not so nice but it might have been â—een determined by a meaner Critick than our Author who hath shewn his great skill in the French Tongue in his learned Remarques on the Phrase it is a matter extremely sensible to us And in the Latine upon the word Republick or Commonwealth If he had not from hence sought an occasion to call his Majesties Fidelity in question which tho it may become a Republican is very indecent in a good Subject When we see the real fruits of these utmost endeavours to extirpate Popery out of Parliament when we see the Duke of York no longer first Minister or rather Protector of these Kingdoms and his Creatures no longer to have the whole direction of Affairs when we see that love to our Religion and Laws is no longer a Crime at Court no longer a fore-runner of being disgraced and removed from all Offices and Imployments in their Power That is when the Duke of York is ruined and not only his Popish but his Church of England Creatures who have shewn themselves such by Voting against the Bill of Exclusion be laid aside When our Religion which no man knows what it is and that part of the Laws which we skulk behind now to ruine all the rest and the King and Kingdom to boot shall not hinder our Preferment whatever we do or say When the word Loyal which is faithful to the Law shall be restored to its own meaning and no longer signifie one who is for subverting the Laws That is when men may safely pretend so much respect to the Laws that they may affront his Majesty who is the Fountain of all Laws and the Protector of them and us by them when the word Loyal shall have no other relation to his Majesty than the same word if in use there hath in Venice when spoken concerning their Duke When we see the Commissions filled with hearty Protestants that is with Whigs and Republicans and the Laws executed in good earnest against the Papists and the Dissenters passed by unpunished The Discoverers of the Plot countenanced or at least heard and suffered to give their Evidence except when they make bold with our selves and such a Colledge and Fitz-Harris and the Association-men in which cases they ought neither to be heard nor believed The Courts of Justice steady and not avowing a jurisdiction one day which they disown the next but just such as they were in the late times When we see no more Grand-Juries discharged lest they should hear Witnesses nor Witnesses hurried away lest they should inform Grand-Juries tho it were against his Majesty and when all Grand-Juries are of the Family of Ignoramus the Lawyer and will find according to their Conscience tho against both their Oath and their Evidence especially when a Precious man is in jeopardy to be hanged for something done or said against the King When we see no more instruments from Court labouring to raise jealousies of Associating Petitioning Protestants who have a Patent from heaven to retail all the fears and jealousies that ever shall from henceforward be put off in England Scotland and Ireland and in all other his Majesties Dominions and Countries whatsoever And to that purpose have erected several Mints for the Coining of them in London and the parts adjacent and do maintain several Presses and a great many Intelligencers to collect and disperse the same for the benefit of his Majesties discontented Subjects who receive much comfort by the worst and falsest of them and hope to have just such another harvest in the end as they reaped from the same Seed in and about the years 1640 41 42 and so on till 1660. When we see some regard had to Protestants abroad tho his Majesty should be by our defaults brought into such straits as hardly to be able to maintain the Government at home When we observe somewhat else to be meant by Governing according to Law than barely to put them in execution against Dissenters in whom our strength against the Government doth chiefly consist the Laws made against Papists In which number we desire the Church of England men that is all that stick to the Religion by Law Established may be included and then we shall promise our selves not only frequent Parliaments but everlasting ones and all the blessed effects of pursuing Parliamentary Councils the Extirpation of Popery and Prelacy the redress of Grievances the flourishing of Laws and the perfect restoring the Monarchy to the credit which it had in 1658 and 59. both at home and abroad There needs no time to open the Eyes of his Majesties good Subjects the Whigs and their hearts are ready prepared to meet him in Parliament in order to perfect all these good Settlements and Peace which are now wanting in Church and State But whilst there are so many little Emissaries imployed to sow and encrease divisions in the Nation as if the Ministers had a mind to make his Majesty head of a Faction and joyn himself to one Party in the Kingdom who has a just right of Governing all which Thuanus lib. 28. says was the notorious Folly and occasioned the destruction of his great-Grandmother Mary Queen of Scots whilst we see the same differences Promoted industriously by the Court which gave the Rise and Progress to the late troubles and which were once thought fit to be buried in an Act of Oblivion What is meant by the little Emissaries here I know not nor will I guess Nor did I ever observe the Ministers had a mind to make his Majesty the Head of a Faction which your Author much blames in Henry III. of France too when he suffered the Holy League the Prototype of the Association to be set afoot and propagated so far before he took notice of it that he was forced at last to attempt to make himself the Head of it which was properly a Faction combined by an Oath against the Right Heir to the Crown and a part of the Natural Subjects of France on pretence of Religion for the Exclusion of the first and destruction of the latter without and against the consent of the King which caused a Rebellion in France the destruction of the King a sooner Succession of Henry IV. the right Heir upon changing his Religion and if God had not prevented it had betrayed France into the hands of the Spaniards or Cantoned it into small Principalities Now this is properly to make a Prince the head of a Faction without consideration of the Rise of our late Troubles which sprung from such another League but to countenance a Loyal Party more than a Rebellious one is not so and whatever effect it had in the Reign of Queen Mary his Majesties Grandmother seems the only way now to save England and prevent the need of another Act of Oblivion and Indemnity for all those Crimes that were pardoned by his Majesty but never repented of by them that acted them Whilst
to break alone with that Monarch which had tired out all Christendom with a tedious expensive War when they were united against him And therefore the best Expedient that could then have fallen into the Heads of the Commons had been to have shewn him and all the Confederates that we were resolved to have stood by our King with our Lives and Fortunes which would have heartned them on to a stout resistance in case of his further encroachments upon them and in likelihood have kept him in some aw whereas the course that was taken had a quite contrary effect and tended more a thousand times to the discouragement of the Confederates than the fruitless attempt he hints at made by the Earl of Danby who was then in the Tower for it So that I believe all Europe will bear me Witness that all the great things the French King hath since done were in a great measure owing to the disorders of our English Parliaments and their declared resolution of giving the King no Supplies upon reasonable terms which rendered the Alliance and Enmity of our King abroad inconsiderable Amongst the great things the French King hath done since the Peace my Author tells us this His Pensioners at our Court have grown insolent upon it and presumed that now He the French King may be at leisure to assist them the Pensioners in ruining England and the Protestant Religion together And they have shaken off all dread of Parliaments and have prevailed with his Majesty to use them with as little respect and to disperse them with as great contempt as if they had been a Conventicle and not the great Representative of the Nation whose Power and Wisdom only could save him and us in our present Exigencies Surely the man that talks thus contemptuously of his Majesty and all the Ministers durst have told us if he could who were these French Pentioners but it was not his design to point out the men but to cast out general Accusations against the King the Ministers and the whole Government thereby to incense the People and to make them ungovernable that so his Majesty might be the sooner necessitated to submit himself to that Power and Wisdom that could only save him and us but might also easily ruine both if things were once put into such a state as his Majesty were no longer Master of that Power As to the Accusation or rather Calumny that the English Ministers are Pensioners to the French King it will easily appear false to any man that doth but reflect on Colemans Letters in 1674 when the King was in a much better condition to oppose and ruine the French designs and enterprizes and the French King had all the Confederates United and in an Actual War with him and there was nothing to fear or hope for but in England yet he then refused three hundred thousand Pounds tho it was pretended it would have assured the Dissolution of that long Loyal Parliament which France feared more than threescore such as have followed it and when at last Coleman descended to 200000 l. and at one time begged shamefully but for 20000 l. He was denied it Monsieur Rouvigni the French Embassadour usually telling him That if he could be sure of succeeding in that design his Master would give a much larger Sum but that he was not in a condition to throw away money upon uncertainties Nor doth it appear that ever Coleman got one farthing at that time And after the discovery of the Plot and the dissolution of the long Loyal Parliament the general Peace having delivered the French King from all Apprehensions of good or hurt from England His Majesty having such ill success in the first short Westminster Parliament and the Divisions of England appearing more fully in the Election of the Second and the year that passed betwixt that and its sitting all which were as well known in Paris as in London it is not to be doubted but he very well understood that there was then less reason to maintain Pensioners in England than before So that we may conclude from that time there hath come but little French Money over into England for Pensions to any Party England being thought in France so inconsiderable by reason of her Domestick Feuds Fears and incurable Jealousies that there is nothing to be feared or hoped from it whereas Pensions are to be imployed in Potent and United States I do not design by this to prove that no French Pensioners are now maintained in England but that they are few and gain but little by it and therefore it is ridiculous to conceive that all our Ministers of State are such and that they should be such fools as to conspire with France to ruine England for nothing or that which is next to it And it is as silly a supposition that the Privy Council and the rest of the Ministers of State who are not Pensioners should not discover those that are as soon as this discontented Gentleman There is a lewd and impossible conceit spread underhand about the Nation that the King himself is a Pensioner to France and all that is pretended to justifie it is only his being able to subsist so long without Parliamentary Supplies Now this I believe is not credited by any men of understanding but yet there are many such who for ill ends speak it in some companies and will shake their heads and shrug their shoulders and look gravely in other companies that they may seem to fear what they durst not speak Now if what I have said before be applied to this instance it will appear more ridiculous for that Pension that may tempt a hungry Courtier who is to raise a Family would be rejected with scorn if it were tendered to a meaner Prince than ours is And it is not to be thought that the French King who is observed to be as sparing of his Wealth as prodigal of his Souldiers would ever be at such an Expence as to maintain our Court and his own for fear the King should unite with a Parliament that would be an Enemy to France no all knowing men understand how little he cares for England if it were quiet at home but as now things stand he scorns it as beneath his Consideration Well but if neither the Ministers nor his Majesty are to be suspected who are I will tell you that in the words of a more knowing man than I dare pretend to be Those that roar most against French Councils and Measures Vnder-hand-bargains and Agreements between both the Kings know they belye their own Consciences and that the French have us in the last degree of Contempt This the Earl of Danby Printed in his own vindication perhaps not ignorant that some of their Ministers did in the year 1677 and 78. before the breaking forth of the Plot declare That Monsieur L. had greater interest and more Friends in England than the Duke of York that
he was of the Kings Speech I cannot say because it is not in my power to examine those Articles But his mentioning our obligation to assist Spain in the West-Indies and Philippine Islands where it is impossible against the Duke of Brandenburg and the King of Portugal where it would be unjust and against his Protestant Subjects opprest by him as they were by his Grandfather Philip are such things would make a man suspect his sincerity a little and the rather because his Majesty tells us The League was suitable to that which he had before with the States of the Vnited Provinces and they also had with Spain consisting of mutual obligations of Succour and Defence Now the account my Author gives of it is in part so impossible and in the rest so improbable that no Mortal in his right Wits can believe that Spain should desire or England grant any such things And therefore if he had at all expected to have been believed he ought to have Transcribed those three Articles for a proof of what he had said And whereas he tells us it engages us indefinitely to enter into all the quarrels of the Spaniards That if true will bear a fair Construction and will no more oblige us to those things he mentions if they be not express'd nay I think I may say if they be in plain terms than it will to help the King of Spain to destroy our selves in case he should happen to have a quarrel with us hereafter For no League can bind any further than as it is just and possible But that which concerns us yet nearer saith my Author in this League is that this obligation of Assistance was mutual so that if a Disturbance should happen hereafter in England upon any attempt to change our Religion or our Government tho it was in the time of his Majesties Successors The most Catholick King is obliged by this League which we are still to believe was entered into for the security of the Protestant Religion and the good of the Nation to give aid to so pious a design and to make War upon their Majesties the People with all his Forces both by Land and Sea And therefore it was no wonder that the Ministers were not forward in shewing this League to the Parliament who would have soon observed all these inconveniences and have seen how little such a League could contribute to the preserving the General Peace or to the securing of Flanders since the French King may within one months time possess himself of it and we by our League are not obliged to send our Succours till three months after the Invasion so that they would upon the whole matter have been inclined to suspect that the main end of this League was only to serve for a handsom pretence to raise an Army in England and if the People here should grow discontented at it and any little disorders should ensue The Spaniard is thereby obliged to send over Forces to suppress them This is fraught with such rare new Politicks and he has taken such care to make Rebellion safe whether it happens in his Majesties time or in his Successors especially if it were in order to the preservation of our Religion and Government and wo be to the man that begins one on any other pretence that I thought sit to transcribe it intire But Sir whatever the Spaniard hath promised or the Ministers intended against the People must needs come to nothing for you know that his Affairs were lately through the defects of his own Government and the Treachery of our Ministers reduced to so desperate a state that he might well be a Burthen to us but there was little to be hoped for from a friendship with him and therefore as little in hast to be feared from his Forces too if he should be so Popishly inclined as to think it a Pious design to help the King to bring in Arbitrary Government by the handsom pretence of an Army raised for his assistance or that and Popery too in the time of his Majesties Successor to which this Gentleman knows no man better the People have no Maw tho the Ministers have a filthy inclination and therefore cunningly took care by their Treachery to reduce his Affairs whose help they chiefly relied on into that desperate condition we lately see them in Well but for all that he may recover some part of his ancient Power yes who doubts that to hurt us but not to help us And now no man can blame the Ministers that they were not forward in shewing this League to the Parliament who would doubtless have forthwith Addressed to the King against them and ushered it in with a Vote that they were all of them Promoters of Popery and Spanish Counsels and Enemies to the King and Kingdom By this League in seems the King was not obliged to send over any Succours till three months after an Invasion tho it is as plain as the Nose on a mans face that the French King may in one months time possess himself of Flanders He may however take longer time if he please for any care was taken here to prevent it so that if his Majesty had taken a little too long a time to send in his Aids which all things considered few men will think he did yet they that should have backed him in it have taken a longer time and therefore ought not to complain The next thing saith my Author recommended to them was the further Examination of the Plot and every one who have observed what has passed for more than two years together cannot doubt but that this was sincerely desired by such as are most in credit with his Majesty And then surely the Parliament deserved not to be censured upon this account since the Examination of so many new Witnesses the Trial of the Lord Stafford the great preparations for the trial of the rest of the Lords and their diligent inquiry into the Horrid Irish Treasons shew that the Parliament wanted no diligence to pursue his Majesties good intentions in that affair Now Sir If they had but suspended the Bill for disinheriting the Duke of York and their Votes that followed upon the throwing it out in the Lords House and could but have held their hands from sending for their fellow-Subjects into Custody till they had dispatched this great Affair tried all the other Lords in the Tower it is thought by wiser men than I they might have had time enough to have gone through with this business but some body tells us the Plot was to be kept on foot else they would be defeated It was to be used like the Holy War always a doing never done withal till it made way for some other designs that would not go merrily without the noise of a Plot to drive them When his Majesty desired from the Parliament their Advice and assistance concerning the Preservation of Tangier the Commons did
of the French Interest It is not strange at all that the Parliament at Oxford should anger the Court more than that at Westminster for the Court did never yet dissolve a Parliament abruptly and in heat but they found the next Parliament more averse and to insist upon the same things with greater eagerness than the former English Spirits resent no affronts so highly as those that are done to their Representatives and the Court will be sure to find the effects of that resentment in the next Election The truth of this as matter of History is very apparent for so it came to pass in the Reign of his Majesties Father upon every Dissolution the Commons made choice of the same or worse Members till in 1640. they had fitted themselves with a Parliament to their hearts desire who resented not the Affronts done to themselves as the Peoples Representatives but the several Stops and Rubs that had been laid in their way so highly that the Court i e. the King soon felt the effects of it But did the Nation escape No but Bloud and Violence Anarchy and Consusion took possession of them to that height that the pious Martyr called it A Hell of Misery and Chaos of Confusion The Author in the next line acquaints us That a Parliament does ever participate of the present temper of the People Never were Parliaments of more different Complexions than that of 1640. and that of 1661. yet they both exactly answered the humours which were predominant in the Nation when they were respectively chosen It doth not become me to say whether that of 1680. were liker that of 1640. or 1661. but I must needs say I wonder my Author could reflect so sensibly on the difference and yet at the same time heighten the Popular Heats with inculcating the fears of France and Popery and not rather endeavour to allay them by telling his Country-men that twenty years Misery followed the 1640 Parliament and twenty years Peace the latter which I cannot but esteem a more Loyal and a more Prudent reflection than that he hath made and much more necessary both for the Representatives and Electors Let them however now consider seriously of it and the next time send up men zealous to bring the real Incendiaries of the Nation to Justice and then it is not to be doubted but some that are Country Favourites will be found to promote the French and Popish Interest as well as the Republick And I dare then become their Sponsor if it might not look too presumptuously in so mean a person as I am that by Gods mercy we should enjoy another Score of Halsion years to the confusion of Popery and the extreme damage of France Both which do as certainly promote our present distempers as they did those in Charles the First his times as have been made so apparent that the Dissenters who were the Principals then as they are now would fain persuade the world that the Accessaries the French Emisaries and Jesuits did all that mischief that was then done But as this is ridiculous and impossible so if duly considered it might prevent a relapse into the same misery and confusion which is more to be desired by all good Christians than the most delightful revenge upon the Favorites But it is but reasonable to expect all that I can say will signifie but little to this sort of men if the modest Gentleman I am examining may be presumed better acquainted with their tempers than I am For surely saith he this DECLARATION what great things soever may be expected from it will make but very few Converts not only because it represents things as high Crimes which the whole Kingdom the contrary of which is now too apparent to be proved on one hand or denied on the other has been celebrating as meritorious Actions but because the People have been so often deceived by former Declarations that whatsoever carries that Name will have no credit with them for the Future This I confess is one good way to prevent the making too many Converts to Loyalty for if a People can once be effectually persuaded their Governours are faithless perfidious men that seek nothing but an opportunity to delude and abuse them by false pretences there will be no great danger they will pay them too much respect and obedience But surely the man that talks thus is some French Emisary or Jesuit such thoughts as these never arose from a Church of England Gentlemans heart for the worst enemy of England could not have breathed a worse insinuation into the hearts of his Majesties Subjects They have not yet forgot the Declaration from Breda tho others forgot it too soon and do not spare to say that if the same diligence the same earnest solicitations had been made use of in that affair which have been since exercised directly contrary to the design of it there is no doubt but every 〈◊〉 of it would have had its desired effect and all his Majestâ—â—â— Subjects would have enjoyed the fruits of it and 〈…〉 extolling a Prince so careful to keep his Sacred Promise◠〈…〉 People Before this unworthy Insinuation can be 〈…〉 â—â—swered I must transcribe so much of that Declaratio◠〈…〉 here supposed to have sailed of its 〈…〉 followeth And because the Passion and uncharitableness of the times have produced several opinions in Religion by which men are engaged in Parties and Animosities against each other which when they shall hereafter unite in a freedom of Conversation will be better understood we do declare a liberty to tender Consciences and that no man shall be disquieted or called in question for differences of Opinion in matter of Religion which do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom and that we shall be ready to consent to such an Act of Parliament as upon mature deliberation shall be offered to us for the full granting that Indulgence Here is his Majestie Royal Promise wherein ought to be observed that his Majesty promised nothing to any Party that should disturb the peace of the Kingdom Nor to them that did not further than that he would consent to such an Act of Parliament when it should be offered to him So that he was not obliged to procure such an Act nor yet to do it without an Act. And now let us see how they behaved themselves towards him Whilst says his Majesty we continued in this temper of mind and resolution and have so far complied with the persuasion of particular persons and the distemper of the times as to be contented with the exercise of our Religion in our own Chappel according to the constant practice and Laws established without enjoying that practice and the observation of those Laws in the Churches of the Kingdom in which we have undergone the Censure of many as if we were without that zeal for the Church which we ought to have and which by Gods Grace we shall always
sending away his Royal Highness the Duke of York to discern whether Protestant Religion and the peace of the Kingdom be as truly aimed at by others as they are really intended by me c. By which it appears the Union his Majesty here meant was not that Union that was afterwards set on foot in Parliament and I cannot but suspect these words were misrecited of purpose And did not he comand my Lord Chancellour to tell them That it was necessary to distinguish between Popish and other Recusants between them that would destroy the whole flock and them that only wander from it These words are indeed in the Lord Chancellors Speech but with this Preface Neither is there nor hath been these fifteen hundred years a purer Church than ours so 't is for the sake of this poor Church alone that the State hath been so much disturbed It is her Truth and Peace her Decency and Order which they the Plotters and Papists labour to undermine and pursue with so restless a malice and since they do so it will be necessary for us to distinguish between Popish and other Recusants between them that would destroy the whole Flock and them that only wander from it So that whatever distinction his Majesty intended to allow between the Popish and Protestant Recusants it must be such as was consistent with the Truth Peace Decency and Order of the Religion by Law established which I suspect the Project of Union set on foot was not much less the Vote of the tenth of January for the suspending the execution of all Penal Laws made against them as a weakening of the Protestant Interest an encouragement to Popery and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom These things considered we should not think the Parliament went too far but rather that they did not follow his Majesties Zeal with an equal pace At this rate of concluding a man may draw any Conclusion from any premises if he hath a mind to it His Majesty would joyn with them in any course that might tend to the security of the Protestant Religion for the future so as the same extend not to the diminution of his own Prerogative nor to alter the descent of the Crown in the right Line nor to defeat the Succession Therefore when they brought in a Bill to disinherit his Majesties Brother against his expresly declared resolution they did not go too far but rather they did not follow his Majesties Zeal with an equal pace When his Majesty thought it necessary to distinguish betwixt Popish Recusants and Protestant Dissenters that is to favour the latter more than the former they were for taking away all those Laws at once that have distinguished betwixt the Dissenters and the Religion established and giving up this Pure Church into the hands of her bitter Enemies that had but just before bid fair for her ruine as if the only care had been that the Papists might not have had the honour of destroying her and yet we are not to believe they went too far in this neither The truth is if we observe the daily provocations of the Popish Faction whose rage and insolence were only increased by the discovery of the Plot so that they seemed to defie Parliaments as well as inferiour Courts of Justice under the Protection of the Duke their Publickly Avowed Head who still carried on their designs by new and more detestable methods than ever and were continually busie by Perjuries and Subornations to charge the best and most considerable Protestants in the Kingdom with Treasons as black as those of which themselves were guilty If we observe what vile Arts were used to hinder the further discovery what liberty was given to reproach the Discoverers what means used to destroy or corrupt them how the very Criminals were incouraged and allowed to be good Witnesses against their Accusers We should easily excuse an English Parliament thus beset if they had been carried to some little Excesses not justifiable by the Laws of Parliament or unbecoming the wisdom and gravity of an English Senate Now other men may possibly be of another mind and think that if the state of things had been but half so deplorable as they are here described the least Excess had been then inexcusable for there is never more need of gravity than in great and eminent dangers but what I shall say will it is like not be much regarded hear then what the Chancellour of England said The Considerations which are now to be laid before you are as Vrgent and as Weighty as were ever yet offered to any Parliament or indeed ever can be so great and so surprizing have been our Dangers at home so formidable are the appearances of danger from abroad that the most Vnited Counsels the most Sedate and the calmest Temper together with the most dutiful and zealous affections that a Parliament can shew are all become absolutely and indispensably necessary for our preservation So that little excesses are great crimes when men are beset with dangers tho they may be excused in times of Peace and Security if I rightly understand this wise and honourable person But if we come to search into the particulars here enumerated there may possibly arise better Arguments to excuse their Excesses The Popish Faction about that time having tried all other ways to clear themselves of the Plot without any good success fell at last upon another Project which was to start a New Plot. They knew there were in London some Clubbs and Coffee-house-Sets of Presbyterians Old Army Officers discontented Gentlemen and Republicans which had close Cabals and private Meetings and that the Court had a jealous eye upon them as indeed there was good cause for it and out of these materials they thought they might easily raise the structure of a Presbyterian Plot against the State but all the chief men of the Popish Faction being fled imprisoned or executed this grand Design fell into the hands of people of no great either parts or reputation to carry on so difficult an Undertaking and it was not likely neither to be easily believed if it had no other Witnesses but Papists to attest it And it was not possible for them to bring over any other of any reputation in the low estate their affairs then were so that the Contrivance miscarried and only tended to make the Papists more hated than they were before and this is called the Meal-Tub Plot which I should rather have ascribed to the rage and desperation of the Papists than to their Insolence which was then very well abated by the Execution of Coleman Staley the Murtherers of Sir Edmundbury Godfry and the Jesuits which had reduced them to too low a condition to defie the meanest Courts of Justice in the Nation and put them upon those mean and base thoughts of Perjuries and Subornations to avoid that ruine which they saw ready to overwhelm and destroy them But that which
could not hurt the Church of England therefore the Dissenters were to be caressed and cherished that they in a small time might be in a capacity to do it And now if these were not good reasons for the Vote let any impartial man that is any but a Church of England man judge In the midst of such Circumstances was there not cause to think an Union of all Protestants necessary and could they have any just grounds to believe that the Dissenters whilst they lay under the pressures of severe Laws should with such Alacrity and Courage as was requisite undertake the defence of a Country where they were so ill treated Whether this question relates to the French King and the Papists or the Duke and the Civil and Military Officers may be a question and therefore it must be so answered As to the first there was all the reason in the world that they should joyn heartily with the Government against the Papists and French for they could not hope to mend their condition by falling into their hands who they knew would treat them with other manner of severities than those they met with from the Laws if they did not know this any of the French Protestants that fled over 〈◊〉 England might have informed them sufficiently Nâ—w of evils the least is to be chosen and tho their conâ—â—tion had not been equal to their desires yet it had been a madness to have made it worse by delivering up themselves and their Country into the hands of the French and Papists But if it relates to the Duke and the Civil and Military Officers then I hope he will excuse me if I do not think it fit to have another Union of Protestants of that sort again A long and sad Experience had shewed how vain the endeavours of former Parliaments had been to force us to be all of one Opinion and therefore the House of Commons resolved to take a sure way to make us all of one Affection This was the very reason of the Declaration of Liberty of Conscience But how unlike that course was to prevail the Nation had sufficient experience in a few years And Sir I can assure you it is above the power of a House of Commons to unite those men in Affection who differ not only in Opinion but Practice too in matters of Religion For these reasons my Author saith this Vote was made in order to a repeal of them by a Bill to be brought in and presently he grows Pettish and tells us None but a Frenchman could have the confidence to declaim against a proceeding so regular and Parliamentary as this Your humble Servant Sir I pray be a little pacified you may possibly be mistaken as well as another man but would I believe take it a little unkindly to be called Monsieur presently They very first Vote they made that day was this Resolved That whosoever advised his Majesty to Prorogue this Parliament to any other purpose than in order to the passing of a Bill for the Exclusion of James Duke of York is a betrayer of the King the Protestant Religion and of the Kingdom of England a promoter of the French interest and a Pensioner to France So they knew they were to be Prorogued that very day and as the Story goes made more than ordinary haste to pass these Votes Now it was impossible that a Bill should be brought in much less passed in that Session which was to end before night and therefore this was not nor could not be the cause of that Vote and all your little Queries founded upon this supposition are silly and impertinent There was not the least direction or signification to the judges which might give any occasion for the reflection which follows in the Declaration The due and impartial execution of the Laws is the unquestionable duty of the Judges and we hope they will always remember that duty so well as not to necessitate a House of Commons to do theirs by calling them to account for making private instructions the Rule of their judgments and acting as men who have more regard to their Places than their Oaths So the Dissenters may see they are mistaken when they think the Judges or Justices may forbear executing the Laws against them upon the score of this Vote But tho the Judges are sworn to execute all Laws yet there is no obligation upon any man to inform against another No Sir Is not every Grand-Jury man every Constable and Churchwarden sworn to Present the breakers of our Laws as well as the Judges are to punish them And as for the next Conundrams of yours the comparing a parcel of Laws made within twenty years to those Antiquated ones about Caps and Bows and Arrows and killing of Lambs and Calves and your business of Empson and Dudley they are such stuff as a man of half your understanding would have been ashamed to have mensioned in a good cause In the next place my Author acquaints us what are the causes usually of disusing Laws alterations of the Circumstances whereupon a Law was made or if it be against the genious of a People or have effects contrary to the intents of the Maker none of which can be said in this case Nor is that true which follows that the quiet safety or trade of our Nation hath been promoted by the not executing of these Laws as any man may know that can remember but ten years backward And therefore notwithstanding the Vote of the Commons the Judges may act wisely and honestly if they should encourage Informers or quicken Juries by strict and severe Charges For the due and impartial execution of the Laws is the unquestionable duty of the Judges according to my Author and therefore I will hope they shall not be accounted Knaves or Fools for doing their unquestionable duty But then my Author hath another quarrel with the Ministers and that was for numbring this Vote amongst the causes of the Dissolution of that Parliament when the Black Rod was at the door of the House to require them to attend his Majesty at the very time when it was made Well suppose we should grant that this was not one of those Votes that occasioned the Prerogation it not being then made when that was resolved on yet it might occasion their Dissolution which hapned some time after And was not this an excellent time to make Votes for the bringing in of Bills for the Repeal of Laws when the Black Rod was at the door to call the House to a Prorogation After a little anger against the Ministers for arraigning one of the Three Estates in the face of the World for usurping power over the Laws imprisoning their fellow Subjects Arbitrarily exposing the Kingdom to the greatest dangers and indeavouring to deprive the King of all possibility of supporting the Government the man hath forgot how often he hath arraigned the Long Loyal Parliament for a
things have been done but ought they therefore to be reacted As for his railing Accusations brought against his Royal Highness they deserve so much the less consideration because he treats the King at that abominable rate he doth of whose Clemency Justice and Compassion all Europe are Witnesses Having concluded there must be a War he saith Let it be under the Authority of Law let it be against a Banished Excluded Pretender There is no fear of the Consequence of such a War No true Englishman can joyn with him or countenance his Vsurpation after this Act and for his Popish and Forein Adherents they will neither be more provoked nor more powerful by the passing of it This man all along supposeth that neither the Duke nor the King have any natural Hereditary Right to the Crown but talketh as if it were meerly at the pleasure of the People and their Representatives to make what man they please King of England supposing that a Son of an Emperour of Germany or of a King of Poland were passed by or Excluded and should enter a War for the gaining of that Crown to which for want of an Election he had never any legal right he might be stiled a Pretender or an Usurper but in an Hereditary Kingdom it can never be so if according to the before cited opinion of K. James no Act of Parliament can extinguish the Dukes Right which God and Nature hath given him in case the King should die before his Royal Highness without lawful Issue tho it may prevent his obtaining it So that he can never be an Usurper or Pretender till the Monarchy of England is declared to be Elective And this may be thought to be one reason why his Majesty should never yield the point And as for my Authors confidence in the success of such a War it speaks nothing but his earnest desire of one rather than not to have his Will and I hope the Nation will have no occasion to prove him a false Prophet Nor will his Exclusion make it at all necessary to maintain a standing Force for preserving the Government and the peace of the Kingdom The whole People will be an Army for that purpose and every heart and hand will be prepared to maintain that so necessary so much desired Law If all this were true there would be no need of an Army indeed but then there would also be as little need of an Association too for I never heard of a Prince that was able to compel three whole Nations to submit to him against all their Wills and without Forein Aids But Sir the House of Commons thought the latter necessary or else they would never have desired that his Majesty would be likewise Graciously pleased to Assent to an Act whereby his Majesties Protestant Subjects may be enabled to Associate themselves for the defence of his Majesties Person the Protestant Religion and the security of your Kingdoms This was thought as necessary as the Bill of Exclusion and what kind of Association some men intended is well enough understood now by the whole Nation As to his Recrimination upon the Ministers for the two Armies and the Guards let him set his heart at rest for the World is very well satisfied the one were never intended to be kept up and it is hoped the other the Guards will be ever formidable to such Gentlemen as my Author who in kindness to the Queen of Scots Title and the Bill of Exclusion is like a good Protestant contented to insinuate that Queen Elizabeth was a Bastard though born in Matrimony For so she must be if what the Papists say of her having no other Right but only that of an Act of Parliament by which Mary Queen of Scots was Excluded be true In the next Paragraph my Author endeavours to face his Majesty down That nothing was intended by those other ways which were darkly and dubiously intimated in his Majesties Speech unto the Parliament at Oxford and repeated in the Declaration and he saith that his Majesty in his wisdom could not but know that they signified nothing Now this is a strange way of proceeding with Princes and would anger a private man The Regency signified nothing the distinction betwixt the Kings Personal and Politick Capacity was unfeasible the Pope might absolve him from all Oaths as he did King John and Henry III. and it would be more fatal to us when Religion is concerned which was not then in question His Confessor would excite him against us and he who has made use of all the Power he has been intrusted with hitherto for our destruction witness his Naval Wars against the Dutch would certainly Elude all Methods but the Bill of Exclusion and if it were otherwise there was no hopes of having any fruit of any Expedient without a War and to be obliged to swear Allegiance to a Popish Prince to own his Title to acknowledge him supreme Head of the Church and Defender of the Faith seems says my Author a strange way of entitling our selves to fight with him It doth so and therefore all those that are resolved on a War will I suppose never do it But are all these Titles annexed to the Crown as Protestant or as imperial and subject to none but God Did they belong to Henry VIII or did they not And supposing no Expedient should be used would not the Number Constancy and Resolution of the English Nation and Protestants in it preserve the Religion in one Prince's Reign tho of a different Religion without a War The Expedient propounded by his Majesty that if means could be found That in case of a Popish Successâ—r the Administration of the Government might remain in Protestant hands whether it be feasible or no shews an inclination in his Majesty to submit to any thing but what will ruine both him and his Brother as the Bill of Exclusion backed with such an Association as was lately found certainly will In short this Case is beset with so many and great difficulties that it baffles all humane wit and understanding to provide such an Expedient for it as may be secure and satisfie and therefore when all is done that can be done it must be left to God Almighty who only can and will determine it Having denied the charge in the Declaration That there was reason to believe that the Parliament would have passed further to attempt some other great and important changes even at present and according to his wont schooled the King and told the Ministers That they hate Parliaments because their Crimes are such that they have reason to fear them He relents a little and tells us if they the Ministers by that expression meant That the Parliament would have besought the King that the Duke might no longer have the Government in his hands This is a little hard to be understood the Duke not being then in England 2. That his Dependants those that had