THE Free-born Subject OR THE Englishmans Birthright Asserted against all TYRANNICAL VSVRPATIONS EITHER IN CHURCH OR STATE LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in St. Pauls Church-yard at the West-end 1679. THE FREE-BORN SUBJECT OR The Englishmans Birthright Asserted against all Tyrannical Usurpations either in RELIGION or STATE NOw to take my Text to pieces By a Free-born Subject is meant a person that is born under the Protection of the Law and thereby entitled to certain known Immunities and Privileges as his Birthright But then he is likewise tied up by the same Law to certain Rules and Measures of Obedience to Government So that he seems to be Free in one respect and Subject in another Now how far he is Enfranchised by this Liberty and how far Limited by that Subjection will be the Question You shall seldom or never find this expression used but as a kind of Popular Challenge and still in favour of the Free-born without any regard at all to the Subject Whereas we should as well consider the Authority of an Imperial Prince on the one hand as the Privileges of a Free-born People on the other And not so far mistake either the Force or the Intent of Magna Charta and the Petition of Right by which we claim to these Liberties as if by being discharged of our Vassalage we were also discharged of our Allegiance The Englishmans Birthright sounds much to the same purpose too with the Free-born Subject Only there lies a stronger Emphasis in Common Speech upon the word Englishman As when we speak of a Brave Man that stands up for the Honour and Defence of his Country such a one we cry is a Right Englishman a True Englishman Now to the end that we may not be misled by the Sound and Jingle of Words into a false and dangerous Notion of Things let us repair to the Law which is the Known and Common Standard of our Civil Actions that we may not either give up our Own just Rights on the One hand or Encroach upon his Majesties on the Other For it is the Law that marques out the Metes and Bounds both of King and People that shews how far we are to Go and where to Stop and teaches us to distinguish betwixt Liberty and Sedition betwixt a True Right Old Englishman and a shuffling double-hearted Moderm Impostor As we have our Legal Rights so we lie under Legal Restrictions too And the King likewise hath his Legal Prerogatives which are also accompanied with certain Legal Limitations From whence it appears that the Law serves as a Common-Rule and lies as a Common Obligation both upon Prince and Subject And yet though there be a Duty Incumbent on both sides there is a great difference even in point of Law it selfe betwixt the Kings Violation of the Law and the Peoples The King breaks his Word the People forfeit their Bond. They are Both of them Bound alike in Conscience but the People are over and above engaged upon a Penalty It makes a huge noise in the World that Kings are bound by the Laws as well as the People And so they are in Honour and Conscience but no further And this arises from the very Nature of Government it self For wheresoever the Last Appeal lies there rests the Government And there can be no Government at all without the Establishment of a Final Result for otherwise the King shall Iudge the People and the People Rejudge the King and so the Controversie shall run round World without end Take notice now that all Appeals move from a Lower Court or Sentence to a Superiour and consider then how ridiculous it were to Appeal Downward or from Sovereign Princes to any other Power than to the King of Kings who alone is above them But let us put the Case now that a Prince mis-governs How shall he be tried It must be either By the Law or Without it If the Former where is the Law that says The People may call their Soveraign to accompt in case he does not Govern according to Law Or if they cannot produce such a Law the Assertion is Treasonous If the Latter we are at our Old Salus Populi again Which in one word is no other then a direct Dissolution of the Law and a Prostitution of Authority to the Will of the Multitude Having already stated the Conditions and Advantages of a Free-born Subject and of our English Birthrights we shall now proceed to the asserting of these our Privileges against all Tyrannical Usurpations either in matter of Religion or State And first a word of Tyrannical Usurpations Under this Head may be comprised all sorts of Violence and Oppression by what means or Instruments soever exercised contrary to Law and Iustice. By Tyranny we do understand An Vnjust Domination or an Abuse of a Lawful Power to the injury of the People as if a Prince should turn a Legal Government into and Arbitrary Now we commonly reckon That for an Vsurpation when One man takes upon him the Right of another without any Title to it at all As our late Oliver was called Vsurper And there are also Mixt Cases as was That before mentioned where Tyranny and Vsurpation meet Both in One. According to This Division we may be oppressed three several ways either Immediately by the Prince himself or Mediately by his Ministers as by special Direction and Command Or otherwise we may be simply oppressed one Subject by another But still these Oppressions are Illegal every way and the Question is Now what Legal Relief in the Case For as the Law entitles us to the Privileges we claim and to the enjoyment of them so does the Law likewise appoint and chalk us out the Methods of Asserting and Maintaining our Rights in case they be invaded So that we must onely Oppose Legal Remedies to Illegal Wrongs and not think to deliver our selves from one Violence by another For Popular Commotions are the most Criminal and Dangerous of all sorts of Oppressions Other Oppressions may lie Heavy upon particular Persons but This is an Oppression of Law and Government it self And it is as Foolish as it is Impious For while we Phansie all things to be Lawful for us because we suffer many things against Law we incur a Legal Forfeiture of all our Privileges by the unlawful manner of endeavouring to preserve them It is a Maxim in Law but not in Morals that the King can do no wrong for he may shed Innocent Bloud with his own hand which is the Greatest of Wrongs but it is not looked upon however as a Wrong in Law because there is no Law to question him for it The Ordinary shift upon this Point is That the King may be sued and that consequently he stands answerable to the Law To which I say with a Distinction that the King hath a Twofold Right a Right of Dominion and a Right of Propriety In the Former which is the point in Question there lies no
Action of Law In the other there may for otherwise he might take away any mans Free-hold at pleasure And were it not a wild thing to imagine otherwise when according to the very Stile of the Law all Writs Trials and Forms of Iustice run in the Kings name So that admitting their Supposition the King sits Iudge upon himself When the late Underminers of the Government found that they could not shake the Royal Authority This way for it was attempted they had recourse afterward to the Phansie of a Coordinate Government making the King Lords and Commons to be the Three Estates in stead of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons represented in Parliament Which mistake being swallowed by the Undiscerning Multitude proved the Foundation of our Common Ruine This Whimsie being now set on foot again I shall bestow a Word or two upon the Unmasking of that pernicious and sensless Pretence and make it appear that the Position is Destructive not onely of the Three Estates as some account them but of the very Being of Parliaments Supposing the Government to be Coordinate as these People will have it any Twâ— Parts of the Three may Out the Third The King lies at the Mercy of the Lords and Commons the Commons at the Mercy of the King and the Lords and the Lords as much at the Mercy of the King and Commons So that at this rate no body knows to day what Government we shall have to morrow This is the Just Ratio of a Coordinate State and then to colour the Invention they tell us that the King is Singulis Major Vniversis Minor Greater then the Diffusive Body of the People but Inferiour to the Collective Which strikes at the very Root of Parliaments for if it be True that a Prince by calling of a Parliament dethrones himself what Prince would ever call a Parliament As it is clear that Sovereign Power is Sacred and not to be Touched it is no less Clear on the other side that all the Executors of Illegal Powers and Violences may be questioned for that the Law puts no difference betwixt one Subject and another but provides for Common Iustice betwixt man and man without any difference of regard to Dignities or Persons And as it appoints us such a Relief in such and such Cases so does it likewise ordain and direct such and such Punishments in other Cases according as the wisdom of the Law-makers hath found convenient So that he is upon his Good behaviour either for Redress or Punishment But I hear many people say that 't is True the Law provides well enough for us but what if Iustice be overaw'd and obstructed My answer is that we are to help our selves by Law if we can but if the Law will not relieve us we must be Patient especially in a Case where 't is impossible to find a Remedy that is not worse then the Disease Let us but look a little into the Consequences of passing That Line and taking upon us to be our Own Carvers First by Transgressing the Bounds of the Law we cast our selves out of the Protection of it Secondly by declining the Common Equity of it we run into Partialities and Factions and every man makes himself both Iudge and Party Thirdly from a Certain and Infallible Provision for the Stating and Determining of all Controversies we transport our selves into an Absolute Impossibility of ever Reconciling them I might have said of Vnderstanding them For Fourthly from matter of Fact we betake our selves to Questions and Propositions of Notion as the Law of Nature Self-preservation c. which signifie nothing more then to puzzle the Multitude and confound the Order of Civil Administration For there can be no Proof made of a Thought but under Countenance of These Blinds the Ambitious the Revengeful the Necessitous the Factious the Covetous the Malicious and the like Stalk to their Vnrighteous and Self-Ends And what 's the Issue of all This but that when by Coveting more then did belong to us we have lost what we had when by forsaking the Known and the Safe ways of Peace and Iustice we have wandered out our Lives in Pathless Dangerous and Vncomfortable Errors without either Light or Guide to set us right again When we have been led by a False Shew of Liberty as by an Ignis Fatuus through Boggs and Ditches and all in pursuit of a Sluttish Vapour When by breaking the Bond of Humane Society we have turned a Community into a Desert and like Wild Beasts torn one another to pieces What is the fruit at last of all our Wild Adventures but Bondage Beggery Shame and Late Repentance So that our Best and Surest Way will be for every man to look to his Own Province without intermeddling in the Jurisdiction of Another Having sufficiently discoursed upon the Quality of Tyrannical Usurpations we come now to Religion and State as the Subject Matter they are to work upon Wherein we shall Distinguish betwixt Tyranny as an Act of the Government and Usurpation as a Claim of the People Touching the Power of Kings and the Possibility of Tyranny in the matter of Religion the Question falls into a very narrow Compass for Conscience lies out of the Reach of Law And the Powers of Government are onely exercised upon Ouvert and Sensible Acts. But the point in hand however is This First What is intended by the Tyranny here spoken of Secondly How are we to behave our selves in Case of such Tyranny There may be Tyranny either in forcing a man upon a Penalty to Renounce the Right Religion or to Embrace a False One Or in Prohibiting to any man the Freedom of Worship after his Own way And all these Cases vary according to the Constitution of the Government and the Conscience of the Governour For the same thing may be Lawful in One place and not in Another and to One Person too and not to Another And it may be more or less Excusable also according to These Circumstances In short It is a Tyranny to press a man to a False Worship A Tyranny to punish him for adhering to a True one A Tyranny to hinder any man from Worshipping God as he Ought And the Tyranny it self is yet farther aggravated if it be done in Opposition to the Law of the Land And to the Conscience of the Ruler as well as to Common Equity But still when I have lost Liberty Estate nay and Life it self by reason of Religion my Religion it self is preserved Inviolate even when my Body lies in Ashes The Prince that Acts all these Tyrannies hath undoubtedly a great deal to answer for to Almighty God But what Remedy is there for the Subject that Suffers them And let That be the next Point In Case of such Persecutions as aforesaid I know no more then These Four ways of Application for Relief Either by Prayer to Almighty God By Recourse to the Law for Protection By Petition to the Government
and to the Discouragement of the Churches Friends Secondly As the Act of Vniformity hath the Full and Solemn Complement of a Binding Law why may they not as well demand a Dispensation for Rebellion as for Schism And quarrel any other Law nay one after another the whole Body of the Law as well as That The Law is the Established Rule of our Actions and they will have every wandering Phansie to be a Rule to the Law They themselves fly from the Law and their Complaint is that the Law doth not follow them This Method frustrates the very Order of Providence and makes all Provisions of Government to be Vain and Vseless They cannot pretend to Charge this Law with any Defect in regard either of the Civil or the Ecclesiastical Authority of it Here is First The Iudgment of the Church duly Conven'd touching the Meetness and Convenience of the Rites and Forms therein Contained Secondly There is the Royal Sanction Approving and Authorizing those Rites and Forms and requiring our Exact Obedience to them Thirdly The Matter of the Law here in question is our Own Act for that we our selves are Concluded in the Vote of our Representatives Against These Vsurpations we have Law enough And so we have likewise against those that follow in Matter of State which may be reduced to Vsurpations upon us in Matter of Life Liberty or Estate There is an Vsurpation upon the Magistrate and there is an Vsurpation upon the Subject Upon the Former in respect either of Title or of Power both which Cases are Determinable and Relievable by the Law And so also is any Oppression upon the Subject That is to say where One Subject oppresses Another When I say Determinable and Relievable by Law my meaning is that the Law hath competently provided for the Freedom and Security both of King and People And the Remedy seldom fails where it is Seasonably applied and Vigorously pursued But when the Dignity of Government may be vilified Gratis the Kings Ministers and Friends bespattered with Billingsgate Libels and his professed Enemies supported and encouraged when his Majesties Title as well as his Prerogative and Reputation shall come to be the subject of every Bawling Pamphlet and the Bounds of Sovereign Power to be debated by Porters and Carmen over Pots of Ale when not onely the Reverend and Lawful Ministers and the Apostolical Order of the Church shall be Derided and Despised but Religion it self pass onely for a Sham a piece of Priest-Craft and be published in Print for no more in effect then a Political Art of getting a Hank upon the People when such Outrages I say as These come to be daily committed over and over in the very face of the Sun and the Laws suffered to Sleep that should repress and punish them what can be the Event of This Inhumane License but Confusion and Ruine And if it comes to That once it was our Own fault for not putting a Timely and a Legal Stop to These Audacious Vsurpations The Positions and the Methods that brought on our late Troubles are now Revived and Practised every day afresh We have our Quaeries our Remonstrances and all things to the Old Tune of Curse ye Meroz and To your Tents O Israel most munifestly tending to the Unhinging of the Government and as certainly designing the Subversion of the Church and of the State The Boldness and the Impunity of these Libels would be an Equal Wonder to me if I were not satisfied that the One is clearly the Effect of the Other For their escaping punishment looks as if the Government were afraid of the Rabble and then their passing without Answer gives a kind of Credit to their Doctrine It is not a Work for a Gentleman to Rake a Dunghil and to gather up the Peoples Vomit But yet out of a Foolish Zeal and Tenderness for a Duty that hath onely given me Misery in This World and the hope of Comfort in a Better I cannot but endeavour to possess others with the same sense of these Indignities which I have my self and to lay open this Spirit of Calumny and Slander These Vncoverers of their Fathers Nakedness and Defilers of the Honour of our Common Mother My Onely Encouragement to This Undertaking is the Title I have to be believed in it For I am so far from being Bribed into this Office either by the Tie of Past Obligations or by the Prospect of Benefits to come That with Infinite Acknowledgments of his Majesties Grace and Goodness to me I defie any man to produce another Gentleman in the Kings Dominions under my Circumstances that hath suffered so many Illegal Arbitrary and Mean Injustices from any of the Abusers of the Kings Bounty as I have done Insomuch that after a Sentence of Death for his Majesty betwixt Three and Four Years in Newgate and a matter of Seven and Thirty Years faithful Service to the Crown the Bread hath been taken out of my Mouth and in a large proportion shared amongst some of those very People that pursued the late King to the Block Nor do I look for any more Advantage for the Future This Reflection by the way doth not concern any man that is now in Office at Court and I hope there is enough said already to acquit me of any likelihood to be Partial in This matter I must not slip This Occasion of bringing in a Case of late date a Case wherein all men of Letters are concerned and not impertinent in This place and That being done I will proceed Being desirous to Inform my self very particularly concerning this late Devillish Plot I got the best Intelligence I could as well by Short Notes upon the Trials in Court as by word of Mouth from Credible persons that were there present After this upon perusal of the Printed Trials I found several Gross Incoherences especially in the Later of them and very Material Mistakes As in that of Mr. Langhorn Fol. 39 and 40. Mr. Lydcats name is used no less then Nine times as one of the St. Omers Witnesses in stead of Mr. Hall to his very great prejudice Reflecting upon These Errors together with the almost Inextricable Difficulty of Retriving the Truth out of such a Confusion of Tautologies and Forms the Collection being so Bulky too and the Particulars lying so scattered that it was next to the Work of a Resurrection to set every part in its right place I betook my self to my Friends my Thoughts and my Papers and digested the whole Transaction into an Historical Narrative And not in Dialogue neither nor in the words either of the Bench the Witnesses or the Prisoners but in my Own stile and Way and just in the same Fashion as I would tell the Story This Book I entitled The History of the Plot c. made a Legal Assignment of my Right to a Bookseller I Authorised him to Print it and he Imprinted it by the Authority of the Author Some of the Pretenders to the
for Indulgence and Compassion Or else to trie if we can deliver our selves by Direct Force The First is a sure Expedient in all Cases for where we are not Delivered from our Afflictions Our Afflictions are yet by Gods Providence turned into Comforts In the Second place we may make the best of the Law provided that we do not make the Law Felo de se and raise Inferences of Equitable Supposition in Contradiction to the Naked and Express Letter of it As for Example By the Law we have a Lawful Right to such and such Liberties and herein we have the Law to Friend But if we make any attempt to compass these Lawful Ends by Vnlawful Means the Law is point blank against us Our Next Resort is by Petition to the Government which is a Course Laudable and Fair provided we keep clear of Rancour and Clamour and address to the Magistrate not to the Multitude For it is not the End of those Popular Papers to Sollicite Relief but to Provoke Tumults and under the Countenance of begging Compassion toward the People to stir up Sedition against the Government For Lewd Characters of Men breed Ill Thoughts of them and Evil Thoughts break out into Wicked Actions and the readiest way in the World to a Rebellion is to startle the Vulgar with an Apprehension of Tyranny If all this will not do there remains nothing more but either Patience or Force The Former was of the Primitive and the Later hath been the practice of our Modern Christians but whether they do Well or Ill in it shall be now examined It hath done a great deal of Mischief in the World the Misconstruction of That Text that bids us Obey God rather then man For the People are not well aware that First in Obeying of Magistrates in all Warrantable Cases they Obey God also in That Civil Obedience Secondly Supposing the Command of the Supreme Magistrate to be directly Opposite to the Express Will of God I will not Obey him in That Case but I am not yet discharged of my Duty to him in Other Cases for he is never the less a Lawful Magistrate even for not being a Christian and I will not Resist him in Any Thirdly the Law of This Nation makes all Motions and Insurrections whatsoever without Legal Authority to be Riotous Seditious or Treasonous Assemblies Fourthly Allowing this Latitude to the People that they may Confederate and Rise for the Defence of Religion they may as well rise for the Subversion of it for we have but their bare Words either for the One or for the Other Fifthly It Authorizes every man to set up a Church by himself in his Own Phansie and in stead of carrying his Body to the Doctor for a Fit of the Spleen he brings his Conscience forsooth to the Government to be cured of a Revelation And this License in one word sets up the Crotchet of every Sickly Brain in Competition with Christianity iâ— self and the Politique Peace What if I should say now that there was never any War in the World undertaken purely upon the Accompt of Religion that was not utterly Vnlawful unless in Cases of Gods Extraordinary and Peculiar Dispensations For First What are the Certain and Necessary Effects of War but Bloud Rapine Oppression the Multiplying of so many Widows and Orphans Depopulating of Countries and Kingdoms and the Violation of all Rights Sacred and Profane Are These now the Works of the Gospel And what is Religion the better for all this These are Sacrifices for Moloch and This is a Religion and an Oblation fitter for an Insensible and Implacable Idol then for the God of Love and Peace Let us but consider now what a Deluge of Impiety flows in upon Humane Nature with This Opinion The Papist falls foul upon the Protestant the Protestant upon the Papist the Christian upon the Mahumetan the Mahumetan upon the Christian It sets all People and all Parties together by the Ears onely for Diversity of Thoughts It makes Authority Ridiculous it frustrates the very Laws of Nations and lays the World again in Common Now if This be so Pestilent a Doctrine taken only at Large How much more Diabolical is it for Subjects upon This Vngodly Pretext to go about to Embroyl a Well Regulated State and to charge their Souls with Perjury Schism and Rebellion over and above the Common Crimes that accompany Hostile Invasions As the Law hath been hitherto so it must be henceforward the Rule and Measure of all our Proceedings In the Section of Tyranny the Question was How the Subject should demean himself toward the Prince in the Case of such and such Oppressions in matter of Religion But now in Case of an Vsurpation the Question is How far the Government should comply with a Popular Importunity or how far the People should gratifie one another Of which we have spoken so much at large elsewhere that the less will serve in this place The Word Vsurpation implies the Affecting or Invading of Anothers Right which in the point of Religion must needs be very Dangerous because the People are so easily disposed to swallow That Deadly Pill I do not reckon a bare and simple Dissent from the Established Doctrine and Discipline of the Church to be an Vsurpation For possibly there may be a Real Scruple or want of due Information in the Case But when That Dissent comes to be Practical when it comes to make Parties to Divide into Sects to Plead and to Challenge the Law it is no longer a Plea of Conscience but a direct Conspiracy against the Government It is a Nursery of Heresies over and above And a Liberty utterly Inconsistent with the Measures of Political Iustice and Prudence For First They Agree among themselves in the single point onely of Departing from Vs And they are not in Conjunction more dissatisfied with our Ecclesiastical Laws and Decrees then they are severally among themselves one Sect with another So that it is in this respect impossible to please them And Secondly It is no less dangerous to offer at it in other Considerations For First upon the Current of Long and Constant Experience they have been always found Insatiable Never esteeming what they had to be Enough till they had gotten All. The late King gave them still more and more and the more he Gave the more they Craved and turned his Bounty at last to his Destruction He did effectually in favour of their Importunities Strip himself to his Revenue his Crown and his Life and all That They took Another danger is that the very men that ask a Toleration are Principled against it And I see not the least shadow of a Reason why they that will not Tolerate Others should be Tolerated Themselves And truly as little Ground for the Asking of it as for the Granting of it For First Why should the Vnity of the Church be broken and the Peace of it disturbed in favour of the Enemies of it
the Reader observe the Pharisaical and Vnmannerly Opposition betwixt his Ejected Ministers and those that were Introduced and then let him consider the Right and the Condition both of the One and of the Other This was the very Character the Schismatiques gave our Learned Pious and Canonical Divines when they turned them out of their Livings by Hundreds contrary to Law Honesty and Humanity it self and the same Character with the Other did They take upon Themselves that turned them out The Incumbent Legally Invested in the Benefice and the Other an Oppressing and Injurious Vsurper And what came of it The Shepherds were destroyed and Wolves set to look to the Flock The Vnity and Simplicity of Evangelical Truth was lost and confounded in a Compound of Carnal Policy and Schism We had as many Religions as Pulpits and the Doctrine of Rebellion Delivered in them in stead of the Doctrine of Salvation He goes on Damning all the Churchwardens for Persecutors of the Gospel if they Present according to their Oaths and for Perjury if they do not If a Minister Preach without his Canonical Garment If any man goes from his Own Parish Church to hear a Sermon c. or work upon a Romish Holyday If he does not stand up at the Creed nor Bow at the Name of Jesus Or does not keep off his Hat all the while he is Presentable Well and what of all this There is neither Life nor Limb in the Case if a man be Presented Here is for Decency sake an Order and That Order is supported by Authority and Obedience in Lawful Matters deriving from a Lawful Authority is an Essential Duty both of a Subject and a Christian. He seems onely to have Talked Idle all this while but now he grows directly Outragious We have gotten saith he most of the sober Trading part of the Nation discouraged by Citations Excommunications Writs to take them Excommunicated Imprisonments upon Ecclesiastical Accompts By this means Thousands of Families are already ruined and many Hundreds are ready to leave the Land and remove into some other Country where they may have Liberty of Conscience and Freedom from these devouring Harpies And then he tell us of our Surplices Copes Tippets Cringings out of the Romish Rituals and a Service collected out of the Romish Books the Maess Breviary c. Was not This the very Stile of the Petitions and Admonitions to Q. Elizabeth and so down to this Instant Pray what did we get by it when to be cased of This insupportable Tyranny the Nation was at the charge of 114000 l. a Moneth to an Army Hist. Indep 66. Above One half of the Revenue of the Kingdom under Sequestration 300000 l. a Year openly divided by the Faction among Themselves beside Private Iobs and above 20 Millions that they never accompted for 110000 l. a Year in Wages to Themselves 100000 l. a Year more in Gratuities Beside Free Quarter at pleasure Taxes Innumerable and all Vnder-hand Corruptions Above a Million and a half levied by Compositions and then so cheap and despicable Slaves in our Persons that Welsh Prisoners were sold into Plantations at 2 pence a head For the Truth of all This I refer my self to Mr. Walker in his History of Independency a Knowing and a Well-read Person in the whole Transaction and a man of Credit As to the Pamphletters Liberty of Conscience He would have the World believe this Vniformity and Rule of Discipline to be New and Singular and the Work onely of the present Age and Bishops Whereas whosoever will consult the History of our Government will find This Law to be a Moderation which they call a Persecution Especially at a time when the strictness is not executed Under Edward the VI. the very Depraving of the Common Prayer or Procuring the Vse of any other in Open Prayer was 10 l. to his Majesty for the First Offence 20 l. for the Second And a Forfeiture of all Goods and Chattels with Imprisonment during Life for the Third And in the Fifth of the same King there was Authorized an Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction in these Cases Q. Mary repealed this Act and in the First of Q. Elizabeth Q. Maries Act was Repealed and the Former Act Confirmed which was afterwards in the Five and Thirtieth of That Queens Reign Enforced with more Rigour to which She was necessitated by the Turbulence of that Spirit of Schism which still to This day is a working King Iames handed it down to the late King and he continued it till by a Torrent of Popular Violence the King himself and the Government were Both over-born We have gotten saith he a Swarm of Ecclesiastical Officers which the Scriptures never knew nor Reformed Churches ever owned A sort of Proud Prelats And all manner of Misery to Soul and Body Plague Fire Sword Vniversal Beggery and without Seasonable Mercy the Total Ruine of the whole Kingdom I am sorry to hear that we have any Officers which the Reformed Churches never owned For these which we have in This Government at present we have had for several Ages and when we had these Officers no longer we had no longer any Government And Then it was that all his Plagues befel us We have made but One Trial of another way of Government and it cost us Dear Upon a supposed Question over again concerning the Rise of our Miseries the Libellers Answer is that the manifold Provoking Sins of the Land as Adultery Blasphemy Swearing Idolatry Perjury and contempt of God and Godliness do pull hard with Heaven to bring down desolating Iudgments But the nearest Cause of our Impoverishments ariseth from the Particulars afore mentioned He should have done well to have put in Rebellion too which hath all other Sins in the Belly of it But That is a Thing these people do not love to touch upon To the rest I have spoken more then enough already and that which follows is onely an Impertinent Citation of Reflections upon Ill Bishops whence he would draw an Inference that we are to have None at all The Second of the Five Quaeries before mentioned is This Whether since all other Reformed Churches in Europe did upon the First Reformation and Departure from Popery cast out all Diocesan Bishops Name and Thing Root and Branch as an Office altogether Popish together with all their Hierarchical Appurtenances and do this day esteem them no otherwise why did not or doth not England also do the like So that by Hook or by Crook it seems the Bishops must down either for Oppression or for Popery after the Example of all other Reformed Churches We may see by This what kind of Reformation we are to expect from Those People that account the Church of England to be Popish We should be presently a tearing down Altars again demolishing of Churches Rifling of Colleges and Murthering of Iesus Christ over again in Essigie which is no way to be effected but by another Rebellion The Model of the best Reformed Churches
he quitted all those Advantages he Gave and Forgave all that was possible to shew how much he prized a Dominion over the Hearts of his People above That of their Bodies and Estates Touching his affection to the Religion of the Church of England since it hath pleased God in his Infinite Wisdom to permit that his Majesty should be Calumniated upon That point it is a singular Providence that this should happen in a Iuncture when the plain matter of Fact and the Naked History of his Royal Proceedings may suffice to the most prejudicate and the most obstinate of his Enemies as an Unanswerable Confutation It is every day more and more artificially Insinuated and Improved especially since the Discovery of the late horrid Design and particularly in the Libel last mentioned as if his Majesty were not so careful and zealous for the Suppressing and Preventing of Popery and for the Punishing of Delinquents as is needful for the security of his Government Nay there are some so daring as to take upon them in Hint and Mystery to intimate the very Countenancing of the Plot it self If the Proceeding be not altogether so quick and sanguinary as some would have it we shall onely say This that Those of all men have the least Colour to complain of his Majesties want of Rigour that stand indebted already for their Heads and for their Fortunes unto his Grace and Mercy As to his Opinion of the Church of Rome his Majesty hath given the World so many and so ample Evidences of his dislike of That Communion that every mans Conscience as well as Reason cannot but discharge him upon That point It cannot be imagined that in his late Troubles and Exile he wanted either Arguments or Solicitations either in point of State or of Religion and the most plausible too that could be found out to work upon either his Conscience or his Necessities And yet no Temptations either on the One hand or on the Other had any farther Operation upon his Majesties Iudgment then by causing a stricter Enquiry into the Subject in debate to confirm him still more and more in the Truth of his Profession In so much that in the Lowest and most hopeless State of his Distresses he chose rather to abide all Extremities then to depart in any Tittle from the Faith of the Reformed Communion Now his Majesty having given this Earnest of his stedfastness to the Religion of the Church of England during his Banishment and shewing that neither Fear nor Despair could shake him in his Resolutions it were a strange thing for him now to relinquish That Cause in Opposition to his Interest which when it might have turned to his Temporal Advantage no Persecution or Flattery could ever prevail upon him to do I might add to all This that he hath steered the same Course in all his Devotions both Publique and Private and that the Maintainance of This Church hath been Undeniably the Scope of all his Deliberations and Councils in all Religious Concernments since his Blessed Return But it is not enough in all Cases for a Prince to be Tender and Innocent in the matter of Religion Witness the late Pious and yet Vnfortunate Prince For wheresoever this Incantation takes place the Sinews of Government are Loosened the Sacredness of Order Dissolved and all Obligations cancelled as well Moral as Divine And not onely so but the very Shadow and Imagination of it frights people into Lakes and Precipices and transports them with Panique Terrors into the Execution of the very Mischiefs they fear So that his Majesty hath two main Difficulties to encounter at once The One to Master the Plot it self the Other to Temper and Sweeten the Passions of men zealous in the contrary Extreme that no Inconvenience may arise from Their Misapprehension of Things another way According to these Measures his Majesty hath governed his Course throughout the whole Tract of This Affair leaving no means unattempted that might probably give light to the Bottom of This Tragical Design He hath given all sorts of Encouragement to Informations by Countenance Protection and Reward The Depositions have been formally taken before his Majesty and his Privy Council and the Evidences strictly weighed and examined and from thence afterward heartily recommended and faithfully Transmitted to the Two Houses of Parliament as the most Rational Method for the Common Satisfaction both of King and People Neither hath his Majesty been wanting on his Own part in a Vigorous Concurrence with the Two Houses to do all that in him lay toward the Suppressing of Popery the seizing and securing of Popish Recusants and providing more effectually by the best means that could be devised for the Maintainance and Establishment of our Religion Having issued out divers Proclamations and done several other Publique Acts upon the Motion and Advice of his Two Houses of Parliament to the Ends aforesaid even to the taking away from the Popish Lords their Ancient Right of Session in the House of Peers and disabling all Papists whatsoever to all purposes whatsoever from any Advantages in the Government And if it be not yet enough that in this Dangerous Juncture his Majesty hath walked hand in hand and kept pace with his Two Houses of Parliament it may be justly affirmed that he hath in some degree even supererogated in This matter and added an Excess of Affection to the Conscientious Discharge of his Princely Care and Function Of This we might give several Instances but one shall serve for all in his Majesties Speech to both Houses of Parliament on Saturday Nov. 8. 1678. where he quickens the Two Houses themselves in these words I do desire you saith his Majesty to think on some ready means for Conviction of Popish Recusants and to expedite your Counsels that the World may see our Vnanimity and that I may have the Opportunity to let you see how ready I am to do any thing that may give satisfaction After This demonstrative Clearness on his Majesties side let us cast an Impartial Eye the Other way and so conclude Was not This the very Charge upon the late King and was there ever any Prince that lived more faultless Was not the Care of the Protestant Religion pretended and was not all Religion in a manner subverted Was not the Kings Honour and Safety the Pretext of a Solemn Covenant and was he not delivered up by the Same Covenant to his very Executioners What a Clamour there was about Magna Charta the English Liberties and a Reformation onely of some Excrescences as they called them in the Church and State And did not this specious Flourish conclude in a Total Extinction of Law Freedom and Government Were not the same Arguments used Then as Now Are not the same Artifices of Libelling Authority practised Now which were Then And are not the People poisoned the same way This Year that they were the Last In short Is not High-gate the way to St-Albans Still So certainly are we now running the same Stage over again Was there not a Time when St. Pauls was turned into a Garrison When Apprentices cancelled their own Indentures and had them renewed again by an Ordinance When for fear of Red-coats in the Clouds the Credulous Multitude brought them like Aegyptian Plagues into their very Pots and Dishes Oh! but do you think they cry that These Godly People will ever touch the King How many well meaning People thought the same thing before and yet contributed to the destroying of their Soveraign not knowing what they did Be not deluded Immediately after the sending of what is above-written to the Press comes out a Pamphlet entitled Englands Safety Or the Two Vnanimous Votes of the last Good Parliament concerning the D. of York being a Papist c. I have so great a Reverence as well for the Honour of the Constitution of Parliaments as for the Personal Loyalty of the Members of our late Great Representative that I cannot but take notice of the Abuse which is First put upon That Illustrious Convention it self and afterward upon the People in This Libel It makes the House of Commons to be the Parliament But neither did those worthy Gentlemen claim to themselves a Full Parliamentary Power to the Exclusion of any other Legal and Essential Concurrence Nor will they take it well to be so much Mis-represented And then it is as great an Abuse on the Other hand to the whole Nation For if This Opinion be swallowed once the People will be apt to take Ordinances again for Laws So that the Title is in a great Mistake upon That Point And now that the Reader may not incur almost as Great a one on the other hand in another Lei it be observed that the Woman in whose Name this Pamphlet is published is so far from being a Well-Willer to the Kings Person or Government that from the time of his Majesties Restauration it hath been her Constant Business to promote all Spiteful and Scandalous Books and Papers against both Church and State To these Pretended Votes I can say nothing whether True or False but This I am sure of that Debates of That Solemnity and Importance ought not to be made Publique that nothing can be more Derogatory to the Dignity of that Great Body then as the Fashion hath been of late for every Pedant and Mechanique to set up the Trade of Teaching Parliament-men their Lessons The Subject of his Royal Highnesses's Succession to the Crown is made the Common Theme of the Press And I do not presume to Reason the matter either Pro or Con as it is a Case out of my Province But still I am at Liberty to assert the Duty of a Free-born and of a Faithful Subject and to affirm that I have not found any one Argument in any of these Libels which in a Natural Consequence does not likewise reach the King whom God preserve and in Mercy keep all his Subjects in Due Obedience THE END ADVERTISEMENT THe History of the Plot Or a Brief and Historical Account of the Charge and Defence of Edward Coleman Esq Of Ireland Grove and Pickering Of Green Berry and Hill Of Whitebread Harcourt Fenwick Gavan and Turner Of Richard Langhorn Esq Of Sir George Wakeman Marshal Rumly and Corker Not omitting any one Material Passage in the whole Proceeding Compiled by Roger L'Estrange And Printed for Richard Tonson within Grayes-Inn Gate next the Lane Price 2 s. 6 d.