the true Constitution of the State and Government as his Rule This is plainly his Duty and that for which and with which he is intrusted as King as is very apparent in all the parts of the Constitution let Sycophants and Flatterers say what they can to the contrary And to this purpose three great Faults of the late Reigns are constantly to be avoided 1. The Use of any single Ministry of Favourites or Private Advisers in Cabals so that nothing be done but by Advice of a Legal well-chosen Privy Council and under the Hands of those who advise it 2. As well the long Continuance as long Intermission of Parliaments which are both equally inconsistent with the Statutes in force for Annual Parliaments and of equally pernicious Consequence 3. The Corruption of Members of Parliament by Pensions Places and Promises which is such a Breech of Trust on both sides as is odious both to God and Man and equal to what in private matter is commonly reputed the basest Knavery that can be 3. By Prudence and Industry in ordering all as to this End and by this Rule so for the best Advantage upon all occasions As 1. In the choice of fit Persons for Employments 2. In Inspection into their Behaviour 3. In provident Management of the Revenue and Contribution that no unnecessary charge be laid upon the People 4. In conferring of Honours wherein great faults have been committed in the late Reigns And in many other particulars not necessary here to be expressed By these means he may make both himself and these Kingdoms happy For it is certain unless I have been long in a great mistake that both the true Constitution of this State and Government is as well composed both for Prince and People as any in the World and the People as well disposed to be happily and easily governed by it as any upon the face of the Earth by any Government whatever But it was the unhappiness of the last Race of Kings to be so imposed upon by Flatterers that they never well understood either or were carried away contrary to their own sense or reason as they plainly were in many things 2. But besides these things which are of constant use to be observed at all times there may be some things now specially requisite or advisable for the present State of Affairs And such among others I humbly conceive may be 1. A fair Dismission for the present till things be better setled both from the Privy Council and from the Management of Affairs relating to Ireland of all such Persons as either he himself hath known to be unhappy in their Counsels to himself or are commonly believed by others to have been concerned in any illegal Practices or Projects in the late Reigns or have incurred the ill Opinion of the present Parliament And to make choice of such other understanding Men of unspotted Integrity though of inferiour Quality as are least suspected of Partiality to any Faction 2. A Dissolution of the present Parliament and new Writs to be speedily sent out to summon another to sit at as short a day as may be to confirm the Acts of this and to put an end to all doubts concerning the Authority of it 3. Execution of Justice upon the Disturbers of the present Settlement 4. A Review of those Counsels and Proceedings which have given such disturbance in Scotland and a speedy Restitution of matters there to the true Constitution of that Kingdom 5. A just Inspection into the Accounts of all the Money before given and a good Management of the Remainder of that and of this lately given for speedy Preparation for the next Spring to recover if possible the Reputation and Advantages lost the last Summer The Life of Man is short and incertain of Kings more incertain but of this King by reason of his corporal Infirmity most of all He hath therefore cause to be the more provident in the Management of the Opportunities and great Talents with which he is intrusted both by God and Man and of which he must shortly give account so as that he may do it with Joy and not with Grief Every wise man will make it his chief care to direct all his Actions to the attainment of his greatest personal Perfection and of his Enjoyment of the most excellent Being The same ought to be the care of those who have any Power over others to help them as much as may be to do the like And this is more especially the part of a Wise and Good King and the ready way to make himself and the People under him happy here as well as hereafter It will make him King of Men of more than Men that is Christians not of Brutes and Devils and of a whole Nation not only of a Party or Faction And for this no labour ought to be spared no Difficulties or Dangers feared otherwise King James will rise in Judgment and condemn Him. FINIS
Service them he usually if not always leads to some special Tryal of their Fidelity wherein if they acquit themselves well he makes them afterward very happy and prosperous but if ill either wholly lays them aside or leaves them to great difficulties till they recover themselves by Repentance and some very generous Act of Fidelity This Declaration was presented to him the same day in the morning on which the Lords in the afternoon presented him with an Address to accept of the Administration till a free Parliament could be assembled That both these proposals were presented to him on the same day was not without the Disposal of the Divine Providence The one was for the Honour and Service of God the other in appearance for his own Honour and both made up a plain compleat Trial. And the latter he accepted but the former hath been neglected to this day The cause of such neglect is principally either the Fascination of Prosperity which disposeth men to forget God or the Deceitfulness of Worldly Wisdom which betrays them to forsake him and apply themselves to ordinary sensible means to secure what they do in fact prefer before him When these two meet they make a strong Temptation but against both he had the fresh Experience of the Favour of God and of the irresistable Power of the Divine Providence over him and making all things easy and plain before him and this made the fault the greater and more inexcusable Nor is this so small and inconsiderable a matter as sensual men may be apt to think it which possibly may be the better perceived if we take notice more distinctly of the several particular Ingredients comprehended in it and how aptly certain like particulars of which the unhappiness of this Change is composed do correspond to them And first if we consider it only as a Neglect of Duty and Desertion for the present of a principal part of the Work to which he was led in so extraordinary a manner by the propitious Providence of God is it not as plain that that propitious Providence which before made his Progress so exceeding smooth easie and successful hath in like manner since either deserted or so neglected his affairs that all have either gone back stood still or proceeded very slowly Secondly as this Neglect was also a matter of Vnfaithfulness in his Lords Service in which he was as a special Instrument employed and intrusted so never was Unfaithfulness more notorious than in the occurrences of this last year in such as were employed and intrusted under him as is commonly believed and shall be discovered in its causes hereafter Thirdly it was a Neglect of his Honour who had conferred by so extraordinary success so much Honour and Reputation upon him and such change of success is usually attended with proportionable diminution of Honour and Reputation Lastly here was the Root of all a Desertion of Dependance and Trust in that potent Providence which had favoured him hitherto in so extraordinary a manner and recourse to deceitful Worldly Wisdom It was the Unhappiness of King James I. that after an admirable Deliverance from an horrid Popish Conspiracy ready for execution he applied himself first to connivance and at last to association with Papists for his security which contrary to his expectation proved the Original of all the mischiefs which have since befallen his Family So likewise this Prince after as great an experience of the Divine Providence over him lest the Kingdom should return to King James thought to deal wisely with them and after Hushai's advice defer this great Work first till the Kingdom should be settled and then when he was Proclaimed King till Ireland should be reduced and he should have sufficient Power an Arm of Flesh to do it effectually and in the mean time try what effect a good example and kindness intrusting them with Offices and Employments in State Army and Navy would have upon such vitious people in the end which in like manner contrary to his expectation hath proved the Original of all the Impediments and Disappointments in his affairs O that my people had hearkened unto me and Israel had walked in my ways I should soon have subdued their Enemies and turned my hand against their Adversaries The Haters of the Lord the Profane and Debauched should have submitted themselves unto him but their time should have endured for ever Psal 81.13 Now would the Lord have established thy Kingdom upon Israel for ever 1 Sam. 13.13 This was the Root of the Miscarriage Hast thou not procured this unto thy self in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God when he led thee by the way Jer. 2.17 From hence hath plainly proceeded this great change of the former prosperous course of Affairs into so disturbed impedited and unsuccessful even by a natural Chain of Causes after the first breach but those moved and promoted by the Divine Permission by other invisible Powers than those which gave that great success before The presence of so favourable a Providence ought to have been answered with a proportionable Magnanimity Resolution and Constancy in dependance upon that Divine Power but in such a case to stoop to compliance to those who ought to have been awed and subdued is dishonourable and a great offence to those Divine Powers And if those be once provok'd to withdraw a man sinks presently under the Power of them who otherwise should have been subject to him And by this Fault without doubt and his acceptance of their State did this Prince enter into the Fate of his Ancestors of this Nation and will be daily more and more involved therein until it either prove fatal to him or he by Repentance and some Magnanimous and resolute change of his course and methods extricate himself And it is very observable that he not only fell by the same Sin but fell into the very same Faction which for the four last Reigns successively have by their Flatteries of Princes for their private advantage and provocations of the people by Tricks illegal Projects and Practices brought all those mischiefs which we have seen and felt upon both Whereas both civil Prudence and Duty to God i. e. Fidelity to the Conduct of his Providence required that he should have maintained the Reputation and Authority he was raised to made himself Umpire of all Parties restrained the Excesses and discouraged the Insolences of each and with a mixture of Authority and equal Kindness to all reduced them as near as might be to a Union at least to a mutual agreement in matters of common concern But by the course of Affairs he seems to have been rather passive than active in the management thereof and what Counsels prevailed therein may by the same also be perceived Nor was it only into the same Faction that he fell but into the hands of those very Persons who in the Reign of King Charles the Second for under King James they were overtopp'd by others
Proceedings weakened his Reputation and intangled him in their Snares which yet had he steadily followed the Divine Conduct must have stooped and quietly submitted to him And now if we look forward there are but two ways before him one plain and direct the other devious dangerous full of precipices and certain mischiefs Via Lucis Via Tenebrarum the Right Way which he left and this which he hath unhappily chosen wherein if he proceeds he is like to fall into one of these Inconveniencies Either to be dangerously undermined by K. James his Party of which are many of the Faction before mentioned tho they have sworn Fidelity to him or else to be irrecoverably engaged with the old Instruments of Arbitrariness who considering how ill they have deserved of their Country can think of no better expedient to cover their own former illegal Projects then drawing the present King into a participation with themselves in the like The natural tendency of this Way to those ends is very apparent upon a humane consideration and if we consider it with respect to the Divine Providence as we have great reason to expect upon the considerations before mentioned some Divine Judgment upon it so none can be more agreeable to the Divine Methods in such a case than one of those I have now mentioned that is either to give him up to those Rehoboam-Counsels which have been so pernicious to his Predecessors in this Throne or to permit things to be brought to an aequilibrium between the two Princes and by the one way or other put an end to that Family and Government which notwithstanding all the methods which have been used to reduce them to a sence of their Duty do still continue so unprositable to his Service as some of them have before been Obstacles and pernicious Adversaries to it which yet stands undischarged upon account against their Successors But I hope and doubt not but the other direct and safe way is still open for him to return unto only being now somewhat more difficult it will require and deservedly so much the greater Resolution And this I take to be the way First to be careful to use all approv'd means for the Recovery af the Divine Favour and then to apply to the use of such Humane Means as true Wisdom and solid Policy direct and require But it must be in this Order or else he will never recover the like prosperous Success but whatever alterations in Ministers or Politicks he shall make without that will either prove unsuccessful or prove so to him he shall have but little enjoyment of it For the Recovery of the Divine Favour in this case it will be absolutely necessary 1. To settle by good consideration of the many express Declarations and parallel Examples in the Sa. Scripture a right and firm Judgment 1. That whatever were the immediate apparent Causes of the former happy Success and of the ill success since yet that the Principal hegemonical Cause in both was from God. 2. That the Provoking Cause of this great Change must have been no small Sin. 3. That there can be no hope of recovery of the Divine Favour and former Prosperous Condition but by effectual removal of that Sin whatever it be 4. That of all the Sins which have been noted for the greatest Provocations of the like Judgements heretofore there are none so likely to have had such unhappy effect in this case at that which is so often expressed in the Sacred Scripture by the phrase of the Heart being lifted up with its consequence of forgetting God. As in those great Cautions Deut. 8.14 17.10 and in those remarkable Examples even of Hezechiah 2 Chr. 32.25 that he rendred not again to the Lord according to the Benefit done unto him for his Heart was lifted up therefore there was Wrath upon him and upon Juda and Jerusalem And of Vzziah 2 Chr. 26.16 When he was strong his heart was lifted up to his destruction and Desertion or Neglect of the Special Work wherein one is employed of which Saul is a remarkable Example Lastly that there can be no removal of these Sins without great Humiliation upon contemplation of the Ingratitude and dangerous consequence thereof and a Resolute Return to the deserted or neglected Duty and therefore 2. To set resolvedly to the Work of an Effectual Reformation of this People whom God hath subjected to him and committed to his Charge to be delivered from the Slavery of their Souls to Satan by impudent Sins as well as of their Persons and Estates to Tyrants by Usurpation Which may by the same Divine Favour which will not then be wanting to his own Work be easily effected 1. By a plain Declaration of his Resolution commanding a strict Execution of the Laws in force for that purpose Which is one great part of the Regal Office. 2. By a steady use of his own immediate Authority excluding and rejecting from his Counsels Service and Presence all such as obstinately refuse Obedience and Conformity to so just reasonable and necessary Commands and Resolutions And this must be done not superficially but with great Resolution and Constancy and the greater by reason of the Failure before committed even to the hazard of his Kingdom if there was occasion for his sake who hath raised him to the Throne and can when he pleaseth as soon remove him from it and lay him and his Honour in the Dust Such a Resolution once declared will half do the Work But it must be steadily pursued and impartial without Indulgence to any for that would be to prefer a Creature before the Creator and would prove very pernicious Besides such Fools and Mad-men as are profane or glory in their Shame and such impotent Bruits as have not the Command of themselves to abstain from scandalous Sins are not fit to be admittend into the Service or Favour of a vertuous and generous Prince 3. By passing and even recommending such other good Laws as are necessary for supply of the Defects of those we have already This is the way to recover God's Blessing and this will strengthen him with the Hearts and Hands of the best and most considerable part of the Nation And this being done he may with Confidence and without Delay proceed to 2. The Proper Human Means and 1. Such as are and always will be necessary to strengthen his Kingdom at home in the Hearts of the People Which is to be done by good Government and avoiding those known Inconveniences into which his late Predecessors of this Age so unhappily fell But more particularly 1. By Justice a great part of that Righteousness by which the Throne is established both to the Community and to each Individual without Usurpation Encroachments or Oppression either by himself or his Favourites or Officers 2. By Faithfulness in the Discharge of the Regal Office directing all his Counsels and Actions for the common Interest of the Nation as his End and according to
him not for he will not pardon your Transgressions for my Name is in him Exod. 23.20 21. This was our Case And as such an Obligation requires a special Prospect Care and Caution for the future to avoid all Offence against it so the powerful and successful Progress of that Deliverance must needs make the Departure of those Powers or but Suspension of so eminent a Favour soon felt and easie to be perceived and thereby give a plain Admonition of some Offence committed And whether this be not our Case is a matter of great Importance and requiring our most serious and deepest Consideration The Deliverance in the Manner and Progress of it was so surprizing and amazing as the like is hardly to be met with in any History since that of the Israelites and yet it will not be easie to determine which is most to be admired the smooth uninterrupted prosperous and successful Progress of it or the unaccountable Stop which seems to have been put to that success and the strange slow impedited and unprosperous Course of our Affairs since How all things did visibly concur to promote that but the course of our Affairs since hath been retarded we know not how Only this we plainly see all is at a stand or moves slowly like Pharaoh's Chariots when their Wheels were off or as I have heard of a Cart bewitched which before was drawn easily loaded by four or five Horses but of a sudden became almost unmoveable in plain Ground and half unloaded by a much greater strength So have all things gon with us as if they were Inchanted for the greatest part of this year And so sudden and great an Alteration doth of it self deserve and provoke our Consideration but the dangerous Consequences thereof which have already occurred or are within view much more The late wonderful Revolution which is looked upon as our Deliverance was Compleated if we compute from the Arrival of the Prince to the Exit of King James within the space of forty three days and if we extend it to the day when the Prince was Proclaimed King it amounts but to one hundred days But upon Christmas day He was Addressed to by the Lords and two days after by the Members of the former Parliaments and the Aldermen and Common Council of the City to take upon him the Administration of Publick Affairs both Civil and Military and the Disposal of the Publick Revenue and to take into his particular care the then present Condition of Ireland All which the day following He accepted and undertook Among those four things recommended in general to the Prince and undertaken by him were some things comprehended which could not then be compleatly done by him as the Constitution of Civil Officers and of Lord Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants and other Officers in the Militia All that could then be done by him in these matters was only to consider and resolve upon fit Persons for these Employments to be Authorized as soon as might be But this was a matter of some Consequence to be setled as soon as might be as in other respects so more particularly that the more Forces might have been the sooner spared for Ireland For considering the Disposition of the People the ordinary Militia being in good hands would have been sufficient for the Security of this Nation But whatever was the matter neither were the Civil Magistrates in the several Counties that is the Justices of Peace nor the Militia setled in many Months after And for Ireland the Consequence of the speedy securing or reducing of that Nation was very great not only for the Security Ease and Benefit of this but moreover and especially in order to the common Design of the Confederates that we might have been in a condition to have Attacqued the common Enemy on the one side as they did on the other which we being animated by Success and our Enemies under no ordinary Consternation might have brought the common Design to perfection and which is of higher Consideration have produced what the Providence of God had put an Opportunity into our Hands to do directed us to and was ready to have conducted us to perform And how dismal may be the Consequence of this failure if it proceeded from any neglect in us as God alone compleatly knows so I am unwilling to declare what I suspect nor perhaps is it fit for me to do it But thus much of the Matter of Fact in this case is certain and commonly known that the Arms and Ammunition which were sent whenever that was but to that one poor Town of London-Derry which shut up their Gates the ninth of December declared for the Prince of Aurange and the Protestant Religion and immediately sent hither for speedy Relief Arrived not there till the twentieth of March nor the Forees sent with Cunningham and Richards till the fifteenth of April and then instead of Relief by deserting the Service proved only a Discouragement to them And though some others came near the seventh of June yet were not those poor Creatures actually relieved till the thirtieth of July when from seven Thousand five hundred brave Regimented Men they were reduced to about four Thousand three Hundred though nothing appears why that might not have been done full as well six Weeks before Proportionable to this for the Relief of that Town was the Progress of our Affairs for the Reducing of that Kingdom That which might with ease have been done at first grew daily more and more difficult the Difficulties increasing faster than our Preparations insomuch that March 8. King William speaking to the Lords and Commons concerning the deplorble Condition of Ireland declared That he thought it not advisable to attempt the reducing of it with less than Twenty Thousand Horse and Foot. Difficulties should and usually do excite generous Spirits to the more vigorous Action And this no doubt was the Intention of this King in that Speech Notwithstanding long it was ere we could be ready to transport our Forces and when all things were expected to be ready for that purpose how they answered the General 's expectations must be left to his own Observation and the more particular Examination of them who are not only concern'd but are in Place and Authority to do it it being commonly believed they were not so well as ought to have been And when they were at last Transported which was not till about the middle of August it seems they were not such as the General thought fit to engage with the Enemy though so lately baffled before London-Derry especially their Carriages not coming to him before the 24th of September nor have they to this day done any considerable Service And whereas it is likely the wary old General might decline any Engagement in dayly Expectation of the Danish Supplies to have been with him long since yet so unhappily hath that also fallen out that the Expectation of them hath proved only a Disappointment to us
Rehoboam-like left to the unsound and pernicious Counsels of Flatterers and unfaithful self-seeking Favourites who for their own sinister ends divided the Common Cause and set up a Separate Interest of Prerogative against Law and King against the People and turned the Court and Church into a Combined Faction This hath been the Stumbling Stone and Rock of Offence to all the former and I know not any thing that can be more dangerous to this and if he be not well aware of it to the remainder of that Royal Family if not to Monarchy it self in this Nation This is a matter of so great consequence for the Peace and Prosperity both of King and People to be well understood that it deserves a more particular consideration And these two Observations will make it very plain and apparent 1. It is certain that by the Constitution of our Government the King can legally do very little but by the Advice of some legal Council The Councils by whose Advice he is to proceed are 1. The Great Council of the Kingdom the Parliament 2. The Lords who are Conciliarii Nati 3. The Kings Council for matters of Law anciently consisting of other and more persons besides the Judges and Sergeants than now are consulted with And 4. The Privy Council But Secret Cabals and Cabinet Councils of Favourites are neither agreeable to the English Constitution nor have been ever successful but always pernicious and destructive to such Kings as have most relyed on them In what is done by advice of Legal Council the King is always and ought to be excused and the advisers answerable for it But what is done by illegal Councils is imputed to the King himself and usually produceth Discontents in the people And of this was K. Ch. II. very sensible when in his Declaration Apr. 20 1679. he tells the Privy Council He is sorry for the ill success he hath found in this course and sensible of the ill posture of affairs from that and some unhappy Accidents which have raised great Jealousies and Dissatisfaction among his good Subjects and thereby left the Crown and Government in a condition too weak for those dangers we have reason to fear both at home and abroad And then declaring his Hopes that those evils may be prevented by a course of wise and steady Councels for the future and these Kingdoms grow again to make such a figure as they have formerly done in the World and as they may always do if our VNION and CONDVCT were equal to our Force and his Resolution to that end to lay aside the use he had made of any single Ministry or private Advisers and to constitute such a Privy Council as for number and choice may be fit and to govern by constant Advice of such a Council together with the frequent use of his great Council of Parliament he adds which he takes to be the true Ancient Constitution of this State and Government The mode was before and soon taken up again to draw the Orders matters of greatest moment being first resolved in a private Cabal as made by the King in Council instead of by advice of the Council and to prefix the Names of all present instead of each who consented to them subscribing his own so that none could be charged with what was done but the King himself which was no less prejudicial to the King and Kingdom than contrary to ancient custome and the good Polity of our Ancestors The other observation is this What at first and for some time was ordered by the Assemblies of Christians the Clergy in process of time assumed to themselves to order alone and what was then done by the Common Council of the Clergy the Bishops afterward assumed to themselves alone with their Chancellors And in some ages after the Bishops of Rome made the like Encroachments upon the Right of all especially in matters of most advantage as the disposing of Bishopricks c. At last Hen. 8. with us perceiving the injustice of the Papal usurpations instead of restoring things to the right and original Institution so far prevailed with his Parliament as to get all annexed to the Crown And no doubt this was thought a special acquest and much for the advantage of the King and his Successors but it proved like ill gotten goods a pernicious morsel For it soon excited the most aspiring of the Clergy to seek by Flatteries to obtain their Favour who had the disposal of the great Preferments of the Church This soon produced false Notions concerning the Royal Power and the interest of those who designed that Profession made those Notions easily swallowed without much examination till at last the very youth in the Universities were levened with them and being so early seasoned therewith they could not but take deep root in many honest and well-meaning persons Again this must needs have the like influence upon Kings who are of themselves as apt to assume as Flatterers are to attribute whatever tends to the enlargement of their Power On the other side the greatest part of the Nation that is all who have no temptation to Flattery well knowing their own Rights could not be wheadled out of them with mistaken Names and groundless Notions And from these two Roots have sprung that combined Faction which hath so long and often occasioned the shaking this Throne with such violent concussions and will undoubtedly overturn it if things be not restored in time to their right order And to prevent so great a mischief it may be farther serviceable to observe the Difference between this Faction or the Factious Church of England and the true Church of England For as the Church of Rome arrogates to it self the Name and Title of Catholick and excludes all others who are not of that Communion from any right to it and yet is it self at best but a part of that which is indeed the Catholick Church so the great Zealots for this Faction under the Name of the Church of England will hardly deign the Name of Church of England men to any who run not to the same excess with themselves though if the matter be rightly computed they will not be found so great a part of those who do justly come under that denomination much less of the People and Strength of this Nation as they may seem to some and would be thought to be For of those who are not inferiour to any either in Conformity to the Church both in Doctrine and Worship and that not out of any sneaking or crafty compliance but judgment and choice or in true Loyalty and Fidelity to the King in his Just and Legal Rights they are as little inferiour in Number or Interest who notwithstanding preferring Christianity it self before any particular Church and a compleat genuine Loyalty to the intire State and Constitution before a partial pretended Loyalty to any party in it do not think themselves obliged either by any Duty to the present Church to