the consideration of We own it Rebellion to resist a King that governs by Law but he was always accounted a Tyrant that made his Will the Law and to resist such a one we justly esteem no Rebellion but a necessary Defence And in this Consideration we doubt not of all honest Mens assistance and humbly hope for and implore the Great God's Protection that turneth the hearts of his People as pleaseth him best it having been observed that People can never be of one mind without his Inspiration which hath in all Ages confirmed that Observation Vox populi est vox Dei The present restoring the Charters and reversing the oppressing and unjust Judgment given on Magdalen-College Fellows is plain are but to still the People like Plumbs to Children by deceiving them for a while But if they shall by this Stratagem be fooled till this present Storm that threatens the Papists be past as soon as they shall be re-setled the former Oppressions will be put on with greater vigour but we hope in vain is the Net spread in the sight of the Birds For first The Papists old Rule is that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks as they term Protestants tho the Popish Religion is the greatest Heresie And secondly Queen Mary's so ill observing her Promises to the Suffolk Men that help'd her to her Throne And above all thirdly the Pope's dispensing with the Breach of Oaths Treaties or Promises at his pleasure when it makes for the Service of Holy Church as they term it These we say are such convincing Reasons to hinder us from giving credit to the aforesaid Mock-shews of Redress that we think our selves bound in Conscience to rest on no security that shall not be approved by a freely-elected Parliament To whom under GOD we refer our Cause 3. The King having marched his Army as far as Salisbury to meet the Prince published a Proclamation of Pardon to all such of his Subjects as had taken up Arms and sided with the Prince provided they deserted the Enemy within 20 days and promising Pardon and protection to such Foreigners as would come into his Service and freedom of passage to others to return into their respective Countries But this Proclamation was not at all regarded 4. When the King was at Salisbury the Popish Party seeing their Affairs grow every day more desperate began to employ all their Politicks to invent some Remedy for them and then first formed the Design of the King's with-drawing which they grounded upon this Supposition and Expectation That within two years or less the Nation would be in such Confusion that he might return and have his Ends of it 5. In the mean time the King being unmoveably fixed in a Resolution not to call a Parliament part of the Army revolted and went over to the Prince and the rest either discouraged by the desertion of them that went or by the averseness they found in the body of the People from making any opposition to the Prince's Arms or out of a sense that in fighting against him they should fight against their own Religion and native Country appeared so lukewarm in the Cause that the King did not think fit to hazard a Battel 6. Prince George of Denmark the Duke of Grafton the Lord Churchill and many others of the Protestant Nobility left the King and went over to the Prince of Orange then at Sherborne and on the 25th of November in the night Princess Ann the King 's Second Daughter withdrew privately from White-hall with the Lady Churchill 7. The going off of these Great Men struck the King with terror and the Army being before much in disorder became thereby so full of fear and suspicion that a false Alarm being made whether by design or accident the King and the whole Army left Salisbury the Army retreating to Reading and the King to Andover and on Monday the 26th of November he returned in the Evening to London 8. The first thing the King did being at London was to remove Sir Edward Hales from being Lieutenant of the Tower and to put Sir Bevill Skelton a Protestant in his room Sir Edward had displeased the whole City to the utmost by planting several Mortar-pieces on the Walls towards the City which tho designed only to awe it had more enraged than afrighted them So that his Majesty thought he was not safe at White-hall so long as Sir Edward was Master of the Tower 9. On the 28th His Majesty ordered in Privy Council the Lord Chancellor to issue Writs for the sitting of a Parliament at VVestminster the 15th of January following But it was now too late and the Nation in such a ferment that it was not regarded what the Court said or did 10. Scotland was by this time almost in as bad a Condition as England and some of the Nobility and Gentry were sent up with a Petition for a Free Parliament The Popish Chappels at Bristol York Glocester Worcester Shrewsbury Stafford Wolverhampton Bromingham Cambridge and St. Edmundsbury were about this time demolished and where-ever the Lords in Arms came the Papists were disarmed And in Norfolk the Duke of Norfolk their Lord Lieutenant had a great appearance of the Gentry with him where he and they declared for a Free Parliament and the Protection of the Protestant Religion This Meeting was at Norwich the first of December and after that the same Declaration was renewed at Yarmouth and Lyn and the Suffolk-Men approved of it but wanted a Lord Lieutenant to assemble and head them in order to the shewing their concurrence with safety 11. Bristol was seized by the Earl of Shrewsbury and Sir John Guise the Lord Lovelace who had been seized as he was going to join the Prince was by the Gentry of Glocester-shire delivered out of the Castle of Glocester where till then he had been imprisoned The Lords Molineux and Ashton in the mean time seized Chester for the King being Roman Catholicks and Berwick stood firm to him but Newcastle received the Lord Lumly and declared for a Free Parliament and the Protestant Religion York was in the hands of the Associated Lords and the Garison of Hull seized the Lord Langdale their Governour a Papist and the Lord Mountgomery and disarmed some Popish Forces newly sent thither and then declared for a Free Parliament and the Protestant Religion And Plimouth had long before submitted to the Prince of Orange 12. The Popish Party was grown so contemptible that on Thursday the 6th of December there was a Hue and Cry after Father Peters publickly cried and sold in the Streets of London And about the same time came out a Third Declaration in the Prince's name but not emitted by him which very much alarm'd the Popish Party and as it is thought contributed very much to the fixing and hastning the King's Resolution of leaving the Nation It was read in many Towns throughout England at the Market-cross the People universally believing till some time after
Religion Laws and Liberties might not again be in danger of being subverted upon which Letters Elections have been accordingly made And thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons pursuant to their Respective Letters and Elections being now Assembled in a full and Free Representative of this Nation taking into their most serious consideration the best means for attaining the Ends aforesaid do in the first place as their Ancestors in like case have usually done for the vindicating and asserting their Ancient Rights and Liberties declare That the pretended Power of suspending of Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority without consent of Parliament is illegal That the pretended Power of Dispensing with Laws or the execution of Laws by Regal Authority as it hath been assumed and exercised of late is illegal That the Commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes and all other Commissions and Courts of the like nature are illegal and pernicious That Levying of Money to or for the use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative without Grant of Parliament for longer time or in other manner than the same is or shall be Granted is illegal That it is the Right of the Subjects to Petition the King and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning are illegal That the raising or keeping a standing Army within the Kingdom in time of Peace unless it be by consent of Parliament is against Law That the Subjects being Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their condition and as allowed by Law That the Election of Members of Parliament ought to be Free That the freedom of Speech and Debates or Proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any Court or Place out of Parliament That Excessive Bail ought not to be required nor Excessive Fines imposed nor cruel and unusual Punishments inflicted That Jurors ought to be duly Impannell'd and Returned and Jurors which pass upon men in Trials for High-Treason ought to be Freeholders That all Grants and Promises of Fines and Forfeitures of particular persons before Conviction are illegal and void And that for Redress of all Grievances and for the amending strengthning and preserving of the Laws Parliaments ought to be held frequently And they do claim demand and insist upon all and singular the Premises as their undoubted Rights and Liberties and that no Declarations Judgments Doings or Proceedings to the prejudice of the people in any of the said Premises ought in any wise to be drawn hereafter into Consequence or Example To which demand of their Rights they are particularly encouraged by the Declaration of his Highness the Prince of Orange as being the only means for obtaining a full Redress and Remedy therein Having therefore an intire Confidence that his said Highness the Prince of Orange will perfect the Deliverance so far advanced by him and will still preserve them from the violation of their Rights which they have here asserted and from all other Attempts upon their Religion Rights and Liberties The said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled at Westminster do Resolve That WILLIAM and MARY Prince and Princess of Orange be and be declared King and Queen of England France and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging to hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to them the said Prince and Princess during their Lives and the Life of the Survivor of them and that the sole and full exercise of the Regal Power be only in and executed by the said Prince of Orange in the Names of the said Prince and Princess during their joynt Lives and after their Deceases the said Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to be to the Heirs of the Body of the said Princess and for default of such Issue to the Princess Anne of Denmark and the Heirs of her Body and for default of such Issue to the Heirs of the Body of the said Prince of Orange And the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons do pray the said Prince and Princess of Orange to accept the same accordingly And that the Oaths hereafter mentioned be taken by all persons of whom the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy might be required by Law instead of them and that the said Oarhs of Allegiance and Supremacy be abrogated I A. B. Do sincerely Promise and Swear That I will be Faithful and bear true Allegiance to Their Majesties King WILLIAM and Queen MARY So help me God I A. B. Do Swear That I do from my Heart Abbor Detest and Abjure as Impious and Heretical this Damnable Doctrine and Position That Princes Excommunicated or Deprived by the Pope or any Authority of the See of Rome may be deposed or murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do declare That no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Prcheminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm So help me God Jo. Brown Cler. Parliamentor The same day this Declaration bears date Her Royal Highness the Princess of Orange arrived in the River of Thames in the Afternoon and was received with all the Hearty Demonstrations and Expressions of Joy by the City that are usual on such occasions The 13th of February the Lords and Commons ordered the following Proclamation to be published and made WHereas it hath pleased Almighty God in his great Mercy to this Kingdom to vouchsafe us a miraculous Deliverance from Popery and Arbitrary Power and that our Preservation is due next under God to the Resolution and Conduct of his Highness the Prince of Orange whom God hath chosen to be the Glorious Instrument of such an inestimable Happiness to us and our Posterity And being highly sensible and fully persuaded of the great and eminent Virtues of Her Highness the Princess of Orange whose Zeal for the Protestant Religion will no doubt bring a Blessing along with Her upon this Nation And whereas the Lords and Commons now assembled at Westminster have made a Declaration and presented the same to the said Prince and Princess of Orange and therein desired Them to accept the Crown who have accepted the same accordingly We therefore the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons together with the Lord Mayor and Citizens of London and others of the Commons of this Realm do with full consent publish and proclaim according to the said Declaration WILLIAM and MARY Prince and Princess of ORANGE to be KING and QUEEN of England France and Ireland wit all the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging Who are accordingly so to be owned deemed and taken by all the people of the aforesaid Realms and Dominions who are from hence-forward bound to acknowledge and pay unto them all Faith and true Allegiance Beseeching God by whom Kings reign to Bless King VVilliam and Queen Mary with long and happy Years to reign over us God save
he brings them in from Foreign Countries Whistling for the Fly out of Egypt or the Bee out of the land of Assyria In plain words stirring up a Pharaoh or a Nebuchadnezzar against them God may employ such if he will tho none is too good for this work to execute his righteous Judgments And when God doth his work by their hands whatsoever the Instruments may be the Cause being so just and so evident as we have supposed All men that see it will say Doubtless there is a God that judges on the earth In the way of Justice But the Pr. of Orange was not a Sovereign Power being dispossest of his Principality God acts as a judge between Two Sovereign Powers when they bring their Causes before him that is when they make War upon one another And when he seeth his time that is when he finds the Cause ripe for Judgment if it proceeds so far then he gives Sentence for him that is injur'd against him that hath done the Injury The effect of this Sentence is a just Conquest and that is the other way in which God proceeding judicially pats down one and sets up another That this may be the better understood there are four things to be consider'd particularly First That War is an Appeal to the Justice of God Secondly That none can be Parties to this but they that are in Sovereign Power Thirdly That to make it a just War there must be a just and sufficient Cause Fourthly That Conquest in such a War is a decisive Judgment of God and gives one a Right to the Dominions that he has conquered from the others That War is an Appeal to God this appears in the nature of the thing p. 25 26 27 28. The Parties to this Appeal are properly such as have no Superior but God For them that have an earthly Superior their Appeal lies to him as God's Minister attending continually on this very thing p. 29. Subjects have no Right to make War without the leave of their Princes For as God has given Princes the power of the Sword so he forbids it to Subjects under a great Penalty They that take the Sword shall perish with the Sword And if he has not admitted them to be Parties in his Court then it is certain that they cannot sue there or if they do they can acquire no Flight by it There is an Original Nullity in all their Proceedings As none have right of making War but they that are in Sovereign Power so neither is it given to them that they may make what use of it they please Particularly they must not make War for the satisfying of their Lusts Ambition Covetousness Vain-glory or the like Nay the righteous God will not hold him guiltless that hath Justice in his Cause and yet in his Heart hath no such thing Lawful things must be done lawfully This Princes must look to as they will answer it to God But as far as man can judge it is a Lawful War that is made for a just and sufficient Cause p. 32. 33. One Prince may make War in defence of another King's Subjects if they see themselves in extreme danger of suffering an intolerable Injury by his Oppression of his own people And in these cases if one Lawfully may then it is certain he ought to do it p. 36. They are so much the more obliged to this when it is evident that the threatning mischief is like to fall upon others as well as themselves and them such as they are bound in Honour and Conscience to protect and support When by fitting still they should certainly expose not only themselves to be ruined but also their Friends and Allies to perish with them in that case Saevitia est voluisse mori it is a sort of bloody Peaceableness it is cruelty to Mankind to go to that degree of suffering Injuries But especially when the Cause of God is concern'd to whom we owe all things and ought to venture all for his sake Surely 't is his Cause when it touches Religion which is all that is dear to him in this world And tho Religion it self teaches us if it be possible as much as in us lies to live peaceably with all man yet as 't is there supposed there may be Cause to break the Peace so it adds infinitely to that Cause when it comes to concern our Religion p. 36 37. There is yet a greater Cause for this when the Suffering-Religion is that which is establish'd by the Laws of that Kingdom and yet the King that is sworn to those Laws and therefore bound to support that Religion is manifestly practising against it and endeavours to supplant and oppress and extinguish it What should other Princes or States that profess the same Religion do in this case They see that such a King is set upon the destroying of their Religion He hath declar'd a hostile mind towards the professors of it in judging them not capable of enjoying their Temporal Rights If he deals thus with his own People what are Foreigners to expect at his hands Can they think themselves secure because they are at peace with him They cannot unless Treaties are more Sacred than Laws Or can they rely upon his Oath But they see he hath broken it And therefore they have reason to judge That either he makes no Conscience of an Oath or he thinks Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks or he hath a Superior that can dispense with him or that will absolve him from the guilt of Perjury in such cases where Religion is concerned In short they are sure of his Will to destroy them and cannot be sure of his Oath to the contrary Wherein them can they be safe But in his want of power to do them hurt But he will not want power if they let him go on for he is getting it as fast as he can He is now strengthning himself by those ways that he takes to be absolute Lord of his own people And he is now weakning Them by oppressing all those among his people whom he knows to be their Friends and Well-wishers He doth both these things together He daily lessens their party and makes them as many more Enemies as he gains Men over to his Religion And if that be such a Religion as pretends to a Right of destroying Men of other Religions knowing this they know what they are to expect When this pretended Right is armed with power it will certainly fall upon them So that they must begin before he is ready for them or else it will be too late to do any thing for their own preservation But as it is necessary for them to do this for themselves so they ought to do it much the rather for the sakes of their oppressed Brethren That by a timely asserting of their own Right they may also deliver them from the Evils they suffer at present and save them from that Destruction which is coming upon
that Door And whereas the Parliament that is now in being recognized Their Present Majesties to be Rightful and Lawful King and Queen of this Realm according to the Laws of the same They ought to have acknowledged him King as being set up by God who is not bound by Humane Laws and the Queen as set up by God-knows who who is not bound by Humane Laws neither and at the same time to have own'd that this Providence of God in setting up the King and this Providence of God-knows-who in setting up the Queen does not take away the Legal Right of the Late King but that he having a Legal Right may assert and vindicate it in opposition to the Providence of God and the Providence of God-knows-who and that all who are not under any obligation to Their Present Majesties may lawfully assist him in order to the recovery of this Legal Right Tho we who are under an obligation to Their Present Majesties are bound to obey them by reason of the Events of the Providence of God and of the Providence of God-knows-who Other Instances of this kind might be added and it were a very easie matter to word some parts of the then Prince's Declaration the Votes of Parliament the Instrument of Government and some few Laws made since the Settlement as they ought to and would have been worded if the Prince the Two Houses and the People of England had proceded upon these Gentlemens Principles But that I forbear because it would seem scurrilous I leave it to be the result of comparing the two Columes of these ensuing Papers In short here 's the Sense of the Legislative Body of the Realm and of the People of England set Cheek by Jowle with the Sense of a few Gentlemen of the Sacred Order who would persuade us that our Government is drop'd out of the Skies like the Image that fell down from Jupiter or as the Egyptian Priests persuaded Alexander the Great that he was the Son of their God being convinced of it themselves I suppose by the Events of Providence and his Success in a War Just or Vnjust God's Ways of Disposing of Kingdoms AND Some Clergy-mens Ways of Disposing of Them THE Measures that were taken in the late King's Reign for the introducing of Popery and Arbitrary Power were so open and undisguised That the most purblind amongst us could not but see them and all Protestants that is the whole Body of the People were uneasie under their then present Circumstances and dreadfully apprehensive of their future Instead of enumerating the several Illegal Practices then on foot to subvert the Establish'd Religion and Government I shall insert verbatim the Declaration of his present Majesty then Prince of Orange which gives a true and lively Scheme of the Condition of the People of England under King James his Government and grounds the Lawfulness and Justice of his Arms who had so near a concern in the Succession upon the Obligation he was under for his Princess's his Own and the Nation 's Interest to interpose in order to their deliverance God's Ways of Disposing of Kingdoms The Declaration of his Highness William Henry by the Grace of God Prince of Orange c. of the Reasons inducing him to appear in Arms in the Kingdom of England for preserving of the Protestant Religion and for restoring the Laws and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland 1. IT is both certain and evident to all men That the Publick Peace and Happiness of any State or Kingdom cannot be preserved where the Laws Liberties and Customs established by the lawful Authority in it are openly transgressed and annulled More especially where the Alteration of Religion is endeavoured and that a Religion which is contrary to Law is endeavoured to be introduced Upon which those who are most immediately concerned in it are indispensably bound to endeavour to preserve and maintain the Established Laws Liberties and Customs and above all the Religion and Worship of God that is established among them and to take such an effectual care that the Inhabitants of the said State or Kingdom may neither be deprived of their Religion nor of their Civil Rights which is so much the more necessary because the Greatness and Security both of Kings Royal Families and of all such as are in Authority as well as the Happiness of their Subjects and People depend in a most especial manner upon the exact Observation and Maintenance of these their Laws Liberties and Customs 2. Upon these grounds it is that we cannot any longer forbear to declare That to our great Regret we see that those Counsellors who have now the chief Credit with the King have overturned the Religion Laws and Liberties of those Realms and subjected them in all things relating to their Consciences Liberties and Properties to Arbitrary Government and that not only by secret and indirect ways but in an open and undisguised manner 3. Those Evil Counsellors for the advancing and colouring this with some plausible pretexts did invent and set on foot the King 's Dispensing Power by Virtue of which they pretend that according to Law he can suspend and dispense with the Execution of the Laws that have been enacted by the Authority of the King and Parliament for the Security and Happiness of the Subject and so have rendred those laws of no effect tho there is nothing more certain than that as no Laws can be made but by the joynt concurrence of King and Parliament so likewise Laws so enacted which secure the Publick Peace and Safety of the nation and the Lives and Liberties of every Subject in it cannot be Repealed or Suspended but by the same Authority 4. for tho the King may pardon the Punishment that a Transgressor has incurred and to which he is condemned as in the Cases of Treason or Felony yet it cannot be with any colour of Reason inferred from thence That the King can entirely suspend the Execution of those Laws relating to Treason or Felony unless it is pretended that he is clothed with a Despotick and Arbitrary Power and that the Lives Liberties Honours and Estates of the Subjects depend wholly on his good Will and Pleasure and are intirely subject to him which must infallibly follow on the King 's having a power to suspend the Execution of the Laws and to dispence with them 5. those Evil Counsellors in order to the giving some Credit to this strange and execrable Maxim have so conducted the Matter that they have obtained a Sentence from the Judges declaring That this Dispensing Power is a Right belonging to the Crown as if it were in the power of the Twelve Judges to offer up the Laws Rights and Liberties of the whole Nation to the King to be disposed of by him Arbitrarily and at his Pleasure and expresly contrary to Laws enacted for the Security of the Subjects In order to the obtaining this Judgment those Evil Counsellors did before-hand examine secretly the Opinion
of the Judges and procured such of them as could not in Conscience concur in so pernicious a Sentence to be turned out and others to be substituted in their rooms till by the Changes which were made in the Courts of Judicature they at last obtained that Judgment And they have raised some to those Trusts who make open profession of the Popish Religion tho those are by Law rendred incapable of all such Employments 6. It is also manifest and notorious That as his Majesty was upon his coming to the Crown received and acknowledged by all the Subjects of England Scotland and Ireland as their King without the least Opposition tho he made then open Profession of the Popish Religion so he did then promise and solemnly swear at his Coronation That he would maintain his Subjects in the free Enjoyment of their Laws and Liberties and in particular That he would maintain the Church of England as it was Established by Law It is likewise certain That there have been at divers and sundry times several Laws enacted for the Preservation of those enacted for the Preservation of those Rights and Liberties and of the Protestant Religion and among other Securities it has been enacted That all Persons whatsoever that are advanced to any Ecclesiastical Dignity or to bear Office in either University as likewise all other that should be put in any Employment Civil or Military should declare that they were not Papists but were of the Protestant Religion and that by their taking of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Test yet these Evil Counsellors have in effect annulled and abolished all those Laws both with relation to Ecclesiastical and Civil Employments 7. In order to Ecclesiastical Dignities and Offices they have not only without any colour of Law but against most express Laws to the contrary set up a Commission of a certain number of persons to whom they have committed the Cognizance and Direction of all Ecclesiastical matters in the which Commission there has been and still is one of his Majesties Ministers of State who makes now publick profession of the Popish Religion and who at the time of his first professing it declared That for a great while before he had believed that to be the only true Religion By all this the deplorable State to which the Protestant Religion is reduced is apparent since the Affairs of the Church of England are now put into the hands of persons who have accepted of a Commission that is manifestly illegal and who have executed it contrary to all Law and that now one of their chief Members has abjured the Protestant Religion and declared himself a Papist by which he is become uncapable of holding any publick Employment The said Commissioners have hitherto given such proof of their Submission to the Directions given them that there is no reason to doubt but they will still continue to promote all such designs as will be most agreeable to them And those Evil Counsellors take care to raise none to any Ecclesiastical Dignities but persons that have no Zeal for the Protestant Religion and that now hide their unconcernedness for it under the specious pretence of Moderation The said Commissioners have suspended the Bishop of London only because he refused to obey an Order that was sent him to suspend a worthy Divine without so much as citing him before him to make his own Defence or observing the common forms of Process They have turned out a President chosen by the Fellows of Magdalen-College and afterwards all the Fellows of that College without so much as citing them before any Court that could take legal Cognizance of that Affair or obtaining any Sentence against them by a competent Judge And the only reason that was given for turning them out was their refusing to chuse for their President a person that was recommended to them by the Instigation of those Evil Counsellors tho the Right of a Free Election belong'd undoubtedly to them But they were turned out of their Free-holds contrary to Law and to that express provision in the Magna Charta That no man shall lose Life or Goods but by the Law of the Land And now these Evil Counsellors have put the said College wholly into the hands of Papists tho as is abovesaid they are incapable of all such Employments both by the Law of the Land and the Statutes of the College These Commissioners have also cited before them all the Chancellors and Archdeacons of England requiring them to certifie to them the Names of all such Clergy-men as have read the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and of such as have not read it without considering that the reading of it was not enjoyned the Clergy by the Bishops who are their Ordinaries The Illegality and Incompetency of the said Court of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners was so notoriously known and it did so evidently appear that it tended to the Subversion of the Protestant Religion that the most Reverend Father in God William Archbishop of Canterbury Primate and Metropolitan of all England seeing that it was raised for no other end but to oppress such persons as were of eminent Virtue Learning and Piety refused to sit or to concur in it 8. And tho there are many express Laws against all Churches or Chappels for the exercise of the Popish Religion and also against all Monasteries and Convents and more particularly against the Order of the Jesuits yet those Evil Counsellors have procured orders for the building of several Churches and Chappels for the excrcise of that Religion They have also procured divers Monasteries to be erected and in contempt of the Law they have not only set up several Colleges of Jesuits in divers places for the corrupting of the Youth but have raised up one of the Order to be a Privy-Counsellor and a Minister of State By all which they do evidently shew That they are restrained by no rules of Law whatsoever but that they have subjected the Honours and Estates of the Subjects and the Establish'd Religion to a Despotick Power and to Arbitrary Government In all which they are served and seconded by those Ecclesiastical Commissioners 9. They have also followed the same Methods with relation to Civil Affairs for they have procured orders to examine all Lords Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants Sheriffs Justices of Peace and all others that were in any publick Employment if they would concur with the King in the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws and all such whose Consciences did not suffer them to comply with their designs were turned out and others were put in their places who they believed would be more compliant to them in their Designs of defeating the Intent and Execution of those Laws which had been made with so much care and caution for the security of the Protestant Religion And in many of these places they have put profess'd Papists tho the Law has disabled them and warranted the Subjects not to have
any regard to their Orders 10. They have also invaded the Privileges and seized on the Charters of most of those Towns that have a right to be represented by their Burgesses in Parliament and have procured Surrenders to be made of them by which the Magistrates in them have delivered up all their Rights and Privileges to be disposed of at the pleasure of those Evil Counsellors who have thereupon placed new Magistrates in those Towns such as they can most entirely confide in and in many of them they have put Popish Magistrates notwithstanding the Incapacities under which the Law hath put them 11. And whereas no Nation whatsoever can subsist without the administration of good and impartial Justice upon which mens Lives Liberties Honours and Estates do depend those Evils Counsellors have subjected these to an Arbitrary and Despotick Power In the most important Affairs they have studied to discover before-hand the Opinions of the Judges and have turned out such as they found would not conform themselves to their Intentions and have put others in their places of whom they were more assured without having any regard to their Abilities And they have not stuck to raise even professed Papists to the Courts of Judicature notwithstanding their Incapacity by Law and that no regard is due to any Sentences flowing from them They have carried this so far as to deprive such Judges who in the common administration of Justice shewed that they were governed by their Consciences and not by the Directions which the others gave them By which it is apparent that they design to render themselves the absolute Masters of the Lives Honours and Estates of the Subjects of what rank or dignity soever they may be and that without having any regard either to the Equity of the Cause or to the Consciences of the Judges whom they will have to submit in all things to their own Will and Pleasure hoping by such ways to intimidate those who are yet in Employment as also such others as they shall think fit to put in the rooms of those whom they have turned out and to make them see what they must look for if they should at any time act in the least contrary to their good-liking and that no failings of that kind are pardoned in any Persons whatsoever A great deal of Blood has been shed in many places of the Kingdom by Judges governed by those Evil Counsellors against all the Rules and Forms of Law without so much as suffering the Persons that were accused to plead in their own Defence 12. They have also by putting the Administration of Justice in the hands of Papists brought all the Matters of Civil Justice into great uncertainties with how much Exactness and Justice soever that these Sentences may have been given For since the Laws of the Land do not only exclude Papists from all Places of Judicature but have put them under an Incapacity none are bound to acknowledge or to obey their Judgments and all Sentences given by them are null and void of themselves So that all Persons who have been cast in Tryals before such Popish Judges may justly look on their pretended Sentences as having no more force than the Sentences of any private and unauthorised Person whatsoever So deplorable is the Case of the Subjects who are obliged to answer to such Judges that must in all things stick to the Rules which are set them by those Evil Counsellors who as they raise them up to those Employments so can turn them out of them at pleasure and who can never be esteemed Lawful Judges so that all their Sentences are in the Construction of the Law of no Force and Efficacy They have likewise disposed of all Military Employments in the same manner For tho the Laws have not only excluded Papists from all such Employments but have in particular provided that they should be disarmed yet they in contempt of these Laws have not only armed the Papists but have likewise raised them up to the greatest Military Trust both by Sea and Land and that Strangers as well as Natives and Irish as well as English that so by those means having rendred themselves Masters both of the Affairs of the Church of the Government of the Nation and of the Courts of Justice and subjected them all to a Despotick and Arbitrary Power they might be in a capacity to maintain and execute their wicked Designs by the assistance of the Army and thereby to enslave the Nation 13. The dismal effects of this Subversion of the Established Religion Laws and Liberties in England appear more evidently to us by what we see done in Ireland where the whole Government is put in the Hands of Papists where all the Protestant Inhabitants are under the daily fears of what may be justly apprehended from the Arbitrary Power which is set up there which has made great numbers of them leave that Kingdom and abandon their Estates in it remembring well that Cruel and Bloody Massacre which fell out in that Island in the Year 1641. 14. Those Evil Counsellors have also prevailed with the King to declare in Scotland That he is cloathed with Absolute Power and that all the Subjects are bound to obey him without reserve upon which he has assumed an Arbitrary Power both over the Religion and Laws of that Kingdom from all which it is apparent what is to be looked for in England as soon as matters are duly prepared for it 15. Those great and insufferable Oppressions and the open Contempt of all Law together with the Apprehensions of the sad Consequences that must certainly follow upon it have put the Subjects under great and just Fears and have made them look after such lawful Remedies as are allowed of in all Nations yet all has been without effect And those Evil Counsellors have endeavoured to make all Men apprehend the loss of their Lives Liberties Honours and Estates if they should go about to preserve themselves from this Oppression by Petition Representations or other means authorised by Law Thus did they proceed with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other Bishops who having offered a most humble Petition to the King in terms full of Respect and not exceeding the number limited by Law in which they set forth in short the Reasons for which they could not obey that Order which by the Instigation of those Evil Counsellors was sent them requiring them to appoint their Clergy to read in their Churches the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience were sent to prison and afterwards brought to a Tryal as if they had been guilty of some enormous Crime They were not only obliged to defend themselves in that pursuit but to appear before professed Papists who had not taken the Test and by consequence were Men whose Interest led them to condemn them and the Judges that gave their Opinion in their favours were thereupon turned out 16. And yet it cannot be pretended that any Kings how great
your means be brought out of those straights to which they are at present reduced We hope likewise that ye will not suffer your selves to be abused by a false Notion of Honour but that you will in the first place consider what you owe to Almighty God and your Religion to your Countrey to your Selves and to your Posterity which you as Men of Honour ought to prefer to all private Considerations and Engagements whatsoever We do therefore expect that you will consider the Honour that is now set before you of being the Instruments of serving your Countrey and securing your Religion and we shall ever remember the Service you shall do Us upon this occasion and will promise you That we shall place such particular Marks of our Favour on every one of you as your Behaviour at this time shall deserve of Us and the Nation in which we shall make a great distinction of those that shall come seasonably to joyn their Arms with Ours and you shall find Us to be your well-wishing and assured Friend W. H. P. O. And another to all the Officers and Seamen in the English Fleet. Gentlemen and Friends AS We have given to our Faithful and Well-beloved Admiral Herbert a full power so we hope that you will give him an intire credit as to all he shall say to you on our part We have published a Declaration which contains the Reasons which moved Us to enter upon this Expedition in which you will see We had no other design than the preservation of the Protestant Religion and the re-establishment of the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom of England because it is evident that the Papists have resolved the intire ruin of Our Religion in Great Britain as it is effected already in France And to you it is only to be imputed if they are Masters We are persuaded that you already perceive that you are made use of only as an Instrument for the bringing your selves and your Countrey under the yoke of the Papacy and into Slavery by the means of the Irish and other Foreigners who are prepared to finish your Destruction And therefore we hope God will inspire you with more salutary thoughts for the facilitating your Deliverance and for the delivering you from all your Miseries with your Countrey and Religion And this is in all appearance impossible without your joyning with us and assisting us who seek nothing but your Deliverance And we also assure you That we wlll never forget the Services which you shall do us on this occasion and we promise to give every one particular marks of our favour who shall deserve it of us and the Nation We are sincerely your very affectionate Friend W. H. P. O. These Letters were spread underhand over the whole Kingdom and read by all sorts of men and the reason of them being undeniable it had a great force on the Spirits of the Soldiery and Seamen so that those who did not presently comply with them yet resolved they would never strike one stroke in the quarrel till they had a Parliament to secure the Religion Laws and Liberties of England which the Court on the other side had resolved should not be called till the Prince of Orange with his Army were expelled out of the Nation and all those who had submitted to him were reduced into their power to be treated as they thought fit The particulars of the Prince's March to London where he arrived on the 18th of December and the very few Skirmishes that hapned betwixt some of his and the King's Soldiers being inconsiderable shall not be recounted But betwixt his Landing and coming to Town 1. The Lord Delamere assembled Fifty Horsemen and at the head of them marched to Manchester and the next day to Boden-Downs being then a Hundred and fifty strong declaring his design to join with the Prince of Orange which he did 2. On the 22d day of November the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty at Nottingham made this Declaration WE the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of these Northern Counties assembled at Nottingham for the defence of the Laws Religion and Properties according to the free-born Liberties and Privileges descended to Us from our Ancestors as the undoubted Birth-right of the Subjects of this Kingdom of England not doubting but the Infringers and Invaders of our Rights will represent us to the rest of the Nation in the most malicious dress they can put upon us do here unanimously think it our duty to declare to the rest of our Protestant Fellow-Subjects the grounds of our present Undertaking We are by innumerable Grievances made sensible That the very Fundamentals of our Religion Liberties and Properties are about to be rooted out by our late Jesuitical Privy-Council as has been of late too apparent First By the King's dispensing with all the Established Laws at his pleasure 2. By displacing all Officers out of all Offices of Trust and Advantage and placing others in their room that are known Papists deservedly made incapable by the Estastlished Laws of this Land 3. By destroying the Charters of most Corporations in the land 4. By discouraging all persons that are not Papists and preferring such as turn to Popery 5. By displacing all honest and conscientious Judges unless they would contrary to their Consciences declare that to be Law which was merely Arbitrary 6. By branding all Men with the name of Rebels that but offered to justify the Laws in a legal course against the Arbitrary Proceedings of the King or any of his corrupt Ministers 7. By burthening the Nation with an Army to maintain the Violation of the Rights of the Subjects and by discountenancing the Established Religion 8. By forbidding the Subjects the benefit of Petitioning and construing them Libellers so rendring the Laws a Nose of Wax to serve their Arbitrary Ends. And many more such like too long here to enumerate We being thus made sadly sensible of the Arbitrary Tyrannical Government that is by the influence of Jesuitical Councils coming upon us do unanimously declare That not being willing to deliver our Posterity over to such a condition of Popery and Slavery as the aforesaid Oppressions do inevitably threaten we will to the utmost of our power oppose the same by joining with the Prince of Orange whom we hope God Almighty hath sent to rescue us from the Oppressions aforesaid will use our utmost endeavours for the recovery of our almost ruin'd Laws Liberties and Religion and herein we hope all good Protestant Subjects will with their Lives and Fortunes be assistant to us and not be bugbear'd with the opprobrious terms of Rebels by which they would fright us to become perfect Slaves to their Tyrannical Insolences and Usurpations For we assure our selves that no rational and unbiass'd Person will judge it Rebellion to defend our Laws and Religion which all our Princes have sworn at their Coronation which Oath how well it hath been observed of late we desire a Free Parliament may have
for the King 's or the Prince's person to be together in one place with their several Guards Whereupon the Guards at White-hall were dislodged by Count Solmes by the Prince's order and the Prince's Guards placed in their room And the King was that same night being the 17th of December desired by a Message from the Prince to remove to some place at a reasonable distance from London and Ham was proposed But the King chose to return into Kent which he did the next day and got away privately from the Guards and embark'd for France The same day that the King withdrew from White-hall the second time the Prince of Orange came to St. James's attended by Monsieur Schomberg and a great number of Nobility and Gentry and was entertain'd with a joy and concourse of the People which appear'd free and unconstrain'd and all the Bells of the City were rung and Bonfires in every Street Thus the body of the People being uneasie under the Late King's Government and not thinking it either their Interest or their Duty to support him in it who had made use of his Authority only to carry on an Interest inconsistent with the welfare of a Protestant Nation and that by all the Illegal Methods that his Evil Counsellors could advise or durst put in execution and who to awe the People from giving any check to his Career had not only Judges at hand that would wrest the Law to serve his Ends without any regard to their Oaths or the trust of their Places but had raised an Army in times of Peace directly against Law and in effect had thereby waged war against his own Subjects The People I say being thus affected either actually join'd with the Prince or openly declared for him or testified by other demonstrations their joy for his arrival and interposing betwixt them and utter ruine Whereupon the King was left to shift for himself and flew for protection to his old Ally the Enemy of God and Man The first thing the Prince did when come to Town after he had received the Congratulations of the City by all the Aldermen and two Common-Council-men for every Ward and taken care about the Army was to desire the Advice of such Lords as were in or about the Town and of such Gentlemen as had served in any Parliament in the Reign of the Late King Charles what course to take for the settlement of the Nation These advised him to take upon himself the Administration of publick Affairs Civil and Military and the disposal of the Publick Revenue and to issue out Circular Letters for the calling a Convention to meet and fit at Westminster on the 22d of January next ensuing Which was done accordingly and the Elections went on with the greatest liberty that could possibly be conceived The Two Houses met the 22d of January and the Upper House chose the Marquess of Halifax for their Speaker and the Commons Henry Powle Esq After which a Letter from the Prince of Orange was read to them Exhorting them to unity and speed in their Consultations The Houses ordered the 31st of January to be appointed for a day of Publick Thanksgiving to Almighty God for delivering this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power by means of his Highness the Prince of Orange That Day to be observed in London and Westminster and ten miles distance and the 14th of February after throughout the Kingdom On the 28th of January the Commons passed this Vote viz. Resolved That King James the IId having endeavoured to subvert the Constitution of the Kingdom by breaking the Original Contract between King and People and by the Advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons having violated the Fundamental Laws and having withdrawn himself out of this Kingdom hath abdicated the Government and that the Throne is thereby become Vacant On the 6th of February the Lords assented to the Vote It will not be material to give a particular Account of the Debates and Conferences that arose and were occasioned by this and other Votes of the Commons I hasten to the Conclusion which was That on the 12th of February the Two Houses fully agreed all things in dispute betwixt them on this manner viz. The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembed at Westminster WHereas the late King James the Second by the Assistance of divers Evil Counsellors Judges and Ministers employ'd by him did endeavour to subject and extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom By assuming and exercising a power of Dispensing with and suspending of Laws and the Execution of Laws without consent of Parliament By committing and prosecuting divers worthy Prelates for humbly Petitioning to be excused from concurring to the said Assumed Power By issuing and causing to be executed a Commission under the Great Seal for erecting a Court call'd The Court of Commission for Ecclesiastical Affairs By Levying Money for and to the use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative for other time and in other manner than the same was granted by Parliament By raising and keeping a standing Army within the Kingdom in time of Peace without consent of Parliament and Quartering Soldiers contrary to Law By causing several good Subjects being Protestants to be disarmed at the same time when Papists were both Armed and imployed contrary to Law By violating the Freedom of Elections of Members to serve in Parliament By Prosecutions in the Court of King's Bench for Matters and Causes cognizable only in Parliament and by divers other Arbitrary and Illegal Courses And whereas of late Years partial corrupt and unqualified Persons have been returned and served on Juries in Trials and particularly divers Jurors in Trials for High-Treason which were not Free-holders And Excessive Bail hath been required of Persons committed in Criminal Cases to elude the Benefit of the Laws made for the Liberty of the Subject And Excessive Fines have been imposed And Illegal and cruel Punishments inflicted And several Grants and Promises made of Fines and Forfeitures before any Conviction or Judgment against the Persons upon whom the same were to be levied All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known Laws and Statutes and Freedom of this Realm And whereas the late King James the Second having abdicated the Government and the Throne being thereby vacant His Highness the Prince of Orange whom it hath pleased Almighty God to make the Glorious Instrument of Delivering this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power did by the Advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and divers principal Persons of the Commons cause Letters to be written to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being Protestants and other Letters to the several Counties Cities Universities Burroughs Cinque-Ports for the chusing of such Persons to represent them as were of right to be sent to Parliament to meet and sit at Westminster upon the 22d day of January 1688 in order to such an Establishment as that their
by the just Sentence of God who thus puts him out of a Trust that he abused to the hurt of them for whose sakes it was given him And as to the people it cannot be a Conquest over them who are so far from having the War made against them that it was made chiefly for their sakes If there be any pretence of a Conquest it is only over them that were their Oppressors p. 66 67. An Answer to Mr. Ashton's Paper c. THE Matter in dispute is not whether Rightful Lawful Kings are to be obeyed but who in our present Circumstances is our Rightful Lawful Sovereign not whether Kings be not God's Vicegerents but whether God doth not sometimes confer the Right of Sovereignty by a Law superiour to the Laws of particular Countries that is by the Law of Nations which establisheth such a Right upon the success of a Just War not whether Sovereign Princes are not accountable only to God but whether Allegiance be not due where the Rights of Sovereignty are placed by an extraordinary Act of Providence and the concurrent Consent of the Nation p. 9 10. We must of necessity look back to the Occasions of this great Revolution And there were two principal Occasions of it First Great and violent Presumptions of an Injury to the Right of Succession Secondly Too great Evidences of a formed Design to subvert the Established Religion and Civil Liberties of the Nation Now there are two very material Questions which arise from hence First Whether these were the just Occasions of a War Secondly Whether upon the success of this War the Rights of Sovereignty were duly transferred If these were just Occasions of a War and upon the Success thereof the Sovereignty was duly transferred then there can be no Dispute left to whom our Allegiance is due It is taken for granted by all who understand these Matters That as there is a Law of Nature which determines the Rights and Properties of particular Nations and that all private Persons are bound to submit to the Municipal Laws of those Societies for their Peace and Security So there are other Laws which concern those Nations as they make up several independent Governments upon each other And there are several Rights which belong to them with respect to one another which do not belong to private Persons as they live in subjection to any particular Government And as there are such Rights so there must be a just and lawful way for reparation of Injuries In particular Governments the thing is plain by Established Laws and Courts of Judicature whose Sentence is executed by the Civil Power but in Separate Nations and Independent Governments although there be Laws by consent called the Law of Nations yet there is no common Judicature to determine of Right and Wrong and therefore in case of Injury there is an allowance for the injured Party by this Law of Nations to right himself by force as there would be to every particular Person if there were no Laws nor Power to see them executed There is then a Right in every Sovereign and Independent Prince to exercise Force against another Prince who detains any Right from him or doth any Injury to him or to those he is bound to defend The Question then comes to the Just Occasions of such a War and here are two assigned First Great and violent Presumptions of an Injury to the Right of Succession This is expresly mentioned and insisted on in the Declaration of the then Prince of Orange our present King p. 9 10 11. There have been many Instances in History of suborned and suppositious Princes and therefore there was reason that sufficient Evidence should be given in a Case of such Importance and which was under so great Suspicion But if there was no reasonable care taken to prevent or remove these Suspicious then the Parties most concerned have a right to assert their own Pretensions in such a way as the Law of Nations doth allow And in this Case no private Depositions or confident Affirmations of such as are Dependents or otherwise liable to Suspicion can in reason be taken for satisfactory Evidence p. 13. Secondly There was a further Just Occasion for that Expedition which was the Design to subvert our Religion and Civil Liberties As to the Particulars they are fully set down in the Declaration and need not to be repeated That which I am to make out is That the then Prince of Orange by his Relation to the Crown had a just Right to concern himself in the Vindication of both and that this is not repugnant to the Doctrines and Principles of the Church of England It was not thought disagreeable to them for Queen Elizabeth to assist the Dutch against the King of Spain yet she had no such reason for it as our King and Queen had to prevent the suppression of their own Religion here and the Rights of that people to whom they were so nearly related p. 15. In the beginning of the Reign of King Charles the First when I suppose it will be granted ☜ That the Doctrines and Principles of the Church of England were understood and followed the King of Denmark had taken up Arms to settle the Peace and liberty of Germany as he declared But he met with a great Defeat Whereupon King Charles the First thought himself concerned to give Assistance to him And Archbishop Laud was then employed as Dr. Heylin confesseth by the King's Command to draw up a Declaration to be published in all the Parishes of England which was read by the King and approved by the Council wherein the Greatness of the Danger they were in is set forth and the People are exhorted to serve God and the King and to labour by their Prayers to divert the Danger Wherein lay this Danger It is there said to be That by the Defeat of the King of Denmark there was little or nothing left to hinder the House of Austria from being Lord and Master of Germany And what then Why then there will be an open way for Spain to do what they pleased in all the West Part of Christendom It seems then it was not thought disagreeable to the Principles and Doctrines of our Church to hinder the growth of a Western Monarchy although it be by assisting Subjects against their Princes who promote it p. 17. But yet here is another Difficulty ariseth concerning the transferring Allegiance from a Lawful Prince to him that met with unexpected Success in his Design And here I shall endeavour to make it plain That this is not against the Doctrines and Principles of the Church of England p. 20. The Articles of our Church declare That the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm doth appertain to the Civil Magistrate But they no-where say That in a Just war the Superior Power cannot be acquired or that God doth never confer it in an extraordinary method The Book of Homilies is very severe against