some and I think now is so to all My self knew and still do many of those Members most falsly to suffer under that malitious Imputation whom the Dr. has no reason to reproach for the Selling of their Country and betraying their Trust when they truly serv'd both that and the King but sure it is but a bad Return he makes them when I am sure it was all the same Peers if not the same Parliament that Complemented Him for His Mighty Performances which perhaps they might have omitted had they known what Amends He would have made them or thought him so good at Commending of Himself but this is a Kindness He kept in Reserve and a Sublime acquir'd since his Travels and Accomplishments I can't call this a Controversy with the Dr. when he gives up the Cause when he seems to take pains to appear on my side He shews us how the Late King was continually inclin'd to a Liberty of Conscience he declares the Act of Vniformity a severe Thing the Terms of Conforming Rigidity and those that required it Angry Men Was the Dr. alway of this mind Why then it seems he only Conform'd fell in with the Church for the sake of her Benefices for officiating at the Rolls just as he fell out with the State because he lost it but this cannot credit much the Reputation and Integrity of such a Celebrated Writer and the Church of Englands Chief Men are just as much oblig'd to him for his Characters as the Loyal Members of the long Parliament he has sufficiently attainted their honesty and so most modestly taxes the Indiscretion of all his Clergy that so the State both Civil and Ecclesiastical may more handsomely make up that excellent Composition of Knave and Fool 'T is strange that no party can escape the Fury of his enraged Pen this doughty Wight may make a good Champion for the Truth but will a much better in the Rehearsal The Character of that Hero as high as it is may be more naturally applyed to Dr. B than it is by him to the Late Bishop of Oxford If you consider him elevated to such an Hogen or naturaliz'd for hectoring of KINGS invading of Kingdoms fighting of France combating England defying of Papists Presbyterians Dissenters Church-men and almost all Mankind but if the Loyal Parliament as he calls it in derision were such arrant Knaves for if he is in earnest then their Compliance with their KING is the best Test of their Loyalty and it would be well His Present Majesty had more proof of it and the Chief Men of the Church were such infatuated Fools as he makes them to be wrought upon by the Roman Catholicks for introducing their Religion why here then was a perfect Conspiracy for four and twenty Year of the whole Kingdome some poor supprest Dissenters excepted for bringing us back into Popery and what is more strange could never bring it to pass All our Power Civil and Ecclesiastical was concern'd all our Forces by Sea and Land King and Successor on their side and in his own dreadful Description A Parliament of chosen Creatures all depending upon Himself and this for near Twenty Years together and yet not one step toward Popery unless what appear'd in Andrew Marvels Growth of it but on the contrary in this very Interval of Time the Two severe Tests set up to prevent it and that by this Parliament of Creatures and this Treacherous designing King of his that he makes alwaies to the very last contriving to betray the Protestant Religion from his own meer Motion Marrying that he may see I can use the Word his two Neeces to two Renowned Princes of the Reformed Religion the greatest Security they could desire of his Sincerity to preserve and protect it and if I might add one thing more which I wish as well as the Dr. might be forgotten prevail'd upon from the tumultuous Proceedings of a Parliamentary Power to part with a Brother that had done nothing but to be more dear a palliated Exile that even the necessity of State could not so well excuse and if neither Councells Force Interest Time nor Religion it self could hitherto bring about all this Formidable Revolution I must confess notwithstanding the Discoveries of Dr. B to sober Men and honest this Late King cannot be suspected so false or any Catholicks so designing The Reformations in Henry 8 th Time King Edward Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth were certainly Four as great Changes and Revolutions as any we now fear and as I think somewhat like the same and yet we find they were not working for it under-ground for above Four and Twenty Year together to confine it only to his Reflections on the Late King and if we must credit all such Historians Plot we must add above an Hundred more marching their Invisible Army and Ammunition in the Air on the Sea under Earth PLOTS That Our Selves have blusht at and even judicially baffl'd their Belief But we still saw then that assoon as there was any new Succession to the Throne or any Prince of a different Sentiment that design'd to make any Alterations in the Church or State they were sooner compast with Ease and Expedition certainly these plotting Papists have been a long time very unlucky or very innocent when our happier Protestants had ever better Fortune and could Reform here more easily and openly in some few Years in the face and in the sight of the Sun and this I think is as clear too as some Peoples Designs which even at a season when they need not fly the Light the Dr. says we must still suppose in the dark His secret of the Dissenters having been encourag'd to stand out against Nonconformity even by the Court that pursu'd them with such Rigidity for not Conforming I am perswaded is another peculiar among the many Mysterious Intelligences of the Dr and not much inferiour to his wonderful Discoveries of the Conference at Dover his forreign Negotiations and His Majesty's being so nearly ally'd to the Society when he might so well prove him from the same Evidence A Priest in Orders for the Authority of his Liege Letter lies only at that Authors door who fram'd the other from Father Petre to Pere le Chaise both which will appear to those that have not abandon'd themselves to folly as entire Fictions he ought to discover him for once a Prophet too that having been essential of old to the Kingly Office and then he 'l have the better security for his Religion and may take his Word for an Oracle but the Dissenters will not thank him for thus making out their secret Correspondence with the Court and Iesuites but rather believe that he searcht no other Records for it than the Original Manuscripts of Dr. Oates his Evidence If this Advice to their standing out was only in order to introduce a Toleration how came it to pass that when they had one actually granted that those who
the Prelate he would pull down the Pride of him and all the Bishops in England pull him out of the Church by the Hair of the Head I think fit to recite this for fear the Dr. should find fault with me as well as Varillas for not telling him the occasion the Bishops found to leave the Court and I think 't was time for them to be gone If the Doctor remembers this seems somewhat of those Sparks that afterward sate both Bohemia and Hungary in a Flame to one of which places if I mistake not this very person here cited did in his Banishment repair and to its missfortunes perhaps contribute and as I think upon occasions like this might be said to be begun that long War of Germany and I do most professedly avow that upon serious Reflection upon those miseries that attended the Reformation which the Doctor has given me too much and too sad occasion to consider and consult I look upon this Juncture of the latter end of this Reign very near that unfortunate Crisis of falling into all the Desolation and Calamities that afterward befel those miserable Countries Bohemia Hungary Germany France and Flanders but tho' fate for a while suspended our misfortunes or the Military King that Reign'd then supprest those more early divisions yet alas the Diversities of Religion did too soon lay us waste and not long since made us as sad a Spectacle to our Neighbours as they had been to us in the same Civil Wars A Body would have thought Dr. B. might have sooner found fault with the beginnings of this King's Reign than his latter end for I must confess it began in the deposition of his Father or at best but a necessitated resignation he being a Prince as ambitious of a Crown as well as one that truly deserv'd to wear it but this is a President that cannot but please him the transferring Allegiance is such a singular piece of Politicks in the Opinion of this Statesman and helps so mightily to the constituting of some States that he may be very desirous it should be much imitated But to come to another Instance of his Excesses in which he does so exceedingly delight himself and that is those of Richard the 2 d's Reign I confess 't is another President of Allegiance transferr'd but that with good Subjects does not presently prove Excesses neither warrant their Disloyalty if they were prov'd if the Proceedings of his Reign must not be mention'd because of its Tragical Conclusion we shall be at a great loss for any Argument that may be drawn from the more Lamented Misfortunes of King Charles the First I suppose the Doctor will say too it was Excesses produc'd that Tragedy and some People will say the Excesses of Conformity but yet I hope there might be good Laws made in his Reign and what was there call'd Excesses has been since found but so much Invasion of the Prerogative and perhaps an Impartial Account of this King Richard's Reign will make that appear so too I had obviated this Objection before upon the very place in observing that the tumultuous proceeding of the Rebellious Barons for I hope by his leave we may be so bold at home and the ambition of the designing Duke of Glocester could no more criminate that King's Reign than excuse them from being Rebels But since he will not be contented let us examine what some Authors as honest as himself say of these Excesses when the Parliament or rather the Party of the Duke of Lancaster was assembled at his deposition Excesses indeed were alledg'd and so will ever be by those that prevail but even among those there some that thought them far from being so the Loyal and Learned Bishop of Carlisle made such a bold Speech in his defence that his very deposers were silenc'd and nothing but each mans private prospect of some publick favour hinder'd their Conviction the new King himself was very cool in the prosecution of the grave old Prelate and could hardly be said to be warm in his acquir'd Government but for all this they thought fit to confine the Loyal Bishop for the Liberty that he took his Crime being only a bold Indiscretion for shewing them so soon the badness of their Cause This King as exceeding criminal as the Doctor would make him had so strong a Party tho' depos'd that they thought fit to deprive him of his Life too and to send him to his Eternal Crown for fear he should take up again his Temporal these are no good Arguments of his Excesses or ill administration Hollinshead that has somewhat of Renown for an Historian tho' he does not in his work exalt his own Reputation with our Authors he tells us this poor Prince was most unthankfully us'd by his Subjects in no King's days were the Commons in greater Wealth or the Nobility more cherisht and as these Tragical Conclusions were not imputed to Excesses by most of his Subjects at home so it was as ill resented by Princes abroad the King of France was so provokt with these Injurious Proceedings that he acquainted his Lords with his Resolution of Revenge and they shewed themselves as ready to take it too but were too soon prevented by their taking away his Life and then it was as much too lateto serve him after his death I am afraid the Doctor will be found to be exceedingly out here in his Excesses but as Excess must serve his turn in one Reign so it seems defect must do it in another Henry the 6 th's feeble Reign must support his Arguments against what he calls Excesses of Government in Richard the 2 d. I am glad to see he has no stronger ones and 't is but a tacit giving up the Cause to have recourse to such Subterfuges H. the 6 th I hope as weak as he was was to govern according to Law and for that the more concern'd so to govern so that the force of the Prerogative in such a feeble Reign is but an Argument a fortiori The Excesses in H. the 8. time indeed were such since he 's resolv'd to call them so and came somewhat near that absolute Power with which he so much affrightens and alarms us in his Libels but I hope he will allow and think the Protestant Religion very much oblig'd to his Excesses since they made the fairest Step to the Reformation and were as well followed in the Reign that came after some Writers will say that those Parliaments that confirm'd his Excesses were so far from free ones that they were hardly allow'd the Liberty of Debate much less to stand up for the antient Establishment of the Church It was Criminal then to deny the Court even in an House of Commons and tho' King CHARLES the First coming to the House only for Members accus'd of High-Treason was made such a Crime as the Breach of Priviledge It was look'd upon here as a Point of Prerogative to
Her Reign to justify the Legality of all that She did even to those things that She confesses She dispens'd withal contrary to Law were we to play like Children at Cross-purposes the greatest non-sence and most insipid Answers would serve pass for the more Ingenious Diversion I told the Dr. what She dispens'd with contrary to the very Parliaments Act. It is Answered of something She did that was rounded upon an Act of Parliament but now because we 'll keep to the purpose we 'll examin this Her power in Ecclesiasticals founded on the First of Her Reign and see how far it makes for our Authors Apology he says this was in a great measure Repeal'd in the Year 1641. the Dr's Excellencies lying more in Chronology than the Statute-book It is a known Act of 17 th Charles the First that does in some measure as he says and I am glad he keeps to any repeal it I will not insist on the occasion of such a Repeal and the juncture of Affairs that forc'd it though I must confess the Reasons of Laws can never be recollected but by Reflection on the State of those Times in which they were made and that makes a sound Historian somewhat of the necessary part of a good Lawyer and from History 't is most deplorably known that this Repeal was procur'd in the Year that this Rebellion commenc'd by a Parliament the defence of which has been made Proemunire and High-Treason by that which enforced the Triennial Parl. into a perpetual one and which was afterward with so much abhorrence and such an ignominious Character repeal'd But all that appears of this Repeal of the 1 st of Elizabeth from the Opinion of the Lawyers and the examining the Act is the power of the Commissioners fining and imprisoning which was look'd upon as oppressive and therefore my Lord Cook in his Argument upon that case who for a time was no great Prerogative Lawyer or would not be so says that this Act was only a restoring to the King His antient Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction which the Commissioners extended so far as injuriously to fine Offenders upon it beyond their Power this usurped Power some people are of opinion is only by that Act repeal'd though I do not doubt but that Parliament would have willingly comprehended in it all the Inherent Antient Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction that ever appertain'd to the King and Crown and even by special Act here under Catholick Princes has been declar'd so so that indeed as the Dr. says it is but in a measure repeal'd and by express Words in the Repeal of Abuses of the Power only prevented so that it could not take away or deprive the Royal Authority from that unquestionable Prerogative of Commissionating any number of Persons in Ecclesiastical Matters that do not exercise such an extensive Iurisdiction and therefore to reflect upon the present Court that is of another nature and a new Creation as put down and repeal'd with that of Queen Elizabeths is no more an Argument than that Queen Elizabeths Commission was reviv'd when but so lately King Charles the Second delegated His Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction and Disposal of Preserments to some Persons that are most now living though perhaps some of them the readiest to Dislike their present Proceedings It is plain that the King's Power in Ecclesiastical Matters was never meant should be infring'd from that Repeal by this Ratification of it in the Late King's Time whatever the First Factious Legislators in it might intend for as you see this Late King did in a sort make use of it so in this very Ratification as the Dr. calls it is Provided that as it shall not extend to the Iurisdiction of Archbishops Bishops so neither to Vicar-Generals or Persons exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by the King's Commission If the Dr. will cavil only because the Word Court of Commission is not expres'd his Cause will hardly be the better for such a peevish Exception since the Constitution of a Vicar-general would be as little Kindness to the Church as it was in the Excesses of its first Establishment under Henry the Eighth which we see His Majesty as excessive as the Dr. would make Him has not hitherto reviv'd but should a Parliament restore the very Court of Queen Elizabeth it would be reckon'd among such men as illegal and only the King's Excesses in the Government I here shall help him to another Set of Excesses since such Prince's Proceedings must be call'd so when they do not quadrate with our Authors Subject and Design which at another time must pass for good Law when they make but the least for His purpose some People perhaps are of opinion That the Two Tests were past after a sort of Excess in the Government the World now knows one of them was made when the Parliament was exceedingly impos'd upon with Falsehoods and Perjuries and as exceedingly transported with a Zeal that look'd too so much like Fury so that if a man consider their origination and the Circumstances of Affairs when these Laws were made instead of keeping them upon the File after the rest are repeal'd there will appear more Reason even from the Doctor 's Excesses for repealing them the First The Conquest of the Kingdom gave a great Latitude to the 1 st William in point of Government which his Arms having acquir'd he found himself the less limited by the Laws though he profess'd to Rule by it and few of his Successors since that by their own Acts have oblig'd themselves but afford us Instances in greater Excesses of Government than any we can now complain of He is said to have invaded the Jurisdictions of the Prelates and seiz'd their Treasures not sparing his own dear Brother Odo William the Second tax'd his Subjects at pleasure by the Power of his Prerogative was as severe upon the Clergy and Westminster-Hall since the Seat of Iustice was look'd upon by the People as built on purpose to countenance his unjust Taxations The Ne exeat Regnum was repin'd at as a Grievance and in that Reign might be said to Commence The making Mutilation and Corporal Punishment Pecuniary in Hen. the First 's Reign the Confiscations and Bishop of Salisbury's Case in King Stephen's were made matter of Excesses in such Authors too Henry the Second resum'd by his own Act Lands that had been sold or given from the Crown by his Predecessors and against this Excess I think His present Majesty has given us good assurance in His last Declaration since the Dr. labours so much upon the absolute Power of the Former Of Richard the First it is Reported That he feign'd his Signet lost and so put out a Proclamation That those who would enjoy the Grants by the former old one must come and have it confirm'd by the New he pawn'd some of his Lands for the Ierusalem Journey and upon his Return would have resum'd them without Pay. The Exactions of King
had Interest enough to procure it could not by the same Power have continued it to them too Had the Late KING been so designing so resolute to introduce this Religion so much contended against He must from the Drs. Argument have stood to His Toleration and which he might have done too notwithstanding the Clamours of the Ensuing Parliament to suppress it and if an Army alone alarms the Dr. with this Absolute Power and must absolutely make any Monarch Arbitrary with which such fearful Authors have made such a formidable Noise then 't was about that time too there was a standing one afoot and 't is but an Argument against him for the quieting of all Minds and assuring of Men they may the better acquiesce when amidst an Army and under an Indulgence the Protestant Religion was entirely preserv'd nothing was alter'd in the establisht Church nothing in the Constitution of the State. His bitter Reflection that Dissenters were pawn'd to the Rage of the Church like the Iewels of the Crown for want of Money was only an Allegory forc'd in for a better inveighing against his Prince in a severer Sarcasm and a more invidious Expression by way of Figure 't is only a sublimer toucht of his Kindness to the Memory of His Majesty that is to be forgotten 't is but the Language of one that loves the Crown like the Famous Author of the Mercurius Politicus who as politickly knew how to render it contemptible by representing of it poor and so plainly call'd His Late Majesty the King of Beggars I confess the practising upon the necessities of the Prince was once a pretty Prologue and expedient to promote a Rebellion but I am sure the Church of England never lik'd it so well and will think Her self but little oblig'd to this pretious Iewel Her most gracious Son for exposing Her for such a Pattern that Her Loyalty was only a Pander for Oppression and for giving no Money till His Majesty had given Her up the Dissenters however the Observation as malitious as it is will do now no Mischief since our present Soveraign is as safe from the Consequences of it as above the Fears SECT IV. ANd now we are come to the true Province of Dr. B that looks indeed like one of his Seventeen defying of his Prince and reproaching of Him for faithless perfidious Designs to falsify all His Protestations and waiting but for an Oportunity to break through all his Promises I confess Liberty of Conscience and the Writ de Comburendo cannot consist and are as contrary things as the Dr. is sometimes even to himself but what occasion the King has given us to have the least suspicion or shadow of such an injurious Thought that after Liberty for a little while allow'd we shall come to the worst of Poenal Laws I cannot comprehend Is it because his Word was ever Sacred and was never violated but in Dr. B's Mouth Was it to be rely'd on even with an implicit Faith when he was but a Subject and a Successor And must it be the less believ'd now because his Character is much greater Does His Person partake more of Infirmity and human Nature when the Church stiles him next under GOD and nearer to the Divine Is it because 't is His Interest so to do when the Quiet and Tranquility of the State will depend upon his not doing it the Love of His Subjects and the Ease of Himself And Lastly Is it probable he 'l doe all this because possible to be done No the Dr. knows all this is good Sedition but bad Argument he knows with what difficulty the King is compassing for all His Dissenting Subjects an Establisht Toleration as sure any Prince would that was not himself of the National Church Establish't unless He could delight to see himself and his perswasion Criminals to the State and made obnoxious for their Faith to his Satutes and the Law sentenc'd in some Cases even to Death by some of those Sanctions to which in a Legal Sense himself is suppos'd to give their Life he knows that only for cancelling these Severities and some other absurd Inconsistencies in the present Constitution of our State his Prince Condescends to solicit the Repeal of these Laws and for it to gratify and indulge all his Subjects And yet even this the Dr. sees he knows will not be compas't but with much time care and caution and what these invidious Authors would observe but by extraordinary Methods and extrajudicial Proceedings does he think it so easy then when only the Laws and Tests are repeal'd with such difficulties to find a Parliament after a Session or Two that will establish severer Acts of Vniformity to the Church of Rome when that of England has but just lost Hers And another formal Repeal must be made before of the Toleration Establisht I need not take notice that the Number of Catholicks of Quality and Note was never yet enough to make an House and may be a long time before they be that the National Religion will be ever that which is the most generally receiv'd the former Treatise has superseded for it my Pains in this but it is easy for the Dr and a Man of Art that Iuggles with the Government with the turn of his Hand or the shaking of his Box to shuffle upon us from a preceding Protestant a very Loyal Catholick Parliament No 't is not the Proof that His Majesty has given that his Promises to this establisht Church are not to be rely'd on 't is not the Apparancy of his visible Interest that obliges him to Ruin and suppress the Protestant 't is not the possibility of doing it so easily were it so injuriously Design'd to be done 't is none of this that thus disturbs him no 't is his Zeal for his Religion 't is his Love for a particular Society 't is the Popes Power to dissolve these Promises and some private Doctrines that will instruct him in Aequivocations But will this Illuminato say that all this Calumny is new too his own peculiar Notion taken from Originals His Majesties Zeal has long been known to the World as well as His Courage and that to none more than his new Masters the Dutch and who have too much Honour in them to deny it His constant perseverance in a Faith which he too believes the True One Maugre the many Temptations to a Change and the Dangers that threatned his Continuance This I confess shews a well setled Zeal and somewhat like that which inspir'd some Primitive Professors of a Religion which we all agree to have been the True Catholick Faith A Zeal not subject to Flattery and as much above Fear 't is not Christian to make this Criminal and if he will introduce this Doctrine among the Dutch we must in his own Words believe there are Bramans there That His Majesties Favours are only extended to a particular Society is an invidious Assertion more dogmatically laid down
impartial Author for the sake of the reform'd Religion I am so sorry to relate were occasion'd by this Disorder The Protestants held a Consultation at Prague where among some of their Grievances was propos'd That the Edicts of Rudolphus which we recited before not being by the Catholicks stricktly kept for their being bound to a better Observance the Reform'd did agree to represent it at a Meeting of the Imperial Ministers to be redres'd but finding there two Men of Note to withstand them and to make much of Opposition they were so incens'd that they took occasion to throw both these Persons out at Window as they stood next to the Secretary Fabritius himself Firing at them as they fell upon this great Outrage which could not but with more force be defended they united immediately into a League of Lives and Fortunes against GOD's the King's Enemies as they call'd them and their own went streight to the Listing of Souldiers order'd 30 Directors or Administrators for the management of the Affairs of the Kingdom and as if incens'd with Dr. B. against the whole Society banisht all the Iesuites out of Bohemia and publish'd a Manifesto to justify these Outragious Proceedings the Emperor Matthias as mild as he was as gentle even as our prejudiced Dr. can allow him could not but resent these great Indignities be alarm'd at the Disturbances that were made and provide against a total Revolt and Rebellion that did more than threaten him by being already commenc'd those of Silesia siding with them sent under the Marquiss of Brandenburg a considerable Force to their Assistance Count Mansfield set up for their General and it was time then for the Emperor to seek out for his his mildness had try'd to make them before to lay down their Arms and so for their persisting in Hostility had the more right to declare them Rebels they had besieged the Budeweis before the Emperor had order'd to proceed against them as such and taken another Town by Storm and even of his Intentions to attack them gave them timely notice when nothing could prevail with the Bohemians and the Emperour bear nothing more the Count de Bucquoy march'd against them and in Battle beat them and in this in thus manner began that cursed Disturbance as our Author calls it that cost all Germany so dear This Account I have faithfully translated from our Dutch Authors Chronology their own Country-man their own Protestant who laments the very Disturbance themselves created and all the Miseries and Misfortunes that so justly follow'd Dr. Heylin an Historian as fam'd too for Reformation as our Reflecter we Revy on as much a Member of the CHURCH of ENGLAND and whatever are the Censures he must suffer an Author as honest and sincere and only more impartial he gives us his sence of these Transactions to this effect Discoursing of that more Memorable Battle of Prague that follow'd afterward in Ferdinand the Seconds Time to which he even himself was forc'd for he before had admonished them to lay down their Arms says he cannot decide who had the juster Cause neither ought success of War to decide it but of this he 's sure that ever since the erecting of that Kingdom by the Sclaves or Croatians it depended upon the disposal of the Emperor and observes that on the day that the Battle was decided the Gospel appointed for it had in it that Memorable Text of rendering unto Coesar the Things that are Coesars but such is that inconsiderate Zeal praepossession or downright Sedition of some that set themselves only to contest it with a Crown that the specious names of Reformation and Religion must sanctify any sort of Rebellion and Revolt 't is too much one would think that it should excuse it much less make it lose its Nature and forget its Name The good Emperor Matthias soon after the first Defeat was given them to which he was by their own Confession forc'd departed this Life and left Ferdinand a more furious Prince in Military Matters and more zealous in Ecclesiasticals to follow and pursue it This producing of such a Popish Prince for a president of Perfidiousness and Persecution whom himself confesses so mild and relenting as to become a Protector to the Distressed States even to revolting Protestants against a revengeful Prince will make men distrust the weight of such an Argument that carries Contradiction and Boldness in triumph before it The Dr. does not deserve the Protection of the Dutch for defaming thus their best of Protectors but he deals with him as kindly here for the sake of his Religion as the Dutch his new Masters themselves did when he assisted them in the defence of their Liberties for they fell upon him and his Followers in a solemn Procession at Antwerp on Ascension day kill'd some upon the place forc'd their Defender to fly to the Church and take sanctuary for his Life 't is hard I confess to decide whither it was the result of Zeal in the Reformation I will not say of the spirit of Rebellion but this is certain this Protector was very scurvily treated and but ill us'd insomuch that he protested if they serv'd him so he 'd leave them to themselves and return into Germany which afterward for other Indignities Offer'd he was forc'd to do But this Author I cite being one of the Society will supersede all Credit with the Dr. for Prejudice with some people will spoil the best of Authority but then the most impartial Thuanus whose sincerity even himself has applauded I hope will be better believ'd and truly he says but the same that this Catholick Defender of the Protestant Cause had but little thanks for that Assistance which of his own accord he brought the States if Protestants will not be oblig'd to Roman-Catholick Princes for Redress or Preservation pray don't let the Fact be libell'd and their Principles traduc'd against positive Proof as if they were alway ready to root them out and study'd to destroy them Here are Presidents from History and such too as that to some of them himself does give a sort of Approbation that in former Reigns in forreign Countries where the Catholick Religion has been generally receiv'd that by Princes of that Perswasion the Protestants too have been countenanced and protected and the Peace we here do now enjoy at this present in this Kingdom in the same Circumstances and the thankful Acknowledgments that are so universal for its Enjoyment is an Additional Evidence That the Dr. may be mistaken in his Arguments from Fact as well as malitious in his Inferences when they truly will appear both spiteful and false so that his seditious Insinuations against His Majesty's Indulgence and his ungrateful Dealing with the KING that as he says advis'd him once of his approaching Danger help'd him to prevent it and perhaps protected him too are no more an Argument against the Mildness and Clemency that may be
much an Allowance of the State as any Licence from one of our Secretaries or the Lord President himself especially when Reparation for such Injuries has been demanded in a publick memorial and manifesto and instead of punishing such Offences the Offenders are encourag'd to farther and severer Reflections and that perhaps with a promise of Impunity Since this Author will make his Quarrel a National one which I should think a wise People would not suffer to gratify but a single mans Malice It is but just that we shew too what Party were the first Aggressors and how easy 't is for our English to make their Iustification I must profess that while our Author is permitted there so scandalously to reflect upon His Majesty's Proceeding Common Justice will oblige us to return the same Animadversions while no Memorial of theirs can with any Modesty represent it as Injurious In the mean time I shall confine my self to these more particular Vindications of the KING and Kingdom where the Calumnies of his most malitious Papers have sufficiently affected both and let him know that I as little fear the Resentments of his States as he seems to do the juster Indignation of the King of England To put us in mind of the Circumstances of our State before the beginning of the Dutch War and to parallel it with the present time is another unlucky Topick of our Authors and a wise man would think might have been better let alone It will make us recollect that indefatigable Industry of one of their Greatest Ministers against the slackning of these Laws that our Divisions amongst our selves might the sooner sacrifice us a Prey to our Neighbours and the more secure some of them from His Majesty's asserting of His just Rights I hope our Author has no Commission for the denouncing War nor any design upon the Chain at Chattam that he talks of Invading a State and threatens us with their Resentment and Preparations If Time must shew that 't is time too to look to our selves but I dare not detract so much from the Wisdom of their Lordships his new Masters as not to think they will not call him to an Account now for abusing themselves though with greater Decency they might suffer it against his Soveraign this is intermedling with Peace and War nay even a denouncing it before the States Generals I am confident have taken it into Consideration we do not hear yet they have agreed to any extraordinary Contributions for it there has been no Pole yet nor the hundredth Penny nor any Imposition upon Travellers but as formidable as our Author would make them whose Interest it is to magnify his Protectors this Historian must remember too that the Valour of his repudiated English has heretofore as victoriously engag'd them and that when assisted with two Crowns in Conjunction and in that juncture too when we had more merciless Enemies at home when the Almighty made himself indeed a consuming Fire and the Destroyer walk'd before it in darkness and a devouring Plague Two entire Victories were return'd us from the Sea to triumph over the Misfortunes that the land lay under and in the third Attack as unequal as we were in strength was by the weakness of both sides left undecided an Action in which 't was Glory enough only to have been the Aggressors The Courage of the Dr's deserted Nation was then confess'd by some of their great Ministers that would have so fomented our Divisions and found too much the Effect of the slackning of these Laws one would think that the Iealousy of such Neighbours should weigh with Men of Sense that it is a sincere Design to establish and continue with us both Liberty and Religion since it appears so much a visible Interest almost an unavoidable Necessity If a visible Inconvenience will warrant a Repeal why will not an Interest as visible secure us after it 't is strange that a Protestant People can make no difference between an invisible Establishment of the Catholick Religion and a visible Necessity that the Papist have to preserve themselves from a threatned Ruin. It is such a peculiar Confidence that it becomes none but our Author or is no where but in him to be found to tax us so unreasonably for Reflecting on a State to which we have nothing of Relation and that only in Matters of Tradition and Truth at the same time that he vilifies a Crown'd Head to which he owes an Obedience and that with Forgery and Falslehood The Defence of KING and Country I think is every Subjects Concern by Nature if it were not commanded also by municipal Law and that leads me to justify our selves both in the Tripple Alliance and the Business of the Smyrna Fleet both which he upbraids us with as naturally as if he had been a Native of Holland and no need of being naturaliz'd though I cannot but think that those that revile their Allyes for old Breaches betray too much their willingness to make new That Allyance that was between Them Vs and the King of Sweden had in it this Conditional Clause That the Confederates were to assist one another if for the sake of their entering into such a League they were at any time by any other Party invaded the King of France declares a War soon after against the Dutch it did not appear from his Declaration that their entering into this Allyance was the Reason he declar'd it and that it was therefore his revengeful War which are Words express'd in the Articles for then he had the same Revenge to take against the rest of the Allyes against whom he denounc'd no war at all and it is a Rule in such Leagues as well as a Maxim among the Civil Lawyers that an Obligation that is conditionally specify'd must not extend as if it had no condition and were unlimited and for this Reason did the Dutch insist so much upon that Point that the War which threatned them from France was only upon the Account of that Allyance which as it did not appear either from any Discovery that could be made or the Declaration that was publish'd so it could not oblige England unless she would have been so forward to have engag'd in the War upon presumption and that the Swedes were of the same opinion appear'd from their neutrality and indifference This is that famous Violation for which we must be so much reflected on this is what the Dutch were pleas'd to call a Breach and which if it were in the least to be look'd upon as such they were only oblig'd for it to their fam'd Friend that fled to them too for Protection who was naturaliz'd also after the deepest Conspiracy detected against our KING and who was celebrated for the only Author of that uncharitable Aphorism Delenda est Carthago SECT XI IN the next place for his Heroical Attempt as he calls it on the Smyrna Fleet it seems his
plain than from this late Revolution in the Death of the President where if there had been but a submissive applicacation made to an offended Majesty and an humble Petition to be restor'd to favour if I may be forgiven the boldness of Imagination as well as the Dr. would be pardon'd the hardiness of Propositions I fancy many might have met with as much of the King's mercy as now they suffer under the effects of his Iustice and might have hinder'd a Society from returning to its Primitive Institution where some that possess it now may upon another score be too ready to observe that in the beginning it was not so The Dr. tells us we are to be govern'd by Law and not by the Excesses of Government but if he can tell me from any Reign since the Conquest of the Normans that there were not greater Excesses of Government complain'd of and greater us'd as in a particular Treatise I have prov'd I 'll grant him the Dispensing Power to be the greatest Grievance Discontents and Jealousies under any Revolution of State do only shift sides and are never wanting in a Government where the People can but make a Party had those Presidents of Excesses which I cited from our former Reigns but made for the Doctors purpose that had been Law which is now Excess and a Dispensation for the great Out-rages that were committed upon the Church in Edw. 6 th's Reign before any Parliament had authoriz'd it it seems was truly Law which as it was a power to save Men from being hang'd for Sacrilege so many will tell us too it was a sort of destroying the Government The R. Cath. I am confident will be glad to hear that the Severities by which they have so unreasonably suffer'd and that so long have been only the result of the Protestants fears and not so much their deserved Punishments for any perpetrated Crimes When the Elector Palatine had mov'd the King of France that he would tolerate all the Hugonots to Preach in Paris he return'd him the like motion that all the Catholicks might be allow'd to say Publick Mass in his Capital City if we must exclude them from all employment because of the dangerous Consequence under a Catholick King must not they think themselves as much beset with dangers when they shall have none but their Enemies in Office under a Protestant Successor and if they then should move to be the only persons employ'd would it not be as strange a Request as what is made now that none but Protestants must be so neither will this Establishment and Constitution of the State make any great disparity in the Parallel unless it be to the disadvantage of those that would make the difference for if Protestants will plead their Penal Laws their Tests their prescription of an hundred and fifty years possession and enjoyment in bar to their Pretensions it will put Papists upon the retrospect how they came to be thus excluded and discover that they had for above five hundred years before all the Laws of Church and State on their side and none others heard of or admitted into Office and Employment and therefore when the Doctor tells us that in Holland the Government is wholly in the hands of Protestants Papists will be apt to return they know how it comes to be so that both Holland and Zealand sided with those of Flanders at first in the Pacification of Gaunt to leave the governing part both of Church and State in the hands of the Catholicks but that when they came to Reform farther and grew more powerful nothing less would serve the turn than the Vnion of Utrecht by which they were to be left to govern themselves as they pleas'd and when their famous City of Amsterdam that now priviledges all Subjects as well as all Religions to its immortal honor made the stoutest resistance for the sake of their old Laws and Religion and its neighbour Harlem never resisted their King so stoutly as this fought for him for it was Besieg'd by Sea and Land and at last yielded only upon these honourable Terms That their former faith should continue establisht their Magistrates confirm'd yet were forc't to admit against their Capitulation a Garrison against their Articles of War new Articles of Faith and for their old Magistrates of the Peace to be govern'd by the standing Officers of the Army so it is not fit it should be known how the Government came to be wholly there in the hands of Protestants for fear it should reflect too much upon Promises too that were not well kept and that the same should become the seat and refuge for all sort of Sectaries that was once such a Celebrated City for being at Vnity with it self I need not take much pains to show why my Presidents from the reign of Edward 3 d. might be recommended to the practise of this since he gives no reason why they should not unless his Authority be such in History as some Dogmatists are said to have had in the Schools a Dixit and indisputable if I mistake not our British Annals cannot boast of a more Glorious and Auspicious Reign both for our Foreign Expeditions and victorious returns two Neighbouring Kings a sort of Prisoners to our own two Kingdoms but little better than our Tributarys the Misfortunes of Scotland the Fate of France will furnish us with too much matter to make those times for ever fam'd and his present Majesties most Heroick mind and military disposition may tell us too that they can be imitated I cant discover why the latter end of this King's Life may not be recommended as much for imitation the recovering of the Kingdom of Castile for its lawful Lord and another expedition into France were both such Actions of the renowned Prince his Son by which the Nation cannot suffer much in the Consummation of his reign but if any thing may make the latter end not to be imitated it may by some people be thought to be the Disturbances in the Discipline of the Church which was like to have made as great a Commotion in the affairs of the state for it was in this latter end that Wicklift divulg'd his new doctrines drew in a great many Proselites among the Common People and made a Party among some of the greatest Nobility too which terminated in this unhappy issue to shew us too soon the dangers and disturbances that always must attend any Innovation in Religion for the suppressing of this Gregory the XI wrote the Arch-Bishop and Bishop of London who cite Wickliff to appear at Pauls whither he comes well attended with the Duke of Lancaster and Piercy Lord Marshal where they were no sooner come but the Spiritual Lords fell out with the Temporal the Temporal with the Spiritual all about Wickliff's sitting down before his Ordinary which the Reforming Lords in contempt to the Bishops contended for and the Proselited Duke was so Zealous as to tell