a mind to do you good but you must not expect a Monopoly of my Favours I have other Subjects to show my Bounty to and I will give and take back again when and as often as I please If you pretend to command here I 'll find ways to humble you I know of no Master but I will make you know there is a Mistress And take care upon your peril that no hurt be done Bower for I 'll make you answer for him The Misfortune of the Earl of Essex every body knows Though otherways a brave Gentleman and endow'd with excellent Qualities yet he valued himself too much upon the Queen's Favour which together with the Contrivances of his Enemies hurried him on to Courses that in the end lost him his Head A Monarch supported with a Burleigh a Walsingham a Salisbury for the Cabinet a Nottingham a Drake a Raleigh for War with a great many others equally fit for both could scarce fail of being great and fortunate nor can any thing reflect more Lustre upon her Wisdom than her choice of such men Walsingham was a Pattern for all Statesmen to copy after The Character of Sir Francis Walsingham By his Vigilance and Address he preserv'd his Mistress's Crown and Life from daily Attempts and Conspiracies against her and by a refin'd piece of Policy defeated for a whole Year together the Measures Spain had taken for fitting out their Armado to Invade England The vast Preparations that were making for a considerable time in Spain kept all Europe in suspense and it was not certain against whom they were design'd though it was the general Opinion they were to subdue the Netherlands all at once which Spain was sensibâ—e could not be done without a greater Force by Sea as well as Land than had been hitherto employ'd for that Service Queen Elizabeth thought fit to be upon her Guard and had some Jealousies that she might be aim'd at but how to find it out was the difficulty which at length Walsingham overcame He had Intelligence from Madrid That Philip had told his Council that he had dispatch'd an Express to Rome with a Letter writ with his own Hand to the Pope acquainting him with the true Design of his Preparations and asking his Blessing upon it which for some Reasons he would not yet disclose to them till the return of the Courier The Secret being thus lodg'd with the Pope Walsingham by the Means of a Venetian Priest retain'd at Rome as his Spy got a Copy of the Original Letter which was stolen out of the Pope's Cabinet by a Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber who took the Keys out of the Pope's Pocket while he slept How upon this Intelligence Walsingham found a way to retard the Spanish Invasion for a whole Year by getting the Spanish Bills protested at Genoa which should have supplied them with Money to carry on their Preparations being properly a Mercantile Affair is needless here to mention I shall only give one Instance more of Walsingham's dexterity in employing and instructing his Spies how to get him Intelligence of the most secret Affairs of Princes The Court of Queen Elizabeth had reason to have an Eye upon the King of Scots as being the next Heir to the Crown and who they knew was courted with all possible Insinuations into the French Interest In order to fathom King Iames's Intentions there was one Wigmore sent to Scotland who pretending to be disoblig'd in England fled thither for Protection Sir Francis Walsingham gives him above Ten Sheets of Paper of Instructions all writ with his own Hand which I have read in the Cotton Library so distinct and so digested as a Man of far inferior parts to Wigmore could hardly fail to be a Master in his Trade In these Papers he instructs him how to find out King James ' s Natural Temper his Morals his Religion his Opinion of Marriage his Inclinations to Queen Elizabeth to France to Spain to the Hollanders and in short to all his Neighbours He likewise directs him how to behave himself towards the King At Table when a Hunting upon his receiving good or bad News at his going to Bed and indeed in all the Publick and Private Scenes of his Life Walsingham was not mistaken in his Man for though there past a constant Correspondence betwixt them Wigmore liv'd in the greatest Favour and Familiarity with King Iames for Nine or Ten Years together without the least Suspicion of his being a Spy Walsingham also laid the Foundation of the Civil Wars in France and the Low Countries which put a final stop to the vast Designs of the House of Austria Upon which occasion he told the Queen at his Return from his Embassy to France That she had no reason to fear the Spaniard for though he had a strong Appetite and a good Digestion he had given him such a Bone to pick as would take him up Twenty Years at least and break his Teeth at last So her Majesty had no more to do but to throw into the Fire he had kindled some English Fuel from time to time to keep it burning This Great Man after all the Services he had perform'd for his Queen and Countrey gave a remarkable Proof at his Death how far he had preâ—err'd the Publick Interest to his own for he died so poor that his Friends were oblig'd to bury him privately in the Night for fear his Body should be arrested for Debt A Fault which few Statesmen since his time have been guilty of Such Ministers also for Capacity and Application were Cecil Lord Burleigh and his Son the Earl of Salisbury the Inheritor of his Father's great Qualities and Places How refin'd a Politician he was and how throughly acquainted with the most secret Designs of Foreign Courts cannot be better express'd than in the words of the same Nauntwell Appendix Numb 2. to which the Reader is referr'd But to return to Queen Elizabeth It appears by her whole Conduct she had no Inclination to Marriage being loth to share her Power with any other It 's true she seem'd sometimes to give Ear to Propositions that were made her by several Princes but this was done either to gain time or manage their Friendship to her own Ends. When the Parliament address'd her to Marry she handsomly excus'd her self in a Pathetick Speech concluding with this Expression To me said she it shall be a full satisfaction â—oth for the Memorial of my Name and for my Glory also if when I shall let my last Breath it be engraven upon my Marble Tomb Here lies Elizabeth who reign'd a Virgin and dy'd one The whole Speech is of so Noble a Strain Appendix Numb 3. that it deserves a place in the Appendix She was very sparing of Honours insomuch that Sir Francis Walsingham had been employ'd in several Embassies and other Matters of State for many Years before she could be prevail'd with to make him a Knight notwithstanding it appears that
egregiously imposâ—d upon for there was no way to come at the Town but through Parts of Germany that were in the hands of Spain and so the Spaniards continued Masters of Frankendale When several other Princes were some time after upon entring into a League for Restitution of the Palatinate and the House of Austria was beginning to doubt the Success Gundomar play'd another Engine to break their Measures by proposing a Match with the Infanta of Spain for the Prince of Wales as the easiest and surest way to restore the Palatine Family which like all the rest was only to amuse King Iames and was equally unsuccessful It were too long to give the Detail of King Iames's Conduct in this Affair which was all of a piece The Author sums up the ills that attended it in this That thereby the Protestant Religion was entirely rooted out of Bohemia the Electoral Dignity transferr'd from the Palatine Family the Palatinate it self lost the Liberty of Germany overthrown and which he mentions with a sensible Regret the famous Library of Heidelburgh was carried to Rome to the irreparable Prejudice of Learning So that Gundomar had good reason to say in one of his Letters to the Duke of Lerma printed in the History of that Duke's Life That he had lull'd King James so fast asleep that he hop'd neither the Cries of his Daughter nor her Children nor the repeated Sollicitations of his Parliament and Subjects in their behalf should be able to awaken him There are two Passages more very observable in this Author The Court of Spain finding King Iames had broke off the Spanish Match and was brought to see how egregiously he had been abus'd in it they ventur'd upon a bold Attempt to trouble his Affairs by whispering in his Ears some things to make him jealous of his Son And that a good while after when King Charles and his Parliament were entring upon vigorous Measures to espouse the Palatine Cause they found ways to sow Divisions between him and his People that in progress of time broke out into a Civil War The latter needs no Commentary and the former is sufficiently explain'd Hacket's Life of Bâ— William by what a late Author has writ in the Life of Bishop Williams concerning that Prelate's being instrumental in making up some secret differences betwixt King Iames and his Son the Prince of Wales a little before King Iames's Death Spanhemius sums up what relates to this Affair with this Remark That never Prince was more oblig'd to a Sister than King Charles the First was to the Queen of Bohemia since it was only the Consideration of her and her Children who were then the next Heirs to the Crown of England that prevail'd with the Court of Spain to permit him to see England again As in most Foreign Transactions King Iames was unhappy In the Interdict of Venice so more particularly in the difference between Pope Paul V. and the Venetians There appear'd at that time a wonderful Disposition in that State to work a Reformation in the Church and throw off the Papal Yoke In order to advance it King Iames dispatch'd Sir Henry Wotton his Ambassador to Venice and hearing that Spain had declar'd for the Pope he declar'd for the Venetians and acquainted Iustiniani their Ambassador in England That he would not only assist Them with all the Forces of his Kingdom but engage all his Allies in their Defence At Sir Henry Wotton's Arrival the Breach between the Pope and the Republick was brought very near a Crisis so that a total Separation was expected not only from the Court but the Church of Rome which was set on by the Learned Padre Paulo and the Seven Divines of the State with much Zeal and conducted with as great Prudence The Ambassador at his Audience offer'd all possible Assistance in his Master's Name and accus'd the Pope and Papacy of being the chief Authors of all the Mischiefs in Christendom This was receiv'd with great Deference and Respect to King Iames And when the Pope's Nuncio objected That King Iames was not a Catholick and so was not to be rely'd upon the Doge took him up briskly and told him That the King of England believ'd in Iesus Christ but he did not know in whom some others believ'd King Iames had sent with Wotton his Premonition to all Christian Princes and States translated into Latin to be presented to the Senate which Padre Paulo and the other Divines press'd might be done at his first Audience telling him they were confident it would have a very good effect The Ambassador could not be prevail'd with alledging he had positive Orders to wait till St. Iames's Day which was not far off This Conceit of presenting K. Iames's Book on St. Iames's Day spoil'd all for before that day came the Difference was made up and that happy Opportunity lost So that when he had his Audience on St. Iames's Day and had presented the Book all the Answer he got was That they thank'd the King of England for his good will but they were now reconcil'd to the Pope and that therefore they were resolv'd not to admit of any Change in their Religion according to their Agreement with the Court of Rome How little Reputation he acquir'd in the Matter of the Venetian Interdict appears yet more plainly in this That in all the numerous Collections we have of Letters that pass'd on that Subject between the Cardinals of Ioyeuse and Perron the Marquis de Fresnes and Henry IV. there is not the least notice taken of King Iames or his Embassy To have done with King Iames it was said That he divided his time betwixt his Standish his Bottle and his Hunting The last had his fair Weather the two former his dull and cloudy and therefore that it was no wonder his Writings were so variable and that after he had pleaded for Witchcraft and the Pope's being Antichrist Somerset's Affair and the Spanish Match cur'd him of both After having enjoy'd for the most part of his Life a firm Health he died of a Quartan Ague in the Fifty ninth Year of his Age and with such suspicious Circumstances as gave occasion of Enquiry into the manner of his Death in the two first Parliaments that were call'd by his Son all which came to nothing by reason of their sudden Dissolutions King Charles the First came to the Crown under all the Disadvantages that have been mention'd The Reign of King Charlâ—s I. and yet the Nation might have hop'd that their Condition would be mended under a Prince of so much Virtue as indeed he was if the Seeds of Discontent which were sown in his Father's time had not every day taken deeper Root and acquir'd new Growth through the Ill Management of his Ministers rather than any Wilful Errors of his own Some of them drove so fast that it was no wonder the Wheels and Chariot broke And it was in great part to the indiscreet Zeal of a
nothing short of Strafford or Falkland the Two most Celebrated Pens of that time As to his Religion he was Protestant and in the strictest sense of the Church of England and for the Divine Right of Episcopacy But his consenting personally to the total Abolition of that Order in Scotland does not well agree with this part of his Character especially considering his repeated Protestations at the Treaties of Vxbridge and Newport That he could not supersede it but for a time in England What his Opinion was about Subjects defending their Religion and Liberties by Force of Arms appear'd in the business of Rochell For though some would have had us believe of late That Defensive Arms were inconsistent with the Principles of the Church of England it 's hop'd they will not deny but King Charles I. understood the Doctrine and Principles of that Church as well as any other Person can pretend to do and yet its certain that in his Practice and Declarations he allow'd of the People of Rochell's vindicating their Religion and Liberties from the Encroachments made by their Sovereign and that by Force of Arms and assisted them in so doing King Charles did not only assist the Rochellers after the War was actually begun His assisting the Rochellers but we have reason to believe that he encourag'd them to it at first if we look into the Duke of Rhoan 's Memoirs and Apology where that Great Man acquaints the World in what manner he was brought into that War in these words as near as I can translate them from the Original When all our Privileges says he were violated and our Religion brought to Ruin and the City of Rochell in the greatest Danger I could see no possibility to escape but was upon the sad thoughts of submitting our selves to the Mercy of the King meaning Lewis the XIIIth Being in this desperate state there came a Gentleman to me from the King of England who told me from his Master That he seeing our Privileges were violated and our Religion in danger of being subverted had taken compassion on our Sufferings and thought himself oblig'd in Honour and Conscience to assist and protect us which he was resolv'd to do by employing all his Kingdoms and his own Person in so just a War Provided we would join our Arms with his and not enter into any Treaty with the King meaning the French King without him and for that effect he would make War against the French King both by Sea and Land Intreating me continues the Duke of Rhoan not to abandon my Party in so just and honourable a War And a little after in the same Apology he has these words I refer it to all the World if I can be justly call'd the Author of the Third War considering I was sollicited to it by the King of Great Britain But suppose there were no Credit to be given to the Duke of Rhoan whose Honour and Veracity even his very Enemies never call'd in question and suppose it were false which all the World knows to be true that King Charles did actually assist the Rochellers again and again against their Prince yet we have Authentick Accounts of several Speeches made by the Duke of Buckingham's Secretary to the Rochellers and of several Messages sent to them from the Duke in name of the King his Master all to the same purpose And likewise a Manifesto publish'd by him and sign'd with his own Hand dated Iuly 21. 1627. aboard the Admiral Ship in which he has this Expression No private Interest says he has oblig'd my Master to make War against the French King but merely the Defence of the Protestant Church My Master's design is the Re-establishment of the Church their Good is his Interest and their Contentment his End We have also Authentick Copies of the League betwixt King Charles and the People of Rochell in which there is this Expression That the Rochellers may be deliver'd from the Oppressions they groan under And to sum up all there were two Letters writ by King Charles with his own Hand to the Rochellers which are mention'd by Monsieur Mervault a Syndic of that Town and who was active in the whole matter and present during the whole Siege of which the Copies follow To the Mayor Sheriffs Peers and Burgesses of the City of Rochell Gentlemen BE not discouraged though my Fleet be return'd Hold out to the last for I am resolv'd that my whole Fleet shall perish rather than you be not reliev'd For this effect I have order'd It to return back to your Coasts and am sending several Ships to reinforce it With the Help of God the Success shall be happy for you At Westminster May 19. O. S. 1628. Your Good Friend CHARLES R. The other Letter directed as before runs thus Gentlemen I Have been very much troubled to hear that my Fleet was upon the point of returning home without obeying my Orders in supplying you with Provisions cost what it will I have commanded them to return to your Road and not to come away until you are supply'd or at least till they are reinforc'd which I have order'd to be done with all diligence Assure your selves That I shall never abandon you and that I shall employ the whole Power of my Kingdom for your deliverance until God assist me to obtain for you an assured Peace Given at our Palace of Westminster May 27. O. S. 1628. Your Good Friend CHARLES R. I have dwelt the longer upon this Subject because it is easy to draw a Parallel betwixt this Case of King Charles's assisting Subjects against their King in the Defence of their Religion and Liberties and that of another Prince's doing the same upon a late occasion But as the former had no other Right to interpose in the one but the common Interest of Religion so the other had over and above that the Right of a Prince of the Blood and the Interest of the Presumptive Heir of the Crown all which alter'd the Case greatly to the advantage of the latter King Charles was as unfortunate in this War with France as he was in all others he engag'd in The poor City of Rochell after a long and Cruel Siege amidst the Horrors of Famine and Death was at last forc'd to submit to the Will of the Conqueror and the loss of that Bulwark of the French Liberty was in some time follow'd by the total Ruin of the Protestant Interest in France The English Fleet lay within view of the Town when it was taken and which added to the Misfortune that mighty Dyke that had been rais'd at inestimable Charges to block up the Harbour fell down the very next day after the Surrender and open'd a Passage for the Fleet that came to relieve it when it was now too late During this War he lost his Favourite The Character of the D of Buckingham George Villiers Duke of Buckingham This Gentleman was one of the greatest Prodigies of Fortune that
me and having formerly serv'd me on several Occasions and always approv'd the Loyalty of their Principles by their Practices I think them now fit to be Employ'd under me and will deal plainly with you That after having had the benefit of their Services in such time of need and danger I will neither expose them to Disgrace nor my self to the Want of them if there should be another Rebellion to make them necessary to me And at last he tells them That he was afraid some may hope that a difference might happen betwixt Him and his Parliament on that occasion which he cannot apprehend can befal him or that any thing can shake them in their Loyalty to him who will ever make all returns of kindness and protection and venture his Life in the Defence of the true Interest of the Nation It was no wonder That this Speech surpriz'd a people who valu'd themselves so much upon their Liberties and thought themselves secure of them both from the Constitution of their Government and the solemn repeated promises of their Prince They found too late that their fears in the former Reign of a Popish Successor were too well grounded and how inconsistent a Roman Catholick King is with a Protestant Kingdom The Parliament did in humble manner represent the inconvenience that might attend such Measures The Parliaments Address to K. Iames upon that Speech at least to render him inexcusable for what might Ensue And that they might not be wanting to themselves and their Posterity they Voted an Address wherein they told him That they had with all duty and readiness taken into Consideration His Majesty's Gracious Speech And as to that part of it relating to the Officers of the Army not qualified for their Employment according to the Act of Parliament they did out of their bounden duty humbly Represent to His Majesty That these Officers could not by Law be capable of their Employments and that the Incapacities they bring upon themselves that way could no ways be taken off but by an Act of Parliament Therefore out of that great Reverence and Duty they ow'd to His Majesty they were preparing a Bill to indemnify them from the inconveniences they had now incurr'd And because the continuing them in their Employments may be taken to be a dispensing with Law without an Act of Parliament the consequence of which was of the greatest concern to the Rights of all his Subjects and to all the Laws made for the security of their Religion Therefore they most humbly beseech His Majesty That he would be graciously pleas'd to give such Directions therein that no Apprehensions or Iealousies might remain in the hearts of his Subjects Over and above what was contain'd in this Address the House of Commons were willing to capacitate by an Act of Parliament such a Number of the Roman Catholick Officers as King Iames should give a List of But both this Offer and the Address was highly resented and notwithstanding that they were preparing a Bill for a considerable Supply to Answer his extraordinary Occasions and had sent to the Tower one of their Members for speaking indecently of his Speech King Iames was influenc'd to part with this his first and only Parliament in displeasure upon the Fourth day after they presented the Address As his former Speeches to his Council and Parliament had put a Foreign Court to a Stand what to think of him so this last put them out of pain and convinc'd them he was intirely Theirs Their sense of it can hardly be better express'd than in a Letter from Abroad contain'd in the Appendix Appendix Numb 17. which by its Stile though in another Hand seems to be from the same Minister that writ the two former In which he tells the Ambassador here That he needed not a surer Character of King James and his Intentions than this last Speech to the Parliament by which they were convinc'd of his former Resolution to throw off the Fetters which Hereticks would impose upon him and to act for the time to come En Maistre as Master A word till then altogether Foreign to the English Constitution What other Effects this Speech had upon the Minds of People at Home and Abroad may be easily guess'd from the different Interests they had in it Nor is it to be pass'd over without some Remark That the Revocation of the Edict of Nants which probably had been some time under Consideration before was now put in Execution to the Astonishment of all Europe The Parliament being dissolv'd and no visible means left to retrieve the Liberties of England King Iames made haste to accomplish the Grand Design which a head strong Party about him push'd on as the certain way in their opinion to Eternize his Name in this World and to merit an Eternal Crown in the other They foresaw that this was the Critical Iuncture and the only one that happen'd since the days of Queen Mary to Restore their Religion in England And if they were wanting to themselves in making use of it the prospect of a Protestant Successor would infallibly prevent their having any such opportunity for the future King Iames was pretty far advanc'd in years and what was to be done requir'd Expedition for all their labour would be lost if he should die before the accomplishment If he had been Younger or the next presumptive Heir had not been a Protestant there had been no such absolute necessity for Dispatch But the Uncertainty of the King's Life call'd for more than ordinary diligence in a Design that depended meerly upon it The Party being resolv'd for these Reasons to bring about in the Compass of one Single Life and that already far spent what seem'd to be the Work of a whole Age they made large steps towards it Roman-Catholicks were not only Employ'd in the Army but brought into Places of greatest Trust in the State The Earl of Clarendon was forthwith remov'd from the Office of Privy-Seal and the Government of Ireland to make room for the Earl of Tyrconel in the one and the Lord Arundel in the other Father Peters a Iesuit was sworn of the Privy Council And though by the Laws it was High-Treason for any to assume the Character of the Pope's Nuncio A Pope's Nuncio in England yet these were become too slender Cobwebs to hinder a Roman Prelate to appear publickly at London in that Quality Duke of Somerset and one of the greatest Peers of England was disgrac'd for not paying him that Respect which the Laws of the Land made Criminal To bear the Publick Character of Ambassador to the Pope An Ambâ—ssador sent to Rome was likewise an open Violation of the Laws But so fond was the governing Party about King Iames to show their new-acquir'd Trophies at Rome that the Earl of Castlemain was dispatch'd thither Extraordinary Ambassador with a Magnificent Train and a most Sumptuous Equipage What his Secret Instructions were may be
partly guess'd by his Publick ones which were To Reconcile the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland to the Holy See from which they had for more than an Age fallen off by Heresy Innocent XI And slighted by the Pope receiv'd this Embassy as one that saw further than those who sent it The Ambassador had but a cold Reception of the Holy Father and none of the Cardinals but those of a particular Faction and the good-natur'd Cardinal of Norfolk took any further notice of it than Good Manners oblig'd them The Court of Rome were too refin'd Politicians to be impos'd upon with Show and Noise and knew the World too well to expect great Matters from such hasty ill-tim'd Advances as were made to them Not only so but Innocent having an Aversion in his Nature to a Faction he knew King Iames was embark'd in which he never took pains to dissemble was not over-fond of an Embassy from a Prince who was in an Interest he had long wish'd to see humbled King Iames met with nothing but Mortifications at Rome in the Person of his Ambassador which occasion'd his making as short a Stay as was possible In which may be seen the vast difference there was at that time betwixt the Politicks of Italy and those of a head-strong Party in England And however the World has been impos'd upon to believe that the Pope's Nuncio at the English Court who is since made a Cardinal was an Instrument to push on things to extremities yet certain it is he had too much good sense to approve of all the Measures that were taken and therefore desir'd often to be recall'd lest he should be thought to have a hand in them Although the Earl of Castlemain was pleas'd upon his Examination before the Parliament to say that his Embassy to Rome was only such as is between Two Temporal Princes about Compliment and Commerce yet Father Warner in his Manuscript History quoted by a Learned Author * Dr. Gee's Animadversions on the Iesuits Memorial for the Intended Reformation of England under the first Popish Prince London 1690. gives us another account of it in these words Things being thus setled says he within the Realm the next care his Majesty had was to unite his Countries to the Obedience of the Bishop of Rome and the Apostolick See which had been cut off by Heresy about an Age and a half before To try the Pope's Inclination In the Year 1685. he sent Mr. Carryl thither who succeeding according to his Wishes and being recall'd the Earl of Castlemain was sent the next Year as Extraordinary Ambassador to the Pope in the Name of the King and the Catholicks of England to make their Submission to the Holy See Castlemain had several Audiences of the Pope but to little purpose for whenever he began to talk of Business the Pope was seasonably attack'd with a Fit of Coughing which broke off the Ambassador's Discourse for that time and oblig'd him to retire These Audiences and Fits of Coughing continued from time to time while Castlemain continued at Rome and were the subject of diversion to all but a particular Faction at that Court. At length he was advis'd to come to Threats and to give out that he would be gone since he could not have an opportunity to treat with the Pope about the Business he came for Innocent was so little concern'd for the Ambassador's Resentment that when they told him of it he answer'd with his ordinary Coldness E bene se vuol andarsene ditegli adonque che si levi di buon matino al fresco e che a mezzo giorno si reposi per che in questi paesi non bisogna viaggiare al caldo del giorno Well! let him go and tell him It were fit he rise early in the Morning that he may rest himself at Noon for in this Countrey it 's dangerous to travel in the Heat of the Day In the end he was recall'd being able to obtain of the Pope two trifling Requests only that could hardly be denied to an ordinary Courier The one was a License for the Mareschal d' Humiers's Daughter to marry her Vncle Mercure Historick pour Iune 1687. And the other a Dispensation of the Statutes of the Iesuits Order to Father Peters to enjoy a Bishoprick The want of which says my Author was the reason that the Archbishoprick of York was kept so long vacant Though the Pope carried himself in this manner towards the English Ambassador The Jesuits Noble Entertainment of the English Ambassador at Rome yet the Iesuits paid him the highest Respect imaginable which did him no service with the Old Man for He and That Order were never hearty Friends They entertain'd him in their Seminary with the greatest Magnificence and nothing was wanting in Nature or Art to grace his Reception All their Stores of Sculpture Painting Poetry and Rhetorick seem to have been exhausted upon this Entertainment And though all the Inscriptions and Emblems did center upon the Triumph of the Romish Religion and the Ruin of Heresy in England yet Care was taken not to omit such particular Trophies and Devices as were adapted to their new-acquir'd Liberty of setting up their Publick Schools at London Among a great many other Panegyricks upon King Iames the following Distich was plac'd below an Emblem of England Restituit Veterem tibi Religionis honorem Anglia Magnanimi Regis aperta sides The open Zeal of this Magnanimous King has restor'd to England its Ancient Religion There was also this Inscription put round King Iames's Picture Potentissimo Religiosissimo Magnae Britanniae REGI JACOBO II. Generosâ Catholicae Fidei Confessione Regnum Auspicanti ET INNOCENTIO XI P. M. Per Legatum Nobilissimum Sapientissimum D. Rogerium Palmerium Comitem de Castelmain Obsequium deferenti Collegium Romanum Regia Virtutâ—m Insignia dedicat To the most Potent and most Religious JAMES the Second King of Great Britain beginning his Reign with the Generous Confession of the Catholick Faith AND Paying his Obedience to Pope INNOCENT XI By the most Noble and most Wise D. Roger Palmer Earl of Castlemain The Roman College Dedicates These Royal Emblems of his Virtues In the Great Hall the Ambassador was Harangued by the Rector of the College in a Latin Speech which to show the vain Hopes they had of King Iames and their own Fortune at that time is plac'd in the Appendix Appendix Numb 18. Nouveau Voyage d' Italie Edit 3. Tom. 2. Par Monsicur Misson with a Translation of it into English Referring the Reader for the rest of that Solemnity to an Ingenious Gentleman that was then upon the Place and has given a particular Account of it But yet it may not be amiss to mention what the same Gentleman tells us of a Device that related to King Iames's having a Son which was A Lilly from whose Leaves there distill'd some Drops of Water which as the Naturalists say
Error too late and found they had been us'd but as Tools to prevent the Dissenters from uniting with the Church of England whenever the common Danger should come to threaten both This Toleration could not subsist K. Iames grants a Toleration of Religion being contrary to the Establish'd Laws of the Realm unless a new Monster was introduc'd to give it life under the Name of a Dispensing Power When King Iames came to assume to himself this Power as his Prerogative and Right he unhindg'd the Constitution all at once for to Dispense with Laws already made is as much a part of the Legislature as the making of new ones And therefore in aarogating to himself such a Dispensing Power he invaded the very Essence of the English Constitution by which the Legislature is lodg'd in King Lords and Commons and every one of them has a Negative upon the other two Charles II. was the first King of England that ever aim'd at any thing like a Dispensing Power In the Year 1662. he was prevail'd upon for some Reasons of State to issue out a Proclamation dispensing with some few things that related to the Act of Vniformity but without the least regard to Roman-Catholicks And though in his Speech to the Parliament upon that occasion he did in a manner acknowledge that he had no such Power in saying That if the Dissenters would demean themselves peaceably and modestly he could heartily wish he had such a Power of Indulgence to use upon occasion Yet the Parliament was so jealous of this Innovation that they presented the King with an Address against the Proclamation and plainly told him That he had no Power to dispense with the Laws without an Act of Parliament King Charles made another Attempt of the like nature in the Year 1672 and in a Speech to Both Houses did mention his Declaration of Indulgence and acquainted them with the Reasons that induc'd him to it telling them withal how little the Roman Catholicks would be the better for it Upon which the House of Commons made an Address to him for recalling this Declaration Wherein they plainly told him That in claiming a Power to dispense with Penal Laws his Majesty had been very much misinform'd since no such Power was ever claim'd or exercis'd by any of his Predecessors and if it should be admitted might tend to the interrupting of the free course of the Laws and altering the Legislative Power which has always been acknowledg'd to reside in his Majesty and his Two Houses of Parliament King Charles was so far satisfied in the matter contain'd in this Address that he immediately thereupon cancell'd his Declaration of Indulgence and order'd the Seal to be torn off and acquainted both Houses That he had done so with this further Declaration which was enter'd upon Record in the House of Lords That it should never be drawn into Example or Consequence The next that attempted such a Dispensing Power though of a far larger Extent was King Iames as has been said And how any thing that look'd that way was relish'd by the House of Commons does appear by their Address against the Roman Catholick Officers which also has been mention'd It was not enough for King Iames to assume this Dispensing Power And assumes a dispensing Power and to act by it but such was the Misery and hard Fate of England that the Party about the King would hâ—ve had us believe That a Power in the King to dispense wiâ—h Laws was Law To maintain this Monstrous Position there were not only Mercenary Pens set a-work but a Set of Iudges found out that to their Eternal Reproach did all was possible for them to Compliment the King with the Liberties of their Countrey For these Gentlemen gave it for Law That the Laws of England are the King's Laws That therefore it 's an incident inseparable Prerogative of the Kings of England as of all other Sovereign Princes to dispense with all Penal Laws in particular Cases and upon particular necâ—ssary Reasons That of those Reasons and Necessities the King is the sole Iudge And which is a Consequent thereupon That this is not a Trust invested in or granted to the King but the Ancient Remains of the Sovereign Power of the Kings of England which never was yet taken from them nor can be Thus were we fallen under the greatest Misfortune that can possibly happen to a Nation To have our Laws and Constitution trampled upon under colour of Law And those very Men whose Office it was to support them became now the Betrayers of them to the Will of the Prince This mighty Point being gain'd or rather forc'd upon us the Roman-Catholicks were not wanting to make the best use of it for themselves The free and open Exercise of their Religion was set up every where and Jesuit Schools and Seminaries erected in the most considerable Towns The Church of England had now but a Precarious Title to the National Church and Romish Candidates had swallow'd up its Preferments and Dignities already in their Hopes Romish Bishops were publickly Consecrated in the Royal Chappel and dispatch'd down to exercise their Episcopal Function in their respective Diocesses Their Pastoral Letters directed to the Lay-Catholicks of England were openly dispers'd up and down and printed by the King 's own Printer with Publick License The Regular Clergy appear'd in their Habits in Whitehall and St. Iames's and made no scruple to tell the Protestants They hop'd in a little time to walk in Procession through Cheapside A mighty Harvest of New Converts was expected and that Labourers might not be wanting Shoals of Priests and Regulars were sent over from beyond Sea to reap it The only Step to Preferment was to be of the King's Religion And to preach against the Errors of Rome was the height of Disloyalty because forsooth it tended to alienate the Subjects Affections from the King An Order was directed to the Protestant Bishops about Preaching which was upon the matter forbidding them to defend their Religion in the Pulpit when it was at the same time attack'd by the Romish Priests with all the Vigor they were capable of both in their Sermons and Books This Order was taken from a Precdent in Queen Mary's time for the first Step she made to introduce Popery notwithstanding her Promises to the Gentlemen of Suffolk and Norfolk to the contrary upon their appearing first of any for her Interest upon the Death of her Brother was to issue out a Proclamation forbidding the Preaching upon controverted Points of Religion for fear it was said of raising Animosities among the people But notwithstanding this insnaring Letter of K. Iames's the Clergy of the Church of England were not wanting in their Duty For to their Immortal Honour they did more to vindicate the Doctrine of their own Church and expose the Errors of the Church of Rome both in their Sermons and Writings than ever had been done either at Home or Abroad since
Attainder past in Parliament in order to which evey Member of the House of Commons return'd the Names of all such Protestant Gentlemen as liv'd near them or in the County or Borough for which he serv'd and if he was Stranger to any of them he sent to the Countrey for Information about them When this Bill was presented to the King for his Assent the Speaker of the House of Commons told him That many were attainted in that Act upon such Evidence as satisfied the House and the rest upon common Fame In this Act there were no fewer Attainted than Two Archbishops One Duke Seventeen Earls Seven Countesses Twenty eight Viscounts Two Viscountesses Seven Bishops Eighteen Barons Thirty three Baronets Fifty one Knights Eighty three Clergymen Two thousand one hundred eighty two Esquires and Gentlemen And all of them unheard declar'd and adjudg'd Traytors convicted and attainted of High Treason and adjudg'd to suffer the pains of Death and Forfeiture The famous Proscription of Rome during the last Triumvirate came not up in some respects to the Horror of this for there were condemn'd in this little Kingdom more than double the Number that were proscrib'd through the vast Bounds of the Roman Empire And to make this of Ireland yet the more terrible and to put the Persons Attainted out of a possibility of escaping the Act it self was conceal'd and no Protestant allow'd a Copy of it till Four Months after it was past Whereas in that of Rome the Names of the Persons proscrib'd were affix'd upon all the Publick Places of the City the very day the Proscription was concerted and thereby opportunity was given to many of the Noblest Families in Rome to preserve themselves by a speedy flight for better Times There remain'd but one Kingdom more for the Romish Party to act their Designs in and that was Scotland where they reap'd a full Harvest of their Hopes and there were scarce left the least Remains of Ancient Liberty in that Nation Their Miseries were summ'd up in one new-coin'd Word which was us'd in all the King's Declarations and serv'd to express to the full their Absolute Slavery which was this That his Subjects were oblig'd to obey him without Reserve A Word that the Princes of the East how Absolute soever they be did never yet pretend to in their Stile whatever they might in their Actions But I leave the Detail of the Encroachments that were made upon the Laws and Liberties of that Kingdom to others that may be thought more impartial as having suffer'd less in their Ruins While King Iames was thus push'd on by a headstrong Party The Interest that Foreign Princes and States had in England to enslave his Subjects the other Princes and States of Europe look'd on with quite different Sentiments according as their own Interests and Safety mov'd them The greater part did commiserate the Fate of these Three Kingdoms and wish'd for their Deliverance The Protestants saw with Regret that they themselves were within an immediate Prospect of losing the most considerable Support of their Religion and both they and the Roman-Catholicks were equally convinc'd that it was their common Interest to have England continue in a condition to be the Arbiter of Christendom especially at a time when they saw they most needed it On the other hand it was the Interest of another Prince that not only the King of England should be his Friend but the Kingdom of England should become inconsiderable abroad which it could not fail to be when enslav'd at home King Iames had been again and again sollicited not only by Protestant Princes but those of his own Religion to enter into other Measures for the common Safety of Europe at least not to contribute to its Ruin by espousing an Interest which they judg'd was opposite to it The Emperor among others had by his Ambassador made repeated Instances to him to this purpose but with no better Success than the rest as appears by a Letter he writ to him after his Abdication The Emperor's Letter to K. Iames in Latin printed at London 1689. which has been Printed in several Languages and was conceiv'd in Elegant Latin as all the Publick Dispatches of that Court are But all these Remonstrances had no weight with King Iames though they had this good effect in the end as to put those Princes and States upon such Measures as secur'd to them the Friendship of England in another way The Power of France was by this time become the Terror and Envy of the rest of Europe and that Crown had upon all sides extended its Conquests The Empire Spain and Holland seem'd to enjoy a precarious Peace while the common Enemy of the Christian Name was making War with the Emperor and the State of Venice and was once very near being Master of the Imperial Seat whereby he might have carried the War into the Bowels of Germany The main Strength of the Empire being turn'd against the Turks and that with various Success there was another War declar'd against the Emperor by France so that it came to be absolutely necessary for Spain and Holland to interpose not as Mediators for that they were not to hope for but as Allies and Partners in the War These last as well as the other Princes and States that lay nearest the Rhine were expos'd to the Mercy of a Prince whom they were not able to resist if England should look on as Neuters or take part against them the last of which they had reason to fear Thus it happen'd that the Fortune of England and that of the greatest part of Christendom came to be link'd together and their common Liberties must of necessity have undergone one and the same Fate The latter from a Natural Principle of Self-Preservation were resolv'd to make their last Effort to break the Fetters which they saw were ready to be impos'd upon them And the other animated by the Example of their Ancestors and the Constitution of their Countrey which is diametrically opposite to Tyranny were resolv'd to venture All to retrieve themselves and their Posterity from the Chains that were already put upon them Both the one and the others might have struggled in vain to this day with the Ruin that threaten'd them The Interest the Prince of Orange had in England if Heaven in pity to their Condition had not provided in the Person of the Prince of Orange the only Sanctuary that was left them to shelter their sinking State This Prince by his Mother was a Nephew of England and in Right of the Princess his Wife the Presumptive Heir of the Crown By his Father's side he was Heir of an Illustrious Family that had eterniz'd their Name by delivering their Countrey from Slavery and laying the Foundation of a mighty Commonwealth which has since prov'd the greatest Bulwark of the Protestant Religion and the chief Support of the Liberty of Christendom A Family born for the good of Mankind to
to the Character of one of the Greatest Genius's that ever sat upon a Throne if he had not sullied those Excellent Parts with the soft Pleasures of Ease and had not entertain'd a Fatal Friendship that was incompatible with the Interest of England His Religion was Deism or rather that which is call'd so And if in his Exile or at his Death he went into that of Rome the first was to be imputed to a Complaisance for the Company he was then oblig'd to keep and the last to a lazy Diffidence in all other Religions upon a Review of his past Life and the near Approach of an uncertain State His Person was Tall and well-made his Constitution Vigorous and Healthy and it 's hard to determine whether he took more pains to preserve it by Diet and Exercise or to impair it by Excess in his Pleasures In Health he was a great Pretender to Physick and Encourager of Quacks by whom he was often cheated of considerable Sums of Money for their pretended Secrets But whenever he was indispos'd he consulted his Physicians and depended on their Skill only His Face was compos'd of harsh Features difficult to be trac'd with the Pencil yet in the main it was agreeable and he had a Noble Majestick Mien In contradiction to all the common receiv'd Rules of Physiognomy he was Merciful Good-natur'd and in the last Twenty four Years of his Life Fortunate if to succeed in most of his Designs may be call'd so Never Prince lov'd Ceremony less or despis'd the Pageantry of a Crown more yet he was Master of something in his Person and Aspect that commanded both Love and Veneration at once He was a great Votary to Love and yet the easiest and most unconcern'd Rival He was for the most part not very nice in the choice of his Mistresses and seldom possess'd of their First Favours yet would sacrifice all to please them and upon every Caprice of theirs denied himself the use of his Reason and acted contrary to his Interest He was a Respectful Civil Husband a Fond Father a Kind Brother an Easy Enemy but none of the Firmest or most Grateful Friends Bountiful by Starts one day lavish to his Servants the next leaving them to starve Glad to win a little Money at Play and impatient to lose but the thousandth part of what within an hour after he would throw away in gross He seem'd to have had nothing of Jealousy in his Nature neither in Matters of Love nor Power He bore patiently Rivals in the one and Competitors in the other otherwise he would not have contributed to a Foreign Greatness at Sea nor given his Brother so uncontroul'd a share in the Government Though his Understanding was quick and lively with a vast Compass of Thought yet he would submit his Judgment in greatest Matters to others of much inferior Parts And as he had an extraordinary Share of Wit himself so he lov'd it in others even when pointed against his own Faults and Mismanagements He had read but little yet he had a good Taste of Learning and would reason nicely upon most Sciences The Mechanicks were one of his peculiar Talents especially the Art of building and working of Ships which no body understood better nor if he had liv'd would have carried it farther He had a strong Laconick way of Expression and a Gentile Easy and Polite way of Writing And when he had a mind to lay aside the King which he often did in select Companies of his own there were a thousand irresistible Charms in his Conversation He lov'd Money only to spend it And would privately accept of a small Sum paid to himself in lieu of a far greater to be paid into the Exchequer He lov'd not Busiâ—â—â—s and sought every occasion to avoid it which was one reason that he past so much of his time with his Mistresses Yet when Necessity call'd him none of his Council could reason more closely upon Matters of State and he would often by fits outdo his Ministers in Application and Diligence No Age produc'd a greater Master in the Art of Dissimulation and yet no man was less upon his Guard or sooner deceiv'd in the Sincerity of others If he had any one fix'd Maxim of Government it was to play one Party against another to be thereby the more Master of both And no Prince understood better how to shift hands upon every Change of the Scene To sum up his Character he was dextrous in all the Arts of Insinuation and had acquir'd so great an Ascendant over the Affections of his People in spite of all the unhappy Measures he had taken that it may in some sense be said He died opportunely for England since if he had liv'd it 's probable we might in compliance with him have complimented our selves out of all the Remains of Liberty if he had had but a mind to be Master of them which it 's but Charity to believe he had not at least immediately before his Death There is one thing more that may help to make up the Character of this Prince That in the Liâ—es and Shape of his Face all but the Teeth he had a great Resemblance of the Ancient Bustoes and Statues we have of the Emperor Tiberius Insomuch that one of the most Learned Men of this Age told me That walking in the Furnesian Gardens at Rome with a Noble Italian that had been at the Court of England he took notice of this Resemblance in an Antique Statue of Tiberius and asking the Italian if he remembred any Prince he had seen that resembled it the other immediately nam'd King Charles As there was a great Likeness betwixt these Two Princes in their Faces there was likewise some in their Maxims of Government the Time of their Age in which they came to govern the Length of their Reigns and the Suspicions about the manner of their Death And indeed excepting Tiberius's Temper his Cruelty Jealousy and unnatural Lusts any one that 's acquainted with both their Stories will easily find something of a Parallel betwixt them Nor is this any Reflection upon the Memory of King Charles for except in what I nam'd Tiberius may be reckon'd among the Wisest and the Bravest of those that wore the Imperial Purple Upon King Charles's Death The Reign of King Iames II. Iames Duke of York mounted the Throne by the Name of King Iames the Second All the former Heats and Animosities against him and even the very Memory of a Bill of Exclusion seem'd to be now quite forgot amidst the loud Acclamations of his People at his Accession to the Crown He had many Years of Experience when he came to it and few of his Predecessors could boast of the like Advantages In most of the Transactions of the preceding Reign he had born a considerable Share as to Action but much more as to Counsel and Influence In the Post of Lord High Admiral of England he had large opportunities to be
the Reformation and in such a Stile and with such an Inimitable Force of Reasoning as will be a Standard of Writing to succeeding Ages To hasten on the Project against the Establish'd Church a new Court of Inquisition was erected under the Name of a Commission for Ecclesiastical Affairs And to blind the people there were some Bishops of the Church of England nam'd Commissioners whereof one refus'd to act from the beginning and the other excus'd himself after he came to see where the Design of it was levell'd This Commission was another manifest Violation of the Laws and against an express Act of Parliament And as if that had not been enough to mortify the Church of England there were some Roman Catholicks appointed Commissioners and consequently the Enemies of the Protestant Religion were become the Judges and Directors of a Protestant Church in its Doctrine and Discipline These Commissioners thought fit to begin the Exercise of their New Power with the Suspension of Dr. Compton The Suspension of the Bishop of Londâ—n Bishop of London This Noble Prelate by a Conduct worthy of his Birth and Station in the Church had acquir'd the Love and Esteem of all the Protestant Churches at home and abroad and was for that reason the Mark of the Envy and Hatred of the Romish Party at Court They had waited for an occasion to enoble their Ecclesiastical Commission with such an Illustrious Sacrifice and such an occasion was rather taken than given in the Business of Dr. Sharp now Archbishop of York The Priests about the King knowing how much it was their Interest that the Protestant Clergy should not have leave to refute the Errors of the Church of Rome in their Sermons The Occasion of it had advis'd him to send to the Bishops the ensnaring Letter or Order before mention'd containing Directions about Preaâ—hers The Learned Dr. Sharp taking occasion in some of his Sermons to vindicate the Doctrine of the Church of England in opposition to Popery this was in the Court-Dialect understood to be the endeavouring to beget in the minds of his Hearers an ill opinion of the King and his Government by insinuating Fears and Iealousies to dispose them to Discontent and to lead them into Disobedience and Rebellion and consequently a Contempt of the said Order about Preachers Whereupon King Iames sent a Letter to the Bishop of London containing an Order to suspend Dr. Sharp from Preaching in any Parish-Church or Chappel in his Diocess until the Doctor had given Satisfaction and his Majesty's further Pleasure should be known The Bishop of London perceiving what was aim'd at in this Letter endeavour'd all that was possible to divert the Storm that threaten'd him and the Church of England through his sides He writ a Submissive Letter to the Secretary of State to be communicated to the King setting forth That he thought it his Duty to obey his Majesty in whatever Commands he laid upon him that he could perform with a safe Conscience But in this he was oblig'd to proceed according to Law and as a Iudge And by the Law no Iudge condemns a man before he has knowledge of the Cause and has cited the Party That however he had acquainted Dr. Sharp with his Majesty's Displeasure whom he found so ready to give all reasonable Satisfaction that he had made him the Bearer of that Letter Together with this Letter from the Bishop of London Dr. Sharp carried with him a Petition to the King in his own Name shewing That ever since his Majesty was pleas'd to give notice of his Displeasure against him he had forborn the Publick Exercise of his Function And as he had endeavour'd to do the best Service he could to his Majesty and his late Brother in his Station so he had not vented now in the Pulpit any thing tending to Faction or Schism And therefore prayed his Majesty would be pleas'd to lay aside his Displeasure conceiv'd against him and restore him to that Favour which the rest of the Clergy enjoy'd All this Submission was to no purpose Nothing would satisfy the Party but a Revenge upon the Bishop of London for his Exemplary Zeal for the Protestant Interest and this Affair of Dr. Sharp's was made use of as a handle to mortify him and in his Person the whole Body of the Clergy The Bishop was Cited before the Ecclesiastical Commission for not suspending Dr. Sharp according to the King's Order and treated by their Chair-man at his Appearance in a manner unworthy of his Station and Quality All the Defence he could make and his Plea to the Jurisdiction and Legality of the Court which was good beyond all contradiction did signify nothing These New Inquisitors being resolv'd to stick at nothing that might please the Party that set them at work did by their Definitive Sentence declare decree and pronounce That the Bishop of London should for his Disobedience and Contempt be suspended during his Majesty's Pleasure And accordingly was suspended with a peremptory Admonition To abstain from the Function and Execution of his Episcopal Office and other Ecclesiastical Iurisdictions during the said Suspension under the pain of Deprivation The Proceedings against the President and Fellows of Magdalene College and Removal from his Bishoprick The next that felt the weight of this Ecclesiastical Commission were the President and Fellows of St. Mary Magdalen's College in Oxford The two chief Seats of Learning the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge stood in the way of the Grand Design and the Party was impatient to get footing there Magdalen College is one of the Noblest Foundations that perhaps was ever erected to Learning in the World and therefore it was no wonder it was one of the first Marks that was shot at This Illustrious Society from repeated Grants of Kings ratified in Parliament and from their own Statutes was in an uninterrupted Possession of a Right to Elect their own President That Place being vacant by the Death of Dr. Clark a Day was appointed by the Vice-President and Fellows to proceed to the Election of another to fill up the Vacancy But before the day of Election came Charnock one of the Fellows who was since executed for the late Plot to Assassinate his present Majesty brought them a Mandate from King Iames to elect one Fermer into the Place a Man of an Ill Reputation who had promis'd to declare himself Roman Catholick and was altogether uncapable of the Office by the Statutes of the College This Mandate the Vice-President and Fellows receiv'd with all decent Respect and sent their humble Address to the King representing to his Majesty That Fermer was a Person in several respects incapable of that Office according to their Founders Statutes And therefore did earnestly beseech his Majesty either to leave them to the discharge of their Duty and Consciences according to his Majesty's late Gracious Declaration and their Founders Statutes or else to recommend to them such a Person who
might be more serviceable to his Majesty and the College Notwithstanding this humble and submissive Address King Iames signified his Pleasure to them That he expected to be obey'd Upon which the Fellows being oblig'd by the Statutes of their Society to which they were sworn not to delay the Election longer than such a day and Fermer being a Person they could not chuse without incurring the Sin of Perjury they proceeded to Election and chose Dr. Hough now Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry their President Hereupon the New President and Fellows were cited before the Ecclesiastical Commission for disobeying the King's Mandate And notwithstanding they made it appear by their Answer plac'd at length in the Appendix Appendix Numb 19. That they could not comply with that Mandate without Breach of their Oath and that there was no room left for the King to dispense with that Oath because in the Oath it self they were sworn not to make use of any such Dispensation nor in any sort consent thereto Yet against all Law the Ecclesiastical Commissioners did by their Sentence deprive Dr. Hough of his Presidentship and suspended two of the Fellows from their Fellowships While the King at the same time Inhibited the College to elect or admit any person whatsoever into any Fellowship or any other Place or Office in the said College till his further Pleasure The Court finding by this time that Fermer was one of so profligate a Life that though he had promis'd to declare himself Roman-Catholick upon his Promotion to that place they began to be asham'd of him And therefore instead of insisting on the former Mandamus in his favour there was another granted in favour of Dr. Parker then Bishop of Oxford one of the Creatures of the Court and who they knew would stick at nothing to serve a Turn The Place of President being already in a Legal manner fill'd up by the Election of Dr. Hough which though it had not been yet the Bishop of Oxford was likewise incapable by the Statutes of the College of being elected The Fellows did humbly offer a very pathetick Petition to his Majesty mention'd at length in the Appendix Appendix Numb 20. in which they set forth how inexpressible an Affliction it was to them to find themselves reduc'd to such an extremity that either they must disobey his Majesty's Commands contrary to their Inclinations and that constant course of Loyalty which they had ever shew'd hithertâ— upon all occasions or else break their Founders Statutes and deliberately perjure themselves Then they mention'd the Statutes and the Oaths that every one of them had taken at their Admission into their Fellowships and concluded with an humble Prayer to his Majesty To give them leave to lay their Case and Themselves at his Majesty's Royal Feet earnestly beseeching his Sacred Majesty to extend to them his humble Petitioners that Grace and Tenderness which he had vouchsaf'd to all his other Subjects All this Submission was in vain For the Ecclesiastical Commissioners by their final Decree and Sentence depriv'd and expell'd from their Fellowships all the Fellows of Magdalen College but Three that had complied with Breach of Oath being Twenty five in number And to push their Injustice yet further they did by another Sentence decree and declare That Dr. Hough who had been depriv'd before and the said Twenty five Fellows should be incapable of receiving or being admitted into any Ecclesiastical Dignity Benefice or Promotion And such of them who were not yet in Holy Orders they adjudg'd incapable of receiving or being admitted into the same Thus by a Decree of an Illegal Court were a Set of Worthy and Learned Men turn'd out of their Freeholds merely for not obeying an Arbitrary Command which was directly against their Consciences And thus was King Iames prevail'd with by a Headstrong Party to assume a Power not only to dispense with Laws but to make void Oaths The first Declaration for Liberty of Conscience was not thought a sufficient Stretch of Power The Second Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and therefore King Iames issued out another of a much higher Strain in which the Roman-Catholicks were chiefly included and indeed it was for their sake alone it was granted To render the Church of England accessary to their own Ruin The Order of Council upon it there was an Order of Council made upon the latter commanding it to be read at the usual times of Divine Service in all Churches and Chappels throughout the Kingdom and ordering the Bishops to cause it to be sent and distributed throughout their several and respective Diocesses to be read accordingly The Clergy of the Church of England had reason to take it for the greatest Hardship and Oppression that could be put upon them to be commanded to read from their Pulpits a Declaration they knew to be against Law and which in its Nature and Design was levell'd against their own Interest and that of their Religion Some of them through Fear or Mistake and others to make their Court complied but the Generality refus'd to obey so unjust a Command The Romish Party had their Ends in it for their Refusal laid them open to the severe Lashes of the Ecclesiastical Commission and accordingly every one that had not read the Declaration in their Churches were order'd to be prosecuted before that inexorable Tribunal where they were infallibly to expect to be depriv'd And so most of the Benefices in England must have been made vacant for a new kind of Incumbents But the Scene chang'd before all this could be brought about For King Iames urg'd on by his Fate and by a restless Party about him came at this time to level a Blow against the Archbishop of Canterbury and Six of his Suffragan Bishops that awaken'd the People of England to shake off their Chains and implore Foreign Assistance to retrieve the dying Liberties of their Countrey These Seven Bishops being sensible The Affair of the Seven Bishops as most of the Nation was of what was originally aim'd at in these two Declarations for Liberty of Conscience did consult together about the humblest manner to lay before King Iames the Reasons why they could not comply with the Order of Council Having got leave to attend him they deliver'd to him with the greatest Submission a Petition in behalf of themselves and their absent Brethren and in the name of the Clergy of their respective Diocesses humbly representing That their unwillingness did not proceed from any want of Duty and Obedience to his Majesty nor from any want of due Tenderness to Dissenters in relation to whom they were willing to come to such a Temper as should be thought fit when that Matter should be consider'd in Parliament and Convocation But among a great many other Considerations from this especially Because That Declaration was founded upon such a Dispensing Power as had been often declar'd Illegal in Parliament and was a matter of
Inclinations of the Prince and Princess of Orange in that matter The Prince and Princess had look'd on with a silent Regret upon all the unlucky Steps that were making in England and were unwilling to publish their Opinion of them since they knew it could not but be displeasing to King Iames. To know their Highnesses mind in the business of the Penal Laws and Test was a thing the most desir'd by the Protestants but there was no possible way to come to this knowledge if King Iames himself had not help'd them to it Mr. Stuart The Prince and Princess of Orange's Opinion about the Penal Laws and Test declar'd in Pensionary Fagell's Letter since Sir Iames Stuart had been pardon'd by King Iames and receiv'd into Favour after a long Banishment He had been acquainted in Holland with the late Pensionary Fagel and persuaded himself of a more than ordinary Friendship with that Wise Minister The King foresaw it was his Interest to find out some one way or other the Prince and Princess's Thoughts of these matters which if they agreed with his own were to be made publick if otherwise were to be conceal'd And Mr. Stuart took that Task upon himself Pensionary Fagel was in a great Post in Holland and in a near Intimacy with the Prince one that was entirely trusted by him and ever firm to his Interest To know the Pensionary's Opinion was thought to be the same with knowing the Prince's since it was to be suppos'd that he would not venture to write of any thing that concern'd England especially such a nice Point as was then in question without the Prince's Approbation at least if not his positive Direction Upon these Considerations and upon a Mistake that Mr. Stuart was in about the Constitution of Holland as if the Roman-Catholicks were not there excluded from Employments and Places of Trust he writ a Letter to Pensionary Fagel It 's needless to give any account of the Letter it self since Fagel's Answer together with what has been already said do give a sufficient Hint of the Design and Scope of it So averse were the Prince and Princess of Orange to meddle and so unwilling to allow Pensionary Fagel to return to this Letter an Answer which they knew would not be pleasing that Mr. Stuart writ by the King's direction five or six more before it was thought fit to answer them But at length their Highnesseâ— were in a manner forc'd to it by the Reports that were industriously spread abroad in England by the Emissaries of the Court as if the Pensionary in an Answer to Mr. Stuart had acquainted him That the Prince and Princess agreed with the King in the Design of taking off the Penal Laws and Test. This was not all for the Marquess de Albeville the English Envoy at the Hague was put upon writing over to several persons That the Prince of Orange had told him the very same thing which Letter of Albeville's was likewise made publick Such Reports were enough to shake the Constancy of all those that design'd to stand firm to the Interest of the Establish'd Church in the ensuing Parliament and to make them give all up for lost To do themselves Justice and to disabuse a Nation they had so near an Interest in Pensionary Fagel was directed by the Prince and Princess to write one Answer to all Mr. Stuart ' s Letters to this purpose That being desir'd by Mr. Stuart to let him know the Prince and Princess of Orange's Thoughts concerning the Repeal of the Penal Laws and more particularly concerning the Test he told him That he would write without Reserve since Mr. Stuart had said in his Letters that they were writ by the King's Knowledge and Allowance That it was the Prince and Princess's Opinion That no Christian ought to be persecuted for his Conscience or be ill us'd because he differs from the Publick and Establish'd Religion And therefore that they can consent That the Papists in England Scotland and Ireland be suffer'd to continue in their Religion with as much Liberty as is allow'd them by the States of Holland in which it cannot be denied but they enjoy a full Liberty of Conscience And as to the Dissenters their Highnesses did not only consent but did heartily approve of their having an entire Liberty for the full Exercise of their Religion And that their Highnesses were ready to concur to the setling and confirming this Liberty and protect and defend it and likewise confirm it with their Guarantee which Mr. Stuart had mention'd And if his Majesty continues the Pensionary desires their Concurrence in Repealing the Penal Laws their Highnesses were ready to give it provided these Laws remain still in their full force by which the Roman-Catholicks are shut out of both Houses of Parliament and out of all Publick Employments Ecclesiastical Civil and Military as likewise those other Laws which confirm the Protestant Religion and which secure it against all the Attempts of the Roman-Catholicks But their Highnesses cannot agree to the Repeal of the Test and those other Penal Laws last mention'd that tend to the Security of the Protestant Religion since the Roman-Catholicks receive no other Prejudices from these than the being excluded from Parliament and Publick Employments More than this adds Pensionary Fagel their Highnesses do think ought not be ask'd or expected and they wondred how any that profess'd themselves Christians and that may enjoy their Religion freely and without disturbance can judge it lawful for them to disturb the Quiet of any Kingdom or State or overturn Constitutions that so they themselves may be admitted to Employments and that these Laws in which the Security and Quiet of the Establish'd Religion consists should be shaken And as to what Mr. Stuart had writ That the Roman-Catholicks in Holland were not shut out from Employments and Places of Trust he tells him He was grosly mistaken The Pensionary concludes That their Highnesses could not concur with his Majesty in these matters for they believ'd they should have much to answer to God for if the consideration of any present Advantage should carry them to consent to things which they believe would not only be dangerous but mischievous to the Protestant Religion Thus far Pensionary Fagel And I would not have dwelt so long upon this Letter of his if it were not for the Noble Scheme of a just Liberty in matters of Conscience that 's therein contain'd Notwithstanding it was still given out at Court and that even after it came to Mr. Stuart's hands That he had writ the quite contrary though it 's but Charity to suppose that Mr. Stuart was a Man of more Honour than to contribute to the Report At last there was a necessity of making publick the Pensionary's Letter in several Languages which had wonderful Influence upon the Minds of the Protestants of England and was highly resented by King Iames. However King Iames had more than one Method in his View how
Author Notwithstanding these Difficulties and Discouragements that seem'd insuperable wonderful and surprizing were the Consequences of the Prince of Orange's Restoration As if that Family alone were design'd of Heaven to be the Founder and Restorer of Holland It fell out that immediately upon his being call'd to the Helm the whole Scene of their Affairs chang'd to the better At the Head of a small ill-disciplin'd Army discourag'd by continual Losses he not only put a Stop to the French Conquests but by taking first Naerden in spite of an Army near four times greater than his own and carrying afterwards the War out of his own Countrey he oblig'd the Enemy to abandon their Conquests in Holland as fast as they had gain'd them and be contented to retire to the Defence of their own Frontiers This War was attended with various Successes on all sides and most of the Princes of Europe came to be some way or other engag'd in it till at last it ended in the Treaty of Nimeguen The part King Charles acted in all these Transactions contributed but little to his Glory for he had been unsuccessful while he was engag'd in the War and when he came to be a Mediator for the Peace all Parties grew jealous of him and neglected him It was during the Course of this War as has been said before that King Charles aton'd for all the Errors of his Reign by marrying his Niece the Lady Mary to the Prince of Orange And whatever were the Motives that induc'd him to comply in this with the Universal Wishes of his People it has been found since that not only England but the greatest part of Europe do share at this day in the Blessings that have attended it By this Match the Prince of Orange had a double Interest in England both as a Prince of the Blood himself and in Right of his Princess the next Presumptive Heir He liv'd with King Charles in as much Friendship as was possible for one that would not enter into an Interest separate from that of his Country or of England Insomuch that in all the Endeavours that were made to exclude the Duke of York from the Crown he look'd on without espousing any of the Parties that struggled for or against the Bill of Exclusion though he knew it was design'd that He and the Princess should succeed upon the Death of King Charles When King Iames came to the Throne the Prince of Orange tried all possible means to cultivate a sincere Friendship with him and to persuade him to enter into such Measures as might tend to the Common Safety of Europe and the Happiness of England which if King Iames had given Ear to would have preserv'd the Crown upon his Head And so cautious was he of giving him no reasonable ground of Complaint that though in King Charles's time he had given a Generous Welcome to the Duke of Monmouth at the Request of that King upon his retiring to Holland Yet as soon as he knew that that unhappy Gentleman designâ—d to invade England upon King Iames's Accession to the Throne he offer'd to come over in Person to his Assistance and sent him with all Expedition the English and Scotch Troops that were in the Service of the States It had been happy for King Iames if he had complied with the Advice of the Prince of Orange or had not by his Success against Monmouth been push'd on to make the Steps that have bee mention'd together with a great many more for Brevity's sake here omitted towards his own Ruin and that of the Constitution of England But being flatter'd with the gaudy Charms of Absolute Power and the empty Merit of Restoring the Romish Religion he drove on without Controul till at last he forc'd the People of England upon an inevitable necessity of calling in the Prince of Orange to retrieve the expiring Liberties of their Countrey At the same time an indissoluble Friendship and Alliance which King Iames had enter'd into when Duke of York and had cultivated afterwards when he came to the Crown was a matter of that vast Consequence to the Neighbouring Princes and States as would not permit them to stand by as unconcern'd Spectators of the Scene that was acting in England but oblig'd them likewise to save recourse to the Prince of Orange for breaking off their own Fetters by breaking first those of England But by what Steps and concurring Accidents and with what surprizing Circumstances this Mighty Design came about may some time or other though perhaps not so properly in this Age be the Subject of a Second Part when it meets with one of more Leisure and Capacity to write it FINIS Addenda ad Page 36. Concerning the Reign of King James I. It may not be impertinent in this place to say something of that Convocation that was held in the beginning of this King's Reign Which had never been taken notice of in History if it were not for the use that was made of it in our late Debates about the Lawfulness of the Oaths to his present Majesty This Convocation goes under the name of Overall's Convocation and has been of late years often mentioned in Print upon that account And since a very Learned Divine has told us upon a solemn Occasion Dr. Sherlock That it was the Canons of this Convocation that first Enlightned his Eyes and persuaded him of the Lawfulness of the Oaths to his Majesty I shall only take notice of a few things about them It 's very probable that this Convocation was call'd to clear some Doubts that King Iames might have had about the Lawfulness of the Hollanders the 〈…〉 off the Monarchy of Spain 〈…〉 withdrawing for good and all their Allegiance to that Crown Which was the Great Matter then in Agitation in most Courts of Christendom It appears plainly by some of those Canons that the Highflown Notions of Prerogative and Absolute Obedience which came afterwards into fashion were not much known at that time at least the Clergy were not of that Opinion It 's true This was the first time that the Distinction of a King de jure and de facto was ever mention'd as a Point of Divinity or a Doctrine of the Church though it had been taken notice of before and that but once as a Matter of Law in an Act of Parliament of Henry 7. But these Canons did never receive the Royal Approbation and therefore are in the same case as if they had never been King Iames thought these Points too nice to be much touch'd upon and was highly displeas'd with the Members of that Convocation for medling in Matters which he thought were without their Sphere Thereupon he writ that angry Letter to Dr. Abbot afterwards Bishop of Sarum the Original of which it was my fortune to fall upon and to publish upon another Occasion It 's hop'd the Reader will not be displeas'd to read it again And it runs thus Good Doctor Abbot I Cannot abstain
people of the fruit of his own gracious Intentions and their humble desires of procuring the publick peace safety and happiness of this Realm For the preventing of those miserable effects which such malicious endeavours may produce We have thought good to declare 1. The root and the growth of these mischievous Designs 2. The Maturity and Ripeness to which they have attained before the beginning of the Parliament 3. The effectual means which hath been used for the extirpations of those dangerous evils and the Progress which hath therein been made by his Majesties goodness and the Wisdom of the Parliament 4. The ways of obstruction and opposition by which that Progress hath been interrupted 5. The courses to be taken for the removing those Obstacles and for the accomplishing of our most dutiful and faithful intentions and endeavours of restoring and establishing the Ancient Honour Greatness and Security of this Crown and Nation The Root of all this mischeif We find to be a malignant and pernicious design of subverting the Fundamental Laws and Principles of Government upon which the Religion and Iustice of this Kingdom are firmly establisht The Actors and Promoters hereof have been 1. The Iesuited Papists who hate the Laws as the Obstacles of that Change and Subversion of Religion which they so much long for 2. The Bishops and the corrupt part of the Clergy who cherish formality and superstition as the natural effects and more probable supports of their own Ecclesiastical Tyranny and Vsurpation 3. Such Counsellors and Courtiers as for private ends have engaged themselves to further the interests of some foreign Princes or States to the prejudice of his Majesty and the State at home The common Principles by which they moulded and governed all their particular Counsels and Actions were these First To maintain continual differences and discontents betwixt the King and the People upon Questions of Prerogative and Liberty that so they might have the advantage of siding with him and under the notions of men addicted to his service gain to themselves and their parties the places of greatest trust and power in the Kingdom A second To suppress the purity and power of Religion and such as were best affected to it as being contrary to their own ends and the greatest impediment to that Change which they thought to introduce A third To conjoyn those parties of the Kingdom which were most propitious to their own ends and to divide those who were most opposite which consisted in many particular Observations to chrish the Arminian part in those points wherein they agree with the Papists to multiply and enlarge the difference between the common Protestants and those whom they call Puritans to introduce and countenance such Opinions and Ceremonies as are fittest for accomodation with Popery to increase and maintain ignorance looseness and prophaneness in the people That of those three parties Papists Arminians and Libertines they might compose a body fit to act such counsels and resolutions as were most conducible to their own ends A fourth To disaffect the King to Parliaments by slanders and false imputations and by putting him upon other ways of supply which in shew and appearance were fuller of advantage than the ordinary course of Subsidies though in truth they brought more loss than gain both to the King and People and have caused the distractions under which we both suffer As in all compounded bodies the Operations are qualified according to the predominant Element So in this mixt party the Jesuited Counsels being most active and prevailing may easily be discovered to have had the greatest sway in all their determinations and if they be not prevented are like to devour the rest or to turn them into their own nature In the beginning of his Majesties Reign the party begun to revive and flourish again having been somewhat dampt by the breach with Spain in the last year of King Iames and by his Majesties Marriage with France the interests and Councils of that State being not so contrary to the good of Religion and the prosperity of his Kingdom as those of Spain and the Papists of England havving been ever more addicted to Spain than France yet they still retained a purpose and resolution to weaken the Protestant parties in all parts and even in France whereby to make way for the change of Religion which they intended at home The first effect and evidence of their recovery and strength was the dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford after there had been given two Subsidies to his Majesty and before they received relief in any one Grievance many other more miserable effects followed The loss of the Rochel Fleet by the help of our Shipping set forth and delivered over to the French in opposition to the advice of Parliament which left that Town without defence by Sea and made way not only to the loss of that important place but likewise to the loss of all the strength and security of the Protestant Religion in France The diverting of his Majesties course of Wars from the West-Indies which was the most facile and hopeful way for this Kingdom to prevail against the Spaniard to an expenceful and successless attempt upon Cales which was so ordered as if it had rather been intended to make us weary of War than to prosper in it The precipitate breach with France by taking their Ships to a great value without making recompence to the English whose Goods were thereupon imbarr'd and confiscate in that Kingdom The Peace with Spain without consent of Parliament contrary to the promise of K. Iames to both Houses whereby the Palatine Cause was deserted and left to chargeable and hopeless Treaties which for the most part were managed by those who might justly be suspected to be no Friends to that Cause The charging of the Kingdom with Billeted Soldiers in all parts of it and that concomitant design of German Horse that the Land might either submit with fear or be enforced with rigour to such Arbitrary Contributions as should be required of them The dissolving of the Parliament in the second year of his Majesties Reign after a Declaration of their intent to grant five Subsidies The exacting of the like proportion of five Subsidies after the Parliament dissolved by Commission of Loan and divers Gentlemen and others imprisoned for not yielding to pay that Loan whereby many of them contracted such sicknesses as cost them their Lives Great sums of Money required and raised by Privy Seals An unjust and pernicious attempt to extort great payments from the Subject by way of Excise and a Commission issued under Seal to that purpose The Petition of Right which was granted in full Parliament blasted with an illegal Declaration to make it destructive to it self to the power of Parliament to the Liberty of the Subject and to that purpose printed with it and the Petition made of no use but to shew the bold and presumptuous injustice of such Ministers as durst
stand with Honour and Justice and are in a way of passing a Bill to give them satisfaction They have sought by many subtile practices to cause jealousies and divisions betwixt us and our brethren of Scotland by slandering their proceedings and intentions towards us and by secret endeavours to instigate and incense them and us one against another They have had such a party of Bishops and Popish Lords in the House of Peres as hath caused much opposition and delay in the prosecution of Delinquents hindred the proceeding of divers good Bills passed in the Commons house concerning the reformation of sundry great abuses and corruptions both in Church and State They have laboured to seduce and corrupt some of the Commons House to draw them into conspiracies and combinations against the liberty of the Parliament And by their instruments and agents they have attempted to disaffect and discontent his Majesties Army and to engage it for the maintainance of their wicked and traiterous designs the keeping up of Bishops in votes and functions and by force to compel the Parliament to order limit and dispose their proceedings in such manner as might best concur with the intentions of this dangerous and potent faction And when one mischeivous design and attempt of theirs to bring on the Army against the Parliament and the City of London had been discovered and prevented they presently undertook another of the same damnable nature with this addition to it to endeavour to make the Scotish Army neutral whilst the English Army which they had laboured to corrupt and invenome against us by their false and slanderous suggestions should execute their malice to the subversion of our Religion and the dissolution of our government Thus they have been continually practising to disturb the peace and plotting the destruction even of all the Kings Dominions and have employed their Emissaries and Agents in them all for the promoting of their divellish Designs which the vigilancy of those who were well affected hath still discovered and defeated before they were ripe for execution in England and Scotland only in Ireland which was farther off they have had time and opportunity to mould and prepare their work and had brought it to that perfection that they had possessed themselves of that whole Kingdom totally subverted the government of it rooted out Religion and destroyed all the Protestants whom the conscience of their duty to God their King and Country would not have permitted to â—oin with them if by Gods wonderful providence their main enterprise upon the City and Castle of Dublin had not been detected and prevented upon the very Eve before it should have been executed Notwithstanding they have in other parts of that Kingdom broken out into open Rebellion surprized Towns and Castles committed Murders Rapes and other Villanies and shaken off all bonds of obedience to his Majesty and the Laws of the Realm and in general have kindled such a fire as nothing but God's infinite blessing upon the wisdom and endeavours of this State will be able to quench it And certainly had not God in his great mercy unto this Land discovered and confounded their former designs we had been the Prologue to this Tragedy in Ireland and had by this time been made the lamentable spectacle of misery and confusion And now what hope have we but in God when as the only means of our subsistence and power of Reformation is under him in the Parliament but what can we the Commons without the conjuction of the House of Lords and what conjunction can we expect there when the Bishops and Recusant Lords are so numerous and prevalent that they are able to cross and interrupt our best endeavours for Reformation and by that means give advantage to this malignant party to traduce our proceedings They infuse into the People that we mean to abolish all Church-government and leave every man to his own fancy for the service and worship of God absolving him of that obedience which he owes under God unto his Majesty whom we know to be intrusted with the Ecclesiastical Law as well as with the Temporal to regulate all the Members of the Church of England by such rules of Order and Discipline as are established by Parliament which is his great Councel in all Affairs both in Church and State We confess our intention is and our endeavours have been to reduce within bounds that exorbitant power which the Prelates have assumed unto themselves so contrary both to the Word of God and to the Laws of the Land to which end we past the Bill for the removing them from their temporal power and employments that so the better they might with Meekness apply themselves to the discharge of their Functions which Bill themselves opposed and were the principal instruments of crossing it And we do here declare That it is far from our purpose or desire to let loose the Golden Reins of Discipline and Government in the Church to leave private persons or particular Congregations to take up what form of divine Service they please for we hold it requisite that there should be throughout the whole Realm a conformity to that Order which the Laws enjoyn according to the Word of God and we desire to unburthen the consciences of men of needless and superstitious Ceremonies suppress innovations and take away the monuments of Idolatry And the better to effect the intended Reformation we desire there may be a general Synod of the most grave pious learned and judicious Divines of this Island assisted with some from foreign parts professing the same Religion with us who may consider of all things necessary for the peace and good government of the Church and represent the results of their consultations unto the Parliament to be there allowed of and confirmed and receive the stamp of authority thereby to find passage and obedience throughout the Kingdom They have maliciously charged us that we intend to destroy and discourage Leâ—â—ning whereas it is our chiefest caâ—e and desire to advance it and to provide a competent maintenance for conscionable and preaching Ministers throughout the Kingdom which will be a great encouregement to Scholars and a certain means whereby the want meanness and ignorance to which a great part of the Clergy is now subject will be prevented And we intend likewise to reform and purge the Fountains of Learning the two Universities that the streams flowing from thence may be clear and pure and an honour and comfort to the whole Land They have strained to blast our proceedings in Parliament by wresting the Interpretations of our Orders from their genuine intention They tell the people that our medling with the power of Episcopacy hath caused Sectaries and Conventicles when Idolatry and Popish Ceremonies introduced into the Church by the command of the Bishops have not only debarred the people from thence but expelled them from the Kingdom Thus with Elijah we are called by this Malignant party the troublers of
the State and still while we endeavour to reform their abuses they make us the Authors of those mischiefs we study to prevent For the perfecting of the work begun and removing all future impediments we concieve these courses will be very effectual seeing the Religion of the Papists hath such principles as do certainly tend to the destruction and extirpation of all Protestants when they shall have opportunity to effect it It is necessary in the first place to keep them in such condition as that they may not be able to do us any hurt and for avoiding of such connivance and favour as hath heretofore been shewed unto them That his Majesty be pleased to grant a standing Commission to some choice men named in Parliament who may take notice of their increase their counsels and proceedings and use all due means by execution of the Laws to prevent any mischievous designs against the peace and safety of this Kingdom That some good course be taken to discover the counterfeit and false conformity of Papists to the Church by colour whereof Persons very much disaffected to the true Religion have been admitted into place of greatest authority and trust in the Kingdom For the better preservation of the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom that all illegal grievances and exactions be presented and punished at the Sessions and Assizes and that Judges and Justices be careful to give this in charge to the Grand Jury and both the Sheriff and Justices to be sworn to the due execution of the Petition of Right and other Laws That his Majesty be humbly Petitioned by both Houses to employ such Counsellors Ambassadors and other Ministers in managing his business at home and abroad as the Parliament may have cause to confide in without which we cannot give his Majesty such supplies for support of his own estate nor such assistance to the Protestant party beyond the Sea as is desired It may often fall out that the Commons may have just cause to take exceptions at some men for being Counsellors and yet not charge those men with Crimes for there be grounds of diffidence which lye not in proof there are others which tho they may be proved yet are not legally criminal To be a known favourer of Papists or to have been very forward in defending or counâ—enancing some great offenders questioned in Parliament or to speak contemptuously of either Houses of Parliament or Parliamentary proceedings or such as are Factors or Agents for any Foreign Prince of another Religion such as are justly suspected to get Councellors places â—r any other of trust concerning publick imployments for Money For all these and divers others we may have great reason to be earnest with his Majesty not to put his great Affairs into such hands though we may be unwilling to proceed against them in any legal way of charge or impeachment That all Councellors of State may be sworn to observe those Laws which concern the Subject in his liberty that they may likewise take an Oath not to receive or give Reward or Pension from any Foreign Prince but such as they within some reasonable time discover to the Lords of his Majesties Council and although they should wickedly forswear themselves yet it may herein do good to make them known to be false and perjured to those who imploy them and thereby bring them into as little credit with them as with us That his Majesty may have cause to be in love with good Counsel and good men by shewing him in an humble and dutiful manner how full of advantage it would be to himself to see his own Estate setled in a plentiful condition to support his honour to see his People united in ways of duty to him and endeavours of the publick good to see Happiness Wealth Peace and Safety derived to his own Kingdom and procured to his Allies by the influence of his own power and government That all good courses may be taken to unite the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland to be mutually aiding and assisting one another for the common good of the Island and honour of both To take away all differences amongst our selves for matters indifferent in their own nature concerning Religion and to unite our selves against the common enemies which are the better enabled by our divisions to destroy us all as they hope and have often endeavoured To labour by all offices of friendship to unite the Foreign Churches with us in the same cause and to seek their liberty safety and prosperity as bound thereunto both by charity to them and by wisdom for our own good For by this means our own strength shall be encreased and by a mutual concurrence to the same common end we shall be enabled to procure the good of the whole body of the Protestant Profession If these things may be observed we doubt not but God will crown this Parliament with such success as shall be the beginning and foundation of more honour and happiness to his Majesty than ever yet was enjoyed by any of his Royal Predecessors His Majesties Answer to the Petition which accompanied the Declaration presented to him at Hampton Court Dec. 1. 1641. WE having received from you soon after our Return out of Scotland a long Petition consisting of many desires of great moment together with a Declaration of a very unusual nature annexed thereunto We had taken some time to consider of it as befitted Us in a matter of that consequence being confident that your own reason and regard to Us as well as Our express intimation by our Comptroller to that purpose would have restrained you from the publishing of it till such time as you should have reeceived our Answer to it But much against our expectation finding the contrary that the said Declaration is already abroad in Print by directions from your House as appears by the printed Copy we must let you know that we are very sensible of the disrespect Notwithstanding it is our intention that no failing on your part shall make us fail in ours of giving all due satisfaction to the desires of our People in a Parliamentary way And therefore we send you this Answer to your Petition reserving our self in point of the Declaration which we think unparliamentary and shall take a course to do that which we shall think fit in prudence and honour To the Petition we say that altho there are divers things in the Preamble of it which we are so far from admiting that we profess we cannot at all understand them as Of a wicked and malignant party prevalent in the Government Of some of that party admitted to our Privy Council and to other Employments of trust and nearest to Vs and our Children Of Endeavours to sow among the People false scandals and imputations to blemish and disgrace the proceedings of the Parliament All or any of which did we know of we should be as ready to remedy and punish as you to complain of