ANGLIAE Decus Tutamen OR THE GLORY and SAFETY OF THIS NATION Under our Present King and Queen PLAINLY DEMONSTRATING That it is not only the DUTY but the INTEREST of all JACOBITES and DISAFFECTED PERSONS to act for and submit to this GOVERNMENT LONDON Printed and Sold by Richard Baldwin at the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane 1691. ANGLIAE Decus Tutamen OR THE GLORY and SAFETY OF THIS NATION Under our Present King Queen c. THE Physicians have a very bad Opinion of that Disease that begins with most violent Agitations with Tremblings that shake the very Bones out of Joynt and extreamly debilitate the Nerves with dreadful Convulsions with frantic and extatical Indispositions of the Brain that over-run the whole Oeconomy They are never deceived in their Judgment when they pronounce such Distempers mortal It is the same thing in States their Diseases which begin with violent internal Agitations are commonly Presages of great Revolutions France is in this Condition the Preparations that are made against her by all Europe in a joynt Conspiracy threaten her with great Mischiefs and there is nothing more effectual for fortifying the Hopes of the Confederate Princes and States than the convulsive Motions that are observed not only in her Bowels but in all her Actions if we consider her Arms nothing ever appeared so strange France although it be as yet entire and has not incurr'd the loss of either Men or Provinces is subject to all those Agitations to which she can be exposed which would be infallibly improved into the last and fatal Paroxism if there were an Enemy in the midst of the Kingdom She obliges all her Inhabitants to take Arms she exhausts her Treasures to the bottom Ruin and Desolation are the Blessings she leaves in those Places which she cannot keep she is notoriously guilty of the most inhuman Excesses for all the Palatinate and almost all the Countries upon the Rhine with their Towns and Castles that are levelled with the Ground burnt and reduced to Ashes are in such a Motion as cannot be imputed to any thing else but a Fit of a violent Phrensie that is so prodigious that we cannot but see therein the Characters of an internal Agitation that is attended with the most dreadful Violence of all has been as yet observed Every Knight of the Post brings us an Account of Symptoms of this cruel Disease which does expose her to such fearful Agitations and threatens her with the most violent Death and there is something that is singular in the Violence of these Motions and it is this that the Revolution that has lately happened in England by the wise Conduct of William III. King of England does irritate them to so great an Elevation of Fury If his present Majesty had poured his Forces into France and obliged that King to leave his Throne the Rage would have been raised to such a pitch as to admit of no Accession The Piety Clemency and Justice of King William who now strikes Lewis with so great a Terror is the August Subject of this Discourse These glorious Qualities made manifest in his said Majesty's late Expedition into England in Opposition to the French Designs there are the Subject matter of this small Treatise Neither the late King James nor the Irish and English Papists his Friends were so hot in their Resentments as the French There is something extraordinary in it and this boundless Wrath of the French King against William King of England was possibly not so much kindled by the consideration of what he has done as by the fearful prospect of what he can do Yet the most powerful measures they can take for the overthrow of their own Interest is to provoke an Enemy who is so potent at this day It is possible that he is not altogether irreconcileable they ought to be more careful to observe those just and decent Methods by which he is to be treated The Designs of France afforded a necessary occasion for an Expedition the whole Course of which runs parallel with the Rules of Piety which inspire King William's Royal Breast Since the King was of the Years of Knowledge there never passed one year wherein he did not publicly receive the Sacrament several times there passed not one Sunday on which he was not present at the public Service and Devotions he never heard a Sermon which touched him which he obliged not himself to recollect and upon which he made not pious Reflections he never heard a Sermon but with such Attention and Devotion that made Private Persons ashamed He never went out in the Morning without secret Prayer and devout Reading And they who enter'd into his Closet observed his Table to be adorned with Books of Devotion that were fit to nourish Souls His generous way of interessing himself in all the Miseries that those suffered who were Persecuted for the sake of their Religion was a visible Testimony to all the World of the Sentiments of his Heart concerning them We may say that the Qualities of a Hero and of a great Man are chiefly due to himself and to his Blood And God who took care for his Welfare and of his Soul besides other means of Princely Education provided him an Excellent Master in the things of Religion And therefore from his Infancy he received the Seeds of Piety which have sprung up to so great Maturity as we see at this day He affords Matter of Edification to all Protestants who know him He foresaw very well all that the Rage of the contrary Party could say against his Enterprise which obliged him to deliberate on it for a considerable time for he not only loved Vertue it self but cherished the outward appearances of it He had never overcome the scruples that presented themselves if the Security of Religion and of the State had not determined Him As for the Queen it is generally agreed that there was never one more Devout nor more exact in the Practice of her Duties towards God Her Piety is not accompanied with the vain shew of Hypocrisy She is great without being Proud She has a Natural Air she appears in all her Actions without Affectation She is tender and full of Compassion and incapable of forgetting the Obligations of Nature As for his Majesties Expedition into England First It is requisite that we shew that the Possessions and Affairs belonging to the Public are not governed as the Possessions of Private Persons and that we are not to judge of them by the same Rules Princes Kings and in general Sovereigns have Men and reasonable Souls for their Possessions and Private Men for their Possessions have only Houses Lands Oxen Sheep and Horses c. That if a Private Person is of a bad Conduct and does mismanage those Possessions which Providence has put into his hands there will no other inconvenience ensue thereupon but only the disposition of some Lands or Moveables which in respect of the Public will be
at least the Kingdom will be left to him distracted and divided into a thousand Fractions one Party favouring the Stranger and another taking the part of the lawful Heir just as it happened under Charles VI. and Charles VII the English Possessed themselves of the Kingdom some took his part and others were against him and the Kingdom began to sink under the weight of that dreadful War It is then clear that in such a Case a Son after having made respectful Remonstrances to his Father and having made him sensible of the formidable disorders occasion'd by his ill Conduct may with a good conscience make use of force to deliever the Kingdom out of the hands of one who Devotes it to ruin who lays it desolate and does Transubstantiate it into a desart and who by the ill Measures he takes does evidently expose it to a Foreign Invasion Now it is certain that King James was destroying the Kingdoms Bodies Politic and Natural by his Mismanagement of the Government his violation of the Laws and making himself the Arbitrary Judge of their Sanction and Observation dispensing with them at Pleasure by depriving them of their Authority by putting honest Men out of their employs and bestowing those Offices on Men who were by Law incapable of exercising the same by taking off innocent Persons This directly tended first to the ruin of the Religion that was by Law established for he deprived Protestants of their Offices on purpose to bestow them on Roman Catholics who were Enemies to the Protestants and their Religion he violated all manner of Laws as he pleased he filled the Kingdom with Priests and Monks he made the Exercise of the Popish Religion public in all Cities and Counties he gave to the Jesuits the Colleges that were of Antient Foundation and allowed them to found new He ordered Churches to be Built for them The Jesuits open'd Schools in London A Jesuite sat in Council and was the first Minister of State The King sent Ambassadors to Rome and had Ambassadors sent to him from thence and all this against the express Laws of the Kingdom and that he might do all these things securely he maintained a powerful Army in time of Peace which is also contrary to the Priviledge of the English People This Conduct tended to the overthrow of the Monarchy as well as of the Church A Civil War was unavoidable in a little time England's patience was come to an end The Kingdom was fallen into the same condition it was in in the time of King Charles I. It is possible that King James II. would have incurred the same fate with his Father and without doubt the Fanatics would have made themselves Masters of the Government to the Exclusion of the lawful Heir Thus His present Majesty for the preservation of his Religion and the Crown to which he had a good Title and which ought in that juncture to be reduced into possession was obliged to put a stop to the current of those Mischiefs in the Fountain he endeavoured to do this by moderate means He Passed into England to curb the immoderate Power of his Father-in-Law This Father-in-Law could not endure to receive Law from any one He fled he Abdicated the Throne The Nation filled it with him who was come to deliver them His Majesty King William Accepted the Crown it had been a cruel piece of Piety to behold the Bowels of the State torn the Religion of the Kingdom perishing the spilling of so much Blood the oppression of so many innocent Persons so many Families reduced to Beggary and the right of the lawful Heir exposed to evident ruin for I know not what respect to Relation and Kindred Brutus and Manlius were praised for not having spared their own Blood and for having punished by death the Rebellion and Disobedience of their Children God is our first Father our Country is our principal Mother there are no Relations or Alliances which ought not to be Sacrificed to these great Names Besides these general Considerations there are also particular ones which are no less proper for the justification of their Majesties of Great Britain and Ireland The first is that King James II. was not lawful King although he was acknowledged by the Three Kingdoms he had drawn the Subjects of those three Kingdoms thereto by surprise being a Papist he could not be the King of England the People and Kings annex to the Succession of the Crown what Conditions they think fit Since Henry VIII all the Kings and Queens of England Mary excepted were Protestants that is to say Enemies to the Papal Tyranny this was a Quality annexed to the Crown of England All the Laws forbid the acknowledgment of the Pope for Head of the Church and Vicar of Jesus Christ They make the King of England Head of the English Church and it's High-Treason to say otherwise It is true that James the II. made a shift to thrust himself into the Throne in spite of all these Obstacles for the removing of which all imaginable diligence was used false Promises and false Oaths were not wanting It is known what were the Sentiments and the Interests of those who were Assisting in such a Violation of the Laws It is not necessary to make mention of them in this place although the Violation was nothing else but a suspension for the Laws were not Abrogated and tho' they had been so the English would always have had a Right to retrieve and re-establish them which were made for the security of Religion They Enacted Recognised and Declared that to be King of England and a Papist are Qualities that are absolutely incompatible and they were no ways to be blamed for the thing is plain and his present Majesty had reason not to Abandon to another the Succession that belonged to himself and his Royal Consort who have the same Qualities and are of the same Religion as is required by the Law and who moreover are the lawful and next Heirs It is not the first time that the Children have taken the room of the Father whom the Laws and his own personal Qualities excluded from the Enjoyment of the Rights and Possessions which his Birth had allowed him After all we must know that the English Government is not in the hands of one Person There is one King the King is Sovereign but he is not in the Possession of all the Sovereign Power He who cannot make Laws nor break them is not in the Possession of Arbitrary Power The Parliament partakes of the Legislative Authority with the King The People have their Priviledges which the King and Parliament cannot take from them If for Example a Parliament should meet with the King for making an absolute change of the Form of Government for abolishing the use of Parliaments and for depriving the People of all their Priviledges Charters and Immunities the People might justly provide against these Violations James II. endeavoured to Cancel all the Priviledges of the
Practices It is false that the Prince had given a Suspition of any Intention to make himself the Supreme Governour of the Vnited Provinces On the contrary he generally rejected all the occasions that were offered him to accept of that Dignity The King of France made him an Offer of Holland with full Sovereign Power and he refused it Anno. 1672. During the Consternation that these Countries were in by reason of the French Army the City of Amsterdam more then ordinary jealous of her Liberty consented to bestow on the Prince both the Rights and Title of Earl of Holland The Prince would by no means accept of it The States of Geldre having signified their Intentions to make him Duke of that Province he refused the offer and referred himself to the Opinion of the other Provinces The Low Countries have great reason sure to complain of the Prince's Government since the Year 1671. He found a Common-wealth oppressed under the Yoak of a Foreign Power having it's Bowels torn to pieces destitute of Arms destitute of Forts without Friends and without Allies and he accomplished his design by the most wise Conduct imaginable taking Possession of their Hearts beating back the Common Enemy by his Courage engaging all Europe in a Joynt Alliance which crushed all the French Designs Engaging the English Interest and causing the Treaty of Peace to be concluded at Breda He defended his Nation against all the pernicious Intrigues of the French Counsels he by his wise Conduct restored Trade to it's former Splendor and made it again to flourish It is now in the highest Esteem that ever any Common-wealth was in He was Umpire of the most Important Peace that has been concluded these hundred Years past which was made betwixt the two Crowns These are the great disorders that the Prince of Orange committed in the Republic and the truth is they are very great disorders in respect of France whose purpose is to reduce all her Neighbours into Confusion and Servitude for her own ends Now it is worth the knowing who this Famous Author is He is one whom France hath kept in Holland as a Spy and as an Incendiary He has not been idle during his Abode there he has not so much as omitted the most impertinent Occurrences that never passed the Frontiers of the State before and which were only the talk of the Mobile Such is the application of the Words of the Prophet Esay to the Birth of the Prince of Wales Before she was in pain she brought forth before she Travelled she was delivered of a Man Child See what he imputes to the Prince as a Crime and calls it a profanation of Holy Scripture to uphold his Pretences against the Prince of Wales He also justifies King James from the Accusation that is brought against him in the Prince's Declaration for having had a Design to suppress the Religion and overthrow the Laws of the Land He thinks in a moment to possess the Minds of Men with a Prejudice against the Prince as if his Expediâ—â—â—n could not have been undertaken for the Preservation of Religion as not being of the English perswasion but a Presbyterian He is obliged saith he according to the Calvinstical Doctrine to believe that all Ministers have equal Authority that Episcopacy is an unlucky Pillar of Papal and Antichristian Tyranny The Presbyterians destroyed the English Church banished the Prelates and abolished the Liturgy during the Common-wealth and behold a Presbyterian and an Army of Calvinists who pass into England to deliver the English Church which they have always look'd upon as Professing a false Religion Upon this Subject the Author shews what an able Man and great Divine he is he multiplies Words and idle Reflections We answer him in a Word that the English Church never Condemned the Presbyterians on this side of the Sea and never beheld their Religion as false She has only remonstrated the Extravagancies of the English Presbyterians and possibly iâ— that she is not much in the wrong The Presbyterians on this side the Sea in like manner never Condemn Episcopacy as an Appurtenance of Antichristianism The difference in Point of Government never hindred the English Protestants and those in these Parts from being ready to afford one another mutual Assistance as being of the same Religion Queen Elizabeth helped the Dutch and French Protestants King James did the same and which is more he sent his Divines and Bishops to the Synod of Dort which was otherwise all composed of Presbyterians that action alone is an undoubted proof of the Communion that the Bishops and Presbyterians maintained amongst themselves If the English Bishops have Assisted the Presbyterians on this side the Sea as their Brethren when they were like to be oppressed why may not the Presbyterians here with very good reason go and assist the English Church which they have always look'd upon to be a true Protestant Church Again this Author endeavours to prove first that the Late King of England in his suspending the Penal Laws had no other end but the Establishment of a perfect Tranquillity in his Kingdom taking from his Subjects all occasion of Persecuting one another upon the account of Religion This is the Old Song but all those who speak so are not in hopes to perswade others nor are they themselves perswaded of the Truth of this allegation They know very well and all the World is sensible of it that King James did extreamly hate the Presbyterians Independants and Anabaptists looking upon them as the Authors of his Father's death and as his own Enemies It is very well known that during all the time that he was Duke of York he did cruelly Persecute them to do the English Church a Pleasure thinking to be so much a gainer thereby as to do afterwards whatever he pleased It was not then in Favour of the Non Conformists his Sworn Enemies that he intended to repeal the Penal Laws it is notoriously known that it was never in his thoughts to take them away but for the sake of the Roman Catholics and that he included other Dissenters for no other end but to palliate his designs It is beyond all dispute King James II. of England was a great Enemy of Persecution He made his inclinations manifest whilst he was as yet Duke of York possibly it cannot be denied but that that King had a very great Zeal for his own Religion for this Author does him that great Honour as to avouch it He had consequently a passionate desire to Establish it in England Can this be denied if he acknowledge it for he must be destitute both of common sence and honour to deny it he must also own that all his Actions tended to that end if all his Actions tended to that end with better reason so important a one did such as was the suspension of the Penal Laws Can he deny it or can any Person do it for him It is therefore plain that he had a
nothing to deprive the Lords and the Prime Officers of State of their respective Places of Trust because they refused to give their consent to the thing Is this any thing else but to shed the Blood of the whole Kingdom by Apostate Judges and Slaves to the Court as the Prince complains in his Declaration Is it nothing to have obstructed the free Elections of Members to serve in Parliament by depriving them of all manner of Liberty and making them to depend on the Court by so many Cabals so many Violences and Injustices All these Articles deserve to be considered somewhat more than that of the Invalidity of Judgments given by Popish Judges It must needs be that in all these Points this great Advocate who is so profuse of Words and Reflections found nothing to say in favour of his Hero and against the Prince For he that speaks so much elsewhere would not otherwise have been silent in this matter After this take his word for it and believe him when he tells you that if any thing deserves reprehension in the King's Conduct it was so inconsiderable that Posterity will be astonished that there are Christians found in these Ages who are so barbarous as upon that occasion to give so ill treatment to so good a King whom all Histories will own to have possessed very Royal Qualities And in the sequel he attributes a Great Heart and a Great Soul to him This Author differs very much from himself or from one of his Friends who writ the Letter of M. to M. upon the Affairs of the Times for instead of ascribing to him Royal Qualities therein whil'st they manifest their discontent and murmuring they treat him as a Man who in his conduct was destitute both of Sense and Prudence and as one who has done just so much as was necessary to destroy himself That Great Prince seemed to have neither Heart nor Head in all that Affair We know well enough what is believed of him and what has been said of him in Paris since they have enjoyed his presence It is certain that so many as have known him whether Friends or Enemies do all agree that instead of Royal Qualities he was endowed with an Extreme Fierceness with a very little Spirit and a Heart in a degree below mediocrity But if he were the most considerable Person in the World it is very certain that he abused his power and this is enough to justifie the English Nation If he had had no other Quality but that of a declared Papist it were enough to make him incapable to Reign in England For it is unspeakable folly to alledge that a Popish Prince can be King of England a Kingdom that is altogether Protestant and in which according to the most impartial calculation those Papists who live there are nothing in comparison The English Nation have abdicated this Error as well as the powerful Cause of it It was not possible for her to be kept in it for any long time There were in France a Million of Protestants and that party was in a condition of making head against the other when it was declared to Henry IV. that the King of France must of necessity be a Catholick From the same infected Source do spring two great Articles to prove that the Free Parliament about which the Prince made so great a Noise in his Declaration and which was the great Hinge of the Motions of the Kingdom is as great a Chimera as a Mountain without a Valley considering the condition into which the Prince had reduced the Nation by his Invasion All this effusion of Words may be reduced to two Arguments The first That to make a Parliament free the King must of necessity have at least as great Liberty as the Members of Parliament that he may be in a capacity to propose to and demand of them whatever he pleases This Article may be very well questioned for the Definition of a Parliament does not consist in a liberty that the King has to demand and to propose He has always enough and oftentimes he loses a great deal The nature of a free Parliament lies in this that the Members thereof have been freely elected by the Counties Cities and Burroughs and where the said Members may speak their Opinions even in opposition to the King's pleasure without danger It was a long time since there were such Parliaments in England For it is known in what manner those were treated who durst oppose the King's Will But let us suppose what he says that the nature of a free Parliament does require that the King have a perfect Liberty as aforesaid Who hindred this Liberty If James II. upon the Prince's arrival in Exeter had of his own accord given his consent to the calling of a free Parliament there might have been sufficient assurance given as of a thing most certain that he might have had all manner of freedom to propose to speak and to demand of the Parliament whatever he pleased Who would have barr'd him from this He had his Guards he had his Army consisting of about 40000 Men against ten or twelve thousand whom the Prince had taken with him It is certain that the Army would have proved faithful to him and not one person would have joyned with the Prince against him if at that instant the King had called a free Parliament But God who intended to Ruine him did leave him to be blinded and made obstinate by Popish Counsels so as not to consent to the sitting of a free Parliament The Papists had reason to give him such Counsel but the King was very much in the wrong to take it The Papists had reason for a free Parliament had ruined them as it did the King in the issue and reduced them to a worse condition than they were then in but the King had no reason to follow that counsel for it is not to be doubted but that it was better for him to Reign under the Restraint of the Laws which hindred the Establishment of his Religion than not to Reign at all That which we alledge viz. That the King had nothing to fear as to his Person and Dignity if he had called a free Parliament at the first is not a bare conjecture There is no English Man but says it and is ready to depose it upon Oath And in my opinion every one of them ought to know what he thinks but that which perverted the Army and provoked the People is that fierceness with which the King rejected the Request which was presented to him at London at that time by Fifteen or Twenty Lords as well Spiritual as Temporal and which was afterwards back'd with a more considerable number Then it was seen that the Religion Laws and Liberty of the Kingdom lay at stake and that if the King should get the better of the Prince they were to expect the last extremity of Rigour And this made the face of things to change in
a moment and did the Prince's business without effusion of Blood It is true that at last the King at a pinch consented to the Calling of a Parliament but it was then too late and they knew very well that that was only to gain time yet tho' as late as it was it is yet true That if the King had stayed his Enemies could never have done any thing against him the Parliament had taken his part This is soclear by the manner of the carriage of many of the Members of the Convention that he must be blind who cannot see it or be very hard of belief not to acknowledge it As for the King's Friends they would have had no liberty of speech saith my Author how dare he say so seeing that in the Convention the King having left the Kingdom and the Prince of Orange being in the possession of his Army and the House of Commons declaring against James II. yet even then his Friends durst speak for him It was proposed in a full Assembly to call him back Many Lords-Spiritual and Temporal protested against the Vacancy of the Throne and with so little danger and disgrace that some of them were afterwards made Members of the Privy Council What could not the Friends of James II. have said if Himself had been present It is past all doubt that they had carried it for him or kept the Affairs of State in a most equal Ballance If the Prince had had any design to do violence to the Members of Parliament would not the whole Nation and all the Forces thereunto belonging have joyned together to oppose him as a treacherous person who came to destroy their Liberty after having so solemnly declared He would Maintain it Could the Prince with his 10 or 12000 Foreigners have made one day's resistance It is therefore certain that neither the King nor his Friends had any reason to be afraid in that case The other Argument by which this Man endeavours to prove that the pretence of a free Parliament is really a Chimera is because the Parliament could not make Laws without the King's consent And if it be granted that this pretended free Parliament had met the King would have opposed all their Resolutions He would have refused to pass the Bills And the Parliament could never have done any thing at least could not but by force Upon which account it would not have been a free Parliament seeing the King could not have his Liberty It may also be saith our pious Author that the Hand of God which is not shortened was so gracious to that generous Prince as to make him hearken to their Threats with the same Firmness of Resolution with which St. Lew is heard the Saracens whose Prisoner he was when a hundred drawn Swords ready to dispatch him could not shake him from his stedfastness and oblige him to take an Oath the thoughts of which were more terrible to him What is to be done on such an occasion Behold this pretended free Parliament is arrested all on a sudden and all the fair fruits that were expected from it become abortive The English ought to answer this They know their own Laws and we do not but according to the Light of good Sense and the Laws of Nature we may make him Answer by two Things that are very weighty The first is that we ought to distinguish betwixt those Laws that are already made and those Laws that are only a making That the Consent of the King of England is not necessary for the Preservation of those Laws that are made But there were Laws requiring the Exclusion of all Papists from Offices and Places of Trust as well Military as Judiciary and Civil There were Laws that prohibited upon the Pain of Death the Priests and especially the Monks coming into the Kingdom There were Laws standing that required the demolishing of the Romish Chappels and hindring all Publick Exercise of the Popish Religion There were Laws that declared every Person of the Realm guilty of High-Treason who should keep correspondence with the Court of Rome and who should hide Priests and Monks There were Laws enough for the Security of the Protestant Religion The Parliament had nothing to do but to put those Laws into strict Execution The King 's consent was not necessary for the enacting of new Laws for that purpose But seeing he has the executive Power of the Laws in his hands what is to be done if the King will not put those Laws in execution Then and in that Case it is evident that the Parliament might lawfully appoint some Persons who should execute those Laws for otherwise for what end are Laws made if it be always in the Power of one individual Person to hinder their Execution It must be supposed that those who made the Laws were no Fools but certainly they had not been wise if they had reserved no Power to themselves for the Execution of the Laws whensoever the King should refuse so to do It is not then necessary that there should be new Laws to bear down Popery which shewed her self bare faced Neither were there any new Laws necessary to oppose the King and to declare him incapable of the Government For all the Laws which before that Time had been made against Popery make it manifest with great Force and Necessity that a King of England must be a Protestant that without doing any Violence to the Law they might declare to James II. that they could no otherwise consider him but as a private Person But again there is no Law expressed in so general and so precise terms but admits of an Exception of Cases of Necessity And according to this Rule we are to understand the Laws of England That the Parliament cannot make a Law without the King Let us suppose that in a Kingdom such as England is where the Estates have reserved to themselves one Part of the Sovereign Power a King goes about to alienate all or any Part of the Realm to bring in a forreign Power to abrogate the Ancient to revoke all the Priviledges of the People to harrass his Subjects with an Army to cause to Murther all those who comply not with his Pleasure or all those whom he pleases so to treat Will any one say that the Estates or the Parliaments who are the Trustees Guarrantees and Protectors of the Liberties of the People have not a Power according to Law to issue forth such Orders and to take such Measures as may hinder the Violences committed by that Prince and that for this Reason The Parliament can do nothing without the King 's confent and therefore cannot oppose the Violences done by him for the King will never consent to it I maintain that he that would argue thus has utterly lost his Wits In vain have Parliaments reserved to themselves the Legislative Power if they had no Authority to exercise it In vain have they preserved their Priviledges if they had no Power for
provided against those extream Grievances which they lay under it was easie for them to find at hand the Name and Person of the Prince of Orange to whose Family upon former considerations they had the greatest Obligations and therefore their Acclamations for the Elevation of the Prince were mixed with Exclamations of Fury and Rage against the De Wits It is the greatest injustice to charge this as a Crime upon a Young Prince who then being but a Youth had given proofs of his Wisdom and of a consummated Moderation Neither have I heard that in Holland any of those who were the greatest Loosers by the Death of the De Wits and the Change of Government did entertain the least suspition thereof The Battle of St. Denis is also objected which his present Majesty gave at the very time when the Treaty of Peace at Nimeghen was a concluding in which seven or eight thousand Men were killed on one side and other His Majesty was not at all obliged to know that the Peace was concluded and it is well known that he was extreamly condescending to make the best Conditions he could If the advantage had been more compleat and the French Army had been entirely defeated it had very well appeared that the Action had not been so ill construed The Peace was signed at Nimeghen but it was not ratified and until the Ratification of a Treaty there is always time allowed to the Parties to change their Councils either for the Confirmation or relaxation thereof From the same Source does proceed another Charge against his Majesty in favour of a little Gentleman called the Prince of Wales as if he had been look'd upon to block up his Majestie 's way to the Crown but the true Heirs of the Crown had no ground to believe that the pretended Prince of Wales did block up their way to the Crown He was very far off he was born a Papist he had the Pope for his Godfather he was naturally excluded from the Crown of England upon that score and the Party which had set James II. on the Throne tho' a declared Papist could not maintain their pretensions for any long time James II. had supported him by his forwardness by his Intrigues and by his Army On his Death or oververthrow by some blow the Stripling 's Aspect would have been soon changed with his Fortune This young Popish Prince surviving either a Minor or destitute of Strength and Wisdom for supporting himself could not maintain his Point for any long time against the known Laws of the Country against the People and against the Religion of the Land and the lawful Rights of the Princess besides a Birth so obscure and so destitute of good proof could not be maintained against the manifest and professed Birth of the two Princesses who were lawful Heirs This Prince of Wales would have been obliged one day to prove his Birth against the two Princesses who would dispute it and it is very probable that he would have come but ill off I do not at all doubt but that his Birth whether true or suppos'd oblig'd the Nation to be more Urgent in calling for his present Majestie 's Assistance So long as they saw none else seated upon the Throne a Popish King on whom Old Age and consequently Death was making it's near approaches they might have Patience in hopes of seeing within a little time Protestant Successors in the Possession of the Crown But when they perceived that a New Prince was trump'd up who in all probability was nothing else but a Chimera to perpetuate the Popish Religion on the Throne from Generation to Generation they were awakened they thought of their own safety they implored help from their deliverer they had reason to crave it and his present Majesty had reason to grant it for it was a perillous and pressing Juncture and it was not to be expected that the People who accustomed themselves to every thing with time would inure themselves to bear with a presumptive Heir of the Crown set up in favour of a Religion that is a mortal Enemy both to the Peace and Religion of the Realm I intend not here to set down the process of the supposititious Birth of the Prince of Wales nor do I think it necessary I shall only make some reflections on it all Europe knows or ought to know that King William and Queen Mary were the last who entertained this supposition It is manifestly known to the World that the report was Universally spread throughout England and all Europe from the time that there was any talk of the Queen's being with Child of her Vow to our Lady of Loretto of the rich Presents that she sent thither of the Bath whither she went to prepare her self for pregnancy of the King's journey to the Bath to visit the Queen of the rumour that was spread abroad immediately after that of the Queen's being with Child Not only all the Protestants but all the Catholics of good sence who gave no great credit to the Miracles of our Lady look'd upon all as a prelude to the Comedy that was to be Acted All England is witness that during all the time that the Queen was with Child the City of London and Whitehall were full of Satyrs and Lampoons in Verse and in Prose like rude Serpents they flew about not sparing the Queen's Petticoats her pregnancy was ridiculed And it is also known that not only the Mobile but all Persons of the greatest Note in the Kingdom had the same suspition My second Reflection is that the Prince had all reason imaginable to conceive a suspition of this Birth in consideration of the quality of the witnesses who were summoned to attest it It is very well known that neither Princess Ann of Denmark nor any of the Friends of the Present King and Queen nor King Jame's Enemies were called to be by and it is as well known that the Bishops were put in the Tower some days after It is known that the Queen was brought to Bed when she thought fit and that she went for that end to St. James's House it is known that she made two reckonings within the compass of a Month and there was good reason to suspect that she took an advantage from it to take the most agreeable Measures for the management of the intrigue When there is but one reckoning all things requisite are not always in readiness against the named time for an Action of that nature It is Universally known that King James and his Queen were informed of all the reports that were spread abroad that the Queen's being with Child was a sham and consequently they were obliged to use all imaginable precaution to Work an assurance in Peoples minds that it was genuin they would not do it by any means they encreased the suspition by this neglect Seeing there are so great reasons to call it into question could his Present Majesty be blamed for endeavouring to be
Walls with the ground to Plunder the Town several times to quarter an Army at discretion in a small subjected Country and which never made any Resistance to Imprison the principal Inhabitants of that small State and to commit against them the utmost Violences It is not to Orange only that his Majesty has found Pretenders In Burgundy in the Franch county and every where else where King William had Possessions and Lands there were not wanting Houses of Longueville in favour of which the Lands of a Prince were seised with which the Usurpers had nothing to do and by such base Artifices as have begot the hearty Concern of all Princes they opposed William of Nassau on all occasions when he could not defend himself without ever declaring War against him These are Instances of a base and unworthy Revenge for two Kings to take For the English King was in League with Lewis to Abandon his Son-in-Law to Rapin and Desolation This is one of the Obligations that the Son-in-Law has to his Father-in Law and for which public Fame bears him upon her Wings for a stupendous Example of Ingratitude The Prince has already sustained damage enough in his Principality of Orange and Lands of Burgundy by his Father-in-Law's good Offices But I cannot say but he will demand new Costs and Charges at the Hands of the most Christian King We shall see if he can hold out to be as easily Victorious over William III. King of England as he laid desolate the Possessions of William of Nassau BURGER of the Hague for so the Prince was called at Paris This Burger of the Hague begins now to strike Terror in the Grand Seignior of Versailles who has been so terrible to many and I am very apt to think that his fear will not prove to be in vain and that the mighty Mounsieur shall not escape so The same Author tells us that we must shew standing Laws that allow a Son as the next Heir to the Crown to make himself his Father-in-Laws Judge to invade his Kingdom with a Fleet of five hundred Ships Indeed this Orator would not have done amiss to have spared his Breath to have reserved his Rhetoric and his Eloquence to Answer the Demands that William of Nassau in all likelihood will make ' ere it be long to Lewis XIV for if it should so happen that he prove the stronger one day he has very good reason to call him to an account and ask him by what Laws he invaded and retained Lorain and possessed himself of Strasburg in the time of Peace by what Laws he laid the principality of Orange Desolate and treated the same as a place subjected to him by an absolute Conquest why he reduced the Palatinate and the Towns and Villages on the Rhine to Ashes treating it as a Country destined by the most Savage Proscription to perpetual Desolation and why he seizes the Possessions of every one and keeps Faith with none This insolent Author repeats the Case of the De Wits and imputes the Misfortunes that befel them and others to King William whom he alledges to have managed the Multitude for the accomplishment of his Designs But was it during the Years of his Minority or after they were past that he gained the Multitude Did he Court that small People Did he require any thing of them Did he complain to them of the wrongs that had been done to him Was there one Man of that People to whom he was personally known or with whom he had the least Conversation imaginable As for the then deposed Magistrates if they were Established by Law they were laid aside by Law This is done by the order of the States of Holland who are the Sovereign Governours of the Province This was to put a stop to the Rage of the People who being reduced to the brink of Destruction seized on the Magistrates right or wrong There were no other means left of dispelling that Mist but by changing the Governours And to be short this business was not carried on by a suddain Enterprise but was managed with a great deal of Prudence All the Magistrates who were rejected were Enemies to the Prince who being invested with the Office of General Stadtholder and placed at the Helm of the Government was obliged to put in such Magistrates as were on his own side otherwise they had torn the Commonwealth by their contrary Methods and the State would have been thereby infested with such Divisions that would have exposed it to unavoidable Ruine As for the Elections in their Cities The Prince in managing them used no force made no use of the settled Army he Besieg'd no Town Imprison'd no Person by his own Authority When there was a design of puting into Offices such Persons as could not have that Correspondence with him that was necessary amongst the Governours of a Common-wealth He only made use of the Authority of the States and of the Court of Judicatory according to the Laws and Rights by which he held his Office and his Character great were The Cries and Lamentations saith the same Author for the Ships that were destroyed which he had disposed of without the Consent of the City of Amsterdam to which they did belong He means the Fleet that was cast away returning from the Sound in the Month of November Anno. 1683. this Man has impudence enough to impute to the Prince the Shipwrack of all the Vessels that have been lost by Stormy Weather since the Year 1672. and to think him answerable for all the Works of Heaven If the City of Amsterdam had not advised the sending out of that Fleet his Consent could not have been necessary When the charge of a Naval Force is computed and agreed upon by the States it may be disposed of by the Admirals and the Admiralities according to their own Prudence with the Suffrages of the major part of the Counsel for the good of the Common-wealth provided they do not engage in a War without their consent If there was no good understanding at that time betwixt the City of Amsterdam and the Prince that was the result of the Intrigues of France which by a Diabolical Artifice sowed Divisions in the Cities and Members of the States The violent Suspitions he goes on though he frequently gave of making himself the Master of those whose Minister he only was He never gave cause to such violent Suspitions but it was the Instruments of the French King who raised them for they were continually imployed to diffuse Jealousies through the State against the Prince There was none of his most innocent Actions that they did not misrepresent In their Judgment it was Criminal for him to maintain his own Rights against those who had a design to Invade them They had made so great a Progress before the Year 1672. by this Conduct and by the Jealousies they had kindled in Men's Minds against the House of Orange that there was no Defence left against their
in the hands of Papists It is true that when any one presumed to speak publickly of Religion he was put from his Pulpit if not from his Benefice It is true that when the Bishops refused to read the King's Declaration of Liberty of Conscience to Roman Catholicks under the Name of Dissenters they were sent to the Tower But to what purpose is all this they were alive still they Preached they had Pulpits and Churches whereas in France there was no such thing to be seen I but there was always reason to believe that King James who was so true a Friend to Lewis XIV and zealously bent on the same courses in agreement with him would in time push on things to such an issue to take effect in his own or his Successours days whom he was setting up as has already fallen out in France They were afraid of it I say and they had reason for the Popish Religion is a most insatiable Monster an implacable Enemy If it be allowed but room for one foot it will quickly usurp an entire Possession of all It makes profession of admitting no Partnership and of suffering no Rivals The English had forgot this Truth I know not how and suffered a Popish Prince to ascend the Throne The Cause of James II. his Misfortunes is to be looked for in the conduct of the French King It is he and he only that was the Cause thereof The English must of necessity have been very fast asleep not to awaken at the Cries of the infinite Numbers of miserable Creatures who went to carry their Afflictions and their Complaints to the Ears of the English Nation and who without speaking did pathetically express the meaning and weight of this important Advice Learn to have a care of Tyrants and Kings that are possessed by Jesuits The defence for King James is destined against King William Prince of Orange The Religion established by Law was entire and therefore his present Majesty as the Man reasons could have no just cause for passing into England Besides the Author endeavours to strengthen his Argument by the measures His Majesty took in Holland a Country where he had signalized himself more frequently than in England where he made it be blown about as this man says that his Father in Law was about to suspend the Penal Laws There are certainly Penal Laws in Holland against the Roman Catholicks but it is as certain saith he that the wisest Magistrates did judge that it was the Interest of the Republick to suspend their execution especially in the Province of Holland which is the most considerable amongst them God be praised for it You may now at last take notice of a publick confession that is express and in print That the Roman Catholicks are not persecuted in Holland Thus both Mr. Arnauld and all the Apologists for the French Persecution who were so bold as to complain of the Persecutions that their Church suffered in the Low Countries are declared to be Slanderers Note this well for these Gentlemen will say the contrary the very next day because they always speak according to their Interest but here it is their Interest to confess the truth that they may be in a capacity to conclude that the City of Amsterdam that of Rotterdam and that of Harlem had Power to suspend the Penal Laws that a King who is a Sovereign Prince can do as much as a particular City That if the Dutch without betraying their Religion might do this we have no reason to complain of a Catholick who was willing to shew the same gentleness to those of his own Religion as a Protestant Common-wealth does It is necessary that King William himself be concerned in the Proof He had a very great Number of Catholicks in his Guards and likewise amongst his Domestick Servants It is not then an Argument of Religion saith he that he does charge it as a Crime upon his Father-in-Law that being himself a Catholick he did suffer the Catholick Religion to be exercised within his Dominions Our Author is not ill to please his Premises are false throughout and his Conclusion is very bad He supposes that the Prince of Orange would answer thus that his Father-in-Law permitted the Exercise of the Roman Religion in England as it is in Holland this is false Mijn Heer Fagel's Letter was Penned to shew the contrary to King James The Prince does agree that such Penal Laws should be repealed which might endanger the Lives of the Priests and might ensnare the Conscience He does allow that the Papists be tolerated in England as they are in Holland He does again suppose falsly that King James had granted nothing to the English Papists but what the Dutch had granted to the Romish Religion in their Countries It is Impudence without Example to affirm this It is notoriously known that the toleration of Papists in Holland is not established by any Law nor by any Decree suspending the Laws It is well known that the Papists have not entred into any Office of Justice and of the Government of the State they are only admitted into Military Employs but King James was for receiving them into all the Offices of the Kingdom and not only for suspending the Execution of the Penal Laws by a tacite Toleration of Religion as it is in Holland but by an express Cessation of the Laws themselves In the third Place he does falsly suppose that the King of England has the same Power with respect to Religion that the States of Holland have in their Country This is not so the States of Holland are Sovereign and Absolute in their Provinces without limitation for it is they who make Laws but the King of England makes no Laws but with the joynt Assent and Authority of Parliament and can change nothing in such as concern Religion any more than he can do in other Laws without the Parliament Lastly He is infinitely mistaken when he compares the Quality of the Toleration of the Popish Religion that is admitted in Holland to that which he would have established in England because in Holland the Sovereign Authority is Protestant and in England the Sovereign Authority was Popish There is a very great difference betwixt having Popish Subjects and Servants and having Popish Masters The States of Holland are very well content to have Popish Subjects and the Prince will admit Popish Servants but they would not have Masters of that Religion This was designed to be done in England Their Great Master was a Papist and that Master endeavoured that all others should become so And so it does not follow from the Prince's Goodness in admitting of Papists amongst his Servants that he ought to suffer that his Father-in-Law should commit the Offices and Places of Trust within the Kingdom into the hands of Papists The words also of Popery and Papists used in his present Majesty's Declaration are not pleasing to our Opponent That Man ought to have known that those Words