sometimes even very anciently when upon extraordinary Occasions they met out of Course a Precept an Edict or Sanction is mentioned to have issued from the King But the times and the very place of their ordinary Meeting having been certain and determined in the very first and eldest times that we meet with any mention of such Assemblies which times are as ancient as any Memory of the Nation it self hence I infer that no Summons from the King can be thought to have been necessary in those Days because it was altogether needless Secondly The Succession to the Crown did not in those Days nor till of late Years run in a course of lineal Succession by right of Inheritance But upon the Death of a Prince those Persons of the Realm that composed the then Parliament assembled in order to the choosing of another That the Kingdom was then Elective though one or other of the Royal Blood was always chosen but the next in lineal Succession very seldom is evident from the Genealogies of the Saxon Kings from an old Law made at Calchuyth appointing how and by whom Kings shall be chosen and from many express and particular Accounts given by our old Historians of such Assemblies held for electing of Kings Now such Assemblies could not be summon'd by any King and yet in Conjunction with the King that themselves set up they made Laws binding the King and all the Realm Thirdly After the Death of King William Rufus Robert his elder Brother being then in the Holy Land Henry the youngest Son of King William the first procur'd an Assembly of the Clergy and People of England to whom he made large Promises of his good Government in case they would accept of him for their King and they agreeing that if he would restore to them the Laws of King Edward the Confessor then they would consent to make him their King He swore that he would do so and also free them from some Oppressions which the Nation had groan'd under in his Brothers and his Fathers time Hereupon they chose him King and the Bishop of London and the Archbishop of York set the Crown upon his Head which being done a Confirmation of the English Liberties pass'd the Royal Assent in that Assembly the same in Substance though not so large as King Iohn's and King Henry the thirds Magna Charta's afterwards were Fourthly After that King's Death in such another Parliament King Stephen was elected and Mawd the Express put by though not without some Stain of Perfidiousness upon all those and Stephen himself especially who had sworn in her Father's Life-time to acknowledg her for their Sovereign after his Decease Fifthly In King Richard the firsts time the King being absent in the Holy Land and the Bishop of Ely then his Chancellor being Regent of the Kingdom in his Absence whose Government was intolerable to the People for his Insolence and manifold Oppressions a Parliament was convened at London at the Instance of Earl Iohn the King's Brother to treat of the great and weighty Affairs of the King and Kingdom in which Parliament this same Regent was depos'd from his Government and another set up viz. the Arch-Bishop of Roan in his stead This Assembly was not conven'd by the King who was then in Palestine nor by any Authority deriv'd from him for then the Regent and Chancellor must have call'd them together but they met as the Historian says expresly at the Instance of Earl Iohn And yet in the Kings Absence they took upon them to settle the publick Affairs of the Nation without him Sixthly When King Henry the 3 d. died his eldest Son Prince Edward was then in the Holy Land and came not home till within the third Year of his Reign yet immediately upon the Father's Death all the Prelates and Nobles and four Knights for every Shire and four Burgesses for every Borough assembled together in a great Council and setled the Government till the King should return made a new Seal and a Chancellor c. I infer from what has been said that Writs of Summons are not so essential to the being of Parliaments but that the People of England especially at a time when they cannot be had may by Law and according to our old Constitution assemble together in a Parliamentary way without them to treat of and settle the publick Affairs of the Nation And that if such Assemblies so conven'd find the Throne vacant they may proceed not only to set up a Prince but with the Assent and Concurrence of such Prince to transact all publick Business whatsoever without a new Election they having as great Authority as the People of England can delegate to their Representative II. The Acts of Parliaments not formal nor legal in all their Circumstances are yet binding to the Nation so long as they continue in force and not liable to be questioned as to the Validity of them but in subsequent Parliaments First The two Spencers Temp. Edvardi Secundi were banished by Act of Parliament and that Act of Parliament repealed by Dures Force yet was the Act of Repeal a good Law till it was annull'd 1 Ed. 3. Secondly Some Statutes of 11 Rich. 2. and Attainders thereupon were repealed in a Parliament held Anno 21. of that King which Parliament was procur'd by forc'd Elections and yet the Repeal stood good till such time as in 1 Henry 4. the Statutes of 11 Rich. 2. were revived and appointed to be firmly held and kept Thirdly The Parliament of 1 Hen. 4. consisted of the same Knights Citizens and Burgesses that had served in the then last dissolved Parliament and those Persons were by the King's Writs to the Sheriffs commanded to be returned and yet they passed Acts and their Acts tho never confirmed continue to be Laws at this Day Fourthly Queen Mary's Parliament that restored the Pope's Supremacy was notoriously known to be pack'd insomuch that it was debated in Queen Elizabeth's time whether or no to declare all their Acts void by Act of Parliament That course was then upon some prudential Considerations declined and therefore the Acts of that Parliament not since repealed continue binding Laws to this Day The Reason of all this is Because no inferior Courts have Authority to judg of the Validity or Invalidity of the Acts of such Assemblies as have but so much as a Colour of Parliamentary Authority The Acts of such Assemblies being entred upon the Parliament-Roll and certified before the Judges of Westminster-Hall as Acts of Parliament are conclusive and binding to them because Parliaments are the only Judges of the Imperfections Invalidities Illeâ—â—lities c. of one another The Parliament that call'd in King Charles the second was not assembled by the King 's Writ and yet they made Acts and the Royal Assent was had to them many of which indeed were afterwards confirmed but not all and those that had no Confirmation are undoubted Acts of Parliament without it and have ever
after they had enjoyed their first Government above threescore years without so much as a preâ—ence of Misgovernment alledged had all their Priviledges at once taken from them There was a Quo Warranto against Conecticot Colony whose Charter was granted to them by King Charles the Second only Letters were sent to them in the King's Name signifying that in case they did resign their Charter they should take their choice of being under New-York or Boston Several of the Magistrates there returned a most humble and supplicatory Answer praying That their former Government might still continue but that if it must be taken from them they had rather be under Boston than New-York This was by some at Court interpreted a Resignation of their Charter and a Commission sent to Sir Edmond Andross who went with some armed Attendants to Hartford their principal Town and declared their Charter and former Government to be void As for Road-Island they submitted themselves to His Majesties pleasure Before these Changes happened New-England was of all the Foreign Plantations their Enemies themselves being Judges the most flourishing and deâ—irable But their Charters being all one way or other declared to be void and insignificant it was an easy matter to erect a French Government in that part of the King's Dominions no doubt intended by the Evil Counsellors as a Specimen of what was designed to be here in England as soon as the times would bear it Accordingly Sir Edmond Andross a Gernsey-man was pitched on as a fit Instrument to be made use of and a most Illegal Commission given him bearing date Iune 3 1686 by which he with four of his Council perhaps all of them his absolute Devotees are impower'd to make Laws and raise Moneys on the Kings Subjects without any Parliament Assembly or Consent of the People It was thought by Wise Men that the Remembrance of Dudley and Empson who were in the days of King Henry the Eighth executed for acting by a like Commission would have deterred them from doing so But it did not for Laws are made by a few of them and indeed what they please nor are they printed as was the Custom in the former Governments so that the People are at a great loss to know what is Law and what not Only one Law they are sensible of which doth prohibit all Town-Meetings excepting on a certain Day once a Year whereas the Inhabitants have occasion to meet once a Month sometimes every Week for relief of the Poor or other Town-Affairs But it is easy to penetrate into the Design of this Law which was no Question to keep them in every Town from complaining to England of the Oppression they are under And as Laws have been Established so Moneys have been Raised by the Government in a most Illegal and Arbitrary way without any consent of the People Sir Edmond Andross caused a Tax to be leavied of a Penny in a Pound on all the Towns then under his Government And when at Ipswich and other places the Select Men as they are there stiled voted That inasmuch as it was against the Common Priviledges of English Subjects to have Money raised without their own Consent in an Assembly or Parliament That therefore they would petition the King for liberty of an Assembly before they made any Rates the said Sir Edmond Andross caused them to be Imprisoned and Fined some 20 l. some 30 l. and some 50 l. as the Judges by him instructed should see meet to determine Yea and several Gentlemen in the Country were Imprisoned and bound to their Good Behaviour upon meer suspicion that they did incourage their Neighbours not to comply with these Arbitrary Proceedings And that so they might be sure to effect their Pernicious Designs they have caused Juries to be pick'd of Men who are not of the Vicinity and some of them meer Strangers in the Country and no Freeholders which actings are highly Illegal One of the former Magistrates was committed to Prison without any Crimes laid to his Charge and there kept half a Year without any Fault and tho he petitioned for a Habeas Corpus it was denied him Also inferiour Officers have extorted what Fees they please to demand contrary to all Rules of Reason and Justice They make poor Widows and Fatherless pay 50 s. for the Probate of a Will which under the former easy Government would not have been a Tenth part so much Six Persons who had been illegally imprisoned were forced to give the Officers 117 l. whenas upon Computation they found that here in England their Fees would not have amounted to 10 l. in all And yet these things tho bad enough are but a very small part of the Misery which that poor People have been groaning under since they have been governed by a Dispotick and Absolute Power For their new Masters tell them that their Charter being gone their Title to their Lands and Estates is gone therewith and that All is the Kings and that They represent the King and that therefore all Persons must take Patents from them and give what they see meet to impose that so they may enjoy the Houses which their own Hands have built and the Lands which at vast Charges in subduing a Wilderness they have for many Years had a rightful possession of as ever any People in the World had or can have Accordingly the Governor ordered the Lands belonging to some in Charles-Town to be measured out given to his Creatures and Writs of Intrusion to be issued out against others And the Commons belonging to several Towns have been given to some of the Governours Council who begged them to the impoverishing if not utter ruining of whole Townships And when an Island belonging to the Town of Plimouth was petitioned away from them by one Nathaniel Clark whom Sir Edmond Andross made his Property because the Agents of the said Town obtained a voluntary Subscription to maintain their Title at Law they were compelled to come not only out of their own Country but Colony to Boston to answer there as Criâ—inals at the next Assizes and bound to their good Behaviour The Officers in the mean time extorting 3 l. per Man for Fees. These were the miserable Effects of New-England's being deprived of their Charters and with them of their English Liberties They have not been altogether negligent as to endeavours to obtain some relief in their sorrowful Bondage for several Gentlemen desired Increase Mather the Rector of the Colledge at Cambridge in New-England to undertake a Voyage for England to see what might be done for his distressed Country which Motion he complied with and in Iune the 1 st 1688 he had the favour to wait on the King and privately to acquaint him with the enslaved and perishing Eâ—tate of his Subjects in New-England The King was very gracious and kind in his Expressions then and often after promising to give them ease as to their Complaints and Fears Amongst other things
place her Father in his Throne again This is not impossible for Vertue is greater than a Throne For my part I think you will put a very hard thing upon so excellent a Lady and I pray God give her Grace to resist the Temptation A Regency is more tolerable because a Nation must be governed and none so proper to govern it as the next Heir but I should think none who expect to wear a Crown should countenance Subjects in deposing their King nor accept of a Crown upon such Terms as to take it off of a Father's Head It is a dangerous thing for a Prince who has a Title to the Crown to own that the Crown may be forfeited or demised by such a withdrawing if this be not so the Princess has no Right to the possession of the Crown yet and if it be so her Crown is worth a great deal less than formerly it was especially if she own this Secret by accepting the Crown which her Ancestors always concealed and which the best Subjects of England would not believe before what they may do after this I know not Thirdly The next Design I verily believe without the knowledg or thought of the Prince who has too great a Mind to think of any thing which in the opinion of any wise Man could stain and fully his Glory is to give the Crown to the Prince of Orange for it must be a Gift if any thing for he has no immediate Title to it that I know of This is upon a pretence that the Government is dissolved and therefore we must begin de novo which is very ridiculous when the King is still alive and the Laws in as full force as ever only the Regular Administration of Government at present interrupted by the King's absence but this is not the worst of it for it is a dangerous pretence too especially to Men of Quality and Esâ—â—tes as you are for if the Government be dissolved our Laws are dissolved and Honour and Property dissolved with them and then I doubt the Mobile will come in for their share in the new Division of the Lands and set up for Men of as good Quality as any for if our Laws are gone we return to a state of Nature in which all Men are equal and all things common this I believe you will not be for for the Reason above-mentioned If then the Laws continue the Government is not dissolved and the Crown is not a Gift but an Inheritance still as much as your Estate is and then the Prince of Orange cannot have it in his own Right because his own Princess and the Princess Anne are before him consider then what the consequence of this Project would be 1. This alters the essential Constitution of the English Government by changing an Hereditary into an Elective Monarchy a thing which I know some Men are very fond of for then the next occasion they can find to quarrel with their Prince they may with as much ease turn it into a Common-Wealth for when the Crown is at the Peoples disposal they may if they please keep it to themselves 2. This will entangle all Men of Conscience in new Difficulties for the Oath of Allegiance does not only bind us to the King but to his Heirs and Successors which must be understood of the next lineal Heir where there is no Authority to alter it and whatever a Parliament may be thought to have with the Authority and Consent of the King no Man pretends that a Convention of the Estates has any Legal Authority to do it I should be as heartily glad as any Man to see the Prince of Orange legally seated on the English Throne but these are Difficulties I cannot break through Thus I have given you my hasty Thoughts and pray God to direct you I am Yours POSTSCRIPT THere is one thing more I would beg of you that the Story of French League to cut Protestants Throats in England maâ— be wâ—ll examined for this did more to drive the King out of the Nation than the Prince's Army and if this should prove a Sham as some who pretend to know say it is it seems at least to be half an Argument to invite the King back again In short remember you are a Convention not a Parliament and therefore nothing can give Authority to what you do but the good liking of the People and as Necessity only can justify your meeting without the King's Writs so I hope you will take care to do nothing but what will justify it self to God the King and your Country An ANSWER to the Author of the LETTER to a Member of the CONVENTION Reverend Sir YOur Name your Quality your Religion and your Design in Publishing this Letter are wholly unknown to me but the confident Assertion pag. 3.6.16 That you are sure it can never be Answered sounds so like a Son or rather a Father of the Infallible Church that it has provoked me if not to answer yet at least to reflect upon some Passages in this Magisterial Composure § 2. Whatever becomes of other Arguments Interest is most likely to prevail You Sir suppose your Parliament-Man in these words to be one who will regard no Arguments from Justice Reason Religion or the Laws of God or Man Interest is the only thing which is likely to prevail an excellent Complement to a Parliament-Man but it goes higher yet and takes in the Majority of the States for no one Man shall ever determine these great things § 3. You tell him That All the threatning Dangers of Popery were not a more formidable Prospect to considering Men than the present Distractions and Divisionâ— Now surely this is a very bold and daring stroke but that I am certain these pensive thoughtful Men are not either very numerous or very considerable otherwise the few of the Church of England that are over-thoughtful in this Point deserve much Compassion because they disquiet themselves and others out of pure tenderness of Conscience and an over-great Loyalty but then there is no danger to be apprehended from them and they will in time satisfy their own Scruples and in the interim I doubt not infinitely more Men dread the Dangers of Popery even to this Day than all the Common-wealth-Men Dissenters ambitious and revengeful Wretches which you have so artfully mustered up to fright the Country Esquire with can over-ballance Strange it is in the mean time that the Dangers of Popery which last October appeared so formidable should in so short a time vanish or rather dwindle into nothing But God by the Ministry of the Prince of Orange and his Friends has brought this about In the rest of that Section I agree with you and approve of it The two next Sections being only a representation of the different Parties of Men now upon the Stage I leave as I find them § 6. Though the Opinion of those who are for sending to the King and treating with him
it will make an Annal suspected and seem a Fable to Posterity For who will believe that a King who had he acted agreeably to the true Interest of Himself and People might have been almost the Balance of Christendom who was prepared with a standing Army and always Remarkable for his Conduct in War should be invaded by a near Neighbour Son and Nephew and now in a Months time so generally deserted by his Nobility Gentry and Military Forces as to choose before the Sword was drawn to fly for Refuge to a Prince whose Title he and his Ancestors had long disputed This I say as the Learned Dr. Burnet Argues at large was the Lords doing and ought to be marvellous in our Eyes Diss. It was indeed an unparall'd Act of Providence but now our Deliverance is so far Compleated what are you Churchmen willing to do towards an Accommodation and to the Healing of those Differences which in a great measure have contributed to the Growth of Popery Ch. Though it be far above my Character to dictate what is fittest to be done at so great and difficult a Conjuncture yet my humble Wishes are that the Guardians and Supporters of our Church may resolve upon such Condescentions as may satisfy reasonable Men and prevent any longer Dissensions amongst us Yet this I would advise you and your Party i. e. to stay till you are Invited and not to thrust your selves into our Church We are now in the hopeful Crisis of our Fever and therefore you ought to take care left by tampering too much you disturb Nature in those methods she has took to digest her Humours and so ruine all I am not ignorant that at the beginning of the Reformation when a Church was to be made out of a Church several Ceremonies were retained in Compliance to that Age which a violent Alteration would have too much surprized but now the Humours of Men being changed may justly be laid aside On the other hand I am perswaded with the Author of Foxes and Firebrands that Rome has all along been industrious to foment our Divisions by sending us Emissaries who could artificially dissemble a tender Conscience and make credulous People believe that all the Decencies of our Worship were nothing but â—oppery Superstition and the Remainders of Popery Therefore I say my Wishes are that a Free and Unbyass'd Parliament will tread the middle path bearing an equal Respect to the Decenies of our Church and the tender Consciences of reasonable Men. Diss. Well Neighbour I am heartily glad to see these happy effects of our Calamities and as I think there can be no Government so perfectly appointed as to satisfy all yet I approve so well of your Temper and Wishes that I hope we may all Unite upon such or the like terms Ch. Therefore to end our Dispute I shall only now detain you with my hearty Prayers that the Result of this ensuing Convention on Ian. 22. may be happily to settle the Crown and that in the succeeding Parliament the management of these Difficulties may fall into the Hands of such Wise and Unbyass'd Persons that Peace and Truth may be established upon everlasting Foundations and no sinister Interest interrupt so great a Design Diss. Sir you have infinitely encouraged me to wait upon you oftner we being I think now either both Churchmen or both Dissenters Ch. Sir The Design of this Conference was to tell you freely my Sentiments and I intend ere long to make it more publick being willing to provoke some more learned and judicious Pen to perfect what I have here weakly attempted Farewel His Majesties Letter to the Lords and Others of his Privy Councel JAMES R. MY Lords When we saw that it was no longer safe for Us to remain within Our Kingdom of England and that thereupon We had taken Our Resolutions to withdraw for some time We left to be communicated to you and to all Our Subjects the Reasons of Our withdrawing And were likewise resolved at the same time to leave such Orders behind Us to you of our Privy Councel as might best suit with the present state of Affairs But that being altogether unsafe for Us at that time We now think fit to let you know that though it has been Our constant care since Our first Accession to the Crown to govern Our People with that Justice and Moderation as to give if possible no occasion of Complaint yet more particularly upon the late Invasion seeing how the Design was laid and fearing that Our People who could not be destroy'd but by themselves might by little imaginary Grievances be cheated into a certain Ruine To prevent so great Mischief and to take away not only all just Causes but even Pretences of Discontent We freely and of our own accord redressed all those things that were set forth as the Causes of that Invasion And that we might be informed by the Councel and Advice of our Subjects themselves which way we might give them a further and a full Satisfaction We resolved to meet them in a Free Parliament And in order to it We first laid the Foundation of such a Free Parliament in restoring the City of London and the rest of the Corporations to their ancient Charters and Priviledges and afterwards actually appointed the Writs to be issued out for the Parliaments meeting on the 15 th of Ianuary But the Prince of Orange seeing all the Ends of his Declaration answered the People beginning to be undeceived and returning apace to their ancient Duty and Allegiance and well fore-seeing that if the Parliament should meet at the time appointed such a Settlement in all Probability would be made both in Church and State as would totally defeat his ambitious and unjust Designs resolved by all means possible to prevent the meeting of the Parliament And to do this the most effectual way he thought fit to lay a restraint on Our Royal Person for as it were absurd to call that a Free Parliament where there is any force on either of the Houses so much less can that Parliament be said to act freely where the Soveraign by whose Authority they Meet and Sit and from whose Royal Assent all their Acts receive their Life and Sanction is under actual Confinement The hurrying of Us under a Guard from Our City of London whose returning Loyalty We could no longer trust and the other Indignities We suffered in the Person of the Earl of Feversham when sent to him by Us and in that barbarous Confinement of Our own Person We shall not here repeat because they are We doubt not by this time very well known and may we hope if enough considered and reflected upon together with his other Violations and Breaches of the Laws and Liberties of England which by this Invasion he pretended to restore be sufficient to open the Eyes of all our Subjects and let them plainly see what every one of them may expect and what Treatment they shall find-from him if
is evident no Man can serve two Masters Secondly It 's highly necessary and prudent rather to vest the Administration in the Husband than in the Wife 1. Because a Man by Nature Education and Experience is generally rendred more capable to Govern than the Woman Therefore 2. the Husband ought rather to Rule the Wife than the Wife the Husband especially considering the Vow in Matrimony 3. The Prince of Orange is not more proper to Govern as he 's Man and Husband only but as he is a Man a Husband and a Prince of known Honour profound Wisdom undaunted Courage and incomparable Merit as he 's a Person that 's naturally inclin'd to be Just Merciful and Peaceable and to do all Publick Acts of Generosity for the Advancement of the Interest and Happiness of Humane Societies and therefore most fit under Heaven to have the solâ— Executive Power A LORD'S Speech Without Doors To the Lords upon the present Condition of the Government My Lords PRay give me leave to cast in my Mite at this time upon this great Debate and though it be with an entire dissent to some Leading Lords to whom I bear great reverence it is according to my Conscience and that is the Rule of every honest Man's Actions My Lords I cannot forbear thinking that a greater Reproach can hardly come upon any People than is like to fall upon us Protestants for this unpresidented usage of our poor King We feared the security of our Religion because of Him and are now like to Violate a great part of it by forfeiting our Loyalty towards Him Religion is the Pretence but some fear a New Master is the Thing This I take to have been to Business of to Day for notwithstanding we see how feeble a thing Popery is in England that it is beaten without Blows and routed so effectually that it can never hope nor we justly fear it should return upon us and consequently our Religion pretty secure yet I don't see that this satisfies us unless the King goes also He must be turned away and the Crown change its Head for if the Crown be not the Quarrel more than Property and his Majesty's Person than his Religion Why did not the Prince stop when he heard a Free Parliament was calling by the King's Writs where all Matters especially that of the Prince of Wales might have been considered or at least where his Majesties Commissioners of Peace met â—im Who advised him â—o adâ—ance and give his Majesty that apprehension of â—is own insecurity and if any thing but a Crown would have served him Why was a Noble Peer of this House clapt up at Winsor when his Majesty sent him on purpose to invite the Prince to St. Iames's a Message that affected all good Mens Hearts more then any thing but his Majesty's return it look'd so Natural and Peaceable But it seems as if it had been therefore affronted for the Invitation could not have been received without the King 's remaining King and who was there that did not lately say it should be so I and who is there now that does not see it is not so We can my Lords no longer doubt of this if we will remember that the same Night the Prince should have answered his Majesty's kind Message The King's Guards were changed and at midnight the Prince's Guards were clapt upon hiâ— Majesty's Person and which is yet more extravagant to accomplish the business Three noble Lords in view were sent to let him know It was not for his safety or the Princes honour that he should stay in his own Palace A strange way my Lords of treating ones own King in his own House I cannot comprehend how it was for the Prince's Honour the King should go against his Will or how it was against his Honour that his Majesty should be safe in his own House I leave it with your Lordships to think who could render the King's stay unsafe at White-hall after the Dutch Guards were posted there My Lords this I confess is the great Iniquity that sticks with me and deserves our severest Scrutiny and Reflection that after driving our King away we should offer to â—ddress our selves to any Body to take the Government as if he had formally disserted it It becomes us rather to ask Where the King is how he came to go and who sent him away I take the Honour of the Peâ—rage of England to be deeply ingaged both at Home and Abroad to search but this Minor and especially those who are now present most of whom owe their share iâ— thâ—t noble Order to his Majesty his Brother Father or Grandfather It is not unreasonable to believe the King had not gone at first but upon some Messagâ— sent and Letters received to take care of his Person for that nothing less than the Crown was intended but being not out of his own Territories and therefore no Dissertion Abdication or Remise as the Criticks of the Conjuncture we are under pretend for the King may be where â—e will in his own Kingdom we â—ee while it was in his choice to go he returned and by as good as our advise too so that we cannot in truth say his Dissertion is the cause for it is plainly the Effect of our late extraordinary proceedings If any should say He needed not have gone now it is a great mistake for â— King ought to go if he cannot stay a King in his own Kingdom which Force refused to let him be And to stay a Subject to another Authority had been a meaner forfeiture of his Right then can in justice be charged upon his Retirement Wherefore his going must and will lie at their Doors that set him an hour to be gone out of his own Palace Many are angry and yet pleased that he is gone for France but where my Lords should he go Flanders dared not receive him Holland you could not think he should go to and Ireland you would have liked less and when we consider how far a League with France has been made the cause of his Misfortune though to this day it is in the Clouds what other Prince had the same Obligation to receive and succor him Therefore whatever Arts are used to blacken his Retreat we cannot with any shew of Reason imagine that he could think himself safe with us that had exercised Soveraign Power without him our Soveraign Lord and under the protection of a Forraign Prince and his Army though at the same time we had Sworn Allegiance to him and that it was unlawful for us to take up Arms against him under any Pretence whatever My Lords if this be not virtually and in effect to pull the Crown off his Head and dethrone him unheard I am to learn my Alphabet again This is short warning to give Kings for us at least my Lords that boast of Loyalty and were brought to these Seats by the favour of the Crown What can other Nations think of the Nobility of
those the Opportunity to retrieve the Credit they have lost by other Mens Faults We were also very apprehensive of the ill Consequences of the dispensing Power especially in the case of Sr. Edward Hales but it seems the Common Council of London are forbid to take the usual Oaths and yet required to act which is an unqualified Capacity We were in hopes we had lost a rude Army but we have found a ruder twenty places cry out of them and Kingstone certainly with great Justice that in two Nights time was two hundred Pounds the worse for them And for Closseting we have got Questioning that they that won't enter into Associations to protect the Prince of Orange without one of our King is to have no Imployment so that if the Prince should take the Crown I am bound to defend him against my own King and my sworn Allegiance though he come in the right of his Crown Believe me my Lords it is the boldest bid that ever Men made I see Forty one was a Fool to Eighty eight and that we Church of England Protestants shall cancel all the Merits of our Fathers overthrow the Ground and Consequence of their most exemplary Loyalty to King Charles the first and second render their Death the Death of Fools trample their Memories and Blood under our Feet subject our selves to the just Reproach of the Phanaticks whose Principles and Practices we have outdone even to that King that we forced upon them and by our Example had brought them to live well withal God help us this my Lords makes me say that either we must turn from being Church-of England-Men or steer another course for it is but too plain that Presbytery is leading us out of our ancient way and whether we believe it or no our Church sinks and will more for that is the Interest that suits best with a Dutch Humour and Conjunction and be sure if we are so base to leave our King God will be so just as to leave us and here my Lords I shall leave you with this humble motion that we make an humble Address to his Majesty to return home to us that we may act securely and not go out of the good old way which may intail Misery upon us and our Posterity I should think we have had enough of sending our Princes abroad in that much of the Inconveniency we have lain under since their Restoration has been chiefly owing to it We have driven him where we would not have him go and do what we can to provoke that League we have been afraid of and made a great part of the reason of this strange Alteration in the Kingdom Some tell us it is too late but I cannot comprehend the good sence of such an Objection Is it at any time too late for a King and his People to agree after bloody Battels it has not been thought so in all times and Nations and why it may not be without them I never heard a good reason yet If his going was unreasonable it has hurt him more than us since we may thence hope for the better terms if it was not a Fault to go it will be a great one in us if we can have him home upon good terms and will not for if I may with leave speak it his return is as much our Conveniency as his Advantage The offensive part of Him is gone that is to say the Power of Popery and what remains is our great Interest to keep and improve to our own Benefit and Safety I mean my Lords His undoubted Title and Kingship And whatever some hot Men say that are more governed by private Avarice and Revenge then the publick Good of these Kingdoms I cannot but renew my motion to your Lordships that we may send a Duke an Earl a Viscount and a Baron and two Spiritual Lords to invite his Majesty home upon the Constitution of the Government And my Lords forgive me if I say that if we can but get our Iuries Sheriffs Iudges High Courts of Chancery and Parliaments setled as they ought to be the Army at least reduced the Militia better regulated and a due Liberty of Conscience established to all Protestant Dissenters and so far to Papists only as the Law against Conventicles does admit we may yet be happy and upon these terms my Lords and no other will his Highness the Prince of Orange become truly meritorious with the English Nation Reflections on a Paper called a LORD'S Speech without Doors THIS Noble Lord would have done ingenuously in letting the World know his Name and whether he be a Lord or not for one cannot gather it from his Liberality of casting in a mite at this time when mean People such as Trades-men have more generosity and effectually contributed to the publick Peace and Honour of the Nation And as to his dissenting to some leading Lords on the account of Conscience we are in the dark as to what sort of Conscience his is whether Papist or Phanatick Conscience or indeed whether it be any Conscience at all which makes him differ from some leading Lords for the making of Speeches within or without Doors is no infallible Mark of either But he says He cannot forbear thinking that a greater Reproach can hardly come upon a People than is like to fall on us Protestants Ah good Soul what 's the matter Are the Protestants at length found to be the Firers of â—heir own City or Sr. Edm-B Godfrey and the Earl of Essex's Murtherers c. Why no O it s this unpresidented Vsage of our poor King. A good tender-hearted Jesuit I 'le warrant thee that has entred with Campian into an Holy League and Covenant to destroy all Protestant Kings and Princes unless they become as bigotted to the Society as the poor King was But let me take the Boldness to ask your Honour one Question Is there no time when compassion is due to the Country Religion is the Pretence but some fear a new Master is the thing And is it any wonder if a new Master be desired when the old one will not let me serve him but will destroy me and perhaps himself too this being a clear case and evident to all Orders and Degrees of Men among us We see how feeble a thing Popery is in England and it is I do not doubt your Lordships great Grief that your old Master may not be let in again to strengthen and revive her drooping and almost decayed Spirits But why did not the Prince stop when he heard a free-Free-Parliament was calling by the Kings Writs where all matters especially of the Prince of Wales might have been considered c. As to a free-Free-Parliament is it not evident to all the World that the King could not bear it Besides who told his Lordship that his old Master would abide by the Decisions of a Free-Parliament touching the Legitimacy or Spuriousness of his Prince of Wales The Kings Guards were changed and at
the Act and Oath of Council that such Confession should not militate yet they have brought it in as Evidence and given it upon Oath when their former Act and Oath was produced in open Court in Demonstration of their Perjury They used frequently to pack Juries picking out such as they thought any thing tender and not bloody enough and sometimes listed some who they concluded would not concur that thereupon they might get occasion to exact their Fines Sometimes when the Jury hath brought in their Verdict in Favour of the Pannal they have made them return and resume the Cognition of the Process again and threatned them with an Assize of Error if they did not bring him in Guilty yea frequently the Advocate theatned them under most peremptory Certifications if they found not the Impannalled Guilty so that their using Juries was but for the Fashion They have sentenced innocent Persons twice once to have their Ears cut off and banished and after the lopping of their Ears they have re-examined them and sentenced them to Death They used to stage several together of whom they knew some would comply to tantalize others with the sight of their Liberty thereby tempting them to bite more eagerly at their snaring Baits to wound the Conscience They have not only Murdered many innocent Christians in taking their Lives but also endevouâ—ed to Murder their Reputation and the Cause they owned loading it with most reproachful Epithets which was their peculiar Policy to bring the Heads of Suffering to Points most obnoxious to common Censer and most Extrinsick to Religion cutting off the Faithful Professors of Religion and true Lovers of Liberty under the odium of Enemies to Government Some they arraigned whom they could neither reach by adducing many Witnesses against in Tryal nor by their Examination with their cruel Torture of the Boots yet hath had their whole Estate seized and also been sent to Pâ—ison in a Rock within the Sea without being convicted of any Crime They finding their means and motions under Colour of Law and Trials were too slow and troublesome to acquire their designed Cruelties and that the publick Executions tended more to confirm and multiply the Lovers of Religion and Liberty than to diminish and deter took a more compendious way of sending out thâ—ir Souldiers impowered to challenge and examine whom they pleased and to tender Oaths required by no Law and to punish such by present Death who refused to swear or scrupled to answer their ensnaring Qâ—estion which bloody Commissions were so faithfully Executed that within few Weeks above fifty innocent Persons were cruelly murdered in cold Blood without either Tâ—yal or Convâ—â—â—â—on or respeâ—t to Age or Sex. Although the Multitudes of Familâ—es ruined by Exorbitant Finingâ— Forfeitures Banishments Imprisonments Free quaâ—terings and Plunderings of Souldierâ— and Barbarities of their Highland Host the many cruel Edicts and Proclamations they have published the unlawful Bonds and wicked self-contradicting Oaths imposed and pressed the many Exactions whereby they have impoverished the Country the many open Oppressions horrid Tortures and Cruelties practised upon Innocents the multitudes of Persons Male and Female whom they have Murdered Persecuted Oppressed and Destroyed are so many and various that they cannot be collected Yet some have been at no small pains to gether as much of these as when published in a Martyrology of these times which is purposed to be done with all convenient speed will give the World to know as well the Faithfulness Patience Courage and Constancy of these who suffered together with the Equity of their Cause as the Inhumanity Illegality and Severity of their Cruel and Bloody Persecutors The Late Honourable CONVENTION proved a Legal PARLIAMENT I. THE necessity of a Parliament agreed by the Lords and Commons Voting that the Throne is Vacant for there being a Vacancy there follows an immediate necessity of settling the Government especially the Writs being destroyed and the Great Seal carryed away put a period to all publick Justice and then there must be a supply by such means as the necessity requires or a failure of Government II. Consider the Antecedents to the calling the Convention that is about three hundred of the Commons which is a majority of the fullest House that can be made above sixty Lords being a greater number than any part divided amounted to at this great Meeting the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council of the City of London by application to His then Highness the Prince of Orange desired him to accept of the Administration of Pâ—blick Affairs Military and Civil which he was pleased to do to the great satisfaction of all good People and after that His Highness was desired to Issue forth His Circular Letters to the Lords and the like to the Coroners and in their absence to the Clerks of the Peace to Elect Knights Citizens and Burgesses this was more than was done in Fifty nine for the calling a Parliament in April 1660. for there the Summons was not real but fictitious i. e. in the names of the Keepers of the Liberties of England a meer Notion set up as a Form there being no such Persons but a meer Ens rationis impossible really to exist so that here was much more done than in 1659 and all really done which was possible to be invented as the Affairs then stood Besides King Ch. the 2d had not abdicated the Kingdom but was willing to return and was at Breda whither they might have sent for Writs and in the mean time have kept their form of Keepers of the Liberties c. But in the present case there was no King in being nor any style or form of Government neither real or notional left so that in all these respects more was done before and at the calling of this Great Convention than for calling that Parliament for so I must call it yet that Parliament made several Acts in all thirty seven as appears by Keebles Statutes and several of them not confirmed I shall instance but in one but it is one which there was occasion to use in every County of England I mean the Act for Confirming and Restoring Ministers being the 17 th of that Sessions all the Judges allowed of this as an Act of Parliament tho' never confirmed which is a stronger case than that in question for there was only fictitious Summons here a real one III. That without the Consent of any Body of the People this at the Request of a Majority of the Lords more than halâ— the number of the Commons duly chosen in King Ch. the 2 d's time besides the great Body of the City of London being at least esteem'd a 5 th part of the Kingdom yet after the King's Return he was so well satisfied with the calling of that Parliament that it was Enacted by the King Lords and Commons Asâ—embled in Parliament that the Lords and Common then Sitting at Westminster in the present Parliament were thâ— two Houses of Parliament
notwithstanding any want of thâ— Kings Writs or Writ of Summons or aâ—y defect whatsoever and as if the King had been present at the beginning of the Parliament this I take to be a full Judgment in full Parliament of the case in question and much stronger than the present case is and this Parliament continued till the 29 th of December next following and made in all thirty seven Acts as aboâ—e mentioned The 13 Caroli 2. chap. 7. a full Parliament called by the Kings Writ recites the other of 12 Caroli 2. and that after his Majesties return they were continued till the 29 th of December and then dissolved and that several Acts passed this is the plain Judgment of another Parliament 1. Because it says they were continued which shews they had a real being capable of being continued for a Confirmation of a void Grant has no effect and Confirmation shews a Grant only voidable so the continuance there shewed it at most but voidable and when the King came and confirm'd it all was good 2. The dissolving it then shews they had a being for as ex nihilo nihil sit so super nihil nil operatur as out of nothing nothing can be made so upon nothing nothing can operate Again the King Lords and Commons make the great Corporation or Body of the Kingdom and the Commons are legally taken for the Free-holders Inst. 4. p. 2. Now the Lords and Commons having Proclaimed the King the defect of this great Corporation is cured and all the Essential parts of this great Body Politique united and made compleat as plainly as when the Mayor of a Corporation dies and another is chosen the Corporation is again perfect and to say that which perfects the great Body Politique should in the same instant destroy it I mean the Parliament is to make contradictions true simul semel the perfection and destruction of this great Body at one instant and by the same Act. Then if necessity of Affairs was a forcible Argument in 1660 a time of great peace not only in England but throughout Europe and almost in all the World certainly 't is of a greater force now when England is scarce delivered from Popery and Slavery when Ireland has a mighty Army of Papists and that Kingdom in hazard of final destruction if not speedily prevented and when France has destroyed most of the Protestants there and threatens the ruin of the Low-Countries from whence God has sent the wonderful Assistance of our Gracious and therefore most Glorious King and England cannot promise safety from that Forreign Power when forty days delay which is the least can be for a new Parliament and considering we can never hope to have one more freely chosen because first it was so free from Court-influence or likelihood of all design that the Letters of Summons issued by him whom the great God in infinite Mercy raised to save us to the hazard of his Life and this done to protect the Protestant Religion and at a time when the people were all concerned for one Common interest of Religion and Liberty it would be vain when we have the best King and Queen the World affords a full house of Lords the most solemnly chosen Commons that ever were in the remembrance of any Man Living to spend Mony and lose time I had almost said to despise Providence and take great pains to destroy our selves If any object Acts of Parliament mentioning Writs and Summons c. I answer the Precedent in 1660 is after all those Acts. In private cases as much has been done in point of necessity a Bishop Provincial dies and sede vacant a Clerk is presented to a Benefice the Presentation to the Dean and Chapter is good in this case of Necessity and if in a Vacancy by the Death of a Bishop a Presentation shall be good to the Dean and Chapter rather than a prejudice should happen by the Church lying void Surely â fortiori Vacancy of the Throne may be supplied without the formality of a Writ and the great Convention turn'd to a Real Parliament A Summons in all points is of the same real force as a Writ for a Summons and a Writ differ no more than in name the thing is the same in all Substantial parts the Writ is Recorded in Chancery so are His Highnesses Letters the proper Officer Endorses the Return so he does here for the Coroner in defect of the Sheriff is the proper Officer the People Choose by virtue of the Writ so they did freely by Virtue of the Letters c. quae re concordant parum differunt they agree in Reality and then what difference is there between the one and the other Object A Writ must be in Actions at Common Law else all Pleadings after will not make it good but Judgment given may be Reversed by a Writ of Error Answ. The case differs first because Actions between party and party are Adversary Actions but Summons to Parliament are not so but are Mediums only to have an Election 2. In Actions at Law the Defendant may plead to the Writ but there is no plea to a Writ for electing Members to serve in Parliament and for this I have Littleton's Argument there never was such Plea therefore none lies Object That they have not taken the Test. Answ. They may take the Test yet and then all which they do will be good for the Test being the distinguishing Mark of a Protestant from a Papist when that is taken the end of the Law is performed Object That the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy ought to be taken and that the new ones are not legal Answ. The Convention being the Supream Power have abolish'd the old Oaths and have made new ones and as to the making new Oaths the like was done in Alfreds time when they chose him King vide Mirror of Justice Chap. 1. for the Heptarchy being turn'd to a Monarchy the precedent Oaths of the seven Kings could not be the same King Alfred swore Many Precedents may be cited where Laws have been made in Parliament without the King 's Writ to summon them which for brevity's sake I forbear to mention For a farewel the Objections quarrel at our Happiness fight against our Safety and aim at that which may indanger Destruction The Amicable Reconciliation of the DISSENTERS to the CHURCH of ENGLAND being a Model or Draught for the Universal Accommodation in the Case of Religion and the Bringing in all Parties to Her Communion Humbly presented to the Consideration of Parliament WHereas there are several parties of Christians in the Nation who must and will ever differ in their Opinions about the Church and Discipline of it in the Question which is of Christ's Institution it is not our Disputes about the Church â—s Particular which are rather to be mutually forborn and every party left herein to their own Perswasion but a common Agreement in what we can agree and that
as the Discusser imposes upon the World. Besides the many Instances in History of several Princes who have forfeited their Succession and consequently their Title to the Crown for revolting from the Establish'd Religion of the Realm But says the Discusser for I look upon his Friend and Him to be all one and that he does but put the Question with one side of his Mouth and answer it with the other I had thought our Laws as well as our Religion had been against the Deposing Doctrine That 's not the Question but whether a Prince may commit those Miscarriages in Government whether he may not so far peccare in Leges Rempublicam as to incur the Forfeiture of his Regal Power and whether a Prince may be allow'd to subvert the ancient Constitutions and Religion of a Nation and yet be said to be the Lawful King of that Realm These are the Questions For theâ— it is not the Law that deposes him nor the Religion that justifies it But it is He that deposes Himself 't is the bad Advice of Evil Counsellors to which he Listens and which he follows to the ruin of the Kingdom contrary to the Original Contract between Princes and People grounded upon the Foundations of all Original Government I say 't is that Adhering to Evil Counsel which deposes a Prince by degrading him from a Lawful King to an Unlawful Tyrant and renders him Liable to the Animadversion of the Law and the impeachments of the oppress'd and injur'd People To assert otherwise were to deprive all National Law and Religion of their self Defence which is against all the Law and Religion in the World. I am apt to believe that Christ himself had no very good Opinion of the lawfulness of Herod's Regality when he sent him that Message Go tell that Fox Herod Which I look upon as a Deposal and Degrading of that Arbitrary Prince by the Founder of our Religion in his own Breast and Judgment though he forbore the Execution of his Celestial Power And therefore it is not the Error of Religion but the Fault of those that do not well distinguish that Religion suffers in her Doctrines For only he who governs according to Law is a King he that endeavours to subvert the Law is none Nor is every rambling and precipitate Brain to be Judg of this neither but the Solid Law and fundamental Constitutions of the Realm So that the Country Gentleman was mistaken in his Thoughts both of our Laws and our Religion However the pretended Scrupulous Country-Gentleman desires the Discusser to expound the State-Riddle of the Vacancy and to give him the Ground of the late extraordinary Revolution To which the Discusser gives no direct answer at present but desires his Friend to take notice That the Gentlemen of the Convention who declar'd a Vacancy in the Government lay'd the main Stress of their opinion upon the King's withdrawing himself For that since the Story of the French League and the Business of the Prince of Wales were pass'd over in silence most Men believed that the pretended Breach of that which they called the Original Contract was no more then a popular Flourish All which is such an imperfect peice of Incoherence that none but a madman would have thrust in by Head and Shoulders as the Discusser has done For how can it be inferr'd that the Breach of the Original Contract should be a Popular Flourish because the Clandestin League and the False Birth are hitherto pass'd over in silence As for the surreptitious Birth one would think it was sufficiently dilated upon in the Declaration of the Lords and why it is not farther brought upon the Stage there may be several Reasons given and among the rest because it may be thought that the Imposture will vanish of it self and so there will be no need of casting an Eternal Blot upon the memory of them that contriv'd and own'd it Then for the Clandestin League it Suffices that there is apparent Proof of it in Bank. But to call the Breach of the Original Contract pretended and a Popular Flourish is a yerk of Malitious Reflection which only serves to expose the Discusser to Publick censure For as there is nothing more certain then that there is an Original Contract between the King and People of England the Breach of which has cost the Effusion of so much Blood so is it as certain that that Original Contract was never so infallibly broken then it was of late Which as it is allow'd by all the Laws of God and Man to be a sufficient ground to seek a Remedy so was nothing more vigorously urg'd by the Convention Which might have convinc'd the Discusser that they did not pretend it for a popular Flourish But now lest the Country Gentleman should be shogg'd by seeing the Votes of so considerable a Meeting debated by a private Hand the Discusser reminds him That a Parliament and a Convention are two different Things The latter for want of the King's Writs and Concurrence having no share in the Legislative Power But the Discusser forgets that it was only a Convention of Lords that sent to Richard the Second to meet them at Westminster which the King at first promis'd to do but upon altering his Mind sent him another peremptory Message that if he would not come according to his Promise they would chuse another King and then proceeding farther according to that Power they had expell'd against the King's Will several of his chiefest Favourites from the Court constrain'd others to put in Sureties to appear at the next Parliament and caus'd several others to be arrested and committed to several Prisons If a Convention could do this where the King was present what signifi'd the Writs and Concurrence of an absent Prince Nor did they contend for Legislative Power but only met in a kind of embodied Dictatorship to take care of the present Necessity of Affairs But this says the Discusser was not justifiable for that the Nenessity which they pretended was either of their own making or of their own submitting to which is the same Thing But this is all Nonsence For if the Necessity was of their own making then were the Lords and Commons the Authors of all the Miscarriages which they laid to the late King's Charge If of their own submitting to then would they never have call'd out for succour and crav'd Relief from their Oppressions No They were those crying Grievances sum'd up in the Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembl'd at Westmister presented to their Present Majesties upon the Twelfth of February Last which when the late King could not justify them by force of Arms but fled for it not being able to answer his endeavours to subvert and Extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom put them to that necessity of assembling after an Unusual Manner to provide for the Common Safety How ever the Discusser will have it a
Counsellors whom he had pardoned and was in Honour bound to protect them having himself forced them to be Criminals 3. The third was The consenting to the entire Ruin of Popery in England by hanging many of his Priests and Jesuits and banishing all the rest and pulling down all the Schools and Chappels they had erected all over England a sure Sign they were built upon an Immortal Prince of Wales though this was done before by the unaccountable Zeal of the Mobile 4. He foresaw such a Parliament would not only damn the Ecclesiastical Court that Beast with seven Heads and the Dispensing Power but would in all probability lessen his Revenue and bind up the Prerogative which his great Spirit could not bear 5. The Prince he foresaw would have demanded some Forts to be put into his Hands and the Parliament for their Security so said he If I stay I shall be but a Nominal King of England and only be an Instrument to ruin my Religion my â—riends the Monarchy and the Child also At first he alledged That the Disorders the Preparations to repel the Invasion caused would not suffer a Parliament to meet Secondly After the Prince was landed that all the Countries he had under him would not be free Thirdly That all that had joined with him ought not to sit but when he saw the whole Army and Nation the Roman Catholicks excepted of the same mind mere Force drove him to consent to Call a Parliament and when he had again considered the Consequences of it he at last resolved to throw up the Crown and Government all at once rather than to submit to all these Hardships He seems to have had at the same time a fluttering hope that 1. We should never be able long to agree after he had made it impossible for us to have a Legal Parliament by burning the Writs 2. That the Church of England Principles would when the fear and disorder was over form for him a potent Army in the Nation And 3. That the French King would lend him potent Forces and good store of Mony and if he recovered the Throne by force he should be freed of all these Miseries and have what he only wanted before a Popish Army to insure the Slavery of England for ever Now I would desire those Protestants who pretend now too late to be so zealous for him to consider whether what I have said would not have been expected from him by them for their Security and what they would have done had he called a Parliament and refused them all these things and have insisted That they should have taken his Word as to the Birth of the Prince of Wales have suffered him to have been educated in France and have suffered the Army the Prerogative the Ministers and the Revenues to have continued entirely as they were upon a Promise He would have used them better for the future If they say No They would have had the best Security that Law or Reason could have required Then all the hard things I have mentioned must have been granted them and I much question whether he would now return to the Throne on those terms If they say We ought however to have treated with him have offered him terms I say it would have come to a separate Treaty and the Church the Liberties of the Nation and the Government would have been ruined that way and when all had been done no Bond that he could have broken would have held him longer than the Necessity had continued The only Advantage we could pretend to have by the coming over of the Prince of Orange with an Army was to force the King to what he would never have yielded without that Force Now when he had accordingly passed his Word to the Nation in the Proclamation of the Thirtieth of November That there should be a Free Parliament and to the Prince of Orange in his Message by the three Lords That he would consent to every thing that could reasonably be required for the Security of those that come to it and yet without any Provocation would burn the Writs and resolve to withdraw his Person before these Lords couâ—d possibly return him any Answer for he promised the Queen to follow her who went away the day before him I say this breach of his Word so solemnly made and given both to the Nation and the Prince shew that he was not Master of himself but turned about by others whither they pleased Now suppose the Prince had suffered him to continue at Whiteâ—al and to call a Third Parliament what aâ—surance could he have given that in the end of another forty days we should not have the same trick play'd us and then in March or April have been left in the same state of Confusion we were in in December to the certain Ruin of these three Kingdoms and Holland into the bargain And when all had been done the Scruples would have been the same they are now the Obligations of the Oath of Allegiance the same and the sin of Deposing a Lawful Prince who resolved to do the Nation no Right would have been much greater and more scandalous than barely to take him at his Word and since he had left the Throne empty when he needed not to resolve he should ascend it no more Lastly Suppose the Prince had been Expelled by the King Would the King have then granted us what he would not grant us now Would he not have Disbanded his Protestant Army and have kept the Irish Forces in Pay and have every day encreased them What Respect would he ever after this have shewn to the English Laws Religion or Liberties when he had no longer any thing to fear The memory of what happened after the Monmouth defeat though effected only by Church of England Men will certainly never be forgotten by others whatever the Bigots of this sort of Loyalty may pretend or say That Expression of the Lord Churchil's in his Letter That he could no longer joyn with Self-interested Men who had framed Designs against His Majesty's true Interest and the Protestant Religion to give a pretence by Conquest to bring them to effect ought to be seriously considered by all the Protestants of the Nation This one Argument prevailed upon him when he ran the hazard of his Life Reputation and Fortunes and now they are all on the other side I should consider very seâ—iously if I were one of them what Answer I could make to this turned into a Question in the Day of Death and Judgment before ever I should Act the direâ—t contrary to what he has done For my part I am amazed to see Men scruple the submitting to the present King for if eveâ— Man had a just cause of War he had and that creates a Right to the thing gained by it the King by withdrawing and disbâ—nding his Army yielded him the Throne and if he had without any more Ceremony ascended it he had done no more
Detest and Abjure as Impious and Heretical this Damnable Doctrine and Position That Princes Excommunicated or Deprived by the Pope or any Authority of the See of Rome may be Deposed or Murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do declare That no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Iurisdiction Power Superiority Preeminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm So help me God. Io. Browne Cleric ' Parl. Die Veneris 15 Feb. 1688. His Majesties Gracious Answer to the Declaration of both Houses My Lords and Gentlemen THis is certainly the greatest proof of the Trust you have in Vs that can be given which is the thing that maketh us value it the more and we thankfully Accept what you have Offered And as I had no other Intention in coming hither than to preserve your Religion Laws and Liberties so you may be sure That I shall endeavour to support them and shall be willing to concur in any thing that shall be for the Good of the Kingdom and to do all that is in my Power to advance the Welfare and Glory of the Nation Die Veneris 15 Februarii 1688. ORdered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Assembled at Westminster That His Majesties Gracious Answer to the Declaration of both Houses and the Declaration be forthwith Printed and Published And that his Majesties Gracious Answer this Day be added to the Engrossed Declaration in Parchment to be Enrolled in Parliament and Chancery Io. Browne Cleric ' Parliamentorum The Declaration of the Estates of Scotland concerning the Mis-government of King James the Seventh and filling up the Throne with King William and Queen Mary THat King Iames the 7 th had acted irregularly 1. By His Erecting publick Schools and Societies of the Jesuits and not only allowing Mass to be publickly said but also inverting Protestant Chappels and Churches to Publick Mass-houses contrair to the express Laws against saying and hearing of Mass. 2. By allowing Popish Books to be Printed and Dispersed by a Gift to a Popish Printer designing him Printer to his Majesties Houshold College and Chappel contrair to the Laws 3. By taking the Children of Protestant Noblemen and Gentlemen sending them abroad to be bred Papists making great Funds and Donations to Popish Schools and Colleges abroad bestowing Pensions on Priests and perverting Protestants from their Religion by Offers of Places Preferments and Pensions 4. By disarming Protestants while at the same time he employed Papists in the Places of greatest Trust Civil and Military such as Chancellour Secretaries Privy Councellors and Lords of Session thrusting out Protestants to make room for Papists and intrusting the Forts and Magazines of the Kingdom in their hands 5. By Imposing Oaths contrair to Law. 6. By giving Gifts and Grants for exacting of Money without Consent of Parliament or Convention of Estates 7. By Levying and keeping on foot a Standing Army in time of Peace without consent of Parliament which Army did exact Locality free and day Quarters 8. By Employing the Officers of the Army as Judges through the Kingdom and imposing them where there were held Offices and Jurisdictions by whom many of the Leiges were put to Death summarily without legal Tryal Jury or Record 9. By imposing exorbitant Fines to the Value of the Parties Estates exacting extravagant Bail and disposing Fines and Forfaulture before any Process or Conviction 10. By Imprisoning Persons without expressing the Reason and delaying to put them to Tryal 11. By causing pursue and forfault several Persons upon stretches of old and obsolete Laws upon frivolous and weak pretences upon lame and defective Probations as particularly the late Earl of Argyle to the scandal and reproach of the Justice of the Nation 12. By Subverting the Right of the Royal Boroughs the Third Estate of Parliament imposing upon them not only Magistrates but also the whole Town Council and Clerks contrair to the Liberties and express Charters without the pretence outher of Sentence Surrender or Consent So that the Commissioners to Parliaments being chosen by the Magistrates and Councils the King might in effect alsweel nominate that entire Estate of Parliament many of the said Magigrates put in by him were avowed Papists and the Burghs were forced to pay Mony for the Letters imposing these illegal Magistrates and Council upon them 13. By sending Letters to the Chief Courts of Justice not only ordering the Judges to stop and desist sine die to determine Causes but also ordering and commanding them how to proceed in Cases depending before them contrair to the express Laws And by changing the Nature of the Judges Gifts ad vitam aut culpam and giving them Commissions ad bene placitam to dispose them to compliance by Arbitrair Courses and turning them out of their Offices when they did not comply 14. By granting Personal Protections for Civil Debts contrair to Law. All which are utterly and directly contrair to the known Laws Freedoms and Statutes of this Realm Therefore the Estates of the Kingdom of Scotland find and declare That King Iames the Seventh being a profest Papist did assume the Regal Power and acted as King without ever taking the Oath required by Law and have by advice of Evil and Wicked Counsellors invaded the Fundamental Constitution of the Kingdom and altered it from a Legal limited Monarchy to an Arbitrair and Despotick Power and hath exercised the same to the subversion of the Protestant Religion and the violation of the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom Inverting all the Ends of Government whereby he hath forfaulted the Right to the Crown and the Throne is become vacant And whereas his Royal Highness William then Prince of Orange now King of England whom it hath pleased the Almighty God to make the Glorious Instrument of delivering these Kingdoms from Popery and Arbitrary Power did by advice of several Lords and Gentlemen of this Nation at London for the time call the Estates of this Kingdom to meet the Fourteenth of March last in order to such an Establishment as that their Religion Laws and Liberties might not be again in danger of being subverted And the said Estates being now assembled in a full and free Representative of this Nation taking to their most serious consideration the best means for attaining the Ends aforesaid Do in the first place as their Ancestors in the like cases have usually done for the vindicating and asserting their Ancient Rights and Liberties declare That by the Law of this Kingdom no Papist can be King or Queen of the Realm nor bear any Office whatsoever therein nor can any Protestant Successor exercise the Regal Power until he or she swear the Coronation Oath That all Proclamations asserting an Absolute Power to cass annul and disable Laws the erecting Schools and Colledges for Jesuits the inverting Protestant Chappels and Churches to publick Mass-houses and the â—llowing Mass to be said are contrair to Law. That the allowing Popish Books
by my Lord of Canterbury intimate their Thoughts about that Affair and their readiness to the King who was pleased not only to permit them to give him the best and most particular Advices but to encourage them to do it with all the freedom that was necessary for the present Occasion Upon this Royal Invitation their Lordships assembled together the next day at my Lord of Canterbury's Palace and prepared upon the most mature deliberation such Matters as they judged necessary for hiâ— Majesty's Knowledg and Consideration And on the Wednesday after waited on the King in a Body when his Grace in his own and in the name of the rest of the Bishops then present did in a most excellent Speech represent to his Majesty such things as were thought by them absolutely necessary to the Settlement of the Nation amidst the present Distractions and to the publick Interest of Church and State. I am assured that his Grace delivered himself upon this Critical Occasion as with all dutifulness to his Majesty so with all the readiness and the courage that did become such an Apostolical Arch-Bishop as God hath blest our Church of England with at this Time. You must not expect here his excellent Words but an Abridgment of them according to my Talent in a meaner Stile I. First the Bishops thought fit to represent in general to his Majesty That it was necessary for Him to restore all things to the state in which He found them when He came to the Crown by committing all Offices and Places of Trust in the Government to such of the Nobility and Gentry as were qualified for them according to the Laws of this Kingdom and by Redressing and Removing such Grievances as were generally complain'd of II. Particularly That his Majesty would Dissolve the Ecclesiastical Commission and promise to His People never to Erect any such Court for the future III. That He would not only put an effectual stop to the issuing forth of any Dispensations but would Call in and Cancel all those which had since his coming to the Crown been obtained from Him. IV. That he would Restore the Vniversities to their Legal State and to their Statutes and Customs and would particularly Restore the Master of Magdalen Colledge in Cambridge to the Profits of his Mastership which he had been so long Deprived of by an Illegal Suspension and the Ejected President and Fellows of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford to their Properties in that Colledge And that He would not permit any Persons to enjoy any of the Preferments in either Vniversity but such as are qualified by the Statutes of the Vniversities the particular Statutes of their several Foundations and the Laws of the Land. V. That He would suppress the Iesuits Schools opened in this City or elsewhere and grant no more Licenses for such Schools as are apparently against the Laws of this Nation and His Majesty's True Interest VI. That He would send Inhibitions after those Four Romish Bishops who under the Title of Apostolick Vicars did presume to Exercise within this Kingdom such Iurisdictions as are by the Laws of the Land Invested in the Bishops of the Church of England and ought not to be Violated or Attempted by them VII That He would suffer no more Quo Warranto's to be issued out against any Corporations but would restore to those Corporations which had been already disturbed their ancient Charters Priviledges Grants and Immunities and Condemn all those late Illegal Regulations of Corporations by putting them into their late Flourishing Condition and Legal Establishment VIII That He would fill up all the Vacant Bishopricks in England and Ireland with Persons duly qualified according to the Laws and would especially take into His Consideration the See of York whose want of an Archbishop is very prejudicial to that whole Province IX That He would Act no more upon a Dispensing Power nor insist upon it but permit that Affair at the first Session of a Parliament to be fairly Stated and Debated and Settled by Act of Parliament X. That upon the Restoration of Corporations to their Ancient Charters and Burroughs to their Prescriptive Rights He would Order Writs to be issued out for a fair and free Parliament and suffer it to Sit to Redress all Grievances to Settle Matters in Church and State upon just and solid Foundations and to Establish a due Liberty of Conscience XI Lastly and above all That His Majesty would permit some of His Bishops to lay such Motives and Arguments before him as might by the Blessing of GOD bring back His Majesty unto the Communion of Our Holy Church of England into whose Catholick Faith He had been Baptized in which He had been Educated and to which it was their earnest and daily Prayer to Almighty GOD that His Majesty might be Reunited All these Counsels were concluded with a Prayer to GOD in whose Hands the Hearts of Kings are for a good Effect upon them especially the last about bringing the King back to the Protestant Religion And now Sir I cannot but ask you What grounds there are for any Mens Jealousies of the Bishops Proceedings Pray shew this Letter to all your Friends that some may lay down their Fears and others may have this Antidote against taking any up I do assure you and I am certain I have the best grounds in the World for my assurance That the Bishops will never stir one Jot from their PETITION but that they will whenever that happy Opportunity shall offer itself let the Protestant Dissenters find that they will be better than their Word given in their Famous PETITION In the mean time let You and I Commend the Prudence of these Excellent Bishops Admire their Courage and Celebrate their just Praises and never forget to offer up most fervent Thanks to GOD for his Adorning the Church of England at this Juncture with such Eminent Apostolical Bishops I am with all Respect Yours N. N. The PETITION of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for the Calling of a Free Parliament Together with his Majesty's Gracious Answer to their Lordships To the KING 's most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Whose Names are Subscribed May it please your Majesty WE your Majesty's most Loyal Subjects in a deep Sense of the Miseries of a War now breaking forth in the Bowels of this your Kingdom and of the Danger to which your Majesty's Sacred Person is thereby like to be Exposed and also of the Distractions of your People by reason of their present Grievances do think our selves bound in Conscience of the Duty we owe to God and our Holy Religion to your Majesty and our Country most humbly to offer to your Majesty That in our Opinion the only visible Way to preserve your Majesty and this your Kingdom would be the Calling of a Parliament Regular and Free in all its Circumstances And Your Petitioners shall ever pray c. W. Cant. Grafton Ormond Dorset Clare Clarendon
his Highness the Prince of Orange and with one another to stick firm to this Cause and to one another in the Defence of it and never to depart from it until our Religion Laws and Liberties are so far secured to us in a Free Parliament that we shall be no more in danger of falling under Popery and Slavery And whereas We are ingaged in the Common Cause under the Protection of the Prince of Orange by which means his Person may be exposed to Danger and to the desperate and cursed Designs of Papists and other Bloody Men We do therefore solmnly ingage to God and to one another That if any such Attempts be made upon Him We will pursue not only those that made them but all their Adherents and all we find in Arms against Us with the utmost Seveâ—â—ty of just Revenge in their Ruine and Destruction and that the executing any such Attempt which God of his Infinite Mercy forbid shall not deprive us from pursuing this Cause which we do now undertake but that it shall encourage Us to carry it on with all the Vigor that so barbarous Approach shall deserve The Declaration of the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty at the Rendezvous at Nottingham Nov. 22. 1688. WE the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of these Northern Counties assembled together at Nottingham for the defence of the Laws Religion and Properties according to those free-born Liberties and Priviledges descended to us from our Ancestors as the undoubted Birth-right of the Subjects of this Kingdom of England not doubting but the Infringers and Invaders of our Rights will represent us to the rest of the Nation in the most malicious dress they can put upon us do here unanimously think it our Duty to declare to the rest of our Protestant Fellow-Subjects the Grounds of our present Undertaking We are by innumerable Grievances made sensible that the very Fundamentals of our Religion Liberties and Properties are about to be rooted out by our late Jesuitical Privy-Council as hath been of late too apparent 1. By the King's dispensing with all the Establish'd Laws at his pleasure 2. By displacing all Officers out of all Offices of Trust and Advantage and placing others in their room that are known Papists deservedly made incâ—pable by the Establish'd Laws of our Land. 3. By destroying the Charters of most Corporations in the Land. 4. By discouraging all persons that are not Papists preferring such as turn to Popery 5. By displacing all honest and conscientious Judges unless they would contrary to their Consciences declare that to be Law which was meerly arbitrary 6. By branding all Men with the name of Rebels that but offered to justify the Laws in a legal Course against the arbitrary proceedings of the King or any of his corrupt Ministers 7. By burthening the Nation with an Army to maintain the Violation of the Rights of the Subjects 8. By discountenancing the Establish'd Reformed Religion 9. By forbiding the Subjects the benefit of Petitioning and construing them Libellers so rendring the Laws a Nose of Wax to serve their Arbitrary Ends. And many more such like too long here to enumerate We being thus made sadly sensible of the Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government that is by the Influence of Jesuitical Counsels coming upon us do unanimously declare That not being willing to deliver our Posterity over to such a condition of Popery and Slavery as the aforesaid Oppressions inevitably threaten we will to the utmost of our Power oppose the same by joining with the Prince of Orange whom we hope God Almighty hath sent to rescue us from the Oppressions aforesaid will use our utmost Endeavours for the recovery of our almost ruin'd Laws Liberties and Religion and herein we hope all good Protestant Subjects will with their Lives and Fortunes be assistant to us and not be bugbear'd with the opprobrious Terms of Rebels by which they would fright us to become perfect Slaves to their tyrannical Insolencies and Usurpations for we assure our selves that no rational and unbyassed Person will judg it Rebellion to defend our Laws and Religion which all our Princes have sworn at their Coronations Which Oath how well it hath been observed of late we desire a Free Parliament may have the consideration of We own it Rebellion to resist a King that governs by Law but he was always accounted a Tyrant that made his Will the Law and to resist such an one we justly esteem no Rebellion but a necessary Defence and in this Consideration we doubt not of all honest Mens Assistance and humbly hope for and implore the great God's Protection that turneth the Hearts of his People as pleaseth him best it having been observed That People can never be of one Mind without his Inspiration which hath in all Ages confirmed that Observation Vox Populi est Vox Dei. The pesent restoring of Charters and reversing the oppressing and unjust Judgment given on Magdalen Colledge Fellows is plain are but to still the people like Plums to Children by deceiving them for a while but if they shall by this Stratagem be fooled till this present storm that threatens the Papists be past assoon as they shall be resetled the former Oppression will be put on with greater vigour but we hope in vain is the Net spread in the sight of the Birds For 1. The Papists old Rule is That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks as they term Protestants tho' the Popish Religion is the greatest Heresy And 2. Queen Mary's so ill observing her promises to the Suffolk-men that help'd her to her Throne And above all 3. the Popes dispensing with the breach of Oaths Treaties or Promises at his pleasure when it makes for the service of Holy Church as they term it These we say are such convincing Reasons to hinder us from giving Credit to the aforesaid Mock-Shews of Redress that we think our selves bound in Conscience to rest on no Security that shall not be approved by a freely Elected Parliament to whom under God we refer our Cause His Grace the Duke of NORFOLK's Speech to the Mayor of NORWICH on the First of December in the Market-place of Norwich Mr. MAYOR NOT doubting but you and the rest of your Body as well as the whole City and Country may be allarmed by the great Concourse of Gentry with the numerous Appearance of their Friends and Servants as well as of your own Militia here this Morning I have thought this the most proper place as being the most publick one to give you an account of our Intentions Out of the deep sense we had that in the present unhappy Juncture of Affairs nothing we could think of was possible to secure the Laws Liberties and Protestant Religion but a Free Parliament WE ARE HERE MET TO DECLARE that we will do our utmost to defend the same by declaring for such a Free Parliament And since His Majesty hath been pleased by the News we hear this day to order Writs for a
sold by Rich. Ianeway in Queen's-head Court in Pater-Noster Row 1688. The hard Case of Protestant Subjects under the Dominion of a Popish Prince A Prince putting himself and his Dominions under the Authority of the Pope and admitting as he must unavoidably the Laws and Decrees of the Romish Church all his Protestant Subjects being by the Judgment and Sentence of that Church Hereticks do forthwith lie under the Penalty which those Laws and Constitutions will have inflicted upon Hereticks Heresie being the highest degree of High-Treason called therefore by them Laesae Crimen Majestatis Divinae So the English Protestant must be a Traytor and the worst of Traytors and exposed to the Penalties of High-Treason The Laws and Decrees of the Romish Church against Hereticks Heresie is denounced Infamous and the Heretick must be dealt with as such which is many Penalties in one First Whereby they are deprived of all Nobility Jurisdiction and Dignity and debarred from all Offices and publick Councils Parliaments and others being made uncapable of choosing and being chosen So that it reacheth all sorts of Clergy Laity Noble and Ignoble which is extended to their Children also For they say The Issue of Traytors Civil and Spiritual lose their Nobility And all that owe any Duty to such Infamous Persons are discharged and exempted therefrom as Subjects from their Prince Servants from theâ—r Masters Children from their Parents whom they also may lawfully kill Whereby we may see a little to what condition the Admission of the Papal Authority would reduce us expelling both Nature and Humanity and making the dearest Relatives unnatural and barbarous to one another it would leave no Protestant either Dignity or Authority either Safety or Liberty Nobles are sentenced to Peasants and Peasants to Slaves Secondly Another Penalty to which Hereticks are condemned by their Law is Confiscation of Goods and Estate and this they incur ipso jure ipso facto that is immediately as soon as they shew themselves Hereticks before any legal Sentence have passed For which there is an express Decree in the Canon-Law Bona Haereticorum ipso jure discernemus confiscata We decree the Goods of Hereticks to be confiscate by Sentence of Law. The Effects of this Confiscation wherein they all agree makes the Severity of the Law apparent viz. First All the Profits made of the Estate from the first day of their Guilt is to be refunded Secondly All Alienations by Gift Sale or otherwise before Sentence are null and void and all Contracts for that purpose rescinded Thirdly Children Heirs of Hereticks are deprived of their Portions yea tho they be Papists Whereby it appears that as soon as the Papacy is admitted all Title and Property is lost and extinct among us And therefore we must not think that Pope acted extravagantly who declared That all his Majesty's Territories were his own as forfeited to the Holy See for the Heresie of Prince and People Not only Abby-Lands are in danger who ever possess them but all Estates are forfeited to his Exchequer and legally confiscated All is his own which Protestants in these three Nations have or ever had if he can but meet with a Prince so wise as to help him to catch it whose process follows them beyond their Grave and ruins their Children and Children's Children after them And when they have strip'd the Heretick of his All they provide that no other shall relieve him viz. That none shall receive him into their Houses nor afford him any Help nor shew him any Favour nor give him any Counsel We are here in England zealous for Property and all the reason in the World we should so be But we must bid adieu to this when we once come under the Pope's Authority for as soon as this is admitted all the Protestants in these Nations are Beggars by Lrw viz. by the Laws of that Church which will then be Ours divesting us of all Property and Title to whatever we account our own Thirdly Another Penalty which their Law inflicts on Hereticks is Death which is the Sentence of the Canon-Law and which is so absolute that no Secular Judg can remit and which is the Judgment of all the Doctors Ita docent omnes Doctores And from which Penalty neither Emperors nor Kings themselves are to be freed or exempt And the Death they inflict is burning alive No Death more tolerable or of less exquisite Torture will satisfy the Mercy of that Church The Canon saith thus Decernimus ut vivi in conspectu hominum comburantur We decree that they shall be burnt alive in the sight of the World. So our last Popish Successor Queen Mary practised upon near three hundred Persons without regard either to Age Sex or Quality the Scripture they urge for it is Iohn 15.6 If any one abide not in me Men gather them and cast them into the Fire and they are burnt So that as soon as the Papal Authority is admitted among us all the Protestants in these Nations are dead Men in Law being under a Law that hath sentenced us to be burnt alive and under a Power that hath declared it necessary that no one of us escape with Life Fourthly Where legal Penalties cannot take place by reason of opposite Strength they hold War necessary and lawful to chastise Hereticks For which we might give you divers Authorities but let Cardinal Allen our Country-man suffice who asserts it is not only lawful but necessary His words are these It is clear saith he what People or Persons soever be declared to be opposite to GOD's Church with what Obligation soever either of Kindred Friendship Loyalty or Subjection I be bound unto them I may or rather must take up Arms against them and then must we take them for Hereticks when our lawful Popes adjudg them so to be And which saith Cardinal Pool is a War more holy than that against the Turks Fifthly To destroy them by Massacres is sometimes held more adviseable than to run the hazard of War and which they say is both lawful and meritorious for the rooting out a Pestilent Heresy and the promoting the Roman Interest This set a-foot the Irish Massacre that inhuman bloody Butchery and so much from the Savageness and Cruelty of their Nature as the Doctrines and Principles which directed and encouraged it as also that of Paris than which nothing was more grateful and acceptable to their Popes as their Bulls make manifest and the picturing it in the Pope's Chamber and for which as a most glorious Action Triumphs were made and publick Thanksgivings were returned to God. So in Savoy and elsewhere both in former and latter Times And this was that which the late Conspirators aimed at so fully intending a Massacre Those that escaped a Massacre saith Dugdale must be cut off by the Army And Coleman tells the Internuncio in his Letters That their Design prospered
have heard forfeit all Right either to chuse or be chosen in any Publick Councils And then all Laws which have been made for the Protestants and against the Popish Religion will be null and void as being enacted by an incompetent Authority as being the Acts of Hereticks Kings Lords and Commons who had forfeited all their Rights and Priviledges But Thirdly suppose our Laws were valid as enacted by competent Authority and such good and wholsome Provisions as were those Statutes made by our Popish Ancestors in those Statutes of Provisoes in Edward the I. Edward the III. Time and that of Praemunire in Richard the II. and Henry the IV. for Relief against Papal Incroachments and Oppressions Yet being against the Laws and Canons of Holy Church the Sovereign Authority they will be all superseded For so they determine That when the Canon and the Civil Laws clash one requiring what the other allows not the Church-Law must have the observance and that of the State neglected And Constitutions they say made against the Canons and Decrees of the Roman Biâ—hops are of no moment Their best Authors are positive of it And our own Experience and Histories testify the Truth thereof For how were those good Laws before-mention'd defeated by the Pope's Authority so that there was no effectual Execution thereof till Henry the 8 th's Time as Dr. Burnet tells us And how have the good Laws to suppress and prevent Popery been very much obstructed in their Execution by Popish Influence An Answer to a late Pamphlet Intituled A Short Scheme of the Usurpations of the Crown of England c. THE World may very justly wonder at several Passages in this ill-designed and as ill-writ Pamphlet which the Author has taken the pains to collect from some petty Grubstreet Chronicle Henry II. is call'd an Usurper pag. 4. because he accepted of the Crown of England in his Mothers Life-time tho' by her not opposing his Claim it may very reasonably be concluded that she freely consented to his Promotion as the most effectual means to secure the Crown to her Posterity But we are told That a Crown is no Estate to be made over in Trust If our Author's meaning is that a Crown is an Estate which the Possessor cannot divest himself of by a voluntary Resignation both Reason and a multitulde of Examples in several Ages and â—ations prove that the Principle our Author has laid down is founded on a gross Mistake Therefore if our Author designs to publish any more Schemes of Usurpation let him first inform us what it is and how far it extends lest the World should accuse him of having as notoriously usurped to himself the Title of a Writer as any of our Princes ever did the Crown of England He would perswade his Readers to believe that God punish'd King Edward III. and King Henry V. for their Usurpations with frequent and unexpected Victories in the acquisition of which tho' there was some English Blood shed as it was impossible it should be otherwise yet the Enemies paid an excessive Price for it after the defeat of their great Armies and the Imprisonment of their King they being forced to buy their Peace upon such Terms as our conquering Usurpers pleased to impose Nor did ever any well-wisher to the English Nation deny that these Two Princes were the Glory of their Age and of our British History If I should reckon up all the evident Mistakes and false Inferences in this Libel it would be too tedious since a careless Eye cannot easily overlook them If the Pamphlet finds so undeserved a Reception in the World as to need a Second Impression the Author is desired to add to it this Postscript which being founded on the Principles asserted by him will shew the World that he hath wilfully and perhaps partially forborn to speak of as notorious an Usurper as any that are mentioned in his Scheme Queen Mary the Off-spring of an Incestuous Marriage had no other unquestionable Divine Right to the Crown of England than what was given her by an Act of Parliament made in her Father's Reign and the common Consent of the Nobility and People after the Death of her Brother King Edward VI. whose disposal of the Crown by Letters Patents under the Great Seal being directly contrary to the former Entail of it limited by a higher Authority His Sister the Lady Mary was acknowledged Queen Therefore according to our Author 's abstruse Notions She as well as her Grand-father Henry VII must be reckoned among the Usurpers of the Crown of England Let us now see what success attended her and whether the Nation was happy under her Government As soon as She saw her self fixed in the Throne She imprisoned and deprived several of the Protestant Bishopâ— contrary to the then Establish'd Laws of the Realm She intruded Popish Bishops into the Sees thus declared vacant the small remainder of the Protestant Bishops who had beâ—n called to Parliament by Writ were nevertheless violently thrust out of the Parliament-House for refusing to worship the Mass. The Members of the House of Commons in her First Parliament were chosen by force and threats the Free-holders were hindred by violence from exercising their Right of chusing Representatives false Returns were made and those who were for the Reformed Religion tho' duly elected were by force expelled the House So that we cannot wonder at the Statues made in this pretended Free Parliament which was in every Thing influenced by the Court-Party Shortly after her Marriage with the haughty jealous Spaniard of which She her self felt the ill Consequences was justly disliked by the Nobility and Commonalty Her base Design of setting up a Supposititious Child for Heir to the Crown was not only happily defeated but deservedly exposed to the Censure of the Nation Her Design to erect the Spanish Inquisition in England was disappointed Calais after having belonged to the Crown of Englâ—nd about two hundred and eleven Years and which was gained with great difficulty after eleven Months Siege was in the depth of Winter lost in a Weeks time And quickly after all the English Territories were with small difficulty recovered by the French. We must not forget how exactly She put in practice the base treacherous and destructive Principles of the pretended Catholick Religion in these remarkable Particulars She barbarously used her only Sister the Lady Elizabeth and designed to have taken away her Life for no other Cause but her firm adherence to the Protestant Religion She imprisoned and burnt Arch-Bishop Cranmer who had formerly sheltered her from her Father's Fury She deprived and imprisoned Judg Hales who alone resolutely opposed King Edward the Sixth's Will and preferred Judg Bromley to be Lord Chief Justice though he had without any reluctancy prepared the Letters-Patents for her Exclusion The Inhabitants of Norfolk and Suffolk who were the first that took up Arms for her upon her Promise to permit them the Exercise of their Religion
Guilty whereupon he was sentenced to be burnt publickly at the Cross the Twenty Fifth of this Instant and withal declared and protested for a Free Parliament On Sunday last Advertisement was given by a Papist to a Gentlewoman to remove her self out of this City and to carry out her Husband's Papers forthwith because that Night there should be here a hot Wakening such as had not been heretofore and advised her to give the same Advice to any of her Friends she pleased Your Friend Mr. M. being acquainted with this he revealed the same to several of our Magistrates which as is alledged was not regarded he went thereafter and acquainted the Guard of our Trained-Bands therewith whereupon Captain Patrick Iohnstone Hilton's Brother caused to beat the Drums and the Noise having gone abroad and several Persons having ordered their Arms and People flocking together to consider what was fit to be done the Magistrates with the Council convened for the same purpose A great many Boys met also and went through the whole Town crying aloud No Pope No Papist No Popish Chancellor No Melfort No Father Peters But the Gates were shut the Magistrates went along the Streets for the keeping of the Peace and nothing more was done that Night except the breaking of three or four Glass-Windows of Papists Houses and that some of the Boys got up to the Cross and proclaimed a Free-Parliament and offered Two Thousand Pounds for Melford's Head so that Night past over when all People here were in fear of some ill Designs and the rather because of their certain knowledg that there were lying in the Suburbs a great many Hundreds of Highland-mâ—n or rather Thousands and that all that day the Abbey Gates were exactly kept by Souldiers Commanded by Captain Wallace a Papist and none admitted to enter except Papists or Highland-men On Monday about mid-day the Chancellor parted thence and went towards the Highlands by Advice of several of the Privy Council and his Friends and took a good Guard with him At Night the Students went without Arms to the Abbey to condemn the Pope and to Proclaim a Free Parliament and perhaps to burn what was contained in the Chappel but without asking Questions were repulsed by a shower of Ball whereby several were wounded and some since dead of their Wounds which coming to the Privy Councils Knowledg which was then sitting they called the Town Council then also met and Captain Grahame desired them to see to the preservance of the Peace and sent Six Heralds with an Order to Captain Wallace and his Men to lay down their Arms render themselves Prisoners and deliver their Guards to the Magistrates but they were answered by Ball which being reported to the Privy Council they forthwith ordered Captain Grahame and his Company Trained-Bands and Militia to fall upon them which they did Wallace and his Men fled several of them were taken and some wounded as were some of Captain Grahame's Men. The Rabble were so incensed upon the firing and supposition that it was Boys were killed that they burnt all that was contained in the Chappel the Jesuits Colledg the Popish Printing-house the Abbey Church the Chancellor's Lodgings and generally all that was contained in the Houses of Papists in the Town and Cannon-gate excepting what was taken away by some People who designed Plunder They had Fires in the Abbey-Court and at the Cross all the Night and spared nothing they got in Papists Houses Some few Houses were spared at the intercession of some Protestants their Friends and after true enquiry I heard the Loss is called greater than it is None of the Papists themselves were killed or wounded they met with few of them those they got they carried into the Guard. In some of the Popish Houses they found Arms and Barrels of Powder which provoked to a more narrow search All this time the Castle never fired one Gun which is more attributed to the Duke of Gordon than to any other inferior Officer I am told the Council sent and discharged an Execution from the Castle Some of the Boys are dead of their Wounds Traquair a Popish Lord and several others went to and continue in the Castle for their security The Council ordered the searching for Ammunition and Arms in some Popish Houses in the Country and this day committed a Warrant for the restoring of what was plundred out of the Papists Houses I had forgot to tell you that on Monday last the Privy Council disbanded Six Hundred Men taken on the Friday before and commanded all the Highlanders forthwith to depart upon pain of Death and yesterday ordered all Gentlemen to depart out of the Town excepting such as should give account of their Business to some of the Privy Council I am credibly informed that this day in the Privy Council was voted an Address to be made to his Majesty for a Free Parliament there are several Noblemen and Gentlemen gone from hence into England and more to follow but it 's suspected they are going to the Prince of Orange Edinburgh Decemb. 20. WHen the Chancellor went away privately from the Abbey for Castle Drummond he gave strict Command to Captain Wallace to preserve the Chappel c. The Rabble having gathered and procured Links without any Fire-Arms about Six at Night went to the Abbey and were denied access whereupon some pressing forward Wallace commanded his Souldiers to fire which they did and killed and wounded about Twenty whereof one half died shortly after The Rabble retired to the City with a great Noise towards the Entry to the Court of the Parliament-House where some of the Lords of the Privy-Council were sitting There some West-Country Gentlemen encouraged them to prosecute a Revenge and got the Provost of the City to go to the House of Lords and told them if they would not give a Warrant to assault Wallace and force him from the Abbey they would do it without it The Lords being alarm'd with the Slaughter and a Report that several Gentlemens Sons were killed and some of their own they ordered a Herald at Arms with sound of Trumpet to command Wallace in the King's Name to give up his Guard at the Abbey to the City And the Company under the Cities Pay marched first commanded by Captain Grahame and after them all the Train'd-Bands and Militia to force him in case of refusal several Gentlemen accompanying Grahame and the Magistrates attending Wallace refused the Herald and fired upon Grahame and the rest behind wounded some Gentlemen and a few Souldiers But Grahame marched quickly down a Lane on the South-side of the Porch of the Abbey-Court where Wallace was posted and by a back way entered the Court came upon Wallace's Reer and the Town Companies fronting him after the first Fire he and all his Men fled only a few of them were taken the most part escaping under the Darkness of the Night The City being thus Master of the Abbey the Rabble immediately without opposition
it must have fallen if the King had died without Heir VI. If the Regality then be not Descended but thus Laps'd to the People and that this most Excellent Government is therein become Defective whether it be not of necessity that this defect be supplied by a speedy Constituting some Person to that Office Power and Trust to compleat the Government VII If that be so Then what Person in this present Juncture of Affairs is most proper to be therewith Invested Whetheâ— one who at the Nations charge at all Times and upon all Occasiâ—ns and to the utmost Extremities hath given undeniable Evidence to the World of his constant Resolution and endeavours to Subvert the Religion Laws and Liberties of his People Or one who at his own Charge and at the peril of his own Honour Life and Fortune hath Rescued and Delivered the Nation from that deploâ—able Condition and Danger and whose Wisdom Vertue Courage and Conduct is an Honour to the Age the Joy of all good Men and the Fear of Bad both here and abroad and who must adorn that People over whom he shall preside VIII If then the Crown be thus fallen and must be placed de novo Whether it was ever more necessary than now to settle and limit the Succession thereof as it hath been often done by Parliament in regard there are but Three Persons of the Protestant Religion anâ— oâ— the Royal Blood viz. his Highness and the Two Princesses not much different in Age beyond whom the Descendants are many and all Roman Catholicks IX Whether then it may not be adviseable it be limited to the Prince for Life the Remainder to his Princess and the Heirs of her Body the Remainder to the Princess Ann and the Heirs of her Body the Remainder to the Prince and the Heirs of his Body In Default of such Issue to such Person and Persons as the Lords and Commons then last sitting in Parliament shall Declare and Appoint X. Whether such Limitation will not avoid all Questions which may at present or hereafter arise touching the Title of the Crown either near or remote and settle and preserve the Peace of the Nation for ever XI Whether so doing will not prevent any scruple her Highness may have of accepting the Crown in her Father's Life-time as did arâ—se in the Son of King Edward the Second XII Whether thereby the Nation will not in some measure express its Duty and Gratitude to his Highness who under God hath â—redeemed and Delivered it from Popery and Slavery and raised his own Merit above the level of a Subject XIII Whether this Great Prince whom God hath advanced for the Conduct and Safety of the Protestant World will not be the steer to accomplish those Glorious Ends XIV Whether the Two Royal Daughters consâ—dering such his Highness's securing their Right and Succession to the Crown of these Realms against all Popish Endeavours to hinder the same will not see just Cause to promote the Limitations aforesaid XV. And lastly Whether the Wisdom and Interest of the Nation doth not oblige all good Men to concur with his Highness and his most Noble Declaration and Gracious Designs To Establish their Religion their Liberties and Properties beyond all Humane Power of Violation or Subversion for the Time to come A Modest PROPOSAL to the present CONVENTION THE thing that ofiers it self in this great Conjuncture is to have a Grand Committee of Lords and Commons Forty at least from each House to be as a Privy Council or Council of State or Governing Senate It were to be wished that Twenty of each Forty might be for Life and the other Twenty Biennial Ten going off every Year Or half might be changed Annually Each Senator or Counsellor to have for his Salary or Maintenance a Thousand Pounds a Year This would be such an Advancement to the Nobility and Gentry as England never saw And the Charge is a Trifle There is more spâ—nt in some Monarchies upon Hawks Hounds and Whores The Prince to preside in this Council or Senate or such Person as he shall appoint in his stead and to have Ten Votes at least He must also be General and Admiral and must have such further Powers and such a Maintenance or Revenue as his Great Merits require But withal such as are consistent with the Government he designs for us The Prince's Maintenance should equal or exceed that of all the Senators put together All that are of this Council and all that hope to be that is all the Considerable Men of the Nation will by this means be firm to the Prince And so will those others who have the great Priviledge of Choosing them whereby they may have Confidence in their Administration And this one thing will give the Prince so strong an Interest that he needs fear no Pretension that can be against him It will be better than a Standing Army The necessity whereof nothing can prevent but such a Standing Council The Parliament to be Chosen Triermially and to meet Annually It is believed that such a Constitution as this would effectually Secure us according to the Princes good Intentions from Popery and Tyranny And the Prince will be the glorious Author of the Britannick Liberty as his Great Grand-Father was of the Belgick The Genoeses to this day adore the Memory of Andrew Doria who chose rather to make them a Free State than to be their Prince Barely to change our Master would but revive the Feuds of York and Lancaster and involve us in the like Calamities These things to continue but during the Life of the King and not to prejudice a Protestant Successor A Short Historical Account touching the Succession of the CROWN IN the Heptarchy there was no sixt Hereditary Right one King tripping up the Heels of another as he had Power till one got all Afterward no sixt Hereditary Right for Althestan the Great King was a Bastard and so were several others why by then Courage and Policy got the Crown so that a Law was made under the Saxon Monarchy de Ordinatione Regnam that directed the Election of Kings prohibiting Bastards to be Elected Edward the Confessor was not King Iure Haereditario William the First called the Conqueror had no Right buâ— from the Peoples Election William Ruffus was Elected against the Right of his Elder Bâ—othâ—â— Henry the First came in by the same way King Stephen was Elected a Clero Populo and Confirmeâ— by the Popo Henry the Second came in by Consent yet he had no Hereditary Right for his Mother was living Richard the First was charged before God and Men by the Arch-Bishop upon his Coronation that he should not presume to take the Crown unless he resolved faithfully to observe the Laws King Iohn his Brother because his Elder Brother's Son was a Foreigner was Elected a Clero Populo and being Divorced from his Wife by his new Queen he had Henry the Third Henry the Third was Confirmed
some kind of possession of the Kingly Office. Bâ—t after the Judgment made and declared there seems to be no dâ—fference in the consequence and result of the thing between such an extraordinary case of the Cesser of the Royal Dignity and the case of Death or voluntary Resignation or as if the King had been prosest and made himself a Recluse in a Religious House Then it must devolve upon the next Heir her Royal Highness the Princess of Orange As to the pretended Prince of Wales if there had been no Suspicions as to his Birth as there are many violent ones yet his being conveyed into unknown Places by Persons in whom no credit can be reposed and at an Age which exposes him to all manner of Practices and Impostures touching his Person then can there hereafter be no manner of Certainty of him so as to induce the Nation ever to consider any Pretence of that kind These things being considered First Whether will not the declaring her Royal Highness Queen of England as next in Succession be the surest and beâ—t Foundation to begin our Settlement upon rather than upon a groundless Conceit of the Government being devolved to the People and so they to proceed to Elect a King Secondly If that Conceit of devolving to the People be admitted Whether must we not conclude that the Misgovernment of King Iames the Second hath not only determin'd his Roylaty but put a period to the Monarchy it self And then 't is not only a loss as to his Person but to the whole Royal Family Thirdly Whether those Persons that have started this Notion upon pretence of giving the Nation an opportunity of gratifying his Highness the Prince of Orange in proportion to his Merits which it must be acknowledged no Reward can exceed if they were searched to the bottom did not do it rather to undermine this Ancient and Hereditary Monarchy and to give an Advantage to their Republican Principles than out of any Affection and Gratitude to his Highness For if the latter was that they had tâ—e chief respect to would it not be the more proper way to declare her Royal Highness Queen which will immediately put the Nation under a regular Constitution and posture of Government Then it will be capable of expressing its Gratitude to the Prince of Orange in matters touching even the Royal Dignity it self without making such a Stroke upon the Government as the Electing of a King or making any other immediate Alteration in the right of the Monarchy before the Parliament is compleated and constituted in all its parts must amount unto The Heads of the EXPEDIENT proposed by the Court-party to the Parliament at Oxford in lieu of the Bill for excluding the Duke of York I. THAT the Duke of York be banish'd during his Life five hundred Miles from England Scotland and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories to them belonging II. That the whole Government both Ecclesiastical and Civil shall upon the demise of the King be vested in a Regent for such time as the Duke of York shall survive III. That the Regent be the Princess of Orange and in case of her Decease without Issue or with Issue in Minority then the Lady Ann. IV. That if the Duke have a Son educated a Protestant then the said Princesses respectively shall succeed in the Regency during the Minority of such Son and no longer Which obviates an incurable Absurdity in the former Bill of Exclusion V. That the Regent nominate the privy-Privy-Council and they to be or not to be approved in Parliament as shall be judged safest upon directing the drawing up of this intended Act. VI. That notwithstanding these Kingdoms out of respect to the Royal Family and Monarchy it self may be governed by the said Regent in the Name â—nd Stile of Iames the Second c. yet it shall by this intended Act be made Capital for any to take up Arms on his behalf or by a Commission not signed by the said Regent or not granted by lawful Authority derived from and under such Regent or to maintain an Opinion that the retaining the said Name and Stile shall in this case purge the disabilities imposed by this Act or elude the force thereof VII That Commissioners be forthwith sent to the Prince and Princess of Orange to take their Oaths that they will take upon them the execution of this Act and that their Oaths be here recorded VIII That all Officers Civil and Military forthwith take Oaths to observe this Act and so all others from time to time as in the Act for the Test. IX That his Majesty would graciously declare to call a Parliament in Scotland in order to the passing the like Act there and recommend the same and the like to be done in Ireland if thought necessary X. That in case the said Duke shall come into any of these Kingdoms then he shall be ipso facto totally excluded and shall suffer as in the former Bill and the Sovereignty shall be forthwith intirely vested in the Regent upon such his coming into any of these Kingdoms XI That all considerable Papists be banish'd by Name XII That their fraudulent Conveyances be defeated XIII That their Children be educated in the Protestant Religion By these means these three Kingdoms will be united in defence of the Protestant Religion his Majesty's Person and Government and a sure Foundation laid of an effectual League with Holland and consequently with the rest of Christendom in opposition to the growing Greatness of France ☞ 'T was thought fit to reprint this Expedient that the Reader may compare it with the Bill of Exclusion which may be seen at large in the Debates of the House of Commons lately published and judg which was the greatest Evil of the two viz. that which would have set the Duke aside and given him liberty to live where he pleased or that which would have strip'd him of all Power and banish'd him 500 Miles off and left him only the Name of a King. An Excellent Expedient indeed An Account of the irregular Actions of the Papists in the Reign of King James the Second With a Method proposed how to rid the Nation of them By a Person of Quality THE dreadful Revolutions Plots and Conspiracies which have been promoted by the Roman Catholicks in England since the Resormation are of that nature and have caused such fearful Convulsions in our Church and State that it is a great Argument of the Goodness and Providence of God that we have been able to bear so many Shocks and to avoid so many deep Designs as have now twice within the memory of Man brought us to the brinks of Ruin. We must be very impious or very stupid if our last Deliverance has not been able to make us adore the boundless Goodness of God towards us his sinful and unthankful Servants he having defeated the Hopes and totally overthrown the Contrivances of that restless implacable persidious Faction when they seemed
at any time it may serve his Purpose from whose Hands a Soveraign Prince an Uncle and a Father could meet with no better Entertainment However the sense of these Indignities and the just Apprehension of further Attempts against Our Person by them who already endeavoured to murther Our Reputation by infamous Calumnies as if We had been capable of supposing a Prince of Wales which was incomparably more injurious than the destroying of Our Person it Self together with a serious Reflection on a Saying of Our Royal Father of blessed Memory when He was in the like Circumstances That there is little distance between the Prisons and the Graves of Princes which afterwards proved too true in His Case could not but persuade Us to make use of that which the Law of Nature gives to the meanest of Our Subjects of freeing Our selves by all means possible from that unjust Confinement and Restraint And this We did not more for the Security of our own Person then that thereby We might be in a better Capacity of transacting and providing for every thing that may contribute to the Peace and Settlement of Our Kingdoms For as on the one hand no change of Fortune shall ever make Us forget Our Selves so far as to condescend to any thing unbecoming that High and Royal Station in which God Almighty by Right of Succession has placed Us So on the other hand neither the Provocation or Ingratitude of Our own Subjâ—cts nor any other Consideration whatsoever shall ever prevail with Us to make the least step contrary to the true Interest of the English Nation which We ever did and ever must look upon as Our own Our Will and Pleasure thereof is That you of Our Privy Councel take the most effectual care to make these Our Gratious Intentions known to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in and about Our Cities of London and Westminster to the Lord Mayor and Commons of our City of London and to all Our Subjects in general and to assure them that We desire nothing more than to return and hold a Free Parliament wherein We may have the best Opportunity of undeceiving Our People and shewing the Sincerity of those Protestations We have often made of the preserving the Liberties and Properties of Our Subjects and the Protestant Religion more especially the Church of England as by Law establish'd with such Indulgence for those that dissent from Her as We have always thought Our selves in Justice and Care of the general Welfare of Our People bound to procure for them And in the mean time You of Our Privy Councel who can judg better by being upon the place are to send Us your Advice what is fit to be done by Us towards Our returning and the accomplishing those good Ends. And We do require you in Our Name and by Our Authority to endeavour so to suppress all Tumults and Disorders that the Nation in general and every one of Our Subjects in particular may not receive the least Prejudice from the present Distractions that is possible So not doubting of your Dutiful Obedience to these Our Royal Commands We bid you heartily Farewel Given at St. Germans on Laye the 4 4 Ianuary 1688 9. And of Our Reign the fourth Year By his Majesties Command MELFORT Directed thus To the Lords and Others of our Privy Councel of Our Kingdom of England Some Remarks on the late Kings pretended Letter to the LORDS and Others of his Privy Council IT begins thus My Lords When we saw that it was no longer safe for us to remain within our Kingdom of England c. His Majesty would have given great Satisfaction to the World in discovering where the Danger lay in tarrying here from whom and for what cause He is pleased to say farther We now think fit to let you know that though it has been our constant care since our first Accession to the Crown to govern our People with that Iustice and Moderation as to give if possible no occasion of Complaint c. I do not understand why his Majesty would not let us know these his Gracious Intentions before when they might have done Himself and Us Good. But quid verba audiam cum facta videam to what purpose are Words when we see Facts And as to his Moderation I appeal to the Pope himself or the French King who chiefly blame him for his Rashness and want of Temper and as for his Justice among a thousand publick Instances to the contrary he should remember his discountenancing and turning out of their Employments all such as would not enter into his Idolatrous Worship and comply with his illegal and arbitrary Designs Besides what Justice can Hereticks expect from a Prince who is not only a Papist but wholly devoted to the Order of the Jesuits and values himself for being a Member of those Reverend Cut-throats Yet more particularly upon the late Invasion seeing how the Design was laid and fearing that our People who could not be destroyed but by themselves The Design was to preserve the Nation from falling under the cruel Dominion of the French and to keep our selves from being dragg'd by the Hair of the Head to Mass and from undergoing all those Miseries which those of the same Religion and for the same Cause have endured now lately in France and Savoy To prevent so great a Mischief that is to say destroying our selves and to take away not only all just Causes but even Pretences of Discontent We freely and of our own accord redrest all those things that were set forth as the Causes of that Invasion I appeal to the common Faith of Mankind touching the Insinserity of these Words whether if this Invasion had not been these and worse Grievances had not followed And that we might be informed by the Counsel and Advice of our Subjects themselves which way we might give them a further and full Satisfaction We resolved to meet them in a Free Parliament c. The late Kings of England have been as desirous of a Parliament as Popes of a Free and General Council there being nothing they have more studiously avoided and greatlier feared But the Prince of Orange seeing all the Ends of his Declaration answered the People beginning to be undeceived and returning apace to their ancient Duty and Allegiance resolved by all possible means to prevent the meeting of the Parliament c. How far the Prince of Orange has been from preventing the meeting of a Parliament we need only consult our senses The hurrying us under a Guard from our City of London whose returning Loyalty we could no longer trust and the other Indignities we suffered in the Person of the Earl of Feversham when sent to him by us and in that barbarous Confinement of our own Person we shall not here repeat Do's any Man think the Prince of Orange would have had the same gentle Treatment from the King had he been in like manner under his Power And as to the
Kings concernment for the unheard of Suffering of the E. of F. I do not wonder at it having ever had so little Affection or rather so great an Antipathy to his English Subjects This will be sufficient to open the Eyes of all our Subjects and let them plainly see what every one of them may expect and what Treatment they shall find from him if at any time it may serve his Purpose from whose Hands a Soveraign Prince an Vncle and a Father could meet with no better Entertainment All wise and good Protestants are so certain of happy times under the Government of this most excellent and incomporable Prince that they have nothing left to fear or desire but that God would preserve him from the Hellish Fury of the Papists And as to all these Relations of a Soveraign Prince an Uncle and a Father The King would have done well to have acquitted himself to the Prince as became all these Relations However the Sense of these Indignities c. And as if we had been capable if supposing a Prince of Wales I believe and know that the Conscience of a Popish Prince wholly under the Conduct of the Jesuits will find no Difficulty in consenting to so pious a Fraud provided it can be carryed on with all prudent Cautions For as on the one hand no change of Fortune shall ever make us forget our selves so far as to condescend to any thing unbecoming that High and Royal Station in which God Almighty by right of Succession has placed us So on the other hand neither the Provocation or Ingratitude of our own Subjects nor any other Considerâ—tion whatsoever shall ever prevail with us to make the least step contrary to the true Interest of the English Nation His Majesty's sincere Friend the French King with whom he now enjoys a nearer Converse will also concur with him in this good Design of promoting the true Interest of England And as to his Majesty's Inclinations to Mercy and passing by Provocations we need mention no other Instances but those in the West where the Cruelties exercised on those unfortunate People cannot be parallel'd in any History of Barbarians Our Will and Pleasure therefore is that you of our Privy Council take the most effectual care to make these our gracious Intentions known to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and to all our Subjects in general and to assure them that we desire nothing more than to return and hold a Free Parliament wherein we may have the best Opportunity of undeceiving our People and shewing the Sincerity of those Protections of preserving especially the Church of England as by Law established A Man wou'd wonder any Prince that overlooks what his Secretary writes should suffer such apparent and palpable Untruths to pass For it is not manifest to all the World That the late King through the Jesuits Counsel did all that was possible to weaken and overturn especially the Church of England as well by open Declarations and Practices as by more secret Ways and Contrivances inciting one part of his Protestant Subjects to destroy the other and then immediately after exposing them for it and encouraging and inspiring these later with a Spirit of Revenge and Retaliation And thus having briefly ran over whatever seems material in this Letter I shall desist from Repetitions and insisting on mere words of Course and Matters of form seeing this would be to tire to Reader 's Patience and a lesning of his Judgment Reasons for Crowning the Prince and Princess of Orange King and Queen jointly and for placing the Executive Power in the Prince alone WHereas the Grand Convention of the Estates of England have asserted the Peoples Right by declaring That the late King James the Second having endeavoâ—red to Subvert the Constitution of the Kingdom by breaking the Original Contract between King and People And by Advice of Iesuits and other wicked Persons having Violatâ—d the Fundamental Laws And having withdrawn himself out of this Kingdom has Abdicated the Government and that the Throne is thereby Vacaâ—t For which Misgovernment He has forfeited the Trust of the Regal Inheritance of the Executive Power both in Himself and in His Heirs Lineal and Collateral so that the same is devolved back to the People who have also the Legislative Authority and consequently may of Right Give and Dispose thereof by their Representatives for their future Peace Benefit Security and Government according to their good Will and Pleasure And forasmuch as it is absolutely Necessary that the Government be speedily setled on sure and lasting Foundations and consequently that such Person or Persons be immediately placed in the Throne in whom the Nation has most reason to repose an entire Confidence It therefore now lies upon Us to make so Judicious a Choice that we may in all Humane Probability thereby render Ourselves a Happy People and give Our Posterity cause to Rejoice when they shall read the Proceedings of this Wise and Grand Convention Who is it therefore that has so highly Merited the Love and good Opinion of the People the Honour of Wearing the Crown and Swaying the Scepter of this Land as His Illustrious Highness the Prince of Orange who with so great Expence Hazard Conduct Courage and Generosity has happily Rescued Us from Popery and Slavery and with so much Gallantry Restored Us to Our Ancient Rights Religion Laws Liberties and Properties for which Heroick Action we can do no less in Prudence Honour and Gratitude than Pray Him to Accept Our Crown II. It is better to settle the Exercise of the Government in One who is not immediate in the Line than in One that is 1. Because it is a clear Asserting of a Fundamental Right that manifests the Constitution of the English Government and covers the Subjects from Tyranny and Slavery 2. It cuts off the Dispute of the pretended Prince of Wales 3. The old Succession being legally Dissolved and a new one made the Government is secured from falling into the Hands of a Papist III. The making the Prince and Princess of Orange King and Queen jointly is the Nation 's Gratitude and Generosity and by re-continuing the Line in Remainder is manifested the inestimable Value the People have for the two Princesses notwithstanding the Male-administration of the Unhappy Father IV. The present State of Europe in General and of these Kingdoms in Particular require a Vigorous and Masculine Administration To recover what 's lost rescue what 's in danger and rectify what 's amiss cannot be effected but by a Prince that is consummate in the Art both of Peace and War. Tho the Prince and Princess be King and Queen jointly and will equally share the Glory of a Crown and we the Happiness of their Auspicious Regin yet the Wisdom of the Grand Convention is manifested First In placing the Executive Power in One of them and not in Both for two Persons equal in Authority may differ in Opinion and consequently in Command and it
into utter Despair of the Continuance amongst them of the true Religion of Almighty God and of her Majesties Life and of the Safety of all her Subjects and of the Good Estate of this flourishing Commonweale For that she the said Queen of Scots had continually breathed the Overthrow and Suppression of the Protestant Religion being poysoned with Popery from her tender Youth and at her Age joyning in that false termed Holy League and had been ever since and was then a powerful Enemy of the Truth For that she rested wholly upon Popish hopes to be delivered and advanced and was so devoted and doted in that Profession that she would as well for the satisfaction of others as for the feeding her own Humour supplant the Gospel where and whensoever she might which Evil was so much the greater and the more to be avoided for that it slayeth the Soul and would spread it self not only over England and Scotland but also into all Parts beyond the Sea where the Gospel of God is maintained the which cannot but be exceedingly weakned if Defection should be in these two most violent Kingdoms For that if she prevailed she would rather take the Subjects of England for Slaves than for Children For that she had already provided them a Foster-father and a Nurse the Pope and King of Spain into whose hands if it should happen them to fall what would they else look for but Ruin Destruction and utter Extirpation of Goods Lands Lives Honours and all For that as she had already by her poyson'd Baits brought to Destruction more Noble-men and their Houses and a greater multitude of Subjects during her being here than she would have done if she had been in Possession of her own Country and arm'd in the Field against them so would she be still continually the cause of the like spoil to the greater loss and peril of this Estate and therefore this Realm neither could nor might endure her For that her Sectaries both Wrote and Printed that the Protestants would be at their Wits end Worlds end if she should out-live Queen Elizabeth meaning thereby that the end of the Protestant World was the beginning of their own and therefore if she the said Queen of Scots were taken away their World would be at an end before its beginning For that since the sparing of her in the Fourteenth Year of Q. Elizabeths Reign Popish Traitors and Recusants had multiplied exceedingly And if she were now spared again they would grow both innumerable and invincible also And therefore Mercy in that case would prove Cruelty against them all Namâ—st quaedam crudelis mâ—sericordia and therefore to spare her Blood would be to spill all theirs And for God's Vengeance against Saul for sparing the life of Agag and against Ahab for sparing the life of Benhadad was moâ—t apparent for they were both by the just Judgment of God deprived of their Kingdoms for sparing those wicked Princes whom God had delivered into their Hands And those Magistrates were much conmmended who put to Death those mischeivous and wicked Queens Iezabel and Athaliah And now I would desire our Grumbletonians especially they of the Clergy to consider how extreamly they have degenerated from the good and laudable Principles of their Fore-fathers They may see how urgent the Bishops and others in Queen Elizabeth's days were to have the Queen of Scots removed as above said and how they encouraged the Queen to assist the Dutch against their Soveraign Lord when he attempted them in their Religion and Laws but now they that first opposed One that has broken the Original Contract between King and People and done horrid things contrary to the Laws of God Nature and the Land yet when God out of his merciful Providence and singular favour to us all has inclined him being sensible of his own Guilt to leave the Throne these Very Men that first withstood him as I said begin to pitty him plead for him and extol him and continually both in Pulpit for one of them lately said there That a parcel of Attoms could as soon make a World as a Convention make a King and also in Coffee-houses mutter and grumble against the Proceedings of the great and Honorable Convention of the Kingdom and are busy in sending out and privately scattering their puling Pamphlets under the Titles of Mementoes Speeches and Letters empty of ought else but the spleen of a foolish and frustrated Faction Good God! what inconstancy folly and madness possesses the Breasts of these Men to what a miserable slavery would they lead us and how fond and eager do they seem to have him rule over Us who like the Stork in the Fable has and would make it his greatest delight to devour the best of free-born Subjects But I hope that in a little time they will know the Things that belong to the Kingdom 's Peace and dutifully pray for tho at present there is no uniformity in their Pulpits save in the Dissenters and submit chearfully and thankfully to him whom God has made the Glorious Instrument of our Deliverance from Popery and Slavery God save King William and Queen Mary ADVERTISEMENT ☞ THere is lately published the Trial of Mr. PAPILLON by which it is manifest that the then Lord Chief Justice Iefferies had neither Learning Law nor good manners but more Impudence than ten Carted Whores as was said of him by King CHARLES II. in abusing all those worthy Citizens who voted for Mr. PAPILLON and Mr. DUBOIS calling them a parcel of Factious Pragmatical Sneaking Whining Canting Sniveling Prickear'd Cropear'd Atheistical Fellows Rascals and Scoundrels c. as in p. 29. and other places of the said Trial may be seen Sold by Richard Ianeway and most Booksellers FINIS A TENTH Collection of Papers Relating to the Present Juncture of Affairs in England VIZ. I. Reflections upon our late and present Proceedings II. Some short Notes on a Pamphlet entituled Reflections upon our late and present Proceedings III. The Scots Grievances or A short Account of the Proceedings of the Scotish privy-Privy-Council Justiciary Court and those commissioned by them c. IV. The late Honourable Convention proved a Legal Parliament V. The Amicable Reconciliation of the Dissenters to the Church of England being a Model or Draught for the Universal Accommodation in the Case of Religion and bringing in all Parties to her Communion London printed and are to be sold by Richard Ianeway in Queen's-head-Court in Pater-â—oster-Row 1689. Reflections upon our Late and Present Proceedings in England THO no Man wishes better to the Protestant Religion in general and the Church of England in particular than I do yet I cannot prevail with my self to approve all those Methods or follow all those Measures which some Men propose as the only Security both of the one and the other Never perhaps was there a more proper time wherein to secure our Religion together with our Civil Liberties than now offers it self if we have but the