could not hurt the Church of England therefore the Dissenters were to be caressed and cherished that they in a small time might be in a capacity to do it And now if these were not good reasons for the Vote let any impartial man that is any but a Church of England man judge In the midst of such Circumstances was there not cause to think an Union of all Protestants necessary and could they have any just grounds to believe that the Dissenters whilst they lay under the pressures of severe Laws should with such Alacrity and Courage as was requisite undertake the defence of a Country where they were so ill treated Whether this question relates to the French King and the Papists or the Duke and the Civil and Military Officers may be a question and therefore it must be so answered As to the first there was all the reason in the world that they should joyn heartily with the Government against the Papists and French for they could not hope to mend their condition by falling into their hands who they knew would treat them with other manner of severities than those they met with from the Laws if they did not know this any of the French Protestants that fled over 〈◊〉 England might have informed them sufficiently Nâ—w of evils the least is to be chosen and tho their conâ—â—tion had not been equal to their desires yet it had been a madness to have made it worse by delivering up themselves and their Country into the hands of the French and Papists But if it relates to the Duke and the Civil and Military Officers then I hope he will excuse me if I do not think it fit to have another Union of Protestants of that sort again A long and sad Experience had shewed how vain the endeavours of former Parliaments had been to force us to be all of one Opinion and therefore the House of Commons resolved to take a sure way to make us all of one Affection This was the very reason of the Declaration of Liberty of Conscience But how unlike that course was to prevail the Nation had sufficient experience in a few years And Sir I can assure you it is above the power of a House of Commons to unite those men in Affection who differ not only in Opinion but Practice too in matters of Religion For these reasons my Author saith this Vote was made in order to a repeal of them by a Bill to be brought in and presently he grows Pettish and tells us None but a Frenchman could have the confidence to declaim against a proceeding so regular and Parliamentary as this Your humble Servant Sir I pray be a little pacified you may possibly be mistaken as well as another man but would I believe take it a little unkindly to be called Monsieur presently They very first Vote they made that day was this Resolved That whosoever advised his Majesty to Prorogue this Parliament to any other purpose than in order to the passing of a Bill for the Exclusion of James Duke of York is a betrayer of the King the Protestant Religion and of the Kingdom of England a promoter of the French interest and a Pensioner to France So they knew they were to be Prorogued that very day and as the Story goes made more than ordinary haste to pass these Votes Now it was impossible that a Bill should be brought in much less passed in that Session which was to end before night and therefore this was not nor could not be the cause of that Vote and all your little Queries founded upon this supposition are silly and impertinent There was not the least direction or signification to the judges which might give any occasion for the reflection which follows in the Declaration The due and impartial execution of the Laws is the unquestionable duty of the Judges and we hope they will always remember that duty so well as not to necessitate a House of Commons to do theirs by calling them to account for making private instructions the Rule of their judgments and acting as men who have more regard to their Places than their Oaths So the Dissenters may see they are mistaken when they think the Judges or Justices may forbear executing the Laws against them upon the score of this Vote But tho the Judges are sworn to execute all Laws yet there is no obligation upon any man to inform against another No Sir Is not every Grand-Jury man every Constable and Churchwarden sworn to Present the breakers of our Laws as well as the Judges are to punish them And as for the next Conundrams of yours the comparing a parcel of Laws made within twenty years to those Antiquated ones about Caps and Bows and Arrows and killing of Lambs and Calves and your business of Empson and Dudley they are such stuff as a man of half your understanding would have been ashamed to have mensioned in a good cause In the next place my Author acquaints us what are the causes usually of disusing Laws alterations of the Circumstances whereupon a Law was made or if it be against the genious of a People or have effects contrary to the intents of the Maker none of which can be said in this case Nor is that true which follows that the quiet safety or trade of our Nation hath been promoted by the not executing of these Laws as any man may know that can remember but ten years backward And therefore notwithstanding the Vote of the Commons the Judges may act wisely and honestly if they should encourage Informers or quicken Juries by strict and severe Charges For the due and impartial execution of the Laws is the unquestionable duty of the Judges according to my Author and therefore I will hope they shall not be accounted Knaves or Fools for doing their unquestionable duty But then my Author hath another quarrel with the Ministers and that was for numbring this Vote amongst the causes of the Dissolution of that Parliament when the Black Rod was at the door of the House to require them to attend his Majesty at the very time when it was made Well suppose we should grant that this was not one of those Votes that occasioned the Prerogation it not being then made when that was resolved on yet it might occasion their Dissolution which hapned some time after And was not this an excellent time to make Votes for the bringing in of Bills for the Repeal of Laws when the Black Rod was at the door to call the House to a Prorogation After a little anger against the Ministers for arraigning one of the Three Estates in the face of the World for usurping power over the Laws imprisoning their fellow Subjects Arbitrarily exposing the Kingdom to the greatest dangers and indeavouring to deprive the King of all possibility of supporting the Government the man hath forgot how often he hath arraigned the Long Loyal Parliament for a
not so nice but it might have been â—een determined by a meaner Critick than our Author who hath shewn his great skill in the French Tongue in his learned Remarques on the Phrase it is a matter extremely sensible to us And in the Latine upon the word Republick or Commonwealth If he had not from hence sought an occasion to call his Majesties Fidelity in question which tho it may become a Republican is very indecent in a good Subject When we see the real fruits of these utmost endeavours to extirpate Popery out of Parliament when we see the Duke of York no longer first Minister or rather Protector of these Kingdoms and his Creatures no longer to have the whole direction of Affairs when we see that love to our Religion and Laws is no longer a Crime at Court no longer a fore-runner of being disgraced and removed from all Offices and Imployments in their Power That is when the Duke of York is ruined and not only his Popish but his Church of England Creatures who have shewn themselves such by Voting against the Bill of Exclusion be laid aside When our Religion which no man knows what it is and that part of the Laws which we skulk behind now to ruine all the rest and the King and Kingdom to boot shall not hinder our Preferment whatever we do or say When the word Loyal which is faithful to the Law shall be restored to its own meaning and no longer signifie one who is for subverting the Laws That is when men may safely pretend so much respect to the Laws that they may affront his Majesty who is the Fountain of all Laws and the Protector of them and us by them when the word Loyal shall have no other relation to his Majesty than the same word if in use there hath in Venice when spoken concerning their Duke When we see the Commissions filled with hearty Protestants that is with Whigs and Republicans and the Laws executed in good earnest against the Papists and the Dissenters passed by unpunished The Discoverers of the Plot countenanced or at least heard and suffered to give their Evidence except when they make bold with our selves and such a Colledge and Fitz-Harris and the Association-men in which cases they ought neither to be heard nor believed The Courts of Justice steady and not avowing a jurisdiction one day which they disown the next but just such as they were in the late times When we see no more Grand-Juries discharged lest they should hear Witnesses nor Witnesses hurried away lest they should inform Grand-Juries tho it were against his Majesty and when all Grand-Juries are of the Family of Ignoramus the Lawyer and will find according to their Conscience tho against both their Oath and their Evidence especially when a Precious man is in jeopardy to be hanged for something done or said against the King When we see no more instruments from Court labouring to raise jealousies of Associating Petitioning Protestants who have a Patent from heaven to retail all the fears and jealousies that ever shall from henceforward be put off in England Scotland and Ireland and in all other his Majesties Dominions and Countries whatsoever And to that purpose have erected several Mints for the Coining of them in London and the parts adjacent and do maintain several Presses and a great many Intelligencers to collect and disperse the same for the benefit of his Majesties discontented Subjects who receive much comfort by the worst and falsest of them and hope to have just such another harvest in the end as they reaped from the same Seed in and about the years 1640 41 42 and so on till 1660. When we see some regard had to Protestants abroad tho his Majesty should be by our defaults brought into such straits as hardly to be able to maintain the Government at home When we observe somewhat else to be meant by Governing according to Law than barely to put them in execution against Dissenters in whom our strength against the Government doth chiefly consist the Laws made against Papists In which number we desire the Church of England men that is all that stick to the Religion by Law Established may be included and then we shall promise our selves not only frequent Parliaments but everlasting ones and all the blessed effects of pursuing Parliamentary Councils the Extirpation of Popery and Prelacy the redress of Grievances the flourishing of Laws and the perfect restoring the Monarchy to the credit which it had in 1658 and 59. both at home and abroad There needs no time to open the Eyes of his Majesties good Subjects the Whigs and their hearts are ready prepared to meet him in Parliament in order to perfect all these good Settlements and Peace which are now wanting in Church and State But whilst there are so many little Emissaries imployed to sow and encrease divisions in the Nation as if the Ministers had a mind to make his Majesty head of a Faction and joyn himself to one Party in the Kingdom who has a just right of Governing all which Thuanus lib. 28. says was the notorious Folly and occasioned the destruction of his great-Grandmother Mary Queen of Scots whilst we see the same differences Promoted industriously by the Court which gave the Rise and Progress to the late troubles and which were once thought fit to be buried in an Act of Oblivion What is meant by the little Emissaries here I know not nor will I guess Nor did I ever observe the Ministers had a mind to make his Majesty the Head of a Faction which your Author much blames in Henry III. of France too when he suffered the Holy League the Prototype of the Association to be set afoot and propagated so far before he took notice of it that he was forced at last to attempt to make himself the Head of it which was properly a Faction combined by an Oath against the Right Heir to the Crown and a part of the Natural Subjects of France on pretence of Religion for the Exclusion of the first and destruction of the latter without and against the consent of the King which caused a Rebellion in France the destruction of the King a sooner Succession of Henry IV. the right Heir upon changing his Religion and if God had not prevented it had betrayed France into the hands of the Spaniards or Cantoned it into small Principalities Now this is properly to make a Prince the head of a Faction without consideration of the Rise of our late Troubles which sprung from such another League but to countenance a Loyal Party more than a Rebellious one is not so and whatever effect it had in the Reign of Queen Mary his Majesties Grandmother seems the only way now to save England and prevent the need of another Act of Oblivion and Indemnity for all those Crimes that were pardoned by his Majesty but never repented of by them that acted them Whilst
of the French Interest It is not strange at all that the Parliament at Oxford should anger the Court more than that at Westminster for the Court did never yet dissolve a Parliament abruptly and in heat but they found the next Parliament more averse and to insist upon the same things with greater eagerness than the former English Spirits resent no affronts so highly as those that are done to their Representatives and the Court will be sure to find the effects of that resentment in the next Election The truth of this as matter of History is very apparent for so it came to pass in the Reign of his Majesties Father upon every Dissolution the Commons made choice of the same or worse Members till in 1640. they had fitted themselves with a Parliament to their hearts desire who resented not the Affronts done to themselves as the Peoples Representatives but the several Stops and Rubs that had been laid in their way so highly that the Court i e. the King soon felt the effects of it But did the Nation escape No but Bloud and Violence Anarchy and Consusion took possession of them to that height that the pious Martyr called it A Hell of Misery and Chaos of Confusion The Author in the next line acquaints us That a Parliament does ever participate of the present temper of the People Never were Parliaments of more different Complexions than that of 1640. and that of 1661. yet they both exactly answered the humours which were predominant in the Nation when they were respectively chosen It doth not become me to say whether that of 1680. were liker that of 1640. or 1661. but I must needs say I wonder my Author could reflect so sensibly on the difference and yet at the same time heighten the Popular Heats with inculcating the fears of France and Popery and not rather endeavour to allay them by telling his Country-men that twenty years Misery followed the 1640 Parliament and twenty years Peace the latter which I cannot but esteem a more Loyal and a more Prudent reflection than that he hath made and much more necessary both for the Representatives and Electors Let them however now consider seriously of it and the next time send up men zealous to bring the real Incendiaries of the Nation to Justice and then it is not to be doubted but some that are Country Favourites will be found to promote the French and Popish Interest as well as the Republick And I dare then become their Sponsor if it might not look too presumptuously in so mean a person as I am that by Gods mercy we should enjoy another Score of Halsion years to the confusion of Popery and the extreme damage of France Both which do as certainly promote our present distempers as they did those in Charles the First his times as have been made so apparent that the Dissenters who were the Principals then as they are now would fain persuade the world that the Accessaries the French Emisaries and Jesuits did all that mischief that was then done But as this is ridiculous and impossible so if duly considered it might prevent a relapse into the same misery and confusion which is more to be desired by all good Christians than the most delightful revenge upon the Favorites But it is but reasonable to expect all that I can say will signifie but little to this sort of men if the modest Gentleman I am examining may be presumed better acquainted with their tempers than I am For surely saith he this DECLARATION what great things soever may be expected from it will make but very few Converts not only because it represents things as high Crimes which the whole Kingdom the contrary of which is now too apparent to be proved on one hand or denied on the other has been celebrating as meritorious Actions but because the People have been so often deceived by former Declarations that whatsoever carries that Name will have no credit with them for the Future This I confess is one good way to prevent the making too many Converts to Loyalty for if a People can once be effectually persuaded their Governours are faithless perfidious men that seek nothing but an opportunity to delude and abuse them by false pretences there will be no great danger they will pay them too much respect and obedience But surely the man that talks thus is some French Emisary or Jesuit such thoughts as these never arose from a Church of England Gentlemans heart for the worst enemy of England could not have breathed a worse insinuation into the hearts of his Majesties Subjects They have not yet forgot the Declaration from Breda tho others forgot it too soon and do not spare to say that if the same diligence the same earnest solicitations had been made use of in that affair which have been since exercised directly contrary to the design of it there is no doubt but every 〈◊〉 of it would have had its desired effect and all his Majestâ—â—â— Subjects would have enjoyed the fruits of it and 〈…〉 extolling a Prince so careful to keep his Sacred Promise◠〈…〉 People Before this unworthy Insinuation can be 〈…〉 â—â—swered I must transcribe so much of that Declaratio◠〈…〉 here supposed to have sailed of its 〈…〉 followeth And because the Passion and uncharitableness of the times have produced several opinions in Religion by which men are engaged in Parties and Animosities against each other which when they shall hereafter unite in a freedom of Conversation will be better understood we do declare a liberty to tender Consciences and that no man shall be disquieted or called in question for differences of Opinion in matter of Religion which do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom and that we shall be ready to consent to such an Act of Parliament as upon mature deliberation shall be offered to us for the full granting that Indulgence Here is his Majestie Royal Promise wherein ought to be observed that his Majesty promised nothing to any Party that should disturb the peace of the Kingdom Nor to them that did not further than that he would consent to such an Act of Parliament when it should be offered to him So that he was not obliged to procure such an Act nor yet to do it without an Act. And now let us see how they behaved themselves towards him Whilst says his Majesty we continued in this temper of mind and resolution and have so far complied with the persuasion of particular persons and the distemper of the times as to be contented with the exercise of our Religion in our own Chappel according to the constant practice and Laws established without enjoying that practice and the observation of those Laws in the Churches of the Kingdom in which we have undergone the Censure of many as if we were without that zeal for the Church which we ought to have and which by Gods Grace we shall always
in love with the Book of Common-Prayer as you can wish and have prejudice enough to those who do not love it who I hope in time will be better informed and change their minds and you may be confident I do as much desire to see a Uniformity settled as any amongst you I pray trust me in that Affair I promise you to hasten the dispatch of it with all convenient speed you may relie upon me in it I have transmitted the Book of Common-Prayer with those Alterations and Additions which have been presented to me by the House of Convocation to the House of Peers with my Approbation that the Act of Uniformity may relate to it so that I presume it will shortly be dispatched there And when all is done we can the well setling that Affair will require great Prudence and discretion and the Absence of all Passion and Precipitation The Act of Uniformity being setled and passed his Majesty did not give over all his thoughts for the Dissenters but in the year 1662. was again labouring to revive his Declaration from Breda for Liberty of Conscience which the House of Commons opposed and drew up their reasons against it in the form of an Address wherein they particularly answer the pretences from the Declaration from Breda Which tho the whole Address is in the third part of the Address to the Freemen and Freeholders of the Nation I will here transcribe because this Book may possibly fall into some hands which have not that We have considered the nature of your Majesties Declaration from Breda and are humbly of opinion that your Majesty ought not to be pressed with it any further BECAUSE it is not a Promise in it self but only a Gracious Declaration of your Majesties Intentions to do what in you lay and what a Parliament should advise your Majesty to do And no such advise was ever given or thought fit to be offered nor could it be otherwise understood because there were Laws of Uniformity then in being which could not be dispensed with but by Act of Parliament They who do pretend a right to that supposed Promise put their Right into the hands of their Representatives whom they chose to serve in this Parliament for them who have passed and your Majesty consented to the Act of Uniformity if any shall presume to say that a right to the benefit of this Declaration doth still remain after this Act passed it tends to dissolve the very bonds of Government and to suppose a disability in your Majesty and your two Houses of Parliament to make a Law contrary to any part of your Majesties Declaration though both Houses should advise your Majesty to it Yet still his Majesty was so tender of these men that the tenth of February 1667. the Commons addressed to the King for a Proclamation to enforce obedience to the Laws in force concerning Religion and Church Government as it is now established according to the Act of Uniformity And the fourth of March following the House taking into consideration the Information of the Insolent carriages and abuses committed by persons in several places in disturbing of Ministers in their Churches and holding Meetings of their own contrary to the Laws of this Realm Addressed again for a Proclamation against Conventicles and that there may be care taken for the preservation of the Peace of the Kingdom against unlawful Assemblies of Papists and Nonconformists which was promised the next day The third of November 1669. the House of Commons gave his Majesty thanks for issuing a Proclamation for putting the Laws in execution against Nonconformists and for suppressing Conventicles with the humble desire of this House for his Majesties continuance of the same care for suppressing of the same for the future The Eighth of March 1669. the House having received information of a dangerous and unlawful Conventicle lately met in the West of this Kingdom and of Treasonable words there spoken and that his Majesty had upon information given order for the Prosecution of the Offenders The House returned him their Thanks and desired that his Majesty would be pleased to consider the danger of Conventicles in and near London and Westminster from the nature of those further off and to give order for the speedy suppressing of them and that his Majesty would give order to put the Laws against Popish Recusants in execution Yet after all this the Fifteenth of March 1671-2 his Majesty published a Declaration for Liberty of Conscience by the Advice of his Privy Council which he was hardly persuaded to depart from by the Commons in Feb. 1672. The mischiefs of which Toleration or Indulgence have been so great to his Majesty in particular and the whole Nation in general that no man can well express them And now who can enough admire the Insolence of this discontented Gentleman who dare say as he doth That if the same diligence the same earnest solicitations had been made use of in that affair which have since been exercised directly contrary to the design of it there is no doubt but every part of it would have had the desired success and all his Majesties Subjects would have enjoyed the fruits of it and have now been extolling a Prince so careful to keep sacred his Promises to his People I say on the contrary could his Majesty have been prevailed on by the unanswerable reasons of that most Excellent and most Loyal House of Commons to have enforced the execution of the Laws against Dissenters he had never seen his Affairs reduced to that ill condition they were not long since in And tho I question not but by Gods blessing his Majesty will in a short time resettle things yet I will hope for time to come it shall be a Maxim in England That the Strength of the Dissenters is the Weakness of the Throne As for our Authors jeering reflection on his Majesties other Declaration of April 20. 1679. concerning the Privy Council and some persons then taken into it his Majesty hath had but too much reason not to stick to the same when he see there were some men whom nothing could oblige to be faithful to him but if his Majesty hath not advised with them he hath with some others at least as wise and much honester than some of those who were laid aside so that that Declaration hath been effectually made good to the Nation And therefore we have no reason to question his Majesties Candor in this As for the Declaration read in our Churches the other day there needs no other Argument to make us doubt of the reality of the Promises which it makes than to consider how partially and with how little sincerity the things which it pretends to relate are therein represented it begins with telling us in his Majesties Name That it was with exceeding great trouble that he was brought to dissolve the two last Parliaments without more benefit to the People by the calling
sending away his Royal Highness the Duke of York to discern whether Protestant Religion and the peace of the Kingdom be as truly aimed at by others as they are really intended by me c. By which it appears the Union his Majesty here meant was not that Union that was afterwards set on foot in Parliament and I cannot but suspect these words were misrecited of purpose And did not he comand my Lord Chancellour to tell them That it was necessary to distinguish between Popish and other Recusants between them that would destroy the whole flock and them that only wander from it These words are indeed in the Lord Chancellors Speech but with this Preface Neither is there nor hath been these fifteen hundred years a purer Church than ours so 't is for the sake of this poor Church alone that the State hath been so much disturbed It is her Truth and Peace her Decency and Order which they the Plotters and Papists labour to undermine and pursue with so restless a malice and since they do so it will be necessary for us to distinguish between Popish and other Recusants between them that would destroy the whole Flock and them that only wander from it So that whatever distinction his Majesty intended to allow between the Popish and Protestant Recusants it must be such as was consistent with the Truth Peace Decency and Order of the Religion by Law established which I suspect the Project of Union set on foot was not much less the Vote of the tenth of January for the suspending the execution of all Penal Laws made against them as a weakening of the Protestant Interest an encouragement to Popery and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom These things considered we should not think the Parliament went too far but rather that they did not follow his Majesties Zeal with an equal pace At this rate of concluding a man may draw any Conclusion from any premises if he hath a mind to it His Majesty would joyn with them in any course that might tend to the security of the Protestant Religion for the future so as the same extend not to the diminution of his own Prerogative nor to alter the descent of the Crown in the right Line nor to defeat the Succession Therefore when they brought in a Bill to disinherit his Majesties Brother against his expresly declared resolution they did not go too far but rather they did not follow his Majesties Zeal with an equal pace When his Majesty thought it necessary to distinguish betwixt Popish Recusants and Protestant Dissenters that is to favour the latter more than the former they were for taking away all those Laws at once that have distinguished betwixt the Dissenters and the Religion established and giving up this Pure Church into the hands of her bitter Enemies that had but just before bid fair for her ruine as if the only care had been that the Papists might not have had the honour of destroying her and yet we are not to believe they went too far in this neither The truth is if we observe the daily provocations of the Popish Faction whose rage and insolence were only increased by the discovery of the Plot so that they seemed to defie Parliaments as well as inferiour Courts of Justice under the Protection of the Duke their Publickly Avowed Head who still carried on their designs by new and more detestable methods than ever and were continually busie by Perjuries and Subornations to charge the best and most considerable Protestants in the Kingdom with Treasons as black as those of which themselves were guilty If we observe what vile Arts were used to hinder the further discovery what liberty was given to reproach the Discoverers what means used to destroy or corrupt them how the very Criminals were incouraged and allowed to be good Witnesses against their Accusers We should easily excuse an English Parliament thus beset if they had been carried to some little Excesses not justifiable by the Laws of Parliament or unbecoming the wisdom and gravity of an English Senate Now other men may possibly be of another mind and think that if the state of things had been but half so deplorable as they are here described the least Excess had been then inexcusable for there is never more need of gravity than in great and eminent dangers but what I shall say will it is like not be much regarded hear then what the Chancellour of England said The Considerations which are now to be laid before you are as Vrgent and as Weighty as were ever yet offered to any Parliament or indeed ever can be so great and so surprizing have been our Dangers at home so formidable are the appearances of danger from abroad that the most Vnited Counsels the most Sedate and the calmest Temper together with the most dutiful and zealous affections that a Parliament can shew are all become absolutely and indispensably necessary for our preservation So that little excesses are great crimes when men are beset with dangers tho they may be excused in times of Peace and Security if I rightly understand this wise and honourable person But if we come to search into the particulars here enumerated there may possibly arise better Arguments to excuse their Excesses The Popish Faction about that time having tried all other ways to clear themselves of the Plot without any good success fell at last upon another Project which was to start a New Plot. They knew there were in London some Clubbs and Coffee-house-Sets of Presbyterians Old Army Officers discontented Gentlemen and Republicans which had close Cabals and private Meetings and that the Court had a jealous eye upon them as indeed there was good cause for it and out of these materials they thought they might easily raise the structure of a Presbyterian Plot against the State but all the chief men of the Popish Faction being fled imprisoned or executed this grand Design fell into the hands of people of no great either parts or reputation to carry on so difficult an Undertaking and it was not likely neither to be easily believed if it had no other Witnesses but Papists to attest it And it was not possible for them to bring over any other of any reputation in the low estate their affairs then were so that the Contrivance miscarried and only tended to make the Papists more hated than they were before and this is called the Meal-Tub Plot which I should rather have ascribed to the rage and desperation of the Papists than to their Insolence which was then very well abated by the Execution of Coleman Staley the Murtherers of Sir Edmundbury Godfry and the Jesuits which had reduced them to too low a condition to defie the meanest Courts of Justice in the Nation and put them upon those mean and base thoughts of Perjuries and Subornations to avoid that ruine which they saw ready to overwhelm and destroy them But that which
relating to the Commons respect either the King or the Lords or the rest of the Subjects which are not Members of their House or the Members of their own House Our Enquiry is only in this point concerning those that relate to those Subjects that are not Members of either House whether they may be imprisoned by Vote of the Commons for matters that have no relation to Priviledge of Parliament In the latter end of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth it was a question whether the Commons could imprison those that were not Members of their own House for matters that had a certain and apparent relation to the known Priviledges of Parliament as for Arresting them or their Servants in time of Parliament which hath been since gained and is no longer Contested by any body but is a strong Argument that they had not then that power the Author claims and for which he brings the Precedents which are indeed of a later date except one and that was in the Minority of Edward the Sixth Anciently if any man were impeached in Parliament there was a Writ directed to the Sheriff to summon him to appear and Answer as my Lord Coke acquaints us and sets down the form of the Writ and upon the return of this Writ the Attachment it is likely went out of the House of Lords but of this Power of the Commons that great man speaks not one word which is a good Argument they had it not and indeed the latter instances are all after his time It is not consonant to reason that any Subject of England should be imprisoned upon a bare suggestion without the Oath of the Accuser Now the Commons have no power to give an Oath in this case and therefore it seems reasonable that they should not imprison any man who is not a Member of their House much less whomsoever they please The House of Commons is not a Court of Judicature except in matters of Priviledge and Elections but all persons accused in Parliament must be tried by the Lords therefore it is contrary to the Law of England that any man should be imprisoned by the Commons who * as the Grand Jury of the Nation are his Accusers It is said that a man taken into Custody by Order of the Commons is taken in Execution but it is contrary to the eternal Laws of Nature and all Nations that a man should be taken in Execution before he have made his Defence and a legal Sentence be passed upon him by Legal Process and proof It is destructive of the Liberty of the Subject that any man should be so taken by them into Custody because he is without all remedy and if the thing happen to prove iujurious and oppressive as it did in the Case of John Wilson and Roger Beckwith Esquires two Torkshire Justices of the Peace who were notoriously injured by it For these reasons which I submit to wiser men than my self I am humbly of opinion that no man ought to be taken into Custody by the Order or Vote of the Commons that is not a Member of their House except it be for matters relating to the Priviledges of Parliament and that such Priviledges as are commonly known for if they may call what they please a Priviledge of a Parliament it will in the Event be the same thing as an unlimited power As to all his Instances they do not deserve any consideration except the first and that no man as he relates it can tell by whom the Commitment was made without the Record which I cannot come at and the latter were the Acts of Popular Parliaments which laid the foundations of our late troubles by such proceedings My Author in the next place comes to justifie the Votes against the Ministers and lays down this as his foundation The Commons in Parliament have used two ways of delivering their Country from pernicious and powerful Favourites The one is in a Parliamentary Course of Justice by impeaching them which is used when they judge it needful to make them publick examples by Capital or other high punishments for the terror of others The other is by immediate Address to the King to remove them as unfaithful or unprofitable Servants Their Lives their Liberties or Estates are never endangered but when they are proceeded against in the former of these ways Then legal evidence of their guilt is necessary then there must be a proper time allowed for their defence In the other way the Parliament act as the Kings great Council and when either House observes that affairs are ill administred that the Advice of Parliaments is rejected or slighted the Course of Justice perverted our Councils betrayed Grievances multiplied and the Government weakly and disorderly managed of all which our Laws have made it impossible for the King to be guilty they necessarily must and always have charged those who had the Administration of affairs and the Kings Ears as the Authors of these mischiefs and have from time to time applied themselves to him by Addresses for their removal from his presence and Councils So here are all the Ministers of State that are or ever shall be exposed to the mercy of the House of Commons if proof can be brought against them then have at all Life Liberty and Estate must go for it but if none can be had then it is but voting them Enemies to the King and Kingdom and Addressing to have them removed from his Majesties Presence and Councils for ever and the work is done without allowing the liberty to answer for themselves And the reason that he gives for it is a pleasant one because the King cannot be guilty therefore they must But may not a House of Commons be mistaken and punish a man for what he never did may not one man give the Advice and another suffer for it at this rate of proceedings But this is an old Custom What then it is an unjust one There may be many things plain and evident beyond the testimony of any Witness which yet can never be proved in a legal way This is true but I hope he will not infer from hence that any man shall be punished for those things without testimony I always thought all these cases were reserved to the Tribunal of God Almighty And I believe this Gentleman would be loth to be tried by his own rule The Parliament may be busied in such great Affairs as will not suffer them to parsue every Offender through a long process Then they may let him alone or leave him to the Common Law but to condemn him unheard for want of leisure is such a piece of justice as no man would be willing to submit to in his own Case There may be many reasons why a man should be turned out of Service which perhaps would not extend to subject him to punishment That there may be reasons why a man should be turned out of Service
61. Pag. 11. Colemans long Letter A seasonable Address to the Parliament pag. 6 7. Pag. 12. Pag. 12. Verbae strictius quam fere proprietas sumenda erunt si id necessarium erit ad vitandam iniquitatem vel Absurdltatem atsi non talis est necessitas sed manifesta aequitas vel utilitas in restrictione subsistendum erit intra arctissimos terminos proprietatus nisi Circumstantia aliud suadeant Grot. de jure Belli Pacis lib. 2. cap. 16. sect 12. Pag. 13. Pag. 13. Seasonable Address p 3. Pag. 13. Pag. 13. April 7 and 9. 1678. Pag. 14. Pag. 14. Hist Col. of the four last Parliaments of Q Eliz. Pag. 15. Proceedings of the four last Parliaments of Q. Eliz. p. 254. Anno Regni 44. It seems probable to me that this question was then first resolved by the Arguments brought for it which use not to be in plain cases and one Member opposed it and another said many were sent for but none appeared none were punished Cokes Instit part 4. of the proceedings in Parliament against absents p. 38. * Owned by this Author p. 39. Cokes Instit part 4. p. 24. Debates of the House of Commons pag. 217. A Commitment of this House is always in nature of a Judgment and the Party not Bailable Address to the Freemen c. Part. 2. p 38. 4 Edw. 6. 18 Jac. 20 Jac. 3 Car. Pag. 16. Pag. 17. Ibid. Pag. 17. Ibid. Proceedings of the four last Parl. p. 47. Pag. 17. In hoc Parliamento concessa suit Regi taxa insolita incolis tricabilis valde gravis Wals nec servarentur ejus Evidentiae in Thesauria Regia Ibid. Polid. Virgil. Sunorum crebris conjurationibus vexatus Jan. 7. 1680. Pag. 18. Pag. 19. There were two Votes of the same nature passed in 1626 concerning Tonnage and Poundage Nalsons Preface to his Collections pag. 60. Pag. 19. Pag. 19. Pag. 20. ☞ ☜ ☜ Pag. 20. Cokes Instit part 2. p. 44. ☞ ☜ ☜ 27 â— 8. 31 â— â— c. 13. 32. H. 8. c. 14. 27 H. 8. c 24. Pag. 20. Ibid. Pag. 21. Pag. 21. Ibid. Pag. 22. Pag. 22. Pag. 22. Pag. 22. Pag. 22. Pag. 22. Pag. 22. Pag. 23. Pag. 23. Pag. 23. Pag. 23. * Suppose that the Church of England were disarmed of all those Laws by which she is guarded and would not this turn a National Church into nothing else but a Tolerated Sect or Party Would it not take away all appearance of Establishment from it Lord Chancellors Speech April 13. 75. Would this Unite us in one Affection Pag. 24. Pag. 24. Ibid. Pag. 25. Pag. 25. Pag. 11 20. Pag. 26. The gracious Speech there made and the gracious Declaration that followed are so much of a piece that we may justly conclude the same persons to have been the Authors of both Pag. 27. of this Book Pag. 27. Pag. 6. Pag. 27. Proceedings of the four last Parl. Pag. 32. Viide p. 178. ☜ Pag. 27. Feb. 24. 1592. 35 Eliz. Prerogative of Parliaments Pag. 56. Feb. 28. 1592. And accordingly in this Session of Parliament was the sharp Statute made against the Dissenters which was designed to have been repealed when the Bill of Repeal was lost in the House of Lords Pag. 27. Pag. 28. Pag. 28. Ibid. Pag. 28. Pag. 29. The Lord Chancellor told the Parliament May 1â— 1662. that they had well provided for the Crown by the Bill of the Milâ—â—â—â— and the Act for the Additional Revenue to their high Commendationâ— How â—â—owaâ—d and indisposed soever many are at present who 〈◊〉 such obstructions laid in their way to Mutiny and Sedition use all the Artifiâ—e they can to persuade the people that yoâ— have not been soiretou enough for their Liberty nor 〈◊〉 enough for their proâ—â—â— and 〈◊〉 labour to 〈◊〉 their reverence towards you which sure was 〈◊〉 more due to any Parliament Pag. 30. The continuation of the History of England by John Trussel Pag. 31. Pag. 31. Address of Decemb. 21. 1680. Pag. 32. Pag. 33. Pag. 34. In plain English there must be a Change we must neither have Popish Wife nor Popish Favourite nor Popish Mistris nor Popish Counsellor at Court nor any new Convert We want a Government and a Prince that we may trust c. A Speech of a Noble Peer of the Realm Pag. 35. Pag. 35. Oatos tells us these were the Protesting Lords and the Leading men in the House of Commons Trial pag. 28. Trial pag. 21. Pag. 35. Pag. 24. Feb. 27. Said Colledge If you do not joyn with Fitz-Harris and charge the King home you are the basest fellow in the world c. Colledge Trial. pag. 30. Pag. 36. Pag. 36. Ibid. Pag. 36 37 38 39. Pag. 40. Pag. 41. * 〈…〉 the Third 's time they put down the Purveyor of the Meat for the maintenance 〈…〉 House as if the King had been a Bankrupt and gave order that without ready Money he shâ—â—â— not take up a Chicken Prerogative of Parliaments p. 15. Pag. 41. Trial p 54. Pag. 41. Pag. 42. Ibid. Pag. 42. Pag. 43. Ibid. Ibid. Pag. 44. There hath not been a Week since Venners rising in which there have not been Combinations and Conspiracies formed against his Majesties Person and against the Peace of the Kingdom c. Lord Chancellors Speech May 8. 1661. Pag. 6. Pag. 44. Tacitus in the end of the Reign of Augustus saith Senes plerique inter Bella Civium nati quotusquisque reliquâ—s qui Rempub. vidisset igitur versus Civitatis status nihil usquam prisâ—i integri moris Omnis exuta aequalitate jussa Principis aspectare H. lib. 1. In which passage Monarchy is opposed to the ancient Liberty or Commonwealth Pag. 45. See the Preface to the first part of the Addreâ—s to the Freemen c. Pag. 19. Pag. 22. Pag. 45. Pag. 46. Declaration Debates p. 19 1. Pag. 46. Address to the Freemen p 39. part 2. * Speech to the Parliament Feb. 5. 1672. Pag. 35. Pag 6. Ibid. Pag. 47. 17 Car. 2. C. 1. Pag. 5. Pag. 43 44 Pag. 47. Ibid. Colledges Trial p. 18. 25. Pag. 48. Pag. 48. Ibid. Redde Reverentiam Praelato Obedientiam quarum altera Cordis altera Corporis est Nec enim sufficit exterius obtemperare majoribus nostris nisi ex intimo Cordis Affectu sublimiter sentiamus de tis S. Bernard Serm. 3. de Advent This internal reverence due to the Sacred Majesty of our Kings above all other Superiours whatsoever is that which we express by the word Loyalty Conclusion Religion Loyalty Laws The Republicans are eveâ—y day calling in the Aid of the Law that they may overthrow the Law which they know to be their irreconcilable enemy Lord Chancellors Speech May 19. 1662. Monarchy Popery Oaths Clergy Conversation Ministers C'est à un Prine à regler leâ— Courtisans dautant qu'on lâ—â— impute tous leurs disorders qu' on presume quand â—ls en 〈◊〉 que c'est luy mesme qui les commet garcâ— qu'il est oblige dâ— les empescher Judges and Magistrates Gentry Liberty and Property Books Fears and Jealousies Plot. Priviledge