the Master of them he can indeed make a truck for God or let them so low that God shall be an easy Landlord but he cannot alter Gods Property nor translate the Right that is in him to Sacrilegious Laymen and Hereticks XI One of the Effects of this Declaration will be the setting on foot a new run of Addresses over the Nation for there is nothing how Impudent and base soever of which the abject flattery of a Slavish Spirit is not capable It must be confest to the reproach of the Age that all those strains of flattery among the Romans that Tacitus sets forth with so mueh just Scorn are modest things compared to what this Nation has produced within these seven years only if our Flattery has come short of the Refinedness of the Romans it has exceeded theirs as much in its loathed Fulsomness The late King set out a Declaration in which he gave the most solemn Assurances possible of his adhering to the Church of England and to the Religion established by Law and of his Resolution to have Frequent Parliaments upon which the whole Nation fell as it were into Raptures of Joy and Flattery but tho he lived four Years after that he called no Parliament notwithstanding the Law for Triennial Parliaments and the manner of his Death and the Papers printed after his Death in his Name have sufficiently shewed that he was equally sincere in both those Assurances that he gave as well in that Relating to Religion as in that other Relating to Frequent Parliaments yet upon his Death a new set of Addresses appeared in which all that Flattery could Invent was brought forth in the Commendations of a Prince to whose Memory the greatest kindness can be done is to forget him and because his present Majesty upon his coming to the Throne gave some very general Promise of Maintaining the Church of England this was magnified in so Extravagant a strain as if it had been a Security greater than any that the Law could give tho by the regard that the King has both to it and to the Laws it appears that he is resolved to maintain both equally since then the Nation has already made it self sufficiently ridiculous both to the present and to all succeeding Ages it is time that at last men should grow weary and become ashamed of their Folly. XII The Nonconformists are now invited to set an Example to the rest and they who have valued themselves hitherto upon their Opposition to Popery and that have quarrelled with the Church of England for some small Approaches to it in a few Ceremonies are now solicited to rejoyce because the Laws that secure us against it are all plucked up since they enjoy at present and during pleasure leave to meet together It is natural for all men to love to be set at ease especially in the matters of their Consciences but it is visible that those who allow them this favour do it with no other design but that under a pretence of a General Toleration they may Introduce a Religion which must persecute all equally it is likewise apparent how much they are hated and how much they have been persecuted by the Instigation of those who now Court them and who have now no game that is more promising than the engaging them and the Church of England into new Quarrels and as for the Promises now made to them it cannot be supposed that they will be more lasting than those that were made some time ago to the Church of England who had both a better Title in Law and greater Merit upon the Crown to assure them that they should be well used than these can pretend to The Nation has scarce forgiven some of the Church of England the Persecution into which they have suffered themselves to be cosened tho now that they see Popery barefaced the Stand that they have made and the vigorous Opposition that they have given to it is that which makes all men willing to forget what is past and raises again the Glory of a Church that was not a little stained by the Indiscretion and Weakness of those that were too apt to believe and hope and so suffered themselves to be made a Property to those who would now make them a Sacrifice The Sufferings of the Nonconformists and the Fury that the Popish Party expressed against them had recommended them so much to the Compassions of the Nation and had given them so just a pretension to favour in a better time that it will look like a curse of God upon them if a few men whom the Court has gained to betray them can have such an ill Influence upon them as to make them throw away all that Merit and those Compassions which their Sufferings have procured them and to go and court those who are only seemingly kind to them that they may destroy both them and us They must remember that as the Church of England is the only Establishment that our Religion has by Law so it is the main body of the Nation and all the Sects are but small and stragling parties and if the Legal Settlement of the Church is dissolved and that body is once broken these lesser bodies will be all at Mercy and it is an easy thing to define what the Mercies of the Church of Rome are XIII But tho it must be confessed that the Nonconformists are still under some Temptations to receive every thing that gives them present ease with a little too much kindness since they lie exposed to many severe Laws of which they have of late felt the weight very heavily and as they are men and some of them as ill Natured men as other people so it is no wonder if upon the first surprises of the Declaration they are a little delighted to see the Church of England after all its Services and Submissions to the Court so much mortified by it so that taking all together it will not be strange if they commit some Follies upon this occasion Yet on the other hand it passes all imagination to see some of the Church of England especially those whose Natures we know are so particularly sharpned in the point of Persecution chiefly when it is levelled against the Dissenters rejoyce at this Declaration and make Addresses upon it It is hard to think that they have attained to so high a pitch of Christian Charity as to thank those who do now despitefully use them and that as an earnest that within a little while they will persecute them This will be an Original and a Master piece in Flattery which must needs draw the last degrees of Contempt on such as are capable of so abject and sordid a Compliance and that not only from all the true Members of the Church of England but likewise from those of the Church of Rome it self for every man is apt to esteem an Enemy that is brave even in his Misfortunes as much as he despises those
towards a Prince that is not of our Perswasion But would he have us learn of our Irish Neighbours to cut our Fellow Subjects Throats and rebel against our King because he is of another Religion for that is the freshest Example that any of our Catholick Neighbours have set us and therefore I do not look so far back as to the Gunpowder-plot or the League of France in the last Age. He reproaches us for failing in our Fidelity to our King. But in this matter we appeal to God Angels and Men and in particular to His Majesty Let our Enemies shew any one Point of our Duty in which we have failed for as we cannot be charged for having preacht any Seditious Doctrine so we are not wanting in the Preaching of rhe Duties of Loyalty even when we see what they are like to cost us The point which he singles out is that we have failed in that grateful Return that we owed His Majesty for his Promise of Maintaining our Church as it is established by Law since upon that we ought to have repealed the Sanguinary Laws and the late Impious Tests the former being enacted to maintain the Usurpation of Queen Elisabeth and the other being contrived to exclude the present King. We have not failed to pay all the Gratitude and Duty that was possible in return to His Majesties Promise which we have carried so far that we are become the Object even of our Enemies Scorn by it With all Humility be it said that if His Majesty had promised us a farther Degree of his Favour than that of which the Law had assured us it might have been expected that our return should have been a degree of Obedience beyond that which was required by Law so that the return of the Obedience injoyned by Law answers a Promise of a Protection according to Law yet we carried this matter further for as was set forth in the beginning of this Paper we went on in so high a pace of Compliance and Confidence that we drew the censures of the whole Nation on us nor could any Jealousies or Fears give us the least Apprehensions till we were so hard pressed in matters of Religion that we could be no longer silent The same Apostle that taught us to Honour the King said likewise that we must obey God rather than man. Our Author knows the History of our Laws ill for besides what has been already said touching the Laws made by Queen Elisabeth the severest of all our Penall Laws and that which troubles him and his friends most was past by K. James after the Gunpowder-plot a Provocation that might have well justified even greater Severities But tho our Author may hope to Impâ—se on an Ignorant Reader who may be apt to believe Implicitly what he says concerning the Laws of the last Age yet it was too bold for him to assert that the Tests which are so lately made were contrived to exclude the present King when there was not a thought of Exclusion many years after the first was made and the Duke was excepted out of the second by a special Proviso But these Gentlemen will do well never to mention the Exclusion for every time that it is named it will make people call to mind the service that the Church of England did in that matter and that will carry with it a Reproach of Ingratitude that needs not be aggravated He also confounds the two Tests as if that for Publick Imployments contained in it a declaration of the King 's being an Idolater or as he makes it a Pagan which is not at all in it but in the other for the Members of Parliament in which there is indeed a Declaration that the Church of Rome is guilty of Idolatry which is done in general terms without applying it to His Majesty as our Author does Upon this he would Infer that his Majesty is not safe till the Tests are taken away but we have given such Evidences of our loyalty that we have plainly shewed this to be false since we do openly declare that our duty to the King is not founded on his being of this or that Religion so that His Majesty has a full Security from our Principles tho the Tests continue since there is no reason that we who did run the hazard of being ruined by the Excluders when the Tide was so strong against us would fail his Majesty now when our Interest and Duty are joyned together but if the Tests are taken away it is certain that we can have no Security any longer for we shall be then laid open to the Violence of such restless and ill-natured men as the Author of this Paper and his Brethren are VI. The same reason that made our Saviour refuse to throw himself down from the roof of the Temple when the Devil tempted him to it in the vain Confidence that Angels must be assistant to him to preserve him holds good in our Case Our saviour said Thou shalt not Tempt the Lord thy God. And we dare not trust our selves to the faith and to the Mercies of a Society that is but too well known to the World to pretend that we should pull down our Pales to let in such Wolves among us God and the Laws have given us a legal Security and His Majesty has promised to maintain us in it and we think it argues no Distrust either of God or the Truth of our Religion to say that we cannot by any Act of our own lay our selves open and throw away that defence Nor would we willingly expose His Majesty to the unwearied Solicitations of a sort of men who if we may Judge of that which is to come by that which is past would give him no rest if once the restraints of Law were taken off but would drive matters to those Extremities to which we see their Natures carry them head-long VII The last Paragraph is a strain worthy of that school that bred our Author he says His Majesty may withdraw his Royal Protection from the Church of England which was promised her upon the account of her constant Fidelity and he brings no other proof to confirm so bold an Assertion but a false Axiome of that despised Philosophy in which he was bred Cessante causa tollitur effectus This is indeed such an Indignity to His Majesty that I presume to say it with all humble reverence these are the last persons whom he ought to pardon that have the boldness to touch so sacred a point as the faith of a Prince which is the chief security of Government and the Foundation of all the Confidence that a Prince can promise himself from his People and which once blasted can never be recovered Equivocations may be both taught and practised with less danger by an Order that has little Credit to lose but nothing can shake Thrones so much as such treacherous Maximes I must also ask our Author in what point of Fidelity has our Church failed so far as to make her forfeit her Title to His Majesties Promises for as he himself has stated this matter it comes all to this The King promised that he would maintain the Church of England as established by Law. Upon which in Gratitude he says that the Church of England was bound to throw up the Chief Security that she had in her Establishment by Law which is that all who are Intrusted either with the Legislative or the Executive parts of our Government must be of her Communion and if the Church of England is not so tame and so Submissive as to part with this then the King is free from his Promise and may withdraw his Royal Protection tho I must crave leave to tell him that the Laws gave the Church of England a Right to that Protection whether His Majesty had promised it or not Of all the Maximes in the World there is none more hurtful to the Government in our present Circumstances than the saying that the Kings Promises and the Peoples Fidelity ought to be Reciprocal and that a Failure in the one cuts off the other for by a very Natural Consequence the Subject may likewise say that their Oaths of Allegeance being founded on the Assurance of His Majesties Protection the One binds no longer than the Other is observed and the Inferences that may be drawn from hence will be very terrible if the Loyalty of the so much decryed Church of England does not put a stop to them FINIS ☜ ☜ ☜
but Fire and Blood since its first formation and that is even decryed at Rome it self for its Violence is in such credit here I do not see any enducement from thence to persuade us to look on the Councils that are directed by that Society as such harmless and inoffensive things that we need be no more on our guard against them I know not why we may not apprehend as much from Father Petre as the French have felt from Pere de la Chaise since all the difference that is observed to be between them is that the English Jesuite has much more Fire and Passion and much less Conduct and Judgment than the French has And when Rome has expressed so great a Jealousy of the Interest that that Order had in our Councils that F. Morgan who was thought to influence our Ambassadour was ordered to leave Rome I do not see why England should look so tamely on them No reason can be given why Card. Howard should be shut out of all their Councils unless it be that the Nobleness of his Birth and the Gentleness of his Temper are too hard even for his Religion and his Purple to be mastered by them And it is a Contradiction that nothing but a Belief capable of receiving Transubstantiation can reconcile to see Men pretend to observe Law and yet to find at the same time an Ambassadour from England at Rome when there are so many Laws in our Book of Statutes never yet repealed that have declared over and over again all Commerce with the Court and See of Rome to be high Treason V. The late famous Judgment of our Judges who knowing no other way to make their Names immortal have found an effectual one to preserve them from being ever forgot seems to call for another Method of Proceeding The President they have set must be fatal either to them or us For if 12 Men that get into Scarlet and Furrs have an Authority to dissolve all our Laws the English Government is to be hereafter lookt at with as much scorn as it has hitherto drawn admiration That doubtful VVords of Laws made so long ago that the intention of the Lawgivers is not certainly known must be expounded by the Judges is not to be questioned but to infer from thence that the plain VVords of a Law so lately made and that was so vigorously asserted by the present Parliament may be made void by a Decision of theirs after so much Practice upon them is just as reasonable a way of arguing as theirs is who because the Church of England acknowledges that the Church has a Power in Matters of Rites and Ceremonies will from thence conclude that this Power must go so far that thô Christ has said of the Cup drink ye all of it we must obey the Church when she decrees that we shall not drink of it Our Judges for the greater part were Men that had past their Lives in so much Retirement that from thence one might have hoped that they had studied our Law well since the Bar had called them so seldom from their Studies and if Practice is thought often hurtful to speculation as that which disorders and hurries the Judgment they who had practised so little in our Law had no byass on their Understandings and if the habit of taking Money as a Lawyer is a dangerous preparation for one that is to be an incorrupt Judge they should have been incorruptible since it is not thought that the greater part of them got ever so much Money by their Profession as pay'd for their Furrs In short we now see how they have merited their Preferment and they may yet expect a further Exaltation when the Justice and the Laws of England come to be in hands that will be as careful to preserve them as they have been to destroy them But what an Infamy will it lay upon the Name of an English Parliament if instead of calling those Betrayers of their Countrey to an account they should go by an after-game to confirm what these Fellows have done VI. The late Conferences with so many Members of both Houses will give such an ill-natured piece of Jealousy against them that of all Persons living that are the most concern'd to take care how they give their Votes the VVorld will believe that Threatnings and Promises had as large a share in those secret Conversations as Reasoning or Persuasion and it must be a more than ordinary degree of Zeal and Courage in them that must take off the Blot of being sent for and spoke to on such a subject and in such a manner The worthy Behaviour of the Members in the last Session had made the Nation unwilling to remember the Errors committed in the first Election and it is to be hoped that they will not give any cause for the future to call that to mind For if a Parliament that had so many Flaws in its first Conception goes to repeal Laws that we are sure were made by Legal Parliaments it will put the Nation on an Enquiry that nothing but necessity will drive them to For a Nation may be laid asleep and be a little cheated but when it is awakned and sees its danger it will not look on and see a Rape made on its Religion and Liberties without examining from whence have these Men this Authority they will hardly find that it is of Men and they will not believe that it is of God. But it is to be hoped that there will be no occasion given for this angry question which is much easier made than answered VII If all that were now asked in favour of Popery were only some Gentleness towards the Papists there were some reason to entertain the Debate when the Demand were a little more modest If Men were to be attainted of Treason for being reconciled to the Church of Rome or for reconciling others to it if Priests were demanded to be hanged for taking Orders in the Church of Rome and if the two thirds of the Papists Estates were offered to be levied it were a very natural thing to see them uneasy and restless but now the matter is more barefaced they are not contented to live at ease and enjoy their Estates but they must carry all before them and F. Petre cannot be at quiet unless he makes as great a Figure in our Court as Pere de la Chaise does at Versailles A Cessation of all Severities against them is that to which the Nation would more easily submit but it is their Behaviour that must create them the continuance of the like Compassion in another Reign If a restless and a persecuting Spirit were not inherent in that Order that has now the Ascendant they would have behaved themselves so decently under their present Advantages as to have made our Divines that have charged them so heavily look a little out of countenance and this would have wrought more on the good Nature of the Nation and the
said is In the mean time it is Our Royal Will and Pleasure that Field Conventicles and such as Preach or Exercise at them or who shall any wayâ— assist or connive at them shall be prosecuted according to the utmost Severity of our Laws made against them seeing from these Rendezvouzes of Rebellion so much Disorder hath proceeded and so much Disturbance to the Government and for which after this Our Royal Indulgence for tender Consciences there is no excuse left In like manner we do hereby tolerate Quakers to meet and exercise in their Form in any Place or Places appointed for their Worship And considering the Severe and Cruel Laws made against Roman Catholicks therein called Papists in the Minority of Our Royal Grand Father of Glorious Memory without His Consent and contrary to the Duty of good Subjects by His Regents and other Enemies to their Lawful Soveraign Our Royal Great Grand Mother Queen Mary of blessed and pious Memory wherein under the pretence of Religion they cloathed the worst of Treasons Factions and Usurpations and made these Laws not as against the Enemies of GOD but their own which Laws have still been continued of course without design of executing them or any of them ad terrorem only on Supposition that the Papists relying on an External Power were incapable of Duty and true Allegeance to their Natural Soveraigns and Rightful Monarchs We of Our certain Knowledge and long Experience knowing that the Catholicks as it is their Principle to be Good Christians so it is to be dutiful Subjects and that they have likewise on all occasions shewn themselves Good and faithfull Subjects to Us and Our Royal Predecessors by hazarding and many of them actually losing their Lives and Fortunes in their Defence though of another Religion the Maintenance of their Authority against the Violences and Treasons of the most violent Abettors of these Laws Do therefore with Advice and Consent of Our Privy Council by Our Soveraign Authority Prerogative Royal and Absolute Power aforesaid Suspend Stop and disable all Laws or Acts of Parliament Customs or Constitutions made or executed against any of our Roman-Catholick Subjects in any time past to all Intents and Purposes making void all Prohibitions therein mentioned Pains or Penalties therein ordained to be inflicted so that they shall in all things be as free in all Respects as any of Our Protestant Subjects whatsoever not only to exercise their Religion but to enjoy all Offices Benefices and others which we shall think fit to bestow upon them in all time coming Nevertheless it is Our Will and Pleasure and we do hereby command all Catholicks at their highest Pains only to exercise their Religious Worship in Houses or Chappels and that they presume not to Preach in the open Fields or to invade the Protestant Churches by force under the pains aforesaid to be inflicted upon the Offenders respectively nor shall they presume to make Publick Processions in the High-streets of any of Our Royal Burghs under the Pains above-mentioned And whereas the Obedience and Service of Our Good Subjects is due to Us by their Allegiance and Our Soveraignty and that no Law Custom or Constitution Difference in Religion or other Impediment whatsoever can exempt or discharge the Subjects from their Native Obligations and Duty to the Crown or hinder Us fiom Protecting and Employing them according to their several Capacities and Our Royal Pleasure nor Restrain Us from Conferring Heretable Rights and Priviledges upon them or vacuate or annul these Rights Heretable when they are made or conferred And likewise considering that some Oaths are capable of being wrested by Men of sinistrous Intentions a practice in that Kingdom fatal to Religion as it was to Loyalty Do therefore with Advice and Consent aforesaid cass annull and Discharge all Oaths whatsoever by which any of Our Subjects are incapacitated or disabled from holding Places or Offices in Our said Kingdom or enjoying their Hereditary Rights and Priviledges discharging the same to be taken or given in any time coming without our special Warrant and Consent under the pains due to the contempt of Our Royal Commands and Authority And to this effect we do by Our Royal Authority aforesaid stop disable and dispense with all Laws enjoyning the said Oaths Tests or any of them particularly the first Act of the first Session of the first Parliament of King Charles the Second the eleventh Act of the foresaid Session of the foresaid Parliament the sixth Act of the third Parliament of the said King Charles the twenty first and twenty fifth Acts of that Parliament and the thirteenth Act of the first Session of Our late Parliament in so far allanerly as concerns the taking the Oaths or Tests therein prescribed and all others as well not mentioned as mentioned and that in place of them all Our good Subjects or such of them as We or Our Privy Council shall require so to do shall take and swear the following Oath allanerly I A. B. do acknowledge testifie and declare that JAMES the Seventh by the Grace of God King of Scotland England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. is rightful King and Supream Governour of these Realms and over all Persons therein and that it is unlawful for Subjects on any pretence or for any cause whatsoever to rise in Arms against Him or any Commissionated by Him and that I shall never so rise in Arms nor assist any who shall so do and that I shall never resist â—is Power or Authority nor ever oppose his Authority to his Person as I shall answer to God but shall to the utmost of my power Assist Defend and Maintain Him His Heirs and lawful Successors in the exercise of their ABSOLUTE POWER and Authority against all Deadly So help me God. And seeing many of Our good Subjects have before Our Pleasure in these Matters was made publick incurred the Guilt appointed by the Acts of Parliament above-mentioned or others We by Our Authority and Absolute Power and Prerogative Royal above-mentioned of Our certain Knowledge and innate Mercy Give Our ample and full Indemnity to all those of the Roman-Catholick or Popish Religion for all things by them done contrary to Our Laws or Acts of Parliament made in any time past relating to their Religion the Worship and Exercise thereof or for being Papists Jesuits or Traffickers for hearing or saying of Mass concealing of Priests or Jesuits breeding their Children Catholicks at home or abroad or any other thing Rite or Doctrine said performed or maintained by them or any of them And likewise for holding or taking of Places Employments or Offices contrary to any Law or Constitution Advices given to Us or Our Council Actions done or generally any thing performed or said against the known Laws of that Our Ancient Kingdom Excepting always from this Our Royal Indemnity all Murders Assassinations Thefts and such like other Crimes which never used to be comprehended in Our
but according to the Judgments that we would make of other mens Thoughts by their Actions one would be tempted to think that His Majesty made some doubt of it since his Affairs both at home and abroad could not go the worse if it appeared that there were a perfect understanding between Him and his Parliament and that his People were supporting him with fresh Supplies and this House of Commons is so much at his Devotion that all the world saw how ready they were to grant every thing that he could desire of them till he began to lay off the Mask with relation to the Test and since that time the frequent Prorogations the Closetting and the Pains that has been taken to gain Members by Promises made to some and the Disgraces of others would make one a little Inclined to think that some doubt was made of their Concurrence But we must confess that the depth of His Majesties Judgment is such that we cannot fathom it and therefore we cannot guess what his Doubts or his Assurances are It is true the words that come after unriddle the Mystery a little which are when His Majesty shall think it convenient for them to meet for the meaning of this seems plain that his Maj. is resolved that they shall never meet till he receives such Assurances in a new round of Closetting that he â—hall be put out of doubt concerning it VII I will not enter into the dispute concerning Liberty of Conscience and the Reasons that may be offered for it to a Session of Parliament for there is scarce any one point that either with relation to Religion or Politicks affords a greater variety of matter for Reflection and I make no doubt to say that there is abundance of Reason to oblige â— Parliament to review all the Penal Laws either with relation to Papists or to Dissenters but I will take the boldness to add one thing that the Kings's suspending of Laws strikes at the root of this whole Government and subverts it quite for if there is any thing certain with relation to the English Government it is this that the Executive Power of the Law is entirely in the King and the Law to fortify him in the Management of it has clothed him with a vast Prerogative and made it unlawful upon any pretence whatsoever to resist him whereas on the other hand the Legislative Power is not so entirely in the King but that the Lords and Commons have such a share in it that no Law can be either made repealed or which is all one suspended but by their consent so that the placing this Legislative Power singly in the King is a subversion of this whole Government since the Essence of all Governments consists in the Subjects of the Legislative Authority Acts of Violence or Injustice committed in the Executive part are such things that all Princes being subject to them the peace of mankind were very ill secured if it were not unlawful to resist upon any pretence taken from any ill Administrations in which as the Law may be doubtful so the Facts may be uncertain and at worst the publick Peace must alwayes be more valued than any private Oppressions or Injuries whatsoever But the total Subversion of a Government being so contrary to the Trust that is given to the Prince who ought to execute it will put men upon uneasy and dangerous Inquiries which will turn little to the Advantage of those who are driving matters to such a doubtful and desperate issue VIII If there is any thing in which the Exercise of the Legislative Power seems Indispensable it is in those Oaths of Allegeance and Tests that are thought necessary to Qualify men either to be admitted to enjoy the Protection of the Law or to bear a share in the Government for in these the Security of the Government is chiefly concerned and therefore the total extinction of these as it is not only a Suspension of them but a plain repealing of them so it is a Subverting of the whole Foundation of our Government For the Regulation that King and Parliament had set both for the Subjects having the Protection of the State by the Oath of Allegeance and for a share in places of trust by the Tests is now pluckt up by the roots when it is declared that these shall not at any time hereafter be required to be taken or subscribed by any persons whatsoever for it is plain that this is no Suspension of the Law but a formal Repeal of it in as plain Words as can be conceived IX His Majesty says that the Benefit of the Service of all his Subjects is by the Law of Nature Inseparably annexed to and inherent in his Sacred Person It is somewhat strange that when so many Laws that we all know are suspended the Law of Nature which is so hard to be found out should be cited but the Penners of this Declaration had bâ—st let that Law lie forgotten among the rest for there is a scurvy Paragraph in it concerning self Preservation that is capable of very unacceptable Glosses It is hard to tell what Section of the Law of Nature has markt out either such a Form of Government or such a Family for it And if His Majesty renounces his Pretensions to our Allegeance as founded on the Laws of England and betakes himself to this Law of Nature he will perhaps find the Counsel was a little too rash but to make the most of this that can be the Law of Nations or Nature does indeed allow the Governours of all Societies a Power to serve themselves of every Member of it in the cases of extream Danger but no Law of Nature that has been yet heard of will conclude that if by special Laws a sort of men have been disabled from all Imployments that a Prince who at his Coronation Swore to maintain those Laws may at his pleasure extinguish all these Disabilities X. At the end of the Declaration as in a Postscript His Majesty assures his Subjects that he will maintain them in their Properties as well in Church and Abbey Lands as other Lands but the Chief of all their Properties being the share that they have by their Representatives in the Legislative Power this Declaration which breaks thro that is no great Evidence that the rest will be maintained and to speak plainly when a Coronation Oath is so little remembred other Promises must have a proportioned degree of Credit given to them as for the Abbey Lands the keeping them from the Church is according to the Principles of that Religion Sacriledge and that is a Mortal Sin and there can no Absolution be given to any who continue in it and so this Promise being an Obligation to maintain men in a Mortal Sin is null and void of it self Church-Lands are also according to the Doctrine of their Canonists so immediatly Gods Right that the Pope himself is only the Administrator and Dispencer but is not
whose minds sink with their Condition For what is it that these men would thank the King Is it because he breaks those Laws that are made in their Favour and for their Protection and is now striking at the Root of all the Legal Settlement that they have for their Religion Or is it because that at the same time that the King professes a Religion that condemns his Supremacy yet he is not contented with the Exercise of it as it is warranted by Law but carries it so far as to erect a Court contrary to the express words of a Law that was so lately made That Court takes care to maintain a due proportion between their Constitution and all their proceedings that so all may be of a piece and all equally contrary to Law. They have suspended one Bishop only because he would not do that which was not in his Power to do for since there is no Extrajudiciary Authority in England a Bishop can no more proceed to a Sentence of Suspension against a Clergy-man without a Tryal and the hearing of Parties than a Judge can give a Sentence in his Chamber without an Indictment a Tryal or a Iury and because one of the Greatest Bodies of England would not break their Oaths and obey a Mandate that plainly contradicted them we see to what a pitch this is like to be carried I will not Anticipate upon this illegal Court to tell what Iudgments are coming but without carrying our Iealousies too far one may safely conclude that they will never depart so far from their first Institution as to have any regard either to our Religion or our Laws or Liberties in any thing they do If all this were acted by avowed Papists as we are sure it is projected by such there were nothing Extraordinary in it but that which carries our Indignation a little too far to be easily governed is to see some Pretended Protestants and a few Bishops among those that are the fatal Instruments of pulling down the Church of England and that those Mercenaries Sacrifice their Religion and their Church to their Ambition and Interests this has such peculiar Characters of Misfortune upon it that it seems it is not enough if we perish without pity since we fall by that hand thaâ— we have so much supported and fortifyed buâ— we must become the Scorn of all the world since we have produced such an unnatural Brood that even while they are pretending to be the Sons of the Church of England are cutting their Mother's Throat and not content with Judas's Crime of saying Hail Master and kissing him while they are betraying him into the hands of others these carry their Wickedness further and say Hail Mother and then they themselves Murther her If after all this we were called on to bear this as Christians and to suffer it as Subjects if we were required in Patience to possess our own Souls â—nd to be in Charity with our Enemies and which is more to forgive our False Brethren who add Treachery to their Hatred the Exhortation were seasonable and indeed a little necessary for humane Nature cannot easily take down things of such a hard digestion but to tell uâ— that we must make Addresses and offer Thanksâ—or â—or all this is to Insult a little too much upon â—s in our Sufferings and he that can believe â—hat a dry and cautiously worded promise of maintaining the Church of England will be Religiously observed after all that we have â—een and is upon that carried so far out of â—is Wits as to Address and give Thanks and will believe still such a man has nothing to â—xcuse him from believing Transubstantiation 〈◊〉 self for it is plain that he can bring himself â—o believe even when the thing is contrary to â—he clearest Evidence that his senses can give â—im Si populus hic vult decipi decipiatur POSTSCRIPT THese reflections were writ soon after the Declaration came to my hands but the Matter of them was so tender and the Conveyance of them to the Press was so uneasy that they appear now too late to have one effect that was Designed by them which was the diverting men from making Addresses upon it yet if what is here proposed makes men become so far wise as to be ashamed of what they have done and is a means to keep them from carrying their Courtship further than good words this Paper will not come too late FINIS An ANSWER To Mr. Henry Payne's LETTER Concerning His Majesty's DECLARATION of INDULGENCE Writ to the Author of the Letter to A Dissenter Mr. PAYNE I Cannot hold asking you how much Money you had from the Writer of the Paper which you pretend to Answer for as you have the character of a man that deales with both hands so this is writ in such a manner as to make one think you were hired to it by the Adverse Party but it has been indeed so ordinary to your Friends to write in this manner of late that the Censures upon it are divided both fall heavy some suspect their Sincerity others accuse them for want of a right Understanding for tho all are not of the pitch of the Irish Priests Reflections on the Bp of Bath and Wells's Sermon which was indeed Irish double refined yet both in your Books of Controversy and Policy and even in your Poems you seem to have entred into such an inter-mixture with the Irish that the thread all over is Linsey-woollsey You acknowledge that the Gentleman whom you answer has a Polite Pen and that his Letter is an Ingenious paper and made up of well-Composed Sentences and Periods Yet I believe he will hardly return you your Complement If it was well writ your Party wants either Men or Judgment extreamly in allowing you this province of answering it If the Paper did you some hurt you had better have let the Town be a litle pleased with it for a while and have hoped that a litle time or some new paper tho one of its force is scarce to be expected should have worn it out then to give it a new luster by such an Answer The Time of the Dissenters Sufferings which you lengthen out to 27 years will hardly amount to seven For the long Intervals it had in the last Reign are not forgot and those who animated the latest and severest of their sufferings are such that in good manners you ought not to reflect on their Conduct Opium is as certain a poison tho not so violent as Sublimate and if more corrosive Medicines did not work the Design is the same when soporiferous ones are used since the Patient is to be killed both ways and it seems that all that is in debate is which is the safer the accepting a present ease when the ill intent with which it is offered is Visible is just as wise an action as to take Opium to lay a small Distemper when one may conclude from the dose that he will never
come out of the Sleep So that after all it is plain on which side the Madness lies The Dissenters for a little present ease to be enjoyed at Mercy must concur to break down all our hedges and to lay us open to that Devouring Power before which nothing can stand that will not worship it All that for which you reproach the Church of England amounts to this that a few good words could not persuade her to destroy her self and to Sacrifice her Religion and the Laws to a party that never has done nor ever can do the King half the service that she has rendred him There are some sorts of propositions that a man does not know how to answer nor would he be thought Ingratefull who after he had received some Civilities from a person to whom he had done great service could not be prevailed with by these so far as to spare him his Wife or his Daughter It must argue a peculiar degree of confidence to ask things that are above the being either askt or granted Our Religion and our Government are matters that are not to be parted with to shew our good breeding and of all men living you ought not to pretend to Good Manners who talk as you do of the Oppression of the last Reign When the King's Obligations to his Brother and the share that he had in his Councils are considered the reproaching his Government has so ill a grace that you are as Indecent in your Flatteries as Injurious in your Reflections And by this gratitude of yours to the Memory of the late King the Church of England may easily Infer how long all her Services would be remembred even if she had done all that was desired of her I would fain know which of the Brethren of the Dissenters in forreigne Countries sought their Relief from Rebellion The Germans Reformed by the Authority of their Princes so did the Swedes the Danes and like wise the Switsers In France they maintained the Princes of the Blood against the League and in Holland the Quarrell was for Civil liberties Protestant and Papist concurring equally in it You mention Holland as an Instance that Liberty and Infallibility can dwell together since Papists there shew that they can be friendly neighbours to those whom they think in the wrong It is very like they would be still so in England if they were under the lash of the law and so were upon their good behaviour the Goverment being still against them and this has so good an effect in Holland that I hope we shall never depart from the Dutch Pattern some can be very Humble Servants that would prove Imperious Masters You say that Force is our only Supporter but tho there is no force of our side at present it does not appear that we are in such a tottering condition as if we had no Supporter left us God and Truth are of our side and the indiscreet use of Force when set on by our Enemies has rather undermined than supported us But you have taken pains to make us grow wiser and to let us see our Errors which is perhaps the only obligation that we owe you and we are so sensible of it that without examining what your Intentions may have been in it we heartily thank you for it I do not comprehend what your quarrell is at the squinting Term of the next heir as you call it tho I do not wonder that squinting comes in your mind whensoever you think of HER for all people look asquint at that which troubles them and her being the next heir is no less the delight of all good men than it is your affliction all the pains that you take to represent her dreadful to the Dissenters must needs find that credit with them that is due to the Insinuations of an Enemy It is very true that as she was bred up in our Church she adheres to it so Eminently as to make her to be now our chief Ornament as we hope she will be once our main Defence If by the strictest form of our Church you mean an Exemplary Piety and a shining Conversation you have given her true Character But your designe lies another way to make the Dissenters form strange Ideas of her as if she thought all Indulgence to them Criminal But as the Gentleness of her nature is such that none but those who are so guilty that all mercy to them would be a Crime can apprehend any thing that is terrible from her so as for the Dissenters her going so constantly to the Dutch and French Churches shews that she can very well endure their Assemblies at the same time that she prefers ours She has also too often expressed her dislike at the heats that have been kept up among us concerning such Inconsiderable Differences to pass for a Bigot or a persecutor in such matters and She sees both the mischief that the Protestant Religion has received from their subdivisions and the happiness of granting a due Liberty of Conscience where she has so long lived that there is no reason to make any fancy that she will either keep up our Differences or bear down the Dissenters with Rigor But because you hope for nothing from her own Inclinations you would have her terrified with the strong Argument of Numbers which you fancy will certainly secure them from her recalling the favour But of what side soever that Argument may be strong sure it is not of theirs who make but one to Two hundred and I suppose you scarce expect that the Dissenters will rebel that you may have your Masses and how their numbers will secure them unless it be by enabling them to Rebell I cannot Imagine this is indeed a squinting at the Next Heir with a witness when you would already muster up the Troops that must rise against her But let me tell you that you know both Her Character and the Prince's very ill that fancy they are only to be wrought on by Fear They are known to your great grief to be above that and it must be to their own Mercifull Inclinations that you must owe all that you can expect under them but neither to their fear nor to your own Numbers As for the hatred and Contempt even to the degree of being more Ridiculous then the Mass under which you say Her way of Worship is in Holland this is one of those figures of speech that shew how exactly you have Studied the Jesuites Moralls All that come from Holland assure us that she is so Universally beloved and esteemed there that every thing that she does is the better thought of even because she does it Upon the whole matter all that you say of the Next Heir proves too truly that you are that for which you reproach the Church of England a Disciple of the Crown only for the loaves for if you had that respect which you pretend for the King you would have shewed it more upon this
occasion Nor am I so much in love with your stile as to imitate it therefore I will not do you so great a pleasure as to say the least thing that may reflect on that Authority which the Church of England has taught me to reverence even after all the Disgraces that she has received from it and if she were not Insuperably restrained by her Principles instead of the Thin Muster with which you reproach her she could soon make so thick a one as would make the Thinnes of yours very visible upon so unequall a division of the Nation But she will neither be threatned nor laughed out of her Religion and her loyalty tho such insultings as she meets with that almost pass all humane Patience would tempt men that had a less fixed principle of submission to make their Enemies feel to their cost that they owe all the Triumphs they make more to our Principles than to their own Force Their laughing at our Doctrine of non resistance lets us see that it would be none of theirs under the Next Heir at whom you Squint if the strong Argument of Numbers made you not apprehend that Two Hundred to one would prove an Unequal Match As for your Memorandums I shall answer them as short as you give them 1. It will be hard to persuade people that a Decision in favour of the Dispencing Power flowing from Judges that are both made and payed and that may be removed at pleasure will amount to the recognising of that Right by law 2. It will be hard to persuade the world that the Kings adhering to his Promises and his Coronation Oath and to the known Lawes of the land would make him Felo de se. The following of different methods were the likelier way to it if it were not for the Loyalty of the Church of England 3. It will be very easy to see the use of continuing the Test by Law since all those that break thro it as well as the Judges who have authorised their Crimes are still liable for all they do and after all your huffing with the Dispencing Power we do not doubt but the apprehension of an after reckoning sticks deep somewhere you say it may be supposed that the aversion of a Protestant King to the Popish party will sufficiently exclude them even without the Test. But it must be confessed that you take all possible care to confirm that Aversion so far as to put it beyond a it may be supposed And it seems you understand Christs Prerogative as wel as the Judges did the Kings that fancy the Test is against it it is so suteable to the nature of all Governments to take Assurances of those who are admitted to Places of Trust that you do very ill to appeal to an Impartial consideration for you are sure to lose it there Few English men will believe you in earnest when you seem zealous for publick liberty or the Magna Charta or that you are so very apprehensive of Slavery And your Friends must have very much changed both their Natures and their Principles if their conduct does not give cause to renew the like Statutes against them even tho they should be repealed in this Reign notwithstanding all your confidence to the contrary I will still believe that the strong Argument of Numbers will be always the powerfullest of all others with you which as long as it has its Force and no longer we may hope to be at quiet I concurre heartily with you in your Prayers for the King tho perhaps I differ from you in my Notions both of his Glory and of the Felicity of his People and as for your own particular I wish you would either not at all Imploy your Pen or learn to write to better purpose but tho I cannot admire your Letter yet I am YOUR HUMBLE SERVANT T. T. THE EARLE of MELFORT's LETTER To the Presbyterian-Ministers IN SCOTLAND Writ in his Majesty's Name upon their Address Together with some Remarks upon it The Earle of Melfort's Letter Gentlemen I Am commanded by his Majesty to signify unto you his gracious acceptance of your Address that he is well satisfied with your Loyalty expressed therein for the which he resolves to perpetuate the favour not only during his own Reign but also to lay down Ways for its Continuance and that by appointing in the next ensuing Parliament the taking off all Penal Statutes contrary to the Liberty or Toleration granted by him His Majesty knows that Enemies to Him to You and this Toleration will be using all Endeavours to infringe the same but as ever the Happiness of his Subjects Standing in Liberty of Conscience and the Security of their Properties next the Glory of God hath been his Majesty's great end so he intends to continue if he have all sutable Encouragement and Concurrence from you in your Doctrine and Practice and therefore as he hath taken away the Protestant Penal Statutes lying on you and herein has walked contrary not only to other Catholick Kings but also in a way different from Protestant Kings who have gone before him whose Maxime was to undoe you by Fining Confining and taking away your Estates and to harrass you in your Persons Liberties and Priviledges so he expects a thankful acknowledgment from you by making your Doctrine tend to cause all his Subjects to walk obediently and by your Practice walking so as shall be most pleasing to his Majesty and the concurring with him for the removing these Penal Statutes and he further expects that you continue your Prayers to God for his long and happy Reign and for all Blessings on his Person and Government and likewise that you look well to your Doctrine and that your Example be influential all thâ—se are his Majesty's Commands Sic subs MELFORT REMARKS THe Secretary hand is known to al the Writing Masters of the Town but here is an Essay of the Secretary's Stile for the Masters of our Language This is an Age of Improvements and Men that come very young into Imployments make commonly a great progress therefore common things are not to be expected here it is true some Roughnesses in the Stile seem to intimate that the Writer could turn his Conscience more easily than he can do his Pen and that the one is a little stiffer and less compliant than the other He tells the Addressers that His Majesty is well satisfied with their Loyalty contained in their Address for the which he resolves to perpetuate the favour It appears that the Secretary Stile and the Notary Stile come nearer one another than was generally believed For the which here infringe the same afterwards are beauties borrowed from the Notary Stile the foresaid is not much courser The King 's perpetuating the Favour is no easy thing unless he could first perpetuate himself Now tho his Majesty's Fame will be certainly immortal yet to our great Regret his Person is mortal so it is hard to conceive how this
his Cause his Friends may thank him for it I will not enter into so tedious a digression as the justifying Queen Elisabeths being Legitimate and the throwing the Bastardy on Queen Mary must carry me to this I will only say that it was made out that according to the best sort of Arguments used by the Church of Rome I mean the constant Tradition of all Ages King Henry the VIII marrying with Queen Katherine was Incestuous and by Consequence Queen Mary was the Bastard and Queen Elisabeth was the Legitimate issue But our Author not satisfied with defaming Queen Elisabeth tells us that the Church of England was no sooner set up by her than She enacted those Bloody Cannibal Laws to Hang Draw and Quarter the Priests of the Living God But since these Lawes disturb him so much what does he think of the Laws of Burning the poor Servants of the Living God because they cannot give Divine Worship to that which they believe to be only a Piece of Bread The Representation he gives of this part of our History is so false that tho' upon Queen Elisabeth's coming to the Crown there were many Complaints exhibited of the Illegal Violences that Bonner and other Butchers had committed yet all these were stifled and no Penal Lawes were enacted against those of that Religion The Popish Clergy were indeed turned out but they were well used and had Pensions assigned them so ready was the Queen and our Church to forgive what was past and to shew all Gentleness for the future During the first thirteen years of her Reign matters went on calmly without any sort of Severity on the account of Religion But then the restless spirit of that Party began to throw the Nation into violent Convulsions The Pope deposed the Queen and one of the Party had the Impudence to post up the Bull in London upon this followed several Rebellions both in England and Ireland and the Papists of both Kingdoms entred into Confederacies with the King of Spain and the Court of Rome the Priests disposed all the People that depended on them to submit to the Popes Authority in that Deposiâ—ion and to reject the Queens These endeavours besides open Rebellions produced many Secret Practices against her Life All these things gave the rise to the severe Laws which began not to be enacted before the twentieth year of her Reign A War was formed by the Bull of Deposition between the Queen and the Court of Rome so it was a necessary Piece of Precaution to declare all those to be Traitors who were the Missionaries of that Authority which had stript the Queen of hers yet those Laws were not executed upon some Secular Priests who had the Honesty to condemn the Deposing Doctrine As for the Unhappy Death of the Queen of Scotland it was brought on by the wicked Practices of her own Party who fatally Involved her in some of them She was but a Subject here in England and if the Queen took a more Violent way than was decent for her own Security here was no Disloyalty nor Rebellion in the Church of England which owed her no sort of Allegeance IV. I do not pretend that the Church of England has any great cause to value her self upon her Fidelity to King Charles the First tho' our Author would have it pass for the only thing of which She can boast for I confess the cause of the Church was so twisted with the King 's that Interest and Duty went together tho I will not go so far as our Author who says that the Law of Nature dictates to every Individual to fight in his own Defence This is too bold a thing to be delivered so crudely at this time The Laws of Nature are perpetual and can never be cancelled by any special Law So if these Gentlemen own so freely that this is a Law of Nature they had best take care not to provoke Nature too much lest She fly to the Relief that this Law may give her unless she is restrained by the Loyalty of our Church Our Author values his Party much upon their Loyalty to King Charles the First but I must take the Liberty to ask him of what Religion were the Irish Rebells and what sort of Loyalty was it that they shewed either in the first Massacre or in the progress of that Rebellion Their Messages to the Pope to the Court of France and to the Duke of Lorrain offering themselves to any of these that would have undertaken to protect them are Acts of Loyalty which the Church of England is no way inclined to follow and the Authentical Proofs of these things are ready to be produced Nor need I add to this the hard terms that they offered to the King and their ill usage of those whom he Imployed I could likewise repress the Insolence of this Writer by telling him of the Slavish Submissions that their Party made to Cromwel both Father and Son. As for their Adhering to King Charles the First there is a peculiar Boldness in our Authors Assertion who says that they had no Hope nor Interest in that Cause The State of that Court is not so quite forgot but that we do well remember what Credit the Queen had with the King and what Hopes She gave the Party yet they did not so entirely espouse the Kings Cause but that they had likewise a flying Squadron in the Parliaments Army how boldly soever this may be denyed by our Author for this I will give him a proof that is beyond exception in a Declaration of that King 's sent to the Kingdom of Scotland bearing date the 21. of April 1643. which is printed over and over again and as an Author that writes the History of the late Wars has assured us the clean draught of it corrected in some places with the King 's own hand is yet extant so that it cannot be pretended that this was only a bold assertion of some of the Kings Ministers that might be ill affected to their Party In that Declaration the King studied to possess his Subjects of Scotland with the Justice of his Cause and among other things to clear himself of that Imputation that he had an Army of Papists about him after many things said on that head these words are added Great numbers of that Religion have been with great alacrity entertained in that Rebellious Army against us and others have been seduced to whom we had formerly denyed Imployments as appears by the Examination of many Prisoners of whom we have taken twenty and thirty at a time of one Troop or Company of that Religion I hope our Author will not have the Impudence to dispute the Credit that is due to this Testimony but no Discoveries how evident soever they may be can affect some sort of men that have a Secret against blushing V. Our Author exhorts us to change our Principles of Loyalty and to take Example of our Catholick Neighbours how to behave our selves