sufficient caution to the Kings of England and of the People there is as little hopes to seduce them the Protestant Religion being so interwoven as it is with their Secular Interest For the Lands that were formerly given to superstitious uses having first been applyed to the Publick Revenue and afterwards by severall Alienations and Contracts distributed into private possession the alteration of Religion would necessarily introduce a change of Property Nullum tempus occurrit Ecelesiae it would make a general Earth-quake over the nation and even now the Romish Clergy on the other side of the water snuffe up the savoury odour of so many rich Abbies and Monasteries that belonged to their predecessors Hereby no considerably Estate in England but must have a piece torn out of it upon the Titile of Piety and the rest subject to be wholly forfeited upon the account of Heresy Another Chimny mony of the old Peter pence must again be payed as tribute to the Pope beside that which is established on his Majesty and the People instead of those moderate Tithes that are with too much difficulty payed to their Protestant Pastors will be exposed to all the exactions of the Court of Rome and a thousand artifices by which in former times they were used to draine away the wealth of ours more then any other Nation So that in conclusion there is no English-man that hath a Soul a Body or an Estate to save that Loves either God his King or his Country but is by all those Tenures bound to the best of his Power and Knowledge to maintaine the established Protestant Religion And yet all this notwithstanding there are those men among us who have undertaken and do make it their businesse under so Legal and perfect a Government to introduce a French slavery and instead of so pure a Religion to establish the Roman Idolatry both and either of which are Crimes of the Highest nature For as to matter of Government if to murther the King be as certainly it is a Fact so horred how much more hainous is it to assassinate the Kingdome And as none will deny that to alter our Monarchy into a Commonvvealth were Treason so by the same Fundamenttal Rule the Crime is no lesse to make that Monarchy Absolute What is thus true in regard of the State holds as well in reference to our Religion Former Parliaments have made it Treason in whosoever shall attempt to seduce any one the meanest of the Kings subjects to the Church of Rome And this Parliament hath to all penalties by the Common or Statute Law added incapacity for any man who shall presume to say that the King is a Papist or an Introducer of Popery But what lawless and incapable miscreants then what wicked Traytors are those wretched men who endevour to pervert our whole Church and to bring that about in effect which even to mention is penal at one Italian stroke attempting to subvert the Government and Religion to kill the Body and damn the Soul of our Nation Yet were these men honest old Cavaliers that had suffered in his late Majesties service it were allowable in them as oft as their wounds brake out at Spring or Fall to think of a more Arbitrary Government as a soveraign Balsom for their Aches or to imagine that no Weapon-salve but of the Moss that grows on an Enemies Skul could cure them Should they mistake this Long Parliament also for Rebells and that although all Circumstances be altered there were still the same necessity to fight it all over again in pure Loyalty yet their Age and the Times they have lived in might excuse them But those worthy Gentlemen are too Generous too good Christians and Subjects too affectionate to the good English Government to be capable of such an Impression Whereas these Conspiratours are such as have not one drop of Cavalier Blood or no Bovvels at least of a Cavalier in them but have starved them to Revel and Surfet upon their Calamities making their Persons and the very Cause by pretending to it themselves almost Ridiculous Or were these Conspiratours on the other side but avowed Papists they were the more honest the less dangerous and the Religion were answerable for the Errours they might commit in order to promote it Who is there but must acknowledge if he do not commend the Ingenuity or by what better Name I may call it of Sir Thomas Strickland Lord Bellassis the late Lord Clifford and others eminent in their several stations These having so long appeared the most zealous Sons of our Church yet as soon as the late Test against Popery was inacted tooke up the Crosse quitted their present imployments and all hopes of the future rather then falsify their opinion though otherwise men for Quality Estate and Abilityes whether in Warre or Peace as capable and well deserving without disparagement as others that have the art to continue in Offices And above all his Royal Highnesse is to be admired for his unparallelled magnanimity on the same account there being in all history perhaps no Record of any Prince that ever changed his Religion in his circumstances But these persons that have since taken the worke in hand are such as ly under no temptation of Religion secure men that are above either Honour or Consciencs but obliged by all the most sacred tyes of Malice and Ambition to advance the ruine of the King and Kingdome and qualified much better then others under the name of good Protestants to effect it And because it was yet difficult to find Complices enough at home that were ripe for so black a desing but they wanted a Back for their Edge therefore they applyed themselves to France that King being indowed with all those qualityes which in a Prince may passe for Virtues but in any private man would be capital and moreover so abounding in wealth that no man else could go to the price of their wickednesse To which Considerations adding that he is the Master of Absolute Dominion the Presumptive Monarch of Christendom the declared Champion of Popery and the hereditary natural inveterate Enemy of our King and Nation he was in all respects the most likely of all Earthly Powers to reward and support them in a Project every way suitable to his one Inclination and Interest And now should I enter into a particular retaile of all former and latter Transactions relating to this affaire there would be sufficient for a just Volume of History But my intention is onely to write a naked Narrative of some the most considerable passages in the meeting of Parliament the 15 of Febr. 1676. Such as have come to my notice which may serve for matter to some stronger Pen and to such as have more leisure and further opportunity to discover and communicate to the Publick This in the mean time will by the Progresse made in so few weeks demonstrate at what rate these men drive over the necks of King
An Account of the GROWTH OF POPERY AND Arbitrary Government IN ENGLAND More Particularly from the Long Prorogation of November 1675 Ending the 15th of February 1676 till the Last Meeting of Parliament the 16th of July 1677. AMSTERDAM Printed in the Year 1677. An account of the Growth of POPERY and Arbitrary Government in England c. THere has now for diverse Years a design been carried on to change the Lawfull Government of England into an Absolute Tyranny and to convert the established Protestant Religion into down-right Popery than both which nothing can be more destructive or contrary to the Interest and Happinesse to the Constitution and Being of the King and Kingdom For if first we consider the State the Kings of England Rule not upon the same terms with those of our neighbour Nations who having by force or by adresse usurped that due share which their People had in the Government are now for some Ages in possession of an Arbitrary Power which yet no Presciption can make Legall and exercise it over their persons and estates in a most Tyrannical manner But here the Subjects retain their proportion in the Legislature the very meanest Commoner of England is represented in Parliament and is a party to those Laws by which the Prince is sworn to Govern himself and his people No Mony is to be levied but by the common consent No than is for Life Limb Goods or Liberty at the Soveraigns discretion but we have the same Right modestly understood in our Propriety that the Prince hath in his Regality and in all Cases where the King is concerned we have our just remedy as against any private person of the neighbourhood in the Courts of Westminster Hall or in the High Court of Parliament His very Prerogative is no more then what the Law has determined His Broad Seal which is the Legitimate stamp of his pleasure yet is no longer currant than upon the Trial it is found to be Legal He cannot commit any person by his particular warrant He cannot himself be witnesse in any cause the Ballance of Publick Justice being so dellicate that not the hand only but even the breath of the Prince would turn the scale Nothing is left to the Kings will but all is subjected to his Authority by which means it follows that he can do no wrong nor can he receive wrong and a King of England keeping to these measures may without arrogance be said to remain the onely Intelligent Ruler over a Rational People In recompense therefore and acknowledgment of so good a Government under his influence his Person is most sacred and inviolable and whatsoever excesses are committed against so high a trust nothing of them is imputed to him as being free from the necessity or temptation but his Ministers only are accountable for all and must answer it at their perills He hath a vast Revenue constantly arising from the Hearth of the Housholder the Sweat of the Laboures the Rent of the Farmer the Industry of the Merchant and consequently out of the Estate of the Gentleman a larg competence to defray the ordinary expense of the Crown and maintain its lustre And if any extraordinary occasion happen or be but with any probable decency pretended the whole Land at whatsoever season of the year does yield him a plentifull Harvest So forward are his Peoples affections to give even to superfluity that a Forainer or English man that hath been long abroad would think they could neither will nor chuse but that the asking of a supply were a meer formality it is so readily granted He is the Fountain of all Honours and has moreover the distribution of so many profitable Offices of the Houshold of the Revenue of State of Law of Religion of the Navy and since his persent Majesties time of the Army that it seems as if the Nation could scarse furnish honest men enow to supply all those imployments So that the Kings of England are in nothing inferiour to other Princes save in being more abridged from injuring their own subjects But have as large a field as any of external felicity wherein to exercise their own Virtue and so reward and incourage it in others In short there is nothing that comes nearer in Government to the Divine Perfection then where the Monarch as with us injoys a capacity of doing all the good imaginable to mankind under a disability to all that is evil And as we are thus happy in the Constitution of our State so are we yet more blessed in that of our Church being free from that Romish Yoak which so great a part of Christendome do yet draw and labour under That Popery is such a thing as cannot but for want of a word to express it be called a Religion nor is it to be mentioned with that civility which is otherwise decent to be used in speaking of the differences of humane opinion about Divine Matters Were it either open Judaisine or plain Turkery or honest Paganisme there is yet a certain Bona fides in the most extravagant Belief and the sincerity of an erroneous Profession may render it more pardonable but this is a compound of all the three an extract of whatsoever is most ridiculous and impious in them incorporated with more peculiar absurdityes of its own in which those were deficient and all this deliberately contrived knowingly carried on by the bold imposture of Priests under the name of Christianity The wisdom of this fifth Religion this last and insolentest attempt uppon the credulity of mankind seems to me though not ignorant otherwise of the times degrees and methods of its progresse principally to have consisted in their owning the Scriptures to be the word of God and the Rule of Faith and Manners but in prohibiting of the same time their common use or the reading of them in publick Churches but in a Latine translation to the vulgar there being no better or more rational way to frustrate the very design of the great Institutor of Christianity who first planted it by the extraordinary gift of Tongues then to forbid the use even of the ordinary languages For having thus a book which is universally avowed to be of Divine Authority but sequestring it only into such hands as were intrusted in the cheat they had the opportunity to vitiate suppresse or interpret to their own profit those Records by which the poor People hold their salvation And this necessary point being once gained there was thence forward nothing so monstrous to reason so abhorring from morality or so contrary to scripture which they might not in prudence adventure on The Idolatry for alas it is neither better nor worse of adoring and praying to Saints and Angels of worshipping Pictures Images and Reliques Incredible Miracles and plapable Fables to promote that veneration The whole Liturgy and Worship of the Blessed Virgin The saying of Pater Nosters and Creeds to the honour of Saints and of Ave Mary's too not
opposed any such pretension But some of them at last growing wiser by foisting a counterfeit Donation of Constantine and wresting another Donation from our Saviour advanced themselves in a weak ignorant and credulous Age to that Temporal and Spiritual Principality that they are now seised of Tues Petrus super hanc Petram adificabo Ecclesiam meam Never was a Bishop-prick and a Verse of Scripture so improved by good management Thus by exercising in the quality of Christs Uicar the publick function under an invisible Prince the Pope like the Maires of the Palace hath set his master aside and delivered the Government over to a new Line of Papal Succession But who can unlesse wilfully be ignorant what wretched doings what Bribery what Ambition there are how long the Church is without an Head upon every Vacancy till among the crew of bandying Cardinalls the Holy Ghost have declared for a Pope of the French or Spanish Faction It is a sucession like that of the Egyptian Ox the living Idol of that Country who dying or being made away by the Priests there was a solemn and general mourning for want of a Deity until in their Conclave they had found out another Beast with the very same marks as the former whom then they themselvs adored and with great Jubilee brought forth to the People to worship Nor was that Election a grosser reproach to human Reason then this is also to Christianity Surely it is the greatest Miracle of the Romish Church that it should still continue and that in all this time the Gates of Heaven should not prevaile against it It is almost unconceivable how Princes can yet suffer a Power so pernicious and Doctrine so destructive to all Government That so great a part of the Land should be alienated and condemned to as they call it Pious Uses That such millions of their People as the Clergy should by remaining unmarryed either frustrate humane nature if they live chastly or if otherwise adulterate it That they should be priviledged from all labour all publick service and exempt from the power of all Secular Jurisdiction That they being all bound by strict Oaths and Vows of Obedience to the Pope should evacuate the Fealty due to the Soveraign Nay that not only the Clergy but their whole People if of the Romish preswasion should be obliged to rebel at any time upon the Popes pleasure And yet how many of the Neighbouring Princes are content or do chuse to reign upon those conditions which being so dishonorable and dangerous surely some great and more weighty reason does cause them submit to Whether it be out of personal fear having heard perhaps of several attempts which the blind obedience of Popish Zelotes hath executed against their Princes Or whether aiming at a more absolute and tyrannical Government they think it still to be the case of Boniface and Phocas an usurping Emperour and an usurping Bishop and that as other Cheats this also is best to be managed by Confederacy But as farre as I can apprehend there is more of Sloth then Policy on the Princes side in this whole matter and all that pretense of inslaving men by the assistance of Religion more easily is neither more nor lesse then when the Bramine by having the first night of the Bride assures himself of her devotion for the future and makes her more fit for the husband This reflection upon the state of our Neighbours in aspect to Religion doth sufficiently illustrate our happinesse and spare me the labour of describing it further then by the Rule of Contraryes Our Church standing upon all points in a direct opposition to all the forementioned errours Our Doctrine being true to the Principles of the first Christian institution and Episcopacy being formed upon the Primitive Model and no Ecclesiastical Power jostling the Civil but all concurring in common obedience to the Soveraign Nor therefore is their any whether Prince or Nation that can with less probability be reduced back to the Romish perswasion than ours of England For if first we respect our Obedience to God what appearance is there that after so durable and general an enlightning of our minds with the sacred Truth we should again put out our own Eyes to wander thorow the palpable darkness of that gross Superstition But forasmuch as most men are less concern'd for their Interest in Heaven than on Earth this seeming the nearer and more certain on this account also our alteration from the Protestant Religion is the more impossible When beside the common ill examples and consequences of Popery observable abroad whereby we might grow wise at the expense of our Neighbours we cannot but reflect upon our own Experiments at home which would make even fools docible The whole Reign of Queen Mary in which the Papists made Fewel of the Protestants The Excommunicating and Deprivation of Queen Elizabeth by the Pope pursued with so many Treasons and attempts upon her Person by her own Subjects and the Invasion in Eighty-Eight by the Spanish The two Breves of the Pope in order to exclude King James from the Succession to the Crown seconded by the Gunpovvder-Treason In the time of his late Majesty King Charles the first besides what they contributed to the Civil War in England the Rebellion and horrid Massacre in Ireland and which was even worse than that their pretending that it was done by the Kings Commission and vouching the Broad Seal for their Authority The Popes Nuncio assuming nevertheless and exercising there the Temporal as well as Spiritual Power granting out Commissions under his own Hand breaking the Treatys of Peace between the King and as they then styled themselves the Confederate Catholicks heading two Armies against the Marquess of Ormond then Lord Lieutenant and forcing him at last to quit the Kingdom all which ended in the Ruine of his Majesties Reputation Government and Person which but upon occasion of that Rebellion could never have happened So that we may reckon the Reigns of our late Princes by a succession of the Popish Treasons against them And if under his present Majesty we have as yet seen no more visible effects of the same spirit than the Firing of London acted by Hubert hired by Pieddelou two French-men which remains a Controverfie it is not to be attributed to the good nature or better Principles of that Sect but to the wisdom of his Holyness who observes that we are not of late so dangerous Protestants as to deserve any special mark of his Indignation but that we may be made better use of to the weakning of those that are of our own Religion and that if he do not disturbe us there are those among our selves that are leading us into a fair way of Reconciliation with him But those continued fresh Instances in relation to the Crown together with the Popes claim of the Temporal and immediate Dominion of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland which he does so challenge are a
Grimass for his Majestys service And now to proceed rather according to the Coherence of the matters then to the particular Date of every days action By this good humour and the House being so free of the Liberty of their fellow Commoners it might be guessed that they would not be lesse liberal of their Monythis Session The Bill therefore for 600000 l. Tax for eighteen month towards the building and furnishing of Ships easily passed without once dreaming any more of appropriating the Customes For the Nation being generally possessed by the Members with the defects of the Navy and not considering at all from what neglect it proceeded the House of Commons were very willing and glad to take this occasion of confirming the Authority of their sitting and to pay double the summe that in the former Sessions they had thought necessary towards the Fleet hereby to hedg in and purchase their own continuance And for the same purpose they ingrossed the Act with so numerous a list of Commissioners that it seemed rather a Register or Muster-roll of the Nation and that they raised the whole kingdom to raise the mony For who could doubt that they were still a lawful Parliament when they saw so many gentlemens names though by the Clerks hand onely subscribed to an Act of their making Onely Mr. Seymour the speaker would have diminished the number in his own Country For he had entred into a Combination that none should serve the King or their Country thorow Devonshire in any capacity but under his approbation and therefore he highly inveighed against many Gentlemen of the best rank there that ought him no homage as persons disaffected oppossing their names at a Committe of the whole House before he heard them But being checked in his careere he let fall the contest with as much judgment and modesty as he had begun it with boldnesse and indescretion This Bill was not enough but though the Nation had hoped to be relieved from the Additionall Excise upon Beer and Ale which the Tripple League had foold them into but was now of course to expire the 24th of June 1677. Yet a Bill for the continuing of it for three years more passed them likewise with little Difficulty For the late fear of Dissolution was still so fresh upon them that they would continue any thing to buy their own Continuance and this Bill might considering their present want of Legality have been properly intituled An Act for the Extraor dinary Occasion of the House of Commons But that they might seem within this tendernesse to themselvs not to have cast of all toward the People they sunk all former Grievances into a Bill of Chancery knowing well that a sute in that Court would be sooner ended then a Reformation of it be effected and that thereby they might gain work enough to direct the whole Session And of their usuall Bills for the Liberty of the Subjects they sent up only that of Habeas Corpus pretending and perhaps truly that they durst not adventure them either in their own or the Lords House as they were now governed lest they should be further ensnared by struging for freedome But least they should trouble themselves too much with Religion the Lords presented them with two Bills of a very good name but of a strange and unheard of nature The one intituled An Ast for securing the Protestant Religion by educating the Children of the Royall Family and providing for the continuance of a Protestant Clergy The other An Act for the more effectuall Conviction and Prosecution of Popish Recusants And with these they sent down another for the further regulation of the Presses and suppressing all unlicensed Books with clauses most severe and generall upon the subject whereof one for breaking all Houses whatsoever on suspicion of any such Pamphlet where by Master L' Estranges Authority was much amplifyed to search any other House with the same liberty as he had Sir Thomas Dolemans But as to those two Bills of Religion although they were of the highest consequence that ever were offered in Parliament since Protestancy came in and went out of fashion yet it is not to be imagined how indisputable and easy a passage they found thorow the House of Peers to the House of Commons which must be ascribed to the great unanimity among them after the committing of the four Lords and to the Power of those two noble Peers their Adversaries which was now so established that their sense being once declared the rest seemed to yeild them an Implicite Faith and Obedience and they were now in such Vogue that whatsoever was spoken or done any where abroad in perfection with great weight and judgement men said it was A la Fraischeville But if gentily and acutely A la Trerise That Intituled An Act for the more effectual Conviction and Prosecution of Popish Recusants is too long to be here inserted and the Fate it met with makes it unnecessary for as soon as it was first read a Gentle-man of great worth and apprehension spake short but roundly and thorow against it A second immediately moved that it might not onely be thrown out but with a particular mark of infamy And it being without any more ado ready to be put to the Question a third demanded that they should stay a while to see whether there were any one so hardy as to speak a word for it Which no man offerring at it was forthwith rejected with this censure added to the Journal And because the Body of the Bill was contrary to the Title This unusual sentence of the House of Commons though excusable by the Crimes of the Bill yet was not to be justified by the Rules of entercourse between the two Houses But because all men have hence taken occasion to accuse the Lords Spiritual as the Authours both of this Bill and the other it is necessary to insert here the true Fact in their just vindication It was above two years ago that a select Caball of great Ministers had been consulting about Church matters tho it seldom happens nor did it in this instance that the Statesmen are more fortunate in meddling with Religion then the Churchmen with Government but each marrs them with tampering out of their Provinces This only difference that what Ecclesiastical persons may do by chance or consequence that harm the others commit on set purpose For it was by these politicians that these two Cockatrice Eggs were layd by their assiduous incubation hatched It is true indeed afterwards they took some few of the Bishops into Communication and as it were for advice upon what was before resolved And to make this Bill go the better down they flatterd them with the other as wholy calculated forsooth to the Churches Interest And by this means possibly they prevailed so far that the Bishops both there and in the House lesse vigorously opposed But that the Bishopes were either the Contrivers or Promoters of the
Bill is a scandalous falshood and devised by the Authors to throw the Odium off from themselvs upon the Clergy and the Bills that aimed at the ruine of the Church of England having miscarried to compasse the same end by this defamation A sufficient warning to the Clargy how to be intrigued with the Statesmen for the future The second Bill follows An Act for further securing the Protestant Religion by Educating the Children of the Royal Family therein and for the providing for the continuance of a Protestant Clergy TO the Intent that the Protestant Religion which through the blessing of God hath been happily Established in this Realm and is at present sufficiently secured by his Majestys known Piety and Zeal for the preservation thereof may remain secure in all future times Be it Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and Commons in this Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That upon the demise of his Majesty that now is to whom God grant a long and prosperous Reign and upon the demise of any other King or Queen Regnant that shall hereafter bear the Imperial Crown of this Realme the Arch-Bishops and all and every the Bishops of England and Wales for the time being as shall not be disabled by Sicknesse or other Infirmity shall within fourty dayes next after such Demise repaire to Lambeth House and being there assembled to the number of nine at least shall cause to be fairely ingrosed in Parchment the Oath and Declaration following 1. 〈◊〉 King or Queen of England do declare and Svvear that I do beleive that there is not any Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper or in the Elements of Bread and Wine at or after the Consecration thereof by any person vvhatsoever So help me God Which blanck shall be filled up with the Christian Name of such King or Queen And thereupon the Prelates so bled shall without delay repaire to the persons of such succeeding King or Queen Regnant and in humble manner tender 〈◊〉 said Oath or Declaraiton to be taken by such succeeding King or Queen Regnant which they are hereby Authorised to Administer and shall abide in or near the Court by the space of fourteen dayes and at convenient 〈◊〉 as often as conveniently they may they shall appear in the presence of such King and Queen ready to receive Commands for Administring the said Oath and Declaration which if such succeeding King and Queen shall make and subscribe in presence of them or any nine or more of them they shall attest the doing thereof by subscribing their Names to a Certificate Indorsed upon the said Indorsment and carry the same into the high Court of Chancery there to be safely deposited amongst the Records of the said Court. And if such King or Queen Regnant shall refuse or omit to make and subscribe the said Oath and Decalration for the space of fourteen dayes after such humble tender made in manner aforesaid the said Prelates may depart from the Court without any further attendance on this occasion But if at any time afterward such King or Queen shall be pleased to take and subcribe the said Oath and Declaration and shall signifie such pleasure to the Arch-Bishops and Bishops or any nine or more of them the said Arch-Bishops and Bishops or such nine or more of them are hereby Authorised and required forthwith to Administer the same and to attest and certify the same in manner aforesaid And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That if any succeeding King or Queen Regnant shall refuse or Omit to make such Oath and Declaration within the time therefore limitted the same having been tendered in manner aforesaid or there shall be any Let Obstruction or hindrance whatsoever to their making the said tender in manner aforesaid they are hereby enjoyned and required to endorse upon the said Engrosement such refusall or omission or any obstruction let or hinderance that shall happen to them whereby they are not able to make the said tender according to the Act and attest the same by subscribing their names thereunto and carry the same into the high Court of Chancery there to be safely deposited in manner aforesaid And if any the said persons hereby appointed to make the said tender shall neglect or refuse to do the same or in case of any refusal or omission of making the said Oath and Declaration or in case of any Obstruction or hindrance to the making of the said tender shall refuse or neglect to make certificate thereof in manner aforesaid that the Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick of the Person or Persons so refusing shall be Ipso Facto voide as if he or they were naturally Dead and the said Person or Persons shall be incapable during his or their Life or Lifes of that or any other Ecclesiastical perferment And be it further Enacted That if any King or Queen Regnant at the time when the Imprial Crown of this Realme shall devolve shall he under the age of fourteen years and that upon his or her attaining the said age of fourteen years the Arch-Bishops and Bishops shall and are upon the like penalties hereby enjoyned within fourteen dayes next after such attaining to the said Age to assemble at the said place and thereupon to do and perform all things in proparing and tendring the said Oath and Declaration and making certificate of the taking or omission thereof that are required by this Act to be done upon the demise of any King or Queen Regnant And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That untill any succeeding King or Queen Regnant shall make the said Oath and Declaration in manner aforesaid such respective King or Queen shall not grant confer or dispose of any Arch-Bishoprick or any Bishoprick in England or Wales otherwise than in manner following that is to say within seven dayes after the Vacancy of any Biship-prick or See shall be known to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury for the time being he shall and is hereby required to send forth a Summons in Writing to all the Prelates in England and Wales requiring them to meet at a certain convenient time and place to be appointed by the summons to consult concerning the nomination of sit persons for the supply of that Vacancy And in case of vacancy of the Arch Bishop-prick of Canterbury the Arch Bishop of York for the time being And if that See shall be also vacant such Prelate of the Realm as by the Statute of 31 H. 8. ought to have place before the rest in Parliament shall and are hereby required to issue forth the said Summons and at the said time and place so appointed in manner aforesaid the Prelates then assembled being seven at the least or the major part of them shall by writing under their Hands and Seals nominate three persons natural born subjects of the King and in holy Orders
would not give leave to a worthy Member offerring to speak but abruptly now the third time of his own authority Adjourned them without putting the Question although Sr. J. Finch for once doing so in Tertio Charoli was accused of high Treason This only can be said perhaps in his excuse That whereas that in tertio Car. was a Parliament Legally constituted Mr. Seymour did here do as a Sheriff that disperses a Riotous assembly In this manner they were kickt from Adjourment to Adjournment as from one stair down to another and when they were at the bottom kickt up again having no mind yet to Go out of Doors And here it is time to fix a period if not to them yet to this Narrative But if neither one Prorogation against all the Laws in being nor three Vitious Adjournments against all Presidents can Dissolve them this Parliament then is Immortal they can subsist without his Majesties Authority and it is less dangerous to say with Captain Elsdon so lately Si Rebellio evenerit in Regno non accideret fore contra omnes tres Status Non est Rebellio Thus far hath the Conspiracy against our Religion and Government been laid open which if true it was more than time that it should be discovered but if any thing therein have been falsly suggested the disproving of it in any particular will be a courtesy both to the Publick and to the Relator who would be glad to have the world convinced of the contrary tho to the prejudice of his own reputation But so far is it from this that it is rather impossible for any observing man to read without making his own farther remarkes of the same nature and adding a supplement of most passages which are here but imperfectly toucht Yet some perhaps may Object as if the Assistance given to France were all along invidiously aggravated whereas there have been and are considerable numbers likewise of his Majesties Subjects in the Service of Holland which hath not been mentioned But in Answer to that it is well known through what difficulty and hardship they passed thither escaping hence over like so many Malefactors and since they are there such care hath been taken to make them as serviceable as others to the Design that of those three Regiments two if not the third also have been new modelled under Popish Officers and the Protestants displaced Yet had the Relator made that voluntary Omission in partiality to his Argument he hath abundantly recompenced in sparing so many Instances on the otherside which made to his purpose The abandoning his Majesties own Nephevv for so many years in compliance with His and our Nations Enemies the further particulars of the French Depradations and Cruelties exercised at Sea upon his Majesties Subjects and to this day continued and tollerated without reparation Their notorious Treacheries and Insolencies more especially relating to his Majesties Affairs These things abroad which were capable of being illustrated by many former and fresh Examples At home the constant irregularities and injustice from Term to Term of those that administer the Judicature betwixt his Majesty and his People The Scrutiny all over the Kingdom to find out men of Arbitrary Principles that will Bovv the knee to Baal in order to their Promotion to all Publick Commissions and Imployments and the Disgracing on the contrary and Displacing of such as yet dare in so universal a depravation be honest and faithful in their Trust and Offices The defection of considerable persons both Male and Female to the Popish Religion as if they entred by Couples clean and unclean into the Ark of that Church not more in order to their salvation than for their temporal safety The state of the Kingdom of Ireland which would require a whole Volume to represent it The tendency of all Affairs and Counsels in this Nation towards a Revolution And by the great Civility and Foresight of his Holyness an English Cardinal now for several years prepared like Cardinal Poole to give us Absolution Benediction and receive us into Apostolical Obedience It is now come to the fourth Act and the next Scene that opens may be Rome or Paris yet men sit by like idle Spectators and still give money towards their own Tragedy It is true that by his Majesty and the Churches care under Gods Speciall providence the Conspiracy hath received frequent disappointments But it is here as in Gaming where tho the Cheat may lose for a while to the Skill or good fortune of a fairer Player and sometimes on purpose to draw him in deeper yet the false Dice must at the long run Carry it unless discovered and when it comes once to a great Stake will Infallibly Sweep the Table If the Relator had extended all these Articles in their particular Instances with severall other Heads which out of Respect he forbore to enumerate it is evident there was matter sufficient to have further accused his Subjects And nevertheless he foresees that he shall on both hands be blamed for pursuing this method Some on the one side will expect that the very Persons should have been named whereas he onely gives evidence to the Fact and leaves the malefactors to those who have the power of inquiry It was his design indeed to give Information but not to turn â—…ormer That these to whom he hath onely a puplick enmity no private animosity might have the priviledige of Statesmen to repent at the last hour and by one signall Action to expiate all their former misdemeanours But if any one delight in the Chase he is an ill Woodman that knows not the size of the Beast by the proportion of his Excrement On the other hand some will represent this discourse as they do all Books that tend to detect their Conspiracy against his Majesty and the Kingdome as if it too were written against the Government For now of late as soon as any man is gotten into publick imployment by ill Acts and by worse continues it he if it please the Fates is thence forward the Government and by being Criminal pretends to be sacred These are themselves the men who are the Living Libells against the Government and who whereas the Law discharges the Prince upon his Ministers do if in danger of being Questioned plead or rather Impeach his Authority in their own Justification Yea so impudent is their ingratitude that as they intitle him to their Crimes so they arrogate to themselves his Virtues chalenging whatsoever is well done and is the pure emanation of his Royal Goodness to have proceeded from their Influence Objecting thereby his Majesty if it were possible to the hatred and interposing as far as in them lies betwixt the love of his People For being conscious to themselves how inconsiderable they would be under any good Government but for their notorious wickedness they have no other way of subsisting but by nourishing suspitions betwixt a most loyal People and most gracious Soveraign But this Book though of an extraâ—…dinary nature as the case required and however it may 〈◊〉 caluâ—…iated by interessed persons was written with no 〈◊〉 intent than of meer Fidelity and Service to his Majesty 〈◊〉 God forbid that it should have any other effect than 〈◊〉 the mouth of all Iniquity and of Flatterers may be stopped and that his Majesty having discerned the Disease may with his Healing Touch apply the Remedy For so far is the Relator himself from any Sinister surmise of his Majesty or from suggesting it to others that he acknowledges if it were fit for Caesars Wife to be free much more is Caesar himself from all Crime and Suspition Let us therefore conclude with our own Common Devotions From all Privy Conspiracy c. Good Lord deliver us Errata Pag. 6 line 5 read at the same time p. 8 l 6 r. clave non erranie p. 8 l. 25 dele still p. 17 l. 〈◊〉 r. Feb. 15. 1676. p. 27 l. 20. r. 1800000. p. 30 l. 1 r. deference p. 43 l. 34 r. Eng. Declaration p. 48 l. 〈◊〉 r. claimed a povver p. 67 l. 20 r. obvious p. 74 l. 20 r. as p. 75 l. 34 35 r. rigging and unrigging p. 79 l. 2 r. these p. 85 l. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that others had of practising p. 114 l. 5 r. vvink p. 115 l. 27 28 r. and the vvhole house p. 120 l. 8 r. French Embassade p. â—…21 l. 23. 〈◊〉 carâ—…re p. 133 l. 28 r. more then ordinary FINIS Rush Coll. 171. 172 177 178.