THE Prince of Orange HIS DECLARATION SHEWING THE REASONS Why he Invades ENGLAND WITH A Short PREFACE AND SOME MODEST REMARKS on It. LONDON Published by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall MDCLXXXVIII The Prince of Orange's Declaration shewing the Reasons why He invades England with a short Preface and some modest Remarks on it THERE having been various Discourses about the Reasonableness and Iustice of the Dutch Invasion the Prince's great Love and special Care of the Protestant Religion and English Protestants set forth in the most Charming manner and the Desperateness of the Protestant State and Condition painted in the blackest and most frightful Colours Our Natural Leige Lord notwithstanding his Unparallel'd Grace to all represented as designing the greatest Cruelty against his own Subjects strange Stories of ill things whispered and nothing less than a Secret Lâ—â—gue between His Majesty of Great Britain and the French King to Extirpate all Protestants entred into These Reports are with so much Art and Cunning spread as to startle the most Considering Protestants of all Persuasions whence nothing could be more eagerly desired than a Sight of the Prince of Orange's Declaration For the Expectations of most Men are That some Extraordinary Secrets some hidden Works of Darkness should be reveal'd and brought to Light as generally those who yet never saw the Prince's Declaration do still believe But there not being one word of any such Treaty we cannot see why it is that the Prince comes Over and if others impartially Peruse the Declaration we doubt not but 't will Convince them that they give no Reason powerful enough to Iustifie so Bloody an Enterprise as this in the Issue must needs be We will therefore give you a true Copy of the Prince's Declaration word for word as it runs in the West THE DECLARATION OF HIS HIGHNES William Henry By the Grace of GOD PRINCE of ORANGE c. Of the REASONS inducing Him To appear in Armes in the Kingdome of England for Preserving of the Protestant Religion and for Restoring the Lawes and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland IT is both certain and Evident to all men that the Publike Peace and Happines of any State or Kingdome can not be preserved where the Lawes Liberties and Customs established by the Lawfull 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 Immediatly Concerned in it are Indispensably bound to endeavour to Preserve and maintain the established Lawes Liberties and Customes 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 Kingdome may neither be deprived of their Religion nor of their Civill Rights Which is so much the more Necessary because the Greatnes and Security both of Kings Royall families and of all such as are in Authority as well as the Happines of their Subjects and People depend in a most especiall manner upon the exact observation and maintenance of these their Lawes Liberties and Customes Upon these grounds it is that we cannot any longer forbear to Declare that to our great regret we see that those Councellours who have now the chieffe credit with the King have overturned the Religion Lawes and Liberties of those Realmes and subjected them in all things relating to their Consciences Liberties and Properties to Arbitrary Government and that not only by secret and Indirect waies but in an open and undisguised manner Those Evil Councellours for the advancing and colouring this with some plausible pretexts did Invent and set on foot the Kings Dispencing power by vertue of which they pretend that according to Law he can Suspend and Dispence with the Execution of the Lawes that have been enacted by the Authority of the King and Parliament for the security and happines of the Subject and so have rendered those Laws of no effect Tho there is nothing more certain then that as no Lawes can be made but by the joint concurrence of King and Parliament so likewise lawes so enacted which secure the Publike peace and safety of the Nation and the lives and liberties of every subject in it can not be repealed or suspended but by the same authority For tho the King may pardon the punishment that a Transgressour has incurred and to which he is condemned as in the cases of Treason or Felony yet it can not be with any colour of reason Inferred from thence that the King can entirely suspend the execution of those Lawes 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 entirely subject to him which must infallibly follow on the Kings having a power to suspend the execution of the Lawes and to dispence with them Those Evill Councellours in order to the giving some credit to this strange and execrable Maxime have so conducted the matter that they have obtained a Sentence from the Judges declaring that this Dispencing power is a Right belonging to the Crown as if it were in the power of the twelve Judges to offer up the Lawes Rights and Liberties of the whole Nation to the King to be disposed of by him Arbitrarily and at his Pleasure and expressly contrary to Lawes enacted for the security of the Subjects In order to the obtaining this Judgment those Evill Councellours did before hand examine secretly the Opinion of the Judges and procured such of them as could not in Conscience concurre in so pernicious a Sentence to be turned out and others to be substituted in their Rooms till by the chances 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 though those are by Law Rendred Incapable of all such Employments It is also Manifest and Notorious that as his Majestie 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 Lawes 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 diverse and sundry times several Lawes 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 Ecclesâ—astical Dignity or to bear Office in either University as likewise all other that should be put in
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 designe 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 waies to Intimidate those who are yet in Imployment 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 Evill Councellours against all the rules and forms of Law without so much as suffering the persons that were accused to Plead in their own Defence 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 Judgements and all Sentences given by them are null and void of themselves so that all persons who have been cast in Trials before such Popish Judges may justly look on their Pretended Sentences as having no more force then 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 stiâ—â— to the Rules which are set them by those Evil Councellours who as they raised them up to those Imployments 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 Imployments in the same manner For tho the Laws have not only Excluded Papists from all such Imployments 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 Trusts 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 course 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 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 and 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. Those Evil Councellours have also prevailed with the King to declare in Scotland that he is clothed 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 duâ—ly prepared for it 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 Councellors have endeavoured to make all Men apprehend the losse of their Lives Libertys Honours and Estates if they should go about to preserve themselves from this Oppression by Petitions 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 termes full of Respect and not exceding 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 Councellors 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 Triall as if they had been guilty of some enormous Crime They were not only obliged to defend themselves in that pursute 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 And yet it can not 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 Councellours have also treated a Peer of the Realm as a Criminall only because he said that the subjects were not bound to obey the orders of a Popish Justice of Peace tho it is Evident that they being by Law rendred incapable of all such trusts no regard is due to their orders 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 procedings of Papists that are contrary to Law put into any employments Civil or Military Both Wee our selves and our Dearest and most Entirely Beloved Consort the Princesse 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 Majesties desires signified to us Wee Declared both by word of Mouth to his Envoy and in writing what our Thoughts were touching the Repealing of the Test and Penal Lawes which we did in such a manner that we hoped
contrary to the Ancient custome shall be considered as null and of no force and likewise all Magistrates who have been Injustly turned out shall forthwith resume their former Imployments as well as all the Borroughs of England shall return again to their Antient Prescriptions and Charters And more particularly that the Antient Charter of the Great and Famous City of London shall again be in Force and that the Writts for the Members of Parliament shall be addressed to the Proper Officers according to Law and Custome That also none be suffered to choose 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 Freedome That so the Two Houses may concurre in the preparing of such Lawes 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 Lawes as are necessary for the Security and Maintenance of the Protestant Religion as likewise for making such Lawes as may establish a good aggrement 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 gâ—od Subjects 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 salling at any time hereafter under Arbitrary Government To this Parliament wee will also referre the Enquiry into the birth of the Pretended Prince of Wales and of all things relating to it and to the Right of Succession And Wee for our part will concurre in every thing that may procure the Peace and Happines of the Nation which a Free and Lawfull Parliament shall determine Since wee 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 Lawes Rights and Liberties under a Just and Legall Government This is the designe that wee have Proposed to our selves in appearing upon this occasion in Armes In the Conduct of which Wee will keep the Forces under our Command under all the Strictnes of Martiall Discipline and take a speciall Care that the People of the Countries thro which wee must march shall not suffer by their means and as soon as the State of the Nation will admit of it Wee promise that we will send back all those Forreigne Forces that wee have brought along with us Wee doe therefore hope that all People will judge rightly of us and approve of these our Proceedings But wee chiefly rely on the blessing of God for the successe of this our undertaking in which Wee place our whole and only Confidence Wee do in the last place invite and require all Persons whatsoever All the Peers of the Realme both Spirituall and Temporall all Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants and all Gentlemen Citisens and other Commons of all ranks to come and assist us in order to the Executing of this our Designe against all such as shall Endeavour to Oppose us that so wee may prevent all those Miseries which must needs follow upon the Nations being 〈◊〉 vnder Arbitrary Government and Slavery And that all the Violeâ—ces and disorders which have overturned the whole Constitution of the English Government may be fully redressed in a FREE AND LEGALL PARLIAMENT And Wee do likewise resolve that as soon as the Nations are brought to a state of Quiet Wee 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 easy and happy and for putting an end to all the Injust 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 Highnesses special Command C HUYGENS. THus you have an exact and full Account of the Prince of Orange's Declaration And can you find one word of a Treaty with France to extirpate all Protestants Or can you imagine that if they had the least reason for such a Talk they who aggravate every little thing would let this Declaration pass without the least mentioning of what is so momentous and important And is there any thing more than a Violent Presumption suggested about the Prince of Wales And is the very Noise of such a Presumption reason enough to justifie a real War As for the other things urg'd are they not Redressable by a Parliament and so far as it 's possible without one already Redressed 'T is a Parliament then that is the main thing to be insisted on which though Chosen as the last was would be too feeble an Argument to clear the present Invasion from the charge of being Injust and Unrighteous The Great Men of this Kingdom ever thought a Parliament Irregularly chosen more eligible than either a War or a rash Enquiry into the manner of the choise Did Queen Elizabeth's Parliament admit of a Words being spoken to bring Queen Mary's Parliament into doubt Did they not look on it as most dangerous to do so And although by the Triennial Bill the long Parliament in the late Kings Reign was actually dissolved Nine Months before it thought on the Repeal thereof yet even after 't was destroy'd by it the Dissolved Parliament sate and repealed the Dissolving Bill and made the Conventicle-Act the Test-Laws repealed the Writ De Haeretico Comburendo and pass'd the Habeas Corpus Bill into a Law. But was the Assembly that Acted thus Irregularly ever call'd to an Account for it or any of their Laws declared Void and Null Or was it ever esteemed a Good Reason for a War And yet this is much more than hath been ever done by His Present Majesty Besides 't was the late King that took away the Charters and those who were entring on Violent Courses for their Restauration were proclaimed Traytors and several executed for it whilst all the Pulpits throughout England sounded of the Horridness Blackness Vileness
any Imployment Civill or Military should declare that they were not Papists but were of the Protestant Religion and that by their taking of the Oaths of Allegance and Suprermacy and the Test yet these â—vill Councellours have in effect annulled and abolished all those Lawes both with relation to Ecclesiasticall and Civill Employments In order to Ecclesiasticall Dignities and Offices they have not only without any colour of Law but against most expresse Lawes to the contrary set up a Commission of a certain Number of persons to whom they have committed the cognisance and direction of all Ecclesiasticall matters in the which Commission there has been and still is one of His Majesties Ministers of State who makes now publike 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 chieffe Members has abjured the Protestant Religion and declared himself a Papist by which he is become Incapable of holding any Publike Imployment 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 aggreable to them And those Evill Councellours take care to raise none to any Ecclesiasticall 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 formes of Processe They have turned out a President chosen by the fellows of Magdalen Colledge and afterwards all the Fellows of that Colledge without so much asciting them before any Court that could take legall cognissance 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 choose for their President a Person that was recommended to them by the Instigation of those Evill Councellours Tho the right of a free Election belonged undoubtedly to them But they were turned out of their freeholds contrary to Law and to that expresse provision in the Magna Charta that no man shall lâ—se life or Goods but by the Law of the land And now these Evill Councellours have put the said Colledge wholly into the hands of Popists tho as is abovesaid they are Incapable of all such Employments both by the Law of the Land and the statutes of the Colledge These Commissioners have also cited before them all the Chancellours and Archdeacons of England requiring them to certifie to them the names of all such Clergymen as have read the Kings declaration for Liberty of Conscience and of such as have not read it without considering that the reading of it was not enjoined the Clergy by the Bishops who are their Ordinaries The Illegality and Incompetency of the said Court of the Ecclesiasticall Commissioners was so notoriously known and it did so Evidently appear that it tended to the Subversion of the Protestant Religion that the Most Revernd Father in God William Archbishop of Canterbury Primate and Metropolitan of all England seeing that it was raised for no other end but to oppresse such persons as were of Eminent Vertue Learning and Piety refused to sit or to concurre in it And tho there are many expresse Lawes against all Churches or Chapells for the exercise of the Popish Religion and also against all Monasteries and Convents and more particularly against the order of the Iesuites yet those Evill Councellours have Procured orders for the building of severall Churches and Chappels for the Exercise of that Religion They have also procured diverse Monasteries to be Erected and in contempt of the Law they have not only set up severall Colledges of Iesuites in diverse places for the corrupting of the youth but have raised up one of the Order to be a Privy Councellour 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 Establisht Religion to a Despotick power and to Arbitrary Government In all which they are served and seconded by those Ecclesiasticall Commissioners They have also followed the same methods with Relation to Civill affairs For they have procured Orders to examine all Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants Sheriffs Justices of Peace and all others that were in any Publike Imployment if they would concurre 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 designes were turned out and others were put in their places who they believed would be more Compliant to them in their Designes 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 professed Papists though the Law has disabled them and warranted the subjects not to have any regard to their Orders They have also invaded the Priviledges and seised 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 Priviledges to be disposed of at the pleasure of those Evill Councellours 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 has put them And whereas no Nation whatsoever can subsist without the administration of good and impartiall Justice upon which mens Lives Liberties Honours and Estates doe depend those Evill Councellours 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
Devilishness of that Conspiracy And is what was Black and Horrid then become Noble Great Generous and Glorious now Thus much was also a part of the late Duke of Monmouth's Declaration and yet a Parliament chosen by the Garbled Corporations proclaim'd him a Traitor and Attainted him But doth the Blood of Monmouth as well as of the forementioned Conspirators and of all those in the West lye on the Iudges Iuries Nobility and other Gentry of the Church of England that had a hand in condemning such as by violent Methods would have restor'd the Charters If these things could not vindicate the Presbyterian Plotters in the late King's Reign or Monmouth's Rebellion it cannot excuse the present Undertaking for this doth infinitely exceed these and the late Civil War too for neither of them brought in a Foreign Power upon us as now is done But it must be observed that how great soever our Grievances have been yet now all that Relief can reasonably be desired is granted us The Ecclesiastical Commission actually broken up the Bishop of London the Master and Fellows of Magdalen Colledge and the Ancient Charters of Cities and Burroughs actually restored all things on the ancient Bottom for the Calling a Free Parliament which His Majesty would have done before this time had not the Prince of Orange hindred him and as soon as the Prince of Orange departs the King will call one whereby all the Prince's Pretensions are taken away and nothing more remains for him to do but to return home or contend for the Crown Yet the Prince would have us believe that though he is not satisfied with this yet he intends no such thing as the Crown or a Conquest of us as appears by his Highnesses Additional Declaration His Highnesses Additional Declaration AFter we had prepared and printed this our Declaration wee have understood that the subverters of the Religion and Lawes of those Kingdomes 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 releefe 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 adde 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 Designe in this Undertaking then 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 wee 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 imagined that either those who have Invited us or those that are already come to assist us can joyn in a wicked attempt of Conquest to make void their own lawful Titles to their Honours Estates and Interests Wee 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 time past to the most solemne Promises And as that Imperfeit redresse 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 lesse 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 claimes 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 redresse 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 24. day of October in the year of our Lord 1688. WILLIAM HENRY PRINCE OF ORANGE By his Highnesses special Command C HUYGENS. THis Addition doth very fully unfold the Design the Prince will abide amongst us with a Foreign Power and make the Choice of a Parliament impracticable and therefore the Call of one a weak and foolish thing and yet oblige us to distrust every Promise the King makes us lesning what is done and insinuating that all things shall be soon undone And why all these Insinuations but to help us to Unravel the whole Intreague which if it be not for the Crown must be thus The Dutch knowing how the Prince hath ravished from them their Liberties and Priviledges and what danger they are in of being utterly undone if Liberty of Conscience be settled amongst us in England Precipitate the Prince on this Hazardous Undertaking not doubting but they shall be either delivered from the Princes Exercise of a Despotick Power over them or spoil our Liberty to the Continuance and Advance of their own Trade which may be the Reason why in the Entrance into the Declaration what relates to Religion is so worded as to gain the Bishops over to them the more eâ—sily to effect their Design for says the Declaration the Alteration of Religion is endeavoured and that a Religion which is contrary to Law is endeavoured to be introduced it is not said that the Popish Religion but a Religion contrary to the Law and it 's well known that the Laws are against the Religion of the Dissenters and the Prince's Endeavour shall be to preserve and maintain above all the Religion and Worship of God that is Established amongst us which cannot be understood of the Worship the Dissenters use but of the Hierarchical way that is as contrary to the Prince's own Religion as 't is to that of the Dissenters in England And to perswade the Church men to close with him he Declares That he was most earnestly solicited to come over
World knows Of the Endeavours we used for the Vnited Provinces when they were invaded in a most unjust War in 1672 Of the particular Esteem and Affection which the English Nation has ever testified to both their Highnesses And therefore cannot excuse himself from espousing our Interests to the doing of which he is earnestly solicited by a great many Lords both Spiritual and Temporal by many Gentlemen and Subjects of all Ranks In all which the only thing we can understand is the Succession to which their Highnesses do severally stand iâ— that degree which all the World knows But there is not a Man in the World who can understand how those who espouse the interest of another because they have an interest of their own espouse any interest but their own nor could his Highness have told us more plainly that he comes for himself not us that all alledged besides is only for fashion-sake and that we might sink or swim for any care of his if he had not been concerned himself Again because we did what we could for the Dutch when they were unjustly invaded no body can understand how Gratitude obliges them to invade us unjustly themselves nor how the particular Affection and Esteem which we have ever testified to their Highnesses should deserve that he should become our Enemy and ruine us for our pains As much Esteem and Affection as the great Qualities of his Highness are like to meet every where he will please to be informed that the strongest Band of ours is his Alliance to the Royal Bloud and must pardon the English if they love not a Man who hates our King the very King whose Sister and Daughter tyed our Affections to him Then who can understand how making War upon us is espousing our Interest our Religion our Laws our Liberties and Properties our Interest and we beseech his Highness to have a little Mercy on us and not oblige us to believe he espouses our Interest by subjecting all we have to the mercy of a lawless Sword. He must likewise pardon us if we believe not on his Word that many Lords many of the Gentry and of all Ranks are Traytors which if it were true he rewards them betimes and by exposing them to be punished by others till it be seasonable to do it himself informs them what they must expect at last But the Spiritual Lords and their Principles are well known and his Highness has experience what they are in the first Bishop near whom he approached He is like to meet the Temporal Lords whom Age keeps not at home or the King's Service employs not elsewhere with the Gentry and all Ranks in the Field and be better informed from themselves that the English are no Traytors and will take care to wipe off this Aspersion from the Nation Alas how little does his Highness know us Many an unwary and many a heated Man speaks Treason here who is for all that honest at Heart and will make it well appear he is when there is occasion But Therefore it is that his Highness hath thought fit to go over to England and carry with him a Force sufficient by the Blessing of God to defend him from the Violence of Evil Counsellors Unintelligible Language of Declarations of War To Invade us is called Defending Himself and this where there is no fear of an Assault or any danger save from that very Force which he must needs bring to defend him For without it his single Name not guarded so much as by a Footman had found security and veneration all England over After this true account â—f inducing Reasons Reasons if it please his Penmen For nothing looks like a Reason but one viz. Interest his Highness thinks sit to declare his Intentions As if there needed a Declaration to inform us what Pikes and Muskets intend An Army intends nothing but to Master where it comes the very same which the Saxons and Normans and all Invaders from the beginning of the World to this day intended But his Design is a free and lawful Parliament And for a Preparative the annulling of new and returning of old Charters particularly that of the City of London Restoring of former Magistrates addressing Writs a proper Officers And suffering note to chuse or be chosen but such as are qualified by Law. A Man no wiser than I would think that if his Highness designed nothing but this he might very well have staid at home For all these Preparatives were and he knew were made before he went aboard And a free and lawful Parliament had now been sitting or ready of sit if he would have let it Without more ado it is palpably impossible his Highness should come only to do over again what he knew was done to his hand only to get us a Parliament which he will not suffer us to have and this pretence must of necessity cover some Design thought less taking with Englishmen This Parliament his Highness declares shall meet and sit in full freedom but perhaps not act so For the two Houses must it seems prepare Laws to confirm and execute the Test for the security and maintenance of the Protestant Religion and for a good Agreement between the Church of England and all Protestant Dissenters and covering such from Persecution as will live peaceably not excepting Papists But how will his Highness keep his Word if a Parliament should happen to think the Test needs no Confirmation nor Religion more Laws than are already nor that any Laws can make the Church of England and Dissenters agree However it be they love to have it in their power to confirm or alter or abrogate or let the Laws alone as they are according as the good of the Nation shall require without having their Task prescribed They take themselves for Master-Workmen and who can cut out their Work themselves not for bare Journeymen to make up Work cut out by others But I would gladly know what Protestant Religion means in the Mouth of his Highness In the Language of the Country where he was Born and Bred right Protestancy signifies Presbytery and he is said to be surrounded by Men who so understand it whereof some perhaps might have a hand in this Declaration As the Religion or Church Established by Law had been easily said if it had been meant to my thinking the suspicion is vehement that this free Parliament with a Holland Trumpet in the Speakers Chair is to set up Presbytery at least I am very sure it must if that Trumpet sound it and there is but too much reason to expect it will sound here as it does at home especially when there is not the least intimation to the contrary The pretended Invitation of the Spiritual Lords will be well rewarded with a good agreement with their Dissenting Masters and being covered from Persecution provided they hold themselves content and live peaceably But the comfort is nothing can better shew their Invitation is but pretended To