for the supplying of the said Vacancy and to be placed in such Order as the said Prelates so assembled or the major part of them shall think fit without regard to dignity antiquity or any other form which Writing shall be presented to the King who may thereupon appoint one of the three persous so to be named to succeed in the said Vacancy And the person so appointed or chosen shall by due form of Law according to the course now used be made Bishop of that See But if in 30 days after such presentment of such Names the King or Queen Regnant shall not Elect or appoint which of the said three persons shall succeed in the said vacant See or if after such Election or appointment there shall be any obstruction in pressing of the usual Instruments and formalities of Law in order to his Consecration then such person whose Name shall be first written in the said Instrument of nomination if there be no Election or appointment made by the King within the time aforesaid shal be the Bishop of the vacant See And if there be an Election or appointment made then the person so appointed shall be the Bishop of the vacant See And the Arch-bishop of the Province wherein the said vacancy shall be or such other person or persons who ought by his Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws to Consecrate the said Bishop shall upon reasonable demand and are hereby required to make Consecration accordingly upon pain of forfeiting trebble damages and costs to the party grieved to be recovered in any of his Majesties Courts at Westminster And immediately after such Consecration the person so consecrated shall be and is hereby Enacted to be compleat Bishop of the said vacant See and is hereby vested in the Temporalties of the said Bishop-prick and in actual possession thereof to all intents and purposes and shall have a Seat and Place in Parliament as if he had by due forms of Law been made Bishop and had the Temporalities restored unto him And in case the person so first named in the said Instrument of nomination or the person so Elected by the King or Queen Regnant shall then be a Bishop so that no Consecration be requisite then immediately after default of Election or appointment by the King or immediately after such Election or appointment if any shall be made within the said time and any Obstructions in pressing the Instruments and Formalities in Law in such cases used the Bishop so first Named or Elected and appointed shall thereupon ipso facto be translated and become Bishop of that See to which he was so nominated and appointed and shall be and is hereby vested in the Temporalties and actual possession thereof to all intents and purposes and shall have his Seat and Place in Parliament accordingly and his former See shall become vacant as if he had been by due Forms of Law chosen and confirmed into the same and had the Temporalities restored unto him And be it further Enacted That until the making the said Oath and Declaration in manner aforesaid the respective succeeding Kings and Queens that shall not have made and subscribed the same shall not grant or dispose of any Denary or Arch-Deconary Prebendary Mastership of any Colledge Parsonage Viccarage or any Ecclesiastical Benefice or Promotion whatsoever to any other person but such person as shall be nominated for the same unto the said King or Queen Regnant by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury or Guardians of the Spiritualities of the said Arch-bishop-prick for the time being if the same be within the Province of Canterbury and by the Arch-bishop-prick of York or Guardians of the spiritualities of the said Arch-bishop-prick for the time being if the same be within the Province of York by writing under their respective Hands and Seals and in case any such as shall be accordingly nominated shall not be able to obtein Presentation or grant thereof within 30 dayes next after such nomination then the said person shall and may and is hereby enabled by force of the said nomination to require Institution and Induction from such person and persons unto whom it shall belong to grant the same who shall accordingly make Institution and Induction as if the said person were lawfully presented by the said King or Queen Regnant upon pain to forfeit to the party grieved trebble damages and costs to be recovered in any of his Majesties Courts at VVestminster and in cases where no Institution or Induction is requisite the said person so nominated from and after the end of the said 30 dayes shall be and is hereby actually vested in the possession of such Denary Arch-Deaconary Prebendary Mastership Rectory Parsonage or Vicarage Donative or other Ecclefiastical Benefice or Promotion and shall be full and absolute proprietor and Incumbent thereof to all Intents and Purposes as if he had obteyned possession therof upon a legall grant by the said King or Queen Regnant and proceeding thereupon in due form of Law Provided always and be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That it shall and may be lawful for the Lord High Chancellor of England or the Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England for the time being to pass presentations or grants to any Ecclesiastical Benefice under value in the Kings Gift in such manner as hath been accustomed any thing in this present Act to the contrary notwithstanding And be it further Enacted That during such time as any King or Queen Regnant shall be under the said fourteen yeares no person that shall be Lord Protector or Regent of this Realme During such minority shall in any wise either in the name of the King or Queen Regnant or in his own name grant confer or dispose of any Arch-Bishop-prick Bishoprik Deanary Prebendary Master-ship of any Colledge Personage Vicarage or other Ecclesiastical Benefice or Promotion whatsoever but the same shall be disposed of in manner above mentioned during such miniority untill such Lord Protector or Regent shall make and subscribe the said Oath and Declaration mutatis mutandis before such nine or more of the said Prelates as he shall call to Administer the same unto him which Oath and Declaration they are hereby Authorized and required to Administer under the penaltyes aforesaid when they shall be called thereunto by such Lord Protector or Regent for the time being And be it further Enacted That the Children of such succeeding King or Queen Regnant that shall not have made and subscribed the Oath and Declaration in manner aforsaid shall from their respective Ages of seven years untill the respective Ages of fourteen yeares to be under the care and goverment of the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York and Bishop of London Durham and VVinchester for the time being who are hereby enjoyned and required to take care that they be well instructed and Educated in the true Protestant Religion as it is now Established by Law and to the Intent that the Arch-Bishops and Bishops for the time being
opposed any such pretension But some of them at last growing wiser by foisting a counterfeit Donation of Constantine and wresting another Donation from our Saviour advanced themselves in a weak ignorant and credulous Age to that Temporal and Spiritual Principality that they are now seised of Tues Petrus super hanc Petram adificabo Ecclesiam meam Never was a Bishop-prick and a Verse of Scripture so improved by good management Thus by exercising in the quality of Christs Uicar the publick function under an invisible Prince the Pope like the Maires of the Palace hath set his master aside and delivered the Government over to a new Line of Papal Succession But who can unlesse wilfully be ignorant what wretched doings what Bribery what Ambition there are how long the Church is without an Head upon every Vacancy till among the crew of bandying Cardinalls the Holy Ghost have declared for a Pope of the French or Spanish Faction It is a sucession like that of the Egyptian Ox the living Idol of that Country who dying or being made away by the Priests there was a solemn and general mourning for want of a Deity until in their Conclave they had found out another Beast with the very same marks as the former whom then they themselvs adored and with great Jubilee brought forth to the People to worship Nor was that Election a grosser reproach to human Reason then this is also to Christianity Surely it is the greatest Miracle of the Romish Church that it should still continue and that in all this time the Gates of Heaven should not prevaile against it It is almost unconceivable how Princes can yet suffer a Power so pernicious and Doctrine so destructive to all Government That so great a part of the Land should be alienated and condemned to as they call it Pious Uses That such millions of their People as the Clergy should by remaining unmarryed either frustrate humane nature if they live chastly or if otherwise adulterate it That they should be priviledged from all labour all publick service and exempt from the power of all Secular Jurisdiction That they being all bound by strict Oaths and Vows of Obedience to the Pope should evacuate the Fealty due to the Soveraign Nay that not only the Clergy but their whole People if of the Romish preswasion should be obliged to rebel at any time upon the Popes pleasure And yet how many of the Neighbouring Princes are content or do chuse to reign upon those conditions which being so dishonorable and dangerous surely some great and more weighty reason does cause them submit to Whether it be out of personal fear having heard perhaps of several attempts which the blind obedience of Popish Zelotes hath executed against their Princes Or whether aiming at a more absolute and tyrannical Government they think it still to be the case of Boniface and Phocas an usurping Emperour and an usurping Bishop and that as other Cheats this also is best to be managed by Confederacy But as farre as I can apprehend there is more of Sloth then Policy on the Princes side in this whole matter and all that pretense of inslaving men by the assistance of Religion more easily is neither more nor lesse then when the Bramine by having the first night of the Bride assures himself of her devotion for the future and makes her more fit for the husband This reflection upon the state of our Neighbours in aspect to Religion doth sufficiently illustrate our happinesse and spare me the labour of describing it further then by the Rule of Contraryes Our Church standing upon all points in a direct opposition to all the forementioned errours Our Doctrine being true to the Principles of the first Christian institution and Episcopacy being formed upon the Primitive Model and no Ecclesiastical Power jostling the Civil but all concurring in common obedience to the Soveraign Nor therefore is their any whether Prince or Nation that can with less probability be reduced back to the Romish perswasion than ours of England For if first we respect our Obedience to God what appearance is there that after so durable and general an enlightning of our minds with the sacred Truth we should again put out our own Eyes to wander thorow the palpable darkness of that gross Superstition But forasmuch as most men are less concern'd for their Interest in Heaven than on Earth this seeming the nearer and more certain on this account also our alteration from the Protestant Religion is the more impossible When beside the common ill examples and consequences of Popery observable abroad whereby we might grow wise at the expense of our Neighbours we cannot but reflect upon our own Experiments at home which would make even fools docible The whole Reign of Queen Mary in which the Papists made Fewel of the Protestants The Excommunicating and Deprivation of Queen Elizabeth by the Pope pursued with so many Treasons and attempts upon her Person by her own Subjects and the Invasion in Eighty-Eight by the Spanish The two Breves of the Pope in order to exclude King James from the Succession to the Crown seconded by the Gunpovvder-Treason In the time of his late Majesty King Charles the first besides what they contributed to the Civil War in England the Rebellion and horrid Massacre in Ireland and which was even worse than that their pretending that it was done by the Kings Commission and vouching the Broad Seal for their Authority The Popes Nuncio assuming nevertheless and exercising there the Temporal as well as Spiritual Power granting out Commissions under his own Hand breaking the Treatys of Peace between the King and as they then styled themselves the Confederate Catholicks heading two Armies against the Marquess of Ormond then Lord Lieutenant and forcing him at last to quit the Kingdom all which ended in the Ruine of his Majesties Reputation Government and Person which but upon occasion of that Rebellion could never have happened So that we may reckon the Reigns of our late Princes by a succession of the Popish Treasons against them And if under his present Majesty we have as yet seen no more visible effects of the same spirit than the Firing of London acted by Hubert hired by Pieddelou two French-men which remains a Controverfie it is not to be attributed to the good nature or better Principles of that Sect but to the wisdom of his Holyness who observes that we are not of late so dangerous Protestants as to deserve any special mark of his Indignation but that we may be made better use of to the weakning of those that are of our own Religion and that if he do not disturbe us there are those among our selves that are leading us into a fair way of Reconciliation with him But those continued fresh Instances in relation to the Crown together with the Popes claim of the Temporal and immediate Dominion of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland which he does so challenge are a
dealt with him in all things most frankly That notwithstanding all the Expressions in my Lord Keeper Bridgmans Speech of the Treaty betvveen France and his Majesty concerning Commerce vvherein his Majesty vvill have a singular regard to the Honour and also to the Trade of this Nation and notwithstanding the intollerable oppressions upon the English Traffick in France ever since the Kings Restauration they had not in all that time made one step towards a Treaty of Commerce or Navigation with him no not even now when the English were so necessary to him that he could not have begun this War without them and might probably therefore in this conjuncture have condescended to some equality But they knew how tender that King was on that point and to preserve and encrease the Trade of his Subjects and that it was by the Diminution of that Beam of his Glory that the Hollanders had raised his Indignation The Conspirators had therefore the more to gratify him made it their constant Maxime to burden the English Merchant here with one hand while the French should load them no less with the other in his Teritories which was a parity of Trade indeed though something an extravagant one but the best that could be hoped from the prudence and integrity of our States-men insomuch that when the Merchants have at any time come down from London to represent their grievances from the French to seek redress or offer their humble adviâ—…e they were Hector'd Brow-beaten Ridiculed and might have found fairer audience even from Monsieur Colbert They knew moreover that as in the matter of Commerce so they had more obliged him in this War That except the irresistable bounties of so great a Prince in their own particular and a frugal Subsistance-money for the Fleet they had put him to no charges but the English Navy Royal serv'd him like so many Privateers No Purchase No Pay That in all things they had acted with him upon the most abstracted Principles of Generosity They had tyed him to no terms had demanded no Partition of Conquests had made no humane Condition but had sold all to him for those two Pearls of price the True Worship and the True Government Which disinteressed proceeding of theirs though suited to Forraine Magnanimity yet should we still lose at Sea as we had hitherto and the French Conquer all at Land as it was in prospect might at one time or other breed some difficulty in answering for it to the King and Kingdom However this were it had so hapned before the arrival of the Plenipotentiaries that whereas here in England all that brought applycations from Holland were treated as Spies and Enemies till the French King should signify his pleasure he on the contrary without any communication here had received Addresses from the Dutch Plenipotentiaries and given in to them the sum of his Demands not once mentioning his Majesty or his Interest which indeed he could not have done unless for mockery having demanded all for himself so that there was no place left to have made the English any satisfaction and the French Ministers therefore did very candidly acquaint those of Holland that upon their accepting those Articles there should be a firm Peace and Amity restored But as for England the States their Masters might use their discretion for that France was not obliged by any Treaty to procure their advantage This manner of dealing might probably have animated as it did warrant the English Plenipotentiaries had they been as full of Resolution as of Power to have closed with the Dutch who out of aversion to the French and their intollerable demands were ready to have thrown themselves into his Majesties Armes or at his Feet upon any reasonable conditions But it wrought clean otherwise For those of the English Plenipotentiaries who were it seems intrusted with a fuller Authority and the deeper Secret gave in also the English Demands to the Hollanders consisting in eight Articles but at last the Ninth saith Although his Majesty contents himself vvith the foregoing Conditions so that they be accepted vvithin ten dayes after vvhich his Majesty understands himself to be no further obliged by them He declares nevertheless precisely that albeit they should all of them be granted by the said States yet they shall be of no force nor vvill his Majesty maâ—…e any Treaty of Peace or Truce unless the Most Christian King shall have received satisfastion from the said States in his particular And by this means they made it impossible for the Dutch however desirous to comply with England excluded us from more advantagious terms than we could at any other time hope for and deprived us of an honest and honourable evasion out of so pernicious a War and from a more dangerous Alliance So that now it appeared by what was done that the Conspirtors securing their own fears at the price of the Publick Interest and Safety had bound us up more strait then ever by a new Treaty to the French Project The rest of this year passed with great successe to the French but none to the English And therefore the hopes upon which the War was begun of the Smyrna and Spanish Fleet and Dutch Prizes being vanished the slender Allowance from the French not sufficing to defray it and the ordinary Revenue of the King with all the former Aides being as was fit to be believed in lesse then one years time exhausted The Parliament by the Conspirators good leave was admitted again to sit at the day appointed the 4th of February 1672. The Warr was then first communicated to them and the Causes the Necessity the Danger so well Painted out that the Dutch abusive Historical Pictures and False Medalls which were not forgot to be mentioned could not be better imitated or revenged Onely there was one great omission of their False Pillars which upheld the whole Fabrick of the England Declarations Upon this signification the House of Commons who had never failed the Crown hitherto upon any occosion of mutual gratuity did now also though in a Warre contrary to former usuage begun without their Advice readily Vote no less a summe than 1250000 l. But for better Colour and least they should own in words what they did in effect they would not say it was for the Warre but for the Kings Extraordinary Occasions And because the Nation began now to be aware of the more true Causes for which the Warre had been undertaken they prepared an Act before the Money-Bill slipt thorrow their Fingers by which the Papists were obliged to pass thorow a new State Purgatory to be capable of any Publick Imployment whereby the House of Commons who seem to have all the Great Offices of the Kingdom in Reversion could not but expect some Wind-falls Upon this Occasion it was that the Earl of Shaftsbury though then Lord Chancellour of England yet Engaged so far in Defence of that ACT and of the PROTESTANT RELIGION that in due
are Commissioned by him in pursuance of such Commission and yet neither is the Tenour or Rule of any such Commission specified nor the Qualification of those that shall be armed with such Commissions expressed or limited Never was so much sence contained in so few words No Conveyancer could ever in more Compendious or binding terms have drawn a Dissettlement of the whole Birth-right of England For as to the Commission if it be to take away any mans Estate or his Life by force Yet it is the Kings Commission Or if the Person Commissionate be under never so many Dissabilities by Acts of Parliament yet his taking this Oath removes all those Incapacities or his Commission makes it not Disputable But if a man stand upon his Defence a good Judge for the purpose finding that the Position is Traitorous will declare that by this Law he is to be Executed for Treason These things are no Nicetyes or remote Considerations though in making of Laws and which must come afterwards under Construction of Judges Durante Bene-placito all Cases are to be put and imagined but there being an Act in Scotland for Tvventy thousand Men to March into England upon Call and so great a Body of English Souldery in France within Summons besides what Forainers may be obliged by Treaty to furnish and it being so fresh in memory what sort of persons had lately been in Commission among us to which add the many Bookes then Printed by Licence Writ some by Men of the Black one of the Green Cloath wherein the Absoluteness of the English Monarchy is against all Law asserted All these Considerations put together were sufficient to make any honest and well-advised man to conceive indeed that upon the passing of this Oath and Declaration the vvhole sum of Affaires depended It grew therefore to the greatest contest that has perhaps ever been in Parliament wherein those Lords that were against this Oath being assured of their own Loyalty and Merit stood up now for the English Liberties with the same Genius Virtue and Courage that their Noble Ancestors had formerly defended the Great Charter of England but with so much greater Commendation in that they had here a fairer Field and the more Civil way of Decision They fought it out under all the disadvantages imaginable They were overlaid by Numbers the noise of the House like the VVind was against them and if not the Sun the Fire-side was allwayes in their Faces nor being so few could they as their Adversaries withdraw to refresh themselves in a whole days Ingagement Yet never was there a clearer Demonstration how dull a thing is humane Eloquence and Greatness how Little when the bright Truth discovers all things in their proper Colours and Dimensions and shining shoots its Beams thorow all their Fallacies It might be injurious where all of them did so excellently well to attribute more to any one of those Lords than another unless because the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Shaftsbury have been the more reproached for this brave Action it be requisite by a double proportion of Praise to set them two on equal terms with the rest of their Companions in Honour The particular Relation of this Debate which lasted many dayes with great eagerness on both sides and the Reasons but on one was in the next Session burnt by Order of the Lords but the Sparkes of it will eterually fly in their Adversaries faces Now before this Test could in so vigorous an opposition passe the House of Peers there arose unexpectedly a great Controversy betwixt the two Houses concerning their Priviledges on this occasion The Lords according to their undoubted Right being the Supream Court of Judicature in the Nation had upon Petition of Doctor Shirley taken cognizance of a Cause between him and Sir John Fagg a Member of the House of Commons and of other Appeales from the Court of Chancery which the Commons whether in good earnest which I can hardly believe or rather some crafty Parliament men among them having an eye upon the Test and to prevent the hazard of its coming among them presently took hold of and blew the Coales to such a degree that there was no quenching them In the House of Peers both Partyes as in a point of their own Privilege easily united and were no lesse inflamed against the Commons and to uphold their own ancient Jurisdiction wherein neverthelesse both the Lords for the Test and those against it had their own particular reasons and might have accused each-other perhaps of some artifice The matter in conclusion was so husbanded on all sides that any longer converse betwixt the two Houses grew impracticable and his Majesty Prorogued them therefore till the 13th of October 1675 following And in this manner that fatall Test which had given so great disturbance to the mindes of our Nation dyed the second Death which in the language of the Divines is as much as to say it was Damned The House of Commons had not in that Session been wanting to Vote 300000 l. towards the building of Ships and to draw a Bill for appropriating the Ancient Tunnage and Poundage amounting to 400000 l. yearly to the use of the Navy as it ought in Law already and had been granted formerly upon that special Trust and Confidence but neither did that 300000 l. although Competent at present and but an earnest for future meeting seem considerable and had it been more yet that Bill of appropriating any thing to its true use was a sufficient cause to make them both miscarry but upon pretense of the quarrel between the Lords and Commons in which the Session thus ended The Conspirators had this interval to reflect upon their own affaires They saw that the King of France as they called him was so busy abroad that he could not be of farther use yet to them here then by his directions while his Armyes were by assistance of the English Forces severall times saved from ruines They considered that the Test was defeated by which the Papists hoped to have had Reprisalls for that of Transubstantiation and the Conspirators to have gained Commission as extensive and arbitrary as the malice of their own hearts could dictate That herewith they had missed of a Legality to have raised mony without Consent of Parliament or to imprison or execute whosoever should oppose them in pursuance of such their Commission They knew it was in vaine to expect that his Majesty in that want or rather opinion of want which they had reduced him to should be diverted from holding this Session of Parliament nor were they themselves for this once wholy averse to it For they presumed either way to find their own account that if mony were granted it should be attributed to their influence and remaine much within their disposal but if not granted that by joyning this with other accidents of Parliament they might so represent things to his Majesty as to incense him against them
and distrusting all Parliamentary Advice to take Counsel from themselves from France and from Necessity And in the meane time they fomented all the Jealousies which they caused They continued to inculcate Forty and One in Court and Country Those that refused all the mony they demanded were to be the onely Recusants and all that asserted the Libertyes of the Nation were to be reckoned in the Classis of Presbyterians The 13th of October came and his Majesty now asked not only a Supply for his building of Ships as formerly but further to take off the Anticipation upon his Revenue The House of Commons took up again such Publick Bills as they had on foot in their former sitting and others that might either Remedy Present or Prevent Future Mischiefs The Bill for Habeas Corpus That against sending men Prisoners beyond Sea That against raising Mony without Consent of Parliament That against Papists sitting in either House Another Act for speedier convicting of Papists That for recalling his Mejestys Subjects out of the French service c And as to his Majestys supply they proceeded in their former Method of the two Bills One for raising 300000 l. and the other for Appropriating the Tunnage and Poundage to the use of the Navy And in the Lords House there was a good disposition toward things of Publick Interest But 300000 l. was so insipid a thing to those who had been continually regaled with Millions and that Act of Appropriation with some others went so much against stomack that there wanted only an opportunity to reject them and that which was readiest at hand was the late quarrel betwixt the House of Lords and the Commons The house of Commons did now more peremptorily then ever oppose the Lords Jurisdiction in Appeals The Lords on the otherside were resolved not to depart from so essentiall a Priviledge and Authority but to proceed in the Exercise of it So that this Dispute was raised to a greater Ardure and Contention then ever and there appeared no way of accomodation Hereupon the Lords were in consultation for an Addresse to his Majesty conteining many weighty Reasons for his Majestyes dissolving this Parliament deduced from the nature and behaviour of the present House of Commons But his Majesty although the transaction between the two Houses was at present become impracticable Judging that this House might at some other time be of use to him chose only to Prorogue the Parliament The blame of it was not onely laid but aggravated upon those in both Houses but especially on the Lords-House who had most vigorously opposed the French and Popish-Jnterest But those who were present at the Lords and observed the conduct of the Great Ministers there conceived of it otherwise And as to the House of Commons who in the heat of the Contest had Voted That vvhosoever shall Sollicity or prosecute any Appeal against any Commoner of England from any Court of Equity before the House of Lords shall be deemed and taken abetrayer of the Rights and Liberties of the Commons of England and shall be proceeded against accordingly Their Speaker going thorow VVestminster Hall to the House and looking down upon some of those Lawyers commanded his Mace to seize them and led them up Prisoners with him which it is presumed that he being of his Majesties Privie Councill would not have done but for what some men call his Majesties Service And yet it was the highest this of all the Provocations which the Lords had received in this Controversie But however this fault ought to be divided there was a greater committed in Proroguing the Parliament from the 22th of November 1675 unto the 15th of February 1676. And holding it after that dismission there being no Record of any such thing done since the being of Parliaments in England and the whole Reason of Law no lesse then the Practise and Custome holding Contrary This vast space betwixt the meetings of Parliament cannot more properly be filled up then with the coherence of those things abroad and at home that those that are intelligent may observe whether the Conspirators found any interruption or did not rather sute this event also to the Continuance of their Counsells The Earl of Northampton is not to be esteemed as one engaged in those Counsells being a person of too great Honour though the advanceing of him to be Constable of the Tovver was the first of our Domestick occurrents But if they could have any hand in it 't is more probable that lest he might perceive their Contrivances they apparelled him in so much Wall to have made him insensible However men conjectured even then by the Quality of the Keeper that he was not to be disparaged with any mean and vulgar Prisoners But another thing was all along very remarkable That during this Inter-Parliament there were five Judges places either fell or were made vacant for it was some while before that Sir Francis North had been created Lord Cheif Justice of the Common Pleas the five that succeeded were Sir Richard Rainsford Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench. Mountagne Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer Vere Bartie Barrister at Law one of the Barrons of the Exchequer Sir William Scroggs one of the Justices of the Common Pleas. And Sir Thomas Jones one of the Justices of the Kings Bench. Concerning all whom there it somthing too much to be said and it is not out of a figure of speech but for meer reverence of their Profession that I thus passe it over considering also humane infirmity and that they are all by their Pattens Durante Bene Placito bound as it were to the Good Behaviour And it is a shame to think what triviall and to say the best of them obscure persons have and do stand next in prospect to come and sit by them Justice Atknis also by Warping too far towards the Laws was in danger upon another pretense to have made way for some of them but upon true Repentance and Contrition with some Almes Deeds was admitted to Mercy And all the rest of the Benches will doubtlesse have profited much by his and some other example Alas the Wisdom and Probity of the Law went of for the most part with good Sir Mathevv Hales and Justice is made a meere property This poysonous Arrow strikes to the very heart of Government and could come from no Quiver but that of the Conspirators What French Counsell what standing Forces what Parliamentary Bribes what National Oaths and all the other Machinations of wicked men have not yet been able to effect may be more compendiously Acted by twelve Judges in Scarlet The next thing considerable that appeared preparatory for the next session was a Book that came out by publick Authority Intitled Considerations touching the true vvay to suppresse Popery c. A very good design and writ I beleive by a very good man but under some mistakes which are not to be passed over One in the Preface wherein he
other Nations as refractory disobedient Persons that had lost all respect to his Majesty Thus were they well rewarded for their Itch of Perpetual Sitting and of Acting the Parliament being grown to that height of Contempt as to be Gazetted among Run-away Servants Lost Doggs Strayed Horses and High-way Robbers In this manner was the second meeting of this whether Convention or Parliament concluded But by what Name soever it is lawfull to call them or how irregular they were in other things yet it must be confessed That this House or Barn of Commons deserved commendations for haveing so far prevented the establishment of Popery by rejecting the Conspiratours two Bills Intituled 1. An Act for further securing the Protestant Religion by educating the Children of the Royal family therein And for the providing for the Continuance of a Protestant Clergy 2. An Act for the more effectual conviction and Prosecution of Popish Recusants And for having in so many Addresses applyed against the French power and 〈◊〉 And their Debates before recited upon this latter subject do sufficently show that there are men of great parts among them who understand the Intrest of the Nation and as long as it is for their purpose can prosecute it For who would not commend Chastity and raile against Whoreing while his Rival injoyes their Mistresse But on the other side that poor desire of Perpetuating themselves those advantages which they have swallowed or do yet gape for renders them so â—…bject that they are become a meer property to the Conspiratours and must in order to their continuance do and suffer such things so much below and contrary to the spirit of the Nation that any honest man would swear that they were no more an English House of Parliament And by this weaknesse of theirs it was that the House of Peers also as it is in contiguous Buildings yeelded and gave way so far even to the shaking of the Government For had the Commons stood firme it had been impossible that ever two men such as the Black and White Lords Trerise and Frechvvel though of so vast fortunes extraordinary understanding and so proportionable Courage should but for speaking against their sense have committed the Four Lords not much their inferiours and thereby brought the whole Peerage of England under their vassalage They met again at the Day appointed the 16 of July The supposed House of Commons were so well appayed and found themselves at such ease under the Protection of these frequent Adjournments which seemed also further to confirme their Title to Parliament that they quite forgot how they had been out-lawed in the Gazette or if any sense or it remaind there was no opportunity to discover it For his Majesty having signified by Mr. Secretary Coventry his pleasure that there should be a further Adjournment their Mr. Seymour the speaker deceased would not suffer any man to proceed But an honourable Member requiring modestly to have the Order Read by which they were before Adjourned he Interrupted him and the Seconder of that motion For he had at the last Meeting gained one President of his own making for Adjourning the House without question by his own Authority and was loath to have it discontinued so that without more ado like an infallible Judge and who had the power over Counsels he declared Ex Cathedra that they were Adjourned till the third of December next And in the same moment stampt down on the floor and went forth trampling upon and treading under foot I had almost said the Priviledges and usage of Parliament but however without shewing that decent respect which is due to a multitude in Order and to whom he was a Menial servant In the mean time the four Lords lay all this while in the Tower looking perhaps to have been set free at least of Course by Prorogation And there was the more reason to have expected one because the Corn Clause which deducted Communibus Annis 55000 I. out of the Kings Customes was by the Act of Parliament to have expired But those frequent Adjournments left no place for Divination but that they must rather have been calculated to give the French more scope for perfecting their Conquests or to keep the Lords closer till the Conspirators Designes were accomplished and it is less probable that one of these was false than that both were the true Causes So that the Lords if they had been taken in War might have been ransomed cheaper than they were Imprisoned When therefore after so long patience they saw no end of their Captivity they began to think that the procuring of their Liberty deserved almost the same care which others took to continue them in Durance and each of them chose the Method he thought most advisable The Earl of Shaftsbury having addressed in vain for his Majesties favour resorted by Habeas Corpus to the Kings Bench the constant Residence of his Justice But the Judges were more true to their Pattents then their Jurisdiction and remanded him Sir Thomas Jones having done him double Justice answering both for himself and his Brother Tvvisden that was absent and had never hard any Argument in the case The Duke of Buckingham the Earle of Salisbury and the Lord Wharton had better Fortune then he in recurring to his Majesty by a Petition upon which they were enlarged making use of an honorable Evasion where no Legal Reparation could be hoped for Ingratefull Persons may censure them for enduring no more not considering how much they had suffered But it is Honour enough for them to have been Confessors nor as yet is the Earl of Shaftsbury a Martyr for the English Liberties and the Protestant Religion but may still live to the Envy of those that maligne him for his Constancy There remaines now only to relate that before the meeting appointed for the third of December his Majesties Proclamation was Issued signifying that he expected not the Members attendance but that those of them about Town may Adjourn themselves till the fourth of April 1678. Wherein it seemed not so strange because often done before as unfortunate that the French should still have so much further leisure allowed him to compleat his design upon Flanders before the Nation should have the last opportunity of interposing their Counsells with his Majesty it cannot now be said to prevent it But these words that the House may Adjourn themselves were very well received by those of the Commons who imagined themselves thereby restored to their Right after Master Seymours Invasion When in reversal of this he probably desiring to retain a Jurisdiction that he had twice usurped and to adde this Flower to the Crown of his own planting Mr. Secretary Coventry delivered a written Message from his Majesty on the 3d. of December of a contrary effect though not of the same validity with the Proclamation to wit That the Houses should be Adjourned only to the 15. of January 1677. Which as soon as read Mr. Seymour