in Arms candidly and sincerely are these 1. The defending and securing of the true Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Government founded upon the word of God and summarily comprehended in our Confessions of faith and Catechisms and Established by the Laws of this Land To which Kings Nobles and People are solemnly sworn and engaged in our National and Solemn League and Covenant and more particularly the defending and maintaining the Kingly Authority of our Lord Jesus Christ over his Church against all sinful Supremacy derogatory thereto and encroaching thereupon 2. The preserving and defending the Kings Majesty his Person and Authority in preservation and defence of that true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom that the World may bear Witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intention to diminish his just Power and Greatness 3. The Obtaining of a free and Unlimited Parliament and a free General Assembly in Order to the Redressing or foresaid Grievauces for preventing the eminent danger of Popery and Extirpating of Prelacy from amongst us This therefore being the cause we appear for and resolve in Gods great Name to own They are much more honest and ingenuous than our Dissenters for that they speak frankly and freely what they mean to do which the other deny in words and prosecute in deeds as much as the Scots as far as they durst thereby Homologating all the Testimonies of faithful Sufferers for the truth in Scotland these eighteen years by gone We humbly request the Kings Majesty would restore all things as he found them when God brought him home to his Crown and Kingdoms and if that cannot be obtained then we heartily and humbly invite intreat beseech and obtest in the Bowels of Jesus Christ all who are under the same * * That is the Obligation of the Covenant Bonds with us to occur in the Defence of this Countrey Cause and Interest And that they will not stand still and see not only us oppressed but this foresaid cause ruined Adversaries highly and proudly insult against God and all good Friends of the truth discouraged Yea the Protestant Cause in Britain and Ireland and even your selves within a little time made a Prey of or else forced when we are Broken which the good Lord prevent dreadfully to wrong your Consciences Finally because we desire no mans hurt or blood We request our Countrey men now the standing Forces of this Kingdom some of them being our Friends and Kinsmen not to fight against us least in so doing they be found fighting against the Lord whose cause and quarrel we are sure he will own and signally countenance seeing we fight under his Banner who is the Lord of Hosts I have taken the pains to transcribe this Long Declaration not for any delight I take in it but because it is an undeniable instance and demonstration that the Kirk-men in Scotland did then intend to have renewed that War again that formerly brought this Nation to the very brink of Ruine and was the means of the Barbarous Murther of his Majesties Father of the Banishment of our King and his Brothers and Sisters for twelve years of the expence of 48 Millions of Money and Plate and of the loss of one hundred thousand Lives by Fire Sword and Famine All which calamities were begun and carried on by these very men first in Scotland by the incouragement of some factious men of our own Nation and afterwards here in England upon the same pretences As any man may remember that is but fifty years old and the rest may see by comparing this Declaration with those that were made then and therefore I cannot but admire the Providence of God in preventing this Presbyterian Plot by a Prorogation in the very nick of time without which this Rebellion would in all likely-hood have had much countenance from some in England who encouraged it Underhand upon pretences of Countenance from above how groundless soever nor had it ended as it did and where it did if they had got the first battel or but been able to have kept the Field But for the benefit of my Country Reader who is not acquainted with the affairs of Scotland let me observe two or three things for the better understanding of this Grand Cheat and without which this doleful Story may leave great impressions of pity upon the mind of an English-man which these bloudy Rebels of all the world do not deserve The Reader then shall be pleased to understand that besides this Rebellion there was a former one at Pentland Hills where these Covenanteers fought the Kings Forces in ranged Battel in 1666 and in many of their Field Conventicles there was weekly Meetings of Hundreds and Thousands of Armed men formed into Troops and Companies ready upon all occasions of probable capacity to fight against the King for the King in Sion And in 1676 they appeared so numerous that the Privy Council of Scotland advised his Majesty to send English Forces to lie in readiness upon the Borders and to order Viscount Granard to lie with an Army on the Irish Coasts ready to be transported upon occasion and likewise upon the Motion of the Marquess of Athol to procure the Lords of the Highlands a Commission to march with their Vassals under the Command of his Majesties Major General into the West which descent of the Highlanders is mentioned in the Declaration and Aggravated beyond truth or reason by stilling them Barbarians which those that knew these men aver they were not but behaved themselves very civilly to prevent the Field Conventicles from running together into a general Rebellion as they did this May. But to come to particulars they had a Field fast near Iedburgh in Tiveotdale toward the latter end of March 1678 where there were present 7 Preachers and 5000 people the men being armed to seek God for three things 1. That he would be pleased to put an end to the persecution of his people in that Kingdom 2ly That he would have mercy on all those that took the wicked Bond that was not to suffer any Conventicles on their Lands and give them grace to repent 3ly That he would bless with success those Noble Lords that were gone to London to complain of the Duke of Lauderdale and who procured the first Address against him though to no purpose There was another in the March the May following where were assembled eight or 9000 People to receive the Sacrament and renew the solemn League and Covenant of which the Privy Council gave his Majesty an account And another near Dumbar shortly after where they fell upon the Kings forces of the Basse that went out to dismiss them and killed one of the Souldiers and wounded more Finally my Author who is a learned Gentleman saith if he should go on to enumerate all the Field Meetings till that great one which began the Rebellion this May he might write a History The Spirit of Popery
a fair Warning also to look to Himself and the Religion by Law Established when he saw with how little Reverence these Protestants at Large treated him while his Prerogatives were intire and wholly in his Own Hands and had he but yielded to them in the Point of the Duke of York they would Soon have taught him how little was to be gotten by Complying with men of their temper The only Service they did was to the French King for our Allies beyond Seas seeing that No Assistance was to be Expected from England Surrendred their strongest Towns to him for the Asking and so suffered the worst effects of War in Peace The City of London Lost the hopes of having any more Parliaments amongst them till Times be better and more Settled by their grateful Applications to them for their Loyalty and Care of the Protestant Religion at Large The Trade of a Considerable part of the Nation is ruined not for want of Laws but by too many which have restrained that intercourse and freedom that ought to be betwixt Us and our Neighbour Nations yet I cannot say that this Parliament would have relieved the Nation in that point if they had Continued Longer when it is considered with what care and industry the Act for the prohibition of Irish Cattel was carried against all opposition tho it is damageable to a very considerable part of the Nation if not to the whole and had these Gentlemen been equally concerned for the Suppressing of Popery as they were for this ACT Some of those Bills at least that were sent down from the Lords or began by the Commons might have been ready as well as this for the Royal Assent Yet they had some very good Bills relating to Trade under consideration but they were not so Zealous in that Concern as they ought to have been but rather seemed to fear the State of the People on that account should be made too easie before they had obtained their other Ends of his Majesty and the Government Of this their Vote about the Act for prohibition of the French Trade may be an instance for however that Act might be of great use if the Dutch would consent to prohibit all Trade with them as well as We yet as Long as they go on to Trade with them and we do not it onely tends to impoverish the King and Us and Inrich them and therefore ought to have been left at liberty till they and we can mutually agree to stop it Nor did the Protestant Religion by Law established fare any better for that being equally opposed by the Dissenters on one hand and the Papists on the other under pretence of Uniting us against the latter the former were encouraged by their Votes and Bills to endeavour her ruine The Bill for Uniting his Majesties Protestant Subjects is a perfect Toleration of almost all other Religions which are or shall be amongst us except Popery and had it and the other Bill for Exempting them from the Penalties of the Laws made against the Popish Recusants passed it would not have been possible to have Executed them or any other against the Papists For it cannot be imagined that the Papists could not have been able to have got themselves Listed amongst some of our Dissenters or other and then upon making the Declaration and producing two Persons as Witness that they believed them to be Protestant Dissenters they would have had the liberty to have inflamed both those Dissenters that were Comprehended and those that were Tolerated against the entire Conformists and these again against them And so both Popery should have gone unpunished and the Feuds amongst our selves would have grown to that height that nothing but a standing Army would have been able to have kept us in any tolerable quiet If the Ministers of the Church of England had been part of them entire Conformists and part of them Presbyterians those that were of the first sort would have kept up the Religion Established as high or higher then now and the other Party must have laid aside totally the use of the Common-Prayer as well as the Surplice Cross and Kneeling at the Lords Supper or else their whole Party which now follow them would have all left them and so another Faction would have risen in the Church of Semi-Conformists and all those that are without the Church would have continued as now they are under other Teachers only more insolent and more turbulent and so instead of uniting us against the Papists and Popery which is the pretended cause of the Act we should have been more divided and Animated against each other then now we are It was one of the Rules prescribed by that Bill That no person should be admitted to take the Declaration who refused the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy when tendred unto him Now this would have left all the Quakers Anabaptists and several other Sects in the same state of Persecution as they call it as they now are and great Numbers of the Other Sects too when they had considered of it would have Scrupled it as well as they in Scotland have done and so those that were totally Excluded would have been enraged against those that had been tolerated as having betrayed them first and then left them to the Severity of the Law and by that time all these Parties viz. the Rigid Conformists 2. Semi-Conformists 3. Tolerated and Non-Tolerated Protestants all enraged against each other had for some time been fermented by the Jesuits and Popish Party a man may guess what kind of Vnion there would have been amongst Protestants in England And when they had gained all this what Security could have been given that they would have rested here that Act which one Parliament makes another may Repeal and they would never have been Secure of Keeping what they had gained but by taking care to fill the House of Commons in every Parliament with the most Factious men they could pick out and they could never have maintained their reputation with the Party but by pushing things forward and so every Sessions something more must have been granted for the better Security of the Union and removing of Fears and Jealousies till at last we had been brought to the same state of Confusion his Majesty found us in at his Return That a considerable number of these Dissenters are as much against Monarchy as Conformity is Apparent by their Books discourses and former practice Now what Security should his Majesty have had that when this Party had by impunity and time been strong enough to have dealt with the Loyal Party they would not have endeavoured to be dispensed with from obeying him or any other King but Christ Jesus and then Nothing could have united Protestants and Secured us against Popery but the Laying aside the Kingly Government and the Setting up a Common-wealth and of this they have already given some Notable hints in their Pamphlets and when they are told the
by Civil Wars and Rebellions as in His Majesties Fathers time to make way for the French to Seize these Kingdoms and totally to Ruine their Infantry and Naval Force These are Mr. Oats his Words and whoever had seen the persons Must'red up about the choosing this Parliament would have thought that Forty One had been returned again and that the Jesuits under the shape of Nonconformist Ministers had been turning the Plot that way now God had defeated the close one But though all this Care was taken the Dissenters did not carry the Elections every where nor almost any where without great Resistance For on the other side the Gentry appeared themselves and brought in their Tenants and Dependences and many of the Yeomanry and Free-holders were Zealous for the Church and Government and in Corporations the Magistrates and Free-men had not forgot the old tricks of the Dissenters and were resolved not to be ruin'd twice by the same Arts so that the two Parties were almost equal there and in the Counties the Gentry were certainly the stronger side if Perjury had not been employed against them and in some places they prevailed against that too but not so as to make an equal Party in the House The Persons that stood on this side were Men of Undoubted Loyalty to the King hearty lovers of the Religion Established and great Enemies to Puritanism Faction and Rebellion and for these good qualities were stiled by the contrary Party-men of Arbitrary Principles and favourers of Popery some of these had been Members of the Last Parliament and been of that they call the Court Party who had been guilty of Setling the Monarchy and Suppressing the Rebellion and the Nurseries of it the Conventicles and others were taken in to fill up the vacancies of or very nearly of the same Principles The Elections being thus made the Parliament met the day appointed which was Thursday the sixth of March 1678. and my business is to wait upon them and see how matters went in the Lower House especially and as an Introduction I will take notice of His Majesty's Speech in the first place part of which was as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen I Meet you here with the most earnest desire that man can have to Unite the Minds of all my Subjects both to me and to one another and I resolve it shall be your faults if the Success be not suitable to my desires I have done many great things already in order to that end as the Exclusion of the Popish Lords from their Seats in Parliament the Execution of several men both upon the Score of the Plat and of the Murder of Sir Edmonberry Godfrey and it is apparent that I have not been idle in prosecuting the discovery of both as much further as hath been possible in so short a time I have disbanded as much of the Army as I could get Mony to do and I am ready to disband the rest so soon as you shall reimburse the Mony they have cost me and will inable me to pay off the remainder And above all I have Commanded my Brother to absent himself from me because I would not leave the Malicious Men room to say I had not removed all causes which could be pretended to influence me towards Popish Counsels Besides that end of Union which I am at and which I wish could be extended to Protestants abroad as well as at home I propose by this last great step I have made to discern whether Protestant Religion and the Peace of the Kingdom be as truly aimed at by others as they are really intended by me for if they be you will imploy your time upon the great concerns of the Nation and not be drawn to promote private animosities under pretences of the publique your Proceedings will be calm and peaceable in order to those good ends I have recommended to you and you will curb the motions of any unruly Spirits which would endeavour to disturb them I hope there will be none such amongst you because there can be no man that must not see how fatal differences amongst our selves are like to be at this time both at home or abroad I shall not cease my endeavours dayly to find out what more I can both of the Plot and Murder of Sir Edmondberry Godfrey and shall desire the Assistance of both my Houses in that work I have not been wanting in giving orders for putting all the present Laws in Execution against Papists and I am ready to joyn in the making such further Laws as may be necessary for securing of the Kingdom against Popery And after a short discourse of supply's he goes on I will conclude as I begun with my earnest desires to have this a Healing Parliament and I do give you this Assurance that I will with my life defend both the Protestant Religion and the Laws of this Kingdom and I do expect from you to be defended from the Calumny as well as Danger of those worst of men who endeavour to render me and my Government odious to my people By which last passage I believe his Majesty reflected upon the Dissenters and Common wealth Party who as they were more believed so they had been more busie in traducing him and that with a more Mischievous Malice and effect than the worst Jesuits during this short time betwixt the Dissolution of the last and the Election of this present Parliament and therefore his Majesty had reason to tell the Parliament he expected to be defended by them from the Calumny of the Dissenters as well as from the danger of the Papists both which are the worst of men as who did endeavour to render him and his Government Odious to his people The Lord Chancellor's Speech was for the most part but an enlargement upon his Majestie 's as it uses to be and therefore I shall take notice of some passages only in it He advised them not to overdo their business and by being too far transported with the fears of Popery neglect the opportunities they then had of making sober and lasting provisions against it He told them it was a Custom of the Jesuits first to Murder the fame of Princes and then their persons first slandering them to their people as if they favoured Papists and then to assassinate them for being too Zealous Protestants He represented what a joy it would be to them to see us whom they could not destroy by the conspiracy Ruining our selves after the discovery by incurable jealousies and disturbing the Government And that further care might be taken of Regulating the Press from whence there daily stole forth Popish Catechisms Psalters and Books of Controversie and Seditious and Schismatical Libells too We shall now see how these Counsells were pursued by the Parliament The first thing the House of Commons did was to choose Edward Seymour Esquire their former Speaker their Speaker again But the next day the King disliking the choice and Commanding them to
they might have made a Legal defence and have received a Legal Sentence But here they had nothing but bare affirmations without any witness to defend them and a Sentence founded upon this as sharp chargeable and dishonourable as was possible If this be the Liberty of the Subject and these men our defenders from Arbitrary Government On Friday October 29. Sir George Downing having obtained Leave to bring in a Bill for wearing of the Woollen Manufacture of England The House Ordered that Dr. Tongue should be recommended to his Majesty for the first Considerable Church-Preferment that should happen to become void in the Kingdom And then the Speaker Reported his Majesty's Answer to the Address concerning Pardons which is recited above which Answer was THat he did intend to direct such a Proclamation and was resolved not onely to prosecute the Plot but Popery also and to take Care of the Protestant Religion Established by Law and if We joyn and the Lower House go on Calmly in their Debates without heats He did not doubt but to beat down Popery and all that belongs to it This Answer will stand upon Record against them and Posterity will certainly give them their due for Neglecting this Mild Admonition of this Meek Prince But to go on Mr. Harbord Reported the Address for the Support of the King's Person and Government and the Protestant Religion both at Home and Abroad Which was as followeth WE Your Majesties most Dutiful and Obedient Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled Do with most Thankful Hearts Acknowledg not Onely Your Majesties many former Royal Declarations of Your Adherence to the * * What Protestant Religion why are not the words by Law Established here as well as in his Majesties Answer above Protestant Religion in the Preservation and Protection thereof but Your further Manifestation of the same in Your Gracious Speech to both Houses at the Opening of this present Parliament in which Your Majesty is pleased to Command us strictly and impartially to prosecute the Horrid Popish Plot without which we do fully assent to Your Majesties great Judgment That neither Your Person nor Government can be Safe nor your Protestant Subjects It being part of the very Religion of Popery where it can obtain to Extirpate all Protestants both Prince and People which hath caused in the Times of Your Royal Ancestors since the Reformation that great Care to oblige the Subjects against their return to the Papal Yoke in the very same Oathes wherein they Swear Allegiance to their Prince And as Now the Eyes of all the Protestant Kingdoms and States abroad are upon us and looking upon Your Majesty as the Royal Head of so many Protestant Countries cannot but hope upon a Happy and Solid Security in our Religion at Home That your Majesty will be the greatest Protection to them from whom we may expect a Mutual Assistance as being involved in the same Common Danger So we do humbly assure your Majesty That we shall be always ready to preserve your Majesties Person and Government and to Support the * * What that by Law Established or another As contrary to it as Popery is Protestant Religion both at home and abroad And do Humbly beseech your Majesty to Esteem all persons whatsoever who shall otherwise represent Vs to your Majesty as those who design to divide between the King and his People and to defeat the Meeting and Sitting of Parliaments That those Popish Designs may succeed which they well know cannot otherwise prosper And this they have made Vndeniably Evident in the Interval of Parliaments by Contriving with unparallel'd Insolence a most Damnable and Wicked Design to transfer their own Crimes upon so many of your Majesties Loyal Protestant Nobility and Gentry hoping thereby to destroy those who with the greatest Zeal and Integrity endeavour to prosecute them The Effect of this Specious Address to possess the People what Stout Champions the Presbyterians are against Popery and to Involve all them that had appeared against them as Papists or Favourers of Papists and to let the World know what a horrid opinion they had of that Silly-impossible-Meal-Tub-Sham Plot And Certainly the Popish Party were much to blame to Lay their Treasons to the Presbyterians who have too many of their own to answer for without this Accumulation of guilt from others Crimes But as to their boast of their Great Zeal and Integrity in endeavouring to prosecute the Popish Plot we shall be better able to judge of it in the Conclusion of this Session of Parliament Then the House Proceeded to Examine Sir Francis Wythens business and it appearing by Witness and his own Confession that he had presented an Address to his Majesty expressing an Abhorrency to Petition his Majesty for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments they Voted him a Betrayer of the Undoubted Rights of the Subjects of England and ordered him to be Expelled the House for this High Crime and to receive his Sentence at the Bar upon his Knees Which he submitted to Observe how they misrepresent this Gentleman the Address he presented was drawn by the Bench at Easter Sessions for Westminster and related onely to that Petition and that Parliament in those Circumstances now as they word the business it must signify that the Address was against All Sorts of Petitions for the Sitting of Parliaments in the plural Number which is foul play to misrepresent the Matter of fact in a thing so lately done and well Known to every body in the very place where they Sit but it was necessary it should be so worded to Justify the Severity of the House if that would have done This was the Second Member of Parliament they Expelled in a way that was look't on as Arbitrary and unexampled and this was the use they made of His Majesties Advice to proceed Calmly and without Heats On Saturday the 30th of October They passed a Vote That the Votes of their House should be Printed being first Perused and Signed by Mr. Speaker who was to Nominate and Appoint the persons to Print the same From these Printed Votes I have Extracted what hath gone before and shall follow after and to them I appeal for the truth of this Narrative of their Proceedings and but for this Vote it might have been difficult to have known what they had done so as to have charged them By them also I have been encouraged to speak my Mind more freely of this than of the former Parliaments for this Printing their Votes could be designed for Nothing but to enable the People to pass a Judgment on their Actions one of which Number I am Their next Vote was That they would proceed to the full Examination of the Popish Plot in order to bring the Offenders to Justice And then they Nominated a Committee to Inspect the Journals of the Two last Parliaments and Report their proceedings relating to the Popish Plot and Ordered An Address to his Majesty for
the Letters Papers and Evidences which have been delivered to the Privy Council relating to the said Plot. This Afternoon they Waited upon his Majesty with their Address for the Preservation of his Person and Government c. On Munday the First day of November Mr. Secretary Jenkins told the House the Papers they had Addressed for had been sent to the Committee of the House of Lords for Examination of the Plot the 24th of October The Bill for wearing of Woollen was also read and committed Then the Speaker Reported the King's Answer to their Address for Preservation of his Majesties Person and the Protestant Religion which was as followeth I Thank you very heartily for your Zeal for the Protestant Religion and I assure you there shall be nothing wanting on my part at Home or Abroad to preserve it Sir Francis Winnington Chairman of the Committee for Inspecting the Journals of the Two last Parliaments concerning the Proceedings relating to the Popish Plot reported a general abstract of the same which was Ordered to be perfected and that they should inspect those of the House of Lords for the same time Then one Hardwich a Linnen-Draper being accused of some Misdemeanors against one Seignior Francisco a Witness in the Popish Plot was Ordered to be sent for in Custody of the Serjeant Attending their House to answer the same This was to punish a man before they knew whether he were guilty or no upon a bare Suggestion On Tuesday the 2 d. of November A Bill for prohibiting the Importation of Irish Cattel was read and committed And then one Harnage was ordered to be brought to the Bar for abusing Francisco Ferria And then they Voted an Address to his Majesty for a pardon for Dangerfield and that he would take him and Mr. Dugdale Mr. Prance and this Seignior F. Ferria into his Royal Care and Protection But these were small matters to what follow Resolved Nemine Contradicente That the Duke of York's being a Papist and the Hopes of his coming such to the Crown hath given the greatest Countenance and Encouragement to the present Designs and Conspiracies against the King and Protestant Religion Resolved That in defence of the King's Person and Government and of the Protestant Religion this House doth declare That they will stand by his Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes and that if his Majesty shall come by any violent death which God forbid they will Revenge it to the Vttermost upon the Papists who ever did it Resolved That a Bill be brought in to disable the Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of this Realm On Tuesday the 3 d. day of November the Lords sent down an Act they had passed for the better Regulating the Trials of the Peers of England to which they desired the Concurrence of the Commons and it was read the same day and committed Mr. Harnage being then brought to the Bar was continued in Custody of the Serjeant during the Pleasure of the House Not one tittle being inserted concerning the Nature of his Misdemeanor The Committee for Examination of the Journals were also appointed to inspect the Impeachments against the Lords in the Tower and the proceedings thereupon And they were also to prepare Evidence against the said Lords And in the mean time they Voted Resolved Nemine Contradicente That a Bill be brought in for the better Vniting of all his Majesties Protestant Subjects This was now a New Name for a Toleration as I will make it appear Ordered That Sir Tho. Whitegrave and Mr. Birch of Stafford Apothecary and Lieutenant Ellis be sent for in Custody of the Serjeant to answer to the Charge given against them by Mr. Dugdale Ordered That Herbert Herring be sent for in Custody c. for a Notorious Breach of Priviledge by him committed against Mr. Colt a Member of their House No account how or when being given But Jeremiah Bubb was onely Summoned to appear at the Bar to answer for a Breach of Priviledge committed against Mr. Colt The Bill for Prohibiting the Importation of Irish Cattel was read the second time and committed And Leave was given to bring in a Bill for the Exportation of Leather On Thursday the 4th of November the said Bill was read the first time and Ordered a second reading And then Mr. Secretary Jenkins Reported his Majesty's Answer concerning the Informers against the Popish Plot which was That Care had and should be taken of them Ordered That a Committee be appointed to inspect the Act intituled Trade Encouraged made in the 15th Year of his Majesties Reign and to bring in a Bill for prohibiting of Scotch Cattel at certain Seasons And then after some Debates and Votes concerning Elections of which I shall take no Notice The Bill for disabling the D. of York to Inherit was read the first time and committed Ordered That a Committee be appointed to Inspect the Laws that are in being touching the Maintenance of the Poor and to bring in a Bill or Bills for Regulating and preventing the encrease of the Poor in this Kingdom On Saturday the 6th of November it was Ordered That a Committee be appointed to Inspect the Law concerning the Anniversary Reading of the Narrative of the Gunpowder-Plot in Churches on every Fifth day of November and to Report the same to the House Resolved N. C. That it is the Opinion of this House That the Acts of Parliament made in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James against Popish Recusants Ought not to be Extended against Protestant Dissenters It would have been well if we had been told why they ought not to be Extended to all that break them one as well as another And then how it should be possible to distinguish these two Sorts of offenders one from the other the offence being Exactly the same tho the cause be a little different And then thirdly if a Bill had been brought in for that purpose for the Votes of the House of Commons are no binding Expositions of Law nor I hope never will be Lastly this Vote was needless if the Bill of Vnion went on and to no purpose if it did not as I suppose they understand Now. Ordered That a Committee be appointed to prepare and bring in a Bill for Repeal of all or any part of the Act of Parliament made in the 35th Year of the Reign of Queen Eliz. Cap. 1. Printed in the Statute Book of Pulton This was a severe Act against the Dissenters and they were Now to be Countenanced and Encouraged to the utmost for what end and purpose is not difficult to be guessed by their Insolence against the King and Government A Bill for Exportation of Cloth and other Woollen Manufactures into Turkey was read the first time and committed The Bill to disable the Duke of York was read the Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House with a Resolution declared that it should Extend to the Person of the Duke of
God From which two I will infer this Conclusion That who ever shall attempt to alter this Right of Succession without a manifest revelation which is not now to be expected is a Notorious Usurper upon the Right of the Person who is to Succeed be the pretence for it what it will and a Rebel against that Providence which gave him that Right Nor will all the Antient Rebellions Usurpations and Disorders which have hapned in this Kingdom Justify them that shall begin them again Now if it should please God so to order it that the Duke should at his Majesties Death be the Next Heir to his Crown I cannot see how any humane Power shall prevent his Succession to it but by encroaching upon his Right and by rebelling against the Divine Providence that gave it to him So that be the Inconveniences that shall follow upon such a Succession what they will or can be we must submit to them upon pain of Rebellion against both God and his Anointed our Lawful Prince And then let any man be judge whether it is better to fall into the Hands of a Popish Prince or into the Hands of an Angry God who is a Consuming fire and who is not bound by any Act of Parliament from afflicting a Sinful and Rebellious People So tho the Church of England hath all the reason in the world to dread such a Prince yet she will have greater reason to dread a Rebellion against him because it runs her upon the Divine Vengeance and is directly contrary to her Principles and the Practise of the Apostles and Primitive Church and is plain down-right Popery So that I conclude Neither She nor any of her Children will be guilty of it come what will come But this is not all we are already Sworn to Bear Faith and true Allegiance to the Kings Highness The Oath of Supremacy His Heirs and Lawful Successors and that to our power we shall assist and defend all Jurisdiction Priviledges Pre-Eminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs and Lawful Successors or United and Annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm of which that of an hereditary Succession is one of the principal and we are Sworn not onely to his Majesty whom God Long Continue but also to his Lawful Successors with which Oath none but they that have that Right can dispence for this being a promissory Oath made to them as well as him when their Rights shall fall his Majesty cannot remit their Right nor any of them anothers but they have Every of them in their respective degrees and orders an indispensable Right confirmed to them by this Oath Nor would they cease to be Lawful Successors in the Sence of this Oath tho a Law were made to prevent bar or cut off their Succession because all that is meant by the word Lawful in this place is to be understood by the common Rules of Succession Settled by the Common Law of England viz. the Eldest Son or Daughter before a Younger of the same Sex c. Now if his Majesty cannot do it much less can the Lords or Commons do it because they are all within the obligation of this Oath and it is unreasonable that men should dispence with their own promissory Oathes to others for this would destroy all Faith and Confidence amongst men and pull up the very Roots of all Society and Government Nor can any man imagine that this Oath was made in favour of a Protestant Successor only H. 8. being a Popish Prince in whose time it was Settled at first And the same in effect is Sworn by the Oath of Allegiance with this binding Clause I do believe and in my Conscience am resolved that neither the Pope nor any other Person whatsoever hath power to absolve me of this Oath or any part thereof which I Acknowledge by good and full Authority to be lawfully Ministred unto me And by this Oath we are also bound to bear Faith and true Allegiance not onely to his Majesty but to his Heirs and Successors and Him and Them to Defend to the Utmost of our power c. Which is to be understood according to their several and respective Rights and at such times as they shall grow and accrew to them and every of them And altho this Oath was Introduced by a Protestant Prince yet is not made to him as a Protestant but as Lawful and Rightful King of this Realm and who ever is So hath and must have Right to impose it upon us be his Religion what it will So that besides the former Sin of Rebellion against the Providence of God Here is an Apparent and Unavoidable Perjury in this Case to Aggravate the other And surely no good Religious man will run upon these two Hideous Sins deliberately to avoid any temporal affliction whatsoever So that were the Case just such as it is represented by the Author of the Character of a Popish Successor It would not Justify the Excluding of such a Successor as he hath described by Force and Arms against his Right and our Oathes to the Contrary tho we were never so certain to Succeed in the Attempt But then that wicked man has most falsly represented things to us and So as it is impossible they should ever prove in the Event if we do not give occasion for it by an improsperous Rebellion nay I believe I may say if we should First it is agreed by All the World That there are Ten Protestants for one Papist thro all the Dominions of England So that if such a Successor should attempt to Extirpate them the bare refusing to aid or assist him in such an enterprize would render it impossible Secondly All our Laws are in favour of that Religion that is Established which could never be Repealed but in Parliament and it is morally impossible to have a Parliament the major part of which will not be Protestants who will never Consent to ruine themselves Thirdly The Revenue of such a Prince will not bear the Charge of so great an Army as will be necessary to reduce the People to a Religion so generally detested and hated as this is In answer to this there is Two things pretended First That he may have Foraign Ayds And Secondly That he will have means to deter or allure many from the Protestant Religion to his own As to Foraign assistances no Prince will dare to admit so many as shall totally over-power his own People because then they will be able to ruine him as the Saxons did the Brittains and he may be sure they will do it So that this is a ridiculous Supposition in a Prince of our own Nation that hath No other Dominions but these As to any Number of People that he may be able to bring over to his Religion they will be very inconsiderable in proportion to those that will never be brought over tho we suppose the Number greater then it is like to be
cannot possibly better represent this than in the Words of Camden The State of England was most miserable at that time as being involved in a War with Scotland on the one side and France on the other oppressed with the Debts which Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth had Contracted the Exchequer was Exhausted Calis and the County of Oyen and in them a great Magazine were lost to the dishonour of the English Name and the People were divided in their Opinions concerning Religion The Queen had no Potent Friends nor was fortified with the * Cognatione Alliance or Kindred of any Foreign Princes The Trade of England must of necessity be very small when the Nation was thus Near ruine But when the Queen had once setled the business of Religion and afterwards had taken care to preserve it from Foreign Violence by Repairing her Navy Royal so that it was far Superiour to any other which gave her Reputation at home and Fame abroad and also from the Attempts of the Papists and Dissenters by severe Laws constantly put in Execution and had thereby Won the Affections of her People and stilled their Fears They being secur'd thus at home began to search all the corners of the World for Trade and sent forth their Fleets to the East and West Indies to Muscovy by the Bay of St. Nicholas by them Discover'd and Green-Land and indeed whether not whence they returned with Honour and Wealth and made her and themselves Happy One thing that gave a great Advantage to the Trade and consequently to the Wealth of England in her time was the Devastations which the severity of the Duke de Alva and the Wars of Flanders thereby occasion'd caused in those Countries by which means we gained some Addition to our People the knowledge of some Manufactures which we had not before and also a vast stock of Mony and Treasure which altogether had like to have totally ruin'd the Spanish Netherlands but however this concurring with the rest helped to advance England to that height of Wealth and Reputation in the World that it was in her days the Bulwark of Christendom and without any considerable forrein Assistance humbled and brought down the House of Austria which then aimed at an Universal Monarchy But then it cannot be denyed that together with these Low Countrymen Factions and Common-Weath Principles entred England And although the severity of that Queen and the great Affection and Veneration the People had for her added to her Constancy whose Motto was Semper eadem Always the same kept them both under so as they were never able to give her any considerable disturbance yet they grew and encreased and in the Reign of her Successor tugged stoutly in the House of Commons for the Victory with the Court Party as they then stiled all that stood to the Crown and kept King James at Bay and destitute of those Supplies that were necessary to preserve the Grandeur of the Crown and the Reputation of England and forced him to spend Seven Years of his Reign without calling any Parliaments and the last he called which was in his One and Twentieth Year involved him in War And the next basely Betray'd his Son who succeeded presently after to the Necessity of clapping up a Dishonourable Peace for want of Means to carry on a War When King James came to the Crown the Dissenters of England expected a mighty advantage by it because Scotland had been always Presbyterian from whence he came during his time and they hoped his Education might have strongly influenced him to favour them above the Religion Established and upon this intuition Jan. 14. 1603. they procured the Conference at Hampton Court but alass they had so basely and Traiterously used him in Scotland and he was a Prince of that great Learning and Prudence that when they desired a kind of Presbyterie to be Setled here He replyed If you aim at a Scotch Presbyterie Full. C.H. L. 10. p. 18. it agreeth with Monarchy as God and the Devil then Jack and Tom and Will and Dick shall meet and Censure me and my Council Therefore I reiterate my former Speech Le Roy S' avisera the King will be advised stay I pray for one Seven Years before you demand it and then if you find me grow pursie and fat I may perchance hearken unto you for that Government will keep me in breath and give me work enough And in the next Paragraph he tells them That he had learned by the Example of his Mother and their dealings with him in his Minority this Maxime NO BISHOP NO KING So they totally failed of their expected advantage and were kept under though with a gentle hand in all his time But when his Son Succeeded and in his Parliaments found how strong these Factions were who had in a great measure prevailed upon the Free-men and Free-holders of the Nation to send up thither great Numbers of good Common wealth men as they then stiled them that is Factious Ambitious Disloyal Persons that hated the Religion and Monarchy by Law Established and when he saw these made it their business to encrease the necessities of the Crown and then denyed just and necessary supplies but upon such terms as would have ruined him and when he also perceived that one great design of theirs was to render him and his Government odious by clamoring eternally against his Conduct and Ministers of State He then saw there was an absolute necessity of a more effectual and vigorous Execution of the Laws against them Hereupon these godly men grew impatient Roger Cokes Englands improvement part 3. p. 13. and one part of them in the years 1636 37 and 38 fled over into Holland and planted themselves at Leyden Alkmare and other places where they instructed the Dutch in our Woollen Manufactures of Norfolk and Suffolk and I have heard saith my Author who is a credible person Sir Charles Harbord a person of great Wisdom and Insight in Forreign as well as the Interest of this Nation say That if all the Bishopricks of England were sold and given to the Nation it would not near compensate the loss the Nation sustained thereby And page 32 of the same discourse he informs us That in the time of our late Wars the Dutch by the means of these Manufactures got from the English the East-land Trade the Company of which heretofore was above all others the most flourishing and by Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the First was termed the Royal Company for it supplied Muscovy Sweden Denmark Poland and Lifeland with our Woollen Manufactures and made very advantagious Returns by Treasure especially Hungaria Duckets and the Commodities of those Countries into England This Trade till King Charles his Reign the English solely injoyed About the beginning of King Charles his Reign the Dutch began to be Interlopers rather than Traders with the English in it but in the time of the Wars by
the aforesaid means the Dutch allmost totally excluded the English We may observe how much the Trade of the Nation in general suffered by all this and especially that of Norfolk Suffolk and Essex of which the said Author gives an instance pag. 33. and from thence we may conclude how far the Trade of the Nation hath been and consequently may again be impaired by Factions if they be encouraged still amongst us I ought not to pass over in silence that my last quoted Author Ascribes this to the severe injunctions of Ecclesiastical discipline which these Zealous people would not indure And I know that many have used this as an Argument against Persecution and for a Toleration Comprehension or as the new Name is an Union But I reply if there were no Factions there could be no Persecution as they stile it nor any such dammage of our Trade and Commerce Secondly that they were not thus persecuted till they had provoked that King to the uttermost by rendring all Parliaments dangerous to the Crown and brought things into that State that neither the Monarchy nor the Religion Established could be any longer preserved without that severity So we may see if they be treated gently they grow Numerous and endeavour to subvert the Government if they be dealt severely with they over into forreign Countries and destroy our Trade so that both waies our ruine is almost assured by them and therefore should be no more incouraged than Pyrates and the common enemies of Mankind But to go on Another part of these people had before Planted themselves in New England in the West Indies 1629. where they have since grown Numerous and Rich and have abundantly practised that severity upon others who have dissented from them which they clamoured against and called persecution when it was used with more reason against themselves The Dutch being much exalted by the peace they had made with Spain whereby they were owned and acknowledged for a free and independent State by their old Sovereign and having acquired a vast Treasure by their Trade over all the World and by redeeming the places which were put into Queen Elizabeths hands for security of repayment of the Expence she was at to protect their feeble infant State out of the Hands of King James having so cut off their former obligations of respect to the Crown of England and lastly being grown strong in Shipping and knowing very well upon what ill terms King James and King Charles the Martyr stood with their Parliaments fell to plot the intire destruction of the English Trade and Navigation and in Order to this fell to endeavour the ruine of the English Fishery upon our own proper Seas His Majesties propriety and dominion on the Brittish Seas p. 26. They had formerly never Fished till they had begged leave of the King or of his Governour of Scarborough Castle this was now thought beneath the Magnificence of the Hogan Mogans and therefore they refused it Ib. pag. 29. 30. 55. They had formerly been limited by our Kings both for the number of the Vessells they should Fish with and the time Now they were resolved to be their own Carvers and in order to that denyed the English the Soveraignty of the British Seas Ib. p. 6. And as if all this had not been enough grew nearer and nearer upon the English Shores year by year than they did in preceding times without leaving any bounds for the Country people and Natives to Fish upon their Princes Coasts and oppressed some of his Subjects with intent to continue their pretended possession and had driven some of their great Vessells through their Netts to deter others by fear of the like Violence from Fishing near them c. as Secretary Nanton Pag. 58. January 21. 1618. acquaints the Lord Ambassador Carlton And to justify all this they sent out Men of War with their Fishermen to maintain that by force which they might have had of Courtesie for the asking To prevent these disorders of the Dutch King James Published a Proclamation in the seventh year of his Reign to assert his Right and exclude all Persons from Fishing upon our Seas without particular License but they neither valued this nor his Remonstrances by his Ambassadors nor the like Proclamation made in the twelfth year of his Sons Reign but went on by all the Crafts and Violences imaginable to ruine our Fishery to subvert the Right and Soveraignty the Kings of England have ever had to the Narrow Seas And all this only upon a presumption that those Princes would never be able to call them to an account by a War for all these Injuries And in the year 1639 The Reign of King Ch. fol. London 1655. pag. 163. they fell upon a Fleet of Spaniards in our Ports and Harbours with Canon and Fire-ships so furiously as made them all cut their Cables and being 53 in Number 23 ran on shore and stranded in the Downs whereof Three were burnt Two sunk and Two perished on the Shoar the remainder of the Twenty three being deserted by the Spaniards who went to Land were Manned by the English to save them from the Dutch and the other Thirty Ships put to Sea of which only Ten escaped thus far for the Narrative in short And now be pleased to read the Opinion of the Historian upon this These Two Potent Enemies Ibid. p. 165. being both Friends to England the British Seas ought by rule of State to have been an Harbour of Retreat to secure the Weaker from the Stronger not the Scene of their Hostile Ingagement and had this presumptuous Attempt of the Hollander met with a King or in times of another temper it would not it's like have been so silently connived at and their Victory might have cost them the loss of Englands Correspondence c. besides the King the Dutch well knew was of a Genius as not querulous so if provoked very placable and the Disposition of his Affairs as well as of his Mind disswaded from expostulating the Matter with them To that height of injustice and insolence were the Dutch then grown by the Divisions of England and the ill understanding betwixt the King and his Subjects This unfortunate Prince had made many brave Attempts before for the Honour and Safety of the English Nation without any good success for want of such Effectual Supplies from his Parliaments as might enable him to go through with them and he had taken up a generous Resolution to encrease the Navy Royal to a greatness proportionable to the Dutch and other neighbour Nations who were now striving for the Mastery of the Seas by out-building each other He got nothing from the Commons in Parliament that was considerable but with great difficulty and accompanied with Remonstrances Impeachments of the Chief Ministers complaints of Grievances and lowd Clamours of pretended fears and jealousies of Popery Arminianism Innovations in matters of Religion and as fast as
in the interim who had with much impatience expected this day of Deliverance from this terrible Parliament and had sought the Dissolution of it so many Years by all those Arts I have described in the former Part now began to lift up their heads expecting to have another tugg for the Day and having before wrought upon the meanest but most Numerous part of the Free-men and Free-holders and the weakest of the Gentry by jading their Ears with tedious canting Discourses against Humane Institutions Persecuting Gods People and Arbritrary Government and now of late with Tragical Representations of the Popish Plot Massacres Popery and Superstition flew from their sullen retirements and Riding Night and Day about the Villages and trudging about the Corporations incited those they found willing and perswaded intreated and sometimes hired those they found less disposed to joyn with them and by the choice of a sober Protestant Parliament as they pretended to deliver the Nation from Popery and Arbitrary Government which were good Words but had a Knavish signification in their Sense and if any Man smelt ir out and told them truly they were neither for Popery nor Arbitrary Government nor yet for Puritanism and a Common-wealth they ran him down with noise or traduced him behind his back to their Neighbours as a Papist in Masquerade and a Man of Arbitrary Principles But if a Man had but chanced to drop a Word by way of questioning the Truth of one Tittle the many Informers had given out concerning the Plot or these Zealots had raised by way of Consequence presently they flew in his face and villified him as a defamer of the Kings Evidence a concealer of the Plot and could hardly forbear saying He was a Party to it and one of the Conspirators in it As if we had not only been bound to submit our Faith and Reason as intirely to Mr. Oats's Relation in every Punctilio as to the Evangelists upon which he Swore it but also to what Inferences a Faction should draw from it From hence they proceeded to insinuate into the Populace That those Loyal Gentlemen who had been Members of the late long Loyal Parliament who were then call'd the Court Party had joyn'd with the Court to hinder the Discovery of the Plot and promote the Designes of the Papists upon us And although there was not one syllable of Truth in this yet they asserted it with that confidence and added so many protestations often interrupting their opposites with such questions as these What you are for Popery you are willing to have all your Throats Cut and the like that they perswaded too great a Number to joyn with them in the Exclusion of those Gentlemen In the next place fearing the greatest hindrance from the conformable Clergy and the Bishops they represented them amongst their Confidents as nothing better than the Papists and amongst the rest as Men that had a mighty kindness for Popery in their hearts where these prying people spied it though they durst not discover it for the present and with great Assurance said that they would certainly all turn Papists if the Plot went on though Mr. Oates had assured them their Places were disposed of to others before hand and they must expect nothing but beggery assassination and Ruine But yet the people who never consider any thing believe them in this too In the next place they were to deal with the Gentry and Magistrates and here the task was harder for these were never to be wrought over generally to them but amongst them some were their friends of old others had come half way over to gain the Reputation of Moderate Men others had been disgusted by the Government and some few had Relations amongst the Dissenters or Children and Brothers Apprentices Journey-men and Factors to them and these Interests prevail'd upon to joyn with them the rest they blasted what they could by the same Arts they did the Clergy averring they were Papists or favourers of Papists and Popery especially if they had any relations of that Religion or had shewed the least kindness to their Popish Neighbours in the first Discovery of the Plot or had had any acquaintance with them before the Plot. And having by all these multiply'd Slanders got over a very considerable part of the meaner people and yet fearing the party might be too weak they made fraudulent Conveyances for Twenty four hours of their Freehold-Lands and Tenements to their Neighbours by this means creating Twenty Mushrom Voters sometimes out of Forty pounds a year and some that were less scrupulous took the Gifts by word of Mouth without Livery or Seizin Lease or Release and some gave Twelve pence in part of payment for those Lands and Tenements they never meant nor were ever able to Purchase further and so became qualified to give their Votes as they thought and others gave their Children that were Infants part of their Estates with them and brought them along for company and in the interim the Wealthy sort of Men hired Horses or gave Mony to the more Needy to give their Votes for the precious Men that were to keep out Popery The Conventicle Teachers rallied up their Flocks all but the Aprons and they were unwillingly enough left at home The old Committee Men Sequestrators Army Officers and Soldiers of the last Rebellion who had kept holes ever since His Majesties Return for Grief Confusion and Fear now all took the Field again to Vote too and with these joyned all those unwilling Conformists whether Clergy or Layety who have complyed with the Religion Established with purpose to ruine it as soon as it is possible and in the interim great gain is godliness with them and does any man believe all these Forces were thus Mustered up for the Service of His Majesty the Safety of the Monarchy and the preservation of the Religion and Government Establish'd The persons they recommended to the people to be chosen again were first all those Gentlemen who calling themselves the Country Party in the former Parliament had appeared most Zealously against the Queen his Royal Highness and the Ministers of State to these they added as many as they could of the Reliques of the old Rebellion or their Children and made up the Number out of the moderate and discontented Gentlemen Burgesses and Trades-men taking in here and there an honest Gentleman in hopes to win him to their side by this kindness and sometimes this pittiful Project took For my part Act. 22. I think nothing could more confirm the Testimony of Mr. Oats who informs us That the Catholick Religion was to be brought in the same way that they had used for the Destruction of the Father of the King and as that could not be effected till much Blood was spilt on BOTH SIDES so this must be effected by effusion of Blood Pag. 64. and this he Expounds was to be done by weakning and dividing the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland
that shame and confusion they deserve who through their sides strike at the Lords Anointed and endeavour to ruine both the Church and State by changing the Government from a Monarchy to a Common-wealth as experience taught us once before when the Crown soon followed the Miter and the Temporal Lords the Bishops On Wednesday four of the five Lords in the Tower were brought to the House of Lords and heard the Articles readagainst them and had Copies of them and were assigned their Counsel for matter of Law but not for matter of Fact and had time to answer till the 15th Instant But the Lord Bellasys not being able to appear by reason he was lame of the Gout was excused and had a Copy of the Articles sent him On Monday the 14th of April at a conference the Lords consented to pass the Bill against the Earl of Danby without any amendment Wednesday the 16th of April A Bill for securing the King and Kingdom against the growh and Danger of Popery was read the second time and commttied to a Committee The same day a Message was brought from the Lords that the E. of D. had rendered himself and was sent to the Tower And by another Message word was sent that the four Lords had Appeared had sent in their Answers to the Articles upon which they had been proceeded against which Answers they sent down to the Commons being the Originalls and the Lords desired the return of them with all convenient speed that they might consider of them And then the Commons Voted his Majesty a supply for the Disbanding the rest of the Forces not disbanded by the former Act. To be levied by a Land Tax in six Months By which all Forces raised or brought over from Foreign parts since the 29th of September 1677. were to be disbanded The Commission Officers being to be paid only to the first of this April The next day a debate arising Thursday the 17 of April whether the Mony for Disbanding the Army should be paid into the Exchequer it was carried in the Affirmative by 60 Voices A Committee of Secrecy was appointed to prepare and draw up evidence against the E. of Danby and also further Articles as they should see cause On Friday the 25th of April a Bill for prevention of raising Mony upon the Subjects but by Act of Parliament was read the first time and ordered to be read a second time A Bill for exporting Cloth to Turkie was read a first time and ordered to be read again The same day the E. of D. and John Lord Bellasys appeared at the Bar of the House of Lords and put in their several Answers which were sent down to the Commons with desire they might be returned with all convenient speed On Saturday it was resolved in the House of Commons 26 of April that they would the Friday following take into consideration how to make the law for prohibiting the importation of French Commodities more effectual William Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Wardour and William Earl of Powis Appeared this day at the Bar of the House of Lords and retracted their former Plea's and put in their Answers which were by a Message sent down to the Commons which were read and referred to the Committee of Secrecy belonging to the said House This day the House of Commons resolved Nemine Contradicente That this House will sit to morrow to consider of the best means to secure and preserve the Kings person and also the Protestant Religion against the Attempts of the Papists both in the Reign of his Majesty and his Successors And accordingly they did sit and began the day very inauspiciously with reading an Address to his Majesty for the Execution of Pickering who as they said had been imployed by some of the Conspirators to execute their Execrable design of Murdering his Majesty and upon his Tryal was found guilty thereof as also of divers Priests and Jesuits who stood then Condemned by his Majesties Judges at the Old-Bayley and in several of the Circuits Upon which Offenders they humbly desired immediate Execution might be done to the terror of all such wicked persons who by their daily Traiterous practises do justify the prudence of their Ancestors in making such Laws and manifest the necessity of putting them in Execution And though there is nothing to be said for the men yet I wish they had not made this severe motion on a Lord's day it being none of those works of Charity and Mercy 29. Car. Cap. 7. no nor necessity neither which are commendable on that day and this might as well have been done on any other day Then they proceeded to the work appointed and Voted in the first place That a Bill be brought in upon the debate of the House to Banish all Papists or reputed Papists from London and Westminster and twenty Miles of the same for Six Months and to confine all those that live above twenty Miles from London within five Miles of their own Habitations under penalties and referred it to a Committee to draw up the same And then Secondly Resolved Nemine Contradicente That the Duke of York being a Papist and the hopes of his coming such to the Crown have given the greatest countenance and encouragement to the present Conspirators and designs of the Papists against the King and the Protestant Religion Resolved That the concurrence of the Lords be desired to this Vote Ordered that the Committee of Secrecy draw up a Narative of all such matters as concern the D. of Y. relating to the present Plot contained in such Papers as they have in their hands and present the same to the House on Wednesday next And then they adjourned the debate till Monday following The next day being Monday the 28th of March the House attended his Majesty with the said Address for the Executing Pickering c. To which his Majesty reply'd Gentlemen I Have always been tender in matters of blood which my Subjects have no reason to take exception at but this is a matter of great weight I shall therefore consider of it and return you an answer So little was this mercifull Prince exasperated by all the practises against him On Wednesday the 30th of April his Majesty sent for the Commons up to the Lords House and made this Speech to the two Houses My Lords and Gentlemen THe Season of the Year advancing so fast I thought it necessary to put you in mind of three particulars 1. Prosecuting the Plot 2. Disbanding the Army 3. Providing a Fleet for our common security And to shew you that whilst you are doing your parts my thoughts have not been misimployed but that it is my constant care to do every thing that may preserve your Religion and secure it for the future in all events I have commanded my Lord Chancellor to mention several particulars which I hope will be an evidence that in all things that concern the Publick security I
Danby sending a Petition to the Lords that his Counsel durst not appear to defend his case by reason of the Vote of the Commons the Lords at a Conference desired to know if there were any such Vote to which the Commons would not answer Sir Robert Howard acquainting them there had been paid from our Lady-day 1676 to the 20th of March 1679 the Sum of 252467 lb. 1 s. 9 d. for Secret Services They ordered that Mr. Charles Bertie should be taken into Custody of the Sergeant at Armes attending their House And in the Next place they ordered that all the Members that were of the Long Robe of their house should prepare themselves with Reasons against the pardon pleaded by the E. of Danby Which was very necessary now that no body durst defend it So the Lords Ordered the E. to be returned to the Tower in safety On Sunday the Lords agreed to the demand of the Commons for the appointing a Committee of both Houses to state the Preliminaries of the tryals to be had to meet the next day May 11. And then the Commons proceeded to Vote that a Bill be brought in to disable the Duke of York to inherit the Imperial Crown of this Realm and appointed a Committee to draw the same Which was in pursuance of their former Vote on Sunday the 27th of April Though the Lords who had been twise desired to concur in that vote had given no answer to it Out of an apprehension perhaps that his Majesties Life might be indangered upon this Vote they resolved Nemine Contradicente That in defence of the Kings person and the Protestant Religion this house doth declare that they will stand by his Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes and that if his Majesty should come by any violent death which God forbid that they will revenge it to the utmost upon the Papists As if it had been impossible his Majesty should be murthered by any other then a Papist or that it had been any consolation to his Majesty to have known that his death should have been revenged to the utmost on them who ever had been the cause or procurers of it This prov'd the occasion of breaking all the following Parliaments to this day and thereby to secure the Popish Lords in the Tower from Tryal and to prevent all the excellent Laws that were then under consideration against Popery from ever being brought to pass And finally it prov'd an obstacle of union between the King and the Houses to the great advantage of our Enemies at home and abroad to the great hazard of the Nation and more especially of the Protestant Religion which was pretended to be secured by it I shall say more of this Vote and the former hereafter when the effects of them will appear better then they did at first On Wednesday his Majesty sent another Message to the Commons to put them again in mind of the Fleet May 14. and let them know he would acquit himself of the evil consequences which the want of a Fleet in such a juncture might produce and that the entering upon it could be no hinderance to the other great affairs on their hands but rather a Security in the dispatch thereof Upon which a debate arising they adjourn'd the Consideration of this Message till Monday Sennight after which had the appearance of a denial On Thursday there arose a Controversy betwixt the two Houses about the Bishops May 15. for the Lords having Voted that the Lords Spiritual have a right to stay and sit in Court till the Court proceed to the Vote of Guilty or not guilty The Commons opposed it and said that the Lords Spiritual ought not to have any Vote in any proceedings upon impeachments against the Lords in the Tower involving the E. of Danby's case with the other Lords though it was vastly different And indeed from hence arose this contest the Commons imagining that the Bishops would be for the validity of his pardon and so make a major Vote in that House and therefore as they had deprived him of his Counsel before so now the business was to out the most favourable part as they thought of his Judges The same day the Bill to disinherit the D. of York was read the first time and Ordered a second reading On Saturday a Vote of the House of Lords was read in the House of Commons May 17. 16 May 1679. Resolved by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled that Thursday next be appointed to begin the Tryals of the five Lords in the Tower viz. the E. of Powis c. After which resolution the Lords Spiritual asked the leave of that house that they might withdraw themselves from the Tryals of the said Lords with the Liberty of entring their usual Protestations Upon which the Commons Resolved That it be given as an instruction to their Committee to insist upon the former Vote of this House That the Lords Spiritual ought not to have any vote in any Proceedings against the Lords in the Tower and when that matter shall be setled as they please for the Lords had setled it and the method of proceedings adjusted this House shall then be ready to proceed upon the Tryal of the E. of Danby against whom the House hath already demanded judgment and afterwards to the Tryal of the other five Lords in the Tower So here was the two Houses in their Votes point blank against one another I shall here take notice of some Arguments that passed betwixt the Lords and the Commons as they are expressed in the Lords Journal On Tuesday the 13th of May The Commons desired to know concerning the Bishops being present at the Tryals of the Lords impeached to which the Lords made this Answer That it belonged not to the Commons to be concerned in the Constituting parts of the Court upon such Tryals but that the judgment of this matter belongs entirely to the Lords and when they have adjudged it the Commons cannot alter it and therefore should not debate it Upon which the Commons acknowledged that Judgment after Tryal is in the Lords but their Lordships are not to give judgment unless the Commons demand it and that the Commons desire to know whether the Lords will proceed in these Tryals as their Lordships did anciently for if the Bishops should sit upon these Tryals they should not demand Judgment but being dissatisfied with their being there and it may be the Commons may proceed by Bill To which the Lords made Answer that after the Evidence is fully heard they are bound to give judgment of Condemnation or Acquittal but this being a matter of Judicature the Lords declared that they would impose silence upon themselves and debate it no further The Commons further desired to know whether the Bishops should be allowed to vote upon the Validity of the pardon of the E. of Danby which they account no Preliminary but the very essence of the Tryal On
judgment as well as others and if I be adjudged an enemy of the Commons of England for my pains I cannot help it only I have not medled with the Validity of the pardon in all this nor I think never will and so I have not offended against that Vote The Conclusion I shall draw from hence is that the Lords had reason to put the Tryal of the five Popish Lords first and that the Commons necessitated them so to do by that Extraordinary Vote by starting a new Controversy about the Jurisdiction of the Bishops in all Capital causes and by refusing them liberty to do as they always had done before that is to withdraw upon Leave with the usual protestations entered all which things were not presently to be given up nor could suddenly be determined The rest of that day was spent in two Conferences the one concerning the Habeas Corpus Act and the other about the Tryals in which the Long reasons I mentioned were delivered On Tuesday the 27th of May The Habeas Corpus Bill was agreed at a Conference betwixt the two Houses Then a Message was sent by the Lords to the Commons to acquaint them that his Majesty was coming in his Robes who accordingly sent for the Commons and having passed 1. An Act for the reingrossing the Records of Fines burnt or lost in the late Fire in the Temple 2. An Act for the better securing of the Liberty of the Subject and for preventing imprisonment beyond Seas Which is that I call the Habeas Corpus Act for shortness Which were all that had been got ready for his Royal assent in this Session of Parliament His Majesty made a short Speech to this effect My Lords and Gentlemen I Was in good hopes that this Session would have produced great good to the Kingdom and that you would have gone on unanimously for the good thereof but to my great grief I see that there are such differences between the two Houses that I am afraid very ill effects will come of them I know but one way of Remedy for the present assuring you that in the mean time I shall shew my sincerity with the same Zeal I met you here and therefore my Lord Chancellor I command you to do as I have Ordered you Who immediately Prorogued both Houses to the 14th day of August following The news of this Prorogation of the Parliament was no sooner spread about the Nation but the cry was taken up by the zealous Impostors that it was done of purpose to hinder the Tryal of the Popish Lords for as for the E. of D. the People were generally unconcern'd what came of him And dreadful Stories were told in Coffee-houses Ale-houses Taverns and Meeting houses of the danger of Popery and what great favourers they had at Court not sparing his Majesty But this was not all the Act for Regulating Printing expiring with this Session of which no care was taken notwithstanding his Majesty recommended it so seriously to the Parliament by the Lord Chancellour at the opening of it The Nation became presently so pestred with a swarm of Lying Seditious treasonable and scandalous Pamphlets Papers and Pictures that a man would have thought Hell had been broken loose His Majesty the Church the Government were represented every day by them in the most odious manner that spite falsehood and malice could invent to beget a disaffection in the people to the Government and to involve us in another Rebellion And if any man presumed to Defend them he was presently a Papist in Masquerade a Tory or Tantivy man and very often threatned with the Parliament All which was done without doubt out of as pure kindness to his Majesty and to beget honour to the Government and tended as apparently to the Interest and Safety of the Protestant Religion as the Jews Crys of Crucify him Crucify him did to the delivery of our Saviour out of the hands of Pilate There was an Accident that began in this Session of Parliament and received its occasional being from some Distemper'd Spirits In March 1679 there was a Speech said to be made in the House of Lords by a certain * This Speech is Printed in a Pamphlet called An impartial account of divers remarkable Proceedings in the last Session of Parliament London 1679. folio Earl and by the Diffenters and Commonwealth Party spread about the three Kingdoms with a mighty Zeal which in Scotland was followed with the usual effects of such like Speeches and in regard that it may administer much consolation to that Party to read it over again that were so well pleased with it before I will reprint it here word for word My Lords You are appointing of the State of England to be taken up in a Committee of the whole House some day next week I do not know how well what I have to say may be received for I never study either to make my Court well or to be popular I always speak what I am commanded by the Dictates of the Spirit within me There are some Considerations that concern England so neerly that without them you will come far short of safety and quiet at home We have a little Sister and she hath no Breasts what shall we do for our Sister in the day when she shall be spoken for If she be a wall we will build on her a palace of silver if she be a door we will enclose her with boards of Cedar We have several Little Sisters without Breasts the French Protestant Churches the two Kingdoms of Ireland and Scotland the Foreign Protestants are a Wall the only Wall and defence to England upon it you may build Palaces of Silver Glorious Palaces The protection of the Protestants abroad is the greatest power and security the Crown of England can attain to and which can only help us to give check to the growing greatness of France Scotland and Ireland are two doors either to let in good or mischief upon us they are much weakened by the Artifice of our cunning Enemies and we ought to Inclose them with Boards of Cedar Popery and Slavery like two Sisters go hand in hand sometimes one goes first sometimes the other in at doors but the other is always following close at hand In England Popery was to have brought in Slavery in Scotland Slavery went before and Popery was to follow I do not think your Lordships or the Parliament have Jurisdiction there it is an Ancient Kingdom they have an Illustrious Nobility a Gallant Gentry a Learned Clergy and an understanding worthy People but yet we cannot think of England as we ought without reflecting on the condition they are in They are under the same Prince and the influence of the same Favourites and Councils when they are hardly dealt with can we that are the Richer expect better usage for 't is certain that in all Absolute Governments the poorest Countries are always most favourably dealt with When the Ancient Nobility
speaking out of the Mouths of Phanatical Protestants or the last Speeches of John Kid and John King c. pag. 11. The matter of fact being thus stated the Reader need not wonder they were severely treated when they suffered the pains of Treason and Rebellion but besides those they had committed a vast number of Massacres and Assassinations before they murthered the Primate and this aggravated their sufferings Now all the cunning of this Declaration lies in this that they tell us what they suffered and perhaps truly but not a tittle of the case Which is just as if all the Rogues in the Nation should joyn and pen a complaint ennumerating how many of them since his Majesties Return have been Hanged Quartered Whipped Branded Transported Pillored Imprisoned which never meant any hurt to his Majesty or the Government but only to get a Living the best and easiest way they could Now to one that is as little vers'd in our ways of Punishment as we are in the Scotch it would seem a rueful Story whilest an English man would smile as knowing why they suffered all these hardships I need not apply it but shall add this they have deserved ten times more then they have felt as being the bloudiest Cut-throats in the world So that in Scotland no man dare to offend them openly for fear of assassination but such as either must by the necessity of their places or else have good means of defending their Lives against them Next I observe this Declaration is nothing but a large flourish upon the Speech and drawn just at that loose general rate which that is calling those Taxes and Punishments Arbitrary which they acknowledg were according to several Acts of Parliament and then pretending the persons that do constitute their Parliaments or States are overawed But then I must commend their ingenuity in this that they do not with the Commons of England lay the blame of all this upon the Duke of Lauderdale or their Ministers but upon the total change of their Government and State both Sacred and Civil and upon the Parliament of Scotland and the King whom they supplicate with menaces to restore him into the same State he found them in without which they were sensible the removing of the Duke of Lauderdale or any other of the great Ministers of State would signify nothing as to their Designs which was as they plainly tell us to set up the Presbyterian Doctrine and Church Government to serve the King in nothing else any further then he would serve them in that And lastly to obtain a free and unlimited Parliament and Assembly that is such as it might not be in his Majesties power to dissolve or frustrate by prorogation till they had extirpated Popery and Prelacy both together which was freely and roundly to tell us what they would have without canting and amusing us with general terms and hints but then I must not deny they had swords by their sides to justify these demands which our Gentlemen want and I wish ever may do but yet the Reader may observe that Speech that was so hugged in England and the Scotch Declaration meant the same thing though in different terms Observe also that they call the Presbyterian Doctrine and Government the Religion established though they own it to be taken away by a rescissory Act of Parliament for they believe all those Acts that have or shall be made against it are Null and Void and the former Acts are still in force though repealed which is an odd sort of Establishment consisting in the fancy of the people that own it and not in Law or Nature They lay the stress of their Justification upon necessity and yet own the greatest part of it to arise from hence that they must be deprived of the Gospel preached by the faithful Ministers and be made Slaves if they did not rebel Now as to their civil interest they would be in the same State with their Country men who are so far from rebelling that they have several times chastised them for it with a very little assistance from England And as to their Preachments I wonder in what part of the Gospel they learned to defend Christs Religion by rebellion but we must know this is pure Scotch Calvinistical Jesuitical Doctrine begun by the Devil and his Vicar the Pope not many hundred years ago and for which Bellarmine acknowledges there is neither Precept nor Example in the Bible nor in all Church History till near a thousand years after our Saviour's time and he gives this reason why the Gospel taught patience and submission because the contrary would have ruined Christianity then when but a few professed it but tells us St. Paul would have taught otherwise if he had lived in our days I shall not dispute how the Cardinal or the Scotch Gentlemen who talk at the same rate came to know this but I say it is equally destructive of any other Doctrine a man hath no mind to practise as of this of submission to Princes and suffering patiently for the truth without resistance As suppose I have a mind to revenge and they tell me of the Doctrine of meekness and forgiving injuries and Enemies if I reply this Doctrine was adopted to the Infant state of Christianity when Professors were few and exposed to persecution and could have got nothing by revenging their quarrels but ruine but the state of things is otherwise now and I may revenge my self with security both as to my self and as to my Religion and from thence infer that that Doctrine is ceased and I am at liberty to do in that particular as I see cause and that St. Paul would have taught so if he had lived in these times I say if I should argue thus upon their principles it could never be answered and a man might say as much for any other Gospel precept he had no mind to obey But to return The Covenanters in their first Declaration date the rise of all their troubles from the year 1648 and that is true and worth a Note You must know Charles the first had given them by the pacification all that they asked and the long Rebel Parliament had sent them home loaden with thanks Money and the spoils of England before our wars began * A View of the late Troubles cap. 18. but things going ill on the Parliament side after the King had routed Waller in the West and almost totally subdued the North by the valour of the E. of Newcastle the Parliament having no other way to turn them were forced to call in the Scots once more with Money and Promises yea and Oaths too to settle the Presbyterian Church Government here in England These two things prevailing upon them in they came and that ruined the King and his Party who at last surrendring himself to the Scots they dutifully sold him to the Parliament for 300000 lb. as all the World knows but the Chapmen fell out and
us that he made claim by Humble Petition in the Name of the Commons of England in Parliament Assembled of the Antient Rights of the Commons for them and their Servants in their Persons and Estates to be free from Arrests and other disturbances in all their Debates to have Freedom and Liberty of speech and as occasion should require to have Access to his Majesties Person Which was allowed by the King But tho he hath not been pleased to Print his own Speech there was one given out for the Information of the People in Writing which was as followeth May it please Your Majesty THE House of Commons have been pleased to Make use of ME for their Speaker and Have presented me for Your Majesties Approbation It is a Place of great Weight and Pains Both by my Education and Profession I have been always used to Labour and Industry Therefore I will by Your Majesties Approbation endeavour to discharge the Trust reposed in me If this were the Preface to the Three Demands or Petitions I cannot blame him for not Printing it no more then I can commend him for making one so totally different from what used to be said on such occasions But a man may smile to see how finely the man had digested and put over all his trembling fears in one Nights time when he called to mind his Education and Profession which he had totally forgot the day before and now having considered better did not think it was fit to ask his Majesty to discharge a person so wonderfully qualified for the Place as all other had done before him being it seems not so sensible that by their Education and Profession they had been used to Labour and Industry And 't is pretty to see how his Majesties Approbation is put into a parenthesis as if one should say it was Needless and scarce worth the asking and the Sence of what he was to speak would have been perfect without it But such was his Majesty's Goodness that he easily passed over these things tho they were apparent encroachments upon his Royal Prerogative and such too as another Prince would have stomached He sought the good of his People more than any thing and for that cause bore these disorders On Munday the 25. of October the Lords sent down an Address they had made to his Majesty for the Pardon of all such persons as should come in and discover any thing further of the Plot within two Months and with it his Majesties Answer which was as followeth HIS Majesty hath Considered of the Address made by the House and is so willing to Encourage all persons who know of any Treasons and Conspiracies against his Person and Government that he will cause his Royal Proclamation to Issue declaring That he will fully Pardon and Secure all persons who shall make such discovery not Onely during the space of Two Months as is desired but at any time after whensoever such discovery shall be made The next day the Commons resolved to make an Address to his Majesty to the same purpose And Mr. Dangerfield the discoverer and great Agent in the Meal-Tub Plott which was a Silly design of the Papists to turn their Plott upon the Presbyterians mentioning Sir Robert Peyton a Member of their House in this Information They referred it to a Committee to Examine the Maters touching Sir Robert Peiton and to report the same to the House And then Resolved Nemine Contradicente That it was the Opinion of their House to proceed effectually to suppress Popery and Prevent a Popish Successor On Wednesday the 27th of October they agreed the said Address which was as followeth WE Your Majesties most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects the Commons in Parliament Assembled being highly Zealous for the preservation of the Protestant Religion Your Majesties Sacred Person and Government and resolving to pursue with a strict and impartial Inquiry the Execrable Popish Plot which was detected in the Two Last Parliaments and has been Supported and Carried on by potent and restless Practises and Machinations especially during the late Recesses of Parliaments whereby several persons have been terrified and discouraged from declaring their Knowledg thereof most humbly beseech Your Majesty That for the Security of such persons who shall be willing to give Evidence or make further Satisfactory Discovery concerning the same to this House Your Majesty would be pleased to Issue Your Royal Proclamation assuring all the said persons of your Gracious Pardon if they shall give Evidence or make such Discovery within two Months after the date of such Proclamation There was two Exceptions taken to this Address by others Tho I find none made in the House viz. The first was That in the height of their Zeal they forgot to tell his Majesty what Protestant Religion they meant or desired to preserve for there being in England many not onely several but contrary Religions which yet may be Comprehended under that General term of Protestant Some of which are worse than Popery they were not to be preserved but Suppressed if it might be Except they intended in opposition to Popery to uphold all the Heresies and Schismes that arose in the late Rebellion amounting to near Eightscore as they have been counted but then it had been better to have called them Protestant Religions for it is a perfect piece of Nonsence to call these Contrary and Contending Factions who do mutually endeavour to Ruine each other tho they are now Combined as much against the Religion that is Established as against Popery and to Act against it with more fury than they do against Popery I say it is Nonsence to call these Conjoyntly Religion when if there be or ever were any such things as different Religions in the World these are such and they are as Contrary to the Religion established and each to other as they are to Popery Hitherto the Parliaments had always qualified that loose general word with such terms as these Established or by Law Established or the like and sometimes not so much as mentioned the Word Protestant which is very improperly affixed to any Party of the Reformed Religions of England there being perhaps never a Lutheran in England to take it strictly But we shall see afterwards that it was not a Casual or Accidental omission here but as these Protestants at Large had advanced the greater part of these Commons into that high dignity so they were resolved to lift them up above the Church and Laws by way of Reward tho the Peace of the Nation and the Government were Ruined by it The Second thing objected was That they Tacitly and Injuriously reflected upon His Majesty in their Pretences That during the Recess of Parliament several persons had been terrified and discouraged from declaring their Knowledg of the Plot. As for the Recesses Prorogations and Dissolutions of the Parliaments they were apparently forced upon the King much against his Will by the unreasonable Heats Feuds and Irregularities of the
Commons and so the King was not to be blamed and all that would Inform any thing concerning the Plott in these Intervals had been as Kindly used by the King and Councel as they could have been by the Parliament So that this was as I said an Injurious Reflection upon His Majesty and the Government and was an Argument of an ill temper and could not but disgust his Majesty Their limiting their Petition of Pardon to onely such persons as made any Discovery to their House was look't upon as much restrain'd for if the Discovery were really and effectually made what matter was it to what house or person it was made But it may be this might not be intended by them for any such purpose as the limiting of the thing to them tho in effect it did so and therefore I shall pass it over From this Address the House proceeded to the Votes about the Petitions which were as followeth Resolved Nemine Contradicente Which shewes the Strength of the party and not the Consent of the whole House That it is and Ever hath been the Vndoubted Right of the Subjects of England to Petition the King for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments and Redressing of Grievances Resolved N. C. That to traduce such Petitioning howsoever managed for so it must signifie or else it will conclude nothing from the Other as a Principle as a Violation of Duty and to represent it to his Majesty as Tumultuous and Seditious is to betray the Liberty of the Subject and Contributes to the Design of Subverting the Antient Legal Constitutions of this Kingdom and introducing Arbitrary Power Ordered That a Committee be appointed to inquire of all such persons as have offended against these Rights of the Subjects Resolved That an Address be made to his Majesty declaring the Resolution of this House to Preserve and Support the King's Person and Government and the Protestant Religion at home and abroad This last seemed to sweeten the Crudity of the former Votes and to Countenance and Justifie one of the greatest disorders that Contributed to the Ruine of his Father As to their first Vote which is their Principle it is granted modo forma as they have set it down But the Second is too general and an Undeniable foundation for Rebellion as hath been Experimented for all the Controversie was here about the manner of Petitioning viz. Whether a few private men might agree upon a Petition and then send Emissaries abroad to procure Hundreds and Thousands of Ignorant people to Subscribe it and then tender it to his Majesty as it were by the Number to fright him into a Complyance with them against his declared Resolution to the Contrary if this might be allowed the Liberty of the Subject would soon eat up the Prerogative of the King and disorder this or any other Government in the World In the Reign of Henry the Seventh one Thomas Flammock Lord Bacon 's Hist of H. 7. a Lawyer thought he could make a Rebellion and never break the Peace and the People of Cornwall being discontented about some Subsidies granted to the King he perswades them that it was not good they should stand like Sheep before the Shearers but put on Harness and take Weapons in their hands yet to do no Creature hurt but go and deliver the King a Strong Petition for the Laying down of those grievous Payments and for the Punishment of those that had given him that Counsel and to make others beware how they did the like in time to come And he said for his part He did not see how they could do the Duty of true Englishmen and good Liege-men except they did deliver the King from such Wicked ones that would destroy both him and the Country or in the Language of our dayes introduce Arbitrary Power And accordingly 16000 men armed assembled and marched from Cornwal to Black-Heath in Kent Modestly and Quietly enough Except that at Taunton in Somersetshire they killed in fury an Officious and Eager Commissioner for the Subsidy whom they called the Provost of Perin but by that time they came at Black-Heath they Threatned either to bid Battle to the King for now the Seas went higher than his Councellors or to take London within his View imagining themselves there to find no less fear than wealth And accordingly they persisted till the King having drawn out his Forces and Surrounded them he fought them and killed 20000 and took all the rest Prisoners Now I would Know whether this Strong Petition was Justifiable and whether if any body in our dayes should perswade a Number of Men to Act this over again it would be an offence against the Rights of the Subjects to abhor such Petitioning as a Violation of Duty and represent it to his Majesty as Tumultuous and Seditious or rather plainly Rebellious and it would be worth the while to try whether Flammock's Strong Petition may not be Justified by these Votes as they now stand penned for it doth not appear that any sort of Petitioning whatsoever may be opposed by the Votes But it may be replyed That here were no men in Arms in the case of the Petition in hand but what then if there should be for the future these Votes will Justify them too for if the People may Petition for the Calling or Sitting of a Parliament or Redressing of Grievances when and howsoever they please and no man may hinder them then is Honest Old Father Flammock's Strong Petition which was for the Redress of two Notable Grievances fairly Justifiable if it were now to be acted over again But if the People be allowed to Petition but not any way it had been fit to have told us and them what manner of way they were allowed to Petition as well as for what for that was the main thing in question But seeing they were not so kind to the People I will try if I cannot direct them into a better course the next time they shall have an Occasion to Petition the King for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments and Redressing of Grievances And to that purpose I will here insert a whole Act of Parliament XIII Car. 2. Cap. V. An Act against Tumults and Disorders upon pretence of Preparing or Presenting Publick Petitions or Addresses to His Majesty or the Parliament WHEREAS it hath been found by Sad Experience That Tumultuous and other Disorderly Soliciting and Procuring of Hands by private persons to Petitions Complaints Remonstrances and Declarations and Other Addresses to the King or both or either Houses of Parliament 1. For Alteration of Matters Established by Law 2. Redress of pretended Grievances in Church or State 3. Or other Publick Concernments have been made use of to serve the ends of Factious and Seditious persons gotten into power to the Violation of the Publick Peace and have been a great means of the late Unhappy Wars Confusions and Calamities in this Nation For preventing the like Mischiefs for the
many other such proceedings As the Parliament that is the Commons Courted the City so the City was as kind to them and Calling a Common Councel Voted an Address to his Majesty to declare their Loyalty and to Petition him that the Parliament might Sit until Protestantisme was Secured I believe they might mean innocently tho I am well Secured that this would have perpetuated them to the End of the World if some amongst them might have been Judges of the time when this great work was perfected But this did not Edify with his Majesty who penetrated to the bottom of these little Projects and was not over-pleased with this Correspondency betwixt this and the Commons remembring what ill effects this Conjunction had in the Reign of his Father So he Advised the Common-Councel to meddle with those things that lay before them and assuring them That he would Labour to maintain the Protestant Religion as it was Established by Law which was more than they desired he dismissed them On Munday the 15th day of November A Bill against the Importation of Cattel from Scotland was Read the first time and Ordered a Second Reading the Saturday following at Ten of the Clock This day was delivered the following Message to the Commons CHARLES R. HIS Majesty did in his Speech at the Opening of this Session of Parliament desire your Advice and Assistance in relation to Tangier the Condition and Importance of the Place obliges his Majesty to put this House in mind again That He relies upon them for the Support of it without which it cannot be much longer preserved His Majesty doth therefore Earnestly Recommend Tangier again to the due and speedy Consideration and Care of this House A Debate thereupon arising in the House they Voted That they would proceed in the Consideration of this Message the next Wednesday Morning at Ten of the Clock A Bill sent down from the Lords Intituled An Act for the better Regulating the Tryals of the Peers of England was Read the Second time and Committed upon the Debate of the House This day the Bill for Disabling the Duke of York was Read the first time in the House of Peers and the question being put Whether it should be read again the House divided Noes 63. Yeas 30. So it was Thrown out the Bishops all appearing against the Bill Except three for which some of the Commons Reflected upon them with great Liberty as if no body could be for the Duke but he must be for Popery The House of Commons taking notice of this were so discomposed that they Adjourned themselves on Tuesday Morning and did nothing that day And the day following meeting in a very bad and discontented humour and taking into Consideration the Message about Tangier They Resolved upon an Address to his Majesty upon the Debate of the House Humbly representing to him the dangerous State and Condition of the Kingdom And then it appearing that George Earl of Hallifax had been very Active in the House of Lords against the Bill for Dis-inheriting the Duke they Resolved also upon another Address to his Majesty to remove the Earl from his Majesties Presence and Councils for Ever And this was all they did the Second day after The House being in a perfect Fret and the Country-Party Heating themselves by their Speeches to that height they were scarce able to Consider what was fit to be said or asked And now that the Peers of England have passed their Judgment concerning this Bill I will add some short Reflections upon the Bill which I shall shall submit to my Reader as it is fit I should First Then I do acknowledg it is a great affliction to any Protestant Country to fall into the Hands of a Popish Prince and worse for England then for most other because of the great and implacable Malice the Jesuits and the whole Church of Rome have ever born to the Religion Established amongst us which is more easily defended against them then any other Reformed Church as being founded upon greater Antiquity and more conformable to the Primitive Church of the Three or Four first Centuries then either the Church of Rome or any of the Reformed Churches in these Western Parts of the World and therefore they of the Church of Rome Have left no stone unturned to Subvert her imploying all their own Wit and Power against her ever since the Reign of Queen Elizabeth began and sticking neither at Perjury Treason Murther nor any other Villany that they thought might conduce to that End and when God had by his Gracious Providence defeated all these their Damnable Projects They Transformed themselves into the shapes of our own Protestant Dissenters and so promoted a Rebellion which ended in the seeming Ruine of this Religion and Government to their mighty Content and Satisfaction but tho his Majesty at his Return re-settled this Church yet they did not give over but by a Toleration by spreading Pamphlets written in the Stile of the Dissenters and so very acceptable to them by discouraging all that opposed our Intestine Divisions and a multitude of such other frauds they have in Twenty Years time so shaken her foundations again that his Majesty can hardly now preserve and uphold her against the Popish Party on the one hand and the Dissenters on the other So that if this poor persecuted Church should fall into the hands of a Prince of their Communion She is to Expect whatever the most Enraged Malice armed with his Authority can inflict upon her and She hath all the reason in the world to expect the Dissenters will joyn with them to afflict and ruine her Not out of any Kindness to Popery but out of an implacable hatred they two have Conceived against her So that I must and will Conclude the Church of England hath the greatest reason in the world to dread that day that shall put her into such hands But yet still with this limitation notwithstanding that by Avoiding one Mischief she should not plunge her Self into a greater that is by flying a Persecution from men to fall into a Rebellion against her God and Saviour by whose Providence Kings and Princes of what Religion soever they be rule and by whom they have in all Ages been so Ordered Disposed and Governed as He in his Divine and Holy Wisdom Saw most Expedient for the Prosperity or Chastisement of his Church to the greater encrease of her Glory and Happiness in the world to come Two things I will lay down as Undoubted Rules or Maximes 1. That the Kingdom of England is an Hereditary Kingdom or Monarchy which for many Ages hath gone to the Next Heirs be they Males or Females of the Blood Royal without any Election or Consent of the People otherwise then by acknowledging their Lawful Right derived from God by their Blood to them The Second is That this Hereditary Monarchy was set up at first and hath been since upheld and maintained by the Providence of
for that some men have got a way of Reproaching all they hate with the Name of Papists because there is none more hated than that yet even for that case the Number must be small being very unwilling to List themselves in a hated Party Except they may have great Advantages by it which are not to be afforded to many in proportion to the rest in one Kings Reign in so small a Kingdom as England Thirdly The very attempting this with Force and Violence will drive so many people out of the Nation that the Prince will destroy both his Revenue and Security which we may believe no man will do for his own sake To this we may add That it is three to one whether we have any such Prince Who but God can tell whether ever the Duke shall Survive his Majesty Whether if he do he shall be the Next Heir and whether if he be So his Interest the Grace of God or meer humane inconstancy may not work upon him to return to that Religion he was first principl'd in and for which his Royal Father most Gloriously Laid down his Life And after all this Supposing he should Succeed and be Zealous for his Religion and Suppose that to be Popery there is no necessity that he must Act all the worst Principles of Popery to the Utmost degree I am sure it is not usual so to do tho the difficulty be not so great as here it will be And after all doth not the Providence of God govern the Popish as well as Protestant Princes Is the Arm of the Almighty shortned that he can neither Deliver nor Support his Church or hath he forsaken her in her Old Age who preserved her with So much Care and Power in her Infancy under Heathen Princes for above Three hundred Years and under Arrian Princes which were as bad as the worst Papists a long time after that Do we believe this Protestant Religion is acceptable to him Are the far greatest part of them that profess it Sincere or False in their pretences If all these be answered one way we have Something to rely upon that is more Steady than the Faith and Religion of Princes If in the other it will be but a folly to pretend to Secure by humane Arts that which God is resolved to destroy But the reason upon which the Bill of Exclusion is built is worse than the thing First they Vote That the Dukes being a Papist and the Hopes of his Coming such to the Crown hath given the greatest Countenance and Encouragement to the present Designs and Conspiracies against the King and Protestant Religion They Vote the Duke a Papist which is more than any man living can tell but himself and if it should be granted that he is So what then Then this hath given the greatest Countenance and Encouragement to the present Designs and Conspiracies against the King and Protestant Religion and then the Conclusion is That therefore he must be dis-inherited To me it seems better Logick to say Then all possible Care and Art is to be imployed to reduce him back to our Church whereas this way of proceeding with him can end in nothing but the enraging and exasperating of him against the Protestant Religion But then the Duke's being a Papist hath not given the greatest nor if we may believe Mr. Oates hardly any Encouragement to the Plot for he tells us Article 60. that when he urged That he feared the Death of the King would scarely do the business and effect the Design unless his R. H. would pardon those that did the business and stand by them in it Keines replyed That the Duke was not the Strength of their Trust for they had another way to effect the setting up the C. R. c. And if James did not Comply with them to pot he must go also And Article 29. If the Duke shall set his face in the least measure to follow his Brothers foot-steps his Passport was made to Lay him asleep And Article 24. They the Jesuits aver That altho the Duke was a good Catholique yet he had a tender affection for the King and would scarcely be engaged in that Concern and if they should once intimate their Designs and Purposes unto him they might not onely be frustrated of their Design but also might lose his Favour Art 16. He saith he putting this question What if the Duke should prove Slippery They replyed His Passport was ready when ever he should Appear to fail them And page the 64. He tells us He the Pope hath ordered That in case the D. of York will not accept these Crowns as forfeited by his Brother unto the Pope as of his Gift and settle such Prelates and Dignities in the Church and such Officers in Commands and Places Civil Naval and Military as he hath Commissioned Extirpate the Protestant Religion and in order thereunto Ex post facto Consent the Assassination of the King his Brother Massacre of his Protestant Subjects Firing of his Towns c. by Pardoning of the Assassins Murtherers and Incendiaries that then he also be Poysoned or destroyed after they have for some time abused his Name and Title to Strengthen their Plot c. All which Passages in his and other of the Narratives shew plainly the D. being a Papist was not the greater nay it was hardly any encouragement to the Plot and tho some of them have gone farther than Mr. Oates yet that shews the Jesuits had different opinions of His R. Highness and therefore had no assurance but if the Plot upon the Life of the King had succeeded he might have revenged it upon them tho he were of their Religion as they believed But because these things may be disputed both ways Suppose I should grant the Hopes of his Coming a Papist to the Crown did really give the greatest Encouragement to the Plot will dis-inheriting him defeat those hopes No but it will rather whet them on to do their utmost to Murther the King to prevent or revenge that injury to the Duke and of this the House was so sensible that the same day they passed this Vote they Added to it this that followes Resolved N. C. That in Defence of the Kings Person and Government and of the Protestant Religion this House doth declare That they will Stand by His Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes and that if his Majesty shall come by any Violent Death which God forbid they will revenge it to the Vtmost upon the Papists This latter Vote they have annexed to the former every time they have passed it which shews they are sensible Revenge and Despair are full as likely to push them on as Hope to this Horrid attempt and in that case this Vote will never hinder them but it may encourage the Scotch Assassins to do it if they can Knowing the Papists are to Suffer who ever doth the fact So that to me it seems the Reasons upon which the Bill
Petitions and Giving an Account to the House That Sir Fra. North Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas was Advising and Assisting in the drawing up and passing of the said Proclamation and a Debate thereupon arising in the House they Resolved N.C. That it was sufficient Ground for the House to proceed upon an Impeachment against him for High Crimes and Misdemeanors and order taken for an Impeachment accordingly Thus the Dissenters are encouraged to go on and break the Laws and the Judges punished for Executing them On Thursday the 25 of November Nothing Extraordinary was done but the Exhibiting Articles against Edward Seymour Esquire formerly Speaker of the House to Each of which he being required to make a distinct answer there arising a Debate upon the first Article the whole was adjourned to the next day Samuel Verdon Under-Sheriff of Norfolk was ordered to be sent for into Custody upon a Complaint of several Crimes and Misdemeanors by him committed For a Notorious Breach of Priviledge of Parliament by him committed against their House No such thing being mentioned in the Complaint Friday Novemb. 26. The Bill of Repeal of the 35 of Eliz. was read the third time and passed And the House resolved to Impeach Mr. Seymour upon 4 Articles and appointed a Committee to draw up those Articles accordingly and Referred it to them to consider of Precedents concerning the Committing of Members to Custody when Impeached in Parliament On Munday the 29 day of November the House attended his Majesty with their Address concerning Tangier which being very long I will not trouble the Reader with it at Large The whole is a Tragical representation of the Advantages that Popery had gotten over the Religion and Government Assisted as they tell us by the Treachery of perfidious Protestants which must be the Dissenters by whose assistance they obtained the Toleration broke several Sessions of the Long Loyal Parliament if Coleman's Letter to Monsieur Le Chese may be Credited and it may truly be averred that the Papists have not obtained any Advantage without the Dissenters nor the Dissenters without them They say further That the ACT of Parliament enjoyning a Test to be taken by all persons admitted into any Publick Office and intended for a Security against Papists coming into Imployment had So little effect that either by dispensations obtained from Rome they Submitted to those Tests and held their Offices themselves or those put into those Places wore so favourable to the same Interest that Popery it self has rather gained than lost ground since that ACT. Now Supposing it true that some of them did obtain such dispensations what was this to his Majesty and if any of them that gat their Offices were apt to afford them unlawful favours they might have called them to account for it with much more general Satisfaction than they did the Abhorrers but let any man that Knowes any thing of the World Judge whether the Malice or falsehood of the Conclusion be greatest They tell the King a dreadful Story of the defeating of the Presentment intended against his Majesties Brother the Duke of York under whose Countenance all the rest of the Papists shelter themselves as they say But surely his Majesty was not to be informed what they thought of this who could not but be well informed of the Fact long since and so they descend to the business of the Weekly Pacquet of Advice from Rome which Exposes Popery as it deserves say they as Ridiculous to the People and they tell his Majesty That a New and Arbitrary Rule of Court was made in his Majesties Court of Kings-Bench That the same for the future should not be Printed by any person whatsoever But then they take no Notice how that Author has made many Odious False and Scandalous Reflections upon the Religion and Government by Law Established which was the cause why it was Supprest and not any talent he had of writing against Popery Finally They tell the King that they have freed themselves from the guilt of that blood and desolation which is like to ensue which is an Expression in that place that looks like a kind of Threat or Menace for there was then No prospect of blood or desolation that could arise from any cause or persons but what must be Countenanced by the Dissenters The Conclusion is But our Onely hope next under God is in Your Sacred Majesty that by your Great Wisdome and Goodness we may be effectually Secured from Popery and all the Evils that attend it and that none but persons of Known Fidelity to Your Majesty and Sincere Affection to The Protestant Religion What Religion may be put into any Imployment Civil or Military That whilst we shall give a Supply to Tangier we may be assured we do not Augment the Strength of our Popish Adversaries nor encrease our own Dangers which Desires of your Faithful Commons if Your Majesty shall Graciously vouchsafe to grant we shall not onely be ready to assist Your Majesty in defence of Tangier but do whatsoever else shall be in our power to enable Your Majesty to Protect the Protestant Religion and Interest at home and abroad and to resist and repel the Attempts of Your Majesties and the Kingdoms Enemies But His Majesty notwithstanding continued without any Supply and by the Blessing of God preserved the Town Now it is very observable that in the former Parliament there being a Report That Tangier should be Sold to relieve the Necessities of the Crown they then Voted April 9. 1679. That the House was of Opinion That those who should Advise His Majesty to part with Tangier to any Foraign Prince or State or be Instrumental therein ought to be accounted Enemies to the King and Kingdom And yet now that it was in apparent hazard to be lost to the Moors the Sworn Enemies of all Christians they would grant nothing to preserve it and many of the Commons in their Speeches were of Opinion that it was the best way to desert the Town So that if any did Advise his Majesty to Sell the Place they were Enemies to the King and Kingdom but if it were lost or deserted So the King had nothing for it the Matter was not much so that the King might bear the blame tho the Commons were in the fault On TVESDAT the 30th of November the Tryal of William Viscount Stafford was began which lasted till the 7th of December of which I shall take no Notice it being printed by it Self During all which time there was nothing material done by the House of Commons except that business Wednesday the 8th and Thursday the Ninth of December were spent in Reporting of Elections and discharging persons out of the Custody of the Serjeant and Ordering others to be taken in to Supply their places But very remarkable was their Severity against Mr. Sheridon and Mr. Day who were Ordered to be taken into Custody their Papers to be Searched and that
shall be Exposed Naked and Friendless to the Fury of those Reipublicans that Murthered his Royal Father and the Religion by Law Established to the Mercy of those that have Sworn the Ruine of it And finally the Property and Liberty of the Subject shall be Exposed to those men who have given the World too good an Account already what Trusty Guardians of them they are ever to be trusted with them again till the Memory of the late Times shall perish not onely as to the Memories of Men but Books and Records But yet after all this the branding those Gentlemen that were brought in without the Least Exception to Supply the places of those that were turned out of the Commission of the Peace and Lieutenancy with the odious Titles of Men of Arbitrary Prineciples and Favourers of Papists and Popery is in my poor Judgment Much worse and as it was impossible the Major part of the House should think so of them all so I am fully perswaded if Passion had not had too great a dominion over them they would Never have vented so Crude an Assertion in So August a place in So Serious a Manner to his Majesty and the whole World they may be pleased to think of this again Now the heat perhaps is over for as they have worded it it can never be maintained it being impossible to be known or proved nor is any favourable Construction to be allowed to an Expression and Declaration so publickly and deliberately made by so many men in so publick a Trust That from henceforth such Persons only may be Judges within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales as are men of Ability Integrity and Known Affection to the Protestant Religion and that they may hold their Offices and Salaries quam diu se bene gesserint That several Deputy Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace fitly qualified for those Imployments having been of late displaced and others put in their room Who are MEN of Arbitrary Principles and Countenancers of Papists and Popery Such onely may bear the Office of a Lord-Lieutenant as are persons of Integrity and Known Affection to the Protestant Religion That Deputy-Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace may be also So qualified and may be moreover Men of Ability of Estates and Interest in their Country That none may be imployed as Military Officers or Officers in Your Majesties Fleet but Men of Known Experience Courage and Affection to the Protestant Religion These our Humble Requests being obtained we shall on our parts be ready to Assist Your Majesty for the preservation of Tangier and for putting your Majesties Fleet into Such a Condition as it may preserve your Majesties Soveraignty of the Seas and be for the Defence of the Nation If Your Majesty hath or shall make any Alliances for Defence of the Protestant Religion and Interest and Security of this Kingdom this House will be ready to Assist and Stand by your Majesty in the Support of the same AFTER this our Humble Answer to Your Majesties Gracious Speech Doubtless after all this fine Language and strong Reason if any Evil Instrument any man of Arbitrary Principles or favourer of Papists or Popery or finally if his Majesty or any Considerable part of the Nation should thro humane infirmity happen to Suspect either your Prudence in delaying the Care of these Great Things to so long a day or your Loyalty in making these demands of your Natural Soveraign or your Charity and Candor in bestowing Commendations on your fellow Subjects his Majesties Officers at the rate you have done I say if any such misfortune should happen you are not to Wonder much at it for great Merits and great Virtues great Attempts and Heroick Undertakings are Seldom well received at present but Posterity will Admire and Applaud them according to their Deserts we hope no Evil instruments whatsoever shall be able to lessen your Majesties Esteem of that Fidelity and Affection we bear to Your Majesties Service but that Your Majesty will always retain in your Royal Breast that Favourable Opinion of Vs your Loyal Commons that those other good Bills which we have now under Consideration Conducing to the great Ends we have before Mentioned as also all Laws for the Benefit and Comfort of Your People which shall from time to time be tendred for Your Majesties Royal Assent shall find acceptance with Your Majesty I will here insert those Reasons I mentioned above against the Bill of Exclusion which were delivered in the House of Commons the Fourth day of November before this Address by a Great Person a Member of that House Sir L. J. by which letters I understand Sir Leoline Jenkins one of the Principal Secretaries of State Sir I have spent much of my time in studying the Laws of this Land and I pretend to know something of the Law of Foreign Countries as Well as of our own and I have upon this occasion well considered of them but cannot find how we can Justifie the passing of this Bill rather much against it First I think it contrary to Natural Justice that We should proceed to Condemnation not only before Conviction but before we have heard the Party or Examined any Witness about him I am sure none in his defence And to do this by making a New Law of purpose when you have Old Laws in being that have appointed a Punishment to his Crime I humbly conceive is very Severe and contrary to the usual Proceedings of this House and the Birth-Right of every English-man Secondly I think it is Contrary to the Principles of Our Religion that we should dispossess a man of his Birth-Right because he differs from us in point of Faith For it is not agreed by all that Dominion is sounded in Grace For my part I think there is more of Popery in this Bill than there can possibly be in the Nation without it for none but Papists and Fifth-Monarchy-men did ever go about to dis-inherit men for their Religion Thirdly I am of opinion that the Kings of England have their Right from God alone and that no Power on Earth can deprive them of it And I hope this House will not attempt to do any thing which is so precisely contrary not only to the Law of God but the Law of the Land too For if this Bill should pass it would Change the Essence of the Monarchy and Make the Crown Elective For by the same reason that this Parliament may dis-inherit this Prince for his Religion other Parliaments may dis-inherit another upon some other pretence which they may Suggest and so Consequently by such Exclusions elect whom they please Fourthly It is against the Oath of Allegiance taken in its own sense without Jesuitical Evasions For by binding all persons to the King his Heirs and Successors the Duke as Presumptive Heir must be understood And I am of opinion that it cannot be dispensed withal Sir I will be very cautious how I dispute the Power
of Parliaments I know the Legislative is very great and it ought to be so But yet I am of opinion That Parliaments cannot dis-inherit the Heir of the Crown and that if such an ACT should pass it would be invalid in it self And therefore I hope it will not seem strange that I should offer my Judgment against this Bill while it is in Debate in which I think I do that which is my Duty as a Member of this House Henry the Fourth of France was a Protestant his People most Papists who used some endeavours to prevent his coming to the Crown but when they found they were not likely to perfect their design without occasioning a Civil War they desisted concluding that a Civil War would probably bring on them more misery than a King of a different Religion and therefore Submitted Sir I hope we shall not permit our Passions to Guide us instead of Reason c. Thus far that Great Person To these Reasons if we please to add this other That it is so far from preventing our Calamities that it will Ascertain them at his Majesties Death with the Addition of a Civil War and in all likelyhood bring that upon us before that time for so soon as ever the Bill pass the Duke will have a Right to make a War upon England even in his Majesty's Life-time and what may be the event of that God onely Knows However to prevent Surprize there must be A Standing Army or an Association Kept up as long as the Duke Lives and what the Consequences of them are may be foreseen without difficulty the first Ruining the Liberties of the People and the Second Endangering the Prerogatives of the Crown and both of them in the divided Condition England now is in point of Religion tending to raise such Fears and Jealousies as will be almost as Uneasie and as Unsafe as a Popish Successor and all this brought upon us immediately whereas the other is future and Contingent On Thursday the 23 d. of December The Commons Ordered That the Thanks of the House should be given to Dr. Burnett for his Sermon Preached the day before and likewise for his Book relating to the History of the Reformation of the Church of England and that he be desired to Print his said Sermon And on Thursday the 5th of January following they Voted that he should be desired to proceed with and Compleat that good Work by him begun in Writing the History of the Reformation of the Church of England They Ordered That Leave should be given to bring in a Bill or Bills to Correct and Punish Atheisme Blasphemy Swearing and Debauchery and for the better Observation of the Lords Day These and several other Crimes have grown and prevailed upon this Nation for want of a Church Discipline and by reason of the Divisions amongst us in Points of Religion and till these things be taken care of all Laws against them will signifie Nothing Yet it might deliver the Government from the guilt of them and therefore it is heartily to be wished that Care may be taken to perfect this good Design and when further Care is taken of the Lords Day some care would be taken of the other Feasts and Fasts by Law Established in the Church of England This day also the Lords returned the Additional Act for Burying in Woollen passed without Amendment And by another Message Certified to the Commons That at their Rising they would Adjourn to the Next Munday Seven-night after And by another Message they sent down Mr. Seymour's Answer to the Articles of Impeachment against him The same day the Commons also passed a Vote of an Extraordinary Nature which was as followeth Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That Mr. Joseph Brown ought to be restored to all the Offices and Places which were taken from him by occasion of a Judgment given against him in the Court of Kings-Bench in Trinity Term 29 Caroli Secundi upon an Information for publishing an Vnlicensed Book called The Long Parliament Dissolved These Sorts of Writers were Now to be encouraged what might be but what Benefit Brown had by this Vote I never heard But the Next day being the 24th of December they took occasion to Chastise one Richard Thompson Clerk very Severely for he having been Complained of by some of the Dissenters who were Now the White Boys and the Sober Loyal Protestants and it having been remitted to a Committee to enquire into his Misdemeanors the House upon the return of the Committee passed these Votes Reselved N. C. That Richard Thompson Clerk has publickly defamed His Sacred Majesty Preached Sedition Vilified the Reformation Promoted Popery by Asserting Popish Principles Decrying the Popish Plot and turning the same upon the Protestants and endeavoured to Subvert the Liberty and Property of the Subject and the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliament and that he is a Scandal and Reproach to his Function Resolved That he be Impeached and a Committee appointed to prepare the said Impeachment and that the Report and the Resolution of the House thereupon be forthwith Printed This Thompson was accused for several Expressions both in Preaching and Discourse But they mostly fixed upon a Sermon Preached the 30th of January 1679. See the Printed Papers wherein he said it seems the Presbyterians were such persons as the Devil Blusht at Accused Hamden for chocsing to Rebel rather than pay the Ship-Money which he said was the King's Right by Law Accused Mr. Calvin to have been the first that Preached the King-Killing Doctrine And from thence inferred That a Presbyterian qua talis is as great a Traytor as any Priest or Jesuit But one Witness saith he said Worse And that he had also frequently cast Evil Aspersions against Several Divines at Bristol of Great Note viz. Mr. Chetwind Mr. Standfast Mr. Crossman and Mr. Palmer and others saying That such as went to their Lectures were the Brats of the Devil 2. That he had spoken in Sermons and elsewhere several hard Things against the Petitions for the Sitting of the Parliament as That it was the Seed of Rebellion and like to 41. c. 3. That he had said There was great Noise of a Popish Plot but there was Nothing in it but a Presbyterian Plot c. 4. He was Accused to have approved of the Doctrine of the Church of Rome in the Points of Justification Auricular Confession Penance Extream Vnction and Crisme in Baptisme and the Single Life of the Clergy saying That if he were as well Satisfied of other things as he was of these he would not have been so long Separated from the Catholick Church 5. He had spoken as they said some ill things of Queen Elizabeth and Henry the 8th as Church-Robbers and against his Majesty too which tho I care not to repeat yet they are nothing in comparison to what the Dissenters have published in Print against his Majesty What Answer the Man would have made
any part of the King's Revenue or whosoever shall pay such Tally hereafter to be struck shall be adjudged to hinder the Sittings of Parliaments and shall be responsable therefore in Parliament First they Resolve they would give nothing themselves and then they terrify all others as much as in them lyeth from Lending or Advancing any Money to him which was not according to their Writ of Election to Advise his Majesty but by duress to force and compel him to Submit to their better Judgment as became Loyal and Dutiful Subjects So that his Majesty might well say of these Votes That instead of giving him assistance to Support his Allies or enabling him to Preserve Tangier they tended rather to disable him from contributing towards either by his own Revenue or Credit not only exposing him to all Dangers that might happen either at home or abroad but endeavouring to deprive him of the possibility of Supporting the Government it Self and to reduce him to a more helpless condition than the meanest of his Subjects A Sad and a very Just Complaint and Accordingly resented by that vast Number of People that have since Addressed to thank his Majesty for that Declaration On Saturday the 8th of January The Lords sent a Message to the Commons to acquaint them that their Lordships had appointed that day Sevennight for hearing the Cause upon the Impeachment of Mr. Seymour and that their House might reply if they thought fit but they had no leisure to take notice of it Information being given to the House by the Serjeant at Arms that Sir John Lloyd Sir Edward Philips Herbert Herring Miles Baspole _____ Iles and Arthur Yeomans who for divers great Misdemeanors by them committed as was pretended against the Priviledge of their House were Ordered to be taken in Custody of the said Serjeant did Abscond themselves that the said Order could not be put in Execution against them hereupon they Ordered That an Humble Application should be made to his Majesty from their House by Such Members thereof as were of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council desiring his Majesty to Issue out his Royal Proclamation for the Apprehending the said several persons in case they should not render themselves to the Serjeant by a certain day therein to be limited The same day they Ordered That a Committee should be Appointed to inspect the Journals of their House and of the House of Lords and Precedents to Justify and Maintain That the Lords ought to Commit Persons to Safe Custody when Impeached for High Treason by the Commons in Parliament and to make report thereof to the House Which Vote had relation to Sir William Scroggs And so we are come to the day that finally put an End to all their Proceedings which was Munday the 10th day of January and a great Wonder it was that his Majesty could endure them so long They began the day with a Vote which shews the Meaning and Tendance of all the rest Resolved That whosoever Advised his Majesty to Prorogue this Parliament to any other purpose than in order to the passing of a Bill for the Exclusion of James Duke of York is a betrayer of the King the Protestant Religion and of the Kingdom of England A Promoter of the French Interest and a Pensioner to France They Knew then that they were to be Prorogued but they Knew not by whose Advice and so if his Majesty did it without any Advice then all these Hard words were thrown at him but by whomsoever it were done this Vote could have no good meaning or effect and must end in Smoke or Tumults and Confusion 2. Resolved That the Thanks of this House be given to the City of London for their Manifest Loyalty to the King their Care Charge and Vigilancy for the Preservation of his Majesties Person and of the Protestant Religion Ordered That the Members that Serve for the City of London do accordingly give them the Thanks of the House Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That the City of London was Burnt in the Year 1666 by the Papists designing thereby to Introduce Arbitrary Power and Popery into the Kingdom Resolved That the Commissioners of the Customes and other Officers of the Custom-House have Wilfully broken the Law prohibiting the Importation of French Wines and other Commodities and that if they shall hereafter Wilfully or Negligently break that Law they shall be questioned therefore in Parliament Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That James Duke of Monmouth hath been removed from his Offices and Commands by the Influence of the Duke of York Ordered That an humble Application be made to his Majesty from this House by such Members thereof as are of his Majesties Honourable Privy-Council to desire his Majesty to restore the said James Duke of Monmouth to his said Offices and Commands This was excellently timed and they had so obliged his Majesty they might be sure he would not deny them Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That the Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal Laws is at this time Grievous to the Subject a weakning of the Protestant Interest and incouragement to Popery and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom Here their Mouths were stopt by a Message from the King by Edward Carteret Usher of the Black-Rod Acquainting them that the King Commanded them to Attend him immediately in the House of Peers And there his Majesty Prorogued them to the Thursday Sevennight being the 20th of that Instant January 1680. 1. His Majesty gave his Royal Assent to the Act Prohiting the Importation of Cattle from Ireland 2. To the Act for Supplying the late Act for Burying in Woollen 3. And to an Act To rectifie Errors in Sir Charles Houghton 's Settlement There was another Act for Repeal of the Act of the 35 of Elizabeth ready to be passed and it was Lost No body knew how and was never tendred to his Majesty Soon after this Parliament was Dissolved by Proclamation to the great Satisfaction of all but the Dissenters who if they had been able to consider things Aright had as little reason to be pleased with their Proceedings as any of the rest for they did them no other Service then to Exasperate the King and the Government against them and have made them to be more prosecuted and less pitied than they were before The Popish Party received almost as little damage by them as the Dissenters did Advantage for they bending their force Equally against the Succession and Popery all their Designs if they had any beyond clamour against the Papists were broken Their Arbitrary and Illegal Proceedings against the Abhorrers of the Tumultuous Petitions for the Sitting of the Parliament procured more Friends to the Duke of York then perhaps he would otherwise have had and gave the English Gentry an Excellent Prospect what they might Expect from these Warm Gentlemen if ever they fell into their hands The King had