Reason and there was no surer way of intituling ones self to the favor of the Court then to receive a Censure from the Representative Body of the People Let it for the present be admitted that some of the things desired by that Parliament were exorbitant and because we will put the Objection as strong as is possible inconsistent with the very being of the Government yet at least some of their Petitions were more reasonable The Government might have subsisted though the Gentlemen put out of the Commission of the Peace for their Zealous acting against the Papists had been restor'd nor would a final Dissolution of all things have ensued tho Sir G. Jefferies had been removed out of publick Office or my Lord Hallifax himself from His Majesties Presence and Councils Had the Statute of the 35th of Queen Elizabeth which had justly slept for 80 years and of late unseasonably revived been repealed surely the Government might still have been safe And though the Fanaticks perhaps had not deserved so well as that in favor to them His Majesty should have passed that Bill yet since the Repeal might hereafter be of so great use to those of the Church of England in case of a Popish Successor which blessing His Majesty seems resolved to bequeath to His People one would have thought he might have Complyed with the Parliament in that proposal At least we should have had less Reason to complain of the refusal if the King would have been but Graciously pleased to have done it in the Ordinary way But the Ministers thought they had not sufficiently triumphed over the Parliament by getting the Bill rejected unless it were done in such a manner as that the Precedent might be more pernicious to posterity by introducing a new Negative in the making of Laws then the losing of any Bill how useful soever could be to the present Age. This we may affirm that if the success of this Parliament did not answer expectation whoever was guilty of it the House of Commons did not fail of doing their Part. Never did men Husband their time to more advantage They opened the eyes of the Nation they shewed them their danger with a freedom becoming Englishmen They asserted the Peoples Right of Petitioning they proceeded vigorously against the Conspirators discovered and heartily endeavored to take away the very Root of the Conspiracy They had before them as many great and useful Bills as had been seen in any Parliament and it is not to be laid at their doors that they proved Abortive This Age will never fail to give them their grateful acknowledgments and posterity will remember that House of Commons with Honor. We come now to the particular enumeration of those Gracious things which were said to the Parliament at Westminster His Majesty askt of them the supporting the Allyances he had made for the preservation of the General Peace in Christendom 'T is to be wish'd His Majesty had added to this Gracious asking of Money a gracious Communication of those Alliances and that such blind obedience had not been exacted from them as to contribute to the support of they knew not what themselves nor before they had considered whether those Alliances which were made were truly design'd for that end which was pretended or any way likely to prove effectual to it Since no precedent can be shown that ever a Parliament not even the late long Parliament tho filled with Danby his Pensioners did give Money for Maintaining of any Leagues till they were first made acquainted with the particulars of them But besides this the Parliament had reason to consider well of the General Peace it self and the Influence it might have and had upon our Affairs before they came to any Resolution or so much as to a Debate about preserving it since so wise a Minister as my L. Chancellor had so lately told us that it was fitter for Meditation than Discourse He informed us in the same Speech that the peace then was but the effect of Despair in the Confederates and we have since learn't by whose means they were reduced to that despair and what price was demanded of the French King for so great a service And we cannot but be sadly sensible how by this Peace that Monarch has not only quite Dissolv'd the Confederacy form'd against him enlarged his Dominions gain'd time to Refresh his Soldiers harrassed with long service setled and composed his Subjects at Home increased his Fleet and replenished his Exchequer for new and greater designs but his Pensioners at our Court have grown insolent upon it and presuming that now he may be at leasure to assist them in Ruining England and the Protestant Religion together have shaken off all dread of Parliaments and have prevail'd with His Majesty to use them with as little respect and to disperse them with as great Contempt as if they had been a Conventicle and not the great Representative of the Nation whose Power and Wisdom only could save Him and Us in our present exigencies But whatever the design of them was or the effect of them is like to be yet Alliances have a very good sound and a Nation so encompassed with Enemies abroad and Traitors and Pensioners to those Enemies at home must needs be glad to hear of any new Friends But alas if we look into the Speech made at the opening of that Parliament we shall find no mention of any new Ally except the Spaniard whose Affairs at that time through the defects of his own Government and the Treachery of our Ministers were reduced to so desperate a state that he might well be a Burden to us but there was little to be hoped from a Friendship with him unless by the name of a League to recommend our Ministers to a new Parliament couzen Country Gentlemen out of their Money But upon perusal of that League it appears by the third fourth and fifth Articles that it was like to create us Troubles enough for it engages us indefinitely to enter into all the Quarrels of the Spaniards tho they happened in the West-Indies or the Philippine Islands or were drawn upon himself by his own injustice or causeless provocations By this we shall be obliged to espouse his difference with the Duke of Brandenburg tho all that Duke did was according to the Law of Nations to Reprize Spanish Ships for a just Debt frequently demanded in vain By this we shall be obliged to engage in his present War with the Portuguese tho he by his violent seizing of the Island of St. Gabriel which had been long in their peaceable possession without once demanding it of them has most justly provoked the Portuguese to invade Spain Nor are we bound only to assist him in case of an Invasion but in case of any disturbance whatsoever which must be intended of intestine Troubles and it is so directly explained in the secret Article which all Europe says was signed at the same
time So that if the present King of Spain should imitate his great Grand-father Philip the second oppress any of his Subjects as cruelly as he did those of the Low Countries and so force them to a necessary self defence we have renounced the policy of our Ancestors who thought it their interest as well as their Duty to succor the distressed and must not only aid him with 8000 Men for three Months to make those People slaves but if the matter cannot be composed in that time make War upon them with our whole force both by Land and Sea But that which concerns us yet nearer in this League is that this obligation of assistance was mutual so that if a disturbance should happen hereafter in England upon any attempt to change our Religion or our Government though it was in the time of his Majesty Successors the most Catholick King is obliged by this League which we are still to believe was entred into for the security of the Protestant Religion and the good of the Nation to give aid to so Pious a Design and to make War upon the people with all his Forces both by Land and Sea And therefore it was no wonder that the Ministers were not forward in shewing this League to the Parliament who would have soon observed all these inconveniencies and have seen how little such a League could contribute to the preserving the general Peace or to the securing of Flanders since the French King may within one months time possess himself of it and we by the League are not obliged to send our Succors till 3 Months after the Invasion So that they would upon the whole matter have been inclined to suspect that the main end of this League was only to serve for a handsom pretence to raise an Army in England and if the people here should grow discontented at it and any little disorders should ensue the Spaniard is thereby obliged to send over Forces to suppress them The next thing recommended to them was the farther examination of the Plot and every one who has observed what has passed for more than two years together cannot doubt that this was sincerely desired by such as are most in credit with his Majesty and then surely the Parliament deserv'd not to be censured upon this account since the examination of so many new Witnesses the Trial of the Lord Stafford the great preparations for the Trial of the rest of the Lords and their diligent inquiry into the Horrid Irish Treasons shew that the Parliament wanted no diligence to pursue his Majesties good intentions in that affair And when His Majesty desired from the Parliament their Advice and Assistance concerning the preservation of Tangier the Commons did not neglect to give its due consideration They truly represented to him how that important place came to be brought into such exigencies after so vast a Treasure expended to make it useful and that nothing better could be expected of a Town for the most part put under Popish Governours and always fill'd with a Popish Garrison These were evils in His Majesties own power to redress and they advised him to it nor did they rest there but promise to assist him in defence of it as soon as ever they could be reasonably secured that any Supply which they gave for that purpose should not be used to Augment the strength of our Popish Adversaries and to encrease our Dangers at home They had more than once seen Money imployed directly contrary to the end for which it was given by Parliament they had too good cause of fear it might be so again and they knew that such a misimployment would have been fatal at that time But above all they considered the eminent dangers which threatned them with certain Ruine at home and therefore justly thought that to leave the consideration of England to provide for Tangier would be to Act like a Man that should send his Servants to mend a gap in his hedge when he saw his House on Fire and his Family like to be consumed in it We are next told that His Majesty Offered to concur in any Remedies that could be proposed for the security of the Protestant Religion and we must own that he did indeed make such an Offer but he was pleased to go no further for those Remedies which the Commons tendred were rejected and those which they were preparing were prevented by a Dissolution We have seen the great things which the King did on his part let us now reflect on those instances which are singled out as so many unsuitable returns of the Commons They are complained of for presenting Addresses in the nature of Remonstrances rather then Answers Under what unhappy circumstances do we find our selves when our Representatives can never behave themselves with that caution but they will be misinterpreted at Court If the Commons had return'd Answer to His Majesties Messages without shewing upon what grounds they proceedded they had then been accused as men acting peremptorily without reason if they modestly express the reasons of their Resolutions they are then said to Remonstrate But what the Ministers would have this word Remonstrance signifie what Crime it is they mean thereby to charge the Commons with is unknown to an English Reader Perhaps they who are better Critics and more French-men know some pernicious thing which it imports If they mean by a Remonstrance a declaring the Causes and Reasons of what they do it will not surely be imputed as a fault in them since 't is a way of proceeding which His Majesties Ministers have justified by their own Example having in His Majesties name vouchsafed to declare the Causes and Reasons of his Actions to his People But the Commons made Arbitrary Orders for taking Persons into Custody for matters that had no Relation to Priviledges of Parliament The Contrivers of this Declaration who are so particular in other things would have done well to have given some instances of these Orders If they intend by these general words to reflect on the Orders made to take those degenerate wretches into Custody who published under their hands their Abhorrence of Parliaments and of those who in an humble and Lawful manner Petitioned for their Setting in a time of such extream necessity Surely they are not in good earnest they cannot believe themselves when they say that these matters had no Relation to Priviledges of Parliament if the Priviledg of Parliament be concern'd when an injury is done to any particular Member how much more is it touched when men strike at Parliaments themselves endeavour to wound the very Constitution if this be said with Relation to Sheridon who has since troubled the World with so many idle impudent Pamphlets upon that account 't is plain that his Commitment was only in order to examine him about the Popish Plot and his indeavors to stifle it though his contemptuous behaviour to the House deservd a much
last mentioned we should find they signified as little therefore we will only remember the last made the 20th of April 1679. And Declared in Council and in Parliament after published to the whole Nation Wherein His Majesty owns that he is sensible of the ill posture of his affairs and the great Jealousies and Dissatisfaction of his good Subjects whereby the Crown and Government was become too weak to preserve it self which proceeded from his use of a single Ministry and of private Advices and therefore professes his Resolution to lay them wholly aside for the future and to be Advised by those Able and Worthy Persons whom he had then chosen for his Council in all his Weighty and Important Affairs But every man must Acknowledge that either His Majesty has utterly forgotten this Publick and solemn Promise or else that nothing Weighty and Important has happened from that time to this very Day As for the Declaration read in our Churches the other day there needs no other Argument to make us dâ—ubt of the reality of the promises which it makes then to consider how partially with how little sincerity the things which it pretends to relate are therein represented It begins with telling us in His Majesties name That it was with exceeding great trouble that he was brought to Dissolve the Two last Parliaments without more benefit to the People by the calling of them We should question His Majesties Wisdom did we not belive him to have understood that never Parliament had greater Opportunities of doing good to himself and to his People He could not but be sensible of the Dangers and of the Necessities of His Kingdom therefore could not without exceding great Trouble be prevailed upon for the sake of a few desperate men whom he thought himself concern'd to love now only becaus he had loved them too well Trusted them too much before not only to disappoint the Hopes and Expectations of his own People but of all most Europe His Majesty did indeed do His Part so far in giving Opportunities of providing for our good as the calling of Parliaments does amount to and it is to be Imputed to the Ministers only that the success of them did not answer His and Our Expectations 'T is certain it cannot be imputed to any of the Proceedings of either of those Parliaments which were composed of Men of as good Sence and Quality as any in the Nation and proceeded with as great moderation and managed their Debates with as much temper as was ever known in any Parliament If they seem'd to go too far in any thing His Majesties Speeches or Declarations had misled them by some of which they had been invited to enter into every one of those Debates to which so much exception had been since taken Did he not frequently recommend the prosecution of the Plot to them with a strict and impartial inquiry Did he not tell them That he neither thought himself nor them safe till that matter was gone through with Did he not in his Speech of the 30th of April 1679. Assure them that it was his constant care to secure our Religion for the future in all Events and that in all things which concern'd the Publick security he would not follow their Zeal but lead it Has he not often wish'd that he might be enabled to exercise a Power of Dispensation in Reference to those Protestants who through tenderness of misguided Conscience did not Conform to the Ceremonies Discipline and Government of the Church And promised that he would make it his special Care to encline the wisdom of the Parliament to concur with him in making an Act to that Purpose And least the malice of ill men might Object that these Gracious inclinations of His continued no longer then while there was a possibility of giving the Papists equal benefit of a Toleration Has not His Majesty since the Discovery of the Plot since there was no hopes of getting so much as a connivence for them in His Speech of the 6th of March 1679. Exprest His Zeal not only for the Protestant Religion in general but for an Vnion amongst all sorts of Protestants And did he not Command My Lord Chancellor at the same time to tell them that it was necessary to distinguish between Popish and other Recusants between them that would destroy the whole Flock and them that onely wander from it These things considered we should not think the Parliament went too far but rather that they did not follow His Majesties Zeal with an equal pace The Truth is if we observe The daily provocations of the Popish Faction whose Rage and Insolence were only increased by the Discovery of the Plot so that they seemed to defy Parliaments as well as inferior Courts of Justice under the Protection of the Duke their publickly avowed head who still carryed on their designs by new and more detestable methods than ever and were continually busie by Perjuries and Subornations to charge the best and most considerable Protestants in the Kingdom with Treasons as black as those of which themselves were Guilty If we observe what vile Arts were used to hinder the further discovery what Liberty was given to Reproach the Discoverers what means used to destroy or to Corrupt them how the very Criminals were encouraged and allowed to be good Witnesses against their Accusers We should easily excuse an English Parliament thus beset if they had been carried to some little excesses But yet all this could not provoke them to do any thing not justifiable by the Laws of Parliament or unbecoming the Wisdom and Gravity of an English Senate But we are told that His Majesty Opened the last Parliament which was held at Westminster with as Graciom Expressions of His readiness to satisfie the desires of his Subjects and to secure them against all their just Fears as the weighty consideration either of preserving the Established Religion and Property of His Subjects at Home or of supporting His Neighbors and Allies abroad could fill His Heart with We must own that His Majesty has Opened all His Parliaments at Westminister with very Gracious Expressions nor have we wanted that Evidence of His readiness to satisfie the desires of His Subjects but that sort of Evidence will soon lose it's force if it be never followed by Actions correspondent by which only the World can judge of the sincerity of Expressions or Intentions And therefore the Favourites did little Consult His Maiesties Honor when they bring him in solemnly dâ—claring to His Subjects that His Intentions were as far as would have consisted with the very being of the Government to have Complyed with any thing that could have been proposed to him to Accomplish those Ends when they are not able to produce an instance wherein they suffered him to comply in any One thing Whatsoever the House of Commons Address'd for was certainly denied though it was only for that
because many Acts of the like nature have passed heretofore upon less necessary occasions The preservation of every Government depends upon an exact adherence unto its Principles the essential principle of the English Monarchy being that well proportioned distribution of Powers whereby the Law doth at once provide for the greatness of the King and the safety of the People the Government can subsist no longer than whilst the Monarch enjoying the Power which the Law doth give him is enabled to perform the part it allows unto him and the People are duly protected in their Rights and Liberties For this reason our Ancestors have been always more careful to preserve the Government inviolable than to favour any Personal pretences and have therein conformed themselves to the practice of all other Nations whose examples deserve to be followed Nay we know of none so slavishly addicted unto any Person or Family as for any reason whatsoever to admit of a Prince who openly professed a Religion contrary to that which was established amongst them It were easie to alledge multitude of examples of those who have rejected Princes for reasons of far less weight then difference in Religion as Robert of Normandy Charles of Lorrain Alphonso a dâ—sheradado of Spain but those of a latter date against whom there was no other exception than for their Religion suiteth better with our occasion Among whom it is needless to name Henry of Bourbon who though accomplished in all the vertues required in a Prince was by the general Assembly of the Estate at Blois declared uncapable of succession to the Crown of France for being a Protestant And notwithstanding his valour industry reputation and power increased by gaining four great Battails yet he could never be admited King till he had renounced the Religion that was his obstacle And Sigismund Son of John of Sweden King of that Country by Inheritance and of Poland by Election was deprived of his Hereditary Crown and his Children disinherited only for being a Papist acting conformably to the Principles of that Religion though in all other respect he deserved to be a King and was most acceptable unto the Nation But if ever this Maxim deserved to be considered surely it was in the case of the Duke of York The violence of his natural temper is sufficiently known His vehemence in exalting the Prerogative in his Brothers time beyond its due bounds and the principles of his Religion which carry him to all imaginable excesses of cruelty have convinced all mankind that he must be excluded or the Name of King being left unto him the power put into the hands of another The Parliament therefore considering this and observing the precedents of former ages did wisely choose rather to exclude him than to leave him the Name and place the power in a Regent For they could not but look upon it as folly to expect that one of his temper bred up in such principles in politicks as made him in love with Arbitrary power and bigotted in that Religion which allewise propagates it self by Blood would patiently bear these shackles which would be very disgustful unto a Prince of the most meek disposition And would he not thereby have been provok't to the utmost fury and revenge against those who laid them upon him This would certainly have bread a contest and these limitations of power proposed to keep up the Government must unavoidably have destroyed it or the Nation which necessity would have forced into a War in its own natural defence must have perished either by it or with it The success of such controversies are in the hand of God but they are undertaken upon too unequal terms when the People by victory can gain no more than what without hazard may be done by Law and would be ruin'd if it should fall out otherwise The Duke with Papists might then make such a peace as the Romans are said to have made once in our desolated Countrey by the slaughter of all the inhabitants able to make War ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant This is the happy state they present unto us who condemn the Parliament for bringing in a Bill of Exclusion This is the way to have such a peace as the Spaniards for the propagation of the Gospel made in the West-Indies at the instigation of the Jesuites who govern'd their Councels And seeing they have the Duke no less under their power and directions we may easily beleive they would put him upon the same methods But as it is not to be imagined that any Nation that hath vertue courage and strength equal unto the English will so tamely expect their ruine so the passing a Bill to exclude him may avoid but cannot as the Declaration phraseth it establish a War But if there must be a War let it be under the Authority of Law let it be against a banished excluded pretender There is no fear of the consequence of such a War No true Englishman can joyn with him or countenance his Usurpation after this Act and for his Popish and forreign adherents they will neither be more provok'd nor more powerful by the passing of it Nor will his Exclusion make it at all necessary to maintain a standing force for preserving the Government and the pâ—â—ce of the Kingdom The whole People will be an Army for that purpose and every Heart and Hand will be prepared to maintain that so necessary so much desired Law A Law for which three Parliaments have been so earnest with His Majesty not only in pursuance of their own judgments but by the direction of those that sent them It was the universal Opinion of the Papists that Mary Queen of Scots was excluded only by an Act of Parliament and yet we see Queen Elizabeth Reigned Gloriously and Peaceably forty years without any standing force But our Ministers do but dissemble with us when they pretend to be so much afraid of a standing Army We know how eagerly they have desired and how often they attempted to establish one We have seen two Armies raised with no other design as has been since undenyably proved and one of those they were so loath to part with that more than one Act of Parliament was necessary to get it disbanded And since that they have increased the Guards to such a degree that they are become a formidable standing force A thing so odious to a free People that the raising of one single Regiment in Spain within these six years under colour of being a guard for the Kings Person so inflamed the Nation that a Rebellion had ensued if they had not been disbanded speedily The Nobility and Gentry of that Kingdom looking upon themselves as their Kings natural Guard scorned that so honorable a Name should be given to Mercenaries But as His Majesty was perswaded to resolve against the expedient proposed to secure our peace by excluding the Duke so it is evident that nothing was intended by those
A Just and Modest Vindication of the proceedings of the Two last PARLIAMENTS THE Amazement which seiz'd every good Man upon the unlook'd for Dissolution of two Parliaments within three Moneths was not greater than at the sight of a Declaration pretending to justifie and give Reasons for such extraordinary proceedings It is not to be denyed but that our Kings have in a great measure been Intrusted with the Power of calling declaring the Dissolutions of Parliaments But least through defect of Age Experience or Understanding they should at any time forget or mistake our Constitution or by-Passion private Interest or the influence of ill Counsellors be so far misled as not to Assemble Parliaments when the Publick Affairs require it or to Declare them Dissolved before the ends of their Meeting were Accomplished The Wisdom of our Ancestors has provided by divers Statutes both for the holding of Parliaments Annually and that they should not be Prorogued or Dissolved till all the Petitions Bills before them were answered and Redressed The Constitution had been equally Imperfect and Destructive of it self had it been left to the choice of the Prince whether he would ever Summon a Parliament or put into his power to dismiss them Arbitrarily at his pleasure That Parliaments should thus Meet and thus Sit is secured to us by the same Sacred tye by which the King at his Coronation does Oblige himself to let his Judges Sit to distribute Justice every Term and to preserve Inviolably all other Rights and Liberties of his Subjects Therefore abruptly to Dissolve Parliaments at such a time when nothing but the Legislative Power and the United Wisdom of the Kingdom could Relieve us from our Just Fears or secure us from our certain Dangers is very unsuitable to the great Trust reposed in the Prince and seems to express but little of that Affection which we will always hope His Majesty bears towards His People the Protestant Religion But 't is not onely of the Dissolution it self that we Complain The manner of doing it is unwarranted by the Precedents of former Times full of dangerous Consequents We are taught by the Writ of summons that Parliaments are never called without the advice of the council and the usage of all Ages has been never to send them away without the same Advice To forsake this safe method is to expose the King Personally to the Reflections and Censures of the whole Nation for so ungrateful an Action Our Laws have taken care to make the King always dear to his People and to preserve his Person Sacred in their esteem by wisely preventing him from appearing as Author of any thing which may be unacceptable to them 'T is therefore that he doth not Execute any considerable Act of Regal Power till it be first Debated and Resolved in Council because then 't is the Counsellors must answer for the Advice they Give and are Punishable for such Orders as are Irregular and Illegal Nor can his Ministers justifie any unlawful action under the color of the Ks. Commands since all his Commands that are contrary to Law are void which is the true Reason of that well known Maxim that the King can do no wrong A Maxim just in it self and alike safe for the Prince and for the Subject there being nothing more absurd then that a Favorite should excuse his enormous Actings by a pretended Command which we may reasonably suppose he first procured to be laid upon himself But we know not whom to charge with Advising this last Dissolution It was a work of Darkness and if we are not Misinform'd the Privy Council was as much surpriz'd at it as the Nation Nor will a future Parliament be able to Charge any Body as the Author or Adviser of the late Printed Paper which bears the Title of His Majesties Declaration though every good Subject ought to be careful how he calls it so For His Majesty never speaks to his People as a King but either Personally in his Parliament or at other times under his Seal for which the Chancellor or other Officers are Responsible if what passes them be not Warranted by Law Nor can the direction of the Privy Council enforce any thing upon the People unless that Royal and Legal stamp gives it an Authority But this Declaration comes abroad without any such Sanction and there is no other ground to ascribe it to His Majesty than the uncertain Credit of the Printer whom we will easily suspect of an Imposture rather than think the King would deviate from the approved course of Hâ—s Illustrious Ancestors to puâ—sue a New and Unsuccessful Method The first Declaration of this sort which I ever met with being that which was published in the Year 1628. Which was so far from answering the ends of its coming out that it fill'd the whole Kingdom with Jealousies and was one of the first sad Causes of the ensuing Unhappy War The Truth is Declarations to justifie what Princes do must always be either needless or ineffectual Their Actions ought to be such as may recommend themselves to the World and carry their own Evidence along with them of their usefulness to the Publick and then no Arts to justifie them will be necessary When a Prince descends so low as to give his Subjects Reasons for what he has done he not only makes them Judges whether there be any weight in those Reasons but by so unusual a submission gives cause to suspect that he is conscious to himself that his Actions want an Apology And if they are indeed unjustifiable if they are Opposite to the inclinations apparently destructive of the Interests of his Subjects it will be very difficult for the most Eloquent or Insinuating Declaration to make them in Love with such things And therefore they did certainly undertake no easie task in pretending to perswade Men who see themselves exposed to the restless Malice of their Enemies who observe the languishing condition of the Nation that nothing but a Parliament can provide Remedies for the great Evils which they Feel and Fear that two several Parliaments upon whom they had placed all their hopes were so suddenly broken out of kindness to them or with any regard to their Advantage It was generally believed that this age would not have seen another Declaration since Colemans was so unluckily published before its time Not only because thereby the World was taught how little they ought to rely upon the sincerity of such kind of Writings but because that was a Master-peice which could hardly be equall'd and our present Ministers may well be out of countenance to see their Copy fall so very much short of the Original But should this Declaration be suffered to go abroad any longer under the Royal Name yet it will never be thought to have proceeded from His Majesties inclination or his Judgement but to be gained from him by the Artificies of the same ill Men who not being content
singly ordered when he sate in Council and came forth without the stamp of the great Seal gave them a sufficient warrant to read it publickly Clergy-men seldom make Reflections of this kind least they should be thought to dispute the commands of their Superiors It hath been observed that they who allow unto themselves the liberty of doubting advance their fortunes very slowly whilst such who obey without scruple go on with a success equal to their ambition And this carries them on without fear or shame and as little thought of a Parliament as the Court Favorites who took care to Dissolve that at Oxford before they durst tell us the faults of that at Westminster We have already answer'd the miscarriages objected to the first and may now take a view of those imputed to the other which they say was Assembled as soon as that was Dissolved and might have added Dissolved as soon as Assembled The Ministers having employ'd the People forty days in chusing Knights and Burgesses to be sent home in eight with a Declaration after them as if they had been called together only to be affronted The Declaration doth not tell us of any gracious expressions used at the opening of that Parliament perhaps because the store was exhausted by the abundance which His Majesty was pleased to bestow on them in his former Speeches But we ought to believe that His Majesties Heart was as full of them as ever and if he did not express them it is to be imputed unto the Ministers who diverted him from his own inclinations and brought him to use a language until that day unknown unto Parliaments The Gracious Speech then made the Gracious Declaration that followed are so much of a piece that we may justly conclude the same Persons to have been Authors of both How ever His Majesty failed not to give good advice unto them who were called together to advice him The Parliament had so much respect of their K. as not particularly to complain of the great invasion that was made upon their liberty of proposing debating Laws by his telling them before hand what things they should meddle with and what things no reasons they could offer should perswade him to consent unto But every man must be moved to hear it charged upon them as an unpardonable disobedience that they did not obsequiosly submit to that irregular Command of not touching on the busines of the succesion Shall two or three unknown Minions take upon them like the Lords of the Articles of Scotland to prescribe unto an English Parliament what things they shall treat off Do they intend to have Parliaments inter instrumenta servitutis as the Romans had Kings in our Country This would quickly be if what was then attempted had succeeded and should be so pursued hereafter that Parliaments should be directed what they were to meddle with and threatned if they do any other thing For the loss of Liberty of Freedom of debate in Parliament will soon and certainly be followed by a general loss of Liberty Without failing in the respect which all good Subjects owe unto the King it may be said that His Majesty ought to divest himself of all private inclinations and force his own Affections to yeild unto the publick concernments And therefore His Parliaments ought to inform him impartially of that which tends to the good of those they represent without regard of personal passions and might worthily be blam'd if they did not believe that he would forgo them all for the safety of his people Therefore if in it self it was lawful to propose a Bill for excluding the Duke of York from the Crown the doing it after such an unwarrantable signification of his pleasure would not make it otherwise And the unusual stifnes which the King hath shown upon this occasion begins to be suspected not to proceed from any fondnes to the Person of his Brother much less from any thought of danger to the English Monarchy by such a Law but from the influence of some few ill men upon his Royal Mind who being Creatures to the Duke or Pensioners to France are restless to prevent a good understanding betwen the King and his people justly fearing that if ever he comes to have a true sence of their affections to him he would deliver up to justice these wicked wretches who have infected him with the fatal notion that the interests of his people are not only distinct but opposite to his His Majesty does not seem to doubt of his power in conjunction with his Parliament to exclude his Brother He very well know's this power hath been often exerted in the time of his Predecessors But the reason given for his refusal to comply with the interests and desires of his Subjects is because it was a point which concerned him so near in Honour Justice and Conscience Is it not honourable for a Prince to be True and Faithful to his Word and Oath To keep and maintain the Religion and Laws established Nay can it be thought dishonourable unto him to love the safety wel-fare of his People and the true Religion established among them above the Temporal Glory and Greatness of his personal Relations Is it not just in conjunction with his Parliament for his Peoples safety to make use of a power warranted by our English Laws the examples of former Ages Or is it just for the Father of his Countrey to expose all his Children to ruine out of fondness unto a Brother May it not rather be thought unjust to abandon the Religion Laws and Liberties of his People which he is sworn to maintain and defend and expose them to the Ambition and Rage of one that thinks himself bound in Conscience to subvert them If His Majesty is pleased to remember what Religion the Duke professeth can he think himself obliged in Conscience to suffer him to ascend the Throne who will certainly endeavor to overthrow it and set up the worst of Superstitions and Idolatry in the room of it Or if it be true that all obligations of Honor Justice and Conscience are comprehended in a grateful return of such benefits as have been received can His Majesty believe that he doth duly repay unto his Protestant Subjects the kindness they shewed him when they recalled him from a miserable helpless banishment and with so much dutiful affection placed him in the Throne enlarged his Revenue above what any of his Predecessors had enjoyed and gave him vaster sums of Money in twenty years than had been bestowed upon all the Ks. since William the first should he after all this deliver them up to be ruin'd by his Brother It cannot be said that he had therein more regard unto the Government than to the Person seeing it is evident the Bill of exclusion had no ways prejudiced the legal Monarchy w ch his Majesty doth now enjoy with all the Rights and Powers which his wise and brave Ancestors did ever claim