Successor which Blessing his Majesty seems resolved to bequeath to his People one would have thought he might have complied with the Parliament in that Proposal It is very probable his Majesty would have complied with them in that particular tho it is past a perhaps the Fanaticks had not nor ever will as long as they continue such deserve that favour at his hands But modest Sir how doth it appear that his Majesty is resolved to bequeath his People the Blessing of a Popish Successor Hath he promised the Duke to die before him Hath his Majesty obliged him to continue a Papist if he be one in spight of his Interest to the contrary Is this your Justice Is this your Modesty But the Ministers thought they had not sufficiently triumphed over the Parliament by getting the Bill rejected unless it were done in such a manner as that the precedent might be more pernicious to Posterity by introducing a new Negative in the making of Laws than the losing the Bill how useful soever could be to the present Age. That this Bill was not tendered to his Majesty for his Assent appears by three Votes of the Commons at Oxford The House then according to their order the day before took into consideration the matter relating to the Bill which passed both Houses in tbe last Parliament entituled An Act for the repeal of a Statute made in the 35 year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth but was not tendered to his Majesty for his Royal Assent Resolved that a Message be sent to the Lords desiring a Conference with their Lordships in matters relating to the constitution of Parliaments in passing Bills Ordered that a Committee be appointed to consider of and prepare the subject matter to be offered at the said Conference Thus far that Parliament went in order to the discovery of the cause of the not tendering that Bill and I have heard the Lords also were upon an inquiry what was become of it but the dissolution preventing them I never heard that there was any discovery made then or since of the person or persons that took it away Now where my Author had his intelligence that the Ministers took it away to introduce a new Negative in the making of Laws I shall not inquire This we may affirm That if the success of this Parliament did not answer expectation whoever was guilty of it the House of Commons did not fail in doing their part Never did men husband their time to more advantage They opened the Eyes of the Nation they shewed them their danger with a freedom becoming English men It was a Caution given by Queen Elizabeth in the end of a Parliament held in the 35th year of her Reign That she would not have the People feared with reports of great dangers but rather encouraged witb boldness against the Enemies of the State And what the effect of our new Politicks was once before we will remember They Asserted tbe Peoples right of Petitioning Yes that they did too very effectually Tho there was an Act of Parliament then in force with this Preface Whereas it hath been found by sad experience that tumultuous and other disorderly soliciting and procuring of Hands by private persons to Petitions Complaints Remonstrances and Declarations and other Addresses to the King or both or either houses of Parliament for alteration of Matters Established by Law redress of pretended Grievances in Church or State OR OTHER PUBLICK CONCERNMENTS have been made use of to serve the Ends of factious and seditious persons gotten into power to the violation of the Publick Peace and have been great means of the late unhappy Wars Confusions and Calamities of this Nation c. They Proceeded vigorously against the Conspirators discovered and heartily endeavoured to take away the very Root of the Conspiracy They had before them as many great and useful Bills as had been seen in any Parliament and it is not to be laid at their doors that they proved abortive This Age will never fail to give them their grateful Acknowledgments And Posterity will remember that House of Commons with honour Jamque opus exegit quod nec Jovis ira nec ignes Nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetusas Nomenque erit indelebile vestrum And now the work is ended which Jove's rage Nor fire nor Sword shall rase nor eating Age And their immortal name shall never die We come now to the particular enumeration of those gracious things which were said to the Parliament at Westminster His Majesty ask'd of them the supporting the Alliances he had made for the preservation of the General Peace in Christendom It is to be wished his Majesty had added to his gracious asking of Money a gracious Communication of those Alliances that such blind obedience had not been exacted from them as to contribute to the support of they knew not what themselves nor before they had considered whether those Alliances which were made were truly designed for that End which was Pretended very dutifully said or any way likely to prove effectual to it since no precedent can be shewn that ever a Parliament not even the late Long Parliament tho filled with Danby his Pensioners did give money for maintaining any Leagues till they were first made acquainted with the particulars of them That Leagues have been communicated to Parliaments heretofore is not to be disputed but that they were ever tendered before they were asked for is not so plain Nor doth it appear this was denied And as to his Parenthesis I desire only that it may be observed for my excuse in case I happen to speak any thing not respective enough of the renowned Parliament at Westminster But besides this this Parliament had reason to consider well of the general Peace it self and the influence it might have and had upon our Affairs before they came to any resolution or so much as a debate about preserving it since so wise a Minister as my Lord Chancellor blessed be God we have one wise Minister they have all along hitherto in general terms been treated at such a rare as if none of them had had either Wit or Honesty had so lately told us that it was fitter for meditation than discourse He informed us in the same Speech that the Peace then was but the effect of Despair in the Confederates and we have since learnt by whose means they were reduced to that Despair and what price was demanded of the French King for so great a Service It is an old Maxim That men should neither deliberate nor debate about those things that are not in their power Now whatever this General Peace was and whatever the effects of it might be the right of Peace and War was in the King and the Commons could not alter one tittle of it And a small degree of experience in the World will tell any man that England was not then in a condition
Reasons of a King to have the less weight because he graciously offers them to the Judgment of his People Sure I am sometimes God Almighty is pleased to do it who only hath a right to command our absolute submission upon the account of his infinite both Wisdom and Soveraignty So that to suspect the want of of an Apology on no other grounds than a mans willingness to satisfie the World of the justice of a mans Cause and the reasonableness of his Actions is a perverseness to which common Knaves do seldom arrive the Heroes of Villany do not often rise to that pitch of Brutality without the help of Malmsbury Philosophy And I am persuaded that our Author would have spared this Cavil against his Majesties Declaration if he had before-hand considered that in natural consequence he charges not only the King but also the Three Estates with so many deliberate Acts of folly and injustice as there are Acts of Parliament containing the reasons of Enacting so or so If a Princes Actions are indeed unjustifiable if they are opposite to the Inclinations and apparently destructive of the Interests of his Subjects it will be very difficult for the most eloquent or insinuating Declaration to make them in love with such things And if they be none of all these if a Crafty man may but comment upon them and by Ifs and An ds insinuate into the heads of the Common People that he takes them for such it is possible all the Eloquence in the World may not be powerful enough to bring them into their right wits again but yet this may fail too sometimes And therefore they did certainly undertake no easie task in pretending to persuade men who see themselves exposed to the restless malice of their Enemies who observe the languishing condition of the Nation and that nothing but a Parliament can provide remedies for the great Evils which they feel and fear that two several Parliaments upon whom they had placed all their hopes were so suddenly broken out of kindness to them or with any regard to their advantage No I suppose no body was so silly as to undertake such an impossible task but there was another sort of men who had looked better into things and care was to be taken of them to confirm them and a third sort that were not yet well resolved what to think of things and they were to be directed and assisted and it was not impossible the Declaration might have a good effect upon them as indeed it had as for those that had placed all their hopes upon the two last Parliaments and were pleased with all they did there was neither hopes nor design of working that Miracle upon them but they were to be left to time to be cured And in the interim I would advise them to study Colemans Declaration of which my Author saith fine things which I care not to transcribe But should this Declaration be suffered to go abroad any longer under the Royal Name yet it will never be thought to have proceeded from his Majesties Inclination or Judgment but to be gained from him by the Artifices of the same ill men who not being content to have prevailed with him to dissolve two Paliaments only to protect them from Publick Justice do now hope to excuse themselves from being thought the Authors of that Counsel by making him openly to avow it But they have discovered themselves to the Kingdom and have told their Names when they number amongst the great Crimes of the House of Commons their having declared divers Eminent Persons to be Ememies to the King and Kingdom So his Majesties Inclination and Judgment being kindly absolved from the guilt of this Declaration of purpose to abate the Esteem it ought to have And seeing it is not possible to keep it within doors and that some may think the worse of it because there was a sham Declaration found among Colemans Papers as you know there was a sham Plot in the Meal-Tub and yet there may be others that are real The next Inquiry or rather Hue and Cry is after the Authors and those he thinks he hath found by the passage he cites out of the Declaration those Eminent Persons or some of them must needs out of Revenge and Fear be the Authors of this Pestilent Declaration His Reason is this None could be offended at the Proceedings of the Parliaments but they who were obnoxious none could be concerned to vindicate the Dissolution but they who advised it But is my Author sure of that that never a man in the Nation was offended at their proceedings but such as were obnoxious to them I am of another mind and so is all the world now Is it impossible for any man to be concerned to vindicate the Actions of a Prince but they that advise him What pitiful Sophistry this is But were no men obnoxious to the proceedings of these Parliaments but these eminent men May not it be some of those Subjects who were by Arbitrary Orders taken into Custody for matters that had no relation to Priviledges of Parliament They are mentioned before the Eminent Persons tho of a Meaner degree If I be not mistaken some Members too were very disgracefully Expelled the House Might not some of them have a hand in it We are assured a little lower that the Writer was of another Nation from this Gallicism It was a matter extremely sensible to us So that this Gentleman is suspitious it is but a Translation of a French Copy and the rather because Monsieur Barillon the French Embassadour read it to a Gentleman three days before it was communicated to the Privy Council if his intelligence did not deceive him So here is fair Scope left to find or suspect at least other Authors besides the Eminent Persons other Advisers besides those that were obnoxious For I suppose Monsieur Barillon doth not fear a House of Commons And as for this and other Gallicisms that may occur they are not to be wondred at in an Age that generally understands the French Tongue in a Court where almost all the Great men speak it in a Prince who hath lived in France and is descended of a French Mother And the wonder is not so prodigious neither that the French Embassadour should get a transcript of a Paper intended to be published to the whole Nation two or three days before it was read in Council These things make a great noise to ignorant people whilst I am persuaded this Gentleman smiled to think how finely he was deluding them But be these things as they will the Eminent Persons must expect to answer it And our Author thinks they cannot blame him or his Party for hoping one day to see justice done upon such Counsellours And that the Commons had reason for their Vote when they declared those Eminent Persons who manage things at this rate Enemies to the King and Kingdom and Promoters
in love with the Book of Common-Prayer as you can wish and have prejudice enough to those who do not love it who I hope in time will be better informed and change their minds and you may be confident I do as much desire to see a Uniformity settled as any amongst you I pray trust me in that Affair I promise you to hasten the dispatch of it with all convenient speed you may relie upon me in it I have transmitted the Book of Common-Prayer with those Alterations and Additions which have been presented to me by the House of Convocation to the House of Peers with my Approbation that the Act of Uniformity may relate to it so that I presume it will shortly be dispatched there And when all is done we can the well setling that Affair will require great Prudence and discretion and the Absence of all Passion and Precipitation The Act of Uniformity being setled and passed his Majesty did not give over all his thoughts for the Dissenters but in the year 1662. was again labouring to revive his Declaration from Breda for Liberty of Conscience which the House of Commons opposed and drew up their reasons against it in the form of an Address wherein they particularly answer the pretences from the Declaration from Breda Which tho the whole Address is in the third part of the Address to the Freemen and Freeholders of the Nation I will here transcribe because this Book may possibly fall into some hands which have not that We have considered the nature of your Majesties Declaration from Breda and are humbly of opinion that your Majesty ought not to be pressed with it any further BECAUSE it is not a Promise in it self but only a Gracious Declaration of your Majesties Intentions to do what in you lay and what a Parliament should advise your Majesty to do And no such advise was ever given or thought fit to be offered nor could it be otherwise understood because there were Laws of Uniformity then in being which could not be dispensed with but by Act of Parliament They who do pretend a right to that supposed Promise put their Right into the hands of their Representatives whom they chose to serve in this Parliament for them who have passed and your Majesty consented to the Act of Uniformity if any shall presume to say that a right to the benefit of this Declaration doth still remain after this Act passed it tends to dissolve the very bonds of Government and to suppose a disability in your Majesty and your two Houses of Parliament to make a Law contrary to any part of your Majesties Declaration though both Houses should advise your Majesty to it Yet still his Majesty was so tender of these men that the tenth of February 1667. the Commons addressed to the King for a Proclamation to enforce obedience to the Laws in force concerning Religion and Church Government as it is now established according to the Act of Uniformity And the fourth of March following the House taking into consideration the Information of the Insolent carriages and abuses committed by persons in several places in disturbing of Ministers in their Churches and holding Meetings of their own contrary to the Laws of this Realm Addressed again for a Proclamation against Conventicles and that there may be care taken for the preservation of the Peace of the Kingdom against unlawful Assemblies of Papists and Nonconformists which was promised the next day The third of November 1669. the House of Commons gave his Majesty thanks for issuing a Proclamation for putting the Laws in execution against Nonconformists and for suppressing Conventicles with the humble desire of this House for his Majesties continuance of the same care for suppressing of the same for the future The Eighth of March 1669. the House having received information of a dangerous and unlawful Conventicle lately met in the West of this Kingdom and of Treasonable words there spoken and that his Majesty had upon information given order for the Prosecution of the Offenders The House returned him their Thanks and desired that his Majesty would be pleased to consider the danger of Conventicles in and near London and Westminster from the nature of those further off and to give order for the speedy suppressing of them and that his Majesty would give order to put the Laws against Popish Recusants in execution Yet after all this the Fifteenth of March 1671-2 his Majesty published a Declaration for Liberty of Conscience by the Advice of his Privy Council which he was hardly persuaded to depart from by the Commons in Feb. 1672. The mischiefs of which Toleration or Indulgence have been so great to his Majesty in particular and the whole Nation in general that no man can well express them And now who can enough admire the Insolence of this discontented Gentleman who dare say as he doth That if the same diligence the same earnest solicitations had been made use of in that affair which have since been exercised directly contrary to the design of it there is no doubt but every part of it would have had the desired success and all his Majesties Subjects would have enjoyed the fruits of it and have now been extolling a Prince so careful to keep sacred his Promises to his People I say on the contrary could his Majesty have been prevailed on by the unanswerable reasons of that most Excellent and most Loyal House of Commons to have enforced the execution of the Laws against Dissenters he had never seen his Affairs reduced to that ill condition they were not long since in And tho I question not but by Gods blessing his Majesty will in a short time resettle things yet I will hope for time to come it shall be a Maxim in England That the Strength of the Dissenters is the Weakness of the Throne As for our Authors jeering reflection on his Majesties other Declaration of April 20. 1679. concerning the Privy Council and some persons then taken into it his Majesty hath had but too much reason not to stick to the same when he see there were some men whom nothing could oblige to be faithful to him but if his Majesty hath not advised with them he hath with some others at least as wise and much honester than some of those who were laid aside so that that Declaration hath been effectually made good to the Nation And therefore we have no reason to question his Majesties Candor in this As for the Declaration read in our Churches the other day there needs no other Argument to make us doubt of the reality of the Promises which it makes than to consider how partially and with how little sincerity the things which it pretends to relate are therein represented it begins with telling us in his Majesties Name That it was with exceeding great trouble that he was brought to dissolve the two last Parliaments without more benefit to the People by the calling
not neglect to give it its due Consideration as appears by their Addresses of November 29. and Decemb. 21. 1680. and they told him no better could be expected of a Town for the most part under Popish Governours and always filled with a Popish Garrison Now this Gentleman might have done the World a Kindness to have told us how the Popery of the Governours or Garrison contributed any thing to the present Exigencies of that place into which it fell not by any neglect or Treachery but by a Siege laid about it by a potent Army of Moors They promised to assist him in defence of it as soon as ever they could be reasonably secured that any Supply which they gave for that purpose should not be used to augment the strength of our Popish Adversaries and to encrease our dangers at home All the rest is of the same kind with this But Sir can you tell what was meant by a reasonable security Or wherein the state of England would have been mended if Tangier had been lost Or can you give us any reason why this Parliament seemed resolved to run the Risque of losing this Town when the former Parliament had Voted so stoutly for the Annexing it to the Crown I might perhaps go near to answer all these questions from the exact Collection of Debates which are Printed but the safer and shorter way is to refer my Reader to them for his satisfaction My Author owns that his Majesty offered to concur in any Remedies that could be proposed for the security of the Protestant Religion but saith he he was pleased to go no further how could he for those Remedies the Commons offered were rejected and those which they were preparing were prevented by a dissolution What was rejected is well enough understood viz. the Bill of Exclusion and if the Association was what was preparing it is not great wonder it should be prevented by a Dissolution But for this we must be contented to remain in ignorance His Majesty had complained of Addresses in the name of Remonstrances rather than Answers Now here my Author cannot guess what the Ministers would have the word Remonstrance sigâ—ifie but he takes it to be a modest expressing the reasons of their resolution Now if this be the meaning of the Word we must own his Majesty hath in this particular charged the Commons wrongfully for there was seldom too much modesty joyned with their Reasons but they rather to us poor Country Folk seemed to have altogether lost that respect that was due to the Crown as any body else would think that should compare their Addresses with those made in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth particularly that made to thank her for taking away a part only of the Monopolies that oppressed them in the 44. year of her Reign when the Speaker and the whole House of Commons sate a good while on their knees to her but our Gentlemen treated our King at quite another rate and not much unlike those who remonstrated to his Majesties Father till they at last fairly brought him to the Block My Author considers in the next place that part of the Declaration which concerns the Arbitrary Orders for taking persons into custody for matters that had no relation to Priviledges of Parliament c. If saith he they the Ministers intended by these general words to reflect on the Orders made to take those degenerate Wretches into Custody who published under their hands Abhorrences of Parliaments and of those who in humble and lawful manner petitioned for their sitting in a time of such extreme necessity Surely they are not in good earnest they cannot believe themselves when they say that these matters have no relation to Priviledges of Parliament if the Priviledge of Parliament be concerned when an injury is done to any particular Member how much more when men strike at Parliaments themselves and endeavour to wound the Constitution But Sir I hope it is no breach of Priviledge of Parliament now to beg a small favour at your Worships hands and that is to produce but one instance of one single man that ever published an Abhorrence of Parliaments in general or of that Parliament in particular before it sate It seems mighty probable to me that these Wretches were a part of them and the rather because my Author is fain to misrepresent the whole matter of Fact to make it seem just Now Sir all the question was whether the manner of Petitioning then taken up by the Rabble was lawful or humble You say it was both but Sir your Sentence is neither Concluding nor yet infallible and therefore we appeal from it to the next Loyal Parliament which we hope some at least of those Degenerate Wretches may live to see and in the mean time there will ever be some ready to abhor a Petition signed by 60000 Shop-Keepers Apprentices c. humbly pretending to instruct the King and Council in spight of a Proclamation to the contrary when its fit a Parliament should sit which some are such fools as to imagine may be done again without abhorring Parliaments and consequently without breach of Priviledge of Parliament And because this was all that was done then to the best of our remembrance and as it is conceived may be made appear by those very abhorrences still extant therefore it is humbly conceived the Imprisonments thereupon were Arbitrary and illegal As to those two Persons my Author names of them that were taken into Custody by Order of Parliament Sheridon and Thompson I will raise no Contest with him because their case will depend upon the general determination The King's Declaration lays down this as a Rule that for the House of Commons to take into Custody any Subject for matters that have no relation to priviledges of Parliament is Arbitrary i. e. Illegal This the Author quarrels at and by a very few Precedents endeavours to prove That the House of Commons may order men to be taken into Custody for matters not relating to priviledge These two are directly contrary each to other and I only desire the liberty to enquire which of these seem likeliest to be in the right The Priviledges of the House of Commons are indeed our own and they enjoy and ought to use them as our Trustees and for our good and therefore it is folly in us to lessen them when they are such as are necessary and it is a great injury in them to extend them beyond what they anciently were to the damage of the Crown or of the Liberties of the Subjects or on the other hand to abuse those they really have and ought to enjoy to our damage or to the Detriment of the Kings Prerogative which is as necessary for our preservation as the Priviledges of Parliament themselves are The Priviledges of Parliament are many and relate either to the whole Body the Three Estates taken Collectively or to the Lords or to the Commons Those
relating to the Commons respect either the King or the Lords or the rest of the Subjects which are not Members of their House or the Members of their own House Our Enquiry is only in this point concerning those that relate to those Subjects that are not Members of either House whether they may be imprisoned by Vote of the Commons for matters that have no relation to Priviledge of Parliament In the latter end of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth it was a question whether the Commons could imprison those that were not Members of their own House for matters that had a certain and apparent relation to the known Priviledges of Parliament as for Arresting them or their Servants in time of Parliament which hath been since gained and is no longer Contested by any body but is a strong Argument that they had not then that power the Author claims and for which he brings the Precedents which are indeed of a later date except one and that was in the Minority of Edward the Sixth Anciently if any man were impeached in Parliament there was a Writ directed to the Sheriff to summon him to appear and Answer as my Lord Coke acquaints us and sets down the form of the Writ and upon the return of this Writ the Attachment it is likely went out of the House of Lords but of this Power of the Commons that great man speaks not one word which is a good Argument they had it not and indeed the latter instances are all after his time It is not consonant to reason that any Subject of England should be imprisoned upon a bare suggestion without the Oath of the Accuser Now the Commons have no power to give an Oath in this case and therefore it seems reasonable that they should not imprison any man who is not a Member of their House much less whomsoever they please The House of Commons is not a Court of Judicature except in matters of Priviledge and Elections but all persons accused in Parliament must be tried by the Lords therefore it is contrary to the Law of England that any man should be imprisoned by the Commons who * as the Grand Jury of the Nation are his Accusers It is said that a man taken into Custody by Order of the Commons is taken in Execution but it is contrary to the eternal Laws of Nature and all Nations that a man should be taken in Execution before he have made his Defence and a legal Sentence be passed upon him by Legal Process and proof It is destructive of the Liberty of the Subject that any man should be so taken by them into Custody because he is without all remedy and if the thing happen to prove iujurious and oppressive as it did in the Case of John Wilson and Roger Beckwith Esquires two Torkshire Justices of the Peace who were notoriously injured by it For these reasons which I submit to wiser men than my self I am humbly of opinion that no man ought to be taken into Custody by the Order or Vote of the Commons that is not a Member of their House except it be for matters relating to the Priviledges of Parliament and that such Priviledges as are commonly known for if they may call what they please a Priviledge of a Parliament it will in the Event be the same thing as an unlimited power As to all his Instances they do not deserve any consideration except the first and that no man as he relates it can tell by whom the Commitment was made without the Record which I cannot come at and the latter were the Acts of Popular Parliaments which laid the foundations of our late troubles by such proceedings My Author in the next place comes to justifie the Votes against the Ministers and lays down this as his foundation The Commons in Parliament have used two ways of delivering their Country from pernicious and powerful Favourites The one is in a Parliamentary Course of Justice by impeaching them which is used when they judge it needful to make them publick examples by Capital or other high punishments for the terror of others The other is by immediate Address to the King to remove them as unfaithful or unprofitable Servants Their Lives their Liberties or Estates are never endangered but when they are proceeded against in the former of these ways Then legal evidence of their guilt is necessary then there must be a proper time allowed for their defence In the other way the Parliament act as the Kings great Council and when either House observes that affairs are ill administred that the Advice of Parliaments is rejected or slighted the Course of Justice perverted our Councils betrayed Grievances multiplied and the Government weakly and disorderly managed of all which our Laws have made it impossible for the King to be guilty they necessarily must and always have charged those who had the Administration of affairs and the Kings Ears as the Authors of these mischiefs and have from time to time applied themselves to him by Addresses for their removal from his presence and Councils So here are all the Ministers of State that are or ever shall be exposed to the mercy of the House of Commons if proof can be brought against them then have at all Life Liberty and Estate must go for it but if none can be had then it is but voting them Enemies to the King and Kingdom and Addressing to have them removed from his Majesties Presence and Councils for ever and the work is done without allowing the liberty to answer for themselves And the reason that he gives for it is a pleasant one because the King cannot be guilty therefore they must But may not a House of Commons be mistaken and punish a man for what he never did may not one man give the Advice and another suffer for it at this rate of proceedings But this is an old Custom What then it is an unjust one There may be many things plain and evident beyond the testimony of any Witness which yet can never be proved in a legal way This is true but I hope he will not infer from hence that any man shall be punished for those things without testimony I always thought all these cases were reserved to the Tribunal of God Almighty And I believe this Gentleman would be loth to be tried by his own rule The Parliament may be busied in such great Affairs as will not suffer them to parsue every Offender through a long process Then they may let him alone or leave him to the Common Law but to condemn him unheard for want of leisure is such a piece of justice as no man would be willing to submit to in his own Case There may be many reasons why a man should be turned out of Service which perhaps would not extend to subject him to punishment That there may be reasons why a man should be turned out of Service
could not hurt the Church of England therefore the Dissenters were to be caressed and cherished that they in a small time might be in a capacity to do it And now if these were not good reasons for the Vote let any impartial man that is any but a Church of England man judge In the midst of such Circumstances was there not cause to think an Union of all Protestants necessary and could they have any just grounds to believe that the Dissenters whilst they lay under the pressures of severe Laws should with such Alacrity and Courage as was requisite undertake the defence of a Country where they were so ill treated Whether this question relates to the French King and the Papists or the Duke and the Civil and Military Officers may be a question and therefore it must be so answered As to the first there was all the reason in the world that they should joyn heartily with the Government against the Papists and French for they could not hope to mend their condition by falling into their hands who they knew would treat them with other manner of severities than those they met with from the Laws if they did not know this any of the French Protestants that fled over 〈◊〉 England might have informed them sufficiently Nâ—w of evils the least is to be chosen and tho their conâ—â—tion had not been equal to their desires yet it had been a madness to have made it worse by delivering up themselves and their Country into the hands of the French and Papists But if it relates to the Duke and the Civil and Military Officers then I hope he will excuse me if I do not think it fit to have another Union of Protestants of that sort again A long and sad Experience had shewed how vain the endeavours of former Parliaments had been to force us to be all of one Opinion and therefore the House of Commons resolved to take a sure way to make us all of one Affection This was the very reason of the Declaration of Liberty of Conscience But how unlike that course was to prevail the Nation had sufficient experience in a few years And Sir I can assure you it is above the power of a House of Commons to unite those men in Affection who differ not only in Opinion but Practice too in matters of Religion For these reasons my Author saith this Vote was made in order to a repeal of them by a Bill to be brought in and presently he grows Pettish and tells us None but a Frenchman could have the confidence to declaim against a proceeding so regular and Parliamentary as this Your humble Servant Sir I pray be a little pacified you may possibly be mistaken as well as another man but would I believe take it a little unkindly to be called Monsieur presently They very first Vote they made that day was this Resolved That whosoever advised his Majesty to Prorogue this Parliament to any other purpose than in order to the passing of a Bill for the Exclusion of James Duke of York is a betrayer of the King the Protestant Religion and of the Kingdom of England a promoter of the French interest and a Pensioner to France So they knew they were to be Prorogued that very day and as the Story goes made more than ordinary haste to pass these Votes Now it was impossible that a Bill should be brought in much less passed in that Session which was to end before night and therefore this was not nor could not be the cause of that Vote and all your little Queries founded upon this supposition are silly and impertinent There was not the least direction or signification to the judges which might give any occasion for the reflection which follows in the Declaration The due and impartial execution of the Laws is the unquestionable duty of the Judges and we hope they will always remember that duty so well as not to necessitate a House of Commons to do theirs by calling them to account for making private instructions the Rule of their judgments and acting as men who have more regard to their Places than their Oaths So the Dissenters may see they are mistaken when they think the Judges or Justices may forbear executing the Laws against them upon the score of this Vote But tho the Judges are sworn to execute all Laws yet there is no obligation upon any man to inform against another No Sir Is not every Grand-Jury man every Constable and Churchwarden sworn to Present the breakers of our Laws as well as the Judges are to punish them And as for the next Conundrams of yours the comparing a parcel of Laws made within twenty years to those Antiquated ones about Caps and Bows and Arrows and killing of Lambs and Calves and your business of Empson and Dudley they are such stuff as a man of half your understanding would have been ashamed to have mensioned in a good cause In the next place my Author acquaints us what are the causes usually of disusing Laws alterations of the Circumstances whereupon a Law was made or if it be against the genious of a People or have effects contrary to the intents of the Maker none of which can be said in this case Nor is that true which follows that the quiet safety or trade of our Nation hath been promoted by the not executing of these Laws as any man may know that can remember but ten years backward And therefore notwithstanding the Vote of the Commons the Judges may act wisely and honestly if they should encourage Informers or quicken Juries by strict and severe Charges For the due and impartial execution of the Laws is the unquestionable duty of the Judges according to my Author and therefore I will hope they shall not be accounted Knaves or Fools for doing their unquestionable duty But then my Author hath another quarrel with the Ministers and that was for numbring this Vote amongst the causes of the Dissolution of that Parliament when the Black Rod was at the door of the House to require them to attend his Majesty at the very time when it was made Well suppose we should grant that this was not one of those Votes that occasioned the Prerogation it not being then made when that was resolved on yet it might occasion their Dissolution which hapned some time after And was not this an excellent time to make Votes for the bringing in of Bills for the Repeal of Laws when the Black Rod was at the door to call the House to a Prorogation After a little anger against the Ministers for arraigning one of the Three Estates in the face of the World for usurping power over the Laws imprisoning their fellow Subjects Arbitrarily exposing the Kingdom to the greatest dangers and indeavouring to deprive the King of all possibility of supporting the Government the man hath forgot how often he hath arraigned the Long Loyal Parliament for a
parcel of Mercenary Pensioners he in the next place falls foul upon the Clergy for publishing this Declaration like an Excommunication in all Churches But if they the Ministers erred in the things they judged rightly in the choice of the persons who were to publish it Blind Obedience was requisite where such unjustifiable things were imposed and that could be no where so intire as amongst those Clergy-men whose preferment depended upon it Yes without doubt ten thousand Clergy-men did expect to be preferred presently for this piece of blind Obedience Yet he is at it again in the next page a Set of Presbyterian Clergy would not have been so tame Well but this would not have done tho If the Paper which was to be read in the Desk had not been so suitable to the Doctrine which some of them had often declared in the Pulpit Then it did not go against their Consciences It did not become them to inquire whether they had sufficient Authority for what they did since the Printer calls it the Kings Declaration No Where or of whom should they have enquired And it being Printed by the Kings Printer with his Majesties Royal Arms before it and sent them by their Ordinaries the Bishops they had no reason to question whether it were the Kings or no. And there was as little reason that they should concern themselves Whether they might not one day be called to an account for publishing it They had reason to trust that his Majesty who commanded them to do it would protect them in their blind Obedience And as for his Law-Quirks whether what his Majesty singly Ordered when he sate in Council and came forth without the Stamp of the Great Seal gave them a sufficient warrant to read in publickly These things never entered into their heads Well but Sir tho those same Clergy-men driven on by Ambition might act in this without fear or shame and think as little of a Parliament as the Court Favourites who took care to dissolve that at Oxford before they durst tell us the faults of that at Westminister Tho it might be so as you say yet the Shoal of Addressors that came in to thank his Majesty for that Declaration they had more light and Sir if you be resolved to call all these Ministers all these Clergy-men all these Addressors to an account in the next Parliament pray for cold weather and long days and another Parliament that may sit for ever if it please or you may happen to want time to go through with so pious and good a work But Sir tho the Ministers durst not discover the faults of the Westminster Parliament till they had taken care to dissolve that Oxford his Majesty in his Speech there did Which he began thus The unwarrantable proceedings of the last House of Commons were the occasion of my parting with the last Parliament For I who will never use Arbitrary Government my self am resolved not to suffer it in others I am unwilling to mention particulars because I am desirous to forget faults c. So that you may see if you please that the Oxford Parliament was told in general the faults of that which preceded in order to their avoiding them if they could have made that good use of his Majesties Advice which will render them the less excusable to all the world So now we come to that Parliament at Oxford which saith the Declaration was assembled as soon as that was dissolved and saith my Author might have added Dissolved as soon as Assembled the Ministers having imployed the People forty days in chusing Knights and Burgesses to be sent home in Right with a Declaration after them as if they had been called together only to be affronted As to the People if their Knights and Burgesses came back sooner than they expected they had reason to thank themselves who had twice before sent up the same men and as you observed before the people do not change suddenly so neither doth the Court but doth as certainly send back a Parliament that will not be governed as the People send them And the People were overjoyed too to see them again for when they went out they had told them they never expected to come back again So that so speedy and safe a return was as welcome to them that sent them as could be imagined As for the Knights and Burgesses themselves they had fair warning given them by his Majesty before-hand and if they would affront either Him or the Upper House they did it at their apperil and it was well they scaped so well as to be sent home with a Declaration after them My Author acknowledgeth that his Majesty failed not to give good Advice unto them who were called together to Advise him And so many I might say all our former Princes have done before his Majesty and commanded them too not to meddle with such and such things yea and punished private Members sometimes for doing otherwise The Lord Keeper in the 35 year of Queen Elizabeths Reign spoke thus to the Commons It is her Majesties pleasure the time be not spent in devising and enacting new Laws the number of which are so great already that it rather burtheneth than easeth the Subject c. And whereas heretofore it hath been used that many have delighted themselves in long Orations full of Verbosity and vain Ostentations more than in speaking things of substance the time that is precious would not be thus spent And in the same Parliament the Lord Keeper upon the usual demands by the New Speaker said thus To your three demands the Queen answereth Liberty of Speech is granted you c. but you must know what priviledge you have not to speak every one what he listeth or what cometh in his brain to utter but your priviledge is to say Yea or No. Wherefore Mr. Speaker her Majesties pleasure is that if you perceive any Idle Heads which will not stick to hazard their own Estates which will meddle with Reforming of the Church and transforming of the Commonwealth and do exhibit any Bills to that purpose that you receive them not until they be viewed and considered of by those whom it is fitter should consider of such things and can better judge of them To your persons all priviledge is granted with this Caveat that under colour of this Priviledge no mans ill doings or not performing of Duties be covered and protected The last free Access is also granted to her Majesties Person so that it be upon urgent and weighty causes and at times convenient and when her Majesty may be at leisure from other important causes of the Realm Now let what his Majesty said at Oxford be compared with this and let any man tell me whether the Parliament deserved any commendation from my Author for their having so much respect to the King as not particularly to complain of the great invasion that was made
must answer for their misdemeanors as well as they must for his Next the Ministers his great care is to instil into the People a great aversion for the Loyal Judges and Magistrates but if they warp a little then he admires them for men and lovers of the Liberty of the People But that which next Hanging is most dreadful to him are the Loyal Gentry and their dependents These he knows can neither be wheedled nor frighted generally and therefore all the Forces he provideth are only against these Canaanites who keep the good People out of the Land of Promise or make their lives uneasie in it by denying them liberty of Conscience to be of any Religion or none as occasion serveth besides they have great Estates good meat and drink and some Authority all which belong to the Godly After Liberty of Conscience he places a Lawless Licence to do what he list and take what he please which he calls Property for he would fain have the Hedge broken down that all mens Estates Wives and Daughters might be common to him which is the most beloved Notion he has Reipublicae of a Commonwealth His Study is well stuffed with seditious Pamphlets and intelligences but his Staple Author is the Loviathan which he hath read ten times oftener than the Bible and Practiseth a thousand times more yet he hath a good Parcel of other Commonwealth Authors too and admires nothing in the Greeks and Romans but their hatred to Monarchy and love of Liberty and Popular Governments and were it not for this would be contented all their Books were burnt When all things are well he frights the little Folk with Predictions of what may be or is intended shall be and the less probable the thing is the more easily it is sometimes believed Only the wonder is men should court Fear and fall in love with Jealousie which are uneasie Passions to them but profitable to our Gentleman who to create them in his Followers pretends himself horribly over run with them when indeed his only fear is he should not after so many Cheats put upon the People be believed The Plot and the Duke are his two great Pretences and he wisheth they may never fail till he hath overthrown the Monarchy for then he shall want his best handles to take the People by Priviledge of Parliament is his last retreat and if that fails then he must take Achitophels course and set his house in Order to provide for what follows FINIS Pag. 3. Pro. Dom. Rege dicit quod cum placeat ei Parliament suum tenere pro utilitate Regnà sui de Regali potestate suâ facit summoneri ubi quando c pro voluntate sua Cok. Jurisdict p. 16. * The Three Estates do but Advise as the Privy-Council doth which if the King imbrace it becomes the Kings own Act in the one and the Kings Law in the other for without the Kings Acceptation both the publick and private Advices be but as empty Egg-shells Sir Walter Ralcighs Prerogative of Parliaments pag. 57. Vide Grotium de imp sum potest circa Sacra Cap. 6. Pag. 3. 4. Ed. 3. c. 14. 36 Ed. 3. c. 10. 2 R. 2 Num. 28. Pag. 2. Pag. 2. Pag. 2. Colledges Trial p. 37 57 73. Colledges Trial p. 27 30. Pag. 2. Pag. 3. Pag. 3. Pag. 3. Pag. 3. Pag. 3. Pag. 4. Pag. 4. Declaration Pag. 5. Pag. 4. Pag. 5. Pag. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. 15. â—â—lledge averred that the 〈…〉 of 40. did 〈…〉 what they had just 〈…〉 for and the Parliament 〈…〉 last at Westminster 〈…〉 of the same opinon 〈…〉 83. And to this 〈…〉 a great while 〈…〉 had excused the 〈…〉 from 〈…〉 War and 〈…〉 King which he 〈…〉 Papists did â— du Moulin's Vindication of the sincerity of P. c. p. 58. London 1679. Colledges Trial â— 81 82 83. Pag. 6. Pag. 7. Declaration from Breda April 4. 1660. ☞ Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs Octob. 25. 1660. ☜ ☜ ☜ There are some seditious Preachers who cannot be content to be dispenced with for their full Obedience to some Laws Established without reproaching and inveighing against those Laws how Established soever who tell their Auditors that the Apostle meant when he bid them stand to their Liberties that they should stand to their Arms c. Lord Chancellors Speech May 8. 1661. Address to the Freemen and Freeholders of the Nation Part. 1. By a Declaration published December 26. 1662. in which are these words We shall make it our special care so far forth as in us lies without invading the freedom of Parliament to incline them to make such an Act c. Friday Feb. 27. 1663 Collection of Messages Addresses c. Pag. 6. ☞ See the first part of the Address to the Freemen c. Pag. 7. The Declaration Pag. 7. Speech Octob. 21. 1680. Pag. 8. Address to the Freemen and Freeholders Part II. pag. 22. * Though his Majesty could not do that without acting contrary to his own judgment strengthened with the Opinion and Advice given by his Royal Grandfather King James of blessed memory to his Eldest Son Price Henry in these words But if God give you not Succession defraud never the nearest by right whatsoever conceit ye have of the person For Kingdoms are ever at Gods disposition and in that case we are but live-rentars lying no more in the Kings nor Peoples hand to dispossess the righteous Heir Basil Doron 62. ult Ed. Pag. 8. Speech Octob. 26. 1662. Speech Deceâ— 26. 1662. Pag. 8. Pag. 8. Speech Mar. 6 1678-9 Pag. 8. Lord Chancellors Speech March 6. 167â—-â— Pag. 9. Speech Mar. 6. 1678-9 Pag. 9. A seasonable Address to both Houses of Parliament pag. 4. Pag. 9. Pag. 10. Pag. 10. Pag. 10. Votes Nov. 13. 1680. Pag. 10. * 16 Car. 2. c. 4. Pag. 10. Friday March 25. 1681. Pag. 10. Historical Collect of the four last Parliaments of Q. Eliz. p. 47. 13 Car. 2. ca. 5. Pag. 10. * By the Bill to disinherit his Royal Highness Pag. 11. Pag. 11. Lord Chancellors Speech May 23. 1678. The words are these The influence such a Peace will have upon our Affairs are fitter for Meditation than Discourse Therefore it will import us to strengthen our selves at home and abroad that it may not be found a cheap or easie thing to put an Affront upon us * Dr. Nalson observes that the like disorders had the same effect in the time of His Majesties Father who he saith by this means lost the opportunity of being able to support his Friends and Allies as also that Honour and Terrour among his Enemies Abroad which the Union and hearty Affections of his Parliament would have rendred great and dreadful but now he became mean and contemptible that Prince who hath not power oâ—â—â— his own Subjects at home being in no probable capacity of doing any great matters abroad Preface to his impartial Collection Pag.
61. Pag. 11. Colemans long Letter A seasonable Address to the Parliament pag. 6 7. Pag. 12. Pag. 12. Verbae strictius quam fere proprietas sumenda erunt si id necessarium erit ad vitandam iniquitatem vel Absurdltatem atsi non talis est necessitas sed manifesta aequitas vel utilitas in restrictione subsistendum erit intra arctissimos terminos proprietatus nisi Circumstantia aliud suadeant Grot. de jure Belli Pacis lib. 2. cap. 16. sect 12. Pag. 13. Pag. 13. Seasonable Address p 3. Pag. 13. Pag. 13. April 7 and 9. 1678. Pag. 14. Pag. 14. Hist Col. of the four last Parliaments of Q Eliz. Pag. 15. Proceedings of the four last Parliaments of Q. Eliz. p. 254. Anno Regni 44. It seems probable to me that this question was then first resolved by the Arguments brought for it which use not to be in plain cases and one Member opposed it and another said many were sent for but none appeared none were punished Cokes Instit part 4. of the proceedings in Parliament against absents p. 38. * Owned by this Author p. 39. Cokes Instit part 4. p. 24. Debates of the House of Commons pag. 217. A Commitment of this House is always in nature of a Judgment and the Party not Bailable Address to the Freemen c. Part. 2. p 38. 4 Edw. 6. 18 Jac. 20 Jac. 3 Car. Pag. 16. Pag. 17. Ibid. Pag. 17. Ibid. Proceedings of the four last Parl. p. 47. Pag. 17. In hoc Parliamento concessa suit Regi taxa insolita incolis tricabilis valde gravis Wals nec servarentur ejus Evidentiae in Thesauria Regia Ibid. Polid. Virgil. Sunorum crebris conjurationibus vexatus Jan. 7. 1680. Pag. 18. Pag. 19. There were two Votes of the same nature passed in 1626 concerning Tonnage and Poundage Nalsons Preface to his Collections pag. 60. Pag. 19. Pag. 19. Pag. 20. ☞ ☜ ☜ Pag. 20. Cokes Instit part 2. p. 44. ☞ ☜ ☜ 27 â— 8. 31 â— â— c. 13. 32. H. 8. c. 14. 27 H. 8. c 24. Pag. 20. Ibid. Pag. 21. Pag. 21. Ibid. Pag. 22. Pag. 22. Pag. 22. Pag. 22. Pag. 22. Pag. 22. Pag. 22. Pag. 23. Pag. 23. Pag. 23. Pag. 23. * Suppose that the Church of England were disarmed of all those Laws by which she is guarded and would not this turn a National Church into nothing else but a Tolerated Sect or Party Would it not take away all appearance of Establishment from it Lord Chancellors Speech April 13. 75. Would this Unite us in one Affection Pag. 24. Pag. 24. Ibid. Pag. 25. Pag. 25. Pag. 11 20. Pag. 26. The gracious Speech there made and the gracious Declaration that followed are so much of a piece that we may justly conclude the same persons to have been the Authors of both Pag. 27. of this Book Pag. 27. Pag. 6. Pag. 27. Proceedings of the four last Parl. Pag. 32. Viide p. 178. ☜ Pag. 27. Feb. 24. 1592. 35 Eliz. Prerogative of Parliaments Pag. 56. Feb. 28. 1592. And accordingly in this Session of Parliament was the sharp Statute made against the Dissenters which was designed to have been repealed when the Bill of Repeal was lost in the House of Lords Pag. 27. Pag. 28. Pag. 28. Ibid. Pag. 28. Pag. 29. The Lord Chancellor told the Parliament May 1â— 1662. that they had well provided for the Crown by the Bill of the Milâ—â—â—â— and the Act for the Additional Revenue to their high Commendationâ— How â—â—owaâ—d and indisposed soever many are at present who 〈◊〉 such obstructions laid in their way to Mutiny and Sedition use all the Artifiâ—e they can to persuade the people that yoâ— have not been soiretou enough for their Liberty nor 〈◊〉 enough for their proâ—â—â— and 〈◊〉 labour to 〈◊〉 their reverence towards you which sure was 〈◊〉 more due to any Parliament Pag. 30. The continuation of the History of England by John Trussel Pag. 31. Pag. 31. Address of Decemb. 21. 1680. Pag. 32. Pag. 33. Pag. 34. In plain English there must be a Change we must neither have Popish Wife nor Popish Favourite nor Popish Mistris nor Popish Counsellor at Court nor any new Convert We want a Government and a Prince that we may trust c. A Speech of a Noble Peer of the Realm Pag. 35. Pag. 35. Oatos tells us these were the Protesting Lords and the Leading men in the House of Commons Trial pag. 28. Trial pag. 21. Pag. 35. Pag. 24. Feb. 27. Said Colledge If you do not joyn with Fitz-Harris and charge the King home you are the basest fellow in the world c. Colledge Trial. pag. 30. Pag. 36. Pag. 36. Ibid. Pag. 36 37 38 39. Pag. 40. Pag. 41. * 〈…〉 the Third 's time they put down the Purveyor of the Meat for the maintenance 〈…〉 House as if the King had been a Bankrupt and gave order that without ready Money he shâ—â—â— not take up a Chicken Prerogative of Parliaments p. 15. Pag. 41. Trial p 54. Pag. 41. Pag. 42. Ibid. Pag. 42. Pag. 43. Ibid. Ibid. Pag. 44. There hath not been a Week since Venners rising in which there have not been Combinations and Conspiracies formed against his Majesties Person and against the Peace of the Kingdom c. Lord Chancellors Speech May 8. 1661. Pag. 6. Pag. 44. Tacitus in the end of the Reign of Augustus saith Senes plerique inter Bella Civium nati quotusquisque reliquâ—s qui Rempub. vidisset igitur versus Civitatis status nihil usquam prisâ—i integri moris Omnis exuta aequalitate jussa Principis aspectare H. lib. 1. In which passage Monarchy is opposed to the ancient Liberty or Commonwealth Pag. 45. See the Preface to the first part of the Addreâ—s to the Freemen c. Pag. 19. Pag. 22. Pag. 45. Pag. 46. Declaration Debates p. 19 1. Pag. 46. Address to the Freemen p 39. part 2. * Speech to the Parliament Feb. 5. 1672. Pag. 35. Pag 6. Ibid. Pag. 47. 17 Car. 2. C. 1. Pag. 5. Pag. 43 44 Pag. 47. Ibid. Colledges Trial p. 18. 25. Pag. 48. Pag. 48. Ibid. Redde Reverentiam Praelato Obedientiam quarum altera Cordis altera Corporis est Nec enim sufficit exterius obtemperare majoribus nostris nisi ex intimo Cordis Affectu sublimiter sentiamus de tis S. Bernard Serm. 3. de Advent This internal reverence due to the Sacred Majesty of our Kings above all other Superiours whatsoever is that which we express by the word Loyalty Conclusion Religion Loyalty Laws The Republicans are eveâ—y day calling in the Aid of the Law that they may overthrow the Law which they know to be their irreconcilable enemy Lord Chancellors Speech May 19. 1662. Monarchy Popery Oaths Clergy Conversation Ministers C'est à un Prine à regler leâ— Courtisans dautant qu'on lâ—â— impute tous leurs disorders qu' on presume quand â—ls en 〈◊〉 que c'est luy mesme qui les commet garcâ— qu'il est oblige dâ— les empescher Judges and Magistrates Gentry Liberty and Property Books Fears and Jealousies Plot. Priviledge