make a new one they returned and Adjourned till Saturday Morning But not agreeing then they desired a further time which was granted till Tuesday following The King telling the Messengers that as he would not have his Prerogative intrencht upon so he would not do any thing against the Priviledges of the House But then instead of Presenting a new Speaker they Presented a Representation Claiming it as a Right to have that Speaker they chose accepted if he were not excused for some Corporal Disease which hath always heretofore been alleadged either by themselves or some others in their behalf in full Parliament as they said But his Majesty not admitting this neither they Adjourned till Wednesday and drew up another Address to have the former better considered and to this his Majesty replied he would send them an answer the next day And accordingly On Thursday he sent for them up to the House of Lords and Prorogued them for one day and on Saturday morning sent for them again and by the Lord Chancellor Commanded them to proceed to the Choice of a Speaker and Present him on Munday Morning which they accordingly did and then they chose Mr. Sergeant Gregory of whom his Majesty approved on the Monday following It was Ominous thus to stumble at the Threshold and therefore there is no great wonder if after this much of his Majesties and the Lord Chancellors good Counsell relating to calmness in the Management of their Affairs was forgotten Tuesday Wednesday and a great part of Thursday the 20th day of March being spent in the preliminaries and in receiving and reading the shoal of Petitions concerning undue Elections and Returns on the Evening of the last day the Commons sent a Message to the Lords to put them in mind of the Impeachments of High Treason against Thomas Earl of Danby in the names of the Commons of England and to desire he might be Committed to safe Custody And referred it to the Committee of Secrecy to draw up further Articles against him By which it appeared that they were resolved to begin where the former Parliament ended so that men easily conjectured what would follow And some there were that suggested as if his place was his greatest Crime and that the ruin of a Minister of State in order to fright the rest of the Ministers was more sought than the Punishment of any Traytor whether Popish or Protestant In the week following it appearing that the Earl of Danby had a pardon by his Majesties mentioning of it in the House of Lords And a Committee being appointed to search it out returned on Monday the 24th of March that it had not been Regularly sued out but was Sealed in the King's presence by his express Command Upon which the Commons sent up a Message to the Lords to demand Justice against him and ordered an Address to his Majesty to represent the dangerous Consequences of granting Pardons to any persons that lie under an Impeachment of the Commons of England And the same day the Lords sent word to the Commons that they had ordered him to be taken into Custody On Tuesday the 25th of March 1679. the Lords sent a Message to the Commons that the Earl of Danby was not to be sound upon which the Commons ordered a Bill to be brought in to Summon him by a certain day or in default thereof to Attaint him Mr. Edward Sacvile a Member of the House of Commons being accused by Mr. Oats to have called the truth of the Plot and Murder of Sir Edmonberry Godfrey in question was ordered to be committed to the Tower Expelled the House and an Address made to his Majesty for the removing him from all Publick Imployments and Trusts This was a sure way to have the Plot believed On Wednesday there having before been a Complaint brought against one Hills and Edwin for Printing a Pamphlet intituled A Letter from a Jesuite at Paris to his Correpondent in London Shewing the most effectual way to ruin the Government and the Protestant Religion was to promote the Dissenters Interest and to chuse factious men into the House of Commons And it appearing that Dr. John Nalson was the Author of it there being no Law to punish this offence the said Doctor was ordered to be sent for in Custody of the Serjeant at Arms to inform the House touching the said Pamphlet The same day a Bill was sent down from the Lords Intituled an Act for the better discovery and speedy Conviction of Popish Recusants Which had been sent down in the former Session of Parliament time enough to have been passed but was neglected which was read the day following On Thursday the 27th of March the Lords sent down a Bill for the Banishing and Disabling the Earl of Danby which his Majesty had profered to do and desired the Concurrence of the House of Commons which the Commons read and rejected that day But notwithstanding the Commons went on with the Bill of Attainder against him and ordered a Clause to be added for the discovery of all trusts relating to him and that he should be made incapable of receiving pardon but by Act of Parliament wherein he shall be particularly Named The same day the Lords sent down a Bill to disinable any person from Sitting in any of the Houses of Convocation till he hath taken the Oaths and made and subscribed the Declaration therein contained On Friday a Bill was read for better securing the liberty of the Subjects Sir Christopher Calthrop Knight who was returned one of the Knights of the Shire for Norfolk being then sick of the Small-pox desired that the Case in difference betwixt him and Sir John Hobard Baronet which was to be heard on Friday next might be delayed which was denyed Note That Calthrop was of the Court-party and Hobard of the Country-party But to look a little back On Monday the 25th of March the House of Lords sent to examin the five Lords in the Tower concerning a French Book about the Plot the Author of which had it seems endeavoured to invalidate Mr. Oats his testimony but they would not own they knew the Author The same day the Vote mentioned in the former Part of the reality of the Popish Plot which had been renewed by the Commons and sent up to the Lords for their concurrence was Voted by the Lords and ordered to be inserted in the first leaf of the Office to be publickly used on the day * 11 of April appointed by his Majesty for solemn Fasting and Humiliation at the request of both Houses On Saturday the 29th the Lords agreed to have a Bill brought in to expell out of the Inns of Court Doctors Commons the College of Physicians and Heralds office all such persons as shall not give testimony of their being Protestants by going to Church and by taking the Sacrament and such Oaths Tests and Declarations as are appointed by any Law for the distinguishing Protestants from Papists and
Independency prevailing at the same time in England on it went with the same force and ruined the poor Kirk of Scotland and made this Covenanting Nation the veriest Slaves in the world and ever since Presbytery there as well as in England have been in a feeble state and they were opprest in their civil Interests Liberties and Freedoms and made such Slaves by a standing Army of English and two Forts which his Majesty hath since demolished that a Scot in those days durst not have walked as I have been told with a Cudgel in his hand and Parliament general Assembly or any other Convention they were never to have more nor any other Address but what they got by most humble Supplication only they had no Bishops so that if his Majesty should restore all things as he found them when God brought him home to his Crown and Kingdoms the Scots would have no reason to thank him for the favour But in the interim I wonder they can reflect thus upon the time when their calamities began which was the very year they sold his Majesties Father into the hands of his Enemies who basely murthered him and not be confounded with horror and shame at the Villany they then did nor yet reflect upon the Justice of God which hath pursued them ever since through all the changes that have happened and having first made their dear Covenanting Brethren of England to begin the Chastisement of them hath gone on from time to time to baffle all their attempts to recover their Lost Estate and they have reason to believe he will do so till the opinions and persons of that schismatical Confederacy be rooted out of the World And here let our English Dissenters too be pleased to remember they have done worse then the Scots for they murthered that Prince which the Scots only sold and by how much they have smarted less then the Scots so much the more is behind and the Justice of God will not be restrained by the Act of Indemnity but he will certainly recompense them according to their deserts with so much the greater severity because they have abused the Lenity of his Anointed and his long-sufferance I shall add but one word more and then see the Catastrophe of these Rebells and that is an humble Request to the Loyal Scots that they would not take this amiss for I heartily applaud their fidelity to his Majesty and acknowledge they deserve to partake of his Royal bounty and Princely favour equally with the English and I wish them all that prosperity and happiness they can desire for they are no otherwise concerned in the Covenanters then the Church of England men are in the evil Actions of the English Dissenters The 20th of June the Duke of Monmouth who went Post into Scotland for that Service went to the Army which the Council of Scotland had prepared for him which lay then at a place called Blackburn where he viewed and muster'd all the Forces and put all things in a readiness to encamp the next day he marched with his Army to Moorhead and the day following to Bothwell bridge Where the Enemy lay about eight Miles distant from his second Camp The place where they then were was called Hamilton Park and was well chosen if it had or could have been well defended for there was no passage to it but over Bothwell bridge which they had well lined with Musqueteers and Barricadoed with Stones Cart Wheels and the like The Dukes Army marched in great silence and Order and had been upon the Rebels before they had taken the Allarm but that their foremost Guards discovered them by the light of their Matches And so they put themselves into a posture of Defence The Duke found the Rebels in two Bodies half a Mile one from the other the foremost Party which was the weakest in Number lay near the Bridge the other near their Camp as high as the liitle Park where they stood in their Orders and Ranks Major Oglethorp posted himself upon the first approach near the Bridge with the Dragoons and the rest of the Dukes Army drew up upon a Hill fronting Hamilton Park about a mile from the Bridge the River being between the two Armies As soon as the Duke came to Major Oglethrop's Post there came out to him from the Rebels one David Haine and another of their Preachers who presented to his Grace the Declaration I have recited Printed and a Petition signed by Robert Hamilton their General in the name of the Covenanted Army then in Arms in which they prayed that the Terms of their Declaration might be made good and that a safe Conduct might be granted to some of their Number to address themselves to his Grace in this Matter To which the Duke replyed that he would not treat with them upon their Declaration the terms of which were contrary to the Fundamental Laws of the Land and such as he would not nor could grant as indeed they were too high to have been offered after a Victory much more in the first approaches of a General with a better though smaller Army then theirs But then he told them that if they would lay down their Armes he would receive them into the Kings mercy And with this Answer the two Preachers went back desiring some time to consider which the Duke granted them About half an hour after the Rebels sent a Paper by a Drummer representing that they were informed that his Grace came from England with terms to be offered to them and they desired to know what he had to propose that they might advise whether the Terms were such as they could accept of Whether this were so or no it was very imprudent in them to send this Message before they had excused themselves in relation his first demands and besides this was a mighty slight to the General to demand an account of his private Instructions by a Drummer with a Paper when as it had been fitter to have sent two or three of the best Gentlemen in their Army to have asked this favour with all the Courtship imaginable though their Forces had been much stronger then they were For this indeed was it that made them thus insolent their Preachers had doubtless informed them that the Dukes Army was less then theirs as it is said it was And hence they concluded very ignorantly they might ask what they pleased and have it The Duke was not idle all this while but had ordered his Cannon to be brought down from the Body of the Army and Planted near the Bridge and with them he had Drawn down some part of his Horse and Foot whilst they were treating and took no notice of what he did or at least did not oppose it so they were every moment in a worse condition and he was in a worse condition and he in a better So that being netled with this contempt of theirs he sent away their Drummer with this answer that since they
cannot possibly better represent this than in the Words of Camden The State of England was most miserable at that time as being involved in a War with Scotland on the one side and France on the other oppressed with the Debts which Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth had Contracted the Exchequer was Exhausted Calis and the County of Oyen and in them a great Magazine were lost to the dishonour of the English Name and the People were divided in their Opinions concerning Religion The Queen had no Potent Friends nor was fortified with the * Cognatione Alliance or Kindred of any Foreign Princes The Trade of England must of necessity be very small when the Nation was thus Near ruine But when the Queen had once setled the business of Religion and afterwards had taken care to preserve it from Foreign Violence by Repairing her Navy Royal so that it was far Superiour to any other which gave her Reputation at home and Fame abroad and also from the Attempts of the Papists and Dissenters by severe Laws constantly put in Execution and had thereby Won the Affections of her People and stilled their Fears They being secur'd thus at home began to search all the corners of the World for Trade and sent forth their Fleets to the East and West Indies to Muscovy by the Bay of St. Nicholas by them Discover'd and Green-Land and indeed whether not whence they returned with Honour and Wealth and made her and themselves Happy One thing that gave a great Advantage to the Trade and consequently to the Wealth of England in her time was the Devastations which the severity of the Duke de Alva and the Wars of Flanders thereby occasion'd caused in those Countries by which means we gained some Addition to our People the knowledge of some Manufactures which we had not before and also a vast stock of Mony and Treasure which altogether had like to have totally ruin'd the Spanish Netherlands but however this concurring with the rest helped to advance England to that height of Wealth and Reputation in the World that it was in her days the Bulwark of Christendom and without any considerable forrein Assistance humbled and brought down the House of Austria which then aimed at an Universal Monarchy But then it cannot be denyed that together with these Low Countrymen Factions and Common-Weath Principles entred England And although the severity of that Queen and the great Affection and Veneration the People had for her added to her Constancy whose Motto was Semper eadem Always the same kept them both under so as they were never able to give her any considerable disturbance yet they grew and encreased and in the Reign of her Successor tugged stoutly in the House of Commons for the Victory with the Court Party as they then stiled all that stood to the Crown and kept King James at Bay and destitute of those Supplies that were necessary to preserve the Grandeur of the Crown and the Reputation of England and forced him to spend Seven Years of his Reign without calling any Parliaments and the last he called which was in his One and Twentieth Year involved him in War And the next basely Betray'd his Son who succeeded presently after to the Necessity of clapping up a Dishonourable Peace for want of Means to carry on a War When King James came to the Crown the Dissenters of England expected a mighty advantage by it because Scotland had been always Presbyterian from whence he came during his time and they hoped his Education might have strongly influenced him to favour them above the Religion Established and upon this intuition Jan. 14. 1603. they procured the Conference at Hampton Court but alass they had so basely and Traiterously used him in Scotland and he was a Prince of that great Learning and Prudence that when they desired a kind of Presbyterie to be Setled here He replyed If you aim at a Scotch Presbyterie Full. C.H. L. 10. p. 18. it agreeth with Monarchy as God and the Devil then Jack and Tom and Will and Dick shall meet and Censure me and my Council Therefore I reiterate my former Speech Le Roy S' avisera the King will be advised stay I pray for one Seven Years before you demand it and then if you find me grow pursie and fat I may perchance hearken unto you for that Government will keep me in breath and give me work enough And in the next Paragraph he tells them That he had learned by the Example of his Mother and their dealings with him in his Minority this Maxime NO BISHOP NO KING So they totally failed of their expected advantage and were kept under though with a gentle hand in all his time But when his Son Succeeded and in his Parliaments found how strong these Factions were who had in a great measure prevailed upon the Free-men and Free-holders of the Nation to send up thither great Numbers of good Common wealth men as they then stiled them that is Factious Ambitious Disloyal Persons that hated the Religion and Monarchy by Law Established and when he saw these made it their business to encrease the necessities of the Crown and then denyed just and necessary supplies but upon such terms as would have ruined him and when he also perceived that one great design of theirs was to render him and his Government odious by clamoring eternally against his Conduct and Ministers of State He then saw there was an absolute necessity of a more effectual and vigorous Execution of the Laws against them Hereupon these godly men grew impatient Roger Cokes Englands improvement part 3. p. 13. and one part of them in the years 1636 37 and 38 fled over into Holland and planted themselves at Leyden Alkmare and other places where they instructed the Dutch in our Woollen Manufactures of Norfolk and Suffolk and I have heard saith my Author who is a credible person Sir Charles Harbord a person of great Wisdom and Insight in Forreign as well as the Interest of this Nation say That if all the Bishopricks of England were sold and given to the Nation it would not near compensate the loss the Nation sustained thereby And page 32 of the same discourse he informs us That in the time of our late Wars the Dutch by the means of these Manufactures got from the English the East-land Trade the Company of which heretofore was above all others the most flourishing and by Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the First was termed the Royal Company for it supplied Muscovy Sweden Denmark Poland and Lifeland with our Woollen Manufactures and made very advantagious Returns by Treasure especially Hungaria Duckets and the Commodities of those Countries into England This Trade till King Charles his Reign the English solely injoyed About the beginning of King Charles his Reign the Dutch began to be Interlopers rather than Traders with the English in it but in the time of the Wars by
the aforesaid means the Dutch allmost totally excluded the English We may observe how much the Trade of the Nation in general suffered by all this and especially that of Norfolk Suffolk and Essex of which the said Author gives an instance pag. 33. and from thence we may conclude how far the Trade of the Nation hath been and consequently may again be impaired by Factions if they be encouraged still amongst us I ought not to pass over in silence that my last quoted Author Ascribes this to the severe injunctions of Ecclesiastical discipline which these Zealous people would not indure And I know that many have used this as an Argument against Persecution and for a Toleration Comprehension or as the new Name is an Union But I reply if there were no Factions there could be no Persecution as they stile it nor any such dammage of our Trade and Commerce Secondly that they were not thus persecuted till they had provoked that King to the uttermost by rendring all Parliaments dangerous to the Crown and brought things into that State that neither the Monarchy nor the Religion Established could be any longer preserved without that severity So we may see if they be treated gently they grow Numerous and endeavour to subvert the Government if they be dealt severely with they over into forreign Countries and destroy our Trade so that both waies our ruine is almost assured by them and therefore should be no more incouraged than Pyrates and the common enemies of Mankind But to go on Another part of these people had before Planted themselves in New England in the West Indies 1629. where they have since grown Numerous and Rich and have abundantly practised that severity upon others who have dissented from them which they clamoured against and called persecution when it was used with more reason against themselves The Dutch being much exalted by the peace they had made with Spain whereby they were owned and acknowledged for a free and independent State by their old Sovereign and having acquired a vast Treasure by their Trade over all the World and by redeeming the places which were put into Queen Elizabeths hands for security of repayment of the Expence she was at to protect their feeble infant State out of the Hands of King James having so cut off their former obligations of respect to the Crown of England and lastly being grown strong in Shipping and knowing very well upon what ill terms King James and King Charles the Martyr stood with their Parliaments fell to plot the intire destruction of the English Trade and Navigation and in Order to this fell to endeavour the ruine of the English Fishery upon our own proper Seas His Majesties propriety and dominion on the Brittish Seas p. 26. They had formerly never Fished till they had begged leave of the King or of his Governour of Scarborough Castle this was now thought beneath the Magnificence of the Hogan Mogans and therefore they refused it Ib. pag. 29. 30. 55. They had formerly been limited by our Kings both for the number of the Vessells they should Fish with and the time Now they were resolved to be their own Carvers and in order to that denyed the English the Soveraignty of the British Seas Ib. p. 6. And as if all this had not been enough grew nearer and nearer upon the English Shores year by year than they did in preceding times without leaving any bounds for the Country people and Natives to Fish upon their Princes Coasts and oppressed some of his Subjects with intent to continue their pretended possession and had driven some of their great Vessells through their Netts to deter others by fear of the like Violence from Fishing near them c. as Secretary Nanton Pag. 58. January 21. 1618. acquaints the Lord Ambassador Carlton And to justify all this they sent out Men of War with their Fishermen to maintain that by force which they might have had of Courtesie for the asking To prevent these disorders of the Dutch King James Published a Proclamation in the seventh year of his Reign to assert his Right and exclude all Persons from Fishing upon our Seas without particular License but they neither valued this nor his Remonstrances by his Ambassadors nor the like Proclamation made in the twelfth year of his Sons Reign but went on by all the Crafts and Violences imaginable to ruine our Fishery to subvert the Right and Soveraignty the Kings of England have ever had to the Narrow Seas And all this only upon a presumption that those Princes would never be able to call them to an account by a War for all these Injuries And in the year 1639 The Reign of King Ch. fol. London 1655. pag. 163. they fell upon a Fleet of Spaniards in our Ports and Harbours with Canon and Fire-ships so furiously as made them all cut their Cables and being 53 in Number 23 ran on shore and stranded in the Downs whereof Three were burnt Two sunk and Two perished on the Shoar the remainder of the Twenty three being deserted by the Spaniards who went to Land were Manned by the English to save them from the Dutch and the other Thirty Ships put to Sea of which only Ten escaped thus far for the Narrative in short And now be pleased to read the Opinion of the Historian upon this These Two Potent Enemies Ibid. p. 165. being both Friends to England the British Seas ought by rule of State to have been an Harbour of Retreat to secure the Weaker from the Stronger not the Scene of their Hostile Ingagement and had this presumptuous Attempt of the Hollander met with a King or in times of another temper it would not it's like have been so silently connived at and their Victory might have cost them the loss of Englands Correspondence c. besides the King the Dutch well knew was of a Genius as not querulous so if provoked very placable and the Disposition of his Affairs as well as of his Mind disswaded from expostulating the Matter with them To that height of injustice and insolence were the Dutch then grown by the Divisions of England and the ill understanding betwixt the King and his Subjects This unfortunate Prince had made many brave Attempts before for the Honour and Safety of the English Nation without any good success for want of such Effectual Supplies from his Parliaments as might enable him to go through with them and he had taken up a generous Resolution to encrease the Navy Royal to a greatness proportionable to the Dutch and other neighbour Nations who were now striving for the Mastery of the Seas by out-building each other He got nothing from the Commons in Parliament that was considerable but with great difficulty and accompanied with Remonstrances Impeachments of the Chief Ministers complaints of Grievances and lowd Clamours of pretended fears and jealousies of Popery Arminianism Innovations in matters of Religion and as fast as
in the interim who had with much impatience expected this day of Deliverance from this terrible Parliament and had sought the Dissolution of it so many Years by all those Arts I have described in the former Part now began to lift up their heads expecting to have another tugg for the Day and having before wrought upon the meanest but most Numerous part of the Free-men and Free-holders and the weakest of the Gentry by jading their Ears with tedious canting Discourses against Humane Institutions Persecuting Gods People and Arbritrary Government and now of late with Tragical Representations of the Popish Plot Massacres Popery and Superstition flew from their sullen retirements and Riding Night and Day about the Villages and trudging about the Corporations incited those they found willing and perswaded intreated and sometimes hired those they found less disposed to joyn with them and by the choice of a sober Protestant Parliament as they pretended to deliver the Nation from Popery and Arbitrary Government which were good Words but had a Knavish signification in their Sense and if any Man smelt ir out and told them truly they were neither for Popery nor Arbitrary Government nor yet for Puritanism and a Common-wealth they ran him down with noise or traduced him behind his back to their Neighbours as a Papist in Masquerade and a Man of Arbitrary Principles But if a Man had but chanced to drop a Word by way of questioning the Truth of one Tittle the many Informers had given out concerning the Plot or these Zealots had raised by way of Consequence presently they flew in his face and villified him as a defamer of the Kings Evidence a concealer of the Plot and could hardly forbear saying He was a Party to it and one of the Conspirators in it As if we had not only been bound to submit our Faith and Reason as intirely to Mr. Oats's Relation in every Punctilio as to the Evangelists upon which he Swore it but also to what Inferences a Faction should draw from it From hence they proceeded to insinuate into the Populace That those Loyal Gentlemen who had been Members of the late long Loyal Parliament who were then call'd the Court Party had joyn'd with the Court to hinder the Discovery of the Plot and promote the Designes of the Papists upon us And although there was not one syllable of Truth in this yet they asserted it with that confidence and added so many protestations often interrupting their opposites with such questions as these What you are for Popery you are willing to have all your Throats Cut and the like that they perswaded too great a Number to joyn with them in the Exclusion of those Gentlemen In the next place fearing the greatest hindrance from the conformable Clergy and the Bishops they represented them amongst their Confidents as nothing better than the Papists and amongst the rest as Men that had a mighty kindness for Popery in their hearts where these prying people spied it though they durst not discover it for the present and with great Assurance said that they would certainly all turn Papists if the Plot went on though Mr. Oates had assured them their Places were disposed of to others before hand and they must expect nothing but beggery assassination and Ruine But yet the people who never consider any thing believe them in this too In the next place they were to deal with the Gentry and Magistrates and here the task was harder for these were never to be wrought over generally to them but amongst them some were their friends of old others had come half way over to gain the Reputation of Moderate Men others had been disgusted by the Government and some few had Relations amongst the Dissenters or Children and Brothers Apprentices Journey-men and Factors to them and these Interests prevail'd upon to joyn with them the rest they blasted what they could by the same Arts they did the Clergy averring they were Papists or favourers of Papists and Popery especially if they had any relations of that Religion or had shewed the least kindness to their Popish Neighbours in the first Discovery of the Plot or had had any acquaintance with them before the Plot. And having by all these multiply'd Slanders got over a very considerable part of the meaner people and yet fearing the party might be too weak they made fraudulent Conveyances for Twenty four hours of their Freehold-Lands and Tenements to their Neighbours by this means creating Twenty Mushrom Voters sometimes out of Forty pounds a year and some that were less scrupulous took the Gifts by word of Mouth without Livery or Seizin Lease or Release and some gave Twelve pence in part of payment for those Lands and Tenements they never meant nor were ever able to Purchase further and so became qualified to give their Votes as they thought and others gave their Children that were Infants part of their Estates with them and brought them along for company and in the interim the Wealthy sort of Men hired Horses or gave Mony to the more Needy to give their Votes for the precious Men that were to keep out Popery The Conventicle Teachers rallied up their Flocks all but the Aprons and they were unwillingly enough left at home The old Committee Men Sequestrators Army Officers and Soldiers of the last Rebellion who had kept holes ever since His Majesties Return for Grief Confusion and Fear now all took the Field again to Vote too and with these joyned all those unwilling Conformists whether Clergy or Layety who have complyed with the Religion Established with purpose to ruine it as soon as it is possible and in the interim great gain is godliness with them and does any man believe all these Forces were thus Mustered up for the Service of His Majesty the Safety of the Monarchy and the preservation of the Religion and Government Establish'd The persons they recommended to the people to be chosen again were first all those Gentlemen who calling themselves the Country Party in the former Parliament had appeared most Zealously against the Queen his Royal Highness and the Ministers of State to these they added as many as they could of the Reliques of the old Rebellion or their Children and made up the Number out of the moderate and discontented Gentlemen Burgesses and Trades-men taking in here and there an honest Gentleman in hopes to win him to their side by this kindness and sometimes this pittiful Project took For my part Act. 22. I think nothing could more confirm the Testimony of Mr. Oats who informs us That the Catholick Religion was to be brought in the same way that they had used for the Destruction of the Father of the King and as that could not be effected till much Blood was spilt on BOTH SIDES so this must be effected by effusion of Blood Pag. 64. and this he Expounds was to be done by weakning and dividing the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland
done in the Names of the whole by the Commons in Parliament and if it be the Duty of every English man to fight for his King if occasion require against any Party that ever shall hereafter pretend to have the Authority of both or either of the Houses to back them 13 Car. 2. cap. 6. as I humbly conceive is most plain then why may not they right his Majesty with their Pens who must do it with their Swords why may they not Approve his Cause as well as Defend it And if this be not allowed Any King of England may be Deposed and Murthered as the late King was for if there be a Blind Obedience due to all the Votes of Parliament 13 Car. 2. cap. 1. §. 2. and no man may in any Case judge them Illegal and Unreasonable then must all men absolutely Submit to them and obey them and the Consequence is if any future Parliament shall Vote any future King or or Monarchy it self a Grievance to the Nation and those that stand by them Enemies to the Kingdom if no man may Contradict such a Vote nor any Number of Men how great soever Umpire betwixt the King and his Great Council that is Defend him against his Parliament the effect will Certainly follow and as this is the natural Tendance of these Principles as we saw in the Late Troubles so I can conceive no other cause why they should be now again insinuated into the Heads of the Rabble For these Men who pretend to reverence the Three Last Parliaments at such a Prodigious rate The late Long Parliament tho filled with Danby his Pensioners The Modest Vindication of the Two last Parliaments p. 11. do traduce that which went immediately before most abominably and those who are so tender of the Votes of these care as little for the Established Lawes of the former as I do for the Decrees of the Council of Trent or of the Synod of Dort So that it is plain it is not respect to Parliaments as Parliaments that makes them thus obsequious but as made up of such a Sort of men and Driving on such Designs and Interests To return then Gentlemen from this long Digression which I have inserted only to Justifie You I will Conclude That as you have begun bravely so you must go thro with the business or Expect a Revenge from the Opposite Party equal to their Rage and tho I Know you do not fear them yet I would Advise you not to be too Secure of them but let your Vigilance Industry and Application to all Sorts of Men be equal to theirs at least and then it is Ten thousand to one you shall never try either theirs or your own Valour and as your Case is better so let it inspire you with more Resolution to Stand and Fall with it and his Most hearty Prayers for a good Success upon all your Loyal Undertakings and Designs shall never be wanting who is Your most Devoted Servant THE Third Part OF THE ADDRESS TO THE FREE-MEN and FREE-HOLDERS OF THE NATION HIS Majesty by the Blessing of GOD having Supprest the short Scotch Rebellion which in great part miscarried by the timeing of it tho no human fore-sight on their part could have prevented that His Majesty first Proroguing and then Dissolving that Parliament which seem'd to be the occasion of it with such Secrecy and Quickness that their Friends at London could give them no previous Notice of his Intentions so to do So that besides the total disappointing them of all that Countenance Ayd and Assistance they promised themselves from England many of their Friends at home whose Crimes being less had not the same necessity or whose Zeal was not of that fiery temper with theirs and therefore were prudently resolved tho they wished well to the design yet not to hazard their sweet Lives and Fortunes in it till they saw what Success these first Venturers had who hearing of the Prorogation of the Parliament and being doubtless admonished by their London Friends at the same time not to stir during this short Recess as they then thought it would be layd by all thoughts of Joyning with them and Augmenting their Numbers and the Privy Councils in both Nations attending solely to that business it was Extinguished almost as easily as it began Upon which His Majesty by his Royal Proclamation Dissolved this Parliament and Issued out Writs for another to Sit at Westminster the Seventeenth day of October 1679. Hoping his Subjects duly reflecting upon the Miscarriages of the Last House of Commons and the Danger the Nation had so narrowly escaped of Being involved in another destructive Intestine War at a time when the Victorious Arms of France hung like a dreadful Cloud over our heads and the High Discontents of the Popish Party which were inflamed and inraged both by the Discovery and Prosecutions of the late Plot lay broyling in the Bowels of the Nation would proceed with more Prudence and Caution in the Next Elections and send Him up men of Better Tempers or that at least these Gentlemen by that Act seeing He was resolved to keep the Reins in his own hands and to let them Sir or Dissolve them according as they behaved themselves would thereby be kept in better awe for the future and make use of a little more calmness in their Proceedings if it were but to continue their Being But alas His Majesty soon found himself deceived in his Expectation the common people who see with other mens eyes and follow as they are led and that is for the most part the wrong way were easily perswaded to believe in the first place that this Parliament was Prorogued and Dissolved onely to prevent the Tryal of the Popish Lords in the Tower tho the Not Trying of them was one of the greatest Causes that Moved his Majesty to it as appears plainly both by the Journals of both the Houses and his Majesties Speech in the Conclusion of that Session of Parliament and altho these Five Lords were brought to the Bar and the Commons summon'd to give in Evidence against them that very day that they were Prorogued they refused to do it And on the other side the Malecontents rejoyced greatly in it being well assured that the same Men would be chosen again and so made use of this Dissolution as a means to incense the People against the King and the Government and to increase the real or pretended fears of Men by their Loud Clamours against French Pensioners Popery Arbitrary Government and the like which both in discourse and Print the Press being now at Liberty from its former restraint they objected with equal Confidence and Falshood against the Loyal Gentlemen that had opposed them But besides these general Charges they made special use of two things that fell out in the last Parliament and that had a mighty influence upon the Minds of the populace and other Unthinking men The first of which was to
for that some men have got a way of Reproaching all they hate with the Name of Papists because there is none more hated than that yet even for that case the Number must be small being very unwilling to List themselves in a hated Party Except they may have great Advantages by it which are not to be afforded to many in proportion to the rest in one Kings Reign in so small a Kingdom as England Thirdly The very attempting this with Force and Violence will drive so many people out of the Nation that the Prince will destroy both his Revenue and Security which we may believe no man will do for his own sake To this we may add That it is three to one whether we have any such Prince Who but God can tell whether ever the Duke shall Survive his Majesty Whether if he do he shall be the Next Heir and whether if he be So his Interest the Grace of God or meer humane inconstancy may not work upon him to return to that Religion he was first principl'd in and for which his Royal Father most Gloriously Laid down his Life And after all this Supposing he should Succeed and be Zealous for his Religion and Suppose that to be Popery there is no necessity that he must Act all the worst Principles of Popery to the Utmost degree I am sure it is not usual so to do tho the difficulty be not so great as here it will be And after all doth not the Providence of God govern the Popish as well as Protestant Princes Is the Arm of the Almighty shortned that he can neither Deliver nor Support his Church or hath he forsaken her in her Old Age who preserved her with So much Care and Power in her Infancy under Heathen Princes for above Three hundred Years and under Arrian Princes which were as bad as the worst Papists a long time after that Do we believe this Protestant Religion is acceptable to him Are the far greatest part of them that profess it Sincere or False in their pretences If all these be answered one way we have Something to rely upon that is more Steady than the Faith and Religion of Princes If in the other it will be but a folly to pretend to Secure by humane Arts that which God is resolved to destroy But the reason upon which the Bill of Exclusion is built is worse than the thing First they Vote That the Dukes being a Papist and the Hopes of his Coming such to the Crown hath given the greatest Countenance and Encouragement to the present Designs and Conspiracies against the King and Protestant Religion They Vote the Duke a Papist which is more than any man living can tell but himself and if it should be granted that he is So what then Then this hath given the greatest Countenance and Encouragement to the present Designs and Conspiracies against the King and Protestant Religion and then the Conclusion is That therefore he must be dis-inherited To me it seems better Logick to say Then all possible Care and Art is to be imployed to reduce him back to our Church whereas this way of proceeding with him can end in nothing but the enraging and exasperating of him against the Protestant Religion But then the Duke's being a Papist hath not given the greatest nor if we may believe Mr. Oates hardly any Encouragement to the Plot for he tells us Article 60. that when he urged That he feared the Death of the King would scarely do the business and effect the Design unless his R. H. would pardon those that did the business and stand by them in it Keines replyed That the Duke was not the Strength of their Trust for they had another way to effect the setting up the C. R. c. And if James did not Comply with them to pot he must go also And Article 29. If the Duke shall set his face in the least measure to follow his Brothers foot-steps his Passport was made to Lay him asleep And Article 24. They the Jesuits aver That altho the Duke was a good Catholique yet he had a tender affection for the King and would scarcely be engaged in that Concern and if they should once intimate their Designs and Purposes unto him they might not onely be frustrated of their Design but also might lose his Favour Art 16. He saith he putting this question What if the Duke should prove Slippery They replyed His Passport was ready when ever he should Appear to fail them And page the 64. He tells us He the Pope hath ordered That in case the D. of York will not accept these Crowns as forfeited by his Brother unto the Pope as of his Gift and settle such Prelates and Dignities in the Church and such Officers in Commands and Places Civil Naval and Military as he hath Commissioned Extirpate the Protestant Religion and in order thereunto Ex post facto Consent the Assassination of the King his Brother Massacre of his Protestant Subjects Firing of his Towns c. by Pardoning of the Assassins Murtherers and Incendiaries that then he also be Poysoned or destroyed after they have for some time abused his Name and Title to Strengthen their Plot c. All which Passages in his and other of the Narratives shew plainly the D. being a Papist was not the greater nay it was hardly any encouragement to the Plot and tho some of them have gone farther than Mr. Oates yet that shews the Jesuits had different opinions of His R. Highness and therefore had no assurance but if the Plot upon the Life of the King had succeeded he might have revenged it upon them tho he were of their Religion as they believed But because these things may be disputed both ways Suppose I should grant the Hopes of his Coming a Papist to the Crown did really give the greatest Encouragement to the Plot will dis-inheriting him defeat those hopes No but it will rather whet them on to do their utmost to Murther the King to prevent or revenge that injury to the Duke and of this the House was so sensible that the same day they passed this Vote they Added to it this that followes Resolved N. C. That in Defence of the Kings Person and Government and of the Protestant Religion this House doth declare That they will Stand by His Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes and that if his Majesty shall come by any Violent Death which God forbid they will revenge it to the Vtmost upon the Papists This latter Vote they have annexed to the former every time they have passed it which shews they are sensible Revenge and Despair are full as likely to push them on as Hope to this Horrid attempt and in that case this Vote will never hinder them but it may encourage the Scotch Assassins to do it if they can Knowing the Papists are to Suffer who ever doth the fact So that to me it seems the Reasons upon which the Bill
shall be Exposed Naked and Friendless to the Fury of those Reipublicans that Murthered his Royal Father and the Religion by Law Established to the Mercy of those that have Sworn the Ruine of it And finally the Property and Liberty of the Subject shall be Exposed to those men who have given the World too good an Account already what Trusty Guardians of them they are ever to be trusted with them again till the Memory of the late Times shall perish not onely as to the Memories of Men but Books and Records But yet after all this the branding those Gentlemen that were brought in without the Least Exception to Supply the places of those that were turned out of the Commission of the Peace and Lieutenancy with the odious Titles of Men of Arbitrary Prineciples and Favourers of Papists and Popery is in my poor Judgment Much worse and as it was impossible the Major part of the House should think so of them all so I am fully perswaded if Passion had not had too great a dominion over them they would Never have vented so Crude an Assertion in So August a place in So Serious a Manner to his Majesty and the whole World they may be pleased to think of this again Now the heat perhaps is over for as they have worded it it can never be maintained it being impossible to be known or proved nor is any favourable Construction to be allowed to an Expression and Declaration so publickly and deliberately made by so many men in so publick a Trust That from henceforth such Persons only may be Judges within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales as are men of Ability Integrity and Known Affection to the Protestant Religion and that they may hold their Offices and Salaries quam diu se bene gesserint That several Deputy Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace fitly qualified for those Imployments having been of late displaced and others put in their room Who are MEN of Arbitrary Principles and Countenancers of Papists and Popery Such onely may bear the Office of a Lord-Lieutenant as are persons of Integrity and Known Affection to the Protestant Religion That Deputy-Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace may be also So qualified and may be moreover Men of Ability of Estates and Interest in their Country That none may be imployed as Military Officers or Officers in Your Majesties Fleet but Men of Known Experience Courage and Affection to the Protestant Religion These our Humble Requests being obtained we shall on our parts be ready to Assist Your Majesty for the preservation of Tangier and for putting your Majesties Fleet into Such a Condition as it may preserve your Majesties Soveraignty of the Seas and be for the Defence of the Nation If Your Majesty hath or shall make any Alliances for Defence of the Protestant Religion and Interest and Security of this Kingdom this House will be ready to Assist and Stand by your Majesty in the Support of the same AFTER this our Humble Answer to Your Majesties Gracious Speech Doubtless after all this fine Language and strong Reason if any Evil Instrument any man of Arbitrary Principles or favourer of Papists or Popery or finally if his Majesty or any Considerable part of the Nation should thro humane infirmity happen to Suspect either your Prudence in delaying the Care of these Great Things to so long a day or your Loyalty in making these demands of your Natural Soveraign or your Charity and Candor in bestowing Commendations on your fellow Subjects his Majesties Officers at the rate you have done I say if any such misfortune should happen you are not to Wonder much at it for great Merits and great Virtues great Attempts and Heroick Undertakings are Seldom well received at present but Posterity will Admire and Applaud them according to their Deserts we hope no Evil instruments whatsoever shall be able to lessen your Majesties Esteem of that Fidelity and Affection we bear to Your Majesties Service but that Your Majesty will always retain in your Royal Breast that Favourable Opinion of Vs your Loyal Commons that those other good Bills which we have now under Consideration Conducing to the great Ends we have before Mentioned as also all Laws for the Benefit and Comfort of Your People which shall from time to time be tendred for Your Majesties Royal Assent shall find acceptance with Your Majesty I will here insert those Reasons I mentioned above against the Bill of Exclusion which were delivered in the House of Commons the Fourth day of November before this Address by a Great Person a Member of that House Sir L. J. by which letters I understand Sir Leoline Jenkins one of the Principal Secretaries of State Sir I have spent much of my time in studying the Laws of this Land and I pretend to know something of the Law of Foreign Countries as Well as of our own and I have upon this occasion well considered of them but cannot find how we can Justifie the passing of this Bill rather much against it First I think it contrary to Natural Justice that We should proceed to Condemnation not only before Conviction but before we have heard the Party or Examined any Witness about him I am sure none in his defence And to do this by making a New Law of purpose when you have Old Laws in being that have appointed a Punishment to his Crime I humbly conceive is very Severe and contrary to the usual Proceedings of this House and the Birth-Right of every English-man Secondly I think it is Contrary to the Principles of Our Religion that we should dispossess a man of his Birth-Right because he differs from us in point of Faith For it is not agreed by all that Dominion is sounded in Grace For my part I think there is more of Popery in this Bill than there can possibly be in the Nation without it for none but Papists and Fifth-Monarchy-men did ever go about to dis-inherit men for their Religion Thirdly I am of opinion that the Kings of England have their Right from God alone and that no Power on Earth can deprive them of it And I hope this House will not attempt to do any thing which is so precisely contrary not only to the Law of God but the Law of the Land too For if this Bill should pass it would Change the Essence of the Monarchy and Make the Crown Elective For by the same reason that this Parliament may dis-inherit this Prince for his Religion other Parliaments may dis-inherit another upon some other pretence which they may Suggest and so Consequently by such Exclusions elect whom they please Fourthly It is against the Oath of Allegiance taken in its own sense without Jesuitical Evasions For by binding all persons to the King his Heirs and Successors the Duke as Presumptive Heir must be understood And I am of opinion that it cannot be dispensed withal Sir I will be very cautious how I dispute the Power
and Ordered others to be drawn against Sir Francis North Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas Sir Thomas Jones one of the Justices of the Kings-Bench and Sir Richard Weston one of the Barons of the Exchequer So they were resolved to find themselves work tho they had refused to do the King's Business till that was granted which was impossible to be had this Session of Parliament Thursday the 6th of January A Bill for the more Easie Collecting the Duty of Hearth-Money was read a second time and committed upon the Debate of the House A Bill for Repealing the Act for the Well-Governing of Corporations was read the second time and committed Sir Philip Skippon was Excused from being taken into Custody for his Default in not attending the House in the Call there of the Tuesday before Colonel Birch reporting from the Committee appointed to receive Informations relating to the Popish Plott in Ireland That the Committee having proceeded upon the Matters to them referred had taken several Examinations and received the Answer of Sir John Davis and had also perused several Informations transmitted from the House of Lords relating to the said Plott All which he read in his place and afterwards delivered the same in at the Clerks Table where the same were again read The House then took into Consideration the Message sent from the Lords the Tuesday before wherein they desired the Concurrence of the House and Resolved That the House did agree with the Lords with the addition of these Words That the Duke of York being a Papist and the Expectation of his coming to the Crown hath given the Greatest Countenance and Encouragement thereto as well as to the Horrid Popish Plot in this Kingdome of England And they resolved to deliver the said Vote to the Lords at a Conference and Appointed a Committee to draw up Reasons to be offered at the said Conference Ordered That the several Informations of John Macnamara Maurice Fitz-Gerrald and James Mash that day read to the House relating to the Irish Plot be forthwith Printed Resolved That Rich. Poure Earl of Tyrone in the Kingdom of Ireland be Impeached of High Treason And that the Lord Dursley do go up to the Bar of the Lords and Impeach him c. and pray that he may be Committed to Safe Custody And further Ordered That the Committee appointed to prepare the Evidence against the Popish Lords in the Tower do prepare the said Impeachment Ordered That the further Consideration of the said Report in relation to Arthur Earl of Anglesey and Sir John Davis be Adjourned to Saturday Morning next at Ten of the Clock in a full House When it was Adjourned to Munday following which was their last day and gave them occasion for other Thoughts On Friday the 7th day of January The ingrossed Articles of Impeachment against Sir William Scroggs were Read and sent up to the Lords by the Lord Cavendish A Bill to prevent Vexatious Actions was read the first time and Ordered a second reading A Bill to prevent the Symony of one person from prejudicing another was read the first time and Ordered a second reading The Bill of Discovery of Settlements of Estates for Superstitious Uses was read the second time and committed upon the debate of the House Then the House according to their Order entred into Consideration of his Majesty's Message sent to the House the Tuesday before and Voted as followeth Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That there is no Security or Safety for the Protestant Religion the King's Life or the Well Constituted and Established Government of this Kingdom without passing a Bill for disabling James Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging and to rely upon any other means or remedies without such a Bill is not onely Insufficient but dangerous Resolved That his Majesty in his last Message having assured this House of his readiness to Concur in all other means for the preservation of the Protestant Religion this House doth declare That until a Bill be likewise passed for Excluding the Duke of York this House cannot give any Supply to his Majesty without Danger to his Majesties Person Extream Hazard of the Protestant Religion and Vnfaithfulness to Those by whom this House is trusted It seems the loss of Tangier and of all our Alliances abroad did not at all Hazard the Protestant Religion or Endanger his Majesties Person Resolved That all Persons who Advised his Majesty in his last Message to this House to insist upon an Opinion against the Bill for Excluding the Duke of York Have given pernicious Counsel to his Majesty and Are Promoters of Popery and Enemies to the King and Kingdome Resolved That George Earl of Halifax Henry Marquess of Worcester Henry Earl of Clarendon in the Opinion of this House are persons who Advised his Majesty in his last Message to this House to insist upon an Opinion against the Bill for Excluding the Duke of York and have therein given pernicious Counsel to his Majesty and are Promoters of Popery and Enemies to the King and Kingdom Resolved That an Humble Address be presented to his Majesty to remove Lawrence Hide Esq from his Majesties Councils and Presence and from his Office in the Treasury for ever Resolved That an Humble Address be presented to his Majesty to remove Henry Marquess of Worcester from his Presence and Councils and all the Offices and Imployments of Honour and Profit for ever Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That Lewis Earl of Feversham is a Promoter of Popery and of the French Interest and a Dangerous Enemy to the King and Kingdom Resolved That an Humble Address be made to his Majesty to remove him from all Military Offices and Commands and from all other Publick Offices and Imployments and from his Majesties Councils and Presence for ever But here was no Addresses Voted against George Earl of Halyfax nor Henry Earl of Clarendon A Motion being made also for an Address to his Majesty to remove Edward Seymour Esq from his Majesties Council and Presence it was Adjourned to the Munday following Having taken all this care to Chastise the Great Men who as they believed had opposed them in this great business in the Next place they undertook to Chastise his Majesty Himself and if their design had taken effect as it is to be hoped it Never will his Majesty and all his Successors should have Known what it is to Anger a House of Commons However they meant well for they Resolved That whoever should hereafter Lend or cause to be lent by way of Advance any Money upon the Branches of the King's Revenue arising by Customs Excise or Hearth-Money that is all the principal Branches shall be Adjudged to hinder the Sitting of Parliaments and shall be responsible for the same in Parliament Resolved That whoever shall accept or buy any Tally of Anticipation upon
any part of the King's Revenue or whosoever shall pay such Tally hereafter to be struck shall be adjudged to hinder the Sittings of Parliaments and shall be responsable therefore in Parliament First they Resolve they would give nothing themselves and then they terrify all others as much as in them lyeth from Lending or Advancing any Money to him which was not according to their Writ of Election to Advise his Majesty but by duress to force and compel him to Submit to their better Judgment as became Loyal and Dutiful Subjects So that his Majesty might well say of these Votes That instead of giving him assistance to Support his Allies or enabling him to Preserve Tangier they tended rather to disable him from contributing towards either by his own Revenue or Credit not only exposing him to all Dangers that might happen either at home or abroad but endeavouring to deprive him of the possibility of Supporting the Government it Self and to reduce him to a more helpless condition than the meanest of his Subjects A Sad and a very Just Complaint and Accordingly resented by that vast Number of People that have since Addressed to thank his Majesty for that Declaration On Saturday the 8th of January The Lords sent a Message to the Commons to acquaint them that their Lordships had appointed that day Sevennight for hearing the Cause upon the Impeachment of Mr. Seymour and that their House might reply if they thought fit but they had no leisure to take notice of it Information being given to the House by the Serjeant at Arms that Sir John Lloyd Sir Edward Philips Herbert Herring Miles Baspole _____ Iles and Arthur Yeomans who for divers great Misdemeanors by them committed as was pretended against the Priviledge of their House were Ordered to be taken in Custody of the said Serjeant did Abscond themselves that the said Order could not be put in Execution against them hereupon they Ordered That an Humble Application should be made to his Majesty from their House by Such Members thereof as were of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council desiring his Majesty to Issue out his Royal Proclamation for the Apprehending the said several persons in case they should not render themselves to the Serjeant by a certain day therein to be limited The same day they Ordered That a Committee should be Appointed to inspect the Journals of their House and of the House of Lords and Precedents to Justify and Maintain That the Lords ought to Commit Persons to Safe Custody when Impeached for High Treason by the Commons in Parliament and to make report thereof to the House Which Vote had relation to Sir William Scroggs And so we are come to the day that finally put an End to all their Proceedings which was Munday the 10th day of January and a great Wonder it was that his Majesty could endure them so long They began the day with a Vote which shews the Meaning and Tendance of all the rest Resolved That whosoever Advised his Majesty to Prorogue this Parliament to any other purpose than in order to the passing of a Bill for the Exclusion of James Duke of York is a betrayer of the King the Protestant Religion and of the Kingdom of England A Promoter of the French Interest and a Pensioner to France They Knew then that they were to be Prorogued but they Knew not by whose Advice and so if his Majesty did it without any Advice then all these Hard words were thrown at him but by whomsoever it were done this Vote could have no good meaning or effect and must end in Smoke or Tumults and Confusion 2. Resolved That the Thanks of this House be given to the City of London for their Manifest Loyalty to the King their Care Charge and Vigilancy for the Preservation of his Majesties Person and of the Protestant Religion Ordered That the Members that Serve for the City of London do accordingly give them the Thanks of the House Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That the City of London was Burnt in the Year 1666 by the Papists designing thereby to Introduce Arbitrary Power and Popery into the Kingdom Resolved That the Commissioners of the Customes and other Officers of the Custom-House have Wilfully broken the Law prohibiting the Importation of French Wines and other Commodities and that if they shall hereafter Wilfully or Negligently break that Law they shall be questioned therefore in Parliament Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That James Duke of Monmouth hath been removed from his Offices and Commands by the Influence of the Duke of York Ordered That an humble Application be made to his Majesty from this House by such Members thereof as are of his Majesties Honourable Privy-Council to desire his Majesty to restore the said James Duke of Monmouth to his said Offices and Commands This was excellently timed and they had so obliged his Majesty they might be sure he would not deny them Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That the Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal Laws is at this time Grievous to the Subject a weakning of the Protestant Interest and incouragement to Popery and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom Here their Mouths were stopt by a Message from the King by Edward Carteret Usher of the Black-Rod Acquainting them that the King Commanded them to Attend him immediately in the House of Peers And there his Majesty Prorogued them to the Thursday Sevennight being the 20th of that Instant January 1680. 1. His Majesty gave his Royal Assent to the Act Prohiting the Importation of Cattle from Ireland 2. To the Act for Supplying the late Act for Burying in Woollen 3. And to an Act To rectifie Errors in Sir Charles Houghton 's Settlement There was another Act for Repeal of the Act of the 35 of Elizabeth ready to be passed and it was Lost No body knew how and was never tendred to his Majesty Soon after this Parliament was Dissolved by Proclamation to the great Satisfaction of all but the Dissenters who if they had been able to consider things Aright had as little reason to be pleased with their Proceedings as any of the rest for they did them no other Service then to Exasperate the King and the Government against them and have made them to be more prosecuted and less pitied than they were before The Popish Party received almost as little damage by them as the Dissenters did Advantage for they bending their force Equally against the Succession and Popery all their Designs if they had any beyond clamour against the Papists were broken Their Arbitrary and Illegal Proceedings against the Abhorrers of the Tumultuous Petitions for the Sitting of the Parliament procured more Friends to the Duke of York then perhaps he would otherwise have had and gave the English Gentry an Excellent Prospect what they might Expect from these Warm Gentlemen if ever they fell into their hands The King had
a fair Warning also to look to Himself and the Religion by Law Established when he saw with how little Reverence these Protestants at Large treated him while his Prerogatives were intire and wholly in his Own Hands and had he but yielded to them in the Point of the Duke of York they would Soon have taught him how little was to be gotten by Complying with men of their temper The only Service they did was to the French King for our Allies beyond Seas seeing that No Assistance was to be Expected from England Surrendred their strongest Towns to him for the Asking and so suffered the worst effects of War in Peace The City of London Lost the hopes of having any more Parliaments amongst them till Times be better and more Settled by their grateful Applications to them for their Loyalty and Care of the Protestant Religion at Large The Trade of a Considerable part of the Nation is ruined not for want of Laws but by too many which have restrained that intercourse and freedom that ought to be betwixt Us and our Neighbour Nations yet I cannot say that this Parliament would have relieved the Nation in that point if they had Continued Longer when it is considered with what care and industry the Act for the prohibition of Irish Cattel was carried against all opposition tho it is damageable to a very considerable part of the Nation if not to the whole and had these Gentlemen been equally concerned for the Suppressing of Popery as they were for this ACT Some of those Bills at least that were sent down from the Lords or began by the Commons might have been ready as well as this for the Royal Assent Yet they had some very good Bills relating to Trade under consideration but they were not so Zealous in that Concern as they ought to have been but rather seemed to fear the State of the People on that account should be made too easie before they had obtained their other Ends of his Majesty and the Government Of this their Vote about the Act for prohibition of the French Trade may be an instance for however that Act might be of great use if the Dutch would consent to prohibit all Trade with them as well as We yet as Long as they go on to Trade with them and we do not it onely tends to impoverish the King and Us and Inrich them and therefore ought to have been left at liberty till they and we can mutually agree to stop it Nor did the Protestant Religion by Law established fare any better for that being equally opposed by the Dissenters on one hand and the Papists on the other under pretence of Uniting us against the latter the former were encouraged by their Votes and Bills to endeavour her ruine The Bill for Uniting his Majesties Protestant Subjects is a perfect Toleration of almost all other Religions which are or shall be amongst us except Popery and had it and the other Bill for Exempting them from the Penalties of the Laws made against the Popish Recusants passed it would not have been possible to have Executed them or any other against the Papists For it cannot be imagined that the Papists could not have been able to have got themselves Listed amongst some of our Dissenters or other and then upon making the Declaration and producing two Persons as Witness that they believed them to be Protestant Dissenters they would have had the liberty to have inflamed both those Dissenters that were Comprehended and those that were Tolerated against the entire Conformists and these again against them And so both Popery should have gone unpunished and the Feuds amongst our selves would have grown to that height that nothing but a standing Army would have been able to have kept us in any tolerable quiet If the Ministers of the Church of England had been part of them entire Conformists and part of them Presbyterians those that were of the first sort would have kept up the Religion Established as high or higher then now and the other Party must have laid aside totally the use of the Common-Prayer as well as the Surplice Cross and Kneeling at the Lords Supper or else their whole Party which now follow them would have all left them and so another Faction would have risen in the Church of Semi-Conformists and all those that are without the Church would have continued as now they are under other Teachers only more insolent and more turbulent and so instead of uniting us against the Papists and Popery which is the pretended cause of the Act we should have been more divided and Animated against each other then now we are It was one of the Rules prescribed by that Bill That no person should be admitted to take the Declaration who refused the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy when tendred unto him Now this would have left all the Quakers Anabaptists and several other Sects in the same state of Persecution as they call it as they now are and great Numbers of the Other Sects too when they had considered of it would have Scrupled it as well as they in Scotland have done and so those that were totally Excluded would have been enraged against those that had been tolerated as having betrayed them first and then left them to the Severity of the Law and by that time all these Parties viz. the Rigid Conformists 2. Semi-Conformists 3. Tolerated and Non-Tolerated Protestants all enraged against each other had for some time been fermented by the Jesuits and Popish Party a man may guess what kind of Vnion there would have been amongst Protestants in England And when they had gained all this what Security could have been given that they would have rested here that Act which one Parliament makes another may Repeal and they would never have been Secure of Keeping what they had gained but by taking care to fill the House of Commons in every Parliament with the most Factious men they could pick out and they could never have maintained their reputation with the Party but by pushing things forward and so every Sessions something more must have been granted for the better Security of the Union and removing of Fears and Jealousies till at last we had been brought to the same state of Confusion his Majesty found us in at his Return That a considerable number of these Dissenters are as much against Monarchy as Conformity is Apparent by their Books discourses and former practice Now what Security should his Majesty have had that when this Party had by impunity and time been strong enough to have dealt with the Loyal Party they would not have endeavoured to be dispensed with from obeying him or any other King but Christ Jesus and then Nothing could have united Protestants and Secured us against Popery but the Laying aside the Kingly Government and the Setting up a Common-wealth and of this they have already given some Notable hints in their Pamphlets and when they are told the
Exclusion of the Duke of York will onely Secure them once from a Popish Prince and make them that follow more Cautious how they discover themselves too soon and that if any Actual King of England should turn Papist which is as possible and more probable then that another Heir should do it they would then be in the same state as if the Duke Succeeded They constantly reply That it is unreasonable it should be in the power of one man to reduce us to Popery that is It is not reasonable that Kingly Government should be any Longer Continued amongst us From all which I conclude That the project of Uniting Protestants by remitting the Laws against the Dissenters is impossible and that these Consequences being Obvious and Apparent before-hand there could be no other design in the Attempt but the ruine of the Monarchy and the introducing Confusion and War amongst us at least these would certainly have followed So that the day a Toleration or which is all one an Vnion amongst Protestants upon the terms propounded is settled the Monarchy must be made Absolute or it will not Stand And Provision must be made to maintain a Standing Army bigg enough eo Keep all Parties Quiet how much soever they are averse to it or our Peace at home will not be Maintained And as to all Foreign affairs England must look on and suffer all things to go as they will for Neither King nor Common-Wealth will be in a Condition to do any thing abroad in that unsettled state things will be at home and by that time England comes to settle France if God interpose not by Miracles will have brought under So many of its Neighbours that England will be able to make no effectual resistance if it should be attacked by that Potent Kingdom Conclusion My dearest Countrymen I humbly begg you would be pleased to reflect Seriously upon this in time if it be not Now too late and Unite heartily with His Majesty our most Gracious and Sweet-Natured Soveraign and the Religion Established and not suffer your selves to be led by pretended Fears into real and unavoidable Slavery and Consusion attended with all the Miseries of War and which as much as Man can foresee must end in Popery and a French Conquest of us I have laid the Matter plainly before you not Knowing what may follow as to my Self but this I am sure of that Advantage I can have none by it I am a private person and I Expect so to live and die I have no aim at any Publick Imployment or Place of Trust nor any means to attain it if I had I am Contented with the State God hath Set me In. And the Utmost I wish for is to Leave things to my Posterity as they ought Now to be if the Laws had their due Effects and therefore I am compelled by Nothing but my Zealous affection for my Country which next God and my own Soul I love above all things to run the hazard of giving you this Advice and thereby drawing upon me the Malice and Revenge of all those that seek to Ruine and Enslave You. As to those Gentlemen of the House of Commons who may possibly take offence at What I have written for all I am sure will not I desire they would in cool blood Consider what they have done and then let them think of Me what they please For if ever Faction Anger and ill designs were entertained by so great a Body of Men as the Major part of this House was it is Apparent they were here And I will instance in but a few Particulars tho I might in more Can any mortal man produce either Precedent or Law to Justifie the Imprisonment of the Gentlemen called the Abhorrers Have the meanest people of England a right to Petition the King against his Express Command in a thing of which he is the Sole Judge by all our Laws and that by Multitudes of Hands procured by men that have no authority for that purpose and may not Grand-Juries Justices of the Peace and other such like persons oppose them or which is less disown it But suppose they did more than they ought was it fit to imprison them before they were allowed to defend themselves Gentlemen it served your turn now but it may one day be turn'd against you and then consider how you will take it The Corporations do Now most of them send Gentlemen but they may when they please lay You by and send Mechanicks Trades-men Shop-Keepers How would your high spirits brook it to be sent for in Custody and made to Kneel without being Suffered to Speak and onely for doing your duties to such men and so be sent home again I am sure no English Gentleman can brook this indignity but with such inward Resentments as befit the Generosity and Temper of that Nation or otherwise I must think we are prepared for Slavery and all that Manly Courage that hath made our People Renowned in all Countries in the World is degenerated into the Most Shameful Effeminacy and Cowardise Onely in this case Religion and Loyalty made them yield even to Injustice and Oppression As long as his Sacred Majesty thought fit to Suffer it they Submitted but with such Thoughts as would have taught you more Justice and Moderation if this had not been in the case Your styling all those Gentlemen that had been brought in to the Commission of the Peace in the room of some others displaced MEN of Arbitrary Principles and Countenancers of Papists and Popery and if you could have invented more Odious Names and Words than these you might with as much truth and ingenuity have bestowed them upon them Was it fairly done or was it not Is it one of the Priviledges of your House to Vote Me a Jew or a Turk or that I was one of those men that occasioned the Breach betwixt Charles the First and his Parliament If it be then I will say no more but that I begg your Pardon and Kneel down at the Bar of a House of Commons with the same Submission as if I believed the Speaker Infallible and every Member an Angel But if your Votes ought to be not only Consonant to Law but agreeable to the truth of things then that Passage was hastily and passionately written and not well Considered and care ought to be taken for the future to Write more Cautiously and Speak and Vote like Men that had a little respect to your Places Your Votes of the 7th of January 1680. concerning his Majesties Revenues and borrowing of Money upon them are they justifiable or no may I not lend the King 100 l. if I please without your leave and not incur the danger of being reputed an Enemy to the Sitting of Parliaments Suppose the French should Land in England or Ireland or the Papists or Dissenters rise and the King Want Money to suppress the one or drive out the other must we hazard his and our Ruine rather
by being troublesom to the Government find they can Arrive to an Indulgence will as their Numbers increase be yet more troublesome so at length they may arrive to a general Toleration which Your Majesty hath declared against and in time some prevalent Sect will at last Contend for an Establishment which for ought can be foreseen may end in Popery It is a thing altogether without Precedent and will take away all means of Convicting Recusants and be inconsistent with the Method and Proceedings of the Laws of England Lastly it is humbly Conceived That the Indulgence proposed will be so far from tending to the Peace of the Kingdom that it is rather likely to occasion great disturbance And on the Contrary That the Asserting of the Laws and the Religion Established according to the Act of Uniformity is the most probable Means to produce a Settled Peace and Obedience through the Kingdom because the Variety of Professions in Religion when Openly indulged doth directly distinguish men into Parties and withal gives them Opportunities to count their Numbers which considering the Animosities that out of a religious Pride will be kept on foot by the several Factions doth tend directly and inevitably to open disturbance Nor can Your Majesty have any Security that the Doctrine or Worship of the Several Factions which are all governed by a Several Rule shall be consistent with the Peace of the Kingdom And if any person shall presume to disturb the Peace of the Kingdome We do in all humility declare That we will for ever and upon all occasions be ready with our Vtmost Endeavours and Assistance to Adhere to and Serve Your Majesty according to our bounden Duty and Allegiance The Reason and Loyalty of this Address prevailed with his Majesty at that time to lay aside all his Thoughts of an Indulgence and well had it been for him and us if he had never reassumed them for from his forsaking this Advice in the Year 1671. Sprung all those Miseries that now so much threaten him and us But tho his Majesty Changed the Parliament kept their grounds for in an Address dated the 14th of Feb. 1672. they assert against His Majesties Declaration of Indulgence dated the 15th of March before That Penal Statutes in Matters Ecclesiastical cannot be suspended but by Act of Parliament We therefore say they the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons do most humbly beseech Your Majesty That the said Lawes may have their Free Course until it shall be otherwise provided by Act of Parliament and that Your Majesty would Graciously be pleased to give such Directions herein that no Apprehensions or Jea ousies may remain in the Hearts of Your Majesties good and faithful Subjects The King not being Satisfied with this but still insisting that he had a Right by his Supremacy to Suspend the Execution of Penal Laws in Ecclesiastical Affairs They replyed the 26th of Feb. following That no such Power was ever Claimed or Exercised by any of his Majesties Predecessors and if it should be admitted might tend to the Interrupting of the Free Course of the Laws and altering the Legislative Power which hath always been acknowledged to reside in his Majesty and the Two Houses of Parliament Therefore they did with an Vnanimous Consent become again Humble Suitors unto his Sacred Majesty That he would be pleased to give them a full and Satisfactory Answer to their first Petition and Address and that his Majesty would take such effectual Order That the Proceedings in this Matter might not be for the future drawn into Example To which said last Address his Majesty was pleased to Condescend so far as to Order his Declaration of Indulgence to be taken off the File and Cancell'd Now the use I make of all is to shew first That the Opinion of an Excellent Wise House of Commons was That an Indulgence Toleration or Vnion as they now call it was of a Mischievous Nature and would finally end in Confusion and Popery Secondly That if it should be thought necessary to grant one it being a Legislative Act it must be by the Joynt Consent of the King and the Two Houses and not by any one of them And therefore I will Leave it to the Consideration of the Gentlemen of that House to Judge Whether they did well in passing the Vote of the 10th of January aforesaid for the Suspension of all Penal Laws which relate to the Protestant Dissenters Some pretending to Excuse them have said it was a Vote only in order to a Bill to be brought in for the taking those Laws away But I answer There were several other Bills for that purpose depending and therefore this was in vain Secondly There is no mention of a Bill to be brought in in the Conclusion of the Vote Thirdly They knew they were to be Prorogued as appears by their first Vote and therefore Such a Design would have been impossible Now if they had carried those few Points in this Session First not onely to Deny the King any Supply but to make it Criminal for any man to Lend him any Money upon his Revenues they might then in another Session have gone further and have made it Punishable for any man to have paid him his Just Settled Legal Dues and that would have made them able to have Forced this King or his Successors to what ever they had pleased Secondly If they might have gone on to imprison his Majesty's Subjects in an Illegal and Arbitrary way for Matters that had no relation to Priviledges of Parliament they might afterwards have Extended this to as many Persons and Things as they had pleased and so No man would have dared to have stood by His Majesty against a House of Commons tho they had attempted to Depose his Majesty Nor would his Majesty in a short time have been able to have Protected his Subjects against any injury that they or any of them had been pleased to have done them which would infallibly have Subverted the Monarchy and have introduced a Common-Wealth Thirdly If they had got that great Branch of the Legislative Power into their hands of suspending the Execution of Laws by their Vote they might have driven it as far as they pleased and so have once more Outed the King and the House of Lords as a former Parliament did by the Same Means I will conclude this with the Judgment of a Great and a Learned Man Clarendon's Answer to Hobbs p. 127 128. No Orders made by A House of Commons in England are of any Validity or Force or receive any Submission longer then that House of Commons Continues and if Any Order made by them be against any Law or Statute it is Void when it is Made and receives no Obedience His Majesty then had both Law and Reason on his Side when he ended his Speech to the Next Parliament at Oxford with these Words I WILL Conclude with this one Advice to you That the Rules
and Measures of all your Votes may be the Known and Established Laws of the Land which Neither Can nor Ought to be Departed from nor Chang'd but by Act of Parliament And I may the more reasonably Require That You make the Laws of the Land your Rule because I am Resolved they shall be Mine FINIS ADVICE TO THE READER HAving received the following Papers just as this Tractate was finished and Printed off I thought my self obliged to Comply with the reasonable Request of so many Persons of that Worth and Quality the Subscribers are Thô at the same time I must confess that neither I nor this Treatise do or can deserve that Character their Civility and Goodness have bestowed on us Sir BEing Inform'd that you are upon a Continuation of that Excellent Work Entituled An Address to the Freemen and Freeholders of the Nation and that the Third Part of it is now in the Press we take the Freedom to Trouble you with this our Joynt-Request That if you take any Notice of the Case of Mr. Richard Thompson of Bristol Clerk in the Series of your Narration you will be pleased to give Credit to the Report which we shall here offer you And if you think fitting to Communicate it to the Publick in his Justification and Defence The Particulars hereof we have partly upon very Good Authority And we are able to Testifie the Truth of the rest upon our own Knowledge and Experience as to the Character Life and Conversation of This Worthy Gentleman He was Born of Protestant Parents and Educated in the Methods and Principles of the Church of England He received his Orders of Priesthood from the Hands of Dr. Fuller Bishop of Lincoln in the year 1670. Immediately upon this Qualification he was sent by the Reverend Dr. Pierce to serve in his Cure of Brington in Northamptonshire where he continued some Years with a very Fair Reputation About the year 1675. He removed from thence to Salisbury upon the Invitation of the said Dr. Pierce then Dean of Sarum where he liv'd with him in his own House In the year 1676. The Dean bestow'd upon him first a Prebend And then a Presentation to St. Marie's in Marlborough In 1677. He Travail'd with Mr. Jo. Norborne of Calne in Wiltshire but within less than a Twelvemonth he was Recall'd upon the Vacancy of Bedminster by Bristol his Present Living When he was abroad he neither Studyed at St. Omers nor Douay as was suggested Nor ever saw those Places nor pass'd into any part of Flanders or Italy but France alone He spent near Seven Months of his time at Paris and in the Academy of Monsieur Fonbert a Protestant still frequenting the English Ambassador's Chappel and receiving the Sacrament there And during his stay he Preach'd twice and read Prayers often in That Chappel At Guien upon the Loyre he sojourn'd all his time there with Monsieur Du Paizy the Protestant Minister Frequenting the Protestant Church and that only Receiving the Sacrament also from the hands of Monsieur Du Paizy to put those Men out of hope of Gaining him over that had already Sollicited him by fair Promises of Advantage to the Communion of the Church of Rome At Blois he kept himself also upon the same Reserve avoiding even to Lodge in the House of a Romanist but upon Absolute Necessity He was not yet so Rigorous as not to allow himself in a Curiosity to make an Acquaintance as well with Persons Eminent in their several Orders of the Church of Rome as with the Famous Men of the Protestant Churches He does not deny but that he had twice or thrice seen Mass performed while he was abroad but it was Curiosity not Religion that carried him thither And that he is so far from being stagger'd in his Faith by any thing he saw abroad that he is the more Confirm'd in it And that he would rather Beg within the Communion of the Church of England than be the greatest Person the Church of Rome could make him out of it Since his Return in 1678. No man hath kept himself more strictly to the Orders of the Church of England He hath taken the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy at least Eight several times Preaching and Acting in Conformity thereunto He never Refus'd any Test of Fidelity to the Government and Declares himself Ready to take any farther Tests that shall be lawfully impos'd upon him Sir We have Extracted these Particulars from Evidences Uncontestable and we reckon it our Duty to God to the Church to Common Justice and to Persecuted Innocence to Present This Account to your self in hopes that you will Transmit it with your own Ingenious Reflexions to the View and Consideration of the World We have Annexed hereunto a short Summary of what will be Attested on his behalf since he came to Bristol And we have thereunto subjoyn'd several Fair and Ample Certificates in his Vindication and Defence We could have added many more as particularly A Certificate of the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop Now of Chichester late of Bristol who has been pleas'd to Certifie Mr. Richard Thompson to be in these very words A Person of much more then ordinary Endowments for Learning an Excellent Preacher and which Crowns both the Former a Man of a Clean Life and Vnreproveable Conversation A Person free from Novelties in Religion but very sound and Orthodox in the Doctrines he Preaches and thoroughly Conformable as to Discipline c. And then afterward his Lordship Concludes thus I know no Young Man of his Years that better deserves very Good Preferment in our Church then This Young Man doth And this I do Testifie sincerely from my Heart and give under my Hand this Fourteenth day of September in the year of our Lord 1679. at my Palace in Chichester For the Truth and Authority of the whole Matter we are willing and ready to become Answerable and shall take it for a singular Kindness if you will be pleas'd to let These Testimonials pass into the World at the instance of Sir Your humble Servants Thomas Eston Mayor Sir Richard Crump Kt. Sir John Knight Kt. James Twyford Walter Gunter Thomas Davidge John Yeomans Touching Mr. THOMPSON's Care and Pains at BRISTOL in the Discharge of his Function there And his Reputation among the Inhabitants of the said City 1. IT is Undeniably known That he hath brought over many Anabaptists and Quakers to the Church of England there and Baptized them Publickly 2. That he hath Instructed and Grounded many Hundreds of Children who were afterward Confirmed by the Bishop of the Place in the Catechism of the Church of England 3. It is certain that he is never without a Full Auditory whensoever he Preacheth or when he Readeth the Prayers only And that he hath in his time much encreased the Number of Communicants 4. There are many most Worthy Gentlemen in That City that will not be Ashamed to own their Establishment in the Church of England to
the great Pains which he hath taken With and Among them Lastly In Testimony of the High Esteem that the Inhabitants of That City had of This Gentleman they Met him with a great many Horsemen at his Return from his Persecution in London and bad him Wellcom again to the Place of his Residence with the Highest Expressions of Joy and Acclamation Sir John Lloyd's Certificate concerning Mr. Thompson under the Seal of the Office of his Majoralty WHereas Richard Thompson Vicar of St. Mary Redcliff and St. Thomas two Eminent Churches within the City of Bristol even from the time of his first appearance to officiate in those Churches hath been privily traduced and now of late openly and maliciously branded by the multiforme Fanaticks of this City for a Church-Papist and Jesuite for the Rector of St. Omers so Nick-naming St. Thomas and with many like Terms of Obloquy and Slander the Invention whereof may be reckon'd upon as the very first and peculiar gift of that Party whose great and only Master-piece it hath been and still is by like Maliciously Witty and Wicked Methods and Artifices to expose alike His Loyalty and Ministry and to lessen that Esteem and Reputation he hath thereby gained in the Hearts and Affections of all the Kings Majesties Loyal Loving Subjects within this City These are therefore at the Request of and just Due to the said Richard Thompson to Certifie unto all unto whom these Presents shall come that the said Richard Thompson is well known to me John Lloyd Knight and Major of the said City and to all the Kings Majesties Loyal and Loving Subjects therein to be a Person of most Innocent and Exemplary Life and Conversation a most Constant and Careful Dispenser of God's most Holy Word unto the People under his Charge a most Diligent and Zealous Assertor of the Kings Majesties Supremacy in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil in opposition to all Schismatical and Factious Persons and Principles under what Names soever they pass or prevail amongst us and also of all the Christian Doctrines together with the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England as they are now Owned and Established by Law In Testimony whereof I have caused the Seal of my Office of Majoralty to be affixed Dated the Eighteenth Day of September Anno Dom. 1679 John Lloyd Major The Dean and Chapter of Sarum their Certificate OMnibus quorum interest innotescat per Praesentes Ricardum Thompson in Artibus Magistrum Vicarium de Bedminster juxta Bristoliam quamdiu apud nos commoratus est pie vitam sobrieque laudabiliter tradâ—xisse In concionibus saepe habendis sedulo curam adhibuisse strenue studiis Theologicis navasse operam Nec unquam quod scimus docuisse quicquam vel tenuisse quod Ecclesia Anglicana non etiam appobut atque tuetur Cujus praesertim Disciplinae superioribus quibuscunque ab omni parte conformem morigerumque se praestit it In quorum omnium Testimonium fidem iisdem faciendam nomina nostra cognomina plane ex animo apposuimus Sept. 13. Annoque Salutis reparatae 1679. Thomas Pierce Dec. Sarum Daniel Whitby Praecentor Sarum Ricardus Drake Cancellarius Sarum Ricardus Hill Can. Resid Sarum Franciscus Horton Can. Resid Sarum A Certificate Signed by several of his Auditors upon the Thirtieth of January 1679. being Persons of great Reputation for Loyalty as well as Fortune THese are to Certifie all whom it may concern That we whose Names are hereunto Subscribed were present at the Parish Church of St. Thomas within the City of Bristol on the Thirtieth Day of January 1679. where we then heard Mr. Richard Thompson Preach very solemnly on the Occasion of that Days Fast To which Sermon every one of us for himself doth Declare he was very attentive And we do all hereby Certifie and Declare that we do not remember that the said Mr. Thompson did then say in his Prayer or Sermon That there was no Popish Plot but a Presbyterian Plot or any thing to that or the like effect And we are ready to make Oath of the same if required But on the contrary we have heard him detest and abhor the Popish Plot. And we do further Certifie That the said Mr. Thompson is and by all the time we have known him hath been a True and Loyal Subject to our Most Gracious Soveraign and of a very Sober and Pious Life and Conversation amongst us every way suitable to his Function Witness Our Hands this Thirteenth day of November 1680. John Hicks Alderman Sir Richard Crump Ald. Sir John Knight Kt. George Morgan Thomas Davidge Edmond Brand John Broadway Walter Gunter John Hellier John Oliff John Yeomans John Combes Sheriff George Boucher Thomas Turner George Hart Sheriff James Millerd Ralph Oliff James Twyford Daniel Pym Thomas Hartwell Edmund Arundel Richard Benson Francis Yeomans Thomas Durbin Charles Allen. THE END
speaking out of the Mouths of Phanatical Protestants or the last Speeches of John Kid and John King c. pag. 11. The matter of fact being thus stated the Reader need not wonder they were severely treated when they suffered the pains of Treason and Rebellion but besides those they had committed a vast number of Massacres and Assassinations before they murthered the Primate and this aggravated their sufferings Now all the cunning of this Declaration lies in this that they tell us what they suffered and perhaps truly but not a tittle of the case Which is just as if all the Rogues in the Nation should joyn and pen a complaint ennumerating how many of them since his Majesties Return have been Hanged Quartered Whipped Branded Transported Pillored Imprisoned which never meant any hurt to his Majesty or the Government but only to get a Living the best and easiest way they could Now to one that is as little vers'd in our ways of Punishment as we are in the Scotch it would seem a rueful Story whilest an English man would smile as knowing why they suffered all these hardships I need not apply it but shall add this they have deserved ten times more then they have felt as being the bloudiest Cut-throats in the world So that in Scotland no man dare to offend them openly for fear of assassination but such as either must by the necessity of their places or else have good means of defending their Lives against them Next I observe this Declaration is nothing but a large flourish upon the Speech and drawn just at that loose general rate which that is calling those Taxes and Punishments Arbitrary which they acknowledg were according to several Acts of Parliament and then pretending the persons that do constitute their Parliaments or States are overawed But then I must commend their ingenuity in this that they do not with the Commons of England lay the blame of all this upon the Duke of Lauderdale or their Ministers but upon the total change of their Government and State both Sacred and Civil and upon the Parliament of Scotland and the King whom they supplicate with menaces to restore him into the same State he found them in without which they were sensible the removing of the Duke of Lauderdale or any other of the great Ministers of State would signify nothing as to their Designs which was as they plainly tell us to set up the Presbyterian Doctrine and Church Government to serve the King in nothing else any further then he would serve them in that And lastly to obtain a free and unlimited Parliament and Assembly that is such as it might not be in his Majesties power to dissolve or frustrate by prorogation till they had extirpated Popery and Prelacy both together which was freely and roundly to tell us what they would have without canting and amusing us with general terms and hints but then I must not deny they had swords by their sides to justify these demands which our Gentlemen want and I wish ever may do but yet the Reader may observe that Speech that was so hugged in England and the Scotch Declaration meant the same thing though in different terms Observe also that they call the Presbyterian Doctrine and Government the Religion established though they own it to be taken away by a rescissory Act of Parliament for they believe all those Acts that have or shall be made against it are Null and Void and the former Acts are still in force though repealed which is an odd sort of Establishment consisting in the fancy of the people that own it and not in Law or Nature They lay the stress of their Justification upon necessity and yet own the greatest part of it to arise from hence that they must be deprived of the Gospel preached by the faithful Ministers and be made Slaves if they did not rebel Now as to their civil interest they would be in the same State with their Country men who are so far from rebelling that they have several times chastised them for it with a very little assistance from England And as to their Preachments I wonder in what part of the Gospel they learned to defend Christs Religion by rebellion but we must know this is pure Scotch Calvinistical Jesuitical Doctrine begun by the Devil and his Vicar the Pope not many hundred years ago and for which Bellarmine acknowledges there is neither Precept nor Example in the Bible nor in all Church History till near a thousand years after our Saviour's time and he gives this reason why the Gospel taught patience and submission because the contrary would have ruined Christianity then when but a few professed it but tells us St. Paul would have taught otherwise if he had lived in our days I shall not dispute how the Cardinal or the Scotch Gentlemen who talk at the same rate came to know this but I say it is equally destructive of any other Doctrine a man hath no mind to practise as of this of submission to Princes and suffering patiently for the truth without resistance As suppose I have a mind to revenge and they tell me of the Doctrine of meekness and forgiving injuries and Enemies if I reply this Doctrine was adopted to the Infant state of Christianity when Professors were few and exposed to persecution and could have got nothing by revenging their quarrels but ruine but the state of things is otherwise now and I may revenge my self with security both as to my self and as to my Religion and from thence infer that that Doctrine is ceased and I am at liberty to do in that particular as I see cause and that St. Paul would have taught so if he had lived in these times I say if I should argue thus upon their principles it could never be answered and a man might say as much for any other Gospel precept he had no mind to obey But to return The Covenanters in their first Declaration date the rise of all their troubles from the year 1648 and that is true and worth a Note You must know Charles the first had given them by the pacification all that they asked and the long Rebel Parliament had sent them home loaden with thanks Money and the spoils of England before our wars began * A View of the late Troubles cap. 18. but things going ill on the Parliament side after the King had routed Waller in the West and almost totally subdued the North by the valour of the E. of Newcastle the Parliament having no other way to turn them were forced to call in the Scots once more with Money and Promises yea and Oaths too to settle the Presbyterian Church Government here in England These two things prevailing upon them in they came and that ruined the King and his Party who at last surrendring himself to the Scots they dutifully sold him to the Parliament for 300000 lb. as all the World knows but the Chapmen fell out and