will remain Sacred and Venerable whatever I have proved him to be nor lose any more of the respect which is due to it because he is a Bishop than human Nature can lose of the Honour and Dignity which is due to it because he is a Man Though Bishops turn Rebels and make Rebels and Outlaws Bishops yet I must reverence the Function by reason I think it of Divine Institution But notwithstanding all my Reverence for it I think it ought not to be a Cover and Protection for ill Men who pervert whole Nations and Churches especially for insolent and cruel Men who persecute their Brethren for no other Reason but because they profess and practise the same Doctrines which they themselves formerly taught the People and because they have endeavoured to convince the World by their Books That these Men are Apostates and have done both our Church and Religion much more harm than they can do it good These are the Traytors to that very Order which some of them have Usurped and seem ready to give up the uninterrupted Succession upon which the Priesthood depends if they may but by gaining one Sort of Dissenters better secure their Baronies and Revenues which they mind more than the Honour of their Order or the Catholick Rights of the Church What else means their Courting at such a fulsom Rate those in one Kingdom who have destroyed it in another Why else are they so ready to treat it away under a Pretence of Union with Dissenters and in Complement to Foreign Churches Why contrary to former Times do they suffer some French Ministers who have not had Episcopal Ordination to Preach and Administer the Sacraments at the Church in the Savoy and its Dependences which by the Act of Uniformity is a Member of the Church of England What means this new Discovery of Comprehension in so many of the late Funeral Sermons which the Convocation rejected Why do they exhort Lay-men to support and Clergy-men to comply with Presbytery in Scotland as I have shewed our Preacher and his Heroe did Or lastly What means the new Hypothesis of * See the Book of the Revelation paraphrased with Annotations on each Chapter Lond. printed by Rich. Wellington at the Lute in St. Paul's Churchyard 1694. Witnessing Churches That because the Churches in Savoy and France which have no Bishops have born their Testimony against Popery therefore Bishops by uninterrupted Succession and Priests of Episcopal Ordination which have been the signal Blessing of the Church of England are not necessary to the Church At the Rate that Annotator writes in very many Places of his Book and Preface we must blend our pure Orders and Priesthood not only with Ministers who derive their Mission from Presbyters but with Ministers who derive them ultimately from meer Lay-men as many of the first Reformers both in France and Savoy were Nay at this rate of talking I know not what is necessary to Christianity either as a Sect professing Doctrines or a Society which Antiquity so much undervalued by him called the Catholick Church For Anabaptists Quakers and Socinians have born their Testimony against Popery and will bear it and therefore in his wild way of Writing not only Bishops but Priests nor Episcopal Orders only but all Orders with Infant Baptism and the Lord's Supper may be parted with as Temporary Ordinances for comprehension of all Sects that pretend to be Christian and witnesses against the Church of Rome Nay this dangerous Hypothesis of the witnessing Churches may for any Thing I see to the contrary be improved to the Advantage of the Jews to prove them to be the Church of God For they have born and will bear their Testimony against Popery and great Numbers of them have died Martyrs against it in the Inquisition I need but mention the Mahumetans who abhor Popery for its Image-Worship and the Invocation of Saints as much as the Witnessing Churches And therefore it is a mad way of arguing to cure us of our Fondness as he is pleased to call it for our uninterrupted Episcopal Succession because the Witnessing Churches have the Misfortune to want it This is the Argument of the Fox in the Fable who had lost his Tail and had Men argued in this manner in the Primitive Times they might have laid aside both the Sacraments in the Church because great Numbers of Catechumens died Martyrs or Witnesses against the Idolatry of Rome Pagan which notwithstanding all the Comments and Annotations of some Men I believe was much more Abominable than that of the modern Papal Rome This Annotator I take to be one of those Men who drive on for Comprehension and with those Latitudinarians it was and more particularly Dr. Tillotson that Dr. Sherlock (a) Temple Serm. upon the Death of the Queen p. 16 17. saith Their Majesties and more particularly the Queen who had more leisure for such Thoughts were inspired with great and pious Designs to serve the Church of England whatever some Men might suspect though it may be not perfectly in their own way But why does he not tell us what this way was And whether it was consistent with his Queries his Book of Union and Communion and his Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet's unreasonableness of Separation from the Church of England Dr. Bates the Non-conformist tells us (b) Sermon upon the Death of the Queen p. 20. It was to unite Christians in Things essential to Christianity but he doth not tell us what those Essential Things were or whether they were Things Essential to Christianity as a Society as well as a Sect. But I desire plainly to know what those Things were which they thought Essential to Christianity and in which they were to be United For I am afraid they had a Design to form an Union against the Catholick Church and in order to it give up some Things as not Essential which many as learned and good Men as Dr. T. and these Doctors would have thought Essential to Christianity and that their parting with them would have involved in it a parting with the Lord's Day and Infant Baptism nay all Baptism and the Lord's Supper with the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity and have done no good Office to the Power of the Keys nor to the Divine Authority of the holy Scriptures which depends so much upon Tradition That they themselves alone are not alone sufficient to prove it without the Testimony of the Church It was my Design in writing these Discourses to aim at all the Men of this broad Way of Union as well as against those Two whom I have detected and thereby to warn the rest of the Clergy against them For God be thanked the main Body of our Clergy are Men of quite different Spirits they do not persecute their old Brethren for their strict Doctrines but pity and help to support them They know by Experience how hard it was for Conscience to overcome the Difficulties of the new Oath and therefore
broken loose from the common Measures of Honesty and Shame and to pay his Reader in false Coin which he truly tells Varillas is more Criminal in History than in other Matters and the least I can say of this pretended Willingness of Luther to make up the Difference between those of Ausbourg and them of the Helvetian Confession by a middle Opinion is what he saith of Varillas That it is all Vision his own Invention and composed out of his own Imagination to serve the popular Design of Comprehension which Dr. Sherlock bemoaned before he took the Oaths That it was still carried on by our Latitudinarians to the indangering of every Thing that hath been received for Catholick and Fundamental in Christianity in the purest Ages of the Church Indeed Comprehension and in order thereunto an universal unlimited Toleration was for many Years the great Diana of our Funeral Preacher and those who doubt of this may soon satisfy themselves in his old Acquaintance Mr. Papin's (b) P. 410. 414. 419. 420. 421. 422. Book entitled La tolerance des Protestants c. in which he vindicates what he had written for Toleration in a former Book entitled La Foi reduite à ses justes bornes and a great part of his Vindication of it consists in Copies of Dr. Burnet's Letters wherein he highly commends the ' foresaid Book and another more extravagant in Latin on the same Subject written by Strimesius But the horrour Papin had of this boundless Latitude which our Church of England Universalist Approved and which as he observes ends in absolute Scepticism gave him a Pretence of turning Romanist to take Sanctuary in the Authority of the Church And now I am upon the Subject of Latitude I will beg leave of the Reader to tell him a Story of Toleration or Comprehension for the Difference sometimes is not great between them which in the end will touch a little on our Preacher of whom I must observe once for all That it is his Opinion that (c) Reflections on the History of Varillas p. 7 8. an Historian who favours his own Side is to be forgiven though he puts a little too much Life in his Colours when he sets out the best Side of his Party and the worst of those from whom he differs and if he but slightly touches the Failures of his Friends and severely aggravates those of the other Side though in this he departs from the Laws of an exact Historian yet this Biass is so Natural that if it lessens the Credit of the Writer yet it doth not blacken him This shews how apt he is to favour his own Friends and his own Party beyond what is just and true and being a known Latitudinarian by his own Rule we can never safely trust him when he commends or defends any of his Friends of that Side And it was upon the Score of Latitudinariism and mystical Devotion that he loved to extol Dr. Layton though by some Canons he hath cited in his History of the Rights of Princes he was an Usurper of the See of Glascow as Dr. Tillotson was esteemed to be in a more offensive Degree of the See of Canterbury But to return to his admired Dr. Layton he was so great a Libertine in Comprehension that he freely offered to receive the ejected Presbyterian Ministers without Episcopal Ordination if they would come in and to transact all Things in the Government of the Church with his Presbyters by plurality of Suffrages strictly speaking as if he were no more than a Presbyter among them Archbishop Burnet into whose Chair he intruded told Dr. Gunning Bishop of Ely this Story of his Intruder and he wondering that any Bishop should give up that Power without which he could not act as Bishop asked Dr. Burnet of the truth of it which he positively denied This denial of his obliged the good Archbishop for his Vindication to refer Bishop Gunning to a Book which he had left with a Friend for the truth of what he had told him of the comprehensive Latitude of Dr. Layton I saw the Book and remember it was printed at Glascow and it so fully satisfied the Bishop that he took it home with him but before he went made some Reflections on the want of Ingenuity in Dr. Burnet and concluded his Animadversions upon him with a Trick he shew'd himself It relates to a Book called Naked Truth which the Bishop intended to answer Dr. Burnet among others hearing of it come to wait upon him and when that Discourse arose between them he asked the Bishop upon what Scheme he intended to make his Answer He who was one of the most frank and communicative Men in the World told him how he would answer it from Part to Part which the Doctor observing with Design carried every Thing away and being a swift and ready Writer printed his Answer to it before the other had finished his I said before that he was also an Admirer of * I suppose he is the Angelical Man of whom he speaks such hyperbolical Things in the plural Number and promises a particular Account of him in his Pref. before Bedel's Life Dr. Layton upon the Account of mystical Devotion for he was an Enthusiast of the first magnitude and it was a great Mischance that this Preacher preached not his Funeral Sermon And as upon that Account he admired him so was he wonderfully taken with Labbades Writings and would have perswaded the Duke of Lauderdale to send for him into Scotland One of his greatest London Friends hath also cold me what Pains he and some others formerly took to correct the Enthusiasm of his Temper and keep him from plunging himself into mystical Divinity And when he was Professor at Glascow he was got so far into a Fit of it that he set up for an Ascetick and once being in the Archbishop's House and discoursing with his Daughter upon some common Subject all on a sudden he leaped out of his Chair and with a Tone Look and Gesture all Extatick and Enthusiastical said Words to this Effect Now am I sure of my Salvation now am I sure that if the Earth should open and swallow me up this moment my Soul would go to Heaven I had this Story from the good Archbishop and I mention it because I have observed in very many Instances how Enthusiasm with its Religious Heats makes those in whom it is prevalent do the same ill Things that Atheism in the same degree makes others do They are indeed Depravations of the Mind very different in their Nature and Theory but they agree in the same unrighteous Practices and have a tendency to act the same Evils For if the Atheist does Evil because he believes not the Enthusiast will upon a thousand Occasions believe he may do any Evil. If the one sticks at no Means though never so wicked the other thinks the Goodness of the End will sanctify the most wicked Means In a word They both
St. Ambrose and St. Augustin but more especially one that desired to be an Orthodox Divine should methinks have well studied the Clements the Ignatius's the Polycarps the Irenaeus's the Tertullians and the Cyprians who (c) Ibid. he saith were the Glories of the Golden Age of the Church He had better by much have studied all them than all the Ancient Philosophers and had he went into all the best Things of those Fathers as it seems he did into all the best Things of Bishop Wilkins I need not fear to say he had been a much surer Guide as well as a more learned and profound Divine and had not been so ready at all times to treat away those Things with Dissenters which give such an Advantage to the Church of England above all the Reformed and more particularly enable her to answer that unhappy Question of our common Adversaries Where is your Mission The not being able to answer which as we can do hath contributed more to the Ruin of the French Reformed Church than all the late Persecution For he would have learned in those Fathers who lived nearest to the Times of the Apostles that Bishops were their Successors and next under Christ the Heads of their particular Dioceses From whom the Presbyters derived their Powers and to whom they and the People were to be subject for Christ's sake Had he thoroughly learned and imbibed this Doctrine which is best learned from those Fathers he would in all likelihood have been as loth to part from it as those the Latitudinarian Projectors are apt to call narrow and angry Men because they are not for Treaties of Comprehension with Dissenters upon such Terms as are not consistent with the Catholick and Apostolick Tradition concerning Episcopacy and Episcopal Ordinations and which if yielded to would be of more dangerous Consequence to the Religion we profess than all our Dissenters are or can be Notwithstanding all this our Preacher cannot but tell us (a) P. 17. of his tender Method of treating with Dissenters and of his Endeavours to extinguish that Fire and to unite us among our selves But he doth not tell us what were the Principles and Terms of Union upon which we were to be united nor how many of the Dissenters were to be taken in I can tell one Project which will take them all in and Roman Catholicks with them and that is to comprehend all who will subscribe to the Divine Authority of the Scriptures and all the Doctrines contained therein And if he shall say That such a Comprehension is too wide and such an Union more than all Divisions I am afraid when we shall know what this Man 's tender Method of Union or pious Designs as (b) Temp. Ch. Serm. preached Dec. 30. 1694 p. 17. Dr. Sherlock calls them were there will be Reason to say the same Thing of it and them For I make no difficulty to confess to the Reverend Doctor That I am one of those many Thousands who suspect his admirable Primates pious Designs of serving the Church his own way For he was always for blending of Orders under Pretence of Union and since he commenced admirable Primate he was wont to advise the Scottish Episcopal Clergy-men to submit to their Presbyterians and do all Acts of Compliance to their pretended Authority which was in effect to advise them not only to commit the highest Act of Disobedience and Schism against their own Bishops but to abjure Episcopacy with those who detest and abjure it as an Antichristian Usurpation over the Church of God The good Lord of his Mercy deliver his Church from such admirable Primates and Bishops as are Traytors to their own Order and from such tender Methods of Union and pious Designs of serving the Church as they may without breach of Charity be supposed to have Our Preacher as well as his Heroe may be numbred among those pious Designers for going to wait upon the Duke of Hamilton when he was last in London some days before he went for Scotland He took upon him to tell his Grace That he would ruin his Interest if he did not stick fast to the Presbyterian Cause for they began to fear that he was not for it to them And thereupon he advised him as he regarded his own Standing and the Kings Favour to be sure to promote the Presbyterian Interest This the Duke told to a Person of Honour before he left the Town And now hear O ye * See the Pref. before Bedel's Life Clements Ignatius's Polycarps Deny's Irenaeus's and Cyprians of the Golden Age of the Church was not this Apostolical Councel in a Man that bears your holy Character Could he do any Thing more unworthy of it than to advise a Prince of his Country to support those and stick to these who have declared your Holy Order to be Antichristian and abolished it as an Usurpation and deprived your Successors as much as in them lies for Usurpers over the Church of God Nay let all Men that read this Story consider it a little in its just Consequences and Reflections upon this wretched Man as he is a Bishop and a Bishop who formerly asserted the Office of a Bishop to be an Apostolical Institution Read what he hath wrote for it in his Preface to Bishop Bedel's Life It is not possible to think that a Government can be Criminal under which the World received the Christian Religion and that in a Course of many Ages in which as all the Corners of the Christian Church so all the Parts of it the Sound as well as the Unsound that is the Orthodox as well as the Hereticks and Schismaticks agreed The Persecutions that then lay so heavy upon the Church made it no desirable Thing for a Man to be exposed to their first Fury which was always the Bishops Portion And that in a Course of many Centuries in which there was nothing but Poverty and Labour to be got by the Employment There being no Princes to set it on as an Engin of Government and no Synods of Clergy men gathered to assume that Authority to themselves by joynt Designs and Endeavours And can it be imagined that in all that glorious Cloud of Witnesses to the Truth of the Christian Religion there should not so much as one single Person be found on whom either a Love of Truth or an Envy of the Advancement of others prevailed so far as to declare against such an early and universal Corruption if it is to be esteemed one When all this is complicated together it is really of so great Authority that I love not to give the proper Name to that Temper that can withstand so plain a Demonstration For what can a Man even herited with all the Force of Imagination and possessed with all the Sharpness of Prejudice except to the Inference made from these Premisses That a Form so soon introduced and so wonderfully blest could not be contrary to the Rules of the Gospel
notice of For P. Paulo was himself one of the Seven there being but Six employed by the Senate besides Paulo and the Seven Divines with much Zeal and was very prudently conducted by them In order to the advancing of it King James ordered his Ambassador to offer all possible Assistance and to accuse the Pope and the Papacy as the chief Authors of all the Mischiefs of Christendom P. Paulo and the Seven Divines pressed Mr. Bedel to move the Ambassador to present King James's PREMONITION TO ALL CHRISTIAN PRINCES AND STATES then put in Latin to the Senate and they were confident it would produce a great Effect But the Ambassador could not be prevailed with to do it at that Time and pretended that since St. James's day was not far off it would be more proper to do it on that day If this was only for the sake of a Speech that he had made on the Conceit of St. James's Day and King James's Book with which he had pretended to present it it was a Weakness never to be excused But if this was only a Pretence and that there was a Design under it it was a Crime never to be forgiven All that Bedel could say or do to perswade him not to put off a Thing of such Importance was in vain and indeed I can hardly think that Wootton was so weak a Man as to have acted Sincerely in this Matter Before St. James's Day came the Difference was made up and the happy Opportunity was lost so that when he had his Audience on that Day in which he presented the Book all the Answer he could get was That they thanked the King of England for his good Will but they were now reconciled to the Pope It may be easily imagined what a Wound this was to his Chaplain Behold here a Story as false as formal and great pity it is that Sir H. Wootton's Heir if any such be alive now to represent him should not have the Benefit of an Action against our Historian to repair the Honour of his Ancestor which is so deeply wounded by him For if this Story were punctually true it would not bear the severe Reflections which he hath made upon Sir H. for it because he might not think fit to follow his Chaplain's Advice without order from the King his Master which he might hope to receive before St. James's Day and yet for private Reasons not think sit to tell his Chaplain the Reason of his Delay But the Story must needs be false because the King's Book of which he makes mention was not then extant For the Pope and the Venetians were reconciled in (a) Bed Hist of the Ven. Interd p. 218. April 1607. and the King's Premonition came not out till 1609. Nor will it help him to say That this was only a Mistake of the Premonition for the Apology which was Reprinted with it and to which in the King 's own Phrase it was a Preamble For the first Edition of the Apology was as little extant before the Reconciliation mentioned as the Premonition For that which occasioned the King's Writing the Apology as himself tells us was the Two Breves sent over by the Pope and Cardinal Bellarmin's Letter and the later of the Breves bears date from Rome but in August 23 1607. and the Letter September 28 following By which it appears that the Reconciliation was made several Months before either of these were written and longer before they could come to the King's hand longer yet before he could finish the Apology in English and again longer before it could be put into Latin From whence it appears That this fine told Story which so dishonours the Memory of Sir H. Wootton to Honour that of his Chaplain is a pure Fiction and as much the Birth of some Bodies Brain as ever any Thing the Vanity of Varillas wrote was his But to go on with the Inventions of our Historian p. 17. he saith That P. Paulo might never be forgot by Bedel he gave him his Picture the invaluable Manuscript of the History of the Council of Trent together with the History of the Interdict and of the Inquisition No Body doubts of Father Paul's Kindness to Mr. Bedel but it will appear that these Tokens of it are more than questionable from what follows First as to his Picture he that reads his Life will scarce believe he was so forward to give his Picture or that he had it to give (a) Life of Father Paul Lond. p. 76. For he would never let his Picture be drawn from the Natural notwithstanding it were desired by Kings and great Princes And although many of his Pictures go abroad for Originals yet they are all but Copies of one which is said to be in the Gallery of a great King which was taken against his Will and by a Stratagem But for himself this may give Assurance that he did not endure to have his Picture drawn because in the last Years of his Life being intreated by the most illustrious and excellent Dominico Molin and likewise by his Confident Fra. Fulgentio being set on to beseech him yet it could not be obtained so much as to give a famous Painter leave to take his Picture though he was promised he should not sit above an Hour Whosoever considers this Account and more to the same purpose in the same Place must needs think that the Father had no Picture of himself to give Mr. Bedel Indeed there is mention of an Original Picture of the Fathers sent by (b) Bedel's Life p. 255. Sir H. Wootton to Dr. Collins but by the Account I have given out of the Father's Life which was written by a great Friend of his it must have been that which he saith was in the Gallery of a great King or one taken by the like Stratagem Secondly as to the History of the Council of Trent it was not extant when Mr. Bedel left Venice as may be gathered from a Letter of (c) Reliq Wootton p. 493. Sir H. Wootton's written in 1619. or perhaps 1618. wherein it is mentioned as a work then in hand or but newly finished whereas Bedel left Venice in 1610. Thirdly as to the History of the Interdict it was indeed lent by the Father at Venice to Mr. Bedel but with this Condition as he himself tells us in the Epistle prefixt to the Translation that he should not transcribe it and if he had given it to him when he parted with him there is no doubt but Bedel would also have mentioned that Lastly for the History of the Inquisition there are some Passages in it which shew plainly That it was not then in Being For there is mention made in it not only of Things which happen'd in 1610. just upon the return of Mr. Bedel but also 1607. which appears not to be a Mistake in the Print by a Character there added that it was 48 Years after 1569. which makes the Year 1610. Page 18. he saith
which I commiserate from my heart but am much more concerned that you do not leave the World in a Delusion and false Peace to the hindrance of your Eternal Happiness I heartily Pray for you and beseech your Lordship to believe that I am with the greatest Sincerity and Compassion in the World My Lord Your Lordships most Faithful and Afflicted Servant J. Tillotson Printed for R. Baldwin 1683. No. IV. To the KING' 's most Excellent Majesty James the Second c. The Humble Address of the Bishops and Clergy of the City of London WE your Majesties most humble and Dutiful Subjects do heartily condole your Majestie 's loss of so dear a Brother of Blessed Memory And do thankfully adore that Divine Providence which hath so Peaceably setled your Majesty our Rightful Sovereign Lord upon the Throne of your Ancestors to the joy of all your Majesties good Subjects And as the Principles of our Church have taught us our Duty to our Prince so we most humbly thank your Majesty for making our Duty so Easie and pleasant by your gracious assurance to defend our Religion established by Law which is dearer to us than our Lives In a deep sence whereof we acknowledg our selves for ever bound not only in Duty but gratitude to contribute all we can by our Prayers our Doctrine and Example to your Majesties happy and prosperous Reign And with our most sincere promises of all Faith and Allegiance do humbly implore the Divine goodness to preserve your Majesties Person and to establish your Throne in this World and when he shall be pleased to Translate you hence to bestow on you an Eternal Crown of Life and Glory No. V. IN the Name of God Amen Before the Lord Jesus Christ Judge of the Quick and Dead We long since became bound by Oath upon the sacred Evangelical Book unto our Sovereign Lord Richard late King of England That we as long as we lived shall bear true Allegiance and fidelity towards him and his Heirs succeeding him in the Kingdom by just Title Right and Line according to the Statutes and Custom of this Realm have here taken unto us certain Articles subscribed in form following to be proponed heard and tryed before the just Judge Christ Jesus and the whole World But if which God forbid by force Fear or violence of wicked Persons we shall be cast in Prison or by violent Death be prevented so as in this world we shall not be able to prove the said Articles as we wish Then we do appeal to the high Celestial Judge that he may judge and discern the same in the day of his supream Judgment First we depose say and except and intend to prove against Henry Darby commonly called King of England himself pretending the same but without all Right and Title thereunto and against his adherents fautors Complices that they have ever been are and will be Traytors Invaders and Destroyers of God's Church and of our Sovereign Lord Richard late King of England his heirs his Kingdom and Common-wealth as shall hereafter manifestly appear In the Second Article they declare him Forsworn Prejured and Excommunicate for that he conspired against his Sovereign Lord King Richard In the Fourth they recite by what wrong illegall and false means he exalted himselfe into the Throne of of the Kingdom and then describing the miserable State of the Nation which followed after his Usurpation they again pronounce him Perjured and Excommunicate In the Fifth Article they set forth in what a Barbarous and inhuman manner Henry and his Accomplices Imprisoned and Murthered K. Richard and then cry out wherefore O England arise stand up and avenge the Cause the Death and injury of thy King and Prince If thou do not take this for certain that the Righteous God will Destroy thee by strange Invasions and foreign Power and avenge himself on thee for this so horrible an Act. In The Seventh they depose against him for putting to Death not only Lords Spiritual and other Religious Men but also divers of the Lords Temporal there Named for which they pronounce him Excommunicate In the Ninth they say and depose that the Realm of England never Flourished nor Prospered after he Tyrannically took upon him the Government of it And in the Last they Depose and protest for themselves and K. Richard and his Heirs the Clergy and Commonwealth of the whole Realm that they intended neither in word nor deed to offend any State of men in the Realm but to prevent the approaching Destruction of it and beseeching all men to favour them and their designs whereof the First was to Exalt to the Kingdom the true and lawful Heir and him to Crown in Kingly Throne with the Diadem of England No. VI. THat all Parliaments and Ambitious selfe seekers in them who under pretence of publick Reformation Liberty the Peoples ease or welfare have by indirect Surmise Policies Practices Force and new Devices most Usurped upon the Prerogatives of their Kings or the Persons Lives Offices or Estates of such Nobles great Officers and other Persons of a contrary Party whom they most dreaded maligned and which have imposed new Oaths upon the Members to secure perpetuate and make irrevocable their own Acts Judgments and unrighteous Proceedings have always proved most abortive successless pernicious to themselves and the activest Instruments in them The Parliaments themselves being commonly totally repealed null'd and the Grandees in them suppressed impeached condemned destroyed as Traytors and Enemies to the Publick in the very next succeeding Parliaments or not very long after That Kings Created and set up meerly by Parliaments and their own Power in them without any true Hereditary Title have seldom answer'd the Lords and Commons Expectations in the Preservation of their just Laws Liberties and Answers to their Petitions yea themselves at last branded for Tyrants Traytors Murderers Usurpers Their Posterities impeached of High-Treason and disinherited of the Crown by succeeding Kings and Parliaments of c. From these Three last Observations we may learn that as Parliaments are the best of all Courts and Councils when duly Summoned Convened Constituted Ordered and kept within their Legal Bounds So they become the greatest Mischiefs and Grievances to the Kingdom when like the Ocean they overflow their banks or degenerate and become through Sedition Malice Fear or Infatuation by Divine Justice promoters of corrupt sinister Ends or Accomplishers of the private Designs and ambitious Interests of particular Persons under the disguise of Publick Reformation Liberty Safety and Settlement No. VII ALtho' it can no way be doubted but that His Majesty's Right and Title to these Crowns and Kingdoms is and was every way Compleat by the Death of His most Royal Father of Glorious Memory without the Ceremony and Solemnity of a Proclamation Yet since Proclamations in such Cases have been always used to the end that all good Subjects might upon this Occasion testify their Duty and Respect And since the Armed Violence and
other the Calamities of many Years last past have hitherto deprived us of any opportunity wherein we might express our Loyalty and Allegiance to His Majesty We therefore the Lords and Commons now Assembled in Parliament together with the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council-Men of the City of London and other Free-Men of this Kingdom now present do according to our Duty and Allegiance heartily joyfully and unanimously acknowledge and proclaim that immediately upon the Decease of our late Sovereign King Charles I. the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and of all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birth-Right and lawful undoubted Succession descend and come to His most Excellent Majesty King Charles II as being lineally justly and lawfully next of the Blood-Royal of this Realm and that by the Goodness and Providence of Almighty God He is of England Scotland and Ireland the most Potent Mighty and Undoubted King And thereunto We most humbly and faithfully do submit and oblige our selves our Heirs and Posterities for ever No. VIII An Account of several Considerable Services that have been done to the Government by vertue of the Powers given by the Act for Printing since the last Continuation thereof Feb. 13. 1692 shewing That there have been Five Private Presses and many Treasonable Pamphlets and Libels discover'd and seiz'd within less than Two Years viz. OCtober 29. 1692. Discover'd and Seiz'd a Private Press with a Libel near the Greek Church by So-Ho The Persons employ'd made their Escape May 2. 1693. Discover'd and Seiz'd another Private Press in S. James's street with 34 several Treasonable Pamphlets and Libels the Titles of which are as follow An Historical Romance of the War The Jacobites Principles vindicated A Vindication of the deprived Bishops Two Letters to the Author of Solomon and Abiathar A Vindication of some among our selves Eucharisticon or a Comment upon the Fast. The Humble petition of the Common People of England to the Parliament The Auction or Catalogue of Books A Letter to Mr. Samuel Johnson His Majesty's Speech with Reflections The Resolution of a Case of Conscience The People of England's Grievances A Specimen of the State of the Nation New Court-Contrivances or more Sham-plots A Bob for the Seamen An Answer to Dr. King 's Book A Dialogue between Sophronius and Philo-Belgius A Letter to Dr. Tillotson A French Conquest neither desirable nor practicable Lex Ignea or the Justice of the House of Commons for advancing a Title to the Crown by Conquest A second Letter to the Lord Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry occasion'd by a Letter to him from the Bishop of Sarum A New Song with Musical Notes The Sea-Martyrs A New Scotch Whim. A List of Ships lost or damag'd since 1688. His Majesty's Speech November the 4th with Explications The Bell-man of Piccadilly to the Princess of Denmark The Earl of Pembroke 's Speech about the Lords in the Tower Some Paradoxes presented for a New-Years-Gift from the Old Orthodox to the New serving for an Index to the Revolution Remarks upon the present Confederacy King William 's Speech to the Cabinet-Council Considerations upon the second Canon June 1693. Another Private Press seiz'd in Westminster with the late King James's Declaration and several other Libels About the same time another Private Press seiz'd in Long-Acre Jan. 17 1695. Discover'd and Seiz'd another Private Press in Peticoat-Lane in Spittle-Fields with the several Seditious and Treasonable Pamphlets following viz. A Ballad entitled The Belgic Boor. A Parallel between O. P. and P. O. Reflections on a Letter from S. Germains The humble Address to both Houses of Parliament Remarks on a Paper to restore the late King James Happy be Lucky or a Catalogue of Books c. Delenda Carthago or the true Interest of England c. A Dialogue between A. and B. two plain Country Gentlemen concerning the Times A Petition of the Prisoners in the Savoy shewing them to be neither Traytors nor Pyrates A Persuasive to Consideration and one Form of a Letter to Sir John Trenchard All which were found in the Custody of one James Dover a Printer committed to Newgate for the same Besides the above-recited Libels against the State many Heretical and Socinian Books have been seized and stopt particularly one Entitled A brief and clear Confutation of the Trinity which was publickly burnt by Order of both Houses of Parliament and the Author prosecuted And one other is lately taken with its Author call'd A designed End to the Socinian Controversie or a Rational and plain Discourse to prove That no other Person but the Father of Christ is God most High There have been Three Persons found guilty of High-Treason that were the Printers at some of the Private Presses above-mention'd one of which named William Anderton was Condemned and Executed There are Three Presses at least known to be lately remov'd from Public Printing-Houses in London into Private One from the House of one Bonny another from from one Astwood and another from one Andrew Sowle all Printers If the Design of these Persons who mannage these Presses were to do Lawful Work they may do that openly at home without Hazard or Disturbance It must therefore be concluded that they are gone into Private to Libel the Government Now Considering how absolutely necessary this Act for Printing hath been and is for the Security of the Common Peace and Good of the Nation It is hoped That this Honourable House will continue the same till they shall have leisure to take into their Consideration the Reasonableness of the Objections that may be made against the present Act or any Clause therein contain'd For should this be discontinu'd and the Press be but for a while without Restraint His Majestie 's Government would be left Defenceless against His Secret Adversaries at Home whilst he is hazarding His Royal Person Abroad against the Common Enemy the Consequences of which may prove so Fatal as not to admit of a Future Remedy No. IX A Catalogue of Books not yet Answer'd VIndiciae Juris Regii Being an Answer to the Enquiry into the Measures of Submission and Obedience c. A Discourse of the Sense of the Word Allegiance A Defence of the Vindication of the Lord Bishop of Chichester's Declaration An Answer to the Bishop of Sarum's Pastoral Letter which was burnt by the hands of the common Hangman An Answer to the Letter to a Bishop An Answer to the Historical Part of the Unreasonableness of a New-Separation Christianity a Doctrin of the Cross An Answer to Dr. Sharp's Funeral Sermon at S. Giles's A Vindication of some among our selves c. The Loyal Martyr Vindicated An Answer to Dr. King's Book An Answer to a late Pamphlet Entitled Obedience and Submission to the present Go-Government demonstrated from Bishop Overal 's Convocation-Book with a Postscript An Answer to Dr. Sherlock's Vindication of Allegiance due to Sovereign Princes An Answer to a Letter to Dr. Sherlock written in Vindication of that part of Josephus his History which gives the Account of Jaddus's Submission to Alexander against An Answer to the Vindication of the Divines of the Church of England who have taken the Oaths from the charge of Rebellion and Pruerjy An Answer to a Piece Entituled Obedience and Submission to the present Government The Title of an Vsurper after a thorough Settlement examined In Answer to Dr. Sherlock's Case of Allegiance due to Sovereign Powers The Duty of Allegiance setled upon its true Grounds according to Scripture Reason and the Opinion of the Church In Answer to a late Book of Dr. William Sherlock Entitled The Case of Allegiance due to Sovereign Powers c. Written by Mr. Kettlewel Dr. Sherlock's Case of Allegiance consider'd with some Remarks on his Vindication An Examination of the Arguments drawn from Scripture and Reason in Dr. Sherlock's Case of Allegiance and his Vindication of it ERRATA In the Preface PAge 2. l. 15. r. those l. 17. r. such publick l. 31. d. then p. 3. l. 3. from the bottom after up r wâ—…h p. 6. l. 3. d. alone l. 14. r. very in marg r. another and for Prebendary r. Prebend In the Book PAge 4. l. 5. r. works l. 28. after others r. contained in this Letter l. 34. for stalking r. talking p. 5. l. 36. for them r. whom p. 8. marg b. for qu'ile r. qu'ils p. 12. l. 2. r. the account p. 13. marg a. r. 1674 5 l. 32. for safest r. softest p. 19. l. 8. r. delated p. 20. l. 9. for Court r. Cause p. 21. l. 26. r. IN SACRAMENTO p. 22. l. 9. before of r. often l. 10. before his r. all p. 23. l. 15. put the comma after speaking l. 24. after and r. as I l. 30. r. came p. 26. l. 3. from the bottom before Men r. even p. 27. l. 10. r. truly l. 27. r. bear p. 29. l. 31. for Pope r. Paidre p. 31. l. 25. r. Molini p. 35. l. 4. from the bottom for of the r. for the p. 38. l. 13. d. and p. 39. l. 9. before justify r. would p. 44 l. 32. after asserting r. in effect l. 33. after between r. Sin p. 52. l. 18. for and r. as l. 23. r. accepted p. 53. l. 5. from the bottom instead of for r. of p. 54. l. 14. after insist r. so much p. 55. l. 13. for sacrificed r. crucified p. 57. l. 17. r. helped p. 58 l. 5. r. allowances p. 59. l. 19. after it r. only p. 60. l. 25. r. giving p. 65. l. 20. after many r. sects l. 24. for more r. worse p. 66. l. 6. after designers make a full stop l. 10. instead of for it r. fiâ—m l. 20. after to r. those p. 67. l. 28. for hate r. rate l. 35. d. an p. 69. l. 23 r. those p. 71. l. 11. r betakes p 73. l 5. from the bottom after Religion r was it not for makeing it a cloak for Ambition Avarice Robbery and Murther p. 75 l 14. after as r. some suspect p. 77. marg r. N. V. p. 81. marg Socrat. Hist Eccl. lib. 3. cap. 8. l. 15. after also r. hid p. 79. l. 20. after Revolution r. in words l. 21. d. said p. 83. l. 37. for them r. they p. 84. l. 10. r. they had all â—d to be l. 28. r. tells us p. 86. l. 17. r. the other p. 87 l. 36. r. vindicator