THE Design of Enslaving ENGLAND DISCOVERED Licensed and Entred according to Order THE Design of Enslaving ENGLAND DISCOVERED In the Incroachments upon the Powers and Privileges of Parliament by K. Charles II. BEING A New corrected Impression of that Excellent Piece INTITULED A Just and Modest VINDICATION of the PROCEEDINGS OF THE Two Last Parliaments OF King CHARLES the Second LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Black Bull in the Old-Baily MDCLXXXIX A Just and Modest Vindication of the Proceedings of the two last PARLIAMENTS of K. CHARLES the Second THE Amazement which seiz'd every good Man upon the unlook'd-for Dissolution of two Parliaments within three Months was not greater than at the sight of a Declaration pretending to justify and give Reasons for such extraordinary Proceedings It is not to be denied but that our Kings have in a great measure been intrusted by the Kingdom with the appointment of the Times of Parliaments Sitting and declaring their Dissolutions But lest through defect of Age Experience or Understanding they should at any time forget or mistake our Constitution or by Passion private Interest or the Influence of ill Counsellors be so far misled as not to Assemble Parliaments when the Publick Affairs require it or to declare them Dissolved before the Ends of their Meeting were accomplished The Wisdom of our Ancestors has provided by divers Statutes both for the holding Parliaments annually and oftner if need be and that they should not be Prorogued or Dissolved till all the Petitions and Bills before them were answered and redressed The Constitution had been equally imperfect and destructive of it self had it been left to the Will and Choice of the Prince whether he would ever summon a Parliament or put into his Power to dismiss them Arbitrarily at his pleasure That Parliaments should be called and sit according to the Laws is secured to us by the same Sacred Tie by which the King at his Coronation obliges himself to let his Judges sit to distribute Justice every Term and to preserve inviolably all other Rights and Liberties of his Subjects Therefore abruptly to Dissolve Parliaments at such a Time when nothing but the Legislative Power and the united Wisdom of the Kingdom could relieve us from our Just Fears or secure us from our certain Dangers is very unsuitable to the great Trust reposed in the Prince and seems to express but little of tha tffection which we will always hope his Majesty bears towards his People and the Protestant Religion But 't is not only of the Disolution it self that we complain the manner of doing it is unwarranted by the Precedents of former Times and full of dangerous Consequents We are taught by the Writ of Summons that Parliaments are never called without the Advice of the Council and the Usage of all Ages has been never to send them away without the same Advice To forsake this safe Method is to expose the King personally to the Reflections and Censures of the whole Nation for so ungrateful an Action Our Laws have taken care to make the King always dear to his People and to preserve his Person Sacred in their Esteem by wisely preventing him from appearing as Author of any thing which may be unacceptable to them 'T is therefore that he doth not Execute any considerable Act of Regal Power till it be first debated and resolved in Council because then 't is the Counsellors must answer for the Advice they give and are punishable for such Orders as are Irregular and Illegal Nor can his Ministers justify any unlawful Action under the colour of the King's Commands since all his Commands that are contrary to Law are void which is the true Reason of that well-known Maxim That the King can do no Wrong A Maxim just in it self and alike safe for the Prince and for the Subject there being nothing more absurd than that a Favourite should excuse his enormous Actings by a pretended Command which we may reasonably suppose he first procured to be laid upon himself But we know not whom to charge with Advising this last Dissolution It was a Work of Darkness and if we are not misinform'd the Privy Council was as much surpriz'd at it as the Nation Nor will a future Parliament be able to charge any Body as the Author or Adviser of the late printed Paper which bears the Title of His Majesty's Declaration though every good Subject ought to be careful how he calls it so For his Majesty never speaks to his People as a King but either personally in his Parliament or at other times under his Seal for which the Chancellor or other Officers are responsible if what passes them be not warranted by Law. Nor can the Direction of the Privy Council enforce any thing upon the People unless that Royal and Legal Stamp gives it an Authority But this Declaration comes abroad without any such Sanction and there is no other Ground to ascribe it to his Majesty than the uncertain Credit of the Printer whom we will easily suspect of an Imposture rather than think the King would deviate from the approved course of his Illustrious Ancestors to pursue a New and Unsuccesful Method The first Declaration of this sort which I ever met with being that which was published in the Year 1628 which was so far from answering the Ends of its coming out that it filled the whole Kingdom with Jealousies and was one of the first sad Causes of the ensuing unhappy War. The Truth is Declarations to justify what Princes do must always be either needless or ineffectual Their Actions ought to be such as may recommend themselves to the World and carry their own Evidence along with them of their usefulness to the Publick and then no Arts to justify them will be necessary When a Prince descends so low as to give his Subjects Reasons for what he has done he not only makes them Judges whether there be any weight in those Reasons but by so unusual a submission gives cause to suspect that he is conscious to himself that his Actions want an Apology And if they are indeed unjustifiable if they are opposite to the Inclinations and apparently destructive of the Interest of his Subjects it will be very difficult for the most Eloquent or Insinuating Declaration to make them in love with such things And therefore they did certainly undertake no easy Task in pretending to perswade Men who see themselves exposed to the restless Malice of their Enemies who observe the languishing Condition of the Nation and that nothing but a Parliament can provide Remedies for the great Evils which they Feel and Fear that two several Parliaments upon whom they had placed all their hopes were so suddenly broken out of kindness to them or with any regared to their Advantage It was generally believed that this Age would not have seen another Declaration since Coleman's was so unluckily published before its time Not only because thereby the World was
known Irish Papist appear'd by the Informations given in the House to be made use of by some very great Persons to set up a counterfeit Protestant Conspiracy and thereby not only to drown the noise of the Popish Plot but to take off the Heads of the most eminent of those who still refused to bow their Knees to Baal There had been divers such honest Contrivances before which had unluckily fail'd but the principal Contrivers avoided the Discovery as the others did the Punishment in what manner and by what helps the whole Nation is now pretty sensible Being warned by this experience they grew more Cautious than ever and therefore that the Treason which they were to set on Foot might look as unlike a Popish design as was possible they fram'd a Libel full of the most bitter Invictives against Popery and the Duke of York It carried as much seeming zeal for the Protestant Religion as Coleman's Declaration and as much care and concern for our Laws as the Penners of this Declaration would seem to have But it was also filled with the most subtil Insinuations and the sharpest Expressions against His Majesty that could be invented and with direct and passionate Incitements to Rebellion This Paper was to be conveyed by unknown Messengers to their hands who were to be betray'd and then they were to be seized upon and those Libels found about tham were to be a Confirmation of the Truth of a Rebellion which they had provided Witnesses to Swear was designed by the Protestants and had before prepared Men to believe by private Whispers And the credit of this Plot should no doubt have been soon confirmed by speedy Justice done upon the pretended Criminals But as well laid as this Contrivance seem to be yet it spoke it self to be of a Popish Extraction 'T is a policy the Jesuits have often used to divert a storm which was falling upon themselves Accordingly heretofore they had prepared both Papers and Witnesses to have made the Puritans guilty of the Gunpowder Treason had it succeeded as they hoped for The hainous Nature of the Crime and the greatness of the Persons supposed to be concern'd deserved an extraordinary Examination with a Jury who were only to enquire whether Fitz-Harris was guilty of framing that Libel he could never make and the Commons believed none but the Parliament was big enough to go through with They took notice that the Zeal and Courage of inferior Courts was abated and that the Judges at the Tryal of Wakeman and Gascoign however it came to pass behaved themselves very unlike the same Men they were when others of the Plotters had been Tryed They had not forgot another Plot of this Nature discovered by Dangerfield which tho plainly proved to the Council yet was quite stifled by the great Diligence of the Kings Bench which rendred him as an incompetent Witness Nor did they only fear the perversion of Justice but the Misapplication of Mercy too For they had seen that the Mouths of Gadbury and others as soon as they began to confess were suddenly stopt by a gracious Pardon And they were more Jealous than ordinary in this case because when Fitz-Harris was inclined to Repentance and had begun a Confession to the surprize of the whole Kingdom without any visible cause he was taken out of the lawful Custody of the Sheriffs and shut up a close Prisoner in the Tower. The Commons therefore had no other way to be secure that the Prosecution should be effectual the Judgment indifferent and the Criminal out of all hopes of a Pardon unless by an ingenuous Confession he could engage both Houses in a powerful Mediation to His Majesty in his behalf but by impeaching of him They were sure no Pardon could stop their Suit tho the King might release his own Prosecution by his Pardon Hitherto the Proceedings of the Commons in this Business could not be liable to Exception for that they might lawfully Impeach any Commoner before the Lords was yet never doubted The Lords themselves had agreed that point when the day before they had sent down the Plea of Sir William Scroggs to an Impeachment of Treason then depending before them And they are men of strange confidence who at this time of day take upon them to deny a Jurisdiction of the Lords which hath been practised in all times without controul and such a fundamental of the Government that there could be no security without it Were it otherwise it would be in the power of the King by making Commoners Ministers of State to subvert the Government by their Contrivances when he pleased Their Greatness would keep them out of the reach of ordinary Courts of Justice and their Treasons might not perhaps be within the Statutes but such as fall under the cognizance of no other Court than the Parliament and if the People might not of Right demand Justice there they might without fear of punishment act the most destructive Villanies against the Kingdom As a Remedy against this Evil the Mirrour of justice tell us that Parliaments were ordained to hear and determine all Complaints of wrongful Acts done by the King Queen or their Children and such others against whom common Right cannot be had elsewhere Which as to the King is no otherwise to be understood than that it he err by Illegal Personal Commands or Orders he is to be admonished by Parliament and addressed unto for Remedy but all others being but Subjects are to be punished by Parliaments according to the Laws of Parliaments If the ends were well considered for which Parliaments were ordained as they are declared in the Statute Item for maintenance of the said Articles and Statutes viz. Magna Charta c. a Parliament shall be holden every year by them as well as by the foregoing ancient Authority none could be deceived by the Parliament Rol. of 4 Ed. 3. where it is mentioned as accorded between the King and his Grands that is his Lords that Judgment of Death given by the Peers against Sir Simon de Beresford Matrever and others upon the Murther of King Ed. 2. and his Uncle should not be drawn into Example whereby the Peers might be charged to judge others than their Peers contrary to the Law of the Land if such a Case should happen For whereas from this Record some would perswade us that the Lords are discharged from judging Commoners and that our ancient Government is alter'd in this Case by that Record which they say is act of Parliament The stile and form of it is so different from that which is used in Acts of Parliament that many are inclined to believe it to be no other thing than an agreement between the King and the Lords But to remove all future scruples in the Case let it be admitted to be an Act of Parliament and if there be nothing accorded in it to acquit the Lords from trying Commoners Impeached before them by the Commons in
Priviledges of Parliament If the Priviledge of Parliament be concern'd when an injury is done to any particular Member how much more is it touched when Men strike at Parliaments themselves and endeavour to wound the very Constitution If this be said with Relation to Sheridon who has since troubled the World with so many idle impudent Pamphlets upon that account 't is plain that his Commitment was only in order to examine him about the Popish Plot and his Endeavors to stifle it though his contemptuous Behaviour to the House deserved a much longer Confinement and 't was Insolence in him to Arraign their Justice because they did not instantly leave all their great Debates to dispatch the business relating to him Thompson of Bristol was Guilty of divers great Breaches of Priviledge but yet his Commitment was only in order to an Impeachment and as soon as they had gone through with his Examination they ordered him to be set at Liberty giving Security to answer the Impeachment which they had voted against him But is it a thing so strange and new to the Authors of the Declaration that the House of Commons should Order Men to be taken into Custody for matters not relating to Priviledg Have they not heard that in the 4 Edw. 6. Cricketost was Committed for Confedertaing in an Escape that 18 Jac. Sir Francis Mitchel was Comitted for Misdemeanors in procuring a Patent for the Forfeitures of Recognizances together with Fowles Gerrard and divers others none of which were Members of Parliament that 20 Jac. Dr. Harris was taken into Custody for misbehaving himself in Preaching and that 3 Car. Burgesse was Committed for Faults in Catechizing and Levet for presuming to exercise a Patent which had been adjudged a Grievance by a Committee of the Commons in a former Parliament There would be no end of giving Instances of those Commitments which may be observed in almost every Parliament so that the House of Commons did but tread in the Steps of their Predecessors and these sorts of Orders were not new though the Declaration takes the Liberty to call them Arbitrary The Commons had betrayed their Trust if they had not asserted the Right of Petitioning which had been just before shaken by such a strange Illegal and Arbitrary Proclamation But now we come to the Transcendent monstrous Crimes which can never be forgiven by the Ministers the giving them their due Character which every Man of Understanding had fix'd upon them long before the whole Current of their Counsels being a full Proof of the Truth of the Charge But what colour is there for calling these Votes illegal Is it illegal for the Commons to impeach persons whom they have good reason to judg Enemies to the King and Kingdom Is it Illegal to determin by a Vote which is the only way of finding the Sence of the House who are Wicked Counsellors and deserve to be impeach'd Could the Commons have called the Parties accused to make their Answer before themselves Had they not a proper time for their Defence when they came to their Tryals and might they not have cleared their Innocence much better if they durst have put that in Issue by a Tryal than a Dissolution of the Parliament But should we grant that these Votes were not made in Order to an Impeachment yet still there is nothing Illegal nothing extraordinary in them For the Commons in Parliament have ever used two ways in delivering their Country from pernicious and powerful Favorites the one is in a Parliamentary Course of Justice by Impeaching them which is used when they judg it needful to make them publick Examples by Capital or other high Punishments for the terror of others The other is by immediate Address to the King to remove them as unfaithful or unprofitable Servants Their Lives their Liberties or Estates are never endangered but when they are proceeded against in the former of these ways Then legal evidence of their Guilt is necessary then there must be a proper time allowed for their defence In the other way the Parliament act as the Kings great Council and when either House observe that Affairs are ill administred that the advice of Parliaments is rejected or slighted the Course of Justice perverted our Councels betray'd Grievances multiplyed and the Government weakly and disorderly managed of all which our Laws have made it impossible for the King to be guilty They necessarily must and always have charg'd those who had the Administration of Affairs and the Kings Ear as the Authors of these mischiefs and have from time to time applyed themselves to him by Addresses for their Removal from his Presence and Councils There be many things plain and evident beyond the Testimony of any Witnesses which yet can never be proved in a legal way If the King will hearken to none but two or three of his Minions must we not conclude that every thing that is done comes from their Advice And yet if this way of representing things to the King were not allowed they might easily frustrate the enquiries of a Parliament It is but to whisper their Counsels and they are safe The Parliament may be busied in such great Affairs as will not suffer them to pursue every Offender through a long Process and besides there may be many reasons why a man should be turn'd out of a service which perhaps would not extend to subject him to punishment The People themselves are highly concern'd in the great Officers and Ministers of State who are Servants to the Kingdom as well as to the King. And the Representatives of the People the Commons whose business it is to present all Grievances as they are most likely to observe soonest the Folly and Treachery of those publick Servants the greatest of all Grievances so this Representation ought to have no little weight with the Prince This was understood so well by H. 4. a wise and brave Prince that when the Commons complain'd against four of his Servants and Councellors desiring they might be removed he came into Parliament and there declared openly that though he knew nothing against them in particular yet he was assured that what the Lords and Commons desired of him was for the good of himself and his Kingdom and therefore he did comply with them and banish'd those four Persons from his Presence and Councils declaring at the same time that he would do so by any others who should be near His Royal Person if they were so unhappy to fall under the Hatred and Indignation of his People The Records and Histories of the Reigns of Edward the first Edw. II. Edw. III. and indeed of all other succeeding Kings are full of such Addresses as these but no History or Record can shew that ever they were called illegal or Un-Parliamentary till now Then the Ministers durst not appeal to the People against their own Representatives but ours at present have either got some new Law in the point or have attained
to a greater degree of Confidence then any that went before them The best of our Princes have with thanks acknowledged the Care and Duty of their Parliaments in telling them of the Corruption and Folly of their Favourites Ed. I. Ed. III. Hen. V. and Q. El. never fail'd to do it and no Names are remembred with greater Honour in the English Annals Whilst the disorderly the Troublesome and Unfortunate Reigns of H. III. Ed. II. R. II. and H. the VI. ought to serve as Land-marks to warn succeeding Kings from preferring secret Councels to the Wisdom of their Parliaments But none of the Proceedings of the House of Commons have been more censured at Court and with less Justice than their Vote about the Anticipation of several Branches of the Revenue An objection which could proceed from nothing but a total ignorance of the Nature of Publick Treasure in our own and all other Nations which was ever esteem'd Sacred Un-alienable All the Acts of resumption in the times of H. IV. H. VI. and other of our Kings were founded upon this Maxim otherwise there could not be conceived any grosser injustice than to declare Alienations to be void which Kings had lawful power to make It was upon this Maxim that the Parliament declar'd the Grant to the Pope of the yearly sum of 1000 marks wherewith K. John had charg'd the Inheritance of the Crown to be Null It was for this cause that in the year 1670. His Majesty procured an Act of Parliament to enable him to sell the Fee Farm Rents and it is the best excuse that can be made for those Ministers who in the year 1672. advised the postponing of all payments to the Bankers out of the Exchequer that they judged all securities by way of Anticipation of the Revenue illegal and void in themselves Resumptions have been frequent in every Kingdom the King of Sweden within these few Months has by the Advice of the States resumed all the Lands which His Predecessors had in many years before granted from the Crown No Country did ever believe the Prince how absolute soever in other things had power to sell or give away the Revenue of the Kingdom and leave his Successor a Beggar All those Acts of the Roman Emperors whereby they wasted the Treasure of the Empire were rescinded by their Successors and Tacitus observes that the first of them that look't upon the publick Treasure as his own was Claudius the weakest and most sottish of them all The present King of France did within these twelve years by the consent of his several Parliaments resume all the Demesness of the Crown which had been Granted away by himself or his Predecessors That haughty Monarch as much power as he pretends to not being asham'd to own that he wanted power to make such Alienations and that Kings had that happy inability that they could do nothing contrary to the Laws of their Countrey This notion seems founded in the reason of mankind since Barbarism it self cannot efface it The Ottoman Emperors dispose Arbitrarily of the Lives and Estates of their Subjects but yet they esteem it the most detestable wickedness to employ the Tributes and Growing Revenues of the Provinces which they call the Sacred blood of the People upon any other than publick occasions And our Kings H. IV. and H. VII understood so well the different power they had in using their private Inheritances and those of the Crown that they took care by Authority of Parliament to separate the Dutchy of Lancaster from the Crown and to keep the descent of it distinct But our present Courtiers are quite of another Opinion who speak of the Revenue of the Crown as if it were a private Patrimony and design'd only for domestick uses and for the Pleasures of the Prince The Revenues of the Crown of England are their own nature approriated to Publick Service therefore cannot without injustice be diverted or Anticipated For either the Publick Revenue is sufficient to answer the necessary Occasions of the Government and then there is no colour for Anticipations or else by some extraordinary accident the K. is reduced to want an extraordinary supply and then he ought to resort to his Parliament Thus wisely did our Ancestors provide that the K. and His People should have frequent need of one another and by having frequent opportunities of mutually relieving one anothers wants be sure ever to preserve a dutiful affection in the Subject and a fartherly tenderness in the Prince When the King had occasion for the Liberality of his People he would be well inclin'd to hear and redress their Grievances and when they wanted ease from Oppressions they would not fail with alacrity to supply the occasions of the Crown And therefore it has ever been esteem'd a crime in Counsellors who perswaded the King to Anticipate his Revenue and a Crime in those who furnisht Money upon such Anticipations in an Extraordinary way however extraordinary the Occasion might be For this cause it was that the Parliament in the 35th of H. 8. did not only discharge all those debts which the K. had contracted but enacted that those Lenders who had been before paid again by the King should refund all those sums into the Exchequer as Judging it a reasonable punishment to make them forfeit the Money they lent since they had gone about to introduce so dangerous a Precedent The true way to put the King out of a possibility of supporting the Government is to let him wast in one year that Money which ought to bear the charge of the Government for seven This is the direct method to destroy the Credit of the Crown both Abroad and at Home If the King resolve never to pay the Money which he Borrows what Faith will be given to Royal Promises and the Honour of the Nation will suffer in that of the Prince if it must be put upon the People to repay it this would be a way to impose a necessity of giving Taxes without end whether they would or no. And therefore as Mercenary as they were the Pensioners would never discharge the Revenue of the Anticipations to the Bankers Now the Commons having the inconvenience of this before their Eyes in so fresh an instance and having their Ears fill'd with the daily cries of so many Widows and Orphans were obliged in duty to give a Public Caution to the People that they should not run agan into the same Error Not only because they judged all Securities of that kind absolutely void but because they knew no future Parliament could without breach of Trust repay that Money which was at first borrowed only to prevent the Sitting of a Parliament and which could never be paid without Countenancing a Method so destructive to our Constitution Nor have former Parliaments been less careful and nice in giving the least allowance to any unusual ways of taking up Money without common Consent having so very often declar'd
entire as amongst those Clergy-men whose preferment depended upon it Therefore it was ordered that this Declaration should be read by them being pretty well assured that they would not unwillingly read in the Desk a Paper so suitable to the Doctrin wch some of them had often declared in the Pulpit It did not become them to enquire whether they had sufficient Authority for what they did since the Printer called it the K's Declaration whether they might not one day be call'd to account for publishing it nor once to ask if what His Majesty singly ordered when he sate in Council and came forth without the stamp of the great Seal gave them a sufficient warrant to read it publickly Clergy-men seldom make Reflections of this kind least they should be thought to dispute the commands of their Superiors It hath been observed that they who allow unto themselves the liberty of doubting advance their fortunes very slowly whilst such who obey without scruple go on with a success equal to their ambition And this carries them on without fear or shame and as little thought of a Parliament as the Court Favourites who took care to Dissolve that at Oxford before they durst tell us the faults of that at Westminster We have already answer'd the miscarriages objected to the first and may now take a view of those imputed to the other which they say was Assembled as soon as that was Dissolved and might have added Dissolved as soon as Assembled The Ministers having imploy'd the People forty days in chusing Knights and Burgesses to be sent home in eight with a Declaration after them as if they had been called together only to be affronted The Declaration doth not tell us of any gracious expressions used at the opening of that Parliament perhaps because the store was exhausted by the abundance which His Majesty was pleased to bestow on them in his former Speeches But we ought to believe that His Majesties Heart was as full of them as ever and if he did not express them it is to be imputed unto the Ministers who diverted him from his own inclinations and brought him to use a language until that day unknown unto Parliaments The Gracious Speech then made and the Gracious Declaration that followed are so much or a piece that we may justly conclude the same Persons to have been Authors of both However His Majesty failed not to give good advice unto them who were called together to advise him The Parliament had so much respect for their K. as not particularly to complain of the great invasion that was made upon their liberty of proposing and debating Laws by his telling them before hand what things they should meddle with and what things no reasons they could offer should perswade him to consent unto But every man must be moved to hear it charged upon them as an unpardonable disobedience that they did nor obsequiously submit to that irregular Command of not touching on the business of the Succession Shall two or three unknown Minions take upon them like the Lords of the Articles of Scotland to prescribe unto an English Parliament what things they shall treat of Do they intend to have Parliaments inter instrumenta servitutis as the Romans had Kings in our Country This would quickly be if what was then attempted had succeeded and should be so pursued hereafter that Parliaments should be directed what they were to meddle with and threatned if they do any other thing For the loss of Freedom of debate in Parliament will soon and certainly be followed by a general loss of Liberty Without failing in the respect which all good Subjects owe unto the King it may be said that His Majesty ought to divest himself of all private inclinations and force his own Affections to yield unto the publick concernments And therefore His Parliaments ought to inform him impartially of that which tends to the good of those they represent without regard of personal passions and might worthily be blam'd if they did not believe that be would for go them all for the safety of his people Therefore if in it self it was lawful to propose a Bill for excluding the Duke of York from the Crown the doing it after such an unwarrantable signification of his pleasure would not make it otherwise And the unusual stiffness which the King hath shown upon this occasion begins to be suspected not to proceed from any fondness to the Person of his Brother much less from any thonght of danger to the English Monarchy by such a Law but from the influence of some few ill men upon his Royal Mind who being Creatures to the Duke or Pensioners to France are restless to prevent a good understanding between the King and his people justly fearing that if ever he comes to have a true sence of their affections to him he would deliver up to Justice these wicked wretches who have infected him with the fatal notion That the interests of his people are not only distinct but opposite to his His Majesty does not seem to doubt of his power in conjunction with his Parliament to exclude his Brother He very well know's this power hath been often exerted in the time of his Predecessors But the reason given for his refusal to comply with the interests and desires of his Subjects is because it was a point which concerned him so near in Honour Justice and Conscience Is it not honourable for a Prince to be True and Faithful to his Word and Oath to keep and maintain the Religion and Laws established Nay can it be thought dishonourable unto him to love the safety and welfare of his People and the true Religion established among them above the temporal Glory and Greatness of his personal Relations Is it not just in conjunction with his Parliament for his Peoples safety to make use of a power warranted by our English Laws and the Examples of former Ages Or is it just for the Father of his Country to expose all his Children to ruin out of fondness unto a Brother May it not rather be thought unjust to abandon the Religion Laws and Liberties of his People which he is sworn to maintain and defend and expose them to the Ambition and Rage of one that thinks himself bound in Conscience to subvert them If his Majesty is pleased to remember what Religion the Duke professeth can he think himself obliged in Conscience to suffer him to ascend the Throne who will certainly endeavour to overthrow the established Religion and set up the worst of Superstitions and Idolatry in the room of it Or if it be true that all obligations of Honour Justice and Conscience are comprehended in a grateful return of such benefits as have been received can his Majesty believe that he doth duly repay unto his Protestant Subjects the kindness they shewed him when they recalled him from a miserable helpless banishment and with so much dutiful affection placed him in the Throne