by the just Sentence of God who thus puts him out of a Trust that he abused to the hurt of them for whose sakes it was given him And as to the people it cannot be a Conquest over them who are so far from having the War made against them that it was made chiefly for their sakes If there be any pretence of a Conquest it is only over them that were their Oppressors p. 66 67. An Answer to Mr. Ashton's Paper c. THE Matter in dispute is not whether Rightful Lawful Kings are to be obeyed but who in our present Circumstances is our Rightful Lawful Sovereign not whether Kings be not God's Vicegerents but whether God doth not sometimes confer the Right of Sovereignty by a Law superiour to the Laws of particular Countries that is by the Law of Nations which establisheth such a Right upon the success of a Just War not whether Sovereign Princes are not accountable only to God but whether Allegiance be not due where the Rights of Sovereignty are placed by an extraordinary Act of Providence and the concurrent Consent of the Nation p. 9 10. We must of necessity look back to the Occasions of this great Revolution And there were two principal Occasions of it First Great and violent Presumptions of an Injury to the Right of Succession Secondly Too great Evidences of a formed Design to subvert the Established Religion and Civil Liberties of the Nation Now there are two very material Questions which arise from hence First Whether these were the just Occasions of a War Secondly Whether upon the success of this War the Rights of Sovereignty were duly transferred If these were just Occasions of a War and upon the Success thereof the Sovereignty was duly transferred then there can be no Dispute left to whom our Allegiance is due It is taken for granted by all who understand these Matters That as there is a Law of Nature which determines the Rights and Properties of particular Nations and that all private Persons are bound to submit to the Municipal Laws of those Societies for their Peace and Security So there are other Laws which concern those Nations as they make up several independent Governments upon each other And there are several Rights which belong to them with respect to one another which do not belong to private Persons as they live in subjection to any particular Government And as there are such Rights so there must be a just and lawful way for reparation of Injuries In particular Governments the thing is plain by Established Laws and Courts of Judicature whose Sentence is executed by the Civil Power but in Separate Nations and Independent Governments although there be Laws by consent called the Law of Nations yet there is no common Judicature to determine of Right and Wrong and therefore in case of Injury there is an allowance for the injured Party by this Law of Nations to right himself by force as there would be to every particular Person if there were no Laws nor Power to see them executed There is then a Right in every Sovereign and Independent Prince to exercise Force against another Prince who detains any Right from him or doth any Injury to him or to those he is bound to defend The Question then comes to the Just Occasions of such a War and here are two assigned First Great and violent Presumptions of an Injury to the Right of Succession This is expresly mentioned and insisted on in the Declaration of the then Prince of Orange our present King p. 9 10 11. There have been many Instances in History of suborned and suppositious Princes and therefore there was reason that sufficient Evidence should be given in a Case of such Importance and which was under so great Suspicion But if there was no reasonable care taken to prevent or remove these Suspicious then the Parties most concerned have a right to assert their own Pretensions in such a way as the Law of Nations doth allow And in this Case no private Depositions or confident Affirmations of such as are Dependents or otherwise liable to Suspicion can in reason be taken for satisfactory Evidence p. 13. Secondly There was a further Just Occasion for that Expedition which was the Design to subvert our Religion and Civil Liberties As to the Particulars they are fully set down in the Declaration and need not to be repeated That which I am to make out is That the then Prince of Orange by his Relation to the Crown had a just Right to concern himself in the Vindication of both and that this is not repugnant to the Doctrines and Principles of the Church of England It was not thought disagreeable to them for Queen Elizabeth to assist the Dutch against the King of Spain yet she had no such reason for it as our King and Queen had to prevent the suppression of their own Religion here and the Rights of that people to whom they were so nearly related p. 15. In the beginning of the Reign of King Charles the First when I suppose it will be granted ☜ That the Doctrines and Principles of the Church of England were understood and followed the King of Denmark had taken up Arms to settle the Peace and liberty of Germany as he declared But he met with a great Defeat Whereupon King Charles the First thought himself concerned to give Assistance to him And Archbishop Laud was then employed as Dr. Heylin confesseth by the King's Command to draw up a Declaration to be published in all the Parishes of England which was read by the King and approved by the Council wherein the Greatness of the Danger they were in is set forth and the People are exhorted to serve God and the King and to labour by their Prayers to divert the Danger Wherein lay this Danger It is there said to be That by the Defeat of the King of Denmark there was little or nothing left to hinder the House of Austria from being Lord and Master of Germany And what then Why then there will be an open way for Spain to do what they pleased in all the West Part of Christendom It seems then it was not thought disagreeable to the Principles and Doctrines of our Church to hinder the growth of a Western Monarchy although it be by assisting Subjects against their Princes who promote it p. 17. But yet here is another Difficulty ariseth concerning the transferring Allegiance from a Lawful Prince to him that met with unexpected Success in his Design And here I shall endeavour to make it plain That this is not against the Doctrines and Principles of the Church of England p. 20. The Articles of our Church declare That the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm doth appertain to the Civil Magistrate But they no-where say That in a Just war the Superior Power cannot be acquired or that God doth never confer it in an extraordinary method The Book of Homilies is very severe against
of the Judges and procured such of them as could not in Conscience concur in so pernicious a Sentence to be turned out and others to be substituted in their rooms till by the Changes which were made in the Courts of Judicature they at last obtained that Judgment And they have raised some to those Trusts who make open profession of the Popish Religion tho those are by Law rendred incapable of all such Employments 6. It is also manifest and notorious That as his Majesty was upon his coming to the Crown received and acknowledged by all the Subjects of England Scotland and Ireland as their King without the least Opposition tho he made then open Profession of the Popish Religion so he did then promise and solemnly swear at his Coronation That he would maintain his Subjects in the free Enjoyment of their Laws and Liberties and in particular That he would maintain the Church of England as it was Established by Law It is likewise certain That there have been at divers and sundry times several Laws enacted for the Preservation of those enacted for the Preservation of those Rights and Liberties and of the Protestant Religion and among other Securities it has been enacted That all Persons whatsoever that are advanced to any Ecclesiastical Dignity or to bear Office in either University as likewise all other that should be put in any Employment Civil or Military should declare that they were not Papists but were of the Protestant Religion and that by their taking of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Test yet these Evil Counsellors have in effect annulled and abolished all those Laws both with relation to Ecclesiastical and Civil Employments 7. In order to Ecclesiastical Dignities and Offices they have not only without any colour of Law but against most express Laws to the contrary set up a Commission of a certain number of persons to whom they have committed the Cognizance and Direction of all Ecclesiastical matters in the which Commission there has been and still is one of his Majesties Ministers of State who makes now publick profession of the Popish Religion and who at the time of his first professing it declared That for a great while before he had believed that to be the only true Religion By all this the deplorable State to which the Protestant Religion is reduced is apparent since the Affairs of the Church of England are now put into the hands of persons who have accepted of a Commission that is manifestly illegal and who have executed it contrary to all Law and that now one of their chief Members has abjured the Protestant Religion and declared himself a Papist by which he is become uncapable of holding any publick Employment The said Commissioners have hitherto given such proof of their Submission to the Directions given them that there is no reason to doubt but they will still continue to promote all such designs as will be most agreeable to them And those Evil Counsellors take care to raise none to any Ecclesiastical Dignities but persons that have no Zeal for the Protestant Religion and that now hide their unconcernedness for it under the specious pretence of Moderation The said Commissioners have suspended the Bishop of London only because he refused to obey an Order that was sent him to suspend a worthy Divine without so much as citing him before him to make his own Defence or observing the common forms of Process They have turned out a President chosen by the Fellows of Magdalen-College and afterwards all the Fellows of that College without so much as citing them before any Court that could take legal Cognizance of that Affair or obtaining any Sentence against them by a competent Judge And the only reason that was given for turning them out was their refusing to chuse for their President a person that was recommended to them by the Instigation of those Evil Counsellors tho the Right of a Free Election belong'd undoubtedly to them But they were turned out of their Free-holds contrary to Law and to that express provision in the Magna Charta That no man shall lose Life or Goods but by the Law of the Land And now these Evil Counsellors have put the said College wholly into the hands of Papists tho as is abovesaid they are incapable of all such Employments both by the Law of the Land and the Statutes of the College These Commissioners have also cited before them all the Chancellors and Archdeacons of England requiring them to certifie to them the Names of all such Clergy-men as have read the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and of such as have not read it without considering that the reading of it was not enjoyned the Clergy by the Bishops who are their Ordinaries The Illegality and Incompetency of the said Court of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners was so notoriously known and it did so evidently appear that it tended to the Subversion of the Protestant Religion that the most Reverend Father in God William Archbishop of Canterbury Primate and Metropolitan of all England seeing that it was raised for no other end but to oppress such persons as were of eminent Virtue Learning and Piety refused to sit or to concur in it 8. And tho there are many express Laws against all Churches or Chappels for the exercise of the Popish Religion and also against all Monasteries and Convents and more particularly against the Order of the Jesuits yet those Evil Counsellors have procured orders for the building of several Churches and Chappels for the excrcise of that Religion They have also procured divers Monasteries to be erected and in contempt of the Law they have not only set up several Colleges of Jesuits in divers places for the corrupting of the Youth but have raised up one of the Order to be a Privy-Counsellor and a Minister of State By all which they do evidently shew That they are restrained by no rules of Law whatsoever but that they have subjected the Honours and Estates of the Subjects and the Establish'd Religion to a Despotick Power and to Arbitrary Government In all which they are served and seconded by those Ecclesiastical Commissioners 9. They have also followed the same Methods with relation to Civil Affairs for they have procured orders to examine all Lords Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants Sheriffs Justices of Peace and all others that were in any publick Employment if they would concur with the King in the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws and all such whose Consciences did not suffer them to comply with their designs were turned out and others were put in their places who they believed would be more compliant to them in their Designs of defeating the Intent and Execution of those Laws which had been made with so much care and caution for the security of the Protestant Religion And in many of these places they have put profess'd Papists tho the Law has disabled them and warranted the Subjects not to have
the hazard of losing both the Favour of the Court and their employments and since the English Nation has ever testified a most particular Affection and Esteem both to our Dearest Consort the Princess and to Our selves We cannot excuse our selves from Espousing their Interests in a Matter of such high Consequence and from contributing all that lies in us for the maintaining both of the protestant Religion and of the Laws and Liberties of those Kingdoms and for the Securing to them the continual enjoyment of all their just Rights To the doing of which We are most earnestly solicited by a great many Lords both Spiritual and Temporal and by many Gentlemen and other Subjects of all Ranks 21. Therefore it is that We have thought fit to go over to England and to carry over with us a Force sufficient by the Blessing of God to defend us from the Violence of those Evil Counsellors And We being desirous that our Intentions in this may be rightly understood have for this end prepared this Declaration in which as we have hitherto given a True Account of the Reasons inducing us to it so we now think fit to declare That this our Expedition is intended for no other design but to have a Free and Lawful Parliament Assembled as soon as is possible And that in order to this all the late Charters by which the Elections of Burgesses are limited contrary to the Ancient Custom shall be considered as null and of no force And likewise all Magistrates who have been unjustly turned out shall forthwith resurne their former employments as well as all the Burroughs of England shall return again to their Ancient prescriptions and Charters and more particularly that the Ancient Charter of the Great and Famous City of London shall again be in force And that the Writs for the Members of parliament shall be addressed to the proper Officers according to Law and Custome That also none be suffered to chuse or to be chosen Members of Parliament but such as are qualified by Law And that the Members of Parliament being thus lawfully Chosen they shall meet and sit in full Freedom that so the two Houses may concur in the preparing of such Laws as they upon full and free Debate shall judge necessary and convenient both for the confirming and executing the Law concerning the Test and such other Laws as are necessary for the security and maintenance of the Protestant Religion as likewise for making such Laws as may establish a good agreement between the Church of England and all Protestant Dissenters as also for the covering and securing of all such who will live peaceably under the Government as becomes good Subject from all persecution upon the account of their Religion even Papists themselves not excepted and for the doing of all other things which the Two Houses of Parliament shall find necessary for the Peace Honour and Safety of the Nation so that there may be no more danger of the Nations falling at any time hereafter under Arbitrary Government To this Parliament we will also refer the Enquiry into the Birth of the pretended Prince of Wales and of all things relating to it and to the Right of Succession 22. And We for our part will concur in every thing that may procure the Peace and Happiness of the Nation which a Free and Lawful Parliament shall determine since we have nothing before our Eyes in this our undertaking but the preservation of the Protestant Religion the Covering of all men from persecution for their Consciences and the securing to the whole Nation the free enjoyment of all their Laws Rights and Liberties under a Just and Legal Government 23. This is the Design that we have proposed to our selves in appearing upon this occasion in Arms In the Conduct of which We will keep the Forces under our Command under all the strictness of Martial Discipline and take a special care that the people of the Countries through which we must March shall not suffer by their means and as soon as the state of the Nation will admit of it We promise that we will send back all those Foreign Forces that We have brought along with us 24. We do therefore hope that all people will judge rightly of us and approve of these our proceedings But We chiefly rely on the Blessing of God for the Success of this our Undertaking in which We place our whole and only Confidence 25. We do in the last place invite and require all persons whatsoever all the Peers of the Realm both Spiritual and Temporal all Lords Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants and all Gentlemen Citizens and other Commons of all ranks to come and assist us in order to the Executing of this our Design against all such as shall endeavour to Oppose us that so we may prevent all those Miseries which must needs follow upon the Nations being kept under Arbitrary Government and Slavery And that the Violences and Disorders which have overturned the whole Constitution of the English Government may be fully redressed in a Free and Legal Parliament 26. And we do likewise resolve that as soon as the Nations are brought to a state of Quiet We will take care that a Parliament shall be called in Scotland for the restoring the Ancient Constitution of that Kingdom and for bringing the Matters of Religion to such a Settlement that the people may live easie and happy and for putting an end to all the unjust Violences that have been in a course of so many years committed there We will also study to bring the Kingdom of Ireland to such a state that the Settlement there may be religiously observed and that the Protestant and British Interest there may be secured And we will endeavour by all possible means to procure such an Establishment in all the Three Kingdoms that they may all live in a happy Union and Correspondence together and that the Protestant Religion and the Peace Honour and Happiness of those Nations may be established upon lasting Foundations Given under our Hand and Seal at our Court in the Hague the Tenth day of October in the year of our Lord 1688. William Henry Prince of Orange By his Highness special Command C. Huygens The King having received advice that the preparations in Holland were designed for England cast about how to prevent the Peoples running to joyn with the Prince In order to which he was advised to appease them by seeming to step backward and undo some things that he knew had given a general distaste against his Government Hereupon the Ecclesiastical Commission was taken away the Bishop of London and the Master and Fellows of Magdalen-College restored as likewise the Ancient Charters of Cities and Boroughs and a Free Parliament promised to be called when the Kingdom should be freed from a Foreign Force This occasioned the Prince to publish his Additional Declaration His Highness's additional Declaration c. AFter we had Prepared and Printed this our Declartion
that Door And whereas the Parliament that is now in being recognized Their Present Majesties to be Rightful and Lawful King and Queen of this Realm according to the Laws of the same They ought to have acknowledged him King as being set up by God who is not bound by Humane Laws and the Queen as set up by God-knows who who is not bound by Humane Laws neither and at the same time to have own'd that this Providence of God in setting up the King and this Providence of God-knows-who in setting up the Queen does not take away the Legal Right of the Late King but that he having a Legal Right may assert and vindicate it in opposition to the Providence of God and the Providence of God-knows-who and that all who are not under any obligation to Their Present Majesties may lawfully assist him in order to the recovery of this Legal Right Tho we who are under an obligation to Their Present Majesties are bound to obey them by reason of the Events of the Providence of God and of the Providence of God-knows-who Other Instances of this kind might be added and it were a very easie matter to word some parts of the then Prince's Declaration the Votes of Parliament the Instrument of Government and some few Laws made since the Settlement as they ought to and would have been worded if the Prince the Two Houses and the People of England had proceded upon these Gentlemens Principles But that I forbear because it would seem scurrilous I leave it to be the result of comparing the two Columes of these ensuing Papers In short here 's the Sense of the Legislative Body of the Realm and of the People of England set Cheek by Jowle with the Sense of a few Gentlemen of the Sacred Order who would persuade us that our Government is drop'd out of the Skies like the Image that fell down from Jupiter or as the Egyptian Priests persuaded Alexander the Great that he was the Son of their God being convinced of it themselves I suppose by the Events of Providence and his Success in a War Just or Vnjust God's Ways of Disposing of Kingdoms AND Some Clergy-mens Ways of Disposing of Them THE Measures that were taken in the late King's Reign for the introducing of Popery and Arbitrary Power were so open and undisguised That the most purblind amongst us could not but see them and all Protestants that is the whole Body of the People were uneasie under their then present Circumstances and dreadfully apprehensive of their future Instead of enumerating the several Illegal Practices then on foot to subvert the Establish'd Religion and Government I shall insert verbatim the Declaration of his present Majesty then Prince of Orange which gives a true and lively Scheme of the Condition of the People of England under King James his Government and grounds the Lawfulness and Justice of his Arms who had so near a concern in the Succession upon the Obligation he was under for his Princess's his Own and the Nation 's Interest to interpose in order to their deliverance God's Ways of Disposing of Kingdoms The Declaration of his Highness William Henry by the Grace of God Prince of Orange c. of the Reasons inducing him to appear in Arms in the Kingdom of England for preserving of the Protestant Religion and for restoring the Laws and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland 1. IT is both certain and evident to all men That the Publick Peace and Happiness of any State or Kingdom cannot be preserved where the Laws Liberties and Customs established by the lawful Authority in it are openly transgressed and annulled More especially where the Alteration of Religion is endeavoured and that a Religion which is contrary to Law is endeavoured to be introduced Upon which those who are most immediately concerned in it are indispensably bound to endeavour to preserve and maintain the Established Laws Liberties and Customs and above all the Religion and Worship of God that is established among them and to take such an effectual care that the Inhabitants of the said State or Kingdom may neither be deprived of their Religion nor of their Civil Rights which is so much the more necessary because the Greatness and Security both of Kings Royal Families and of all such as are in Authority as well as the Happiness of their Subjects and People depend in a most especial manner upon the exact Observation and Maintenance of these their Laws Liberties and Customs 2. Upon these grounds it is that we cannot any longer forbear to declare That to our great Regret we see that those Counsellors who have now the chief Credit with the King have overturned the Religion Laws and Liberties of those Realms and subjected them in all things relating to their Consciences Liberties and Properties to Arbitrary Government and that not only by secret and indirect ways but in an open and undisguised manner 3. Those Evil Counsellors for the advancing and colouring this with some plausible pretexts did invent and set on foot the King 's Dispensing Power by Virtue of which they pretend that according to Law he can suspend and dispense with the Execution of the Laws that have been enacted by the Authority of the King and Parliament for the Security and Happiness of the Subject and so have rendred those laws of no effect tho there is nothing more certain than that as no Laws can be made but by the joynt concurrence of King and Parliament so likewise Laws so enacted which secure the Publick Peace and Safety of the nation and the Lives and Liberties of every Subject in it cannot be Repealed or Suspended but by the same Authority 4. for tho the King may pardon the Punishment that a Transgressor has incurred and to which he is condemned as in the Cases of Treason or Felony yet it cannot be with any colour of Reason inferred from thence That the King can entirely suspend the Execution of those Laws relating to Treason or Felony unless it is pretended that he is clothed with a Despotick and Arbitrary Power and that the Lives Liberties Honours and Estates of the Subjects depend wholly on his good Will and Pleasure and are intirely subject to him which must infallibly follow on the King 's having a power to suspend the Execution of the Laws and to dispence with them 5. those Evil Counsellors in order to the giving some Credit to this strange and execrable Maxim have so conducted the Matter that they have obtained a Sentence from the Judges declaring That this Dispensing Power is a Right belonging to the Crown as if it were in the power of the Twelve Judges to offer up the Laws Rights and Liberties of the whole Nation to the King to be disposed of by him Arbitrarily and at his Pleasure and expresly contrary to Laws enacted for the Security of the Subjects In order to the obtaining this Judgment those Evil Counsellors did before-hand examine secretly the Opinion
any regard to their Orders 10. They have also invaded the Privileges and seized on the Charters of most of those Towns that have a right to be represented by their Burgesses in Parliament and have procured Surrenders to be made of them by which the Magistrates in them have delivered up all their Rights and Privileges to be disposed of at the pleasure of those Evil Counsellors who have thereupon placed new Magistrates in those Towns such as they can most entirely confide in and in many of them they have put Popish Magistrates notwithstanding the Incapacities under which the Law hath put them 11. And whereas no Nation whatsoever can subsist without the administration of good and impartial Justice upon which mens Lives Liberties Honours and Estates do depend those Evils Counsellors have subjected these to an Arbitrary and Despotick Power In the most important Affairs they have studied to discover before-hand the Opinions of the Judges and have turned out such as they found would not conform themselves to their Intentions and have put others in their places of whom they were more assured without having any regard to their Abilities And they have not stuck to raise even professed Papists to the Courts of Judicature notwithstanding their Incapacity by Law and that no regard is due to any Sentences flowing from them They have carried this so far as to deprive such Judges who in the common administration of Justice shewed that they were governed by their Consciences and not by the Directions which the others gave them By which it is apparent that they design to render themselves the absolute Masters of the Lives Honours and Estates of the Subjects of what rank or dignity soever they may be and that without having any regard either to the Equity of the Cause or to the Consciences of the Judges whom they will have to submit in all things to their own Will and Pleasure hoping by such ways to intimidate those who are yet in Employment as also such others as they shall think fit to put in the rooms of those whom they have turned out and to make them see what they must look for if they should at any time act in the least contrary to their good-liking and that no failings of that kind are pardoned in any Persons whatsoever A great deal of Blood has been shed in many places of the Kingdom by Judges governed by those Evil Counsellors against all the Rules and Forms of Law without so much as suffering the Persons that were accused to plead in their own Defence 12. They have also by putting the Administration of Justice in the hands of Papists brought all the Matters of Civil Justice into great uncertainties with how much Exactness and Justice soever that these Sentences may have been given For since the Laws of the Land do not only exclude Papists from all Places of Judicature but have put them under an Incapacity none are bound to acknowledge or to obey their Judgments and all Sentences given by them are null and void of themselves So that all Persons who have been cast in Tryals before such Popish Judges may justly look on their pretended Sentences as having no more force than the Sentences of any private and unauthorised Person whatsoever So deplorable is the Case of the Subjects who are obliged to answer to such Judges that must in all things stick to the Rules which are set them by those Evil Counsellors who as they raise them up to those Employments so can turn them out of them at pleasure and who can never be esteemed Lawful Judges so that all their Sentences are in the Construction of the Law of no Force and Efficacy They have likewise disposed of all Military Employments in the same manner For tho the Laws have not only excluded Papists from all such Employments but have in particular provided that they should be disarmed yet they in contempt of these Laws have not only armed the Papists but have likewise raised them up to the greatest Military Trust both by Sea and Land and that Strangers as well as Natives and Irish as well as English that so by those means having rendred themselves Masters both of the Affairs of the Church of the Government of the Nation and of the Courts of Justice and subjected them all to a Despotick and Arbitrary Power they might be in a capacity to maintain and execute their wicked Designs by the assistance of the Army and thereby to enslave the Nation 13. The dismal effects of this Subversion of the Established Religion Laws and Liberties in England appear more evidently to us by what we see done in Ireland where the whole Government is put in the Hands of Papists where all the Protestant Inhabitants are under the daily fears of what may be justly apprehended from the Arbitrary Power which is set up there which has made great numbers of them leave that Kingdom and abandon their Estates in it remembring well that Cruel and Bloody Massacre which fell out in that Island in the Year 1641. 14. Those Evil Counsellors have also prevailed with the King to declare in Scotland That he is cloathed with Absolute Power and that all the Subjects are bound to obey him without reserve upon which he has assumed an Arbitrary Power both over the Religion and Laws of that Kingdom from all which it is apparent what is to be looked for in England as soon as matters are duly prepared for it 15. Those great and insufferable Oppressions and the open Contempt of all Law together with the Apprehensions of the sad Consequences that must certainly follow upon it have put the Subjects under great and just Fears and have made them look after such lawful Remedies as are allowed of in all Nations yet all has been without effect And those Evil Counsellors have endeavoured to make all Men apprehend the loss of their Lives Liberties Honours and Estates if they should go about to preserve themselves from this Oppression by Petition Representations or other means authorised by Law Thus did they proceed with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other Bishops who having offered a most humble Petition to the King in terms full of Respect and not exceeding the number limited by Law in which they set forth in short the Reasons for which they could not obey that Order which by the Instigation of those Evil Counsellors was sent them requiring them to appoint their Clergy to read in their Churches the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience were sent to prison and afterwards brought to a Tryal as if they had been guilty of some enormous Crime They were not only obliged to defend themselves in that pursuit but to appear before professed Papists who had not taken the Test and by consequence were Men whose Interest led them to condemn them and the Judges that gave their Opinion in their favours were thereupon turned out 16. And yet it cannot be pretended that any Kings how great
soever their Power has been and how Arbitrary and Despotick soever they have been in the exercise of it have ever reckoned it a Crime for their Subjects to come in all Submission and Respect and in a due number not exceeding the limits of the Law and represent to them the Reasons that made it impossible for them to obey their Orders Those Evil Counsellors have also treated a Peer of the Realm as a Criminal only because he said That the Subjects were not bound to obey the Orders of a Popish Justice of Peace though it is evident that they being by Law rendred incapable of all such Trusts no regard is due to their Order This being the security which the People have by the Law for their Lives Liberties Honours and Estates That they are not to be subjected to the Arbitrary Proceedings of Papists that are contrary to Law put into any Employment Civil or Military 17. Both We our selves and our Dearest and most Entirely Beloved Consort the Princess have endeavoured to signify in terms full of respect to the King the just and deep Regret which all these Proceedings have given us and in Compliance with his Majesty's De\sires signified to us We declared both by Word of Mouth to his Envoy and in Writing what our Thoughts were touching the Repealing of the Test and Penal Laws which we did in such a manner that we hoped we had proposed an Expedient by which the Peace of those Kingdoms and a happy Agreement among the Subjects of all Persuasions might have been setled but those Evil Counsellors have put such ill Constructions on these our good Intentions that they have endeavoured to alienate the King more and more from us as if We had designed to disturb the Quiet and Happiness of the Kingdom 18. The last and great Remedy for all those Evils is the calling of a Parliament for securing the Nation against the evil Practices of those wicked Counsellors But this could not be yet compassed nor can it be easily brought about For those Men apprehending that a Lawful Parliament being once assembled they would be brought to an account for all their open Violations of Law and for their Plots and Conspiracies against the Protestant Religion and the Lives and Liberties of the Subject they have endeavoured under the specious Pretence of Liberty of Conscience first to sow Divisions among Protestants between those of the Church of England and the Dissenters The design being laid to engage Protestants that are ail equally concerned to preserve themselves from Popish Oppression into mutual Quarrellings that so by these some Advantages might be given to them to bring about their Designs and that both in the Election of the Members of Parliament and afterwards in the Parliament it self For they see well that if all Protestants could enter into a mutual good understanding one with another and concur together in the preserving of their Religion it would not be possible for them to compass their wicked Ends. They have also required all Persons in the several Counties of England that either were in any Employment or were in any considerable Esteem to declare before-hand that they would concur in the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws and that they would give their Voices in the Elections to Parliament only for such as would concur in it such as would not thus preingage themselves were turned out of all Employments And others who entred into those Engagements were put into their places many of them being Papists And contrary to the Charters and Privileges of those Burroughs that have a Right to send Burgesses to Parliament they have ordered such Regulations to be made as they thought fit and necessary for assuring themselves of all the Members that are to be chosen by those Corporations and by this means they hope to avoid that Punishment which they have deserved tho it is apparent that all Acts made by Popish Magistrates are null and void of themselves So that no Parliament can be Lawful for which the Elections and Returns are made by Popish Sheriffs and Mayors of Towns and therefore as long as the Authority and Magistracy is in such hands it is not possible to have any Lawful Parliament And tho according to the Constitution of the English Government and Immemorial Custom all Elections of Parliament-men ought to be made with an entire Liberty without any sort of Force or the requiring the electors to chuse such Persons as shall be named to them and the Persons thus freely elected ought to give their Opinions freely upon all Matters that are brought before them having the good of the Nation ever before their eyes and following in all things the Dictates of their Conscience yet now the People of England cannot expect a Remedy from a Free Parliament legally called and chosen But they may perhaps see one called in which all Elections will be carried by Fraud or Force and which will be composed of such Persons of whom those Evil Counsellors hold themselves well assured in which all things will be carried on according to their Direction and Interest without any regard to the Good or Happiness of the Nation which may appear evidently from this that the same Persons tried the Members of the last Parliament to gain them to Consent to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws and procured that Parliament to be dissolved when they found that they could not neither by Promises nor Threatnings prevail with the Members to comply with their wicked Designs 19. But to Crown all there are great and violent Presumptions inducing us to believe that those Evil Counsellors in order to the carrying on of their ill Designs and to the gaining to themselves the more time for the effecting of them for the encouraging of their Complices and for the discouraging of all good Subjects have published That the Queen hath brought forth a Son though there have appeared both during the Queen's pretended bigness and in the manner in which the Birth was managed so many just and visible grounds of Suspicion that not only we our selves but all the good Subjects of those Kingdoms do vehemently suspect that the pretended Prince of Wales was not born by the Queen And it is notoriously known to all the World that many both doubted of the Queen's Bigness and of the birth of the Child and yet there was not any one thing done to satisfie them or to put an end to their Doubts 20. And since our Dearest and most Entirely beloved Consort the Princess and likewise We Our Selves have so great an Interest in this Matter and such a Right as all the World knows to the Succession to the Crown Since also the English did in the Year 1672. when the States General of the Vnited Provinces were invaded in a most unjust War use their utmost endeavours to put an end to that War and that in opposition to those who were then in the Government and by their so doing they ran
We have understood that the Subverters of the Religion and Laws of those Kingdoms hearing of Our Preparations to assist the People against them have begun to retract some of the Arbitrary and Despotick Powers that they had assumed and to vacate some of their Injust Judgments and Decrees The sense of their Guilt and the distrust of their Force have induced them to offer to the City of London some seeming Relief from their great Oppressions hoping thereby to quiet the People and to divert them from demanding a Re-establishment of their Religion and Laws under the shelter of our Arms They do also give out That we do intend to Conquer and Enslave the Nation and therefore it is that we have thought fit to add a few words to our Declaration We are confident that no Persons can have such hard thoughts of us As to imagine that we have any other Design in this Undertaking than to procure a Settlement of the Religion and of the Liberties and Properties of the Subjects upon so sure a Foundation that there may be no danger of the Nations relapsing into the like Miseries at any time hereafter And as the Forces that we have brought along with us are utterly disproportioned to that wicked Design of Conquering the Nation if we were capable of Intending it so the great numbers of the Principal Nobility and Gentry that are Men of Eminent Quality and Estates and Persons of known Integrity and Zeal both for the Religion and Government of England many of them being also distinguished by their constant Fidelity to the Crown who do both accompany us in this Expedition and have earnestly solicited us to it will cover us from all such malicious Insinuations For it is not to be imagin'd that either those who have Invited us or those that are already come to Assist us can join in a wicked attempt of Conquest to make void their own lawful Titles to their Honours Estates and Interests We are also confident that all Men see how little weight there is to be laid on all Promises and Engagements that can be now made since there has been so little regard had in the time past to the most solemn Promises And as that imperfect Redress that is now offered is a plain Confession of those Violations of the Government that we have set forth so the Defectiveness of it is no less apparent For they lay down nothing which they may not take up at pleasure and they reserve entire and not so much as mentioned their Claims and Pretences to an Arbitrary and Despotick Power which has been the Root of all their Oppression and of the total Subversion of the Government And it is plain that there can be no Redress nor Remedy offered but in Parliament by a Declaration of the Rights of the Subjects that have been invaded and not by any pretended Acts of Grace to which the extremity of their Affairs has driven them Therefore it is that we have thought fit to declare That we will refer all to a Free Assembly of the Nation in a Lawful Parliament Given under our Hand and Seal at our Court in the Hague the Twenty fourth day of October in the year of our Lord 1688. William Henry Prince of Orange By his Highness's special Command C. Huygens Pursuant to the Peoples Invitation and to carry on the ends os the foregoing Declaration the Prince set Sail from Holland with betwixt Four and Five Hundred Capital Ships Fire-Ships Pinks and Tenders And upon the Fifth of November landed in Torbay in Devonshire The people in great Numbers welcom'd his Highness with loud Acclamations of Joy His Army consisted of about 15000 Horse and Foot After the Army was landed and the Prince come to Exeter the Gentry from all parts of Devonshire Somersetshire c. flock'd to him in great numbers few absenting themselves Several of the Nobility came to him likewise whilst in and about Exeter others afterwards when he was farther advanced towards London Before his Roayl Highness left Exeter there was an Association drawn up and signed by all the Lords and Gentlemen that were with him in these words viz. WE whose Names are hereunto subscribed who have now joyned with the Prince of Orange for the defence of the Protestant Religion and for the maintaining the Ancient Government and the Laws and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland do engage to Almighty God to his Highness the Prince of Orange and to 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 engaged in this common Cause under the Protection of the Prince of Orange by which in case his Person may be exposed to danger and to the cursed attempts of Papists and other bloody men we do therefore solemnly engage to God and one another That if any such attempt be made upon him we will pursue not only those who make it but all their Adherents and all that we find in Arms against us with the utmost severity of a just Revenge to their Ruin and Destruction And that the execution of any such Attempt which God of his Infinite Mercy forbid shall not divert us from prosecuting this Cause which we do now undertake but that it shall engage us to carry it on with all the rigor that so barbarous a Practice shall deserve About this time a Printed Letter was dispersed amongst the Army directed to the Officers and inviting them to join with the Prince in the Deliverance of their Countrey Gentlemen and Friends WE have given you so full and so true an Account of our Intentions in this Expedition in our Declaration that as we can add nothing to it so we are sure you can desire nothing more of us We are come to preserve your Religion and to restore and establish your Liberties and Properties and therefore we cannot suffer our selves to doubt but that all true English-men will come and concur with us in our desire to secure these Nations from Popery and Slavery You must all plainly see that you are only made use of as Instruments to enslave the Nation and ruin the Protestant Religion and when that is done you may judge what you your selves ought to expect both from the Cashiering all the Protestant and English Officers and Soldiers in Ireland and by the Irish Soldiers being brought over to be put in your places and of which you have seen so fresh an Instance that we need not put you in mind of it You know how many of your Fellow-Officers have been used for their standing firm to the Protestant Religion and to the Laws of England and you cannot flatter your selves so far as to expect to be better used if those who have broke their Word so often should by
your means be brought out of those straights to which they are at present reduced We hope likewise that ye will not suffer your selves to be abused by a false Notion of Honour but that you will in the first place consider what you owe to Almighty God and your Religion to your Countrey to your Selves and to your Posterity which you as Men of Honour ought to prefer to all private Considerations and Engagements whatsoever We do therefore expect that you will consider the Honour that is now set before you of being the Instruments of serving your Countrey and securing your Religion and we shall ever remember the Service you shall do Us upon this occasion and will promise you That we shall place such particular Marks of our Favour on every one of you as your Behaviour at this time shall deserve of Us and the Nation in which we shall make a great distinction of those that shall come seasonably to joyn their Arms with Ours and you shall find Us to be your well-wishing and assured Friend W. H. P. O. And another to all the Officers and Seamen in the English Fleet. Gentlemen and Friends AS We have given to our Faithful and Well-beloved Admiral Herbert a full power so we hope that you will give him an intire credit as to all he shall say to you on our part We have published a Declaration which contains the Reasons which moved Us to enter upon this Expedition in which you will see We had no other design than the preservation of the Protestant Religion and the re-establishment of the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom of England because it is evident that the Papists have resolved the intire ruin of Our Religion in Great Britain as it is effected already in France And to you it is only to be imputed if they are Masters We are persuaded that you already perceive that you are made use of only as an Instrument for the bringing your selves and your Countrey under the yoke of the Papacy and into Slavery by the means of the Irish and other Foreigners who are prepared to finish your Destruction And therefore we hope God will inspire you with more salutary thoughts for the facilitating your Deliverance and for the delivering you from all your Miseries with your Countrey and Religion And this is in all appearance impossible without your joyning with us and assisting us who seek nothing but your Deliverance And we also assure you That we wlll never forget the Services which you shall do us on this occasion and we promise to give every one particular marks of our favour who shall deserve it of us and the Nation We are sincerely your very affectionate Friend W. H. P. O. These Letters were spread underhand over the whole Kingdom and read by all sorts of men and the reason of them being undeniable it had a great force on the Spirits of the Soldiery and Seamen so that those who did not presently comply with them yet resolved they would never strike one stroke in the quarrel till they had a Parliament to secure the Religion Laws and Liberties of England which the Court on the other side had resolved should not be called till the Prince of Orange with his Army were expelled out of the Nation and all those who had submitted to him were reduced into their power to be treated as they thought fit The particulars of the Prince's March to London where he arrived on the 18th of December and the very few Skirmishes that hapned betwixt some of his and the King's Soldiers being inconsiderable shall not be recounted But betwixt his Landing and coming to Town 1. The Lord Delamere assembled Fifty Horsemen and at the head of them marched to Manchester and the next day to Boden-Downs being then a Hundred and fifty strong declaring his design to join with the Prince of Orange which he did 2. On the 22d day of November the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty at Nottingham made this Declaration WE the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of these Northern Counties assembled at Nottingham for the defence of the Laws Religion and Properties according to the free-born Liberties and Privileges 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 has been of late too apparent First By the King's dispensing with all the Established 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 incapable by the Estastlished Laws of this Land 3. By destroying the Charters of most Corporations in the land 4. By discouraging all persons that are not Papists and 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 merely 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 and by discountenancing the Established Religion 8. By forbidding 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 Tyrannical Government that is by the influence of Jesuitical Councils 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 do 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 Insolences and Usurpations For we assure our selves that no rational and unbiass'd Person will judge it Rebellion to defend our Laws and Religion which all our Princes have sworn at their Coronation which Oath how well it hath been observed of late we desire a Free Parliament may have
Religion Laws and Liberties might not again be in danger of being subverted upon which Letters Elections have been accordingly made And thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons pursuant to their Respective Letters and Elections being now Assembled in a full and Free Representative of this Nation taking into their most serious consideration the best means for attaining the Ends aforesaid do in the first place as their Ancestors in like case have usually done for the vindicating and asserting their Ancient Rights and Liberties declare That the pretended Power of suspending of Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority without consent of Parliament is illegal That the pretended Power of Dispensing with Laws or the execution of Laws by Regal Authority as it hath been assumed and exercised of late is illegal That the Commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes and all other Commissions and Courts of the like nature are illegal and pernicious That Levying of Money to or for the use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative without Grant of Parliament for longer time or in other manner than the same is or shall be Granted is illegal That it is the Right of the Subjects to Petition the King and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning are illegal That the raising or keeping a standing Army within the Kingdom in time of Peace unless it be by consent of Parliament is against Law That the Subjects being Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their condition and as allowed by Law That the Election of Members of Parliament ought to be Free That the freedom of Speech and Debates or Proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any Court or Place out of Parliament That Excessive Bail ought not to be required nor Excessive Fines imposed nor cruel and unusual Punishments inflicted That Jurors ought to be duly Impannell'd and Returned and Jurors which pass upon men in Trials for High-Treason ought to be Freeholders That all Grants and Promises of Fines and Forfeitures of particular persons before Conviction are illegal and void And that for Redress of all Grievances and for the amending strengthning and preserving of the Laws Parliaments ought to be held frequently And they do claim demand and insist upon all and singular the Premises as their undoubted Rights and Liberties and that no Declarations Judgments Doings or Proceedings to the prejudice of the people in any of the said Premises ought in any wise to be drawn hereafter into Consequence or Example To which demand of their Rights they are particularly encouraged by the Declaration of his Highness the Prince of Orange as being the only means for obtaining a full Redress and Remedy therein Having therefore an intire Confidence that his said Highness the Prince of Orange will perfect the Deliverance so far advanced by him and will still preserve them from the violation of their Rights which they have here asserted and from all other Attempts upon their Religion Rights and Liberties The said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled at Westminster do Resolve That WILLIAM and MARY Prince and Princess of Orange be and be declared King and Queen of England France and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging to hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to them the said Prince and Princess during their Lives and the Life of the Survivor of them and that the sole and full exercise of the Regal Power be only in and executed by the said Prince of Orange in the Names of the said Prince and Princess during their joynt Lives and after their Deceases the said Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to be to the Heirs of the Body of the said Princess and for default of such Issue to the Princess Anne of Denmark and the Heirs of her Body and for default of such Issue to the Heirs of the Body of the said Prince of Orange And the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons do pray the said Prince and Princess of Orange to accept the same accordingly And that the Oaths hereafter mentioned be taken by all persons of whom the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy might be required by Law instead of them and that the said Oarhs of Allegiance and Supremacy be abrogated I A. B. Do sincerely Promise and Swear That I will be Faithful and bear true Allegiance to Their Majesties King WILLIAM and Queen MARY So help me God I A. B. Do Swear That I do from my Heart Abbor 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 Jurisdiction Power Superiority Prcheminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm So help me God Jo. Brown Cler. Parliamentor The same day this Declaration bears date Her Royal Highness the Princess of Orange arrived in the River of Thames in the Afternoon and was received with all the Hearty Demonstrations and Expressions of Joy by the City that are usual on such occasions The 13th of February the Lords and Commons ordered the following Proclamation to be published and made WHereas it hath pleased Almighty God in his great Mercy to this Kingdom to vouchsafe us a miraculous Deliverance from Popery and Arbitrary Power and that our Preservation is due next under God to the Resolution and Conduct of his Highness the Prince of Orange whom God hath chosen to be the Glorious Instrument of such an inestimable Happiness to us and our Posterity And being highly sensible and fully persuaded of the great and eminent Virtues of Her Highness the Princess of Orange whose Zeal for the Protestant Religion will no doubt bring a Blessing along with Her upon this Nation And whereas the Lords and Commons now assembled at Westminster have made a Declaration and presented the same to the said Prince and Princess of Orange and therein desired Them to accept the Crown who have accepted the same accordingly We therefore the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons together with the Lord Mayor and Citizens of London and others of the Commons of this Realm do with full consent publish and proclaim according to the said Declaration WILLIAM and MARY Prince and Princess of ORANGE to be KING and QUEEN of England France and Ireland wit all the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging Who are accordingly so to be owned deemed and taken by all the people of the aforesaid Realms and Dominions who are from hence-forward bound to acknowledge and pay unto them all Faith and true Allegiance Beseeching God by whom Kings reign to Bless King VVilliam and Queen Mary with long and happy Years to reign over us God save