitating That in the first place we must necessarily take part in this War either with Spain or France and next that we must not engage blind-fold without taking right Measures with those who have the same Interest that England hath in the Case thirdly that we must knit our Party firmly together and get all the Advantages we can in this Treaty with Spain as well as all the Security possible with other States without yet exacting from Spain things which are intolerable unto them whom the loss of the Low Countries for fear of being reduced by the Exorbitancy of our Demands may plunge into a necessity of according to whatever France shall require This Discourse being ended I observed by their Countenances that the two Persons who spake first applauded this Opinion and that the third man was much shaken They had some farther speech together but so softly that I cannot well collect the sense of it after which all the Company embraced and gave one another their hand with a reciprocal promise of secrecy as well as an Union in the same Design And thus they separated each a several way with evidence of great satisfaction and friendship And as soon as ever they were gone I slipped back insensibly again into the former obscurity near the Bed without being seen by any of the Domesticks And thus whilst these particulars were fresh in memory I did set them down in Paper and all that I could remember of their Discouse only to satisfie my own Curiosity and the Curiousness of my Friends OF THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OR Politick Constitution OF THIS KINGDOM FUndamental Laws are not or at least need not be any written Agreement like Meer-stones between King and People the King himself being a part not party in those Laws and the Commonwealth not being like a Corporation treated by Charter but treating it self But the Fundamental Law or Laws is a settling of the Laws of Nature and Common Equity by common consent in such a form of Polity and Government as that they may be administred amongst us with honour and safety For the first of which therefore we are governed by a King and for the second by a Parliament to oversee and take order that that honourable trust that is put into the hands of the King for the Dignity of the Kingdom be rightly executed and not abused to the alteration of the Politick Constitution taken up and approved or to the destruction of that for whose preservation it was ordered and intended A principal part of which honour is that Royal Assent he is to give for the Enacting of such good Laws as the People shall choose for they are first to consult their own safety and welfare and then be who is to be intrusted with it is to give an honourable Confirmation to it and so to put an Impress of Majesty and Royal Authority upon it Fundamental Laws then are not things of Capitulation between King and People as if they were Foreigners and Strangers on to another nor ought they or any other Laws so to be for then the King should govern for himself not for his People but they are things of Constitution treating such a relation and giving such an Existence and being by an external Polity to King and Subjects as Head and Members which Constitution in the very being of it is a Law held forth with more evidence and written in the very heart of the Republick far firmlier then can be by Pen and Paper and in which sense we owe our Allegiance to the King as Head not only by power but influence and so part of the Constitution not as a party capitulating for a Prerogative against or contrary to it which whosoever seeks to set up or side with do break their Allegiance and rebel against the State going about to deprive the King of his juridical and lawful Authority conferred upon him by the Constitution of this State under the pretence of investing him with an illegal and unconstitutive Power whereupon may follow this grand Inconvenience The withdrawment of his Peoples Allegiance which as a Body connexed with the Head by the Constitution of this Kingdom is owing to him his Person in relation to the Body as the enlivening and quickâ—ing Head thereof being sacred and taken notice of by the Laws in that capacity and under that notion is made inviolate And if it be conceived that Fundamental Laws must needs be only extant in writing this is the next way to bring all to confusion for then by the same Rule the King bids the Parliament produce those Laws that fundamentally give them their being priviledge and power Which by the way is not like the Power of inferiour Courts that are Springs of the Parliament dealing between Party and Party but is answerable to their trust this Court being it self Fundamental and Paramount comprehending Law and Fquity and being intrusted by the whole for the whole is not therefore to be circumscribed by any other Laws which have their being from it not it from them but only by that Law which at first gave its being to wit Salus Populi By the same Rule I say the Parliament may also intreat the King to produce those Laws that Fundamentally give him his being power and honour Both which must therefore be determined not by Laws for they themselves are Laws yea the most supreme and fundamental Law giving Laws to Laws themselves but by the received Constitution or Polity which they themselves are and the end of their Constitution is the Law or Rule of their Power to wit An honourable and safe Regiment of the Common-wealth which Two whosoever goeth about to divide the one of them from the other breaks the fundamental constitutive Law or Laws and Polity of this Kingdom that Ordinance of Man which we are to submit unto nor can or ought any Statute or written Law whatsoever which is of latter Edition and
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
certain that in all Absolute Governments the poorest Countreys are always most favourably dealt with When the Ancient Nobility and Gentry there cannot enjoy their Royalties their Shrevaldoms and their Stewardaries which they and their Ancestors have possessed for several hundreds of years but that now they are enjoyned by the Lords of the Council to make Deputations of their Authorities to such as are their known Enemies Can we expect to enjoy our Magna Charta long under the same Persons and Administration of Affairs If the Council-Table there can Imprison any Nobleman or Gentleman for several years without bringing him to Trial or giving the least Reason for what they do can we expect the same Men will preserve the Liberty of the Subject here I will acknowledge I am not well vers'd in the particular Laws of Scotland but this I do know that all the Nothern Countries have by their Laws an undoubted and inviolable Right to their Liberties and Properties yet Scotland hath out-done all the Eastern and Southern Countries in having their Lives Liberties and Estates subjected to the Arbitrary Will and Pleasure of those that Govern They have lately plundered and harrassed the richest and wealthiest Countries of that Kingdom and brought down the Barbarous Highlanders to devour them and all this without almost a colourable Pretence to do it Nor can there be found a Reason of State for what they have done but that those wicked Ministers designed to procure a Rebellion at any Rate which as they managed was only prevented by the miraculous Hand of God or otherwise all the Papists in England would have been Armed and the fairest Opportunity given in the just time for the Execution of that Wicked and Bloudy Design the Papists had and it is not possible for any Man that duly considers it to think other but that those Ministers that Acted that were as guilty of the Plot as any of the Lords that are in question for it My Lords I am forced to speak this the plainer because till the Pressure be fully and clearly taken off from Scotland 't is not possible for me or any Thinking Man to believe that Good is meant us here We must still be upon our Guard apprehending that the Principle is not changed at Court and that these Men that are still in Place and Authority have that Influence upon the Mind of our Excellent Prince that he is not nor cannot be that to us that his own Nature and Goodness would incline him to I know your Lordships can order nothing in this but there are those that hear me can put a perfect Cure to it until that be done the Scottish Weed is like Death in the Pot Mors in Olla But there is something too now I consider that most immediately concerns us their Act of Twenty two thousand Men to be ready to invade us upon all Occasions This I hear that the Lords of the Council there have treated as they do all other Laws and expounded it into a standing Army of Six thousand Men. I am sure we have Reason and Right to beseech the King that that Act may be better considered in the next Parliament there I shall say no more for Scotland at this time I am afraid your Lordships will think I have said too much having no concern there But if a French Noble-Man should come to dwell in my House and Family I should think it concern'd me to ask what he did in France for if he were there a Felon a Rogue a Plunderer I should desire him to live elsewhere and I hope your Lordships will do the same thing for the Nation if you find the same cause My Lords give me leave to speak two or three Words concerning our other Sister Ireland thither I hear is sent Douglas's Regiment to secure us against the French Besides I am credibly informed that the Papists have their Arms restored and the Protestants are not many of them yet recovered from being the suspected Party the Sea-Towns as well as the In-land are full of Papists That Kingdom cannot long continue in the English Hands if some better Care be not taken of it This is in your Power and there is nothing there but is under your Laws therefore I beg that this Kingdom at least may be taken in consideration together with the State of England For I am sure there can be no Safety here if these Doors be not shut up and made sure THE INSTRUMENT OR Writing of Association THAT THE True Protestants of ENGLAND entred into IN THE Reign of Q. Elizabeth FOrasmuch as Almighty God hath Ordained Kings Queens and Princes to have Dominion and Rule over all their Subjects and to preserve them in the Possession and Observation of the true Christian Religion according to his holy Word and Commandment And in like sort that all Subjects should Love Fear and Obey their Soveraign Princes being Kings or Queens to the utmost of their Power at all times to withstand pursue and suppress all manner of Persons that shall by any means intend and attempt any thing dangerous or hurtful to the Honour States or Persons of their Soveraigns Therefore we whose Names are or shall be subscribed to this Writing being Natural Born Subjects of this Realm of England and having so gracious a Lady our Soveraign Elizabeth by the Ordinance of God our most rightful Queen Reigning over us these many Years with great Felicity to our inestimable Comfort And finding lately by divers Depositions Confessions and sundry Advertisements out of Foreign Parts from credible Persons well known to her Majesties Council and to divers others That for the furtherance and Advancement of some pretended Title to the Crown it hath been manifested that the Life of our gracious Soveraign Lady Queen Elizabeth hath been most dangerously to the Peril of her Person if Almighty God her perpetual Defender of his Mercy had not revealed and withstood the same By whose Life we and all other her Majesties True and Loyal Subjects do enjoy an inestimable benefit of Peace in this Land do for the Reasons and Causes before alledged not only acknowledge our selves most justly bound with our Lives and Goods for her Defence in her Safety to persecute suppress and withstand all such Intenders and all other her Enemies of what Nation Condition and Degree whatsoever they shall be or by what Council or Title they shall pretend to be her Enemies or to attempt any Harm upon her Person but do further think it our bounden Duties for the great Benefit of Peace Wealth and Godly Government we have more plentifully received these many Years under her Majesties Government then any of our Forefathers have done in any longer time of any other Progenitors Kings of this Realm Do declare and by this Writing make manifest our bounden Duties to our said Sovereign Lady for her Safety And to that end We and every of us First Calling to Witness the Name of Almighty God do Voluntarily and
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
Nature and consequently the Ordinance of God but that the different forms of Government whether to reside in One Few or Many or whether it shall be continued by Succession or by Election together with the different measures and limitations of Power and Authority in Governours of the same kind in several Countries all these things I say are ordained by and purely depend upon positive and humane Laws From whence it will necessarily follow That the same human Authority residing in King Lords and Commons here in England which gave Being to those Laws for the good of the Community is Superintendent over them and both may and ought to make any Addition to or Alteration of them when the publick Good and Welfare of the Nation shall require it unless you will admit That an Human Authority establishing any thing intentionally for the common good of the Society which in tract of time by reason of unforeseen circumstances and emergencies proves destructive of it has by that Act concluded it self and made that accidental Evil moral and unchangeable which to affirm is sensless and repugnant And now Sir I hope by this time said the old Gentleman you begin to think that the Bill for disabling the Duke was not so unjust and unreasonable as was pretended and that the course of Succession being founded upon the same bottom with other Civil Constitutions might likewise as justly have been altered by the King Lords and Commons as any other Law or Custom whatever And here I might conclude but because a late Pensionary Pen has publickly arraign'd the Wisdom Loyalty and Justice of the Honourable House of Commons on the account of this Bill I will ex abundanti add a word or two more to that particular Whereupon he pluck'd a Paper out of his Pocket entituled Great and weighty Considerations relating to the Duke and Successor of the Crown c. Which as soon as he had read unto us You see here said he the true Temper of those men of whom I first gave you caution There never was an Endeavour though in a Legal and Parliamentary way after any Reformation either in Church or State but the Promoters of it were sure to be branded by them with the odious imputations of Fanaticism and Faction Nay if the Country-Electors of Parliament-men will not pitch upon such Rake-hells of the Nation as are usually proposed by them but on the contrary make use of their Freedom and Consciences in chusing able upright and deserving persons and if good men thus chosen do but according to their Duty in the House enquire into publick Grievances pursue in a legal course notorious Offenders and consult and advise the Security of the Government and Protestant Religion the high Church-man immediately swells and in a passion tells you That all this proceeds from the old Phanatick Leven not yet worn out amongst the People That we are going back again to Forty One and acting over afresh the Sins of our Forefathers Thus ignorantly do they complement the Times and Persons they endeavour to expose by appropriating to them such Virtues as were common to good men in all Ages But enough of this In the next place pray observe how hypocritically the Considerer puts this Question viz. Whether Protestant Religion was not settled in this Nation by the same mighty hand of God that establish'd Jeroboam in the Kingdom of Israel And then adds Whether we like that wicked King should so far despair of God's Providence in preserving the work of his own Hands as never to think it safe unless it be establish'd on the Quick-sands of our own wicked Inventions viz. the Bill against the Duke And throughout his whole Discourse he frequently calls all Care of preserving our Religion a Mistrust of God's Providence and on that score calls out to the Nation O ye of little Faith c. Now I will allow him That the least Evil is not to be done that the greatest and most important Good may ensue But that the Bill for disabling the Duke is highly justifiable both by the Laws of God and Constitution of our Government I think by my former Discourse I have left no room to doubt And the Considerer having scarce attempted to prove the contrary it 's preposterously done of him to give us his Use of Reproof before he has clear'd his Doctrine However I owe him many thanks for putting me in mind how Protestant Religion was first establish'd here in England it was indeed by the mighty Hand of God influencing the publick Councils of the Nation so that all imaginable care was taken both by Prince and People to rescue themselves from under the Romish Yoke and accordingly most excellent Laws were made against the usurpation and tyranny of that Man of Sin Our noble Ancestors in those days did not palliate a want of Zeal for their Religion with a lazy pretence of trusting in God's Providence but together with their Prayers to and Affiance in Heaven they joyned the Acts of their own Duty without which they very well knew they had no reason to expect a Blessing from it But now be pleased to take notice of the Candor of this worthy Considerer nothing less will serve his turn than the proving all the Voters for the Bill guilty of the highest Perjury For says he they have all sworn in the Oath of Allegiance to bear Faith and true Allegiance to His Majesty his Heirs and Successors but the Duke is Heir ergo c. A very hopeful Argument indeed But what if it should happen as it is neither impossible nor very improbable to imagin it that the next Heir to the Crown should commit Treason and conspire the Death of the present Possessor and for this Treason should not only be attainded by Parliament but executed too Pray Mr. Considerer would the Parliament in this case be guilty of Murder and Perjury I am confident you will not say it If therefore the next Heir become obnoxious to the Government in a lower degree why may not the same Authority proportion the Punishment and leave him his Life but debar him of the Succession This I say only to shew the absurdity of his Argument My Answer is this No man can bear Allegiance to two persons at the same time nor can Allegiance be ever due to a Subject and therefore my Obligation by the word Heir in the Oath does not commence till such Heir has a present Right to or actual Possession of the Crown which if he never attains either by reason of Death or any other Act that incapacitates and bars him then can my Obligation to him by the word Heir in the Oath never have a beginning But besides all this it cannot be denied but Mr. Considerer's Doctrine does bring great Inconveniences on Succession for the next Heir by his way of arguing is let loose from all the Restrictions and Penalties of Humane Laws and has no other tyes upon him not to snatch the Crown
the People 2. There is a mutual compact tacit or express between a Prince and his Subjects and that if he perform not his duty they are discharg'd from theirs 3. That if lawful Governors become Tyrants or govern otherwise than by the Laws of God and Man they ought to do they forfeit the Right they had unto their Government Lex Rex Buchanan de Jure Regni Vindiciae contra tyrannos Bellarmine de Conciliis de Pontifice Milton Goodwin Baxter H. C. 4. The Sovereignty of England is in the three Estates viz. King Lords and Commons The King has but a co-ordinate Power and may be over-ruled by the other two Lex Rex Hunton of a limited and mix'd Monarchy Baxter H. C. Polit. Catech. 5. Birthright and proximity of Blood give no title to Rule or Government and it is Lawful to preclude the next Heir from his Right of Succession to the Crown Lex Rex Hunt's Postscript Doleman History of Succession Julian the Apostate Mene Tekel 6. It is Lawful for Subjects without the Consent and against the Command of the Supreme Magistrate to enter into Leagues Covenants and Associations for defence of themselves and their Religion Solemn League and Covenant Late Association 7. Self-preservation is the Fundamental Law of Nature and supersedes the Obligation of all others whenever they stand in competition with it Hobbs de Cive Leviathan 8. The Doctrine of the Gospel concerning patient suffering of Injuries is not inconsistent with violent resisting of the higher Powers in case of Persecution for Religion Lex Rex Julian Apostat Apolog. Relat. 9. There lies no Obligation upon Christians to Passive Obedience when the Prince Commands any thing against the Laws of our Country And the Primitive Christians chose rather to die than resist because Christianity was not yet settled by the Laws of the Empire Julian Apostate 10. Possession and strength give a right to Govern and Success in a Cause or Enterprize proclaims it to be Lawful and Just to pursue it is to comply with the Will of God because it is to follow the Conduct of his Providence Hobbs Owen's Sermon before the Regicides Jan. 31. 1648. Baxter Jenkin's Petition Octob. 1651. 11. In the state of Nature there is no difference between good and evil right and wrong the state of Nature is a state of War in which every Man hath a right to all things 12. The Foundation of Civil Authority is this natural right which is not given but left to the Supreme Magistrate upon Men's entring into Societies and not only a Foreign Invader but a Domestick Rebel puts himself again into a state of nature to be proceeded against not as a Subject but an Enemy And consequently acquires by his Rebellion the same right over the Life of his Prince as the Prince for the most heinous Crimes has over the Life of his own Subjects 13. Every Man after his entring into a Society retains a right of defending himself against Force and cannot transfer that right to the Common-wealth when he consents to that Union whereby a Common-wealth is made and in case a great many Men together have already resisted the Common-wealth for which every one of them expecteth Death they have liberty then to joyn together to assist and defend one another Their bearing of Arms subsequent to the first breach of their Duty though it be to maintain what they have done is no new unjust act and if it be only to defend their Persons is not unjust at all 14. An Oath superadds no obligation to pact and a pact obliges no further than it is credited And consequently if a Prince gives any Indication that he does not believe the Promises of Fealty and Allegiance made by any of his Subjects they are thereby freed from their subjection and notwithstanding their Pacts and Oaths may lawfully rebel against and destroy their Sovereign Hobbs de Cive Leviathan 15. If a People that by Oath and Duty are oblig'd to a Sovereign shall sinfully dispossess him and contrary to their Covenants chuse and covenant with another they may be obliged by their latter Covenant notwithstanding their former Baxter H. C. 16. All Oaths are unlawful and contrary to the Word of God Quakers 17. An Oath obliges not in the sense of the Imposer but the Takers Sheriffs Case 18. Dominion is founded in Grace 19. The Powers of this World are Usurpations upon the Prerogative of Jesus Christ and it is the Duty of God's People to destroy them in order to the setting Christ upon his Throne Fifth-Monarchy Men. 20. The Presbyterian Government is the Scepter of Christ's Kingdom to which Kings as well as others are bound to submit and the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs asserted by the Church of England is injurious to Christ the sole King and Head of his Church Altare Damascenum Apolog. relat Hist Indulgen Cartwright Travers 21. It is not lawful for Superiors to impose any thing in the Worship of God that is not antecedently necessary 22. The duty of not offending a weak Brother is inconsistent with all human Authority of making Laws concerning indifferent things Protestant Reconciler 23. Wicked Kings and Tyrants ought to be put to Death and if the Judges and inferior Magistrates will not do their office the Power of the Sword devolves to the People if the major part of the People refuse to exercise this Power then the Ministers may Excommunicate such a King after which it is lawful for any of the Subjects to kill him as the People did Athaliah and Jehu Jezabel Buchanan Knox. Goodman Gilby Jesuits 24. After the sealing of the Scripture-Canon the People of God in all ages are to expect new Revelations for a rule of their Actions * Quakers and other Enthusiasts and it is lawful for a private Man having an inward motion from God to kill a Tyrant †Goodman 25. The example of Phineas is to us instead of a Command for what God has commanded or approved in one Age must needs oblige in all Goodman Knox. Naphtali 26. King Charles the First was lawfully put to Death and his Murtherers were the blessed Instruments of God's Glory in their Generation Milton Goodwin Owen 27. King Charles the First made War upon his Parliament and in such a case the King may not only be resisted but he ceaseth to be King Baxter We decree judge and declare all and every of these Propositions to be False Seditious and Impious and most of them to be also Heretical and Blasphemous infamous to Christian Religion and destructive of all Government in Church and State We farther decree that the Books which contain the foresaid Propositions and impious Doctrines are fitted to deprave good Manners corrupt the Minds of unwary Men stir up Seditions and Tumults overthrow States and Kingdoms and lead to Rebellion murther of Princes and Atheism it self And therefore we interdict all Members of the University from the reading the said Books under the Penalties
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
nothing in the Test consistent with either And 3dly If the Protestant Religion and the Earl his reference to it be nothing then is not only the Council sadly reproached who in their Explanation declare this to be the only thing sworn to in the first part of the Test but our Religion quite subverted as far as this Test can do it But next for the Treason the Advocate says That the Earl expresly declares he means not by the Test to bind up himself from wishing or endeavouring in his station and in a lawful way any alteration he shall think for the advantage of Church or State whereby says he the Earl declares himself and others loosed from any obligation to the Government and from the duty of all good Subjects and that they may make what alterations they please A direct contrariety instead of a just consequence as if to be tied to Law Religion and Loyalty were to be loosed from all three Can there be a flatter and more ridiculous contradiction Next the Advocate pretends to found upon the fundamental Laws of this and all Nations Whereby it is Treason for any Man to make any alterations he thinks fit for the advantage of Church or State But first The Earl is not nor cannot be accused of so much as wishing much less endeavouring or making any alteration either in Church or State only he reserves to himself the same freedom for wishing which he had before his Oath and that all that have taken it do in effect say they still retain 2dly For a man to endeavour in his station and in a lawful way such alterations in Church or State as he conceives to their advantage not repugnant to Religion and Loyalty is so far from being Treason that it is the duty of every Subject and the sworn Duty of all His Majesty's Councellors and of all Members of Parliament But the Advocate by fancying and misapplying Laws of Nations wresting Acts of Parliaments adding taking away chopping and changing words thinks to conclude what he pleases And thus he proceeds That the Treason of making Alterations is not taken off by such qualifications of making them in a lawful way in ones station to the advantage of Church or State and not repugnant to Religion or Loyalty But how then Here is a strange matter Hundreds of Alterations have been made within these few years in our Government and in very material Points and the King 's best Subjects and greatest Favourites have both endeavoured and effectuate them And yet because the things were done according to the Earl's qualifications instead of being accounted Treason they have been highly commended and rewarded The Treasury hath been sometimes in the hands of a Treasurer sometimes put into a Commission backward and forward And the Senators of the College of Justice the right of whose places was thought to be founded on an Act of Parliament giving His Majesty the prerogative only of presenting are now commissioned by a Patent under the great Seal both which are considerable alterations in the Government which some have opposed others have wished and endeavoured and yet without all fear of Treason on either hand only because they acted according to these qualifications in a lawful way and not repugnant to Religion and Loyalty But that which the Advocate wilfully mistakes for it is impossible he could do it ignorantly is that he will have the endeavouring of alterations in general not to be of it self a thing indifferent and only determinable to be good or evil by its qualifications as all men see it plainly to be but to be forsooth in this very generality intrinsically evil a Notion never to be admitted on Earth in the frail and fallible condition of humane Affairs And then he would establish this wise Position by an example he adduces That rising in Arms against the King for so sure he means it being otherwise certain that rising in Arms in general is also a thing indifferent and plainly determinable to be either good or evil as done with or against the King's Authority is Treason and says If the Earl had reserved to himself a liberty to rise in Arms against the King tho he had added in a lawful manner yet it would not have availed because and he says well This being in it self unlawful the qualification had been but shams and contrariae facto But why then doth not his own reason convince him where the difference lies viz. That rising in Arms against the King is in it self unlawful whereas endeavouring alterations is only lawful or unlawful as it is qualified and if qualified in the Earl's Terms can never be unlawful But says the Advocate The Earl declares himself free to make all alterations and so he would make Men believe that the Earl is for making All or Any without any reserve whereas the Earl's words are most express that he is Neither for making all or any but only for wishing and endeavouring for such as are good and lawful and in a lawful way which no Man can disown without denying common reason nor no sworn Councellor disclaim without manifest Perjury But the Advocate 's last conceit is That the Earl's restriction is not as the King shall think fit or as is consistent with the Law but that himself is still to be judge of this and his Loyalty to be the standard But first The Earl's restriction is expresly according to Loyalty which in good sense is the same with according to Law and the very thing that the King is ever supposed to think Secondly As neither the Advocate nor any other hitherto have had reason to distinguish the exercise and actings of the Earlâ—s Loyalty from those of His Majesty's best Subjects so Is it not a marvellous thing that the Advocate should profess to think for in reality he cannot think it the Earl's words His Loyalty which all men see to be the same with his Duty and Fidelity or what else can bind him to his Prince capable of any quibble far more to be a ground of so horrid an accusation And whereas the Advocate says The Earl is still to be judge of this It is but an insipid calumny it being as plain as any thing can be That the Earl doth nowise design His thinking to be the rule of Right and Wrong but only mentions it as the necessary application of these excellent and unerring Rules of Religion Law and Reason to which he plainly refers and subjects both his thinking and himself to be judged accordingly By which it is evident that the Earl's restriction is rather better and more dutiful than that which the Advocate seems to desiderate And if the Earl's restrictions had not been full enough it was the Advocate 's part before administrating the Oath to have craved what more he thought necessary which the Earl in the Case would not have refused But it is believed the Advocate can yet hardly propose restrictions more full and suitable to Duty
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
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
Prophesies the Reasons urged by the Church of Rome will conclude much stronger that such dark passages as those of the Prophets were ought not to be interpreted by particular Persons but that the Exposition of these must be referred to the Priests and Sanhedrin it being expresly proved in their Law Deut. 17.8 That when Controversies arose concerning any Cause that was too intricate they were to go to the place which God should choose and to the Priests of the Tribe of Levi and to the Judge in those days and that they were to declare what was right and to their decision all were obliged to submit under pain of Death So that by this it appears that the Priests in the Jewish Religion were authorised in so extraordinary a manner that I dare say the Church of Rome would not wish for a more formal Testimony on her behalf As for our Saviour's Miracles these were not sufficient neither unless his Doctrine was first found to be good since Moses had expresly warned the people Deut. 13.1 That if a Prophet came and taught them to follow after other Gods they were not to obey him tho' he wrought Miracles to prove his Mission but were to put him to Death So a Jew saying that Christ by making himself one with his Father brought in the worship of another God might well pretend that he was not oblig'd to yield to the Authority of our Saviour's Miracles without taking cognisance of his Doctrine and of the Prophesies concerning the Messias and in a word of the whole matter So that if these Reasonings are now good against the Reformation they were as strong in the Mouths of the Jews against our Saviour and from hence we see that the Authority that seems to be given by Moses to the Priests must be understood with some Restrictions since we not only find the Prophets and Jeremy in particular opposing themselves to the whole body of them but we see likewise that for some considerable time before our Saviour's days not only many ill-grounded Traditions had got in among them by which the vigor of the Moral Law was much enervated but likewise they were universally possessed with a false notion of their Messias so that even the Apostles themselves had not quite shaken off those prejudices at the time of our Saviour's Ascention So that here a Church that was still the Church of God that had the appointed means of the Expiations of their sins by their Sacrifices and Washings as well as by their Circumcision was yet under great and fatal Errors from which particular persons had no way to extricate themselves but by examining the Doctrine and Texts of Scripture and by judging of them according to the Evidence of Truth and the force and freedom of their Faculties VII It seems Evident that the passage Tell the Church belongs only to the reconconciling of Differences that of binding and loosing according to the use of those terms among the Jews signifies only an Authority that was given to the Apostles of giving Precepts by which men were to be obliged to such Duties or set at liberty from them and the gates of Hell not prevailing against the Church signifies only that the Christian Religion was never to come to an end or to perish and that of Christ's being with the Apostles to the end of the world imports only a special conduct and protection which the Church may always expect but as the promise I will not leave thee nor forsake thee that belongs to every Christian does not import an Infallibility no more does the other And for those passages concerning the Spirit of God that searches all things it is plain that in them St. Paul is treating of the Divine Inspiration by which the Christian Religion was then opened to the World which he sets in opposition to the Wisdom or Philosophy of the Greeks so that as all those passages come short of proving that for which they are alledged it must at last be acknowledged that they have not an Evidence great enough to prove so important a truth as some would evince by them since 't is a matter of such vast consequence that the proofs for it must have an undeniable Evidence VIII In the matters of Religion two things are to be considered first the Account that we must give to God and the Rewards that we expect from him and in this every man must answer for the sincerity of his Heart in examining Divine Matters and the following what upon the best Enquiries that one could make appeared to be true and with relation to this there is no need of a Judge for in that Great Day every one must answer to God according to the Talents that he had and all will be saved according to their sincerity and with relation to that Judgment there is no need of any other Judge but God A second view of Religion is as it is a Body united together and by consequence brought under some Regulation and as in all States there are subaltern Judges in whose decisions all must at least acquiesce tho' they are not infallible there being still a sort of an Appeal to be made to the Sovereign or the Supream Legislative Body so the Church has a subaltern Jurisdiction but as the Authority oâ— Inferiour Judges is still regulated and none but the Legislators themselves have an Authority equal to the Law so it is not necessary for the preservation of Peace and Order that the Decisions of the Church should be infallible or of equal Authority with the Scriptures If Judges do so manifestly abuse their Authority that they fall into Rebellion and Treason the Subjects are no more bound to consider them but are obliged to resist them and to maintain their Obedience to their Sovereign tho' in other matters their Judgment must take place till they are reversed by the Sovereign The case of Religion being then this That Jesus Christ is the Sovereign of the Church the Assembly of the Pastors is only a subaltern Judge if they manifestly oppose themselves to the Scriptures which is the Law of Christians particular persons may be supposed as competent Judges of that as in civil Matters they may be of the Rebellion of the Judges and in that case they are bound still to maintain their Obedience to Jesus Christ In matters indifferent Christians are bound for the preservation of Peace and Unity to acquiesce in the Decisions of the Church and in Matters justly doubtful or of small Consequence tho' they are convinced that the Pastors have erred yet they are obliged to be silent and to bear tolerable things rather than make a Breach but if it is visible that the Pastors do Rebel against the Sovereign of the Church I mean Christ the people may put in their Appeal to that great Judge and there it must lie If the Church did use this Authority with due Discretion and the people followed the Rules that I have named with Humility
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
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
enacted for our security which to every ones knowledge are so palpably false that we have all the ground that may be both to question and suspect his sincerity and to conclude that his Masters do not purpose to confine themselves within the bounds that he is pleased to chalk out for them and which he undertakes they shall be contented with for their allotment For what can be remoter from Truth than that the Test Laws were designed as a preamble to the Bill of Exclusion as he phrases it Letter first and that they were contrived to exclude the Duke of York from the Crown as he expresseth it p. 15. of his Good Advice c. when it is most certain that as the Test in 73. was made long before there were or could be any thoughts of it and was enacted by a Parliament against whose Loyalty there can be no exception so there was a clause in the last Test Act by which it was provided that he should not be obliged to take it Again what can be more repugnant to experience than that the King onely desires ease for those of his Religion Good Adv. p. 44. and that the Papists desire no more than a Toleration and are willing upon those Terms to make a perpetual peace with the Church of England Good Advice p. 17. For do we not daily see Protestants turned out of all Places of Trust Authority and Command and Papists advanced into all Offices Military and Civil Could the King have been contented with a Non-execution of the Laws against those of his Communion and could they have been satisfied with such an Indulgence and have modestly improved it 'T is not improbable but that such a behaviour would have so far prevailed upon the ingenuity and good nature of the generality of Protestants that without needing to have been importuned they would have repealed all the Penal Laws against Roman Catholicks But the methods which have been pursued by his Majesty and them shews both that they aim at no less than the Domination and that we must be very willing to be deceived if we either credit Mr. Pen or suffer our selves to be influenced by him after his obtruding upon us for truths matters which our very senses inable us to refute It may justly make us question his sincerity and beget a suspition in all thinking people of the sinistrous design these Papers are adapted unto when we find him endeavouring to cajole the Nation to an abrogation of the Laws by which our Religion and Safety are secured by telling us That the King's word is enough for us to rely upon if they were gone Good Advice p. 49. and that he could easily pack a Parliament for Repealing them if he did not seek a more lasting and more agreeable security to his Friends Letter third p. 12. and that if they were abolished 't is below the Glory of our King to use ways so unlike the rest of his open and generous principles as to endeavour to get a Parliament afterwards returned that is not duly chosen Letter second p. 15. and that he is a Prince of that Honour Conscience and generoas nature as not by invading the Rights of the Church of England to become guilty of an injustice and irreligion he hath so often so solemnly and earnestly spoken against Letter second p. 11. He must needs take us to be strangely unacquainted with the whole Tenor of the King's Actings in England as well as in Scotland and Ireland and to be persons of very weak understandings and of an easie belief if he think we are to be imposed upon and decoy'd by such Topicks as these to absolish the Tests or that after what we have seen and felt contradictory to those Panegyricks and inconsistent with those beautiful and lofty Characters fastned upon his Majesty we should believe Mr. Pen to mean nothing but well and honestly towards the Protestant Interest in what he so earnestly solliciteth the Church of England and the Dissenters in the forementioned Papers to concurr and consent unto I do acknowledge that what he hath said about Liberty due to men in matters of meer Religion and by way of rebuke unto and reflection upon the Wisdom and Justice of those that either are or have been for persecution is very strong and convincing but I must withall add that it is all at this time very needless and impertinent For the Church of England is so sensible of the Iniquity as well as folly of that Method that there is no ground to suspect She will ever be guilty of it for the future They whom no Arguments could heretofore convert the Court whose Tools they were in that mischievous and Unchristian work and by whom they were instigated to all the severities which they are now blamed for by objecting it to them as their Reproach and Disgrace and by seeking to improve the resentments of those who had suffered by Penal Laws to become an united party with the Papists for their subversion hath brought them at once to be asham'd of what they did and to Resolutions of promoting all Christian Liberty for the time to come And should there be any peevish and ill-natur'd Ecclesiasticks who upon a turn of Affairs would be ready to reassume their former principles and pursue their wonted course we may be secure against all fear of their being successful in it not only by finding the Majority as well as the more learned both of the dignified and inferior Clergy unchangeably fixed and determined against it but by having the whole Nobility and Gentry and those Noble Princes whose right it will be next to ascend the Throne fully possessed with all the generous and Christian purposes we can desire of making provision for Liberty of Conscience by a Law Nor can I forbear to subjoyn how surprizing it ought to be to all Protestants that while Mr. Pen expresseth so much charity for the Papists he entertaineth so little for the Church of England He would perswade us that if the Penal and Test Laws were abrogated the Papists would be so far afterward from seeking to shake the Constitution of the Church of England or from breaking in upon the Liberty that is now vouchsafed unto Dissenters or from endeavouring to make their Religion National that they would not onely be contented with a bare Toleration but that upon their enjoyment of ease by Law they would turn good Countrymen and come in to the Interest of the Kingdom Letter first Whereas at the same time he would have us believe that all the Protestations of those in the Communion of the Church of England for exercising Moderation in time to come are but the Language of their fear that their promises are not to be trusted Good Advice p. 54. and that the Dissenters deserve to be begged for Fools should they be satisfied with any less assurance than the abolition of the Penal and Test Laws ibid. p. 55. 'T is enough not onely to excite
him and that 't is no wonder he should exact an Obedience without reserve from his Subjects in Scotland seeing he himself yields an Obedience without reserve to the Jesuits 'T is known how that by the Rules of their Institution no Jesuit is capable of the Mitre and that if the Ambition of any of them should tempt him to seek or accept the Dignity of a Prelate he must for being capacitated thereunto renounce his Membership in the Order Yet so great is His Majesties Passion for the Honor and Grandeur of the Society and such is their Domination and absolute Power over him that no less will serve him neither would they allow him to insist upon less than that the Pope should dispense with Father Peters being made a Bishop without his ceasing to be a Jesuit or the being transplanted into another Order And this the old Gentleman at Rome hath been forced at last to comply with and to grant a Dispensation whereby Father Peters shall be capable of the Prelature notwithstanding his remaining in the Ignatian Order the Jesuits through their Authority over the King not suffering him to recede from his Demand and His Majesty's Zeal for the Society not permitting him to comply either with the Prayers or the Conscience and Honor of the Supreme Pontiff Not only the King's Unthankfulness unto but his illegal Proceedings against and his Arbitrary invading the Rights of those who stood by him in all his Dangers and Difficulties and who were the Instruments of preventing his Exclusion from the Crown and the chief means both of his Advancement to the Throne and his being kept in it are so many new Evidences of the ill will he bears to all Protestants and what they are to dread from him as Occasions are Administred of Injuring and Oppressing them and may serve to convince all impartial and thinking People that his Popish Malice to our Religion is too strong for all Principles of Honor and Gratitude and able to cancel the Obligations which Friendship for his Person and Service to his Interest may be supposed to have laid him under to any heretofore Had it not been for many of the Church of England who stood up with a Zeal and Vigor for preserving the Succession in the right Line beyond what Religion Conscience Reason or Interest could conduct them unto he had never been able to have out-wrestled the Endeavors of Three Parliaments for ex-excluding him from the Imperial Crown of England And had it not been for their Abetting and standing by him with their Swords in their Hands upon the Duke of Monmouth's Descent into the Kingdom Anno 1685 he could not have avoided the being driven from the Throne and the having the Scepter wrested out of his Hand Whosoever had the Advantage of knowing the Temper and Genius of the late King and how afraid he was of embarking into any thing that might import a visible Hazard to the Peace of his Government and draw after it a general Disgust of his Person will be soon satisfied that if all his Protestant Subjects had united in their Desires and concurred in their Endeavors to have had the Duke of York debarred from the Crown that his late Majesty would not have once scrupled the complying with it and that his Love to his Dear Brother would have given way to the Apprehension and Fear of forfeiting a Love for himself in the Hearts of his People especially when what was required of him was not an Invasion upon the Fundamentals of the Constitution of the English Monarchy nor dissonant from the Practice of the Nation in many repeated Instances Nor can there be a greater Evidence of the present King 's ill Nature Romish Bigottry and prodigious Ingratitude as well as of the Design he is carrying on against our Religion and Laws than his Carriage and Behavior towards the Church of England tho I cannot but acknowledge it a righteous Judgment upon them from God and a just Punishment for their being not only so unconcerned for the Preservation of our Religion and Liberties in avoiding to close with the only Methods that were adapted thereunto but for being so Passionate and Industrious to hasten the Loss of them through putting the Government into ones hands who as they might have foreseen would be sure to make a Sacrifice of them to his beloved Popery and to his inordinate Lust after despotical and Arbitrary Power And as the only Example bearing any Affinity to it is that of Louis XIV who in recompence to his Protestant Subjects for maintaining him on the Throne when the late Prince of Conde assisted by Papists would have wrested the Crown from him hath treated them with a Barbarity whereof that of Antiochus towards the Jews and that of Diocletian and Maximian towards the Primitive Christians were but scanty and imperfect Draughts so there wants nothing for compleating the Parallel between England and France but a little more time and a fortunate Opportunity and then the deluded Church-men will find that Father Peters is no less skillful at Whitehall for transforming their Acts of Loyalty and Merit towards the King into Crimes and Motives of their Ruin than Pere de la Chaise hath shewn himself at Versailles where by an Art peculiar to the Jesuits he hath improved the Loyalty and Zeal of the Reformed in France for the House of Bourbon into a reason of alienating that Monarch from them and into a ground of his destroying that dutiful and obedient People It will not be amiss to call over some of his Majesty's Proceedings towards the Church of England that from what hath been already seen and felt both they and all English Protestants may the better know what they are to expect and look for hereafter Tho it be a Method very unbecoming a Prince yet it shews a great deal of Spleen to turn the former Persecution of Dissenters so maliciously upon the Prelatical and Conforming Clergy as his Majesty doth in his Letter to Mr. Alsop in stiling them a Party of Protestants who think the only way to advance their Church is by undoing those Churches of Christians that differ from them in smaller Matters Whereas the Severity that the Fanaticks met with had much of its Original at Court where it was formed and designed upon Motives of Popery and Arbitrariness and the Resentment and revengeful Humor of some of the old Prelates and other Church-men that had suffered in the late times was only laid hold of the better to justifie and improve it And tho it be too true that many of the dignified Rank as well as of the little Levites were both extremely fond of it and contentiously pleaded for it yet it is as true that most of them did it not upon Principles of Judgment and Conscience but upon Inducements of Retaliation for conceived Injuries and upon a belief of its being the most compendious Method to the next Preferment and Benefice and the fairest way of standing
commended or promised to stand by him For tho the Matter and Subject of the Arbitrary Act of him now upon the Throne be not as to every Branch of it so publickly Scandalous as some of the Arbitrary Proceedings of the late King were as relating to a Favor which Mankind hath a just Claim unto yet it is every way as Illegal being in reference to a Privilege which his Majesty hath no Authority to grant and bestow And were it not that there are many Dissenters who preserve themselves Innocent at this Juncture and upon whom the Temptation that is administred makes no Impression the World would have just ground to say that the Fanaticks are not governed by Principles but that the Measures they walk by are what conduceth to their private and personal Benefit or what lyes in a Tendency to their Loss and Prejudice And that it was not the late King's Usurping and exerting an Arbitrary and illegal Power that offended them but that they were not the Objects in whose Favor it was exercised 'T is also an Aggravation of their Folly as well as their Offence that they should revive a Practice which the Nation was grown asham'd of and whereof they who had been guilty begun to repent through having seen that all the former Declarations Assurances and Promises of the Royal Brothers which tempted to Applications of that kind were but so many Juggles peculiar to the late Breed of the Family for the deceiving of Mankind and that never one of them was performed and made good But the Transgression as well as the Imprudence of the present Addressers is yet the greater and they are the more Criminal and Inexcusable before God and Men in that they might have enjoyed all the Benefits of the King's Declaration without acknowledging the Justice of the Authority by which it was granted or making themselves the Scorn and Contempt of all that are truly Honest and Wise by their servile Adulations and their Gratulatory Scriblers unbecoming English-men and Protestants They had no more to do but to continue their Meetings as they had sometimes heretofore used to do without taking notice that the present Suspension of the Laws made their Assembling together more safe and freed them from Apprehensions of Fines and Imprisonments Nor could the King how much soever displeased with such a Conduct have at this time ventured upon the expressing Displeasure against them seeing as that would have been both to have proclaimed his Hypocrisie in saying That Conscience ought not to be constrained nor People forced in matters of mere Religion and a discovering the villainous Design in Subserviency to which the Declaration had been emitted so it were not possible for him after what he hath published to single out the Dissenters from amongst other Protestants and to fall upon all before Matters are more ripe for it might be a means of the Abortion of all his Popish Projections and of saving the whole Reformed Interest in Great Britain Neither would the Church of England-men have envied their Tranquility or have blamed their Carriage but would have been glad that their Brethren had been eased from Oppressions and themselves delivered from the grievous and dishonorable Task of prosecuting them which they had formerly been forced unto by Court-Injunctions and Commands And as they would have by a Conduct of this Nature had all the Freedom which they now enjoy without the Guilt and Reproach which they have derived upon themselves by Addressing so such a Carriage would have wonderfully recommended them to the Favor of a true English Parliament which tho it would see cause to condemn the King's Usurping a Power of Suspending the Laws and to make void his Declaration yet in gratitude to Dissenters for such a Behavior as well as in Pity and Compassion to them as English Protestants such a Parliament would not fail to do all it could to give them relief in a legal way Whereas if any thing Enflame and Exasperate the Nation to revive their Sufferings it will arise from a Resentment of the unworthy and treacherous Carriage of so many of them in this critical and dangerous Juncture But the Terms which through their Addressing they have owned the receiving their Liberty and Indulgence upon does in a peculiar manner enhance their Guilt against God and their Country and strangely adds to the Disgust and Anger which Lovers of Religion and the Laws of the Nation have conceived against them For it is not only upon the Acknowledgment of a Prerogative in the King over the Laws that they have received and now hold their Liberty but it is upon the Condition That nothing be preached or taught amongst them that may any ways tend to alienate the Hearts of the People from his Majesty's Person and Government He must be of an Understanding very near allied unto and approaching to that of an Irish-man who does not know what the Court-Sense of that Clause is and that his Majesty thereby intends that they are not to preach against Popery nor to set forth the Doctrines of the Romish Church in Terms that may prevent the Peoples being infected by them much less in Colours that may render them Hated and Abhorred To accuse the King's Religion of Idolatry or to affirm the Church of Rome to be the Apocalyptick Babylon and to represent the Articles of the Tridentine Faith as Faithful Ministers of Christ ought to do would be accounted an alienating the Hearts of their Hearers from the King and his Government which as they are in the foresaid Clauses required not to do so they have by their Addressing confessed the Justice of the Terms and have undertaken to hold their Liberty by that Tenor. And to give them their due they have been very Faithful hitherto in conforming to what the King Exacts and in observing what themselves have assented to the Equity of For notwithstanding all the Danger from Popery that the Nation is exposed unto and all the Hazard that the Souls of Men are in of being poysoned with Romish Principles yet instead of Preaching or Writing against any of the Doctrines of the Church of Rome they have agreed among themselves and with such of their Congregations as approve their Procedure not so much as to mention them but to leave the Province of defending our Religion and of detecting the Falshood of Papal Tenets to the Pastors and Gentlemen of the Church of England And being ask'd as I know some of them that have been why they do not preach against Antichrist and confute the Papal Dectrines they very gravely reply that by preaching Christ they preach against Anti-christ and that by Teaching the Gospel they refute Popery which is such a piece of fraudulent and guilful Subterfuge that I want words to express the knavery and criminalness of it What a reserve and change have I lived to see in England from what I beheld a few years ago It was but the other day that the Conformable Clergy
at York Nov. 1688. Wherein is shewed That it is neither against Scripture nor Moral honesty to defend their Just and Legal Rights against the Illegal Invaders of them Occasioned then by some Private Debates and now submitted to better Judgments The present Undertaking of the Gentlemen at York Nov. 88. taken into Consideration wherein is shewed That it is neither against Scripture nor moral Honesty to defend their Just and Legal Rights against the Illegal and Unjust Invaders of them by way of Objection and Answer 1. THat it is not against Scripture is shewed Obj. 1 2 3. 2. That it is not inconsistent with the Frame of the Government in General Obj. 4. 3. Not against the Law but the Law-breakers Obj. 5. 4. Not Rebellion Obj. 6. 5. No Vsurpation of the Power of the Sword Obj. 7. 6. No unlawful Act in a moral Sense Obj. 8. 7. Not against true Allegiance Obj. 9. 8. Not against the Declaration in a Legal Sense Obj 10. 9. Not against Political Power but Force without Political Power Obj. 11. 10. Not against any Royal Prerogative in general Obj. 12. 11. Not against the Supremacy Obj. 13. 12. Not Criminal Disobedience Obj. 14. 13. Not incommodious or unsafe for the Publick in respect of the present and approaching Evils in removes Obj. 15 16. 14. No disparagement to the Frame of the Government that cannot otherwise decide an obstinate difference between King and People Obj. 17. Lastly The Conclusion shewing That Non-resistance of illegal Force does in effect make all Monarchs Arbitrary and the People Slaves The Thoughts of a Private Person c. MEn have three Rules to walk by which we may call Laws that is Nature Reason and Religion and answerable to these three a Christian hath three Principles that is Sensitive Rational and Spiritual which I take to be the distinction that St. Paul makes 1 Thes 5.23 I pray God your whole Spirit Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Nature considers all Men as single Persons and directs them to Self-interest and Self-preservation as the chief end Reason considers Men as sociable Creatures and directs them to unite the Government for the publick Good inclusive of their own Safety as the chief End And the Spirit considers Men as Candidates for Heaven and directs them to live according to the Word of God that they may attain Eternal Happiness the chief End of Man All these have the divine Warrant and are of force where the Lower is not superseded by the Higher A single Person is not to expose himself to ruin unless it be for the Publick good and the Publick are not to expose themselves to Beggary and Slavery unless it be for the Kingdom of Heaven Now though these Rules may be considered separate and apart yet they all ought to be in a Christian Government Laws for the publick Good do not destroy the Law of Nature but supersede it for a greater Good and the Laws of God do not destroy the Law of Reason but supersede it for a higher end and so makes it still more Reasonable to do so Nothing therefore can justifie a Private Injury but the Publick Good and nothing can hinder the Publick Good for being carried on but Sin For these Laws are not destructive but supportive of one another and all supportive of Man When a Man cannot defend himself by the Method and Measures of the Publick as in case of sudden Assaults he may by the Law of Nature break the Peace and smite his Adversary to save his own life because humane Laws can reward no Person 's obedience with so good a thing as life and therefore the publick good excepted his life is to be preferred before all forms of Law But it is not so with the Laws of God for if I be urged to deny my Faith or dye I must dye rather than break God's Law because God will give me a better Life and an infinite Reward Necessity can suspend a positive Law of Man that is merely such but it cannot supersede what is established by God or Nature an Act therefore that is civilly Unlawful may notwithstanding be Lawful because it is not Lawless but under a more extensive Law If it be according to the Laws of God or sound Reason the Conscience is safe and the Act commendable before God and good Men though it be against the form of Political Law For though it be against the Form it is not against the Reason of that Law and the Form not being extensive enough of Man's safety it must give place to necessity and absolve him of his duty when his duty would destroy him The Safety of Man shows us both the Necessity and End of humane Government for when private Persons found they could not be Safe they were willing to enter into Compacts and Associations and reposite their private Safety in the publick Interest And therefore if after this Association some of their Fellows will break the Covenants and go about to destroy the Rest it is lawful both by the Laws of God and Man for the injured to defend themselves and by the Laws and Compacts by them made and consented to on both sides for the publick Good Otherwise it would be unlawful to resist Injustice and consequently a Thief or a Robber Object 1. But you will say in all Governments there are Superiours and Inferiours and God has made Obedience a part of Religion and consequently conducive to a higher end than the Publick Good and therefore if the Governours break the Laws and introduce a Publick Evil for a Private Interest they must not be resisted upon pain of Damnation Answ This were a good Plea if it were true but God is not the Patron of Injustice and therefore he gives no Prince or Potentate more Authority over the People than the Tables of the Government express and of these there are diverse degrees Those that are Govern'd by the will of their Prince whose Word is a Law if he command their Persons for Slaves or Estates to serve his Ambition they must obey and God requires it of them because it is the Princes Right Arbitrary Princes have a Political Power to treat a Subject cruelly and inhumanely their Immorality is an offence against God not injustice to the Subject who had given up himself to be used at their discretion But those that are to rule by Laws made for the Publick good and such as render the Subjects Freemen not Slaves such as secures their Religion Liberty and Property if these Princes contrary to Law imprison their persons or seize their Estates they do it unjustly without God's Warrant or any Political Authority and may be resisted or else we might not resist the Devil should he creep into the Court in a Jesuits habit and Haman-like get a Commission to cut all our Throats If I be called to suffer for my Religion or the Faith of Christ I am bound to
from a Divine Right so though Princes have no immediate Warrants from Heaven either for their original Titles or for the extent of them yet they are secured in the possession of them by the Principles and Rules of Natural Religion V. It is to be considered that as a private Person can bind himself to another Man's Service by different Degrees either as an ordinary Servant for Wages or as one appropriate for a longer time as an Apprentice or by a total giving himself up to another as in the case of Slavery In all which Cases the general Name of Master may be equally used yet the Degrees of his Power are to be judged by the Nature of the Contract so likewise Bodies of Men can give themselves up in different Degrees to the Conduct of others and therefore though all those may carry the same name of King yet every ones Power is to be taken from the Measures of that Authority which is lodged in him and not from any general Speculations founded on some equivocal Terms such as King Sovereign or Supream VI. It is certain that God as the Creator and Governour of the World may set up whom he will to rule over other Men But this Declaration of his Will must be made evident by Prophets or other extraordinary Men sent of him who have some manifest Proofs of the Divine Authority that is committed to them on such Occasions and upon such Persons declaring the Will of God in favour of any others that Declaration is to be submitted to and obeyed But this pretence of a Divine Delegation can be carried no further than to those who are thus expresly marked out and is unjustly claimed by those who can prove no such Declaration to have been ever made in favour of them or their Families Nor does it appear reasonable to conclude from their being in possession that it is the Will of God that it should be so this justifies all Usurpers when they are successful VII The Measures of Power and by consequence of Obedience must be taken from the express Laws of any State or Body of Men from the Oaths that they swear or from immemorial Prescription and a long Possession which both give a Title and in a long tract of Time make a bad one become good since Prescription when it passes the Memory of Man and is not disputed by any other Pretender gives by the common sense of all Men a just and good Title So upon the whole matter the Degrees of all Civil Authority are to be taken either from express Laws immemorial Customs or from particular Oaths which the Subjects swear to their Princes this being still to be laid down for a Principle that in all the Disputes between Power and Liberty Power must always be proved but Liberty proves it self the one being founded only upon positive Law and the other upon the Law of Nature VIII If from the general Principles of human Society and natural Religion we carry this matter to be examined by the Scriptures it is clear that all the Passages that are in the Old Testament are not to be made use of in this matter of neither side For as the Land of Canaan was given to the Jews by an immediate Grant from Heaven so God reserved still this to himself and to the Declarations that he should make from time to time either by his Prophets or by the Answers that came from the Cloud of Glory that was between the Cherubims to set up Judges or Kings over them and to pull them down again as he thought fit Here was an express Delegation made by God and therefore all that was done in that Dispensation either for or against Princes is not to be made use of in any other State that is founded on another Bottom and Constitution and all the Expressions in the Old Testament relating to Kings since they belong to Persons that were immediately designed by God are without any sort of Reason applied to those who can pretend to no such designation neither for themselves nor for their Ancestors IX As for the New Testament it is plain that there are no Rules given in it neither for the Forms of Government in general nor for the Degrees of any one Form in particular but the general Rules of Justice Order and Peace being established in it upon higher Motives and more binding Considerations than ever they were in any other Religion whatsoever we are most strictly bound by it to observe the Constitution in which we are and it is plain that the Rules set us in the Gospel can be carried no further It is indeed clear from the New Testament that the Christian Religion as such gives us no grounds to defend or propagate it by force It is a Doctrine of the Cross and of Faith and Patience under it And if by the Order of Divine Providence and of any Constitution of Government under which we are born we are brought under Sufferings for our professing of it we may indeed retire and fly out of any such Country if we can but if that is denied us we must then according to this Religion submit to those Sufferings under which we may be brought considering that God will be glorified by us in so doing and that he will both support us under our Sufferings and gloriously reward us for them This was the state of the Christian Religion during the three first Centuries under Heathen Emperors and a Constitution in which Paganism was established by Law But if by the Laws of any Government the Christian Religion or any Form of it is become a part of the Subjects Property it then falls under another Consideration not as it is a Religion but as it is become one of the principal Rights of the Subjects to believe and profess it and then we must judg of the Invasions made on that as we do of any other Invasion that is made on our other Rights X. All the Passages in the New Testament that relate to Civil Government are to be expounded as they were truly meant in opposition to that false Notion of the Jews who believed themselves to be so immediately under the Divine Authority that they could not become the Subjects of any other Power particularly of one that was not of their Nation or of their Religion therefore they thought they could not be under the Roman Yoke nor bound to pay Tribute to Cesar but judged that they were only subject out of fear by reason of the force that lay on them but not for Conscience sake and so in all their dispersion both at Rome and elsewhere they thought they were God's Freemen and made use of this pretended Liberty as a cloak of Maliciousness In opposition to all which since in a course of many Years they had asked the Protection of the Roman Yoke and were come under their Authority our Saviour ordered them to continue in that by his saying Render to Cesar that which is
recites the daily Experiences that many of his Majesty's Subjects that adhere in their Hearts to the Popish Religion by the Infection drawn from thence by the wicked and devillish Counsel of Jesuits Seminaries and other like Persons dangerous to the Church and State are so far perverted in the point of their Loyalties and due Allegiance to the King's Majesty and the Crown of England as they are ready to entertain and execute any Treasonable Conspiracies and Practices And for the better Trial how his Majesty's Subjects stand affected in point of their Loyalties and due Obedience Enacts that it shall be lawful for any Bishop in his Diocess or any two Justices of the Peace whereof one to be of the Quorum within the Limits of their Jurisdiction out of the Session to require any Person of the age of eighteen Years or above which shall be convict or indicted of Recusancy other than Noblemen c. or which shall not have received the Sacrament twice within the Year then next past or any Person passing in or through the Country unknown that being examined upon Oath shall confess or not deny him or her self to be a Recusant and to take the Oath therein after expressed viz. c. The Oath of Allegiance So that by the occasion of imposing the Oath and by the appointing it to be tendred only to Papists or suspected Papists it is apparent that the Design of the Law-makers was to detect such Persons as were perverted or in danger to be perverted in their Loyalty by Infection drawn from the Popish Religion The form of the Oath makes it yet more evident being wholly levell'd against any Opinion of the Lawfulness of deposing the King or practising any Treason against him upon pretence of his being excommunicated or deprived by the Pope and against any Opinion of the Pope's Power to discharge Subjects from their Oaths of Fidelity to their Princes It runs thus viz. I A. B. Do truly and sincerely profess testify and declare in my Conscience before God and the World that our Soveraign Lord King James is lawful and rightful King of this Realm and of all his Majesty's Dominions and Countries And that the Pope neither of himself nor by any Authority of the Church or See of Rome or by any other means with any other hath any Power or Authority to depose the King or to dispose any of his Majesty's Kingdoms or Dominions or to authorize any Foreign Prince to invade or annoy him or his Countries or to discharge any of his Subjects of their Allegiance or Obedience to his Majesty or to give licence or leave to any of them to bear Arms raise Tumults or to offer any Violence or Hurt to his Majesty's Royal Person State or Government or to any of his Majesty's Subjects within his Majesty's Dominions Also I do swear from my Heart that notwithstanding any Declaration or Sentence of Excommunication or Deprivation made or granted or to be made or granted by the Pope or his Successors or by any Authority derived or pretended to be derived from him or his See against the said King his Heirs and Successors or any Absolution of the said Subjects from their Obedience I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and him and them will defend to the uttermost of my Power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever which shall be made against his or their Persons their Crown and Dignity by reason or colour of any such Sentence or Declaration or otherwise and will do my best endeavour to disclose and make known unto his Majesty his Heirs and Successors all Treasons and traiterous Conspiracies which I shall know or hear of to be against him or any of them And I do further swear that I do from my Heart abhor and detest and abjure as impious and heretical this damnable Doctrine and Position That Princes which be excommunicated or deprived by the Pope may be deposed or murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do believe and in Conscience am perswaded that neither the Pope nor any Person whatsoever hath Power to absolve me of this Oath or any part thereof which I acknowledg by good and lawful Authority to be lawfully administred unto me and I do renounce all Parsons and Dispensations to the contrary And all these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledg and swear according to these express words by me spoken and according to the plain and common Sense and Vnderstanding of the same words without any Equivocation or mental Evasion or secret Reservation whatsoever And I do make this Recognition and Acknowledgment heartily willingly and truly upon the true Faith of a Christian So help me God And the Statute of 7 Jacobi cap. 6. recites that Whereas by a Statute made in the third Year of the said King's Reign the form of an Oath to be ministred and given to certain Persons in the same Act mentioned is limited and prescribed tending only to the Declaration of such Duty as every true and well affected Subject not only by bond of Allegiance but also by the Commandment of Almighty God ought to bear to the King his Heirs and Successors Which Oath such are infected with Popish Superstition do oppugne with many false and unsound Arguments the just defence whereof the King had therefore undertaken and worthily performed to the great contentment of all his Subjects notwithstanding the Gainsayings of Contentious Adversaries And to shew how greatly the King 's Loyal Subjects do approve the said Oath they beseech his Majesty that the said Oath be administred to all his Subjects The Pope and Authority of the See of Rome run through the first Paragraph Notwithstanding any Declaration or Sentence of Excommunication c. Governs the second Paragraph Excommunicated and deprived the Pope are the material words in the third Paragraph The fourth is added in Majorem cautelam in opposition to the Popish Doctrine of Dispensing with Oaths Absolving Subjects from their Allegiance Equivocations Mental Evasions c. So that as the Oath of Supremacy did but enforce the Antient Oath of Fealty with an acknowledgment of the Queen 's supream Authority in Ecclesiastial Causes and things as well as Temporal and a Renunciation of all Foreign Jurisdictions so the Oath of Allegiance does but enforce the same old Oath of Fealty by obliging the Subjects of England expresly to disown any lawful Authority in the Pope or See of Rome to depose invade or annoy the King his Dominions or Subjects And notwithstanding any Sentence of Excommunication Deprivation c. by the Pope c. to bear Faith and true Allegiance to the King his Heirs and lawful Successors And to abjure that Position that it is lawful to depose Princes that are Excommunicated or Deprived by the Pope Whatever is added is either Oath over and above what was exprest in the old Oath of Fealty is but as Explanatory of it and branching it out
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