with Hereticks do watch for all Advantages and Opportunities to destroy them being commanded thereunto by their Councils and the principles of their Church and instigated by their Priests The History of the several Wars of the Barons of England in the Reigns of King Iohn Henry the Third Edward the Second and Richard the Second in Defence of their Liberties and for redressing the many Grievances under which the Kingdom groaâ—'d is a full representation of the Infidelity and Treachery of those Kings and of the Invalidity of Treaties with them how many Grants Amendments and fair Promises had they from those Princes and yet afterwards how many Ambuscades and Snares were laid to destroy those glorious Patriots of Liberty what Violations of Compacts and Agreements and what havock was made upon all Advantages and Opportunities that those false Kings could take Read their Histories in our several Chronicles FINIS A FOURTH Collection of Papers Relating to the Present Juncture of Affairs in England VIZ. I. The Prince of Orange's first Declaration from the Hague Octob. 10. 1688. With his Highnesses Additional Declaration from the Hague Octob. 24. 88. Corrected by the Original Copy printed there II. The Bishop of Rochester's Letter to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners III. The Prince of Orange's Speech to the Gentlemen of Somersetshire and Dorsetshire coming to joyn his Highness at Exeter Nov. 15. 88. IV. A true Copy of a Paper delivered by the Earl of Devonshire to the Mayor of Darby Nov. 20. 1688. V. An Address of the Mayor c. of Lyn-Regis in Norfolk to the Duke of Norfolk And the Duke's Answer Decemb. 6. 88. VI. A Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in and about the City assembled at Guild hall Decemb. 11. 1688. VII A Paper delivered to the Prince of Orange by the Commissioners sent by his Majesty VIII The King's Letter to the Earl of Feversham on his Majesties leaving White-hall with the Earl's Answer IX A Declaration of the Prince of Orange to the Commanders in Chief of the Dispersed Regiments Troops and Companies to keep them together in Order X. An Address of the Lieutenancy of London to the Pr. of Orange XI An Address of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council of London to the Prince of Orange XII A Speech of Sir G. Treby on delivery of the City Address Licensed and Entred according to Order London printed and are to be sold by Rich. Ianeway in Queen's-head Court in Pater-Noster Row 1688. THE DECLARATION Of His HIGHNESS VVilliam Henry By the Grace of God PRINCE of ORANGE c. Of the Reasons inducing him to appear in Arms in the Kingdom of England for preserving of the Protestant Religion and for restoring the Laws and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland IT is both certain and evident to all Men that the Publick Peace and Happiness of any State or Kingdom cannot be preserved where the Laws Liberties and Customs established by the Lawful Authority in it are openly Transgressed and Annulled More especially where the Alteration of Religion is endeavoured and that a Religion which is contrary to Law is endeavoured to be introduced Upon which those who are most immediately concerned in it are indispensably bound to endeavour to preserve and maintain the established Laws Liberties and Customs and above all the Religion and Worship of God that is established among them and to take such an effectual care that the Inhabitants of the said State or Kingdom may neither be deprived of their Religion nor of their Civil Rights Which is so much the more necessary because the Greatness and Security both of Kings Royal Families and of all such as are in Authority as well as the Happiness of their Subjects and People depend in a most especial manner upon the exact observation and maintenance of these their Laws Liberties and Customs Upon these Grounds it is that we cannot any longer forbear to declare That to our great regret we see that those Counsellors who have now the chief Credit with the King have overturned the Religion Laws and Liberties of those Realms and subjected them in all Things relating to their Consciences Liberties and Properties to Arbitrary Government and that not only by secret and indirect ways but in an open and undisguised manner Those Evil Counsellors for the advancing and colouring this with some plausible Pretexts did invent and set on foot the King 's Dispensing Power by virtue of which they pretend that according to Law he can Suspend and Dispense with the Execution of the Laws that have been enacted by the Authority of the King and Parliament for the Security and Happiness of the Subject and so have rendred those Laws of no effect Though there is nothing more certain than that as no Laws can be made but by the joint concurrence of King and Parliament so likewise Laws so enacted which secure the Publick Peace and Safety of the Nation and the Lives and Liberties of every Subject in it cannot be repealed or suspended but by the same Authority For though the King may pardon the Punishment that a Transgressor has incurred and to which he is condemned as in the Cases of Treason or Felony yet it cannot be with any colour of Reason inferred from thence that the King can entirely suspend the Execution of those Laws relating to Treason or Felony Unless it is pretended that he is clothed with a Despotick and Arbitrary Power and that the Lives Liberties Honours and Estates of the Subjects depend wholly on his good Will and Pleasure and are entirely subject to him which must infallibly follow on the King 's having a Power to suspend the Execution of the Laws and to dispense with them Those Evil Counsellors in order to the giving some credit to this strange and execrable Maxim have so conducted the Matter that they have obtained a Sentence from the Judges declaring that this Dispensing Power is a Right belonging to the Crown as if it were in the Power of the Twelve Judges to offer up the Laws Rights and Liberties of the whole Nation to the King to be disposed of by him Arbitrarily and at his Pleasure and expresly contrary to Laws enacted for the Security of the Subjects In order to the obtaining this Judgment those Evil Counsellors did before-hand examine secretly the Opinion of the Judges and procured such of them as could not in Conscience concur in so pernicious a Sentence to be turned out and others to be substituted in their Rooms till by the Changes which were made in the Courts of Judicature they at last obtained that Judgment And they have raised some to those Trusts who made open profession of the Popish Religion though those are by Law rendred incapable of all such Employments It is also manifest and notorious that as his Majesty was upon his coming to the Crown received and acknowledged by all the Subjects of England Scotland and Ireland as their King without the least Opposition though he made then
Orange and present to His Highness the Address agreed by the Lieutenancy for that purpose And that they begin their Journey to Morrow Morning By the Commissioners Command Geo. Evans Cl. Lieut. London To His Highness the Prince of Orange The Humble Address of the Lieutenancy of the City of London May it please Your Highness WE can never sufficiently express the deep Sence we have conceived and shall ever retain in our Hearts That Your Highness has exposed Your Person to so many Dangers both by Sea and Land for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom without which unparallel'd Undertaking we must probably have suffered all the Miseries that Popery and Slavery could have brought upon us We have been greatly concerned that before this time we have not had any seasonable Opportunity to give Your Highness and the World a real Testimony that it has been our firm Resolution to venture all that is Dear to Us to attain those Glorious Ends which Your Highness has proposed for restoring and settling these Distracted Nations We therefore now unanimously present to Your Highness our just and due Acknowledgments for the Happy Relief You have brought to us and that we may not be wanting in this present Conjuncture we have put our selves into such a Posture that by the Blessing of God we may be capable to prevent all ill Designs and to preserve this City in Peace and Safety till your Highness's Happy Arrival We therefore humbly desire that your Highness will please to repair to this City with what convenient speed you can for the perfecting the Great Work which Your Highness has so happily begun to the general Joy and Satisfaction of us all December the 17 th 1688. THE said Committee this day made Report to the Lieutenancy that they had presented the said Address to the Prince of Orange and that His Highness received them very kindly December the 17 th 1688. By the Lieutenancy Ordered That the said Order and Address be forthwith Printed Geo. Evans To His Highness the Prince of ORANGE The Humble ADDRESS of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons of the City of London in Common Council assembled May it please Your Highness WE taking into Consideration your Highness's fervent Zeal for the Protestant Religion manifested to the World in your many and hazardous Enterprizes which it hath pleased Almighty God to bless you with miraculous Success We render our deepest Thanks to the Divine Majesty for the same And beg leave to present our most humble Thanks to your Highness particularly for your appearing in Arms in this Kingdom to carry on and perfect your Glorious Design to rescue England Scotland and Ireland from Slavery and Popery and in a Free Parliament to establish the Religion the Laws and the Liberties of these Kingdoms upon a sure and lasting Foundation We have hitherto look'd for some Remedy for these Oppressions and Imminent Dangers We together with Our Protestant Fellow-Subjects laboured under from His Majesty's Concessions and Concurrences with Your Highness's Just and Pious purposes expressed in Your Gracious Declarations But herein finding Our Selves finally disappointed by His Majesty's withdrawing Himself We presume to make Your Highness Our Refuge And do in the Name of this Capital CITY implore Your Highness's Protection and most humbly beseech Your Highness to vouchsafe to repair to this CITY where Your Highness will be received with Universal Joy and Satisfaction The Speech of Sir GEORGE TREBY Kt. Recorder of the Honourable City of London to his Highness the Prince of Orange Dec. 20. 1688. May it please your Highness THE Lord Mayor being disabled by Sickness your Highness is attended by the Aldermen and Commons of the Capital City of this Kingdom deputed to Congratulate your Highness upon this great and glorious Occasion In which labouring for Words we cannot but come short in Expression Reviewing our late Danger we remember our Church and State over-run by Popery and Arbitrary Power and brought to the Point of Destruction by the Conduct of Men that were our true Invaders that brake the Sacred Fences of our Laws and which was worst the very Constitution of our Legislature So that there was no Remedy left but the Last The only Person under Heaven that could apply this Remedy was Your Highness You are of a Nation whose Alliance in all Times has been agreeable and prosperous to us You are of a Family most Illustrious Benefactors to Mankind To have the Title of Sovereign Prince Stadtholder and to have worn the Imperial Crown are among their lesser Dignities They have long enjoyed a Dignity singular and transcendent viz. To be Champions of Almighty God sent forth in several Ages to vindicate his Cause against the greatest Oppressions To this Divine Commission our Nobles our Gentry and among them our brave English Souldiers rendred themselves and their Arms upon your appearing GREAT SIR When we look back to the last Month and contemplate the Swiftness and Fullness of our present Deliverance astonish'd we think it miraculous Your Highness led by the Hand of Heaven and called by the Voice of the People has preserved our dearest Interests The Protestant Religion which is Primitive Christianity restor'd Our Laws which are our ancient Title to our Lives Liberties and Estates and without which this World were a Wilderness But what Retribution can We make to your Highness Our Thoughts are full-charged with Gratitude Your Highness has a lasting Monument in the Hearts in the Prayers in the Praises of all Good Men amongst us And late Posterity will celebrate your ever-glorious Name till Time shall be no more Chapman Mayor Cur ' special ' tent ' die Iovis xx die Decemb ' 1688. Annoque R R. Iacobi Secundi Angl ' c. quarto THis Court doth desire Mr. Recorder to print his Speech this day made to the Prince of Orange at the time of this Court 's attending his Highness with the Deputies of the several Wards and other Members of the Common-Council Wagstaffe FINIS A FIFTH Collection of Papers Relating to the Present Juncture of Affairs in England VIZ. I. The hard Case of Protestant Subjects under the Dominion of a Popish Prince II. An Answer to a late Pamphlet entitled A Short Scheme of the Vsurpations of the Crown of England c. III. An humble and hearty Address to all English Protestants in the Army Published by Mr. Iohnson in the Year 1686. IV. Several Reasons against the Establishment of a standing Army and Dissolving the Militia V. A Discourse of Magistracy of Prerogative by Divine Right of Obedience and of the Laws VI. The Definition of a Tyrant by Abr. Cowley With several Queries thereupon proposed to the Lawyers VII A Letter to the King inducing him to return to the Protestant Religion VIII Ten Seasonable Queries proposed by an English Gentleman at Amsterdam to his Friends in England Licensed and Entred according to Order London printed and are to be
the Advice to be writ clean over according to the Amendments But as they were about to part for that Dyet the Earl of Arran proposed to them as his Lordship's Advice that they should move the Prince of Orange to desire the King to return and call a Free-Parliament which would the best way to Secure the Protestant Religion and Property and to Heal all Breaches This Proposal seemed to dissatisfy the whole Meeting and the Duke of Hamilton their President Father to the Earl but they presently parted Wednesday the Ninth of Ianuary they met at three of the Clock in the same Room and Sir Patrick Hume took notice of â—he Proposal made by the Earl of Arran and desired to know if there was any there that would second it But none appearing to do it he said That what the Earl had proposed was evidently opposite and inimicous to his Highness the Prince of Orange's Undertaking his Declaration and the Good Intentions of preserving the Protestant Religion and of Restoring their Laws and Liberties exprest in it and further desired that the Meeting should declare this to be their Opinion of it The Lord Cardross seconded Sir Patrick's Motion it was answered by the Duke of Hamilton President of the Meeting That their Business was to prepare an Advice to be offered to the Prince and the Advice being now ready to go to the Vote there was no need that the Meeting should give their Sense of the Earl's Proposal which neither before nor after Sir Patrick's Motion any had pretended to own or second so that it was fallen and out of doors and that the Vote of the Meeting upon the Advice brought in by their Order would sufficiently declare their Opinion This being seconded by the Earl of Sutherland the Lord Cardross and Sir Patrick did acquiesce in it and the Meeting voted unaâ—imously the Advice following To His HIGHNESS the PRINCE of ORANGE WE the Lords and Gentlemen of the Kingdom of Scotland Assembled at your Highness's desire in this Extraordinary Conjunction do give your Highness our humble and hearty Thanks for your Pious and Generous Undertaking for Preserving of the Protestant Religion and Restoring the Laws and Liberties of these Kingdoms In order to the Attaining these Ends our humble Advice and Desire is That your Highness take upon You the Administration of all Affairs both Civil and Military the Disposal of the Publick Revenues and Fortresses of the Kingdom of Scotland and the doing every Thing that is necessary for the Preservation of the Peace of the Kingdom until a General Meeting of the States of the Nation which we humbly desire your Highness to Call to be holden at Edinburgh the Fourteenth day of March next by your Letters or Proclamation to be published at the Market-Crosses of Edinburgh and other Head-Boroughs of the several Shires and Stewartries as sufficient Intimation to All concerned and according to the Custom of the Kingdom And that the Publication of these your Letters or Proclamation be by the Sheriffs or Stewart Clerks for the Free-holders who have the value of Lands holden according to Law for making Elections and by the Town-Clerks of the several Burroughs for the meeting of the whole Burgesses of the respective Royal Burroughs to make their Elections at least Fifteen Days before the Meeting of the Estates at Edinburgh and the Respective Clerks to make Intimation thereof at least Ten Days before the Meetings for Elections And that the whole Electors and Members of the said Meeting at Edinburgh qualified as above exprest be Protestants without any other Exception or Limitation whatsoever to Deliberate and Resolve what is to be done for securing the Protestant Religion and Restoring the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom according to Your Highness's Declaration Dated at the Council-Chamber in Whitehal the Tenth Day of January 1689. This Address being Subscribed by 30 Lords and about 80 Gentlemen was presented in their presence at St. Iames 's by the Duke of Hamilton their President to his Highness the Prince of Orange who thanked them for the Trust they reposed in him and desired a Time to consider upon so weighty an Affair Upon the Fourteenth of Ianuary his Highness the Prince of Orange met again with the Scots Lords and Gentlemen at St. Iames 's And spoke to them as follows My Lords and Gentlemen IN persuance of your Advice I will untill the Meeting of the States in March next give such Orders concerning the Affairs of Scotland as are necessary for the Calling of the said Meeting for the Preserving of the Peace the applying of the Publick Revenue to the most pressing Vses and putting the Fortresses in the Hands of Persons in whom the Nation can have a just Confidence And I do further assure you That you will always find me ready to concur with you in every Thing that may be found necessary for Securing the Protestant Religion and Restoring the Laws and Liberties of the Nation The Earl of Crawfourd desired of his Highness That himself the Earl of Louthian and others come to Town since the Address was presented might have an opportunity to subscribe it which was accordingly done His Highness retireâ— and all shewed great Satisfaction with his Answer A LETTER to a Friend advising in this Extraordinary Iuncture how to free the Nation from SLAVERY for ever SIR I Doubt not but the Wisdom of the Nation will take the most effectual way to secure our Religion our Liberties and Property However being a Lover of all these I can't forbear communicating my Thoughts unto you with an assurance you 'l consider them God hath done great things for us and yet the greatest thing is not yet done there are many Difficulties in the way and many more will be thrown into it Slavery is most to be dreaded at this time What is done must be chiefly to guard against it How to do it is the principal business of the Great Men in the next Convention To know where we are is the first step to be taken Is the Government dissolved or only under some Disorders If the latter Are the Disorders such as must be laid to the Charge of the King or to his Ministers or both If to the King Are they sufficient to depose him If that be done Are we more secure from Slavery than now Will there be more than a Change of Persons in the Throne A Child for a Father a Protestant for a Papist And in a few Years the Succession may fall to the Queen of Spain or Dutchess of Savoy both Roman Catholicks and we in as great or greater danger of Popery and Slavery than we were the other day the Constitution remains the same the Iura Majestatis viz. the Militia the Power to make War or Peace the choosing Judges Sheriffs c. still in the Person of the King or if only by one Parliament restored to the People another Parliament may give them the King again Leges Posteriores priores abrogant And
by him of late it will most evidently appear to all who understand the English Constitution that it admits of no such King nor any such Power 3. The King has deserted 1. By incapacitating himself by a Religion inconsistent with the Fundamentals of our Government 2. By forsaking the Power the Constitution allow'd him and usurping a Foreign one So that tho the Person remained the King was gone long ago 3. By Personal Withdrawing Seventhly The Supreme Power Real remains in the Community and they may act by their Original Power And tho every Particular Person is notwithstanding such Dissolution Forfeiture or Desertion subject to the Laws which were made by the Supreme Power Personal when in Being yet the Communities Power is not bound by them but is paramount all Laws made by the Supreme Power Personal And has a full Right to take such Measures for Settling the Government as they shall think most sure and effectual for the lasting Security and Peace of the Nation For we must note that it was the Community of England which first gave Being to both King and Parliament and to all the other Parts of our Constitution Eighthly The most Renowned Politician observes That those Kingdoms and Republicks subsist longest that are often renewed or brought back to their first Beginnings which is an Observation of Self-evident Truth and implies That the Supream Power Real has a Right to Renew or bring back And the most ingenious Lawson observes in his Politica That the Community of England in the late Times had the greatest Advantage that they or their Ancestors had had for many Ages for this purpose tho God hid it from their Eyes But the wonderful Concurrence of such a Series of Providences as we now see and admire gives ground to hope That the Veil is removed and the Nation will now see the Things that concern their Peace Ninthly The Acts done and executed by the Supreme Power Personal when in Being have so model'd the Parts and Persons of the Community that the Original Constitution is the best justest and the most desirable The Royal Family affords a Person that both Heaven and Earth point out for King. There are Lords whose Nobility is not affected by the Dissolution of the Government and are the subject Matter of a House of Lords And there are Places which by Custom or Charter have Right to choose Representatives of the Commons Tenthly There are are inextricable Difficulties in all other Methods For 1. There is no Demise of the King neither Civil nor Natural 2. There is consequently no Descent 3. The Community only has a Right to take Advantage of the King's Forfeiture or Desertion 4. Whatever other Power may be imagin'd in the two Houses as Houses of Parliament it cannot justify it self to the Reason of any who understand the Bottom of our Constitution 5. By this Method all Popish Successors may be excluded and the Government secured in case all the Protestants of the Family die without Issue And this by the very Constitution of England And the Question can never arise about the Force or the Lawfulness of a Bill of Exclusion 6. The Convention will not be oblig'd to take Oaths c. Eleventhly If these things be granted and the Community be at Liberty to act as above it will certainly be most advisable not only for the Security and Welfare of the Nation but if rightly understood for the Interest of their Royal Highnesses to limit the Crown as follows To the Prince of Orange during his Life yet with all possible Honour and Respect to the Princess whose Interests and Inclinations are inseparably the same with his Remainder to the Princess of Orange and the Heirs of her Body Remainder to the Princess of Denmark and the Heirs of her Body Remainder to the Heirs of the Body of the Prince of Orange Remainder as an Act of Parliament shall appoint This will have these Conveniences among others 1. Husband and Wife are but one Person in Law and her Husband's Honour is hers 2. It puts the present Kingly Power into the best Hand in the World which witâ—out Flattery is agreed on by all Men. 3. It asserts the above-said Power in the Community 4. It will be some Acknowledgment to the Prince for what he has done for the Nation And it is worthy Observation that before the Theocracy of the Iews ceased the manner of the Divine Designation of their Judges was by God's giving the People some Deliverance by the Hand of the Person to whose Government they ought to submit and this even in that time of extraordinary Revelations Thus Othniel Gideon Iephthah Samson and others were invested by Heaven with the Supreme Authority And though Ioshua had an immediate Command from God to succeed Moses and an Anointing to that purpose by the laying on of Moses's Hands Yet the Foundation of the People's Submission to him was laid in Iordan And I challenge the best Historians to give an Instance since that Theocracy ceased of a Designation of any Person to any Government more visibly Divine than that which we now admire If the Hand of Providence miraculously and timely disposing Natural Things in every Circumstance to the best advantage should have any Influence upon Mens Minds most certainly we ought not here to be insensible If the Voice of the People be the Voice of God it never spoke louder If a Nation of various Opinions Interests and Factions from a turbulent and fluctuating State falls into a serene and quiet Calm and Mens Minds are strangely united on a sudden it shews from whence they are influenced In a word if the Hand of God is to be seen in Human Affairs and his Voice to be heard upon Earth we cannot any where since the ceasing of Miracles find a clearer and more remarkable Instance than is to be observ'd in the present Revolution If one examines the Posture of Foreign Affairs making way for the Prince's Expedition by some sudden Events and Occurrences which no Human Wisdom or Power could have brought about if one observes that Divine Influence which has directed all his Counsels and crown'd his Undertakings notwithstanding such innumerable Dangers and Difficulties with constant Honour and Success If one considers how happily and wonderfully both Persons and Things are changed in a little time and without Blood It looks like so many Marks of God's Favour by which he thinks fit to point him out to us in this extraordinary Conjuncture I will trouble you but with one Consideration more which is That the two things most necessary in this Affair are Unanimity and Dispatch For without both these of your Counsels will have little Effect In most things 't is good to be long in resolving but in some 't is fatal not to conclude immediately And presence of Mind is as great a Vertte as Rashness is a Vice. For the turns of Fortune are sometimes so quick that if Advantage be not taken in the critical hour
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
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
to be printed and dispersed is contrair to Law. That the taking the Children of Noblemen Gentlemen and others sending and keeping them abroad to be bred Papists The making Funds and Donations to Popish Schools and Colledges the bestowing Pensions on Priests and the perverting Protestants from their Religion by offers of Places Preferments and Pensions are contrair to Law. That the disarming of Protestants and imploying Papists in the Places of greatest Trust both Civil and Military the thrusting out Protestants to make room for Papists and the entrusting Papists with the Forts and Magazines of the Kingdom are contrair to Law. That the imposing Oaths without Authority of Parliament is contrair to Law. That the giving Gifts or Grants for raising of Mony without the Consent of Parliament or Convention of Estates is contrair to Law. That the imploying Officers of the Army as Judges through the Kingdom or imposing them where there were several Offices and Jurisdictions and the putting the Leiges to Death summarily and without legal Trial Jury or Record are contrair to Law. That the imposing extraordinary Fines the exacting of exorbitant Bail and the disposing of Fines and Forfaultures before Sentence are contrair to Law. That the Imprisoning Persons without expressing the reason thereof and delaying to put them to Trial are contrair to Law. That the causing pursue and forfault Persons upon Stretches of old and obsolete Laws upon frivolous and weak Pretences upon â—ame and defective Probation as particularly the late Earl of Aâ—gyle are contraiâ— to Law. That the nominating and imposing Magistrates Councils and Clerks upon Burgâ—s contrair to the Liberties and express Charters is contrair to Law. That the sending Leâ—ters to the Courts of Justice ordaining the Judges to stop or desist from determining Causes or ordaining them how to proceed in Causes depending before them and the changing the Nature of the Judges Gifts ad vitam aut culpam unto Commissions Durante bene placito are contrair to Law. That the granting Personal Protections for Civil Debts is contrair to Law. That the forcing the Leiges to depone against themselves in Capital Crimes however the Punishment be restricted is contrair to Law. That the using Torture without Evidence or in ordinary Crimes is contrair to Law. That the â—ending of an Army in a Hostile manner upon any part of the Kingdom in a peaceable time and exacting of Locality and any manner of Free Quarter is contrair to Law. That the charging the Leiges with Law-burroughs at the King's instance and the imposing of Bands without the Authority of Parliament and the suspending the Advocates from their Imployments for not compearing when such Bands were offered were contrair to Law. That the putting of Garisons on private Mens Houses in a time of peace without the consent of the Authority of Parliament is contrair to Law. That the opinion of the Lords of Session in the two Causes following were contrair to Law viz. 1. That the concerting the demand of a Supply for a Forfaulted Person although not given is Treason 2. That Persons refusing to discover what are their private thoughts and Judgments in relation to points of Treason or other Mens actions are guilty of Treason That the fining Husbands for their Wives withdrawing from the Church was contrair to Law. That Prelacy and Superiority of any Office in the Church above Presbyters is and hath been a great and unsupportable Grievance and Trouble to this Nation and contrair to the Inclinations of the Generality of the People ever since the Reformation they having Reformed from Popery by Presbyters and therefore ought to be abolished That it is the Right and Privilege of the Subjects to protest for remead of Law to the King and Parliament against Sentences pronounced by the Lords of Session providing the same do not stop execution of the said Sentences That it is the Right of the Subjects to Petition the King and that all Imprisonments and Prosecutions for such Petitions are contrair to Law. That for redress of all Grievances and for the amending strengthning and Preserving of the Laws Parliaments ought to be frequently called and allowed to sit and the freedom of Speech and Debate secured to the Members And they do claim and demand and insist upon all and sundry the Premisses as their undoubted Right and Liberties and that no Declarations Doings or Proceedings to the prejudice of the People in any of the said Premisses ought in any ways to be drawn hereafter in consequence and example but that all Forfaultures Fines loss of Offices Imprisonments Banishments Pursuits Persecutions and Rigorous Executions be considered and the Parties seized be redressed To which demand of the Rights and Redressing of their Grievances they are particularly incouraged by his Majesty the King of England his Declaration for the Kingdom of Scotland of the day of October last as being the only means for obtaining a full redress and remead therein Having therefore an entire Confidence That his said Majesty the King of England will perfyte the Deliverance so far advanced by him and will still preserve them from the Violation of the Rights which they have here asserted And from all other Attempts upon their Religion Laws and Liberties The said Estates of the Kingdom of Scotland do resolve That William and Mary King and Queen of England France and Ireland Be and Be Declared King and Queen of Scotland to Hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdom of Scotland to them the said King and Queen during their Lives and the longest Liver of them and that the sole and full exercise of the Royal Power be only in and exercised by him the said King in the Names of the said King and Queen during their joynt Lives And after their deceases the said Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdom to be to the Heirs of the Body of the said Queen Which sailing to the Princess Ann of Denmark and the Heirs of her Body which also sailing to the Heirs of the Body of the said William King of England And they do pray the said King and Queen of England to accept the same accordingly And that the Oath hereafter mentioned be taken by all Protestants of whom the Oath of Allegiance and any other Oaths and Declarations might be required by Law instead thereof And that the said Oath of Allegiance and other Oaths and Declarations may be Abrogated I A. B. Do sincerely Promise and Swear That I will be Faithful and bear True Allegiance to Their Majesties King WILLIAM and Queen MARY So help me God. The manner of the Proclaiming of King WILLIAM and Queen MARY at White-hall and in the City of London Feb. 13. 1688 9. ABout half an hour past Ten in the Morning the Lords and Commons came from Westminster to White-hall in their Coaches and alighted at the Gate went up into the Banqueting-House where they presented the Prince and Princess of Orange with an Instrument in Writing for declaring their Highnesses
manner following April 11 1689. THeir Majesties being come from Whitehal to Westminster and the Nobility c. being put in Order by the Heralds They came down in State into Westminster-hall where the Swords and Spurs were presented to them After which the Dean and Prebendaries of Westminster having brought the Crowns and other Regalia presented them severally to their Majesties which with the Swords and Spurs were thereupon delivered to the Lords appointed to carry them Then the Procession began in this manner Drums and Trumpets Six Clerks in Chancery two abreast as all the rest of the Proceeding went Chaplains having Dignities Aldermen of London Masters in Chancery Solicitor and Attorney General Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber Judges Children of Westminster and of the King's Chappel Choir of Westminster and Gentlemen of the Chappel Prebends of Westminster Master of the Jewel-house Privy Councellors not Peers Two Pursuivants Baronesses Barons Bishops A Pursuivant a Vicountess Vicounts Two Heralds Countesses Earls A Herald a Marchioness Two Heralds Dutchesses Dukes Two Kings of Arms The Lord Privy Seal Lord President of the Council Archbishop of York His Royal Highness Prince George of Denmark Two Persons representing the Dukes of Aquitain and Normandy Next the Lords who bore their Majesties Regalia viz. The Earl of Manchester St. Edward's Staff and the Lord Grey of Ruthin the Spurs The Earl of Clare the Queens Scepter with the Cross and the Earl of Northampton the King's The Earls of Shrewsbury Derby and Pembroke the 3 Swords Next Garter King of Arms between the Usher of the Black Rod and the Lord Mayor of London The Lord Great Chamberlain Single The Earl of Oxford with the Sword of State between the Duke of Norfolk Earl Marshall and the Duke of Ormond Lord High-Constable for that Day then the Earl of Bedford with the Queens Sceptre of the Dove and the Earl of Rutland with the King 's the Duke of Bolton with the Queen's Orb and the Duke of Grafton with the King 's the Duke of Somerset with the Queen's Crown and the Earl of Devonshire Lord Steward of his Majesties Houshold who was made Lord. High Steward of England for that Day with the King 's The Bishop of London with the Bible between the Bishop of St. Asaph with the Paten and the Bishop of Rochester with the Chalice Then the King supported by the Bishop of Winchester and the Queen by the Bishop of Bristol under a Canopy born by Sixteen Barons of the Cinque Ports His Majesties Train born by the Master of the Robes assisted by the Lord Eland Lord Willoughby Lord Landsdowne and the Lord Dunblaine and Her Majesties Train by the Dutchess of Somerset assisted by the Lady Elizabeth Pawlett Lady Diana Vere Lady Elizabeth Cavendish and the Lady Henrietta Hyde After the King a Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber and two Grooms of the Bed-Chamber and after the Queen a Lady of the Bed-Chamber and two of Her Majesties Women Lastly the Captain of His Majesties Guard between the Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard and the Captain of the Band of Pensioners followed by the Officers and Band of Yeomen of the Guard. The Sergeants at Arms going on each side of the Regalia and the Gentlemen Pensioners on each side of the Canopy Thus Their Majesties in Their Robes of Crimson Velvet the King with a Cap and the Queen a Circlet on her Head All the Nobility in Crimson Velvet Robes with their Coronets in their Hands and the rest of the Proceeding in their proper Habits marched on foot upon Blew Cloth to Westminster-Abby all the Way and Houses on each side being Crouded with vast Number of Spectators expressing their great Joy and Satisfaction by loud repeated Acclamations Being Entred the Church and all duly seated the Bishop of London who performed this great Solemnity began with the Recognition which ended with a mighty Shout Then Their Majesties Offered and the Lords who bore the Regalia presented them at the Altar The Litany was sung by two Bishops and after the Epistle Gospel and Nicene Creed the Bishop of Salisbury Preach'd on this Text 2 Sam. 23. 3 4. After Sermon Their Majesties took the Oath and being Conducted to their Regal Chairs placed on the Theater that they might be more Conspicuous to the Members of the House of Commons who were seated in the North Cross were Anointed and presented with the Spurs and Sword and Invested with the Palls and Orbs and then with the Rings and Scepters and at Four of the Clock the Crowns were put on their Heads At sight whereof the People shouted the Drums and Trumpets sounded the great Guns were discharged and the Peers and Peeresses put on their Coronets Then the Bible was presented to Them and after the Benediction They vouchsafed to Kiss the Bishops Being Inthroned first the Bishops and then the Temporal Lords did their Homage and Kissed their Majesties left Cheeks while the Treasurer of the Houshold threw about the Coronation Medals Next followed the Communion And Their Majesties having made their second Oblation received the Holy Sacrament Then the Bishop Read the final Prayers and Their Majesties retiring into St. Edward's Chappel and being new Arrayed in Purple Velvet returned to Westminster-Hall wearing Their Rich Crowns of State and the Nobility their Coronets The Nobility c. being seated at their respective Tables which were all ready furnished before their coming in The first Course for Their Majesties Table was served up with the proper Ceremony being preceded by the great Officers and the High-Constable High-Steward and Earl-Marshall And before the second Course Charles Dymoke Esq Their Majesties Champion between the High-Constable and the Earl-Marshall performed the Challenge After which the Heralds proclaimed Their Majesties Styles Dinner being ended and the whole Solemnity performed with great Splendor and Magnificence About Eight in the Evening Their Majesties returned to White-hall A Proclamation declaring WILLIAM and MARY King and Queen of England to be King and Queen of Scotland Edinburgh April 11. 1689. WHereas the Estates of this Kingdom of Scotland by their Act of the Date of these Presents have Resolved That William and Mary King and Queen of England France and Ireland Be and Be declared King and Queen of Scotland to hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdom of Scotland to them the said King and Queen during their Lives and the longest Liver of Them and that the Sole and Full Exercise of the Regal Power be only in and Exercised by the said King in the Names of the said King and Queen during their joynt Lives As also the Estates having Resolved and Enacted and Instrument of Government or Claim of Right to be presented with the Offer of the Crown to the said King and Queen They do Statute and Ordain that William and Mary King and Queen of England France and Ireland be accordingly forthwith Proclaimed King and Queen of Scotland at the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh by the Lyon King at Arms
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
so Important and Laudable a Cause and not to be hindred and prevented by those that were evil inclined towards it it was necessary to pass over into that Kingdom accompanied with some Military Forces hath thereupon made known his Intentions to their Highnesses and desired Assistance from their Highnesses that their Highnesses having maturely weighed all things and considered that the King of France and Great Britain stood in very good Correspondence and Friendship one with the other which their Highnesses have been frequently very well assured of and in a strict and particular Alliance and that their Highnesses were informed and advertised that their Majesties had laboured upon a Concert to divide and separate this State from its Alliances and that the King of France hath upon several occasions shew'd himself dissatisfied with this State which gave cause to fear and apprehend that in case the King of Great Britain should happen to compass his Aim within his Kingdom and obtain an absolute Power over his People that then both Kings out of Interest of State and Hatred and Zeal against the Protestant Religion would endeavour to bring this State to Confusion and if possible quite to subject it have resolved to commend His Highness in his undertaking of the above said Designs and to grant to him for his Assistance some Ships and Militia as Auxiliaries that in pursuance thereof His Highness hath declared to their Highnesses that he is resolved with God's Grace and Favour to go over into England not with the least insight or intention to invade or subdue that Kingdom or to remove the King from his Throne much less to make himself Master thereof or to invert or prejudice the Lawful Succession as also not to drive thence or persecute the Roman Catholicks but only and solely to help that Nation in re-establishing the Laws and Priviledges that have been broken as also in maintaining their Religion and Liberty and to that end to further and bring it about that a free and lawful Parliament may be call'd in such manner and of such Persons as are regulated and qualified by the Laws and Form of that Government and that the said Parliament may deliberate upon and establish all such Matters as shall be judged necessary to assure and secure the Lords the Clergy Gentry and People that their Rights Laws and Priviledges shall be no more violated or broken that their High and Mightinesses hope and trust that with God's Blessing the Repose and Unity of that Kingdom shall be re-established and the same be thereby brought into a Condition to be able powerfully to concur to the common benefit of Christendom and to the restoring and maintaining of Peace and Tranquillity in Europe That Copies hereof be delivered to all their Foreign Ministers residing here to be used by them as they shall see occasion The P. O's Letter to the English Army Gentlemen and Friends VVE have given you so full and so true an Account of our Intentions in this Expedition in our Declaration that as we can add nothing to it so we are sure you can desire nothing more of us We are come to preserve your Religion and to restore and establish your Liberties and Properties and therefore we cannot suffer our selves to doubt but that all true English-Men will come and concur with us in our desire to secure these Nations from POPERY and SLAVERY You must all plainly see that you are only made use of as Instruments to enslave the Nation and ruine the Protestant Religion and when that is done you may judg what ye your selves ought to expect both from the cashiering of all the Protestant and English Officers and Souldiers in Ireland and by the Irish Souldiers being brought over to be put in your places and of which you have seen so fresh an Instance that we need not put you in mind of it You know how many of your fellow-Officers have been used for their standing firm to the Protestant Religion and to the Laws of England and you cannot flatter your selves so far as to expect to be better used if those who have broke their word so often should by your means be brought cut of those Straits to which they are reduced at present We hope likewise that you will not suffer your selves to be abused by a false Notion of Honour but that you will in the first place consider what you owe to Almighty God and your Religion to your Country to your Selves and to your Posterity which you as Men of Honour ought to prefer to all private Considerations and Engagements whatsoever We do therefore expect that you will consider the Honour that is now set before you of being the Instruments of serving your Country and securing your Religion and we will ever remember the Service you shall do Us upon this Occasion and will promise unto you that We shall place such particular Marks of our Favour on every one of you as your Behaviour at this time shall deserve of Us and the Nation in which we will make a great Distinction of those that shall come seasonably to joyn their Arms with Ours and you shall find us to be Your Well-wishing and Assured Friend W. H. P. O. An Account of a wicked Design of Poysoning the PRINCE of Orange before he came out of Holland ALSO A Relation from the City of Orange of a strange METEOR representing a Crown of Light that was there seen in the Air May the 6 th 1688. In a Letter from a Gentleman in Amsterdam to his Friend in London Octob. 1. 1688. SIR THE two inclosed Relations are sent me from an Eminent Divine now at the Hague you will do well to make them publick The poysoning Business I doubt not but was contriv'd by a sort of Men that in all Ages stick at nothing to carry on their Bloody Religion An Account of a Design of Poisoning the PRINCE of ORANGE THere is a Man of Lunenburg Wolfenbuttel who being fallen in Debt in Amsterdam upon his Father's Death his Brother taking no Care of him was put in Prison and brought extream low yet he was brought out by the means of a Friend And soon after a Man who pretended to know him and to have seen him before though the German believes he never saw him seem'd to take pitty on him seeing him in a Coffee-House and gave him a Ducatoon and promised he should never want so he entred into a great familiarity with him but would never let him know where he lodged only he gave him Appointments in Coffee-Houses and Taverns and fed him from time to time with Mony At last after some weeks he drew him into a secret Walk in the Grounds that are not yet built and ask'd him if he had a Heart to do a bold Thing The German said he had if it were not such a Thing as might bring him to a Scaffold The other said There was no Danger only it would require a little hardiness Then he ask'd an
falling off of the Nobility and Gentry who avow to have no other End than to prevail with the King to secure their Religion which they saw so much in danger by the Violent Counsels of the Priests who to promote their own Religion did not care to what Dangers they exposed the King I am fully perswaded that the Prince of Orange designs the King's Safety and Preservation and hope all things may be composed without more Bloodshed by the Calling a Parliament God grant a happy End to these Troubles that the King's Reign may be prosperous and that I may shortly meet You in perfect Peace and Safety till when let me beg You to continue the same favourable Opinion that you have hitherto had of Your most Obedient Daughter and Servant ANNE A MEMORIAL OF THE Protestants of the Church of England Presented to their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of ORANGE YOur Royal Highnesses cannot be ignorant that the Protestants of England who continue true to their Religion and the Government established by Law have been many ways troubled and vexed by restless Contrivances and Designs of the Papists under pretence of the Royal Authority and things required of unaccountable before God and Man Ecclesiastical Benefices and Preferments taken from them without any other Reason but the King's Pleasure that they have been summoned and sentenced by Ecclesiastical Commissioners contrary to Law deprived of their Birth-Right in the free Choice of their Magistrates and Representatives divers Corporations dissolved the Legal Security of our Religion and Liberty established and ratified by King and Parliament annull'd and overthrown by a pretended Dispensing Power new and unheard-of Maxims have been preached as if Subjects had no Right but what depends on the King's Will and Pleasure The Militia put into the Hands of Persons not qualified by Law and a Popish Mercenary Army maintained in the Kingdom in Time of Peace absolutely contrary to Law The Execution of the Law against several high Crimes and Misdemenours superceded and prohibited the Statutes against Correspondence with the Court of Rome Papal Jurisdiction and Popish Priests suspended that in Courts of Justice those Judges are displaced who dare acquit them whom the K. would have condemned as happened to Judg Powel and Holloway for acquitting the seven Bishopâ— Liberty of chusing Members of Parliament notwithstanding all the Care taken and Provision made by Law on that behalf wholly taken away by Quo Warranto's served against Corporations and the three known Questions All things carried on in open view for the Propagation and Growth of Popery for which the Courts of England and France have so long jointly laboured with so much Application and Earnestness Endeavours used to perswade your Royal Highnesses to consent to Liberty of Conscience and abrogating the Penal Laws and Tests wherein they fell short of their Aim That they most humbly implore the Protection of your Royal Highnesses as to the suspending and Incroachments made upon the Law for maintenance of the Protestant Religion our Civil and Fundamental Rights and Priviledges and that your Royal Highnesses would be pleased to insist that the Free Parliament of England according to Law may be restored the Laws against Papists Priests Papal Jurisdiction c. put in Execution and the Suspending and Dispensing Power declared null and void the Rights and Priviledges of the City of London the free Choice of their Magistrates and the Liberties as well of that as other Corporations restored and all things returned to their ancient Channel c. THE PRINCE of ORANGE HIS DECLARATION of Novemb. 28. 1688. WE have in the course of our whole Life and more particularly by the apparent Hazards both by Sea and Land to which We have so lately exposed our Person given to the whole World so high and undoubted Proofs of our fervent Zeal for the Protestant Religion that we are fully confident no true English-man and good Protestant can entertain the least Suspicion of our firm Resolution rather to spend our dearest Blood and perish in the Attempt than not carry on the blessed and gloâ—ious Design which by the Favour of Heaven we have so successfully begun to rescue England Scotland and Ireland from Slavery and Popery and in a Free Parliament to establish the Religion the Laws and the Liberties of those Kingdoms upon such a sure and lasting Foundation that it shall not be in the Power of any Prince for the future to introduce Popery and Tyranny Towards the more easy Composing this great Design We have not been hitherto deceived in the just Expectation we had of the Concurrence of the Nobility Gentry and People of England with Us for the Security of their Religion the Restitution of the Laws and Re-establishment of their Liberties and Properties Great Numbers of all Ranks and Qualities having joined themselves to us and others at great Distances from Us have taken up Arms and declared for Us. And which we cannot but particular mention in that Army which was raised to be the Instrument of Slavery and Popery many by the special Providence of God both Officers and Common Souldiers have been touched with such a feeling Sense of Religion and Honour and of true Affection for their Native Country that they have already deserted the Illegal Service they were ingaged in and have come over to Us and have given Us full Assurance from the rest of the Army that they will certainly follow this Example as soon as with our Army we shall approach near enough to receive them without the Hazard of being prevented and betray'd To which End and that We may the sooner execute this just and necessary Design We are ingaged in for the Publick Safety and Deliverance of these Nations We are resolved with all possible Diligence to advance forward that a Free Parliament may be forthwith called and such Preliminaries adjusted with the King and all Things first settled upon such a Foot according to Law as may give Us and the whole Nation just Reason to believe the King is disposed to make such necessary Condescentions on his part as will give intire Satisfaction and Security to all and make both King and People once more Happy And that we may effect all this in the way most agreeable to our Desires if it be possible without the Effusion of any Blood except of those execrable Criminâ—als who have justly forfeited their Lives for betraying the Religion and Subverting the Laws of their Native Country We do think fit to declare that as we will offer no Violence to any but in our own Necessary Defence so we will not suffer any Injury to be done to the Person even of a Papist provided he be found in such Place and in such Condition and Circumstances as the Laws require So we are resolved and do declare that all Papists who shall be found in open Arms or with Arms in their Houses or about their Persons or in any Office or Imployment Civil or Military upon any
perhaps may not always agree with the Interest of France in this matter And I think aggravating this Breach at present to be also prejudicial to the Catholick Religion it self The great Design we have so long aimed at is applying to the King of France to take from the Hereticks all hopes of a Head or any other Protection than what they must expect from their own King whereby they finding themselves expos'd to his Pleasure will the more readily subscribe to his Will. But this misunderstanding between us will occasion an opportunity to the Hereticks to set up the Prince of Orange for their Chief And let me assure you not to deceive your selves The Religious of England as well as the Presbyterians themselves regard the Prince of Orange as their Moses and his Party is already so powerful in both these Kingdoms that it will appear terrible to any thinking Person should things come to extremity as may never happen if matters are not push'd on too far but managed with Moderation And I desire therefore with great deference to you better Judgment that this matter might be hinted to his Most Christian Majesty as opportunity shall serve and am sensible it must be done with very great caution I can tell you nothing at present concerning the certainty of calling a Parliament it requires so many things to be consider'd of and measures to be taken that his Majesty ought to be well assur'd of the success before he convenes them together I am not of opinion with many other Catholicks who say That by calling them the King hazards nothing for if they will not answer his Ends he need only prorogue them as is usually done But it is my Opinion and the Sense of many others That his Majesty hazards much for if it should unfortunately happen that they should in their Assembly refuse to comply with his Majesty's Desires it may be long enough ere he compass his Ends by way of a Parliament and perhapâ— never and then there rests no Expedient or other Means but by Violence to execute the Orders of his secret Council which must be suppos'd by his Army who upon a pretence of Incamping may be called together with the less Jealousie or Suspicion So you may see most Reverend Father that we do not want work in these Quarters and I must be supported by your Prayers which I beg of you and from all those of our Society His Majesty is so desirous that things may be done in order and upon a sure Fund so as to be the more lasting that he makes great application to the Shires and Corporations to get such Persons chosen fâ—r the Parliament as may be favourable to his Ends of which he may be sure before they come to debate And the King will make them promise so firmly and exact such Instruments from them in writing that they shall not be able to go back unless they will thereby draw upon themselves his Majesty's utmost Displeasure and make them feel the weight of his Resentment And I have here inclos'd some Effects of his Majesty's Endeavours in this matter which is an Address which the Mayor Sheriffs and Burgesses of New-Castle in the County of Stafford have presented to the King see the Gazette where this Corporation as well as Glocester and Teuxbury and others in their Addresses promise to chuse such Members as shall comply with his Majesty's Desires If all Towns were in as perfect Obedience as these we should certainly have a Parliament call'd which the Catholicks and Nonconformists expect with great Impatience But since this cannot be said of many of them the King 's secret Council think good to wait for the Queen's Delivery that they may see a Successor who may have need of the whole Protection of the Most Christian King to support him and maintain his Rights And by the Grace of God we hope that that Prince treading in his Father's steps may prove a worthy Son of our Society like his Father who thinks it no Dishonour to be so call'd As to other things most Reverend Father our Fathers with me as well as generally all the Catholicks with what grief do we hear of the Disunion that arises between his Holiness and the Most Christian King How does my Head in imitation of the Prophet's become a Spring of Tears to lament night and day the Schism that I foresâ—e coming into the Church Is is possible that our holy Society should not stand in the Breach and prevent the Mischiefs that this difference may occasion in the Church And that no body can reconciâ—e Levi and Iudah the Priesthood and the Scepter the Father and the Son the eldest Son of the Church with the Vicar of Christ upon Earth And what a Desolation and what Advantage to the Hereticks must this occasion They begin already to bid us convert the Children of the Family before we begin to convert Strangers And I must with grief confess they have but too much reason for what they say and if there does not come some present Assistance from above I foresee this Affair will occasion great Prejudices in the North Nor have we any hope that his British Majesty will interpose herein openly he receiving so little Satisfaction from his Holiness in some Demands made by his Ambassadour at Rome which morally speaking ought not to have been denied so great a King who first made this step which his Predecessors for a long time were not willing to undertake in sending his Ambassadour of Obedience to Rome And yet for all this our holy Father had not any particular Consideration of this Submission and Filial Obedience so that I dare not mention this matter but by way of Discourse daily expecting that of himself he will be pleased to make some Proposal therein I doubt not Reverend Father of your constant Endeavour to accommodate this matter thereby to take away from the Hereticks especially the Hugonots of France this occasion to laugh and deride us and we should think the Châ—nge much for the worse if instead of the French King 's going to Geneva he should march to Rome What may not all this come to especially since the Marquess de Lavardin has been so passionate in his Discourse to the Cardinal-Chancellor as to call him Impertinent and so far to forget his Duty and Reverence toward our Holy Father the Pope himself as to say he Doted as the Hereticks do confidently discourse in these parts I have caused some Masses of the Holy Ghost to be said That God would please to inspire the discontented Parties with a Spirit of Peace and Concord You did acquaint me some time since That Madam Mainteron did take upon her the Title of Daughter of the Society by virtue whereof you may command her by virtue of Obedience to use her Credit and Eloquence with the King to incline him to an Accommodation in this matter In the mean time I hear that at Rome many eminent Persons
Theologian and will seem to be a good Bishop and to have a great care of his Diocess and would heretofore seem a great Preacher I have hinted in my last the Reasons why I cannot altogether like him which are needless to repeat The Arch-bishop of Paris is always the same I mean a gallant Man whose present Conversation is charming and loves his Pleasures but cannot bear any thing that grieves or gives trouble though he is always a great Enemy of the Iansenists which he lately intimated to Cardinal Camus He is always with me in the Council of Conscience and agrees very well with our Society laying mostly to Heart the Conversion of the Protestants of the three Kingdoms He also makes very good Observations and Designs to give some Advice to your Reverence which I shall convey to you I do sometimes impart to him what you write to me My Lord Kingston has embrac'd our good Party I was present when he Abjur'd in the Church of St. Denis I will give you the Circumstances some other time You promised to send me the Names of all Heretick Officers who are in his Majesty's Troops that much imports me and you shall not want good Catholick Officers to fill up their places I have drawn a List of them who are to pass into England and his most Christian Majesty approves thereof Pray observe what I hinted to you in my last on the Subject of the Visits which our Fathers must give to the Chief Lords Members of the next Parliament those Reverend Fathers who are to perform that Duty must be middle-aged with a lively Countâ—nance and fit to perswade I also advised you in some of my other Letters how the Bishop of Oxford ought to behave himself by writing incessantly and to insinuate into the People the putting down the Test and at the same time calm the Storm which the Letter of Pentionary Fagel has raised And his Majesty must continue to make vigorous Prohibitions to all Booksellers in London not to print any Answers as well to put a stop to the Insolency of Heretick Authors as also to hinder the People from reading them In short you intimate to me That his Majesty will follow our Advice It 's the quickest way and I cannot find a better or fitter to dispossess his Subjects from such Impressions as they have received His Majesty must also by the same Declaration profess in Conscience that if complied with he will not only keep his Word to maintain and protect the Church of England but will also confirm his Promises by such Laws as the Protestants shall be contented with This is the true Politick way for by his granting all they cannot but consent to something His most Christian Majesty has with great success experienced this Maxim And though he had not to struggle with Penal Laws and Tests yet he found it convenient to make large Promises by many Declarations for since we must dissemble you must endeavour all you can to perswade the King it is the only Method to effect his Design I did also in my last give you a hint of its Importance as well as the ways you must take to insinuate your selves dexterously with the King to gain his good Will. I know not whether you have observed what passed in England some Years since I will recite it because Examples instruct much One of our Assisting Fathers of that Kingdom which was Father Parsons having written a Book against the Succession of the King of Scots to the Realm of England Father Creighton who was also of our Society and upheld by many of our Party defended the Cause of that King in a Book Intituled The Reasons of the King of Scots against the Book of Father Parsons And though they seem'd divided yet they understood one another very well this being practised by order of our General to the end that if the House of Scotland were Excluded they might shew him who had the Government the Book of Father Parsons and on the other Hand if the King happened to be restored to the Throne they might obtain his good Will by shewing him the Works of Father Chreighton So that which way soever the Medal turn'd it still prov'd to the advantage of our Society Not to digress from our Subject I must desire you to read the English Book of Father Parsons Intituled The Reform of England where after his blaming of Cardinal Pool and made some observations of Faults in the Council of Trent he finally concludes That suppose England should return as we hope to the Catholick Faith in this Reign he would reduce it to the State of the Primitive Church And to that end all the Ecclesiastical Revenue ought to be used in common and the Management thereof committed to the care of Seven Wise Men drawn out of our Society to be disposed of by them as they should think fit Moreover he would have all the Religious Orders forbidden on Religious Penalties not to return into the Three Kingdoms without leave of those Seven Wise Men to the end it might be granted only to such as live on Alms. These Reflections seem to me very judicious and very suitable to the present State of England The same Father Parsons adds That when England is reduced to the True Faith the Pope must not expect at least for Five Years to reap any benefit of the Ecclesiastical Revenue but must leave the whole in the hands of those Seven Wise Men who will manage the same to the Benefit and Advancement of the Church The Court goes this day for Marli to take the Divertisements which are there prepared I hope to accompany the King and will entertain him about all Business and accordingly as he likes what you hint to me in your Letter I shall give you notice I have acquainted him with his Britannick Majesty's Design of building a Citadel near Whitehal Monsieur Vauban our Engineer was present After some Discourse on the Importance of the Subject his Majesty told Monsieur Vauban that he thought it convenient he should make a Model of the Design and that he should on purpose go over into England to see the Ground I have done all I could to suspend the Designs of our Great Monarch who is always angry against the Holy Father both Parties are stubborn the King 's natural Inclination is to have all yield to him and the Pope's Resolution is unalterable All our Fathers most humbly salute your Reverence Father Roine Ville acts wonderfully about Nismes amongst the New Converts who still meet notwithstanding the Danger they expose themselves to I daily expect News from the Frontiers of the Empire which I shall impart to your Reverence and am with the greatest Respect Yours c. Paris March 7. 1688. Popish Treaties not to be rely'd on In a Letter from a Gentleman at York to his Friend in the Prince of ORANGE's Camp. Addressed to all Members of the next Parliament THE Credulity and Superstition of
Liberties Honours and Estates do depend those Evil Counsellors have subjected these to an Arbitrary and Despotick Power In the most important Affairs they have studied to discover before-hand the Opinions of the Judges and hâ—ve turned out such as they found would not conform themselves to their Intentions and have put others in their places of whom they were more assured without having any regard to their Abilities And they have not stuck to raise even professed Papists to the Courts of Judicature notwithstanding their Incapacity by Law and that no Regard is due to any Sentences flowing from them They have carried this so far as to deprive such Judges who in the common Administration of Justice shewed that they were governed by their Consciences and not by the Directions which the others gave them By which it is apparent they design to render themselves the absolute Masters of the Lives Honours and Estates of the Subjects of what Rank or Dignity soever they may be and that without having any regard either to the Equity of the Cause or to the Conscience of the Judges whom they will have to submit in all things to their own will and Pleasure hoping by such ways to intimidate those who are yet in Imployment as also such others as they shall think fit to put in the rooms of those whom they have turned out and to make them see what they must look for if they should at any time act in the least contrary to their good liking and that no failings of that kind are pardoned in any Persons whatsoever A great deal of Blood has been shed in many places of the Kingdom by Judges governed by those Evil Counsellors against all the Rules and Forms of Law without so much as suffering the Persons that were accused to plead in their own Defence They have also by putting the Administration of Justice into the hands of Papists brought all the matters of Civil Justice into great uncertainties with how much Exactness and Justice soever that these Sentences may have been given For since the Laws of the Land do not only exclude Papists from all places of Judicature but have put them under an Incapacity none are bound to acknowledg or to obey their Judgments and all Sentences given by them are null and void of themselves so that all Persons who have been cast in Trials before such Popish Judges may justly look on their pretended Sentences as having no more force than the Sentences of any private and unauthorized Person whatsoever So deplorable is the Case of the Subjects who are obliged to answer to such Judges that must in all things stick to the Rules which are set them by those Evil Counsellors who as they raised them up to those Imployments so can turn them out of them at pleasure and who can never be esteemed lawful Judges so that all their Sentences are in the Construction of the Law of no Force and Efficacy They have likewise disposed of all Military Imployments in the same manner for tho the Laws have not only excluded Papists from all such Imployments but have in particular provided that they should be disarmed yet they in Contempt of these Laws have not only armed the Papists but have likewise raised them up to the greatest Military Trusts both by Sea and Land and that Strangers as well as Natives and Irish as well as English that so by those means having rendred themselves Masters both of the Affairs of the Church of the Government of the Nation and of the course of Justice and subjected them all to a Despotick and Arbitrary Power they might be in a Capacity to maintain and execute their wicked Designs by the assistance of the Army and thereby to enslave the Nation The dismal Effects of this Subversion of the established Religion Laws and Liberties in England appear more evident to us by what we see done in Ireland Where the whole Government is put into the Hands of Papists and where all the Protestant Inhabitants are under the daily Fears of what may be justly apprehended from the Arbitrary Power which is set up there which has made great numbers of them leave that Kingdom and abandon their Estates in it remembring well that cruel and bloody Massacre which fell out in that Island in the Year 1641. Those Evil Counsellous have also prevailed with the King to declare in Scotland that he is clothed with Absolute Power and that all the Subjects are bound to obey him without Reserve upon which he has assumed an Arbitrary Power both over the Religion and Laws of that Kingdom from all which it is apparent what is to be looked for in England as soon as matters are duly prepared for it Those great and insufferable Oppressions and the open Contempt of all Law together with the apprehensions of the sad Consequences that must certainly follow upon it have put the Subjâ—â—ts under great and just Fears and have made them look after such lawful Remedies as are allowed of in all Nations yet all has been without Effect And those Evil Counsellours have endeavoured to make all Men apprehend the loss of their Lives Liberties Honours and Estates if they should go about to preserve themselves from this Oppression by Petitions Representations or other means authorised by Law. Thus did they proceed with the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the other Bishops who having offer'd a most humble Petition to the King in terms full of Respect and not exceeding the number limited by Law in which they set forth in short the Reasons for which they could not obey that Order which by the Instigation of those Evil Counsellors was sent them requiring them to appoint their Clergy to read in their Churches the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience were sent to Prison and afterwards brought to a Trial as if they had been guilty of some enormous Crime They were not only obliged to defend themselves in that pursuit but to appear before professed Papists who had not taken the Test and by Consequence were Men whose Interest led them to condemn them and the Judges that gave their Opinion in their Favours were thereupon turned out And yet it cannot be pretended that any Kings how great soever their Power has been and how Arbitrary and Despotick soever they have been in the exercise of it have ever reckoned a Crime for their Subjects to come in all Submission and Respect and in a due Number not exceeding the Limits of the Law and represent to them the Reasons that made it impossible for them to obey their Orders Those Evil Counsellors have also treated a Peer of the Realm as a Criminal only because he said that the Subjects were not bound to obey the Orders of a Popish Justice of Peace tho it is evident that they being by Law rendred incapable of all such Trusts no regard is due to their Orders This being the Security which the People have by the Law for their Lives Liberties Honours and
being also distinguished by their constant Fidelity to the Crown who do both accompany Us in this Expedition and have earnestly solicited Us to it will cover Us from all such Malicious Insinuations For it is not to be imagined that either those who have invited Us or those that are already come to assist Us can join in a wicked Attempt of Conquest to make void their own lawful Titles to their Honours Estates and Interests We are also confident that all Men see how little weight there is to be laid on all Promises and Engagements that can be now made since there has been so little regard had in Time past to the most solemn Promises And as that imperfect Redress that is now offered is a plain Confession of those Violations of the Government that we have set forth so the defectiveness of it is no less Apparent for they lay down nothing which they may not take up at pleasure and they reserve entire and not so much as mentioned their Claims and Pretences to an Arbitrary and Despotick Power which has been the root of all their Oppression and of the total subversion of the Government And it is plain that there can be no Redress nor Remedy offered but in Parliament by a Declaration of the Rights of the Subjects that have been invaded and not by any pretended Acts of Grace to which the extremity of their Affairs has driven them Therefore it is that we have thought fit to declare that we will refer all to a Free Assembly of the Nation in a Lawful Parliament Given under our Hand and Seal at our Court in the Hague the 24 th day of October in the Year of our Lord 1688. William Henry Prince of Orange By his Highness special Command C. HUYGENS. To the Right Honourable My Lords of his Majesty's Commission Ecclesiastical IMost humbly Intreat your Lordships Favourable Interpretation of what I now Write That since your Lordships are resolved to Proceed against those who have not complyed with the King's Command in Reading His Deelaration It is absolutely impossible for me to Serve His Majesty any longer in this Commission I beg leave to tell your Lordships that though I my Self did submit in that particular yet I will never be any way Instrumental in Punishing those my Brethren that did not For as I call God to Wittness that what I did was meerly in a Principle of Conscience So I am fully satisfied that their forbearance was upon the same Principle I have no Reason to think otherwise of the whole Body of our Clergy who upon all Occasions have signaliz'd their Loyalty to the Crown and their Zealous Affections to His Present Majesty's Person in the worst of Times Now my Lords the safety of the whole Church of England seeming to be exceedingly concerned in this Prosecution I must declare I cannot with a safe Conscience Sit or Iudg in this Caufe upon so many Pious and Excellent Men with whom if it be God's Will it rather becomes me to Suffer than to be in the least an Occasion of their Sufferings I therefore earnestly request your Lordships to interceed with His Majesty that I may be Graciously dismissed from any further Attendance at your Board And to assure him that I am still ready to Sacrifice what ever I have to His Service but my Conscience and Religion My Lords I am your Lordships most Faithful and Obedient Servant ROCHESTER This Letter as also the foresaid Declaration should have been in the first Collection but were forgotten till this The Speech of the Prince of Orange to some Principle Gentlemen of Somersetshire and Dorsetshire on their coming to Ioyn his Highness at Exeter the 15th of Nov. 1688. THO we know not all your Persons yet we have a Catalogue of your Names and remember the Character of your Worth and Interest in your Country You see we are come according to your Invitation and our Promise Our Duty to God obliges us to protect the Protestant Religion and our Love to Mankind your Liberties and Properties We expected you that dwelt so near the place of our Landing would have joyn'd us sooner not that it is now too late nor that we want your Military Assistance so much as your Countenance and Presence to justify our declar'd Pretensions rather than accomplish our good and gracious Designs Tho we have brought both a good Fleet and a good Army to render these Kingdoms happy by rescuing all Protestants from Popery Slavery and Arbitrary Power by restoring them to their Rights and Properties established by Law and by promoting of Peace and Trade which is the Soul of Government and the very Life-Blood of a Nation yet we rely more on the Goodness of God and the Justice of our Cause than on any Humane Force and Power whatever Yet since God is pleased we shall make use of Humane means and not expect Miracles for our preservation and Happiness let us not neglect making use of this gracious Opportunity but with Prudence and Courage put in Execution our so honourable Purposes Therefore Gentlemen Friends and Fellow-Protestants we bid you and all your Followers most heartily Well come to our Court and Camp. Let the whole World now Judg if our pretentions are not Just Generous Sincere and above Price since we might have even a Bridg of Gold to Return back But it is our Principle and Resolution rather to dye in a Good Cause than live in a Bad one well knowing that Vertue and True Honour is its own Reward and the Happiness of Mankind Our Great and Only Design The True Copy of a Paper delivered by the Lord Devonshire to the Mayor of Darby where he quarter'd the One and twentieth of November 1688. WE the Nobility and Gentry of the Northern Parts of England being deeply sensible of the Calamities that threaten these Kingdoms do think it our Duty as Christians and good Subjects to endeavour what in Us lies the Healing of our present Distractions and preventing Greater And as with Grief We apprehend the sad Consequences that may arise from the Landing of an Army in this Kingdom from Foreign Parts So We cannot but deplore the Occasion given for it by so many Invasions made of late years on our Religion and Laws And whereas We cannot think of any other Expedient to compose our Differences and prevent Effusion of Blood than that which procured a Settlement in these Kingdoms after the late Civil Wars the Meeting and Sitting of a Parliament freely and duly Chosen We think our Selves obliged as far as in Us lies to promote it And the rather because the Prince of Orange as appears by His Declaration is willing to submit His own Pretensions and all other Matters to their Determination We heartily wish and humbly pray That His Majesty would Consent to this Expedient in order to a future Settlement And hope that such a Temperament may be thought of as that the Army now on foot may not give any Interruption to
the proceeding of a Parliament But if to the great Misfortune and Ruine of these Kingdoms it should prove otherwise We further Declare That We will to our utmost defend the Protestant Religion the Laws of the Kingdom and the Rights and Liberties of the Subject A Letter from a Gentleman at Kings-Lyn Decemb 7. 1688. to his Friend in London SIR THE Duke of Norfolk came to Town on Wednesday Night with many of the chiefest of the County and yesterday in the Market-place received the Address following which was presented by the Mayor attended by the Body and many hundreds of the Inhabitants To his Grace the most Noble HENRY Duke of Norfolk Lord Marshal of England My Lord THE daily Allarums we receive as well from Foreign as Domestick Enemies give us just Apprehensions of the approaching Danger which we conceive we are in and to apply with all earnestness to your Grace as our great Patron in all humble Confidence to succeed in our Expectations That we may be put into such a posture by your Grace's Directions and Conduct as may make us appear as zealous as any in the Defence of the Protestant Religion the Laws and Ancient Government of this Kingdom Being the desire of many hundreds who most humbly challenge a Right of your Grace's Protection His Grace's Answer Mr. Mayor I Am very much obliged to you and the rest of your Body and those here present for your good Opinion of me and the Confidence you have that I will do what in me lies to support and defend the Laws Liberties and Protestant Religion in which I will never deceive you And since the coming of the Prince of Orange hath given us an opportunity to declare for the defence of them I can only assure you that no Man will venture his Life and Fortune more freely for the Defence of the Laws Liberties and Protestant Religion than I will do and with all these Gentlemen here present and many more will unanimously concur therein and you shall see that all possible Care shall be taken that such a Defence shall be made as you require AFter which the Duke was with his Retinue received at the Mayor's House at Dinner with great Acclamations and his Proceedings therein have put our County into a Condition of Defence of which you shall hear further in a little time our Militia being ordered to be raised throughout the County Our Tradesmen Seamen and Mobile have this morning generally put Orange Ribbon on their Hats Ecchoing Huzza's to the Prince of Orange and Duke of Norfolk All are in a hot Ferment God send us a good issue of it Lyn-Regis Decemb. 10. 1688. SIR BY mine of the 7 th Instant I gave you an Account of the Address of this Corporation to hiâ— Grace the Duke of Norfolk and of his Grace's Answer thereto Since which his Grace has sent for the Militia Troops and put them in a posture of Defence as appears by the ensuing Speech The Duke of Norfolk's Second Speech at Lynn I Hope you see I have endeavoured to put you in the posture you desired by sending both for Horse and Foot of the Militia and am very glad to see such an Appearance of this Town in so good a Condition And I do again renew my former Assurances to you that I will ever stand by you to defend the Laws Liberties and the Protestant Religion and to procure a Settlement in Church and State in concurrence with the Lords and Gentlemen in the North and pursuant to the Declaration of the Prince of Orange And so God save the King. The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in and about the Cities of London and Westminster Assembled at Guildhal Dec. 1688. WE doubt not but the World believes that in this Great and Dangerous Conjuncture We are heartily and zealously concerned for the Protestant Religion the Laws of the Land and the Liberties and Properties of the Subject And We did reasonably hope that the King having Issued His Proclamation and Writs for a Free Parliament We might have rested Secure under the Expectation of that Meeting But His Majesty having withdrawn Himself and as We apprehend in order to His Departure out of this Kingdom by the Pernicious Counsels of Persons ill Affected to Our Nation and Religion We cannot without being wanting to Our Duty be silent under those Calamities wherein the Popish Counsels which so long prevailed have miserably involved these Realms We do therefore Unanimously resolve to apply Our Selves to His Highness the Prince of Orange who with so great Kindness to these Kingdoms so vast Expence and so much hazard to his own Person hath Undertaken by endeavouring to Procure a Free Parliament to rescue Us with as little Effusion as possible of Christian Blood from the imminent Dangers of Popery and Slavery And We do hereby Declare That We will with our utmost Endeavours assist his Highness in the obtaining such a Parliament with all speed wherein Our Laws Our Liberties and Properties may be Secured the Church of England in particular with a due Liberty to Protestant Dissenters and in general the Protestant Religion and Interest ovâ—r the whole World may be Supported and Encouraged to the Glory of God the Happiness of the Established Government in these Kingdoms and the Advantage of all Princes and States in Christendom that may be herein concerned In the mean time We will Endeavour to Preserve as much as in Us lies the Peace and Security of these great and populous Cities of London and Westminister and the Parts Adjacent by taking Care to Disarm all Papists and Secure all Jesuits and Romish Priests who are in or about the same And if there be any thing more to be performed by Us for promoting His Higness's Generous Intentions for the Publick Good We shall be ready to do it as occasion shall Require W. Cant. Tho Ebor. Pembroke Dorset Mulgrave Thanet Carlisle Craven Ailesbury Burlington Sussex Berkeley Rochester Newport Weymouth P. Winchester W. Asaph Fran. Ely. Tho. Roffen Tho. Petribtrg P. Wharton North and Grey Chandos Montague T. Iermyn Vaughan Carbery Culpeper Crewe Osulston WHereas His Majesty hath privately this Morning withdrawn himself We the Lords Spiritual and Temporal whose Names are Subscribed being assembled at Guild-hall in London having Agreed upon and Signed a Declaration Entituled The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in and about the Cities of London and Westminister Assembled at Guild-hall 11 Decemb. 1688. Do desire the Right Honourable the Earl of Pembroke the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Weymouth the Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of Ely and the Right Honourable the Lord Culpeper forthwith to attend his Highness the Prince of Orange with the said Declaration and at the same time acquaint his Highness with what we have further done at that Meeting Dated at Guild-hall the 11 th of December 1688. A Paper delivered to his Highness the Prince of Orange by the Commissioners sent by
and Setled in the Kingdom by the General Election of the People and in his Life-time the Nation was Sworn to the Succession of Edward the First before he went to the Holy Land. Edward the First being out of England by the Consent of Lords and Commons was declared King. Edward the Second being misled and relying too much upon his Favourites was Deposed and his Son was declared King in his Life-time Richard the Second for his evil Government had the Fate of the Second Edward Henry the Fourth came in by Election of the People to whom Succeeded Henry the Fifth and Henry the Sixth in whose time Richard Duke of York claimed the Crown and an Act of Parliament was made that Henry the Sixth should enjoy the Crown for his Life and the said Duke after him after which King Henry raises an Army by Assistance of the Queen and Prince and at Wakefield in Battel kills the Duke for which 1 Ed. 4. they were all by Act of Parliament Attainted of Treason and one principal Reason thereof was for that the Duke being declared Heir to the Crown after Henry by Act of Parliament they had killed him Edward the Fourth enters the Stage and leaves Ed. 5. to Succeed to whom Succeeds Richard the Third Confirmed King by Act of Parliament upon Two Reasons First That by reason of a Precontract of Edward the Fourth Edward the Fifth his Eldest Son and all his other Children were Bastards Secondly For that the Son of the Duke of Clarence second Brother to Edward the Fourth had no Right because the Duke was Attainted of Treason by a Parliament of Ed. the 4 th Henry the Seventh comes in but had no Title First Because Edward the Fourth's Daughter was then living Secondly His own Mother the Countess of Richmond was then living After him Henry the Eighth wore the Crown who could have no Title by the Father in his time the Succession of the Crown was Limitted several times and the whole Nation Sworn to the Observance Sir Thomas Moor declared That the Parliament had a Power to bind the Succession which was declared to be Law by 13 Eliz. cap. 1. and made a Praemunire to hold the contrary Edward the Sixth succeeded but his Mother was married to King Henry while Ann of Cleve his Wife was living Queen Mary was declared a Bastard and by Vertue of an Act of Parliament of Henry the Eighth she Succeeded which Act being Repealed in the First of her Reign and the Crown being Limitted otherwise by Parliament all the Limitations of the Crown in King Henry the Eighth's Reign were avoided so that Queen Elizabeth who was declared a Bastard by Act of Parliament in Henry the Eighth's time and limitted to Succeed in another Act in his time and that Act repealed by Queen Mary became Queen in the force of her own Act of Parliament which declares her Lawful Queen The Crown was Entail'd in Richard the Second's time again in the time of Henry the Fourth again in the time of Henry the Sixth again in the time of Edward the Fourth again in the time of Richard the Third again in the time of Henry the Seventh Thrice in the time of Henry the Eighth And upon the Marriage of Queen Mary to King Philip of Spain both the Crowns of England and Spain were Entailed whereby it was provided that of the several Children to be Begotten upon the Queen one was to have the Crown of England another Spain another the Low-Countries the Articles of Marriage to this purpose were Confirmed by Act of Parliament and the Pope's Bull. So that it was agreed by the States of both Kingdoms and the Low-Countries and therefore probably the Universal Opinion of the Great Men of that Age That Kings and Sovereign Princes with the Consent of their States had a Power to Alter and Bind the Succession of the Crown and never denied to be Law till the Reign of King Charles the Second True it is that this Doctrine doth not go down well with those that do pretend to Prerogative added as they say by the Act of Recognition made to King Iames and the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance which do make so much talk conceâ—ning Inheritance and Heirs But let these Gentlemen consider that the Act of Recognition made no Law for the future nor doth the same cross the Statute of 13 Eliz. nor doth it take away the power of the Parliament from over-ruling the Course of the Common-Law for after-Ages Nor do the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy hold forth any such Obligation unto Heiâ—s otherwise than as supposing them to be Successors and in that Relation only And therefore was no such Allegiance due to Edward the Sixth Queen Mary or Queen Elizabeth until they were actually possest of the Crown as may appear by the Oath forced by the Statute of H. 8. touching their Succession Nor did the Law suppose any Treason could be acted against the Heirs of Ed. 6. Queen Mary or Queen Eliz. until these Heirs were actually possest of the Crown and so were Kings and Queens as by the express words in the several Statutes do appear Nor did the Recognition by the Parliament made to Queen Elizabeth declare any engagement to the People to assist and defend Her and the Heirs of Her Body otherwise than with this Limitation being Kings and Queens of this Realm as by the Statute in that behalf made doth appear Moreover had these Oaths been otherwise understood the Crown had by virtue of them been preingaged so as it could never have Descended to Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth or King Iames but must have remained to the Heirs of Edward the Sixth for ever A Narrative of the Miseries of New-England by reason of an Arbitrary Government Erected there THat a Colony so considerable as New-England is should be discouraged is not for the Honour and Interest of the English Nation in as much as the People there are generally Sober Industrious Well-Disciplin'd and apt for Martial Affairs so that he that is Sovereign of New-England may by means thereof when he pleaseth be Emperor of America Nevertheless the whole English Interest in that Territory has been of late in apparent danger of being lost and ruined and the Miseries of that People by an Arbitrary Government erected amongst them have been beyond Expression great The original of all which has been the Quo Warranto's issued out against their Charâ—ers by means whereof they have been deprived of their ancient Rights and Priviledges As for the Massachusets Colony whose Patent beareth date from the Year 1628. There was in the Year 1683 a Quo Warranto and after that in the Year 1684 a Writ of Scire Facias against them and they were required to make their appearance at Westminster in October which they knew nothing of till the month before so that it was impossible for them to answer at the time appointed yet Judgment was entred against them Plimouth Colony
proved that it is utterly impossible for a Popish Prince who has none but these Three Kingdoms to set up Popery in this Nation and that all he can gain by the Attempt will be the Ruine of himself And certainly they could not but apprehend this might possibly if not probably be the Event yet after all King and Kingdom was at last to be sacrificed to the holy See of Rome and on they went when they had proved it impossible to succeed I need be the less exact in setting down what they have done it being within the space of four Years last past that they have had the management of Affairs and so all things are as fresh in all Mens Memories as if they had been acted but yesterday I think then that I may from these Premises safely conclude that a more daring restless and implacable Faction never appeared under the Sun than this is And that it is the Interest of every true English Protestant of what Perswasion soever he be to do his utmost to free this miserable Nation from the Danger and Fear too if it be possible of ever feeling again the dire Effects of Popish Zeal or rather Fury Our wise Ancestors for above these three hundred Years have been labouring to restrain this Demonâ—ick by Laws Oaths and Tests and when all the Methods of Severity fail'd we have tried the Charms of Kindness Trust Friendship and Reliance We set up a Prince of their Communion and opposed all those that would have Excluded him with a Zeal which made us look a little too much in love with one who seem'd designed to be our Scourge by Heaven it self When he had declared his Religion and some of his Party amongst whom Nevel Paine was one had given us clear Indications of their Rage against us yet we in Parliament not only attainted and thereby ruin'd the late Duke of Monmouth and his Party but when some Gentlemen propos'd to have the Security of the Protestant Religion taken into Consideration the House declared they would intirely rely upon his Majesty's Promise for the Security of their Religion which they valued more than their Lives And before this when Charles the Second the 30 th of April 1679 to avoid the Exclusion-Bill propos'd very advantageous Restrictions of the Authority of a Roman Catholick Prince the Church-of-England-men rejected them for fear they should too much weaken and expose the Regal Authority not to mention the Favours shewn to all the whole Roman Catholick Party during the fierce Prosecution of the Popish Plot in that Prince's Reign Well what could have been done more than was to oblige Men or Christians to treat us like Friends when they had an opportunity to express their Gratitude No stay you there Gentlemen we Roman Catholicks have but one Friend in this World and if you are not for him too stand off expect nothing from us but Ruin and Desolation Will you Repeal the Penal Laws and the Tests Why I cannot betray my Religion Then make room for one that will Turn out Ite Procul Ite Profani And we all know what follow'd and I suppose no body in this Generation will have so little wit as to pretend any more to oblige a Roman Catholick by any of these things Well will Oaths bind them No they have a Pope and a Maxim that will frustrate that Ligament when ever it is for their convenience to be free And of this we have seen and felt too much already Will Laws If you catch and hang the Priest the Traitor the Cut-throat he is made a Martyr his Crime 's deny'd palliated excus'd or it may be justified and defended as occasion serves and yet after all they shall have the Satisfaction of clamouring against you for a persecuting Church and a bloody Nation Well what is to be done Why for my part I can see but one possible Method to quiet the Nation and that is once for all to clear it of these Monsters and force them to transplant themselves not out of the English Dominions but out of this Island As long as they continue amongst us they neither can nor will be quiet Priests they must and will have and that Ferment will suffer nothing near it to be at rest The remembrance of what is past will irritate the Minds of Men and make them jealous of future Evils so that no care of the wisest and best Governours can long keep the Nation in Tranquillity and Peace if these Men-catchers are suffered to nestle amongst us But then I would have this extended only to England and Scotland because Ireland would be laid desolate by such an Expedient and if the English Nation which has not above 40000 Roman Catholicks were once cleared it would very easily suppress and revenge any Attempt could be made in that Kingdom Besides this all Feme Coverts all Persons above sixty or fifty years of Age all Day-labourers and Handy-crafts-men might be excepted these can maintain no Priests nor much imbroil the Peace of the Nation or at least for no long time but then all the Nobility Gentry Merchants and rich Tradesmen of that Religion I think ought to be sent packing and for the future a Law be made to disfranchise them and make them incapable of possessing purchasing inheriting or transmitting any Lands Tenements or Hereditaments to the value of forty Shillings per Annum or upwards To make this the more easy yet it were fitting that every individual Person should be asked whether he had rather leave Country or his Religion and all that would promise the latter upon Oath to be excused but so as to forfeit their Estates if they relapsed after the Oath so taken or brought up their Children in that Religion Secondly To allow all that would transplant themselves the full value of their Estates both Real and Personal their Debts being first paid and deducted This would enable them to live in as great or a greater Equipage and Grandeur in our Plantations as they ever had here in England and if they removed into Germany or France Italy or Spain their Estates would make their Lives easy and their Banishment honourable The World is wide and if I were one of them I should never stay for an Act of Parliament but would certainly sell what I had and be gone that I might enjoy my Religion and my Estate in a warmer Climate But alas they love their Country too dearly to leave it what is it in England they love The Civil Liberties they had brought to the utmost limits of Destruction The Religion of England they hate above all other the Earth is not more Fruitful and the Air is much colder than that of other Countries and I am confident the English Humour is so far exasperated against Popery that half a hundred Years will not allay the Fever the last four Years have raised in the English Blood against Popery so that they have nothing to attach them to England but the sullen
't is for ever lost But I hope your Lordships and all those Gentlemen who compose this August Assembly will proceed with so much Zeal and Harmony that the Result of your present Consultations may be a lasting and grateful Monument to Posterity of your Integrity Courage and Conduct SEVERAL QUERIES Relating to the present Proceedings in Parliament More especially recommended to the Consideration of the BISHOPS I. HOW the House of Commons can answer it to those People whom they Represent if now they have an Opportunity they do not settle the Government upon such a Foundation as will be likely not only to preserve the Nation from Foreign Enemies but also from falling into the like unhappy Circumstances which it is but just now escaped out of and which in a great measure have proceeded from a want of a right Settlement of Publick Affairs at the Restauration of King Charles the Second II. Whether this can be done without altering the Succession since the Birth of the Prince of Wales is not proved supposititious though perhaps no Body doubts but it is so And supposing it proved so Whether it would not be more feasible to make a President now than to try the Experiment first when the next Right of Succession is claimed by the Infanta of Spain or perhaps some Prince her Heir too strong to resist without the Assistance of the Prince of Orange especially if there happen to be such Divisions amongst Us as are at this Time III. Whether it can be immagined to be worth the Prince of Orange's while to leave Holland where he is the chief Man and become a Subject in England nay and have such an uncertain Interest in his stay here that if his Wives Life chance to drop perhaps he may be banished in a Years time and not have a Place as things may happen to put his Head in For his Interest in Holland must necessarily fall into other Hands And no Body knows what fallings out may happen betwixt Us and the Dutch or what other Contingencies may happen that may give cause of Disgust IV. Whether considering the present State of Affairs the Strength of the King of France and the Irish Rebellion to say nothing of the Effects which the Entreaties and subtile Insinuations of a Father must necessarily have upon any one that is good natur'd it be safe to trust the Administration of Affairs to a Woman though never so vertuous And whether we shall be able to protect our selves against all these formidable Enemies and bring things to a due Settlement without the Assistance of the Prince of Orange whose Foreign Alliances are such as we can never hope to obtain if we confer the Crown upon any other V. Whether it would be a greater real Kindness to the Princess of Orange to make her sole Queen after such a manner as she will be likely to be turned out again or to make her and her Husband joint King and Queen during their two Lives I say her Husband who is a Prince not only able to defend her and her Kingdom from all the Dangers that may happen but also to take all the Trouble which may occur in the Administration of Affairs off her Hands so that she will enjoy all the Pleasure of being Queen without any thing of Trouble And we may add to this that if it had not been for him she had never enjoyed the Crown nor the Nation their Freedom VI. Whether the Terms the Parliament shall make with one that can pretend no Right to the Crown but what they give him will not be more likely to be kept by him than by one that pretends a Title and will be flatterâ—d up both by Lawyers and Divines I mean the Scum of them with Notions of a Right jure Divino and a Prerogative which cannot be parted with or abolish'd though by the King's Consent or Act of Parliament VII Whether the House of Commons upon these Considerations and divers others too long to mention will not think it necessary that the Prince and Princess of Orange be crowned King and Queen for their two Lives And whether it can be imagined that the Commons should so far betray their Country as to recede from this Point so necessary for its Preservation notwithstanding all the Disturbances which the Bishops shall make in the House of Lords and though they do not meet with the Concurrence of that House so soon as in reason might be expected VIII Whether the House of Lords will suffer themselves any longer to be imposed upon by the Bishops in a thing that will be so injurious to the Nation as it will be not to comply with the House of Commons in this great Point which must necessarily put such a damp upon Trade that it will certainly be the Ruin of many hundreds of Families in the Nation whose dependance are upon Handy-Craft-Trades to say nothing of the Disadvantages which may accrue by such a Delay to the poor Protestants in Ireland and admitting they should whether the Circumstances of Affairs would not in a little time force them to a compliance with the House of Commons IX Whether the Prince of Orange will not shew himself one of the unkindest Men in the World if he doth not stick by these People till he seeth them secured that have ventured their Lives and Fortunes for Him and their Country in confidence of his Protection and whether he as Head of the Protestant Religion be not obliged to stand by the 48 Protestant Lords and House of Commons that have served their Country so faithfully X. Whether it would not be Prudence in the Bishops supposing their Designs be good as I would hope they are to shew their readiness to assist the Nobility and Gentry in carrying on this great Work whereby they might settle the Church upon the surest Foundation the Laws of God and of the Land and continue themselves in the Affections of the People XI Whether all the Protestant Blood which shall be spilt in Ireland by reason of these long Delays will not be justly laid at the Bishops doors if they proceed after the same manner they have begun And lastly To answer the great Objection that we shall lose the Kingdom of Scotland if we make the King Elective for this Turn Whether the Scots can chuse any body that will be more agreeable to their Interests than the Prince of Orange and supposing they can Whether it be not madness to imagine since they have a different Parliament different Laws and a different Original Contract so that the King may commit a Forfeiture there when he hath committed none here or a Forfeiture here when he hath committed none there that they will not place the Crown upon him without any respect to what is done here whether we make it a Forfeiture or only a bare Demise A Protestant Precedent offer'd to the Bishops for the Exclusion of K. James the Second IF Necessity which is a great Branch
Conscience sake If his Majesty now of Great Britain out of some deep Sense that he being a Roman Catholick cannot rule and be true to his Religion which he may suppose does oblige him to an Establishment thereof by all the ways and means of his Church though never so destructive to ours but it will be to the Hurt not Good of us who are Protestants hath been pleased to withdraw himself from his Government to make us more quiet and happy We are in all Gratitude to acknowledg his Piety Goodness and Condescention to be so much as very few of his Subjects could ever have suspected But if it be out of another Mind he hath done it We have still more Reason to bless Almighty God who does often serve his Providence by Mens Improvidence and cutting off Mens Ends from their Means he uses their Means to his own Ends when he is pleased to work Deliverance for a People as he hath at this Season so graciously and wonderfully done for Us that there is nothing more needful even to the most scrupulous Conscience than an humble and awful Acquiescence in the Divine Counsel to give Satisfaction in this Matter King IAMES the First his Opinion of a KING of a TYRANT and of the English Laws Rights and Priviledges In two Speeches The First to the Parliament 1603 the Second 1609. In his Speech to the Parliament 1603 he expresseth himself thus I Do acknowledg that the special and greatest Point of difference that is betwixt a Rightful King and an Usurping Tyrant is in this That whereas the proud and ambitious Tyrant doth think his Kingdom and People are only ordained for satisfaction of his Desires and unreasonable Appetites The Righteous and Iust King doth by the contrary acknowledg himself to be Ordained for the procuring of the Wealth and Prosperity of his People and that his great and principal worldly Felicity must consist in their Prosperity If you be Rich I cannot be Poor if you be Happy I cannot but be Fortunate And I protest your Welfare shall ever be my greatest Care and Contentment And that I am a Servant it is most true that as I am Head and Governour of all the People in my Dominion who are my natural Subjects considering them in distinct Ranks So if we will take in the People as one Body then as the Head is ordained for the Body aâ—d not the Body for the Head so must a Righteous King know himself to be ordained for his People and not his People for Him. Wherefore I will never be ashamed to confess it my principal Honour to be the great Servant of the Common-Wealth and ever think the Prosperity thereof to be my greatest Felilicity c. In his Speech to the Parliament March 21. 1609 he expresseth himself thus IN these our Times we are to distinguish betwixt the State of Kings in the first Original and between the State of settled Kings and Monarchs that do at this Time Govern in Civil Kingdoms For even as God during the Time of the Old Testament spake by Oracles and wrought by Miracles yet how soon it pleased him to settle a Church which was Bought and Redeemed by the Blood of his only Son Christ then was there a Cessation of both He ever after governing his Church and People within the Limits of his revealed Will. So in the first Original of Kings whereof some had their beginning by Conquest and some by Election of the People their Wills at that Time served for a Law yet how soon Kingdoms began to be settled in Civility and Policy then did Kings set down their Minds by Laws which are properly made by the King only but at the Rogation of the People the King 's Grant being obtained thereunto and so the King came to be Lex loquens a speaking Law after a sort binding himself by a double Oath to the Observation of the Fundamental Laws of his Kingdom Tacitly as by being a King and so bound to protect as well the People as the Laws of his Kingdom and expresly by his Oath at his Coronation So as every just King in a settled Kingdom is bound to observe that Paction made to his People by his Laws in framing his Government agreeable thereunto according to that Paction which God made with Noah after the Deluge Hereafter Seed-time and Harvest Summer and Winter Cold and Heat Day and Night shall not cease so long as the Earth remains And â—herefore a King Governing in a settled Kingdom leaves to be a King and degenerâ—tes into a Tyrant as soon as he leaves off to rule according to his Laws In which Case the King's Conscience may speak unto him as the poor Widow said to Philip of Macedon Either Govern according to your Law aut ne Rex â—is or cease to be King and tho no Christian Man ought to allow any Rebellion of People against their Prince yet doth God never leave Kings unpunished when they transgress these Limits For in that same Psalm where God saith to Kings Vos Dii estis Ye are Gods He immediately thereafter conclude But ye shall die like Men The higher we are placed the greater shall our Fall be Vt casus sic dolor as the Fall so the Griâ—f the taller the Trees be the more in danger of the Wind and the Tempest beats sorest upon the highest Mountains Therefore all Kings that are no Tyrants or Perjured will be glad to bound themselves within the Limits of their Laws and they that perswade them the contrary are Vipers and Pests both against them and the Common-Wealth For it is a great difference betwixt a King's Government in a settled Estate and what Kings in their Original Power might do in Individio vago As for my part I thank God I have ever given good proof that I never had Intention to the contrary And I am sure to go to my Grave with that Reputation and Comfort That never King was in all his Time more careful to have his Laws duly observed and himself to govern thereafter than I. That Just Kings will ever be willing to declare what they will do if they will not incur the Curse of God. I will not be content that my Power be disputed upon but I shall ever be willing to make the Reason appear of all my Doings and rule my Actions according to the Laws And afterwards speaking of the Common Law of England which some conceived he contemned saith to this purpose That as a King he had least cause of any Man to dislike the Common Law for no Law can be more favourable or advantageous for a King and extendeth further his Prerogative than it doth and for a King of England to despise the Common Law is to neglect his own Crown It is true that no Kingdom in the World but every one of them hath their own Municipal Laws agreeable to their Customs as this Kingdom hath the Common Law. Nay I am so far from disallowing the Common
at any time it may serve his Purpose from whose Hands a Soveraign Prince an Uncle and a Father could meet with no better Entertainment However the sense of these Indignities and the just Apprehension of further Attempts against Our Person by them who already endeavoured to murther Our Reputation by infamous Calumnies as if We had been capable of supposing a Prince of Wales which was incomparably more injurious than the destroying of Our Person it Self together with a serious Reflection on a Saying of Our Royal Father of blessed Memory when He was in the like Circumstances That there is little distance between the Prisons and the Graves of Princes which afterwards proved too true in His Case could not but persuade Us to make use of that which the Law of Nature gives to the meanest of Our Subjects of freeing Our selves by all means possible from that unjust Confinement and Restraint And this We did not more for the Security of our own Person then that thereby We might be in a better Capacity of transacting and providing for every thing that may contribute to the Peace and Settlement of Our Kingdoms For as on the one hand no change of Fortune shall ever make Us forget Our Selves so far as to condescend to any thing unbecoming that High and Royal Station in which God Almighty by Right of Succession has placed Us So on the other hand neither the Provocation or Ingratitude of Our own Subjâ—cts nor any other Consideration whatsoever shall ever prevail with Us to make the least step contrary to the true Interest of the English Nation which We ever did and ever must look upon as Our own Our Will and Pleasure thereof is That you of Our Privy Councel take the most effectual care to make these Our Gratious Intentions known to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in and about Our Cities of London and Westminster to the Lord Mayor and Commons of our City of London and to all Our Subjects in general and to assure them that We desire nothing more than to return and hold a Free Parliament wherein We may have the best Opportunity of undeceiving Our People and shewing the Sincerity of those Protestations We have often made of the preserving the Liberties and Properties of Our Subjects and the Protestant Religion more especially the Church of England as by Law establish'd with such Indulgence for those that dissent from Her as We have always thought Our selves in Justice and Care of the general Welfare of Our People bound to procure for them And in the mean time You of Our Privy Councel who can judg better by being upon the place are to send Us your Advice what is fit to be done by Us towards Our returning and the accomplishing those good Ends. And We do require you in Our Name and by Our Authority to endeavour so to suppress all Tumults and Disorders that the Nation in general and every one of Our Subjects in particular may not receive the least Prejudice from the present Distractions that is possible So not doubting of your Dutiful Obedience to these Our Royal Commands We bid you heartily Farewel Given at St. Germans on Laye the 4 4 Ianuary 1688 9. And of Our Reign the fourth Year By his Majesties Command MELFORT Directed thus To the Lords and Others of our Privy Councel of Our Kingdom of England Some Remarks on the late Kings pretended Letter to the LORDS and Others of his Privy Council IT begins thus My Lords When we saw that it was no longer safe for us to remain within our Kingdom of England c. His Majesty would have given great Satisfaction to the World in discovering where the Danger lay in tarrying here from whom and for what cause He is pleased to say farther We now think fit to let you know that though it has been our constant care since our first Accession to the Crown to govern our People with that Iustice and Moderation as to give if possible no occasion of Complaint c. I do not understand why his Majesty would not let us know these his Gracious Intentions before when they might have done Himself and Us Good. But quid verba audiam cum facta videam to what purpose are Words when we see Facts And as to his Moderation I appeal to the Pope himself or the French King who chiefly blame him for his Rashness and want of Temper and as for his Justice among a thousand publick Instances to the contrary he should remember his discountenancing and turning out of their Employments all such as would not enter into his Idolatrous Worship and comply with his illegal and arbitrary Designs Besides what Justice can Hereticks expect from a Prince who is not only a Papist but wholly devoted to the Order of the Jesuits and values himself for being a Member of those Reverend Cut-throats Yet more particularly upon the late Invasion seeing how the Design was laid and fearing that our People who could not be destroyed but by themselves The Design was to preserve the Nation from falling under the cruel Dominion of the French and to keep our selves from being dragg'd by the Hair of the Head to Mass and from undergoing all those Miseries which those of the same Religion and for the same Cause have endured now lately in France and Savoy To prevent so great a Mischief that is to say destroying our selves and to take away not only all just Causes but even Pretences of Discontent We freely and of our own accord redrest all those things that were set forth as the Causes of that Invasion I appeal to the common Faith of Mankind touching the Insinserity of these Words whether if this Invasion had not been these and worse Grievances had not followed And that we might be informed by the Counsel and Advice of our Subjects themselves which way we might give them a further and full Satisfaction We resolved to meet them in a Free Parliament c. The late Kings of England have been as desirous of a Parliament as Popes of a Free and General Council there being nothing they have more studiously avoided and greatlier feared But the Prince of Orange seeing all the Ends of his Declaration answered the People beginning to be undeceived and returning apace to their ancient Duty and Allegiance resolved by all possible means to prevent the meeting of the Parliament c. How far the Prince of Orange has been from preventing the meeting of a Parliament we need only consult our senses The hurrying us under a Guard from our City of London whose returning Loyalty we could no longer trust and the other Indignities we suffered in the Person of the Earl of Feversham when sent to him by us and in that barbarous Confinement of our own Person we shall not here repeat Do's any Man think the Prince of Orange would have had the same gentle Treatment from the King had he been in like manner under his Power And as to the
Kings concernment for the unheard of Suffering of the E. of F. I do not wonder at it having ever had so little Affection or rather so great an Antipathy to his English Subjects This will be sufficient to open the Eyes of all our Subjects and let them plainly see what every one of them may expect and what Treatment they shall find from him if at any time it may serve his Purpose from whose Hands a Soveraign Prince an Vncle and a Father could meet with no better Entertainment All wise and good Protestants are so certain of happy times under the Government of this most excellent and incomporable Prince that they have nothing left to fear or desire but that God would preserve him from the Hellish Fury of the Papists And as to all these Relations of a Soveraign Prince an Uncle and a Father The King would have done well to have acquitted himself to the Prince as became all these Relations However the Sense of these Indignities c. And as if we had been capable if supposing a Prince of Wales I believe and know that the Conscience of a Popish Prince wholly under the Conduct of the Jesuits will find no Difficulty in consenting to so pious a Fraud provided it can be carryed on with all prudent Cautions For as on the one hand no change of Fortune shall ever make us forget our selves so far as to condescend to any thing unbecoming that High and Royal Station in which God Almighty by right of Succession has placed us So on the other hand neither the Provocation or Ingratitude of our own Subjects nor any other Considerâ—tion whatsoever shall ever prevail with us to make the least step contrary to the true Interest of the English Nation His Majesty's sincere Friend the French King with whom he now enjoys a nearer Converse will also concur with him in this good Design of promoting the true Interest of England And as to his Majesty's Inclinations to Mercy and passing by Provocations we need mention no other Instances but those in the West where the Cruelties exercised on those unfortunate People cannot be parallel'd in any History of Barbarians Our Will and Pleasure therefore is that you of our Privy Council take the most effectual care to make these our gracious Intentions known to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and to all our Subjects in general and to assure them that we desire nothing more than to return and hold a Free Parliament wherein we may have the best Opportunity of undeceiving our People and shewing the Sincerity of those Protections of preserving especially the Church of England as by Law established A Man wou'd wonder any Prince that overlooks what his Secretary writes should suffer such apparent and palpable Untruths to pass For it is not manifest to all the World That the late King through the Jesuits Counsel did all that was possible to weaken and overturn especially the Church of England as well by open Declarations and Practices as by more secret Ways and Contrivances inciting one part of his Protestant Subjects to destroy the other and then immediately after exposing them for it and encouraging and inspiring these later with a Spirit of Revenge and Retaliation And thus having briefly ran over whatever seems material in this Letter I shall desist from Repetitions and insisting on mere words of Course and Matters of form seeing this would be to tire to Reader 's Patience and a lesning of his Judgment Reasons for Crowning the Prince and Princess of Orange King and Queen jointly and for placing the Executive Power in the Prince alone WHereas the Grand Convention of the Estates of England have asserted the Peoples Right by declaring That the late King James the Second having endeavoâ—red to Subvert the Constitution of the Kingdom by breaking the Original Contract between King and People And by Advice of Iesuits and other wicked Persons having Violatâ—d the Fundamental Laws And having withdrawn himself out of this Kingdom has Abdicated the Government and that the Throne is thereby Vacaâ—t For which Misgovernment He has forfeited the Trust of the Regal Inheritance of the Executive Power both in Himself and in His Heirs Lineal and Collateral so that the same is devolved back to the People who have also the Legislative Authority and consequently may of Right Give and Dispose thereof by their Representatives for their future Peace Benefit Security and Government according to their good Will and Pleasure And forasmuch as it is absolutely Necessary that the Government be speedily setled on sure and lasting Foundations and consequently that such Person or Persons be immediately placed in the Throne in whom the Nation has most reason to repose an entire Confidence It therefore now lies upon Us to make so Judicious a Choice that we may in all Humane Probability thereby render Ourselves a Happy People and give Our Posterity cause to Rejoice when they shall read the Proceedings of this Wise and Grand Convention Who is it therefore that has so highly Merited the Love and good Opinion of the People the Honour of Wearing the Crown and Swaying the Scepter of this Land as His Illustrious Highness the Prince of Orange who with so great Expence Hazard Conduct Courage and Generosity has happily Rescued Us from Popery and Slavery and with so much Gallantry Restored Us to Our Ancient Rights Religion Laws Liberties and Properties for which Heroick Action we can do no less in Prudence Honour and Gratitude than Pray Him to Accept Our Crown II. It is better to settle the Exercise of the Government in One who is not immediate in the Line than in One that is 1. Because it is a clear Asserting of a Fundamental Right that manifests the Constitution of the English Government and covers the Subjects from Tyranny and Slavery 2. It cuts off the Dispute of the pretended Prince of Wales 3. The old Succession being legally Dissolved and a new one made the Government is secured from falling into the Hands of a Papist III. The making the Prince and Princess of Orange King and Queen jointly is the Nation 's Gratitude and Generosity and by re-continuing the Line in Remainder is manifested the inestimable Value the People have for the two Princesses notwithstanding the Male-administration of the Unhappy Father IV. The present State of Europe in General and of these Kingdoms in Particular require a Vigorous and Masculine Administration To recover what 's lost rescue what 's in danger and rectify what 's amiss cannot be effected but by a Prince that is consummate in the Art both of Peace and War. Tho the Prince and Princess be King and Queen jointly and will equally share the Glory of a Crown and we the Happiness of their Auspicious Regin yet the Wisdom of the Grand Convention is manifested First In placing the Executive Power in One of them and not in Both for two Persons equal in Authority may differ in Opinion and consequently in Command and it
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
Years been Embezl'd to keep up a standing Army of Irish Ragamuffins as if England were now in its Turn to have been conquer'd by Ireland as formerly Ireland had been conquer'd by England From which fears when his present Majesty had delivered the Nation it was but reason that his Army should be pay'd out of the Publick Stock for their happy Toyl and labour For the Publick Revenue of all Kingdoms and States was ever Originally intended for the Preservation and not the Destruction of the People Upon the Disbanding of the Papists the Discusser makes a special Observation That no Test-Acts nor any Others could barr the King from Listing them as Common Souldiers This perhaps may be true that is to say that a Protestant Prince may list Papists and a Popish Prince Protestants to follow him in a lawful War. But when a Popish Prince in a Protestant Nation had made his chiefesâ— Levies of Popish Common Souldiers to over-aw his Protestant Subjects and put his sole Confidence in them for his known and open Designs and manifest Endeavors to introduce Popery into a Protestant Kingdom contrary to the Law 't was time then to think of disbanding such Vermin and ridding them out of the Land. And the reason why the Protestants could not be trusted was as certain For if the King would not trust his Protestants nay disarm'd them when Papists were both arm'd and Employ'd what reason had the Protestants to trust the King. And this was that which among other Things created and foster'd those General and Violent Dissatisfactions in the Nation For Men have naturally a general and violent Antipathy against having their Throats Cut if they can help it And therefore since the Kingdom by a Miraculous Providence had obtain'd its Redemption 't is to be wonder'd the Discusser should imagine 't was ever intended that the late K. should be in a Condition again to oppose either his own or the persons of any others against the Arms of the Prince or those of his own Subjects And whereas he says that the King 's Mortal Enemies were to be the Judges of his Crown and Dignity the Discusser should have done well before he had made his Reflection upon so many Eminent Patriots to have consulted Grotius l. 1. c. 4. Par. 8. and the Example of Pausamias King of Lâ—cedaemon there cited Certainly there was no such Impossibility but that a Free and Indifferent Parliament might have been chosen to deal equally between the King and the People For tho the King perhaps might be conscious that he could not so well rely upon the Kindness of those to whom he had always had such an inveterate Antipathy yet he might have rely'd upon the Justice of so many Great and Worthy Personages So that it is the Discusser himself who out-faces the Sun and tramples upon the Understandings and Senses of the whole Nation who makes these little Rhetorical Flourishes to palliate and obscure the Truth and to insinuate among the People as if Wrong and Injustice had been done where nothing was acted but what was a due debt to Self-Preservation And with the same Brazening the Discusser out-faces the Sun and tramples upon the Senses of the Nation to assert that a Desertion of the Government after such Proposals which were rather Assurances of his Safety was no Desertion He had been safer in the Affection of the People when all his evil Counsellers had been remov'd from about him he had been safer from the Importunities of his Priests and Jesuites He had been more secure from running himself into farther danger and safer in the Enjoyment of his Royal Dignity But he who had so Solemnly sworn to Establish Popery in England or die in the Attempt thought himself no where safe perhapps but where he might be procuring his future Bliss by the Performance of his Vow The Discusser now advances to the King 's second withdrawing and puts the Question what the King had done to incur a forfeiture by his first Retirement Indeed what had he not done If the Discusser â—orgot in his Discussing Heat the Declaration presented to their Present Majesties would have rubb'd up his Memory Among the rest there was one That he had endeavoured to Subvert and Extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom by raising and keeping a Standing Army in the Kingdom in time of Peace without Consent of Parliament and quartering Souldiers contrary to Law and by causing sâ—veral of his good Subjects to be Disarm'd at the same time when Papists were both Arm'd and Employ'd Now to what purpose was all this but to Subject the Kingdom to the Tyranny of the Pope In such a case Barclay cited by Grotious l. 1. c. 4. per. 10. gives this for his Opinion Si Rex regnum alienet aut alij Subjiciat amitti ab eo Regnum To which Grotius himself adds Si Rex reipsa tradere regnum aut Subjicere molliatur quin ei resisti in boc posse non dubite Aliud est enim Imperium aliud habendi modus qui nâ— mutetur obstare poâ—est Populus After all this it cannot be imagin'd that the King returned the second time with an intention to govern unless he might govern at his own will and Pleasure as he did before But that would not be suffer'd him for they who had now avoided the Yoke so near putting about their Necks would never endure it should come so near their shoulders again Therefore all the Probality in the World is on this side That the King perceiving that by taking the Government upon him again he should not be able to attain those Ends which he had made the Business of his whole Reign resolv'd to relinquish it altogether At which time being at liberty to go or stay his Departure must of necessity be accounted Voluntary and consequently an Absolute Abdication Lastly it is impossible that the King could be frighted out of his Dominions by the making of two or three Addresses to his then Royal Highness the Prince of Orange for it was no more than rationally he could expect would be done more especially from the City to the Person who next under God had deliver'd them from their Continual fears of Fire and Sword. Nor by the denying him a little Gold to Heal with which looks like an improbable Story of the Discusser's own framing These are Motions so inconsiderable for a King to forsake his Dominions that the Discusser seems to have Conjur'd them up meerly to degrade the Courage of the Absenting Monarch and to mortify his own Discussion But after all the Question may be fairly put whether Withdrawing in the Construction of our Law does not rather imply a Guilt than an Apprehension of Danger unless it be that of being call'd to an Account since the Query always propounded to the Jury is Did he fly for 't Which indeed ought to be the Legal Determination of this Dispute However the Discusser goes on and tells
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
without Consent of Parliament By Committing and Prosecuting divers Worthy Prelates for humbly Petitioning to be Excused from concurring to the said assumed Power By issuing and causing to be executed a Commission under the Great Seal for erecting a Court called The Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes By Levying Mony for and to the Use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative for other time and in other manner than the same was granted by Parliament By raising and keeping a standing Army within this Kingdom in time of Peace without Consent of Parliament and Quartering Souldiers contrary to Law. By causing several Good Subjâ—cts being Protestants to be Disarmed at the same time when Papists were both Armed and Imployed contrary to Law. By violating the Freedom of Election of Members to serve in Parliament By Prosecutions in the Court of Kings-Bench for Matters and Causes cognizable only in Parliament and by divers other Arbitrary and Illegal Courses And whereas of late Years Partial Corrupt and Unqualified Persons have been returned and served on Juries in Trials and particularly divers Jurors in Trials for High-Treason which were not Freeholders And Excessive Bail hath been required of Persons committed in Criminal Cases to elude the Benefit of the Laws made for the Liberty of the Subjects And Excessive Fines have been imposed And Illegal and Cruel Punishments inflicted And several Grants and Promises made of Fines and Forfeitures before any Conviction or Judgment against the Persons upon whom the same were to be levied All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known Laws and Statutes and Freedom of this Realm And whereas the said late K. Iames the 2 d having abdicated the Government and the Throne being thereby vacant His Highness the Prince of Orange whom it hath pleased Almighty God to make the Glorious Instrument of Delivering this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power did by the Advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and divers principal Persons of the Commons cause Letters to be written to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being Protestants and other Letters to the several Counties Cities Universities Burroughs and Cinque-Ports for the Chusing of such Persons to represent them as were of Right to be sent to Parliament to Meet and Sit at Westminster upon the 22 d Day of Ianuary in this Year 1688 in order to such an Establishment as that their Religion Laws and Liberties might not again be in danger of being Subverted Upon which Letters Elections having been accordingly made And thereupon the said Lord's Spiritual and Temporal and Commons pursuant to their respective Letters and Elections being now Assembled in a Full and Free Representative of this Nation taking into their most serious Consideration the best Means for attaining the Ends aforesaid do in the first place as their Ancestors in like Case have usually done for the Vindicating and Asserting their Ancient Rights and Liberties Declare That the pretending Power of Suspending of Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority without Consent of Parliament is Illegal That the pretended Power of Dispensing with Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority as it hath been assumed and exercised of late is Illegal That the Commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes and all other Commissions and Courts of the like Nature are Illegal and Pernicious That levying of Mony for or to the Use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative without Grant of Parliament for longer time or in other manner than the same is or shall be granted is Illegal That it is the Right of the Subjects to Petition the King and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning are Illegal That the raising or keeping a standing Army within the Kingdom in time of Peace unless it be with Consent of Parliament is against Law. That the Subjects which are Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Condition and as allowed by Law. That Election of Members of Parliament ought to be Free. That the Freedom of Speech and Debates or Proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or Questioned in any Court or place out of Parliament That Excessive Bail ought not to be required nor Excessive Fines imposed nor cruel and unusual Punishments inflicted That Jurors ought to be duly empannell'd and return'd and Jurors which pass upon Men in Trials for High-Treason ought to be Freeholders That all Grants and Promises of Fines and Forfeitures of particular Persons before Conviction are Illegal and Void And that for redress of all Grievances and for the amending strengthening and preserving of the Laws Parliaments ought to be held frequently And they do claim demand and insist upon all and singular the Premises as their undoubted Rights and Liberties and that no Declarations Judgments Doings or Proceedings to the prejudice of the People in any of the said Premises ought in any wise to be drawn hereafter into Consequence or Example To which Demand of their Rights they are particularly encouraged by the Declaration of His Highness the Prince of Orange as being the only Means for obtaining a full redress and remedy therein Having therefore an intire Confidence that his said Highness the Prince of Orange will perfect the Deliverance so far advanced by Him and will still preserve them from the Violation of their Rights which they have here asserted and from all other Attempts upon their Religion Rights and Liberties The said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled at Westminster do resolve That William and Mary Prince and Princess of Orange be and be declared King and Queen of England France and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging to hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to them the said Prince and Princess during their Lives and the Life of the Surviver of them And that the sole and full Exercise of the Regal Power be only in and executed by the said Prince of Orange in the Names of the said Prince and Princess during their joint Lives and after their Deceases the said Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to be to the Heirs of the Body of the said Princess and for default of such Issue to the Princess Ann of Denmark and the Heirs of Her Body and for default of such Issue to the Heirs of the Body of the said Prince of Orange And the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons do pray the said Prince and Princess of Orange to accept the same accordingly And that the Oaths hereafter mentioned be taken by all Persons of whom the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy might be required by Law instead of them and that the said Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy be Abrogated I A. B. do sincerely promise and swear That I will be faithful and bear true Allegiance to their Majesties King WILLIAM and Queen MARY So help me God. I A. B. do swear That I do from my Heart Abhor