THE DOCTRINE OF Non-Resistance or Passive Obedience No way concerned in the CONTROVERSIES Now depending between the Williamites and the Iacobites By a LAY GENTLEMAN of the Communion of the Church of England by Law establish'd Cruces nec colimus nec optamus LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXIX The Doctrine of NON-RESISTANCE or PASSIVE OBEDIENCE No way concern'd in the CONTROVERSIES now depending c. I Have with some impatience and wonder beheld the bandying of the Non-resisting Doctrine to and fro in this disturbed Kingdom for so many Months and to so little purpose because I am not able to comprehend what any of the contending Parties would be at nor why that Doctrine rather than any other should be made now the Subject of our Disquisitions and Enquiries For what if God has forbidden us upon pain of Damnation to resist our Lawful Princes when they do amiss and has reserved to himself the Censure and Punishment of his own Ministers as I'believe all Lawful Princes are such and that God has for great and wise Reasons tied up our hands Doth it therefore follow from hence that James is still the Lawful King of England Or that when he was so we that believe the Non-resisting Doctrine were bound to sight for him whatever he did And on the other side what can the Friends of their present Majesties pretend to palliate their Contempt and Scorn of the Doctrine of Passive Obedience It was indeed dangerous to them when he first entered England because all that believed themselves bound by it were obliged not to take up Arms for him against King James and so consequently it deprived him of their Assistance But when he had once subdued the Forces and obtained the Throne of that Infatuated Monarch of what use can it be to him to have his Subjects so frequently told That it is lawful for them to take Arms and Defend themselves their Rights and Religions against him I doubt not but His Majesty intends to Govern us with the utmost Clemency and Mercy according to our Laws But when neither Moses nor David could always please their Subjects It is to be feared the best of Princes may at one time or other need the Influence of the Doctrine of Passive Obedience to restrain the madness of the People and therefore they can be no Friends to Government in general nor to him or his in particular who are so zealous to have the Doctrine of Non-resistance extirpated out of the World. The consequence of which is That it is Lawful for every Man to Rebel against his Lawful Prince whenever he thinkâ— it necessary My design therefore in this Discourse being to put an end as far as I can to this unseasonable Dispute I shall endeavour to prove these Particulars as to the Friends of the late King. 1. That thâ—se that believed it were not thereby bound to assert the Mis government of James the Second 2. That seeing he has deserted his Throne and withdrawn his Person and Seals they are not thereby obliged to endeavour the restoring of him The Doctrine of Passive Obedience doth not oblige a Subject to assert the Mis-government of his Prince For it supposeth the Prince may command what he ought not and then it obligeth me to suffer rather than to resist my Prince or to break the Commandments of God or the Laws of my Country or do any other ill Action in Obedience to his Commands Now what is this to the purpose King James had notoriously subverted all our Constitutions and Laws both in Church and State and would suffer no redress the Church of England on the other hand Petition'd him from time to time by her Bishops and Nobility to suffer a Parliament to meet and redress our Grievances but this he would not yield and what should they do in this case Why said the Jesuit in the Answer to the Petition of the 17 th of November 1688. when they had set forth That in their Opinion the Only visible way to preserve his Majesty and this his Kingdom would be the calling of a Parliament Regular and Free in all its circumstances I hope to make it out that the summoning a Parliament now is so far from being the Only way to effect these things that it will be one of the Principal Causes of much Misery to the Kingdom And I am sure both our Duty to God and our holy Religion as well as to His Majesty and our Country doth plainly enjoyn us to use one other effectual means c. which is the keeping inviolably to our Allegiance to our Sovereign and effectually joyning with him to resist all his Enemies Whether Foreign Aggressors or Native Rebels That is let the King do what he please to you you are bound to fight for him and expel the Prince of Orange and subdue all his Adherents I can very well remember what small effect this Oratory had then upon the minds of all Men. There did not seem to be one Protestant in the Nation who could not distinguish between the Doctrine of Non-resistance and that of actually aiding a Prince to destroy and enslave his People His late Majesty however persisted in his Opinion that no Parliament could be holden till the Prince of Orange was driven out and the Clergy and Nobility in theirs that this was the Only visible way to preserve the late King and Kingdom which imply'd that all fighting was dangerous to both till this was done And accordingly as we had no disloyal Exhortations from Press or Pulpit to perswade Men to fight against their Prince so neither had we any to perswade us to fight for him but the thing was committed to God to determine as he thought fit In this our Bishops Clergy Nobility and Gentry and in general all the Children of the Church of England behaved themselves like good Christians and good Subjects too this difficult Case could then be no otherwise well and justifiably managed and if some few forgot their Duty and declared too soon for the Prince of Orange his now Majesty this they only are responsible for those that adhered to the late King till he actually left the Nation and the Government fell for want of the first Mover are not responsible for their Miscarriage if it was one In the Primitive times when this Doctrine was best both understood and practised their Loyalty was one of their lesser Virtues upon which they never valued themselves It would have been then a mean piece of Virtue for a Man to have alledged he had been ever Loyal to his Prince when a Rebel or a Traytor Christian was a thing they looked upon with horror and affrightment they expected Martyrdom every moment and were preparing for it at all times they were told then at their first admission into the Church that they must expect Persecution and every one who took up that Profession did it with that Expectation And the
Religion being contrary to the Established Laws whoever came in to it knew beforehand that at one time or other he might be called to lay down his Life for it and when it happened it was no new or unexpected accident but foreseen and provided for But then they were not so silly as to be fond of their Persecutors or to wish or fight for it We are said Tertullian defamed as Enemies to the Emperour's Majesty tamen nuaquam Alainiani nec Nigriani vel Cassiani inveniri potuerunt Christiani Yet never was any Christian found like Albinus Pescennius Niger or Avidius Cassius Vsurping the Throne and Invading the Government They prayed for the Emperor and performed all the Duties of good Subjects till he persecuted them and endeavoured to destroy the Church of God but then they changed their Notes Quales ergâ— leges ist quas adversus nos soli exequuntur impii injusti turpes truces vani dementes What Laws are these which none ever put in Execution against us but impious unjust base barbarous vain and mad Princes Who ever pleaseth may see enough of this laid together in Jovian pag. 161. and 162. There is not one of those Princes who persecuted the Church but he is represented to the World by the Fathers and Church Historians in the blackest Characters That little Book that was written by Lactantius to shew the dismal Ends and sad Catastrophies of the Persecuting Princes shews how far they were from being fond of Persecution or Persecutors and by what hand soever the enraged Fool fell the deliverance was ascribed to God who makes use of such instruments as he thinks fit to punish bloody and tyrannical Men. And let any Man shew me that the Primitive Christians were discontented when they were delivered if he can So far were some of the Ancient Fathers from fighting for the persecuting Princes when they hapned to be dethroned or invaded that they would not suffer a baptised Person to list himself in the service of a Pagan Prince Tertullian de corona cap. 11. To which purpose he alledgeth that passage of our Saviour He that takes the Sword shall perish by the Sword But then saith he Plane si quos militia praeventos fides posterior invenit alia conditio est Those who were admitted to Baptism after they were listed in the Service of the Emperor were not under the same obligation And we have the Passion of one Maximilian an African who suffered Martyrdom for no other Cause but for that he would not serve the Emperor as a Soldier And the Council of Aâ—les which first admitted baptized Persons to take up Arms limited the Grant to times of Peace which was all one with the saying They would not allow it under Pagan Princes From all which I may reasonably infer They did not think themselves bound to bestir themselves for Pagan or persecuting Princes as if the Church must have perished if they had not had the Honour to preserve every Prince God had set over them till he had ended his Reign and his Life together Yet in all these times the Doctrine of Passive Obedience was at the Highest never call'd in question never doubted of It is as true also The Roman Emperors under whom they lived were absolute Independent Princes whose Will was the Law and the constitution of the Empire differed vastly from that of England So that we are not under the same Obligations they were because our Princes have not the same Legal Powers the Roman Emperors had but then I doubt not but we are as much bound to submit to the Legal Commands of a King of England as the Primitive Christians were to the Legal Commands of their Princes But this was no part of the Controversie under the Reign of James II. who had as little Law as Reason for what he did I could never meet with one single Protestant how discontented soever he was that James II. is not still King of England who would pretend to justifie or excuse any of his Actions no they all grant his Design was certainly to extirpate the Protestant Religion to enslave and consequently to extirpate the English Nation but then say they What of all that no evil is to be done we ought not to rebel to save a Church or a Nation Why what then supposing all this were true What is this to them Have any of them rebelled Yes say they all that have sworn Allegiance to their present Majesties have made defection from James II. who tho' he were never so bad a Man is still our lawful Prince and we are bound to swear Allegiance to no other as long as he is alive To this I reply If the things laid to the Charge of James II. in the Prince of Orange's Declaration are true and I think no body questions that for all the same things in a manner are complained of in the Bishops Proposals but one or two which were too high for any Subject to take notice of why then I say That Prince had a just Cause to make War upon James II. and if he was conquered by him he has as good Right to our Allegiance on that score as ever any conquering Prince had But this is not all It is well known His now Majesty offered to submit all his Controversies to the Decision of an English Parliament which is more perhaps than was ever done by any invading Prince before but James II. was resolved That neither he nor we should have any Right or Redress but rather than submit to that he would go make a Voyage to his most Christian Majesty for his Assistance to make a second Conquest of us There has been much bandying Whether James II. went voluntarily away or were forced and this is a Question not worth one Farthing at the bottom For if he went voluntarily he was forced and if he was forced he went voluntarily I suppose no Man ever said or thought he freely resigned the Crown but that his Mis-government had raised such Jealousies and Discontents in the Minds of his Subject that they neither could nor would fight for him till he had in Parliament done Right first to his People and then to the Prince This he was resolved not to grant be the Event what it would and when he saw himself deserted by all the World still he persisted in his Resolution and after he had promised a Parliament broke his Word with the Prince and the Nation and withdrew his Person and Seals and left us in Anarchy and Confusion Now I say he was not forced to do this he might and as the case stood he was bound to have granted a Parliament and then he might have staid with good safety to his Person and Sovereignty Now if there be nothing asked of a Prince by his Neighbour-Prince upon an Invasion but what he ought to grant and may grant he is forced by no body but himself if
of every individual Subject intending to refer the whole to a Parliament legally called freely elected and held without constraint wherein we shall not only have a particular regard to the Church of England as by Law established but also give such Indulgence to Dissenters as our People shall have no reason to be jealous of not expecting for the future any other favour to those of Our own Persuasion than the exercise of their Religion in their own private Families This Letter bears date at S. Germans en Laye Feb. 3. 1688-89 The Letter to the Convention of Scotland runs in a higher strain WE think fit to let you know That We have at all Times relied upon the Faithfulness and Affection of you Our Ancient People so much that in Our greatest Misfortunes heretofore We had recouâ—se to your Assistance and that with good Success to Our Affairs so now again We require of you to support Our Royal Interest expecting from you what becomes Loyal Faithful Subjects generous and honest Men that will neither suffer your selves to be cajoled nor frighted into any Action misbecoming true hearted Scotchmen and that to support the Honour of the Nation you will contemn the base Example of Disloyal Men and eternise your Names by a Loyalty suitable to the many Professions you have made to Vs in doing whereof you shall chuse the safest part since thereby you will evite the Danger you must needs undergo the Infamy and Disgrace you must bring upon your selves in this World and the Condemnation due to the Rebellious in the next and you will likewise have the Opportunity to secure to your selves and your Posterity the gracious Promises We have so oft made of securing your Religion Laws Properties Liberties and Rights which We are still resolved to perform as soon as is possible for Vs to meet you safely in a Parliament of Our Ancient Kingdom In the mean time fear not to declare for Vs your Lawful Sovereign who will not fail on Our Parts to give you such a speedy and powerful Assistance as shall not only enable you to defend your selves from any Foreign Attempt but put you in a Condition to assert our Right against our Enemies who have depressed the same by the blackest of Vsurpations the most unjust as well as the most unnatural of all Attempts which the Almighty God may for a Time permit and let the Wicked Prosper yet then must bring Confusion on such Workers of Iniquity We further let you know That we will pardon all such as shall return to their Duty before the last Day of this Month inclusive and that We will punish with the Rigor of Our Laws all such as shall stand out in Rebellion against Vs or Our Authority Given on Board the S. Michael March. 1. 1689. A Jesuit who printed a small Paper under the Title of Advices given to his R. H. M. the Prince of Orange by one of his most faithful Servants Your Emissaries saith he made use of the Mantle of Religion to create in the Minds of the People of England false Impressions of the Designs of the King their Master whilst they who knew the Bottom of the Business the Jesuites and his true Intentions as well as you are fully perswaded That this is a good Prince who desireth nothing but to pass the remainder of his Life in Peace and who would be well-contented to obtain from his Parliament the free Exercise of his own Religion without giving the least Disturbance to that which the greater part of his Subjects profess It is not possible for you to take too much care to hinder this Truth from spreading it self amongst the People c. Thus the late King promiseth and threatneth and the true hearted Jesuite who would not for the World speak one Tittle of Untruth to an Heretick of the first Magnitude voucheth for him and would make the whole Society that Holy Society which has so great an Influence over the Mind and Actions of that good Prince Garantee for the Performance of all these fine things Nay I will undertake if the English Hereticks will once more put their Heads into the Yoke That Lewis the Fourteenth too shall pass his Royal Word and unquestionable Faith That James the Second shall for the future keep his Faith with them in spite of all the Canons of the Church of Rome to the contrary as well as he himself has his to his own Protestant Subjects The Letter to the Convention of Scotland was dated on Board the S. Michael a French Ship then in the Road of Brest and the late King was then passing in her into Ireland where he arrived the 12 th of March at Kinsale with twelve French Men of War three Fire-ships and eight Merchant-Ships Now notwithstanding the King's Promise of Pardon to those of Brandon several were indicted at the Assizes insomuch that thirty or forty of them fled and came to Bristol being frighted at the Bloody Proceedings against one Mr. Brown of Cork who was hanged drawn and quartered at the same Assizes Several Petitions were also preferred for the Pardons of Sir Thomas Southwel and Captain Mills and many others who being taken in their Way to the North were carried to Galloway and there tried and condemned to die but the King rejected their Petition but however reprieved them for three Weeks deferring it till his Arrival at Dublin to which Place he set forward on the 21st of March. Nor was the rest of his Proceedings in that miserable Kingdom unlike this beginning all the English being plundered of all their Horses and Arms first then of their Cattle and Houshold-stuff and at last of their very Cloaths that they might be reduced to a necessity of perishing by Hunger Nakedness and Want and great numbers of them destroyed by pretended Legal Proceedings because they would not at first Summons open their Doors and suffer the Rabble to plunder them of all they had which I have had from some of my near Relations who fled on that account The twenty fifth of March a Proclamation was issued by him for the sitting of a Parliament the 7th of May at Dublin as it accordingly did wherein they passed these Acts. I. An Act to levy 20000l a Month for 13 Months II. For repealing the Act of Settlement and restoring old Preprietors III. For Liberty of Conscience IV. For taking off Penal Laws and Oaths V. For taking off all Writs of Error and Appeals to England VI. For taking off Valuation Money and other Rights from the Clergy VII For repealing the Act of the 23d of October 1641. VIII No benefit of Clergy for two Years IX All Patents for Offices void X. Ireland to be independent of England They seized in the mean time all the Protestants Estates who fled into England and all this they effected by the 26th of June 1. After this they passed an Act for repealing Poyning's Law. 2. Against counterfeiting Foreign Coins 3. And an Act for the
and put our present King and Queen in the actual Possession of all those Legal Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities which he was formerly vested with and it is now the same Sin to resist them it was formerly to resist him There may possibly be some who will lightly regard what ever I or any other Man of this Age can say to them will they then vouchsafe to hear one of the most Noble and Royal Orators that ever spoke to men Constantine the Great in his Oration to the Holy Assembly Chap. 24. Of the calamitous Deaths of Decius Valerian and Aurelian three Emperors who persecuted the Church And now I ask thee O Decius who didst once insult over the Calamities of the Just who didst hate the Church who didst inflict such Punishments on those who lived most piously What art thou doing in the other World with what and how dreadful Circumstances art thou surrounded Yea the remainder of thy Life after it in this World and the manner of thy Death shew thy Felicity when thou and all thy Army fell in the Scythian Fields And the celebrated Roman Empire by thy Fall became after this contemptible to the Goths And thou O Valerian when thou didst enter into a bloody War against the Servants of God hast thereby made his Justice known to Men being taken Prisoner by the Persians and kept in Chains in thy Purple and Royal Robes After which thou wert flea'd being dead by Sapores King of Persia and thy Skin by his Order taâ—â—ed and kept as an eternal Trophy of thy Misfortune And thou O Aurelius the unjustest and most wicked Incendiary how much hast thou discovered his Justice whilst madly invading Thrace thou wert cut off in the Field and didst deâ—ile the surrows of the Publick Road with thy wicked Blood Chap. 25. Of Dioclesian who basely resigned the Empire and was struck with Lightning for persecuting the Church Dioclesian also after a wicked Slaughter and cruel Persecution condemning himself through distraction was reduced to a private Life and punished with the Restraint of a mean House What did he get by his War against our God Why that he was ever after afraid of Thunder and Lightning Nicomedia saith this and they who saw it will not be silent among whom I my self was one The Palace was consumed and his very Chamber burnt with Fire from Heaven and thereupon wise Men foretold what would follow for they could not conceal their Thoughts nor suppress their Resentments at the ill things were done but openly and publickly with assurance said one to another What madness is this what boasting in human Power for a Mortal to begin a War against God and injuriously to affront the most chast and holy Religion and without any Cause or Provocation to contrive the Destruction of so many just Men and of so numerous a People What a famous Master and teacher of Modesty to his Subjects will he appear How rarely he teacheth his Soldiers to take Care of their Countrymen Why they stab their fellow Subjects bravely who in Fight never saw the back of a beaten Enemy At last the Providence of God undertook the avenging this Impiety tho' not without the publick Hurt for so much Blood had been shed by him that if he had slain as many of the Barbarians as he did of his own Subjects we might have procured a long Peace by it But the whole Roman Army being then in the Hand of a mean-spirited Prince who had acquired it by Force his whole Army perished when God was pleased to think fit to restore the Romans to their ancient Liberty The Voices of oppressed Men who cryed to God for Help under their Burthens and begged the Return of their natural Liberty are not forgotten nor the Praises they returned when they had regained it and saw an end of their Calamities Did they not declare to all the World How much they admired the singular Providence and paternal Love of God to men when their Liberty and the Equity of their Contracts was restored That is when they were delivered out of the Hands of perfidious Tyrants and became subject to a Prince who would keep his Faith and Promise to them They may be pleased to consider How much of this was our Case and ask their Consciences If the self-same Divine Justice and Providence has not appeared in our Times also and whether we have not as much Reason as they to be pleased and thankful Having thus dispatched what I think fit for the present to be offered to the Friends of the late King I come now to that part of the Nation who being satisfied and highly pleased with the present State of Affairs may therefore be called in contradistinction the Williamists Many of these of late have appeared very pertly against the Doctrine of Non resistance and Passive Obedience and discoursed of it with a Contempt and Scorn as if it were one of the worst and most exploded Doctrines in the whole World and full as Antichristian as that of deposing Kings and disposing of their Kingdoms Now these two being directly contrary each to other in all probability one of them is true If we of the Church of England are not in the right with the Scriptures and all Primitive Antiquity on our side it is fairly probable They of the Deposing Church are for their Claim is older than the Peoples But the Mischief is the Devils is older than either for he pretended to our Saviour when he had shewed him all the Kingdoms of the World and made a conditional Tender of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All this Power and Glory is delivered into my Hands and I give it to whomsoever I will Now this was long before People or Pope put in any Claim and before the latter of these had any Being The Pope it is true claims under the People but the Devil in his own Right But I believe neither of them can shew their Charter though the Devil claimed by a Grant and so I shall leave him and them Pope and all in the intire possession of their several Rights if any they have The Doctrine of Non-resistance has been often proved the genuine Doctrine of the best Ages of the Church and that so fully and clearly that those who would not yield to the Force of the Proof have not been able to deny the Truth of it but have been forced to pretend it was only Temporary and doth not oblige all Ages which is hardly Sense or that the Church is now in other Circumstances than she was then which is not true neither for in some Places she is now under the same or worse Circumstances than she was in the three first Centuries and consequently they at least are under the same Obligations the Primitive Christians were and therefore this very Doctrine is of eternal Verity and will have its Use till the End of the World. The command is general the Examples of it are
but scorned and trodden upon by his proud Enemy Did the Christians of this Age petition for their old Persecutor did they refuse to be under the milder Government of his Son Gallienus because the Father was still living tho' in Captivity No he tells us That this was added to his Punishment that though he had a Son which succeeded in the Empire yet there was no Revenger of his Captivity and Slavery nec omnino repetitus est nor was he in the least ever demanded or desired Next after him arose Aurelian a mad and a rash Prince who was cut off in the beginning of his Rage After him came Dioclesian who was hardly persuaded to begin a Persecution but raged more than any of his Predecessors soon after he fell into a Sickness and was thought by the Violence of it to have been dead but tho' he escaped with his Life he was a long time disracted and was forced by Galerious Imperio cedere to resign the Empire in the Year 305. and although he lived to the Year 313. which was nine Years after he was deposed none of the Christians of that Age desired he should again ascend the Throne One of the last of the Pagan Princes that persecuted the Church was Licinus upon whom Constantine made War for that very Cause and reduced him to a private Life in Thrace in the Year 324. and in the Year 325. put him to death for endeavouring to recover his Throne But neither here did the Christians that were his Subjects desire again to be under their Pagan Persecuting Prince rather than under their Deliverer Constantine Julian the Apostate was the last Pagan Prince that reigned in the Roman Empire and he perished in Persia by an unknown Hand within two Years and one Month and was followed both living and dead with the Detestation of that and all the succeeding Ages S. Ambrose as he is cited by Grotius de jure belli pacis saith This Apostate had many Christian Soldiers under him who when he commanded them To stand to their Arms against the common Enemy of their Country obeyed him but when he commanded them to sight against the Christians then they acknowledged the Emperor of Heaven That is they refused to serve him in this And the famous Thebean Legion made this their Apology We offer our Service against any Enemy but we esteem in an Impiety to stain them with the Bloods of Innocent Men You may command our Hands against the Wicked and your Enemies but we cannot butcher the Pious and our fellow-Subjects We do well remember That we took up Arms for and not against our Countrymen and we have ever fought for Justice for Piety and the Preservation of the Innocent These things have hitherto been the Rewards of our Dangers Shall we oh Sir ever be able to keep our Faith and our promise to you if we now fail of performing our Promise to our God They were then said to be led into France to fight against the Bagaudae a sort of outlawed Christians who were forced by the Iniquity of the Times to take up Arms under Dioclesian and were all of them destroyed by Maximianus so that if that Story be true it is a pregnant Testimony That he Doctrine of Passive Obedience doth not oblige any Man to lend his Assistance to the Ruine of the true Religion Beside these Pagan Princes there were some Arian Princes who treated the Catholicks of their Times very hardly and though none of the Christians of those Times rebelled against them yet neither would the Catholicks assist the Arian Princes against the Catholick Bishops as is plain in the Story of S. Ambrose and the many Tumults at Constantinople Antioch and Alexandria in those Times and when these Princes sell by the Justice of God in Civil or Foreign Wars their Ends were looked upon as deserved Thus Valens perished in Thrace and Valentinian the younger at Vienne the one by the Hands of the Goths and the other by the Procurement of Arbogastes an Usurper and the untimely Deaths of these two Princes proved the Exaltation of Theodosius the Resettler of the Catholick Religion and the extirper of Arianism in the Roman Empire In all the various Events of these Times the Providence of God ordered things for the good of his Church and the Christians of those Times left them to his Disposal and submitted to those he set over them quietly and without disputing their Rights or Titles whereas Procopius who claimed the Empire as cousin to Julian the Emperor perished in the Attempt without pity or the Regard of the Church There is no part of the Reign of James II. that has not been examined and represented by many pens so that it were a needless but an ungrateful Task for me to rip it up again it may suffice to say in general Never any of our Princes so openly attempted the Ruine of the English Liberties or went so far in it never did any Man more openly endeavour the Ruine of an established Religion or by more illegal Courses than he nor Laws nor Oaths nor Promises nor Gratitude could restrain him he broke through all the Barriers God and Man had put in his Way and seemed resolved to ruine us or Himself no Remonstrances from abroad no Petitions at home could work upon him till he saw the Sword coming to cut up the Gourd he had planted and was so fond of then indeed he seemed to relent and to give back but still he would be trusted he would yield up nothing but so as that he might when the Danger was over re-assume the same again An English Parliament was the thing in the World he most hated because he foresaw if it was Free there was an end for ever of the Hopes of setting up Popery in this Kingdom and that was his main and almost only Design and yet as fond as he ever seemed to be of an Absolute and Uncontroulable Power if he had been of our Church he would not have hazarded all for it but he would have managed Things with some Reserve but the Jesuites he took into his Bosom and his Queen especially spurred him on and put him upon these Courses only by representing to him the Glory and Merit of extirpating the Northern Heresies and settling the Catholick Religion in England Well but what has he done since he left us that may give us any Assurance we were mistaken as to what was past or may hope for better Usage for time to come Why there have been some General Promises made In the Letter pretended to be sent to the Lords and Commons of England and after wards printed in London he or some other Person for him tells us We are resolved Nothing shall be omitted on our Part whenever we can with Safety return that can contribute towards the Redress of all former Errors or present Disorders or add to the securing of the Protestant Religion or the Property