of all the Judges of England that even the known and undoubted Prerogative of the Iewish Kings do not belong to our Kings and that it is an absurd and impudent thing to affirm they do Coke 11. Rep. p. 63. Mich. 5. Iac. Note upon Sunday the Tenth of November in the same Term the King upon Complaint made to him by Bancroft Arch-bishop of Canterbury concerning Prohibitions was informed That when Question was made of what matters the Ecclesiastical Judges have Cognizance either upon the Exposition of the Statutes concerning Tythes or any other thing Ecclesiastical or upon the Statute 1 Eliz. concerning the High-Commisâ—ion or in any other case in which there is not express Authority by Law the King himself may decide it in his Royal Person and that the Judges are but the Delegates of the King and that the King may take what Causes he shall please to determine from the Determination of the Judges and may determine them himself And the Archâ—bishop said That this was clear in Divinity That such Authority belongs to the King by the Word of God in Scripture To which it was answered by me in the presence and with the clear consent of all the Justices of England and Barons of the Exchiquer That the King in his own Person cannot adjudg any Case either Criminal as Treason Felony c. but this ought to be determined and adjudged in some Court of Justice according to the Law and Custom of England And always Judgments are given Ideo consideratum est per Curiam so that the Court gives the Judgment And it was greatly marvelled that the Arch-bishop durst inform the King that such Absolute Power and Authority as is aforesaid belonged to the King by the Word of God. CHAP. III. Of OBEDIENCE I. NO Man has any more Civil Authority than what the Law of the Land has vested in him nor is he one of St. Paul's Higher Powers any farther or to any other purposes tâ—an the Law has impowered him II. An Usurped Illegal and Arbitrary Power is so far from bâ—ing the Ordinance of God that it is not the Ordinance of Man. III. Whoever opposes an Usurped Illegal and Arbitrary Power does not oppose the Ordinance of God but the Violation of that Ordinance IV. The 13 th of the Romans commands Subjection to our Temporal Governours because their Office and Imployment is for the Publick Welfare For he is the Minister of God to Thee for good Verse 4. V. The 13 th of the Hebrews commands Obedience to Spiritual Rulers because they watch for your Souls Verse 17. VI. But the 13 th of the Hebrews did not oblige the Martyrs and Confessors in Queen Mary's Time to obey such blessed Bishops as Bonner and the Beast of Rome who were the perfect Reverse of St. Paul's Spiritual Rulers and whose Practice was murdering of Souls and Bodies according to that true Character of Popery which was given it by the Bishops who compiled the Thanksgiving for the Fifth of November but Arch-Bishop Laud was wiser than they and in his time blotted it out The Prayer formerly ran thus To that end strengthen the Hands of our Gracious King the Nobles and Magistrates of the Land to cut off these Workers of Iniquity whose Religion is Rebellion whose Faith is Faction whose Practice is murthering of Souls and Bodies and to root them out of the Confines of this Kingdom VII All the Judges of England are bound by their Oath and by the Duty of their place to disobey all Writs Letters or Commands which are brought to them either under the Little Seal or under the Great Seal to hinder or delay common Right Are the Judges all bound in an Oath and by their Places to break the 13 th of the Romans VIII The Engagement of the Lords attending upon the King at York Iune 13. 1642. which was subscribed by the Lord Keeper and thirty nine Peers besides the Lord Chief Justice Banks and several others of the Privy-Council was in these words We do engage our selves not to obey any Orders or Commands whatsoever not warranted by the known Laws of the Land. Was this likewise an Association against the 13 th of the Romans IX A Constable represents the King's Person and in the Execution of his Office is within the purview of the 13 th of the Romans as all Men grant but in case he so far pervert his Office as to break the Peace and commit Murther Burglary or Robbery on the High-way he may and ought to be resisted X. The Law of the Land is the best Expositor of the 13 th of the Romans here and in Poland the Law of the Land there XI The 13 th of the Romans is received for Scripture in Poland and yet this is expressed in the Coronation-Oath in that Country Quod si Sacramentum meum violavero Incolae Regni nullam nobis Obedientiam praestare tenebuntur And if I shall violate my Oath the Inhabitants of the Realm shall not be bound to yield me any Obedience XII The Law of the Land according to Bracton is the highest of all the Higher Powers mentioned in this Text for it is Superiour to the King and made him King Lib. iii. cap. xxvi Rex habet Superiorem Deum item Legem per quam factus est Rex item Curiam suam viz. Comites Barones and therefore by this Text we ought to be subject to it in the first place And according to Melancthon It is the Ordinanee of God to which the Higher Powers themselves ought to subject Vol. iii. In his Commentary on the fifth Verse Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake He has these words Neque vero hac tantum pertinent ad Subditos sed etiam ad Magistratum qui cum fiunt Tyranni non minus dissipant Ordinationem Dei quam Seditiosi Ideo ipsorum Conscientia fit rea quia non obediunt Ordinationi Dei id est Legibus quibus debent parere Ideo Comminationes hic posite etiam ad ipsos pertinent Itaque hujus mandati severitas moveat omnes ne violalationem Politici status putent esse leve peccatum Neither doth this place concern Subjects only but also the Magistrates themselves who when they turn Tyrants do no less overthrow the Ordinance of God than the Seditious and therefore their Consciences too are guilty for not obeying the Ordinance of God that is the Laws which they ought to obey So that the Threatnings in this place do also belong to them wherefore let the Severity of this Command deter all Men from thinking the Violation of the Political Constitution to be a light Sin. Corolary To destroy the Law and-Legal Constitution which is the Ordinance of God by false and Arbitrary Expositions of this Text is a greater Sin than to destroy it by any other means For it is Seething the Kid in his Mothers Milk. CHAP. IV. Of LAWS I. THere is no natural
Detest and Abjure as Impious and Heretical this Damnable Doctrine and Position That Princes Excommunicated or Deprived by the Pope or any Authority of the See of Rome may be Deposed or Murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do declare That no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Iurisdiction Power Superiority Preeminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm So help me God. Io. Browne Cleric ' Parl. Die Veneris 15 Feb. 1688. His Majesties Gracious Answer to the Declaration of both Houses My Lords and Gentlemen THis is certainly the greatest proof of the Trust you have in Vs that can be given which is the thing that maketh us value it the more and we thankfully Accept what you have Offered And as I had no other Intention in coming hither than to preserve your Religion Laws and Liberties so you may be sure That I shall endeavour to support them and shall be willing to concur in any thing that shall be for the Good of the Kingdom and to do all that is in my Power to advance the Welfare and Glory of the Nation Die Veneris 15 Februarii 1688. ORdered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Assembled at Westminster That His Majesties Gracious Answer to the Declaration of both Houses and the Declaration be forthwith Printed and Published And that his Majesties Gracious Answer this Day be added to the Engrossed Declaration in Parchment to be Enrolled in Parliament and Chancery Io. Browne Cleric ' Parliamentorum The Declaration of the Estates of Scotland concerning the Mis-government of King James the Seventh and filling up the Throne with King William and Queen Mary THat King Iames the 7 th had acted irregularly 1. By His Erecting publick Schools and Societies of the Jesuits and not only allowing Mass to be publickly said but also inverting Protestant Chappels and Churches to Publick Mass-houses contrair to the express Laws against saying and hearing of Mass. 2. By allowing Popish Books to be Printed and Dispersed by a Gift to a Popish Printer designing him Printer to his Majesties Houshold College and Chappel contrair to the Laws 3. By taking the Children of Protestant Noblemen and Gentlemen sending them abroad to be bred Papists making great Funds and Donations to Popish Schools and Colleges abroad bestowing Pensions on Priests and perverting Protestants from their Religion by Offers of Places Preferments and Pensions 4. By disarming Protestants while at the same time he employed Papists in the Places of greatest Trust Civil and Military such as Chancellour Secretaries Privy Councellors and Lords of Session thrusting out Protestants to make room for Papists and intrusting the Forts and Magazines of the Kingdom in their hands 5. By Imposing Oaths contrair to Law. 6. By giving Gifts and Grants for exacting of Money without Consent of Parliament or Convention of Estates 7. By Levying and keeping on foot a Standing Army in time of Peace without consent of Parliament which Army did exact Locality free and day Quarters 8. By Employing the Officers of the Army as Judges through the Kingdom and imposing them where there were held Offices and Jurisdictions by whom many of the Leiges were put to Death summarily without legal Tryal Jury or Record 9. By imposing exorbitant Fines to the Value of the Parties Estates exacting extravagant Bail and disposing Fines and Forfaulture before any Process or Conviction 10. By Imprisoning Persons without expressing the Reason and delaying to put them to Tryal 11. By causing pursue and forfault several Persons upon stretches of old and obsolete Laws upon frivolous and weak pretences upon lame and defective Probations as particularly the late Earl of Argyle to the scandal and reproach of the Justice of the Nation 12. By Subverting the Right of the Royal Boroughs the Third Estate of Parliament imposing upon them not only Magistrates but also the whole Town Council and Clerks contrair to the Liberties and express Charters without the pretence outher of Sentence Surrender or Consent So that the Commissioners to Parliaments being chosen by the Magistrates and Councils the King might in effect alsweel nominate that entire Estate of Parliament many of the said Magigrates put in by him were avowed Papists and the Burghs were forced to pay Mony for the Letters imposing these illegal Magistrates and Council upon them 13. By sending Letters to the Chief Courts of Justice not only ordering the Judges to stop and desist sine die to determine Causes but also ordering and commanding them how to proceed in Cases depending before them contrair to the express Laws And by changing the Nature of the Judges Gifts ad vitam aut culpam and giving them Commissions ad bene placitam to dispose them to compliance by Arbitrair Courses and turning them out of their Offices when they did not comply 14. By granting Personal Protections for Civil Debts contrair to Law. All which are utterly and directly contrair to the known Laws Freedoms and Statutes of this Realm Therefore the Estates of the Kingdom of Scotland find and declare That King Iames the Seventh being a profest Papist did assume the Regal Power and acted as King without ever taking the Oath required by Law and have by advice of Evil and Wicked Counsellors invaded the Fundamental Constitution of the Kingdom and altered it from a Legal limited Monarchy to an Arbitrair and Despotick Power and hath exercised the same to the subversion of the Protestant Religion and the violation of the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom Inverting all the Ends of Government whereby he hath forfaulted the Right to the Crown and the Throne is become vacant And whereas his Royal Highness William then Prince of Orange now King of England whom it hath pleased the Almighty God to make the Glorious Instrument of delivering these Kingdoms from Popery and Arbitrary Power did by advice of several Lords and Gentlemen of this Nation at London for the time call the Estates of this Kingdom to meet the Fourteenth of March last in order to such an Establishment as that their Religion Laws and Liberties might not be again in danger of being subverted And the said Estates being now assembled in a full and free Representative of this Nation taking to their most serious consideration the best means for attaining the Ends aforesaid Do in the first place as their Ancestors in the like cases have usually done for the vindicating and asserting their Ancient Rights and Liberties declare That by the Law of this Kingdom no Papist can be King or Queen of the Realm nor bear any Office whatsoever therein nor can any Protestant Successor exercise the Regal Power until he or she swear the Coronation Oath That all Proclamations asserting an Absolute Power to cass annul and disable Laws the erecting Schools and Colledges for Jesuits the inverting Protestant Chappels and Churches to publick Mass-houses and the â—llowing Mass to be said are contrair to Law. That the allowing Popish Books
were the first that suffered Persecution under her And after she had put to death near three hundred Persons without respect to Quality Age or Sex it pleased God to put an end to the Romish Cruelty and Idolatry by her unexpected and unlamented Death Nor is her Memory preserved from Oblivion by any thing but her repeated Acts of Cruelty and Injustice This was the Success that attended her this the Happiness the Liberty the Religion establish'd in the English Nation during her sive Years Tyranny That I may not detain the Reader any longer I will conclude this Advice to our Learned Pamphleteer That for the future he do not so positively ascribe all unhappy Accidents as frequent Wars and Rebellions the Effusion of English Blood the unfortunate End of some of our Princes to the Divine Vengeance upon them for the Usurpations he accuses them of since if he will consult our Historians he may find that Edward II. Richard II. and the Incomparable Prince King Charles I. though their Title from William the Conqueror is indisputable were far unhappier than any of the Usurpers he mentions That in Edward the Fourth's and Henry the Eighth's Reign a great deal of English Blood was shed both at Home and Abroad though their Right was unquestionable and universally acknowledged And that as to the promiscuous good or ill Success of all Affairs in this lower World the observation of the Wisest of Princes and of Men is very often exactly verified There is one Event to the Righteous and to the Wicked To the Prince who ascends the Throne by an unquestionable Right and to him that ascends it by Violence and Usurpation To the Prince that religiously performs the Solemn Oath taken at his Coronation and to him that wilfully breaks through all the Obligations he is under and endeavours by the most base Methods to dissolve the Establish'd Government The following Paper was published by Mr. Samuel Iohnson in the Year 1686. for which he was sentenc'd by the Court of Kings-Bench Sir Edward Herbert being Lord Chief Justice to stand three times on the Pillory and to be whipp'd from Newgate to Tyburn Which barbarous Sentence was executed An Humble and Hearty Address to all the English Protestants in this present Army GENTLEMEN NEXT to the Duty which we owe to God which ought to be the principal Care of Men of your Profession especially because you carry your Lives in your Hands and often look Death in the Face The second Thing that deserves your Consideration is The Service of your Native Country wherein you drew your first Breath and breathed a free English Air. Now I would desire you to consider how well you comply with these two main Points by engaging in this present Service Is it in the Name of God and for his Service that you have joined your selves with Papists who will indeed fight for the Mass-Book but burn the Bible and who seek to Extirpate the Protestant Religion with Your Swords because they cannot do it with their Own And will you be Aiding and Assisting to set up Mass-Houses to erect that Popish Kingdom of Darkness and Desolation amongst as and to train up all our Children in Popery How can you do these Things and yet call your selves Protestants And then what Service can be done your Country by being under the Command of French and Irish Papists and by bringing the Nation under a Foreign Yoke Will you help them to make forcible Entry into the Houses of your Country-men under the Name of Quartering directly contrary to Magna Charta and the Petition of Right Will you be Aiding and Assisting to all the Murders and Outrages which they shall commit by their void Commissions Which were declared Illegal and sufficiently blasted by both Houses of Parliament if there had been any need of it for it was very well known before That a Papist cannot have a Commission but by the Law is utterly Disabled and Disarmed Will you exchange your Birth-right of English Laws and Liberties for Martial or Club-Law and help to destroy all others only to be eaten last your selves If I know you well as you are English Men you hate and scorn these Things And therefore be not unequally yoaked with Idolatrous and Bloody Papists Be Valiant for the Truth and shew your selves Men. The same Considerations are likewise humbly offered to all the English Seamen who have been the Bulwark of this Nation against Popery and Slavery ever since Eighty Eight Several Reasons for the Establishment of a Standing Army and Dissolving the Militia 1. BEcause the Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants and the whole Militia that is to say the Lords Gentlemen and Free-holders of England are not fit to be trusted with their own Laws Lives Liberties and Estates and therefore ought to have Guardians and Keepers assigned to them 2. Because Mercenary Souldiers who fight for twelve Pence a Day will fight better as having more to lose than either the Nobility or Gentry 3. Because there are no Irish Papists in the Militia who are certainly the best Souldiers in the World for they have slain Men Women and Children by Hundreds of Thousands at once 4. Because the Dragooners have made more Converts than all the Bishops and Clergy of France 5. The Parliament ought to establish one standing Army at the least because indeed there will be need of Two that one of them may defend the People from the other 6. Because it is a thousand pities that a brave Popish Army should be a Riot 7. Unless it be Established by Act of Parliament the Justices of Peace will be forced to suppress it in their own Defence for they will be loth to forfeit an hundred Pounds every day they rise out of Complement to a Popish Rout. 13. H. 4. c. 7.2 H. 5. c. 8. 8. Because a Popish Army is a Nullity For all Papists are utterly disabled and punishable besides from bearing any Office in Camp Troop Band or Company of Souldiers and are so far disarmed by Law that they cannot wear a Sword so much as in their Defence without the allowance of four Justices of the Peace of the County And then upon a March they will be perfectly inchanted for they are not able to stir above five Miles from their own Dwelling-house 3. Iac. 5. Sect. 8 27 28 29.35 Eliz. 2.3 Iac. 5. Sect. 7. 9. Because Persons utterly disabled by Law are utterly Unauthorized and therefore the void Commissions of Killing and Slaying in the Hands of Papists can only enable them to Massacre and Murder A Discourse of Magistracy of Prerogative by Divine Right of Obedience and of the Laws CHAP. I. Of MAGISTRACY I. RELATION is nothing else but that State of Mutual Respect and Reference which one Thing or Person has to another II. Such are the Relations of Father and Son Husband and Wife Master and Servant Magistrate and Subject III. The Relations of a Father Husband and Master are really distinct and different that is
Right Line and in the Legal Steps and Degrees And this being done I am persuaded nothing can divide the English Nation or lessen their Zeal and Affection to the Prince of Orange who has deserved the Crown if it were ours to give him The Postscript which is an Huy and Cry after the French League to cut our Throats I leave to the Convention And if I durst be so bold as to ask a Favour of them it should be to enquire what the Ro. Catholick meant by that Threat of theirs so frequently printed and spoken by them If fair means would not obtain the Repeal of our Penal Laws and Tests foul should Now for a Conclusion I would desire you Sir to propose your method of Restoring the King and Securing our Laws and Religion and it shall go hard but I will shew you it is impracticable or impossible that it will never be granted or if it be never observed And if you please to bless the World with a Receipt of an Obligation that will bind the Conscience of any other Roman Catholick so fast that neither Iesuit and Pope can break or untie it I assure you I will joyn with you in a Petition to the Convention for a Treaty forthwith without any other Terms to be proposed than the giving us that Security whatever it is And in the Interim I am SIR YOURS Ian. 24. 1688 9. FINIS The EIGHT Collection of Papers Relating to the Present Juncture of Affairs in England VIZ. I. Proposals to the present Convention for Setling the Government II. Several Queries relating to the present Proceedings in Parliament III. A Protestant Precedent offer'd for the Exclusion of King Iames the Second IV. Reasons offer'd for placing the Prince of Orange singly in the Throne during his Life V. A Breviate for the Convention represented to the Lords and Commons of England VI. King Iames the First his Opinion of a King and of a Tyrant and of the English Laws Rights and Priviledges VII Proposals to the present Convention for perpetual Security of the Protestant Religion and Liberty of the Subjects of England London printed and are to be sold by Rich. Ianeway in Queen's-head Court in Pater-Noster Row 1689. PROPOSALS Humbly offered To the Lords and Commons in the present CONVENTION for Settling of the Government c. My Lords and Gentlemen YOV are Assembled upon Matters of the highest Importance to England and all Christendom and the result of your Thoughts in this Convention will make a numerous Posterity Happy or Miserable If therefore I have met with any Thing that I think worthy of your Consideration I should think my self wanting in that Duty which I owe to my Country and Mankind if I should not lay it before You. If there be as some say certain Lineaments in the Face of Truth with which one cannot be deceiv'd because they are not to be counterfeited I hope the Considerations which I presume to offer You will meet with your Approbation That bringing back our Constitâ—tion to its first and purest Original refining it from some gross Abuses and supplying its Defects You may be the Ioy of the present Age and the Glory of Posterity FIrst 'T is necessary to distinguish between Power it self the Designation of the Persons Governing and the Form of Government For 1. All Power is from God as the Fountain and Original 2. The Designation of the Persons and the Form of Government is eirther First immediately from God as in the Case of Saul and David and the Government of the Ievs or Secondly from the Community chusing some Form of Government and subjecting themselves to it But it must be noted that though Saul and David had a Divine Designation yet the People assembled and in a General Assembly by their Votes freely chose them Which proves that there can be no orderly or lasting Government without Consent of the People Tacit or Express'd and God himself would not put Men under a Governor without their Consent And in case of a Conquest the People may be called Prisoners or Salves which is a State contrary to the Nature of Man but they cannot be properly Subjects till their Wills be brought to submit to the Government So that Conquest may make Way for a Government but it cannot constitute it Secondly There is a Supreme Power in every Community essential to it and inseparable from it by which if it be not limited immediately by God it can form it self into any kind of Government And in some extraordinary Occasions when the Safety and Peace of the Publick necessarily require it can supply the Defects reform the Abuses and re-establish the true Fundamentals of the Government by Purging Refining and bringing Things back to their first Original Which Power may be called The Supreme Power Real Thirdly When the Community has made choice of some Form of Government and subjected themselves to it having invested some Person or Persons with the Supreme Power The Power in those Persons may be called The Supreme Power Personal Fourthly If this Form be a mix'd Government of Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy and for the easy Execution of the Laws the Executive Power be lodg'd in a single Person He has A Supreme Power Personal quoad hoc Fifthly The Supreme Power Personal of England is in Kings Lords and Commons and so it was in Effect agreed to by King Charles the First in his Answer to the nineteen Propositions and resolved by the Convention of Lords and Commons in the Year 1660. And note That the Acts of that Convention tho never confirmed by Parliament have been taken for Law and particularly by the Lord Chief Justice Hales Sixthly The Supreme Power Personal of England fails three Ways 1. 'T is Dissolved For two Essential Parts fail 1. A King. 2. A House of Commons which cannot be called according to the Constitution the King being gone and the Freedom of Election being destroyed by the King's Incroachments 2. The King has forfeited his Power several Ways Subjection to the Bishop of Rome is the Subjection against which our Laws cry loudest And even Barclay that Monarchical Politician acknowledges That if a King alienate his Kingdom or subject it to another he forfeits it And Grotius asserts That if a King really attempt to deliver up or subject his Kingdom he may be therein resisted And that if the King have part of the Supreme Power and the People or Senate the other part the King invading that part which is not his a just Force may be opposed and he may lose his Part of the Empire Grotius de Bello c. Cap. 72. But that the King has subjected the Kingdom to the Pope needs no Proof That the has usurp'd an absolute Power superior to all Laws made the Peoples Share in the Legislative Power impertinent and useless and thereby invaded their just Rights none can deny 'T were in vain to multiply Instances of his Forfeitures And if we consider the Power exercis'd
into utter Despair of the Continuance amongst them of the true Religion of Almighty God and of her Majesties Life and of the Safety of all her Subjects and of the Good Estate of this flourishing Commonweale For that she the said Queen of Scots had continually breathed the Overthrow and Suppression of the Protestant Religion being poysoned with Popery from her tender Youth and at her Age joyning in that false termed Holy League and had been ever since and was then a powerful Enemy of the Truth For that she rested wholly upon Popish hopes to be delivered and advanced and was so devoted and doted in that Profession that she would as well for the satisfaction of others as for the feeding her own Humour supplant the Gospel where and whensoever she might which Evil was so much the greater and the more to be avoided for that it slayeth the Soul and would spread it self not only over England and Scotland but also into all Parts beyond the Sea where the Gospel of God is maintained the which cannot but be exceedingly weakned if Defection should be in these two most violent Kingdoms For that if she prevailed she would rather take the Subjects of England for Slaves than for Children For that she had already provided them a Foster-father and a Nurse the Pope and King of Spain into whose hands if it should happen them to fall what would they else look for but Ruin Destruction and utter Extirpation of Goods Lands Lives Honours and all For that as she had already by her poyson'd Baits brought to Destruction more Noble-men and their Houses and a greater multitude of Subjects during her being here than she would have done if she had been in Possession of her own Country and arm'd in the Field against them so would she be still continually the cause of the like spoil to the greater loss and peril of this Estate and therefore this Realm neither could nor might endure her For that her Sectaries both Wrote and Printed that the Protestants would be at their Wits end Worlds end if she should out-live Queen Elizabeth meaning thereby that the end of the Protestant World was the beginning of their own and therefore if she the said Queen of Scots were taken away their World would be at an end before its beginning For that since the sparing of her in the Fourteenth Year of Q. Elizabeths Reign Popish Traitors and Recusants had multiplied exceedingly And if she were now spared again they would grow both innumerable and invincible also And therefore Mercy in that case would prove Cruelty against them all Namâ—st quaedam crudelis mâ—sericordia and therefore to spare her Blood would be to spill all theirs And for God's Vengeance against Saul for sparing the life of Agag and against Ahab for sparing the life of Benhadad was moâ—t apparent for they were both by the just Judgment of God deprived of their Kingdoms for sparing those wicked Princes whom God had delivered into their Hands And those Magistrates were much conmmended who put to Death those mischeivous and wicked Queens Iezabel and Athaliah And now I would desire our Grumbletonians especially they of the Clergy to consider how extreamly they have degenerated from the good and laudable Principles of their Fore-fathers They may see how urgent the Bishops and others in Queen Elizabeth's days were to have the Queen of Scots removed as above said and how they encouraged the Queen to assist the Dutch against their Soveraign Lord when he attempted them in their Religion and Laws but now they that first opposed One that has broken the Original Contract between King and People and done horrid things contrary to the Laws of God Nature and the Land yet when God out of his merciful Providence and singular favour to us all has inclined him being sensible of his own Guilt to leave the Throne these Very Men that first withstood him as I said begin to pitty him plead for him and extol him and continually both in Pulpit for one of them lately said there That a parcel of Attoms could as soon make a World as a Convention make a King and also in Coffee-houses mutter and grumble against the Proceedings of the great and Honorable Convention of the Kingdom and are busy in sending out and privately scattering their puling Pamphlets under the Titles of Mementoes Speeches and Letters empty of ought else but the spleen of a foolish and frustrated Faction Good God! what inconstancy folly and madness possesses the Breasts of these Men to what a miserable slavery would they lead us and how fond and eager do they seem to have him rule over Us who like the Stork in the Fable has and would make it his greatest delight to devour the best of free-born Subjects But I hope that in a little time they will know the Things that belong to the Kingdom 's Peace and dutifully pray for tho at present there is no uniformity in their Pulpits save in the Dissenters and submit chearfully and thankfully to him whom God has made the Glorious Instrument of our Deliverance from Popery and Slavery God save King William and Queen Mary ADVERTISEMENT ☞ THere is lately published the Trial of Mr. PAPILLON by which it is manifest that the then Lord Chief Justice Iefferies had neither Learning Law nor good manners but more Impudence than ten Carted Whores as was said of him by King CHARLES II. in abusing all those worthy Citizens who voted for Mr. PAPILLON and Mr. DUBOIS calling them a parcel of Factious Pragmatical Sneaking Whining Canting Sniveling Prickear'd Cropear'd Atheistical Fellows Rascals and Scoundrels c. as in p. 29. and other places of the said Trial may be seen Sold by Richard Ianeway and most Booksellers FINIS A TENTH Collection of Papers Relating to the Present Juncture of Affairs in England VIZ. I. Reflections upon our late and present Proceedings II. Some short Notes on a Pamphlet entituled Reflections upon our late and present Proceedings III. The Scots Grievances or A short Account of the Proceedings of the Scotish Privy-Council Justiciary Court and those commissioned by them c. IV. The late Honourable Convention proved a Legal Parliament V. The Amicable Reconciliation of the Dissenters to the Church of England being a Model or Draught for the Universal Accommodation in the Case of Religion and bringing in all Parties to her Communion London printed and are to be sold by Richard Ianeway in Queen's-head-Court in Pater-â—oster-Row 1689. Reflections upon our Late and Present Proceedings in England THO no Man wishes better to the Protestant Religion in general and the Church of England in particular than I do yet I cannot prevail with my self to approve all those Methods or follow all those Measures which some Men propose as the only Security both of the one and the other Never perhaps was there a more proper time wherein to secure our Religion together with our Civil Liberties than now offers it self if we have but the
succeed when he elsewhere acknowledges that the late King's Design was to ruin us and the Prince's to prevent it As to Tricks and Sophistry I detest them as much as any Man yet think such harmless Guides whoever was the Author less pernicious and destructive than force and bloodshed This Gentleman who sâ—ily pleads all along for the Popish Interest is now for sooth much scandaliz'd at the Dutch-Papists in the Princes Army but at this he need not take Offence seeing they are going over whence they came to serve the States against the most unchristian Usurper or both Popish and Protestant Countrys But before this worthy Author can come to a Conclusion of his Book he must have several things proved to him to wit That the Prince of Wales is a supposititious Child that a League was made by our King with the King of France for the Destruction of his Protestant Subjects and rooting out our Religion under the Notion of the Northern Heresy that the late King was poyson'd and that the Earl of Essex was murthered These things we desire may be proved and then we cannot but agree that nothing can be too bad for the guilty Authors This Gentleman cannot but know the Unreasonableness of his Demands and that what he desires is not only unseasonable but impracticable till the Government be setled when and at what time perhaps to his great Confusion these and many other Deeds of Darkness will be brought to light Moreover the Astonishment he expresses at the mention of these vile Practices seems to arise in him rather from some crafty Design than mere Ignorance of what has been done oftner than once in Neighbouring Courts To conclude then in my Authors own Words If these Accusations be cleared once who can reverence the Person guilty of them as the Father of his Country and not rather avoid and fly him as the worst of Tyrants The Scot's Grievances Or a Short Account of the Proceedings of the Scotish Privy-Council Iusticiary Court and those Commissionated by them whereby the Consciences of good Men have been Tortured the Peace of the Nation these several Years past exceedingly Disturbed and Multitudes of Innocent People cruelly Oppressed and inhumanely Murthered IN the Tract of these Years although Informing was a Trade more encouraged than in the Reign of Tiberius yet they arraigned Multitudes without Informer or Accuser and whosoever appeared not upon their Summer Citation which often times was impossible were treated as Criminals They seized many of all Ranks and detained them Months and Years without any Signification of the cause of their Imprisonment and seldom liberate any such without Exorbitant Bail but if they could find the least Shadow to prosecute any suspected to mislike their Arbitrary Courses they precipitated their Process not allowing them time or means to vindicate their Innocency They sent their Inquisitors through their Prisons and Citizens Houses to examine whom they pleased upon most intricate Questions of Church and State Government and made their refusing to answer or dissatisfactory Answers the Foundation of their Indictments others seized in the Crowd at Executions and some when visiting the imprisoned were condemned and executed for refusing to justify their Severities against their Brethren and disowning their Dagon of Nor resistance They frequently sent out Spies to Prisons Cities and Country under Disguise who by simulating their Dissatisfaction at the Exorbitances of the Government and Zeal for persecuted Piety might draw Words from the most wary sustaining such and other Informers as habil Witnesses to the taking away the Lives of many Innocents notwithstanding of one Express Act of Parliament to the contrary They often prosecuted without a Libel and when they formed Libels they seldom restricted themselves to the Points therein contained holding them as confessed who refused to answer their captious and extraneous Questions They not only employed Emissaries but Judges themselves were active to suborn Witnesses against the Lives Estates and Honours of Peers and worthy Patriots a palpably gross Management of such an Intrigue having qualified a Person for a chief Seat in their High Court of Justice and when they could not find such Execrable Russians to serve their turns they forced Pannals to answer de super Inquirendis in the most Criminal Cases They have often sustained Jurors and Witnesses who could not purge themselves of Prejudice or partial Counsel They have Indicted Tryed Condemned and executed Persons in one day and when Intercession hath been made for some time to prepare for Death it hath been answered They shall have no time to prepare for Heaven Hell is too good for them They have kept some in Expectation of Reprieves and Pardons till the very Day and Hour of their Execution others they have hanged early in the Morning thereby preventing the Peoples seeing their Cruelty and hearing the dying Persons last Words and too palpably designing by such Surprizals the Ruine of their Souls They frequently beat Drums about the Scaffolds their Cause being such as could not bear the Words of dying Christians They searched several when removing them from the Prison to the Scrffold seized their Testimonies that so they might not come to publick They would have their Laws to reach Thoughts as well as Actions and many against whom they could charge no matter of Fact they sought to reach their Lives for their Thoughts asking them What think you of the Government c. Some they have wheedled to Confession by promising to favour their Ingenuity upbraiding them for Dissemblers if they would not speak freely and by mock-Expostulations viz. Are ye ashamed of your Principles Are ye afraid to give a Testimony c and forced them to subscribe their Confessions before the Council which they produced as Witness against them at the Criminal Court whereupon they were Sentenced and Executed When any refused to give Categorical Answers then could they extort all by Torture with their Engines of Cruelty the Boots fired Matches betwixt the Fingers and Thumkins and after torturing hanged several though thereby they could extort nothing When some had answered all their Questions and cleared themselves of all charged against them yet would they not pass them so but impose some of their wicked Oaths which they concluded they would not take and according to the measure of Tenderness they discovered in any they apportioned the Oaths to the stricter the more smooth to the laxer the more harsh such as once their own Natural Consciences did fear at They required not only to have their Laws obeyed but subscribed also holding it not sufficient that People transgress them not but likewise own the Justice of them and the Lawfulness of the Authority enacting them and swear to maintain them and yet when some have complyed to all they sought yet would they not discharge them but upon Bond to answer again when called Not only Extrajudicial Confession will sustain with them but when they have given the publick Faith the King's Security
accuse him of Capital Crimes but being defeated in that Villanous Attempt they first procured King Charles the Second to withdraw that Protection and Subsistence his Majesty had at the Request of several Parliaments allowed to your Petitioner and then instigated his Royal Highness the Duke of York to prosecute your Petitioner in an Action of Scandalum Magnatum for speaking this notorious Truth viz. That he the said Duke of York was reconciled to the Church of Rome and that It is High Treason to be so reconciled wherein a Verdict and Judgment for one Hundred Thousand Pounds Damages were obtained against your Petitioner and your Petitioner was committed to the King's Bench-Prison After this the same Popish Party obtained leave from King Charles the second to prefer two several Indictments against your Petitioner for two pretended Perjuries in his Evidence concerning the said Conspiracy which they brought on to Tryal in the Reign of King Iames the second and your Petitioner was upon the Evidence of those very Witnesses who had confronted him in three former Tryals and were disbelieved and through the Partial Behahaviour of the Chief Justice Ieffreys in brow-beating his Witnesses and misleading the Juries convicted of the said Pretended Perjuries and received this inhumane and unparallel'd Sentence following viz. To pay two thousand Marks to the King To be devested of his Canonical Habit To be brought into Westminster-Hall with a Paper upon his Head with this Inscription Titus Oates convicted upon full Evidence of two horrid Perjuries To stand in and upon the Pillory two several days for the space of an Hour To be whip'd by the comman Hang-man from Aldgate to Newgate on Wednesday and to be whip'd again on the Friday following from Newgate to Tiburn To stand in and upon the Pillory five times in every Year of his Life and to remain a Prisoner during his Life Which Sentence being intended as your Petitioner hath just reason to believe to murther him was accordingly executed with all the Circumstances of Barbarity he having suffered some thousands of Stripes whereby he was put to unspeakable Tortures and lay ten Weeks under the Surgeons Hands Neither did their Cruelty cease here but because your Petitioner by God's Mercy miraculously supporting him and the extraordinary Skill of a Judicious Chirurgion outlived that Bloody Usage some of them afterwards got into your Petitioner's Chamber whilst he was weak in his Bed and attempted to pull of the Plaisters apply'd to cure his Back and threatned to destroy him And that nothing within their Power or Malice might be wanting to compleat your Petitioner's Misery they procured him to be loaded with Irons of excessive Weight for a whole Year without any Intermission even when his Legs were swoln with the Gout and to be shut up in the Dungeon or Hole of the Prison whereby he became impair'd in his Limbs and contracted Convulsion Fits and other Distempers to the great Hazard of his Life All which illegal Proceedings and barbarous Inhumanities your Petitioner humbly conceives were not only intended as a Revenge upon him but likewise to cast a Reproach upon the Wisdom and Honour of four successive Parliaments who had given him Creâ—it and upon the Publick Justice of the Nation And your Petitioner humbly hopes that since the Papists themselves have verified and confirmed his Evidence by their late open and avowed Violations of our Religion Laws and Liberties this Honourable House will vindicate the Proceedings of former Parliaments and discharge your Petitioner from those Arbitrary and Scandalous Judgments and the unjust Imprisonment he lies under Your Petitioner doth therefore most humbly beseech your Lordships and your Honours to take his deplorable Case into your gâ—nerous and tender Consideration and to give him such Redress â—herein as to your Lordships and your Honours great Wisdom Iustice and Goodness shall seem meet And your Petitioner shall ever pray c. An Account of the Convention of SCOTLAND THE Convention of Scotland met the 14 th of March 168â— in Obedience to the Prince of Orange's Letters They choice the Duke of Hamilton their President after which they had several Debates about the Duke of Gâ—rdon a Papist who keeps the Castle notwithstanding many offers of Surrender does still keep it for King Iames. They read a Letter from the King of England in which he exhorts them to lay aside all Animosities and Factions and mind the Publick Good in securing the Protestant Religion and the ancient Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom on sure and lasting Foundations particularly that they would endeavour a Union between both Kingdoms as one of the best Means for the Happiness of both especially at this time when the common Enemy is restless to procure the ruine of Britain and the Protestant Religion every-where After which a Letter was read from King Iames requiring them to support his Royal Authority by many Threats and Promises which made no Impression on them but after some time they drew up and sent a Letter to King William full of dutiful Respects promising to do that which may be acceptable to him and suitable to the Genius of the Nation After setling the Militia and other State-Matters and having resolved the Power into themselves they appointed a Committee of 24 made up of all the Estates to settle the Government Which Committee have provided for the full Meeting of the Convention Grounds and Reasons on which they have declared the Throne Vacant A SPEECH made by a Member of the Convention of the States in SCOTLAND WE are now called together by his Highness the Prince of Orange to Consult and Deliberate what Methods will be most proper to secure Our Religion Laws and Liberties in order to which the first thing that will fall under our Consideration is the setling the Sovereign Power I take for granted that you are fully convinced that King Iames the Seventh by his many Violations of the Fundamental Laws by his endeavouring to establish a Despotick and Arbitrary Power and introduce Popery tho he himself had confirmed all the Laws that were enacted in Favour of the Protestant Religion has thereby subverted the Constitution and that our Miseries might have no Redress from him has left us in a time when we needed his Protection most The Eyes of all Europe are upon us and it is in our Power to make our Selves and our Posterity either Happy or Miserable by making a choice either to call back the same King Iames and hazard once more all that Men account dear to his Mercy or to settle the Government on some other under whom we may live Quiet and Peaceable Lives without the perpetual Terror of being swallowed up by Popery and Arbitrary Government which all good Men hoped were now banished and yet behold a new Off-spring is sprung up which plead eagerly for both tho under the mistaken Names of Duty and Allegiance It 's strange that any Man can so far degenerate as to prefer Slavery
support an impoverish'd and sinking Nation Neither is this the only Inconveniency tho' it be a very great one for if we state our selves in opposition to England by Restoring the King whom they Rejected it is not to be doubted but he will use his uttmost endeavour to recover that Kingdom the loss of which is so considerable Now seeing it were vain to suppose that the Scots alone were able to second his desires he must needs have recourse to the French and Irish whose Religion will procure a more intire Confidence than His Majesty can repose in any others These therefore must be received into our Bosom and because Scotland is the most proper place for Invading England it must be the Scene of all the Blood and Confusion that this melancholly Thought gives us a Prospect of And what treatment can such Sham-Protestants expect from these who otherwise would have become their Friends and Allies And what Figure will they pretend to make when they set up for a separate Interest from all the Confederate Protestants in the World besides The happy Success the PRINCE his Enterprize has met with has made a considerable Alteration in the Affairs of Europe for that great Enemy of the Protestants and even of Christianity it self who had propos'd nothing less to himself than an Universal Monarchy whom the Strictest Leagues and Contracts cannot bind but without regard to GOD or Man threatens all his Neighbours with utter Destruction by the Scene 's being changed among us is so far humbled that from a Proud and Insulting Enemy he is become a Supplicant for Peace well foreseeing that if Britain join with those other Princes whom his Insolence Cruelty and Avarice has so justly Armed against him his Ruine is Inevitable So that if we have not Soul enough to enjoy this great Blessing and can easily part with the Glory of being once more the Arbiters of Europe let us at least have so much Christian Love and Charity for the Neighbouring Nations of our own Perswasion as not to expose them to a necessary Participation of these Plagues which our Common Enemies are preparing for us and which will certainly Terminate in all our Destructions Lastly I beseech you to consider what Persons they are who would Instill this Poyson in you and you will find them of three kinds First those who Postponing the Common Good of the Nation are wholly acted by Self-Interest considering that in a Government where Iustice and Mercy equally Flourish Virtue and Merit not Villany will be rewarded Secondly They who are ignorant of the Nature of Government and were never at the pains to inform themselves what Measures the Law of Nature and Nations have set to mens Obedience but are angry at every thing that thwarts their wild Notions and will admit of nothing tho never so reasonable and convincing if their dull Capacities cannot reach it The third sort are such as have been instrumental in the inslaving their Country and are afraid if they be called to an Account they may be brought to suffer Condign Punishment if such cannot succeed in their Design they at least hope to be overlook'd in a General Confusion so they have nothing unessayed that may tend to their own safety and if Heaven fail them they summon Hell to their Aid not that Love to their Prince but meer Ambition and Interest drives these Criminals to such Attempts neither are they much to blame if they are at such pains to sow Divisions among us But no Person of Wit and Iudgment nor any Good Man that is truly Protestant and minds the good of his Country will suffer himself to be so grosly imposed on by such Firebands who would build their Furture Imaginary Greatness on the Ruine of Our Religion Laws and Country The Grounds upon which the Estates of Scotland Declared the Right of the Crown of Scotland FORFAULTED and the Throne become VACANT I. BBcause King Iames the Seventh is a Professed Papist II. That the said King Iames did assume the Royal Power and acted as King without ever taking the Oath required by Law. III. That he hath by the Council of evil Men invaded the Fundamental Constitution of the Kingdom and changed it from a limited Monarchy to an Absolute and Despotick Power IV. Which Power he hath imployed to the Subversion of the Protestant Religion and the Violation of the Rights of the Subject And thereby V. Hath inverted all the Ends of Government The Opinion of two eminent Parliament-Men justifying the lawfulness of taking the Oaths of Allegiance to King William and Queen Mary I. FIdelity and Allegiance sworn to the King is only a Fidelity and Obedience as it is due to him by the Law of the Lands for were that Faith and Allegiance more than what the Law requires we should swear our selves Slaves and the King Absolute whereas by the Law we are free notwithstanding these Oaths II. When therefore by the Law Fidelity and Allegiance ceaseth then our sworn Allegiance ceaseth for if Allegiance might be due by the Oath to one Person whilst by the Law it ceaseth to him and becomes due to another Person the Oath then would oblige Men to transgress the Law and become Traytors and Rebels whereas the Oath is part of the Law and therefore ought to be so interpreted as may consist with it III. Fidelity and Allegiance are due by the Law to King William and not to King Iames for the Statute of 25 of Edward 3 d which defined all Treasons against the King and is the only Statute to that purpose now that Statute by the King understands not only a King de jure but also a King de facto tho not de jure against whom those Treasons Lie whence the Lord Chief Justice Hales in his Pleas of the Crown p. 12. discoursing of that Statute tells us that a King de facto and not de jure is a King within that Act and that Treason against him is Punishable tho the Right Heir get the Crown and that this hath been the common Sense of the Law Sir R. S. upon application to him about it hath assured us And according to another Statute 11 Hen. 7. ch 1. It is declared Treason to be in Arms against a King de facto such as Richard the 3 d was tho it was in behalf of a King de jure So then by the Law of the Land all things are Treason against King William which have been Treason against former Kings therefore the same Fidelity Obedience and Allegiance which was due to them is due to him and by Consequence may be Sworn to him by the Law of the Land. Allegiance and Protection are always Mutual and therefore when King Iames ceased to Protect us we ceased to owe him Allegiance by the Law of the Land and when King William began to Protect us we began our Allegiance to him These Considerations are in our Opinion sufficient to remove the Grand Scruple about the Oaths
open profession of the Popish Religion so he did then promise and solemnly swear at his Coronation That he would maintain his Subjects in the free enjoiment of their Laws and Liberties and in particular that he would maintain the Church of England as it was established by Law It is likewise certain that there have been at divers and sundry times several Laws enacted for the preservation of those Rights and Liberties and of the Protestant Religion And among other Securites it has been enacted that all Persons whatsoever that are advanced to any Ecclesiastical Dignity or to bear Office in either University as likewise all other that should be put in any Imploiment Civil or Military should declare that they were not Papists but were of the Protestant Religion and that by their taking of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Test yet these Evil Counsellors have in effect annulled and abolished all those Laws both with relation to Ecclesiastical and Civil Emploiments In order to Ecclesiastical Dignities and Offices they have not only without any colour of Law but against most express Laws to the contrary set up a Commission of a certain Number of Persons to whom they have committed the Cognizance and Direction of all Ecclesiastical Matters In the which Commission there has been and still is one of his Majesty's Ministers of State who makes now publick profession of the Popish Religion and who at the time of his first professing it declared That for a great while before he had believed that to be the only true Religion By all this the deplorable State to which the Protestant Religion is reduced is apparent since the Affairs of the Church of England are now put into the Hands of Persons who have accepted of a Commission that is manifestly Illegal and who have executed it contrary to all Law and that now one of their chief Members has abjured â—he Proâ—estant Religion and declared himself a Papist by which he is become incapable of holding any Publick Emploiment The said Commissioners have hitherto given such proof of their submission to the Directions given them that there is no reason to doubt but they will still continue to promote all such Designs as will be most agreeable to them And those Evil Counsellors take care to raise none to any Ecclesiastical Dignities but Persons that have no Zeal for the Protestant Religion and that now hide their unconcernedness for it under the specious pretence of Moderation The said Commissioners have suspended the Bishop of London only because he refused to obey an Order that was sent him to suspend a Worthy Divine without so much as citing him before him to make his own Defence or observing the common Forms of Process They have turned out a President chosen by the Fellows of Magdalâ—ne Colledg and afterwards all the Fellows of that Colledg without so much as citing them before any Court that could take legal cognizance of that Affair or obtaining any Sentence against them by a competent Judg. And the only Reason that was given for turning them out was their refusing to chuse for their President a Person that was recommended to them by the iâ—â—â—igation of those Evil Counsellors Though the right of a free Election belonged undoubtedly to them But they were turned out of their Freeholds contrary to Law and to that express Provision in Magna Charta That no Man shall lose Life or Goods but by the Law of the Land. And now these Evil Counsellors have put the said Colledg wholly into the Hands of Papists though as is above said they are incapable of all such Imploiments both by the Law of the Land and the Statutes of the Colledg These Commissioners have also cited before them all the Chancellors and Arch-deacons of England requiring them to certify to them the Names of all such Clergy-men as have read the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and of such as have not read it without considering that the reading of it was not enjoined the Clergy by the Bishops who are their Ordinaries The illegality and incompetency of the said Court of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners was so notoriously known and it did so evidently appear that it tended to the subversion of the Protestant Relâ—â—ion that the most Reverend Father in God William Arch-bishop of Canterbury Primate and Metropolitan of all England seeing that it was raised for no other end but to oppress such Persons as were of eminent Virtue Learning and Piety refused to sit or concur in it And though there are many express Laws against all Churches or Chappels for the exercise of the Popish Religion and also against all Monasteries and Convents and more particularly against the Order of the Jesuits yet those Evil Counsellors have procured Orders for the building of several Churches and Chappels for the Exercise of that Religion They have also procured divers Monasteries to be erected and in contempt of the Law they have not only set up several Colledges of Iesuits in divers places for the corrupting of the Youth but have raised up one of the Order to be a Privy Counsellor and a Minister of State. By all which they do evidently shew that they are restrained by no Rules or Law whatsoever but that they have subjected the Honours and Estates of the Subjects and the Establish'd Religion to a Despotick Power and to Arbitrary Government In all which they are served and seconded by those Ecclesiastical Commissioners They have also followed the same Methods with Relation to Civil Affairs For they have procured Orders to examine all Lords-Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants Sheriffs Justices of Peace and all others that were in any Publick Employment if they would concur with the King in the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws and all such whose Consciences did not suffer them to comply with their Designs were turned out and others were put in their places who they believe would be more compliant to them in their Designs of defeating the Intent and Execution of those Laws which had been made with so much Care and Caution for the Security of the Protestant Religion And in many of these places they have put professed Papists though the Law has disabled them and warranted the Subjects not to have any regard to their Orders They have also invaded the Priviledges and seized on the Charters of most of those Towns that have a right to be represented by â—heir Burgesses in Parliament and have procured Surrenders to be made of them by which the Magistrates in them have delivered up all their Rights and Priviledges to be disposed of at the pleasure of those Evil Counsellors who have thereupon placed new Magistrates in those Towns such as they can most entirely confide in and in many of them they have put Popish Magistrates notwithstanding the Incapacities under which the Law has put them And whereas no Nation whatsoever can subsist without the Administration of good and impartial Justice upon which Mens Lives
have heard forfeit all Right either to chuse or be chosen in any Publick Councils And then all Laws which have been made for the Protestants and against the Popish Religion will be null and void as being enacted by an incompetent Authority as being the Acts of Hereticks Kings Lords and Commons who had forfeited all their Rights and Priviledges But Thirdly suppose our Laws were valid as enacted by competent Authority and such good and wholsome Provisions as were those Statutes made by our Popish Ancestors in those Statutes of Provisoes in Edward the I. Edward the III. Time and that of Praemunire in Richard the II. and Henry the IV. for Relief against Papal Incroachments and Oppressions Yet being against the Laws and Canons of Holy Church the Sovereign Authority they will be all superseded For so they determine That when the Canon and the Civil Laws clash one requiring what the other allows not the Church-Law must have the observance and that of the State neglected And Constitutions they say made against the Canons and Decrees of the Roman Biâ—hops are of no moment Their best Authors are positive of it And our own Experience and Histories testify the Truth thereof For how were those good Laws before-mention'd defeated by the Pope's Authority so that there was no effectual Execution thereof till Henry the 8 th's Time as Dr. Burnet tells us And how have the good Laws to suppress and prevent Popery been very much obstructed in their Execution by Popish Influence An Answer to a late Pamphlet Intituled A Short Scheme of the Usurpations of the Crown of England c. THE World may very justly wonder at several Passages in this ill-designed and as ill-writ Pamphlet which the Author has taken the pains to collect from some petty Grubstreet Chronicle Henry II. is call'd an Usurper pag. 4. because he accepted of the Crown of England in his Mothers Life-time tho' by her not opposing his Claim it may very reasonably be concluded that she freely consented to his Promotion as the most effectual means to secure the Crown to her Posterity But we are told That a Crown is no Estate to be made over in Trust If our Author's meaning is that a Crown is an Estate which the Possessor cannot divest himself of by a voluntary Resignation both Reason and a multitulde of Examples in several Ages and â—ations prove that the Principle our Author has laid down is founded on a gross Mistake Therefore if our Author designs to publish any more Schemes of Usurpation let him first inform us what it is and how far it extends lest the World should accuse him of having as notoriously usurped to himself the Title of a Writer as any of our Princes ever did the Crown of England He would perswade his Readers to believe that God punish'd King Edward III. and King Henry V. for their Usurpations with frequent and unexpected Victories in the acquisition of which tho' there was some English Blood shed as it was impossible it should be otherwise yet the Enemies paid an excessive Price for it after the defeat of their great Armies and the Imprisonment of their King they being forced to buy their Peace upon such Terms as our conquering Usurpers pleased to impose Nor did ever any well-wisher to the English Nation deny that these Two Princes were the Glory of their Age and of our British History If I should reckon up all the evident Mistakes and false Inferences in this Libel it would be too tedious since a careless Eye cannot easily overlook them If the Pamphlet finds so undeserved a Reception in the World as to need a Second Impression the Author is desired to add to it this Postscript which being founded on the Principles asserted by him will shew the World that he hath wilfully and perhaps partially forborn to speak of as notorious an Usurper as any that are mentioned in his Scheme Queen Mary the Off-spring of an Incestuous Marriage had no other unquestionable Divine Right to the Crown of England than what was given her by an Act of Parliament made in her Father's Reign and the common Consent of the Nobility and People after the Death of her Brother King Edward VI. whose disposal of the Crown by Letters Patents under the Great Seal being directly contrary to the former Entail of it limited by a higher Authority His Sister the Lady Mary was acknowledged Queen Therefore according to our Author 's abstruse Notions She as well as her Grand-father Henry VII must be reckoned among the Usurpers of the Crown of England Let us now see what success attended her and whether the Nation was happy under her Government As soon as She saw her self fixed in the Throne She imprisoned and deprived several of the Protestant Bishopâ— contrary to the then Establish'd Laws of the Realm She intruded Popish Bishops into the Sees thus declared vacant the small remainder of the Protestant Bishops who had beâ—n called to Parliament by Writ were nevertheless violently thrust out of the Parliament-House for refusing to worship the Mass. The Members of the House of Commons in her First Parliament were chosen by force and threats the Free-holders were hindred by violence from exercising their Right of chusing Representatives false Returns were made and those who were for the Reformed Religion tho' duly elected were by force expelled the House So that we cannot wonder at the Statues made in this pretended Free Parliament which was in every Thing influenced by the Court-Party Shortly after her Marriage with the haughty jealous Spaniard of which She her self felt the ill Consequences was justly disliked by the Nobility and Commonalty Her base Design of setting up a Supposititious Child for Heir to the Crown was not only happily defeated but deservedly exposed to the Censure of the Nation Her Design to erect the Spanish Inquisition in England was disappointed Calais after having belonged to the Crown of Englâ—nd about two hundred and eleven Years and which was gained with great difficulty after eleven Months Siege was in the depth of Winter lost in a Weeks time And quickly after all the English Territories were with small difficulty recovered by the French. We must not forget how exactly She put in practice the base treacherous and destructive Principles of the pretended Catholick Religion in these remarkable Particulars She barbarously used her only Sister the Lady Elizabeth and designed to have taken away her Life for no other Cause but her firm adherence to the Protestant Religion She imprisoned and burnt Arch-Bishop Cranmer who had formerly sheltered her from her Father's Fury She deprived and imprisoned Judg Hales who alone resolutely opposed King Edward the Sixth's Will and preferred Judg Bromley to be Lord Chief Justice though he had without any reluctancy prepared the Letters-Patents for her Exclusion The Inhabitants of Norfolk and Suffolk who were the first that took up Arms for her upon her Promise to permit them the Exercise of their Religion
the said Mather caused a Petition from the Town of Cambridge in New-England to be humbly presented to His Mâ—jesâ—y which because it doth express the Deplorable Condition of thaâ— People it shall be here inserted To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty The Petition and Address of John Gibson aged about 87 and George Willow aged about 86 Years as also on the behalf of their Neighbours the Inhabitants of Cambridge in New-England In most humble wise sheweth THat Your Majesty's good Subjects with much hard Labour and great Disbursements have subdued a Wilderness built our Houses and planted Orchards being incouraged by our indubitable Right to the Soil by the Royal Charter granted unto the First Planters together with our Purchase of the Natives as also by sundry Letters and Declarations sent to the late Governour and Company from His late Majesty Your Royal Brother assuring us of the full enjoyment of our Properties and Possessions as is more especially contained in the Declaration sent when the Quo Warranto was issued out against our Charter But we are necessitated to make this our Moan and Complaint to Your Excellent Majesty for that our Title is now questioned to our Lands by us quietly possessed for near sixty Years and without which we cannot subsist Our humble Address to our Governour Sir Edmond Andross shewing our just Title long and peaceable possession together with our Claim of the benefit of Your Majesty's Letters and Declarations assuring all Your good Subjects that they shall not be molested in their Properties and Possessions not availing Royal Sir We are a poor People and have no way to procure Money to defend our Cause in the Law nor know we of Friends at Court and therefore unto Your Royal Majesty as the publick Father of all your Subjects do we make this our humble Address for â—elief beseeching Your Majesty graciously to pass Your Royal Act for the Confirmation of Your Majesty's Subjects here in our Poâ—sessions to us derived from our late Governour and Company of this Your Majesty's Colony We now humbly cast our selves and distressed Condition of our Wives and Children at Your Majesty's Feet and conclude with the saying of Queen Esther If we Perish we Perish Thus that Petition Besides this Mr. Inc. Mather with two New-England Gentlemen presented a Petition and humble Proposals to the King wherein they prayed that the Right which they had in their Estates before the Government was changed might be confirmed And that no Laws might be made or Moneys raised without an Assembly with sundry other particulars which the King referred to a Committee for Foreign Plantations who ordered them into the Hands of the Attorney-General to make his Report The Clerk William Blathwait sent to the Attorney-General a Copy wherein the Essential Proposal of an Assembly was wholly left out And being spoke to about it he said the Earl of Sunderland blotted out that with his own Hand likewise a Soliciter in this Cause related that the said Earl of Sunderland affirmed to him that it was by his Advice that the King had given a Commission to Sir Edmond Andross to raise Moneys without an Assembly and that he knew the King would never consent to an Alteration nor would he propose it to His Majesty When of late all Charters were restored to England it was highly rational for New-England to expect the like for if it be an illegal and unjust thing to deprive good Subjects here of their Antient Rights and Liberties it cannot be consistent with Justice and Equity to deal so with those that are afar off Applications therefore were made to the King and to some Ministers of State. It was urged that if a Foreign Prince or State should during the present Troubles send a Frigate to New-England and promise to protect them as under their former Government it would be an unconquerable temptation yet no Restoration of Charters would be granted to New-England which has opened the Eyes of some thinking Men. Thus hath New-England been dealt with This hath been and still is the bleeding state of that Country They cannot but hope that England will send them speedy Relief especially considering that through the ill Conduct of their present Rulers the French Indians are as the last Vessels from thence inform beginning their cruel Butcheries amongst the English in those parts And many have fears that there is a design to deliver that Country into the Hands of the French King except his Highness the Prince of Orange whom a Divine Hand has raised up to deliver the Oâ—pressed shall happily and speedily prevent it FINIS A SEVENTH Collection of Papers Relating to the Present Juncture of Affairs in England VIZ. I. Proposals humbly offered in behalf of the Princess of Orange II. The Heads of an Expedient proposed by the Court-Party to the Parliament at Oxford in lieu of the Bill for Excluding the Duke of York III. An Account of the Irregular Actions of the Papists in the Raign of King Iames the Second with a Method proposed to rid the the Nation of them IV. The Present Convention a Parliament V. A Letter to a Member of the Convention VI. An Answer to the Author of the Letter to a Member of the Convention Licensed and Entred according to Order London printed and are to be sold by Richard Ianeway in Queen's-head-Court in Pater-noster-Row 1689. Proposals humbly offered in behalf of the Princess of Orange Jan. 28. IT is a Maxim of the Law of England concerning the Government That there is no Interregnum Of necessity there must be a Change in the Person yet there is a Continuation of the Government Which shews the Prudence and Perfection of the Constitution in preventing that which of all things is most Deplorable a Failure of Government This Rule is therefore of that Importance as not to be given up upon the trivial Saying of Nemo est haeres viventis 'T is true the common and ordinary cause of a Change in the Person that is invested with the Royal Authority is Death But we are now in a rare and extraordinary Case where the King is living and yet may be said to be divested of the Royal Office as having by his Encroachments upon the Peoples Rights provoked them to resort to Arms and being vanquished by that Force followed with a total Defection from him and his Relinquiâ—hing the Kingdom thereupon without providing any ways for the Administration of the Government This seems to be a Cesser of this Government and may in Civil and Politick Construction amount to as much as if he had died But because this is a Cess of that nature that requires a Judgment to be made upon it it seems necessary to have a Convention of the Estates of the Nation to make a Declaration thereupon for 't is not for private Persons to determine in the Cases aforesaid how or when the King has lost his Government and till such Authoritative Declaration made the King may be supposed in
of the Law of Nature did not press us at this time to come to some speedy and pertinent Determinations as to the business especially of settling the Government that Nicety which seems to be promoted and set afoot in all our Counsels might considering the Weightiness of the business in hand rather claim the just Commendation and Applauses of every good Man than as it seems now fall under their Censure and I may say Indignation If the matter debated were extraneous and the Kingdom within it self peaceably and firmly settled if the Circumstances of our Affairs were ordinary and usual and could admit of an unlimited time for their Decision if we were secure from injurious Resolutions of our Enemies abroad or from the private Machinations of disaffected Persons at home If these â—hings were so it were worthy the Wisdom of those who by their unseasonable Scruples so generally resolv'd against and now again by them started may seem either ignorant of the desperate languishing condition of these Kingdoms at present or prejudic'd and dis-affected to the Eâ—ace and Settlement of them for the future I say it were then worthy the Wisdom of these Men to dissect every particular of so important an Affair before they made any Determination of the General As we all acknowledg the extraordinary Circumstances of this Juncture so they themselves have not been a little contributing to this happy Revolution The Prince's first Declaration tells us he had the Invitation of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Was it Justice and agreeable to Conscience then to call for Foreign Arms to assist us against our own King in the recovery of those Rights Liberties and Properties which contrary to Law he had invaded and taken from us And is it now become a Scruple in those same Consciences to be confirm'd in those Rights c. by the same Arms and Power Is that pretended absolute unlimited Power which in their Prayers and Sermons they have so often nibbled at and endavoured to retrench now in its just Debasement become so Inviolable and Sacred that it must become a Point of Faith entirely to submit to it Has this small fit of Fear and Discouragement in our implacable Enemies so well secur'd us from any future Enchroachments that we need not be careful of any further Assurance Has these Men's Re-embellish'd Honours so obliterated the Memory of the Dangers some of them so lately have escap'd and the rest justly fear'd as to free them from all Apprehensions for the future What is it these Gentlemen would be at what do they fear Is it without Reason without Justice without Precedent that we desire to be everlastingly secur'd from Popery Slavery Not without Reason for when we have seen many of our fairest Branches lopp'd off many of our Liberties invaded many of our Laws perverted and the Axe at last laid to the Root of our Government 't is high time then I say to provide for our our Safety and to put a stop to that Current which would have quickly over-run and drowned us Not without Justice for where my Life and Property is hunted after and assaulted I may by the Law of God and Man â—epel the Injury and stand in my own Vindication Not without Precedent even in Protestant Kingdoms not to mention the Romanists who both teach and practise the Deposing of evil and wicked Magistrates and though in England we may perhaps think the Changes we have very lately seen among our selves admit of no Precedent it may easily be prov'd that which hath been done of late in this Nation hath been in great part formerly presented and allowed of upon Foreign Stages yea and not many Years out of the Memory of some yet living if we would but look into the Actions of other Regions and those too wherein the Reform'd Religion is professed we shall find that they by their publick Records acknowledged that in case of Tyranny and Oppression it was lawful not only to defend their Lives and Liberties against all Assaults but reduce and declare the Persons so offending incapable of holding the Government A lively Example of this and almost exactly parallel with ours was the Case of Sigismond the Third Hereditary King of Sweden who by a Convention of the States of that Kingdom was Excluded even with his Heirs a Severity which both the Honourable Houses of Parliament here have with great Justice and Wisdom declined from that Crown for ever Some of the Articles drawn up against him were these First For swerving from their received Christian Religion as also from his Oath and Promise and Solemn Engagement made to his People at his Coronation to preserve their Rights and Priviledges as also their Holy Reform'd Religion Inviolated For departing the Country without the Consent and unwilling to the States and Orders of the Realm For exporting several Acts of great Concernment out of the Cancellarie For prosecuting such as would not embrace or favour the Romish Superstition For contemning and endeavouring to undermine and annul those laudable Institutions and Laws made for the Security of the Realm and the Establishment of the Protestant Reformed Religion For raising up what Enemies he could against his Native Country thereby to involve his Subjects in a Deluge of Blood which he intended and had almost effected For inhumanely designing and suborning Russians and Villains to Murder and Assassinate one of the chief Nobles for no other Reason but that out of Conscience and Duty he would have perswaded him from those Irregularities and notorious Breaches of the known Laws of the Land. For these and many more Causes as the sending his Son out of the Land without the Consent of the States and causing him to be brought up and educated in the Romish Superstition did the Swedes submitting the same to the Judgment of all sincere and candid Arbitratours justify their Abdication for ever of King Sigismond the Third and his Heirs from the Crown of Sweden c. and proceeded strait to the Constituting and Electing of Charles Duke of Sudermannia vid. Spanheim 's Hist. of Sweden c. And in conclusion they pray for and doubt not of a candid Construction a benign and favourable Acceptation from all Christian Emperors Kings Princes States c. of this their Legitimate Defence and to vindicate them and their most equal Cause from all Calumny or eâ—il Interpretation whatsoever The Circumstances relating to this present Juncture in England bear so near a resemblance almost in all these Grievances objected against the said Sigismond that our late King by a sort of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to have breath'd his Soul rather than to have copy'd after him though indeed in some Cases he has plainly out-done the Original especially in relation to his supposed Son. And as our King thought fit to Copy a King of Sweden I cannot apprehend how it can lessen our Judgments or Integrity our Piety or our Loyalty to follow the Example of the Swedes excepting
to name no other A fifth is the last Appeal Now let but the Power of the Militia and choosing Magistrates be laid where Legislation is and we shall be fundamentally delivered from all Slavery for ever in the Nation If we be enslaved or oppressed by any Prince for the time to come it must be either by Force or by Injustice We cannot be oppressed by Force because no Forces then can be raised by Him but by a Parliament He cannot rule by an Army or by Violence for the Militia is in the Lords and Commons as well as in Him and they will not let him do so We cannot be oppressed with Injustice for the Iudges and Officers entrusted with the Execution of Iustice shall be chosen also by them and they will look to that It is true while no Parliament sits the King by Virtue of the Executive Power lying in him may raise Arms and put in Officers and Magistrates as there iâ— need but both these are to be done under the Controul of the next Parliament which are therefore to sit often by ancient Statutes there being no War to be levied nor Magistrates confirmed without their Approbation Let us remember the State we are in a State that puts the Supream Power in the Hands of the People to place it as they will and therefore to bound and limit it as they see fit for the publick Utility and if they do it not now the Ages to come will have occasion to blame them for ever When the Supream Power is upon the disposing if they do not take this Item as part of their proper Work To bind the Descent of it to a Protestant I shall blame them But I shall do so much more if after the Danger we have been in of Arbitrary Domination and Popery by the King 's raising Arms and putting Judges in and out at his Pleasure they do not take more care of the Supream Power to lay it and its Rights better together Especially seeing nothing can indeed be that in Nature which it is without its Properties This is uniform I must persist to the Nature of Government that where the Supream Authority is there must be its Prerogatives and where the chief or principal Rights of it is there should all the rest which depend upon and belong to it be placed also Where Legislation is lodged there should the Militia there should the Power of making Judges to name nothing more than serves my turn be lodged also It is this hath been the great Declension Fault or Defect of our English Common-Wealth that the People have suffered these Rights of Soveraignty to come to be divided arising we must conceive from the Administration that is Male-Administration as appears for Example in the Militia which upon the fresh coming in of the late King was in two or three hot Acts declared now and ever to have been in the King when both the Assertion was gross Flattery and such Acts void as fundamentally repugnant to the Constitution There is one Difficulty to be thought on and that is the Negative Voice of the Prince in his Parliament The Lords and Commons may agree upon some Law for the publick Benefit and the King alone may refuse to pass it If he be obstinate this is a great Evil and might really make one think it would be better therefore for the preventing this Inconvâ—nience to place the Supream Power in Lords and Commons only without a Controler Unto which may be added the Power of Calling and Dissolving Parliaments at pleasure by virtue whereof our Kings hitherto have pretended a Power predominant over them But forasmuch as these Prerogatives may be disputed and the Negative Voice hath been deny'd by many Judicious Men who have pleaded the Obligation of former Princes to confirm those Laws quas vulgus elegerit it is to be hoped that the Wisdom of the Nation will be able to find out some Expedient or Salve for this Difficulty and for more than that also so long as they have the Golden Opportunity to bring a Crown in one Hand with their Terms or Conditions in the other As for the several Grievances that need Redress and many good Things that are wanting to compleat the Happiness of our Kingdom there may be some Foundation laid happily or Preparations made in order thereunto by this Convention but as belonging to the Administration and being Matters of long Debate they are the Work more properly of an ensuing Parliament Only let not the Members of this present Great Assembly forget that they having so unlimited a Power and the Nation such an Opportunity which as the Secular Games they are never like to see but once they are more strictly therefore bound in Conscience and in Duty to their Country to neglect no kind of thing which they judg absolutely necessary to the publick Good. I care not if I commend three or four such Particulars against the time to Consultation which shall be these A Regulation of Westminster-Hall A Provision against buying or selling of Offices A Register of Estates A Freedom from Persecution by a Bill for Comprehension and Indulgence in the business of Religion A Redemption of the Chimny Mony which bringing the King to be Lord of every Man's House is against Property and an over-Ballance in the Revenue is against the Interest of the Nation THE Breviate bing ended we cannot but reflect upon the King there being so much Concern in the Minds of many about their Allegiance to Him though He be gone But such Persons as these should look a little more to the Bottom That a People is not made for the King but the King for the Peole And though He be greater than them in some Respects yet quoad finem the People are always greater than Him That is If the Good of the one and the other stand in Competition there is no Comparison but a Nation is to be preferr'd before one Man. As appears by the Opinion of King Iames the First hereto annexed If the Being of them be inconsistent one with another there is no doubt but it is better that a King cease than that a whole Nation should perish And upon such a Supposition as this all Obligation as to Duty must cease likewise There are some tacit Conditions in all Oaths as the best Casuists tell us such as Rebus sic stantibus for one that we must steer our Consciences by in these Cases He is the Minister of God for our Good says the Scripture And if any Prince therefore be under those Circumstances as that it cannot be for the Peoples Good that he should rule over them we do look upon such a Ruler to be bound in Conscience to give up his Government as being no Minister of God upon that Account And so having no Authority from God for that Office the Peoples Obligation to be subject to Him is at an end with it If they obey him longer it is for Wrath not for
those the Opportunity to retrieve the Credit they have lost by other Mens Faults We were also very apprehensive of the ill Consequences of the dispensing Power especially in the case of Sr. Edward Hales but it seems the Common Council of London are forbid to take the usual Oaths and yet required to act which is an unqualified Capacity We were in hopes we had lost a rude Army but we have found a ruder twenty places cry out of them and Kingstone certainly with great Justice that in two Nights time was two hundred Pounds the worse for them And for Closseting we have got Questioning that they that won't enter into Associations to protect the Prince of Orange without one of our King is to have no Imployment so that if the Prince should take the Crown I am bound to defend him against my own King and my sworn Allegiance though he come in the right of his Crown Believe me my Lords it is the boldest bid that ever Men made I see Forty one was a Fool to Eighty eight and that we Church of England Protestants shall cancel all the Merits of our Fathers overthrow the Ground and Consequence of their most exemplary Loyalty to King Charles the first and second render their Death the Death of Fools trample their Memories and Blood under our Feet subject our selves to the just Reproach of the Phanaticks whose Principles and Practices we have outdone even to that King that we forced upon them and by our Example had brought them to live well withal God help us this my Lords makes me say that either we must turn from being Church-of England-Men or steer another course for it is but too plain that Presbytery is leading us out of our ancient way and whether we believe it or no our Church sinks and will more for that is the Interest that suits best with a Dutch Humour and Conjunction and be sure if we are so base to leave our King God will be so just as to leave us and here my Lords I shall leave you with this humble motion that we make an humble Address to his Majesty to return home to us that we may act securely and not go out of the good old way which may intail Misery upon us and our Posterity I should think we have had enough of sending our Princes abroad in that much of the Inconveniency we have lain under since their Restoration has been chiefly owing to it We have driven him where we would not have him go and do what we can to provoke that League we have been afraid of and made a great part of the reason of this strange Alteration in the Kingdom Some tell us it is too late but I cannot comprehend the good sence of such an Objection Is it at any time too late for a King and his People to agree after bloody Battels it has not been thought so in all times and Nations and why it may not be without them I never heard a good reason yet If his going was unreasonable it has hurt him more than us since we may thence hope for the better terms if it was not a Fault to go it will be a great one in us if we can have him home upon good terms and will not for if I may with leave speak it his return is as much our Conveniency as his Advantage The offensive part of Him is gone that is to say the Power of Popery and what remains is our great Interest to keep and improve to our own Benefit and Safety I mean my Lords His undoubted Title and Kingship And whatever some hot Men say that are more governed by private Avarice and Revenge then the publick Good of these Kingdoms I cannot but renew my motion to your Lordships that we may send a Duke an Earl a Viscount and a Baron and two Spiritual Lords to invite his Majesty home upon the Constitution of the Government And my Lords forgive me if I say that if we can but get our Iuries Sheriffs Iudges High Courts of Chancery and Parliaments setled as they ought to be the Army at least reduced the Militia better regulated and a due Liberty of Conscience established to all Protestant Dissenters and so far to Papists only as the Law against Conventicles does admit we may yet be happy and upon these terms my Lords and no other will his Highness the Prince of Orange become truly meritorious with the English Nation Reflections on a Paper called a LORD'S Speech without Doors THIS Noble Lord would have done ingenuously in letting the World know his Name and whether he be a Lord or not for one cannot gather it from his Liberality of casting in a mite at this time when mean People such as Trades-men have more generosity and effectually contributed to the publick Peace and Honour of the Nation And as to his dissenting to some leading Lords on the account of Conscience we are in the dark as to what sort of Conscience his is whether Papist or Phanatick Conscience or indeed whether it be any Conscience at all which makes him differ from some leading Lords for the making of Speeches within or without Doors is no infallible Mark of either But he says He cannot forbear thinking that a greater Reproach can hardly come upon a People than is like to fall on us Protestants Ah good Soul what 's the matter Are the Protestants at length found to be the Firers of â—heir own City or Sr. Edm-B Godfrey and the Earl of Essex's Murtherers c. Why no O it s this unpresidented Vsage of our poor King. A good tender-hearted Jesuit I 'le warrant thee that has entred with Campian into an Holy League and Covenant to destroy all Protestant Kings and Princes unless they become as bigotted to the Society as the poor King was But let me take the Boldness to ask your Honour one Question Is there no time when compassion is due to the Country Religion is the Pretence but some fear a new Master is the thing And is it any wonder if a new Master be desired when the old one will not let me serve him but will destroy me and perhaps himself too this being a clear case and evident to all Orders and Degrees of Men among us We see how feeble a thing Popery is in England and it is I do not doubt your Lordships great Grief that your old Master may not be let in again to strengthen and revive her drooping and almost decayed Spirits But why did not the Prince stop when he heard a Free-Parliament was calling by the Kings Writs where all matters especially of the Prince of Wales might have been considered c. As to a Free-Parliament is it not evident to all the World that the King could not bear it Besides who told his Lordship that his old Master would abide by the Decisions of a Free-Parliament touching the Legitimacy or Spuriousness of his Prince of Wales The Kings Guards were changed and at
matter of Fact doth not back and maintain them And this is an Advantage which I would not have us give our Adversaries in these things no more than we have done in the matters of Dispute betwixt them and us Here we have proved all our Charges against their Religion let us therefore prove or else not so eagerly insist upon these Accusations brought against their Persons I shall add nothing further but my real Wishes That I could tho with the loss of all that 's dear to me in this World contribute to the utter Exclusion of Popery by all lawful means and I do and shall always pray for a Blessing upon their Designs who sincerely endeavour to procure a Settlement of the Religion Liberties and Properties of the Subjects upon so sure a foundation that there may be no danger of the Nations relapsing into the like miseries at any time hereafter Some short Notes on a Pamphlet entitled Reflections upon our late and present Proceedings in England A Man must read much of this Author 's profound Work before he can fathom the Depths of it and find what his Design is or whether indeed he has any Design at all unless it be that of making a Book He tells us at length after much Strugling and a tedious Repetition of what every body knows perhaps better than himself That all Orders of Men Ecclesiastick Civil and Military did put the Regal Administration into the Prince of Orange's Hands and that the Intent of our Proceedings will at least excuse if not justify us I would have this knowing Gentleman inform the World into what Hands the Regal Administration could be better put And if the Nation could not do better whether this their Action does not justify it self But says he a little above How did we all generally concur and unanimously agree to forget our Obligations to our Soveraign And in Page 4 he tells us That the Prince of Orange hath done a great thing for us and wrought such Deliverance for the Nation as ought never to be forgotten and can never be sufficiently requited I do not at all doubt but this Gentleman can more easily write half a dozen such Books as this is than reconcile these notable Passages He acknowledges we have been rescued out of the Hands of him that hated us and would have destroyed us without a cause and yet reproaches us with forgetting our Obligations to our Soveraign In Page 5. he has this sharp Question Let every Man ask himself for what reason he became a party in this general Defection Was it to divest the King of all Power to protect his Subjects c. To repeat these Absurdities is a sufficient Answer to them And then again in the next Page That whatever some obnoxious and ambitious Men might aim at all good Christians had other Intentions They were sensibly concerned for the Preservation of their Holy Religion in the first place Their Lives their Laws their Liberties in the next And after the way which some call Heresy so were they desirous still to worship the God of their Fathers and after that manner which some might say was Rebellion so they thought themselves oblig'd to stand up for the Laws and Liberties of their Forefathers What measures of Obedience this Man is for and what he would have us to do or not to do I am not able to divine from his Book for he seems to dislike in one place what he approves in another But he tells us in Page 6 7 of his Fears of the Government being undermined both in Church and State and that he shall be reduced to the Dutch or some other foreign measures which can never be well received in England till an Act be past to abolish Monarchy Episcopacy c. If this Gentleman's Distractions be not so great as to hinder him the use of his two chief Senses he may now perceive that his Fears are as vain as others perceive his Reasoning to be But in Page 8. he states a notable Question for he supposes his Father to be as churlish as Cain and as poor as Job and yet maintains he is his Father O admirably put But what 's this to a King 's apparent Design of ruining and enslaving a People who have the same both Natural and Civil Right to their Lives and Liberties as he has to his But shall we run says he into Popery and perhaps Slavery too and is not the Deposing a Popish Doctrine p. 11. and as for Slavery Must not a standing Army be necessarily kept up to maintain a Title founded only on the consent of the fickle and uncertain People If the Lords and Commons of England are this fickle and uncertain People I know not where our Author will find more substantial Folks unless he fancies they are to be met with amongst the Mobile And as to the Popish Deposing Doctrine I have already shewed our case comes in no sort near it for the late King's Religion did not hinder his possessing himself of the Throne neither was that the Cause of his leaving it for he might have enjoyed it and made the best of it as to himself in all Freedom but he thought it beneath him to stop here and not impose his false Worship on all his Subjects trampling all the Laws of the Kingdom under his Feet and thereby claiming not only an absolute Empire over the Bodies but the Minds of his Subjects Our Author likewise shews himself a notable Well-wisher to our Religion and Liberties when he represents a standing Army page 11. in the present Exigency of Affairs to be such a Grievance and that too under a Prince who has not been only born and educated in the greatest Aversion to Popery and the only Prince uncorrupted by the French King but whose Genius and Interests do every ways so answer the Necessity of our Nation that we have no other cause of Fear or Trouble but at the sense of our own Unworthiness of so great a Blessing He seems in p. 12 and 13 to be in great Labour left the Prince of Orange should make himself a King contrary to the express Terms of his Declaration and Pretences of coming over here To which may be answered that he has in no sort violated that Declaration for he did not thrust himself into the Throne and as to his being so now both de jure and de facto this being a matter decided by the Justice Wisdom and Supream Authority of the Nation it 's foolish Presumption and no less conceited Ignorance for any private Person to argue it Our wise Author seems to be moreover concerned and greatly troubled at the Effects produced by the third Declaration for he says It did more harm to the King's Affairs than all the other Papers publisht at that time whence he concludes its plain that Sophistry and Tricks are made use of if they will but do the Business What would this Man have would he have both to
notwithstanding any want of thâ— Kings Writs or Writ of Summons or aâ—y defect whatsoever and as if the King had been present at the beginning of the Parliament this I take to be a full Judgment in full Parliament of the case in question and much stronger than the present case is and this Parliament continued till the 29 th of December next following and made in all thirty seven Acts as aboâ—e mentioned The 13 Caroli 2. chap. 7. a full Parliament called by the Kings Writ recites the other of 12 Caroli 2. and that after his Majesties return they were continued till the 29 th of December and then dissolved and that several Acts passed this is the plain Judgment of another Parliament 1. Because it says they were continued which shews they had a real being capable of being continued for a Confirmation of a void Grant has no effect and Confirmation shews a Grant only voidable so the continuance there shewed it at most but voidable and when the King came and confirm'd it all was good 2. The dissolving it then shews they had a being for as ex nihilo nihil sit so super nihil nil operatur as out of nothing nothing can be made so upon nothing nothing can operate Again the King Lords and Commons make the great Corporation or Body of the Kingdom and the Commons are legally taken for the Free-holders Inst. 4. p. 2. Now the Lords and Commons having Proclaimed the King the defect of this great Corporation is cured and all the Essential parts of this great Body Politique united and made compleat as plainly as when the Mayor of a Corporation dies and another is chosen the Corporation is again perfect and to say that which perfects the great Body Politique should in the same instant destroy it I mean the Parliament is to make contradictions true simul semel the perfection and destruction of this great Body at one instant and by the same Act. Then if necessity of Affairs was a forcible Argument in 1660 a time of great peace not only in England but throughout Europe and almost in all the World certainly 't is of a greater force now when England is scarce delivered from Popery and Slavery when Ireland has a mighty Army of Papists and that Kingdom in hazard of final destruction if not speedily prevented and when France has destroyed most of the Protestants there and threatens the ruin of the Low-Countries from whence God has sent the wonderful Assistance of our Gracious and therefore most Glorious King and England cannot promise safety from that Forreign Power when forty days delay which is the least can be for a new Parliament and considering we can never hope to have one more freely chosen because first it was so free from Court-influence or likelihood of all design that the Letters of Summons issued by him whom the great God in infinite Mercy raised to save us to the hazard of his Life and this done to protect the Protestant Religion and at a time when the people were all concerned for one Common interest of Religion and Liberty it would be vain when we have the best King and Queen the World affords a full house of Lords the most solemnly chosen Commons that ever were in the remembrance of any Man Living to spend Mony and lose time I had almost said to despise Providence and take great pains to destroy our selves If any object Acts of Parliament mentioning Writs and Summons c. I answer the Precedent in 1660 is after all those Acts. In private cases as much has been done in point of necessity a Bishop Provincial dies and sede vacant a Clerk is presented to a Benefice the Presentation to the Dean and Chapter is good in this case of Necessity and if in a Vacancy by the Death of a Bishop a Presentation shall be good to the Dean and Chapter rather than a prejudice should happen by the Church lying void Surely â fortiori Vacancy of the Throne may be supplied without the formality of a Writ and the great Convention turn'd to a Real Parliament A Summons in all points is of the same real force as a Writ for a Summons and a Writ differ no more than in name the thing is the same in all Substantial parts the Writ is Recorded in Chancery so are His Highnesses Letters the proper Officer Endorses the Return so he does here for the Coroner in defect of the Sheriff is the proper Officer the People Choose by virtue of the Writ so they did freely by Virtue of the Letters c. quae re concordant parum differunt they agree in Reality and then what difference is there between the one and the other Object A Writ must be in Actions at Common Law else all Pleadings after will not make it good but Judgment given may be Reversed by a Writ of Error Answ. The case differs first because Actions between party and party are Adversary Actions but Summons to Parliament are not so but are Mediums only to have an Election 2. In Actions at Law the Defendant may plead to the Writ but there is no plea to a Writ for electing Members to serve in Parliament and for this I have Littleton's Argument there never was such Plea therefore none lies Object That they have not taken the Test. Answ. They may take the Test yet and then all which they do will be good for the Test being the distinguishing Mark of a Protestant from a Papist when that is taken the end of the Law is performed Object That the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy ought to be taken and that the new ones are not legal Answ. The Convention being the Supream Power have abolish'd the old Oaths and have made new ones and as to the making new Oaths the like was done in Alfreds time when they chose him King vide Mirror of Justice Chap. 1. for the Heptarchy being turn'd to a Monarchy the precedent Oaths of the seven Kings could not be the same King Alfred swore Many Precedents may be cited where Laws have been made in Parliament without the King 's Writ to summon them which for brevity's sake I forbear to mention For a farewel the Objections quarrel at our Happiness fight against our Safety and aim at that which may indanger Destruction The Amicable Reconciliation of the DISSENTERS to the CHURCH of ENGLAND being a Model or Draught for the Universal Accommodation in the Case of Religion and the Bringing in all Parties to Her Communion Humbly presented to the Consideration of Parliament WHereas there are several parties of Christians in the Nation who must and will ever differ in their Opinions about the Church and Discipline of it in the Question which is of Christ's Institution it is not our Disputes about the Church â—s Particular which are rather to be mutually forborn and every party left herein to their own Perswasion but a common Agreement in what we can agree and that
is in the Church as National must heal our Breaches The Catholicks are for one Universal Organical Church throughout the World whereof the Pope is Head according to some and the Bishops Convened in a General Council according to others That there is a Catholick Church Visible on earth as well as invisible whereof CHRIST is Head who was on Earth and is now Visible in Heaven is past doubt also with Protestants But that this Church is Organical and under the Government of a Monarchy by the Pope or of an Aristocracy by a General Council it seems a thing not possible in nature because neither can any Oeâ—umenical Council ever be Called or any One Man he sufficient to take on him the Concernmenâ—s of the whole World. A Political Church is a Community of Chrisâ—â—ans brought into an Orber of Superiority and Inferiority by an Head and Members organized for the Exercise of that Government which is proper to it but the whole Earth is not capable of any such Order And Councils therefore which are gather'd out of several Countries or of Bishops belonging to more Dominions than of one Supreme Power may behad for mutual Advice and Concord but not for Government A Nation Empire or Kingdom which consists of one Supreme Magistrate and People who are generally Christians are capable of such an Ecclesiastical Polity and a National Church Political in England is to be asserted and maintained The Church of England then is a Political Society of all the Christians in the Land united in the King as Head and organized by the Bishops for the executing those Laws or Government which he chooses for their spiritual Good and the publick Peace There is this difference between a Church National the Church Catholick and Particular Churches The two latter-are of Divine Right and Essential Consideration but the former is and can be only of Humane Institution for it is manifestly Accidental to the Church of Christ that the chief Magistrate and the whole People should be Christian. Distinguish we here of the Government of the Church as Internal belonging to the Spirit and External which belongs to Men And of the External Regiment thereof which is either Formal belonging to the Ministers or Officers of Christ or Objective belonging to the Magistrate the one being only by the Keyes the other by the Sword. Whether the Community now of Christians in England may be accounted a National Church in respect to any Formal Government of it we leave for dispute to others let them judg according to the foregoing Definition of a Political Church But that the main Body of the Nation are or may be constituted a proper Political Church National in respect to that External Objective Regiment which is or should be exercised by the Bishops as the proper Organs thereof under the King is what we hold reasonable and would lay as the Foundation-Stone of Peace in the matter of Religion between all Persons in the Kingdom Let the Parliament therefore we have be heartily for the Publick Good and thriving of England which must and can be only by an entire Liberty of Conscience in opposition to the narrow Spirit of any single Party or Faction and when such a Parliament as this shall set themselves about the Business of Union to purpose a Bill should be brought in Entituled An Act for declaring the Constitution of our Church of England A Parliament is the Representative of the whole Nation and no doubt but by Consent and Agreement they might upon the account mentioned Make a new Constitution and much more may they Declare the Constitution of it It should be declared then in such a Bill or Act that the Church of England consists of the King as the Head or pars Imperans who is to give Laws thereto and all the several Assemblies of Christians which he shall tolerate as the pars subdita or Body Some Discrimination between the Tolerable and Intolerable is indeed never to be gainsaid by any wise and good Man unto whom there is no Liberty can be desirable which is not consistent at least with these three things the Articles of our Creed a Good Life and the Fundamental Government of the Kingdom It is not for any private persons but a Parliament to prescribe the Terms of National Communion But we would have all our Assemblies that are Tolerable to be made Legal by such an Act and thereby parts of the National Church as well as the Parochial Congregations The Church here therefore must come under a double consideration as the Church of Christ and as the Church of England Take the Church as the Church of Christ and there must be as we have said at first endless Controversy about this point who are the true Members of it but take it under the consideration as National and there will be none at all for those must be Membâ—rs whom the Head by a Law does allow to be parts of the Body and the King under this notion only is made Head of the Church by the Stature that is as it is called Ecclesia Aâ—glicana The Protestant Dissenterâ— of all sorts as well as the Conformists will acknowledg the King to be Supreme Coercive Governour over all Persons and in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil throughout his Dominions And will not those who are Roman Catholicks do the like Did they not do so in Henry the Eight's time when they were generally such Again the Dissenters of all sorts even the Congregationalists of every Sect are ready to submit to any power legally derived from the King and upon such an account will admit of a superintendency of the Bishops as Ecclesiastical Magistrates under him when they cannot own any Authority that they have over other Ministers from Iesus Christ and will not Papists also be subject to all Authority that is exercised legally in his Name howsoever they may question the Spiritual Title of the English Clergy and their succession We would have the Bishops then qua Bishops as distinct in Office from Priests declared no other than the King's Officers whose power is but Objectively Ecclesiastical and to act Circa Sacra only by Vertue of his Authority and Commission As Iehoshaphat did comit the Charge incumbent upon him as Supreme Magistrate in regard to all Matters of the Lord unto the care of Amariah being Chief Priest and in regard to the King's Matters unto Zebadiah being as the Chief Iustice of the Realm so should the Diocesian Bishop be in our Ecclesiastical as the Judges are in Civil Matters the Substitutes altogether of His Majesty and execute his Jurisdiction This is indeed at State point which was throughly canvased by Henry the Eight whose Divines did agree on two Orders alone Priest and Deacon to be of Divine Appointment and that the Superiority of a Bishop over a Presbyter or of one Bishop over another was but by the Positive Laws of Men only as appears in that Authentick Book then put out entituled
or his Deputs his Brethren Heraulds Macers and Pursevants and at the Head-Burghs of all the Shires Stewarties Bailliaries and Regalities within the Kingdom by Messengers at Arms. Extracted forth of the Meeting of the Estates by me J A. DALRYMPLE Cls. God save King WILLIAM and Queen MARY The Manner of the King and Queen taking the Scotish Coronation Oath May 11. 1689. THis day being appointed for the publick Reception of the Commissioners viz. the Earl of Argyle Sir Iames Montgomery of Skelmerly and Sir Iohn Dalrymple of Stair younger who were sent by the Meeting of the Estates of Scotland with an Offer of the Crown of that Kingdom to Their Majesties they accordingly at 3 of the Clock met at the Council-Chamber and from thence were Conducted by Sir Charles Cotterel Master of the Ceremonies attended by most of the Nobility and Gentry of that Kingdom who reside in and about this place to the Banqueting-House where the King and Queen came attended by many Persons of Quality the Sword being carried before them by the Lord Cardrosse and Their Majesties being placed on the Throne under a rich Canopy they first presented a Letter from the Estates to His Majesty then the Instrument of Government Thirdly a Paper containing the Grievances which they desired might be Redressed and Lastly an Address to His Majesty for turning the Meeting of the said Estates into a Parliament All which being Signed by his Grace the Duke of Hamilton as President of the Meeting and read to Their Majesties the King returned to the Commissioners the following Answer When I engaged in this Undertaking I had particular Regard and Consideration for Scotland and therefore I did emit a Declaration in relation to That as well as to this Kingdom which I intend to make good and effectual to them I take it very kindly that Scotland hath expressed so much Confidence in and Affection to Me They shall find Me willing to assist them in every thing that concerns the Weal and Interest of that Kingdom by making what Laws shall be necessary for the Security of their Religion Property and Liberty and to ease them of what may be justly grievous to them After which the Coronation-Oath was tendred to Their Majesties which the Earl of Argyle spoke word by word distinctly and the King and Queen repeated it after him holding Their Right Hands up after the manner of taking Oaths in Scotland The Meeting of the Estates of Scotland did Authorize their Commissioners to represent to His Majesty That that Clause in the Oath in relation to the rooting out of Hereticks did not import the destroying of Hereticks And that by the Law of Scotland no Man was to be persecuted for his private Opinion And even Obstinate and Convicted Hereticks were only to be denounced Rebels or Outlawed whereby their Moveable Estates are Confiscated His Majesty at the repeating that Clause in the Oath Did declare that He did not mean by these words That He was under any Obligation to become a Persecutor To which the Commissioners made Answer That neither the meaning of the Oath or the Law of Scotland did import it Then the King replyed That He took the Oath in that Sense and called for Witnesses the Commissioners and others present And then both Their Majesties Signed the said Coronation-Oath After which the Commissioners and several of the Scotish Nobility kissed Their Majesties Hands The Coronation-OATH of England The Arch-Bishop or Bishop shall say WIll You solemnly Promise and Swear to Govern the People of this Kingdom of England and the Dominions thereto belonging according to the Statutes in Parliament agreed on and the Laws and Customs of the same The King and Queen shall say I solemnly Promise so to do Arch-Bishop or Bishop Will You to Your Power cause Law and Justice in Mercy to be Executed in all Your Judgments King and Queen I Will. Arch-Bishop or Bishop Will You to the utmost of Your Power Maintain the Laws of God the true Profession of the Gospel and the Protestant Reformed Religion Established by Law And will You Preserve unto the Bishops and Clergy of this Realm and to the Churches committed to their Charge all such Rights and Priviledges as by Law do or shall appertain unto them or any of them King and Queen All this I Promise to do After this the King and Queen laying His and Her Hand upon the Holy Gospels shall say King and Queen The Things which I have here before Promised I will Perform and Keep. So help me God. Then the King and Queen shall kiss the Book The Coronation OATH of Scotland WE William and Mary King and Queen of Scotland Faithfully Promise and Swear by this Our solemn Oath in presence of the Eternal God that during the whole course of Our Life we will serve the same Eternal God to the uttermost of Our Power according as he has required in his most holy Word reveal'd and contain'd in the New and Old Testament and according to the same Word shall maintain the True Religion of Christ Jesus the Preaching of his Holy Word and the due and right Ministration of the Sacraments now Received and Preached within the Realm of Scotland and shall abolish and gainstand all false Religion contrary to the same and shall Rule the People committed to our Charge according to the Will and Command of God revealed in his aforesaid Word and according to the Landable Laws and Constitutions received in this Realm no ways repugnant to the said Word of the Eternal God and shall procure to the utmost of Our power to the Kirk of God and whole Christian People true and perfect Peace in all time coming That we shall preserve and keep inviolated the Rights and Rents with all just Priviledges of the Crown of Scotland neither shall we transfer nor alienate the same That we shall forbid and repress in all Estates and Degrees Reif Oppression and all kind of wrong And we shall Command and Procure that Justice and Equity in all Judgments be keeped to all Persons without exception as the Lord and Father of all Mercies shall be merciful to uâ— And we shall be careful to root out all Hereticks and Enemies to the true Worship of God that shall be Convicted by the true Kirk of God of the aforesaid Crimes out of Our Lands and Empire of Scotland And we faithfully affirm the things above written by Our Solemn Oath God save King WILLIAM and Queen MARY FINIS a a Distinct. 19. cap. a Caus. 25. q. 1. cap. 11. b b Cap. Vergent de Hereticis c c Cap. Infam 6. q. 1. p. 297. d d Suar. de Fide disp 12. §. 9. n. â— l. 2. c. 29. e e Cap. de Haer. f f Aâ—zoâ— Tom. 1. l. 8. c. 12. q. 7. g g Cap. 2. Sect. fin de Haer. in 6. h h Cap. cum secundum Legis de Haer. Inno III. cap. de Vergentis i i Vasque in Suar. disp 22. S. 4. n. 11. k k S. 1. n. 5. l l Cap. Vergent de Haer. m m Cap. ad abolendum de Haâ—r Suâ—r Dis. 23. Bul. Vrb. 4. Inno. 4. n n Jac. de Gra. decis l. 2. c. 9. n. 2. o o Bonacina Diano Castro Molanus c. Car. Allen. ad mon. to Nobl. Peop. p. 41. p p â—riess of P. G. 13. Clem. 8. q q 5. Ies. Trial p. 28. r r Col. Lr. â—o the Internâ—ncio s s Prance 's Nar. p. 4. t t Caus. Ep. p. 189. u u Five Ies. Tâ—iâ—ls p. 2â— x x Caput Offiâ—â—â—m y y Bonâ—ciâ—â—a dâ— prinâ— prat Disp. 3. q. 2. z z Parson 's Philop. p. 109. a a Becan Cont. Aug. p. 131 132. In Fowlis p. 60. b b Oats 's Nar. p. 4. N. 5 c. c c Hist. Ref. p. 110. a a Prout Regalis Officii exposcit utilitas b b Sicome le profit de Office Demaunde The Kingly or Regal Office of this Realm Mar. Sess. 3. cap. 1. Give us a King to judg us 1 Sam. 8.5 6 20. 18 Edw. III. 20 Edw. III. Cap. 1 2. 1 Iac. 1. cap. 1. 35 H. 8. cap. 1. 6 E. 6.11.1 2 3. Om. 10. 1 El. 6. 1 El. 3. Church-man