Parliaments and part of those Forces with great difficulty caused by them to be Disbanded at the Kingdoms great Expence And it being Evident that notwithstanding all the continual endeavours of the Parliament to deliver his Majesty from the Councils and out of the power of the said D. yet his Interest in the Ministry of State and others have been so prevalent That Parliaments have been unreasonably Prorogued and Dissolved when they have been in the hot pursuit of Popish Conspiracies and ill Ministers of State their Assistants 4. And that the said D. in order to reduce all into his own Power hath procured the Garrisons the Army and Ammunition and all the power of the Seas and Souldiery and Lands belonging to these Three Kingdoms to be put into the hands of his Party and their Adherents even in opposition to the Advice and Order of the last Parliament In the Third and Fourth Clauses the Kings Guards are pronounc'd to be Contrary to Law The Officers chosen by thc Duke Subservient to his Designs and Dangerous to his Majesties Person c. The King himself Charg'd with following Popish Councels Vnreasonable Prorogations and Dissolutions in favour of Popish Conspirators and Ill Ministers of State their Assistants The Garrisons Army and Ammunition in the hands of the Dukes Party and their Adherents It is not my Work to amplifie upon these Falshoods and Slanders in this place so that I shall proceed 5. And as we considering with Heavy Hearts how greatly the Strength Reputation and Treasure of the Kingdom both at Sea and Land is Wasted and Consumed and lost by the intricate expensive management of these Wicked destructive Designs and finding the same Councils after exemplary Justice upon some of the Conspirators to be still pursued with the utmost devilish malice and desire of Revenge Whereby His Majesty is in continual hazard of being Murdered to make way for the said D 's Advancement to the Crown and the whole Kingdom in such case is destitute of all security of their Religion Laws Estates and Liberty sad experience in the Case Queen Mary having proved the wisest Laws to be of little Force to keep out Popery and Tyranny under a Popish Prince The Fifth Clause Deplores the sad Estate of the King and Nation by reason of the same Councel And after this Remonstrance upon the whole matter We the Knights c. come to a point in that which follows That is to say 6ly The King will not agree to Barr and Exclude the Duke in a Parliamentary way and therefore we 'l enter into a League and Invite the Kings Subjects to Joyn with us in a Vow of Mutual Defence and Assistance in an Vn-Parliamentary way to the Intent of a Declaration in the Form Ensuing 6. We have therefore endeavoured in a Parliamentary way by a Bilifor the purpose to Barr and Exclude the said Duke from the Succession to the Crown and to Banish him for ever out of these Kingdoms of England and Ireland But the first Means of the King and Kingdoms Safety being utterly rejected and we left almost in Despair of obtaining any real and effectual security and knowing our selves to be intrusted to Advise and Act for the preservation of his Majesty and the Kingdom and being persuaded in our Consciences that the Dangers aforesaid are so eminent and pressing that there ought to be no delay of the best means that are in our power to secure the Kingdom against them We have thought fit to propose to all true Protestants an Union amongst themselves by solemn and sacred promise of Mutual Defence and Assistance in the preservation of the true Protestant Religion His Majesties Person and Royal State and our Laws Liberties and Properties and we hold it our bounden Duty to joyn ourselves for the same intent in a Declaration of our United Affections and Resolutions in the Form insuing Now put all together and the sum of it in short is this There 's a Plot upon the Kings Life c. The Duke is in 't And preferrs Ministers of State Officers Civil and Military for his purpose Prorogues and Dissolves Parliaments Saves the Popish Lords makes the King a Cypher And therefore since he will not agree to Exclude and Banish his Brother by Act of Parliament We the Knights c. will joyn with all True Protestants in a Sacred promise to destroy him and his Adherents without exception to His Maiesty himself who for Refusing to Exclude his Royal Brother is declared to be one of the Party To what Ends and purposes will be seen in the Association it self THE ASSOCIATION I A. B. Do in the presence of God solemnly Promise Vow and protest to maintain and defend to the utmost of my Power with my Person and estate the true Protestant Religion against Popery and all popish Superstition Idolatry or Innovation and all those who do or shall endeavour to spread or advance it within this Kingdom I will also as far as in me lies maintain and defend His Majesties Royal Person and Estate as also the power and priviledge of Parliaments the lawful Rights and Liberties of the Subject against all Incroachments and Usurpation of Arbitrary power whatsoever and endeavour intirely to Disband all such Mercenary Forces as we have reason to believe were raised to advance it and are still kept up in and about the City of London to the great Amazement and Terror of all the good people of the Land Moreover I. D. of Y. Having publickly professed and owned the popish Religion and notoriously given Life and Birth to the Damnable and Hellish plotes of the papists against His Majesties person the protestant Religion and the Government of this Kingdom I will never consent that the said J. D. of Y. or any other who is or hath been a papist or any ways adher'd to the papists in their wicked Designs be admitted to the Succession of the Crown of England But by all lawful means and by force of Arms if need so require according to my Abilities will oppose him and endeavour to Subdue Expel and Destroy him if he come into England or the Dominions thereof And seek by force to set up his pretended Title and all such as shall Adhere unto him or raise any War Tumult or Sedition for him or by his Command as publique Enemies of our Laws Religion and Countrey To this end we and every one of us whose hands are here under-written do most willingly bind our selves and every one of us unto the other joyntly and severally in the Bond of one firm and loyal Society or Association and do promise and vow before God That with our joynt and particular Forces we will oppose and pursue unto Destruction all such as upon any Title whatsoever shall oppose the Just and Righteous ends of this Association and Maintain Protect Defend all such as shall enter into it in the just performance of the true intent and meaning of it And lest this Just and
but there was a Talk in Town of an Association Foreman Did you not hear of it in Parliament Mr. Secretary Indeed there was an answer to a Message from the House of Commons that had something in it that did strongly Imply an Association but this particular Association I do not remember to have heard propos'd Foreman Don't you remember in the House of Commons Sir it was read upon Occasion of that Bill Mr. Secretary I heard such a thing spoken of but at the Reading of it I was not present to the best of my rememberance I know nothing to the contrary but that the forme of this Vow and protestation meaning the three first Clauses of it might possibly be read in the House But to imagine that the Honorable House of Commons would ever have endur'd the starting of a project to overturn the very Foundations of Government were to do them the greatest indignity in the world The late Usurpers themselves were halfe way through the Rebellion before they arriv'd at that degree of Boldnesse If any man should Interpret these Glancing Interrogatories in such manner as to take this project for an Act of the House The Jesuits themselves could not have done the Popish plot a greater piece of service then the promoting of such an Errour as might creat a Jelousie of Treason within these Walls But on the other hand there may be Scandals Taken as well as Given If it were not for Tiring of yow out I could shew ye the Originals both of this Draught and Design and Trace the very footsteps of our Reforming Hero's from His Majesties most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects with their Outcrys of plots and popery and Eyes and Hands lifted up unto the Lord in a Holy Covenant to the severing of his Majesties Sacred Head from his Body upon a scaffold But it is too Copious a Theme and there needs no more then Dipping any where in the Records of the Late Times to famish the parallel There remains yet another Abuse to be clear'd wherein they impose upon the people that this Association is founded upon the same Grounds and Considerations with that of the 27th of the Queen You will better judge whether it be so or no upon a view of the Instrument it selfe and some few Remarques thereupon The Instrument or Writing of Association that the Protestants of England enter'd into 27. Eliz. FOrasmuch as Almighty God hath Ordained Kings Queens and Princes to have Dominion and Rule over all their Subjects and to preserve them in the Pessession and Observation of the true Christian Religion according to his holy Word and Commandment And in like sort that all Subjects should Love Fear and Obey their Soveraign Princes being Kings or Queens to the utmost of their power at all times to withstand pursue and suppress all manner of persons that shall by any means intend and attempt any thing dangerous or hurtful to the Honour States or persons of their Soveraigns Therefore we whose Names are or shall be subscribed to this Writing being Natural Born subjects of this Realm of England and having so Gracious a Lady our Soveraign Elizabeth by the Ordinance of God our most rightful Queen Reigning over us these many Years with great Felicity to our inestimable Comfort And finding lately by divers Depositions Confessions and sundry Advertisements out of Forreign parts from credible persons well known to her Majesties Council and to divers others That for the furtherance and advancement of some pretended Title to the Crown it hath been manifested that the Life of our Gracious Soveraign Lady Queen Elizabeth hath been most dangerously expos'd to the peril of her Person if Almighty God her perpetual Defender of his Mercy had not revealed and withstood the same By whose Life we and all other her Majesties True and Loyal Subjects do enjoy an inestimable benefit of peace in this Land do for the Reasons and Causes before alledged not only acknowledge our selves most justly bound with our Lives and Goods for her defence in her safety to persecute suppress and withstand all such Intenders and all other her Enemies of what Nation Condition and Degree whatsoever they shall be or by what Council or Title they shall pretend to be her Enemies or to attempt any harm upon her Person but do further think it our bounden Duties for the great benefit of peace and Wealth and Godly Government we have more plentifully receaved these many Years under her Majesties Government than any of our Forefathers have done in any longer time of any other Progenitors Kings of this Realm Do declare and by this Writing make manifest our bounden Duties to our said Soveraign Lady for her safety And to that end We and every of us First calling to Witness the Name of Almighty God do Voluntarily and most Willingly bind our selves every one of us to the other joyntly and severally in the Band of one Firm and Loyal Society And do hereby Vow and promise by the Majesty of Almighty God That with our whole Powers Bodies Lives and Goods and with our Children and Servants We and every of us will faithfully serve and humbly obey our said Soveraign Lady Queen Elizabeth against all States Dignities and Earthly powers whatsoever and will as well with our joynt and particular Forces during our Lives withstand offend and pursue as well by force of Arms as by all other means of Revenge all manner of persons of what state soever they shall be and their Abetters that shall attempt any Act Council or consent to any thing that shall tend to the harm of her Majesties Royal person and will never desist from all manner of forcible pursuit against such persons to the utter Extermination of them their Councillors Aiders and Abetters And if any such wicked Attempt against her most Royal Person shall be taken in hand and procured whereby any that have may or shall pretend Title to come to this Crown by the untimely death of her Majesty so wickedly procured which God for his Mercy sake forbid may be avenged We do not only bind our selves both joyntly and severally never to Allow accept or favour any such pretended Successor by whom or for whom any such detestable Act shall be Attempted or Committed as unworthy of all Government in any Christian Realm or Civil State But do also further Vow and Protest as we are most bound and that in the presence of the Eternal and Everlasting God to prosecute such person and persons to Death with our joynt or particular Forces and to ask the utmost Revenge upon them that by any means we or any of us can devise and do or cause to be devised and done for their fitter Overthrow and Extirpation And to the berter Corroboration of this our Loyal Band and Association We do also Testifie by this Writting that we do confirm the contents hereof by our Oaths corporally taken upon the Holy Evangelist with this express condition that no one of us shall for any respect of persons or causes or for Fear or Reward separate our selves from this ASSOCIATION or fail in the prosecution thereof during our Lives upon hasard of being by the rest of us prosecuted and supprest as perjur'd persons and publick Enemies to God our Queen and to our Native Country To which punishment and pains we do voluntarily submit our selves and every of us without benefit of any colour and pretence In Witness of all which Promises to be inviolably kept we do to this Writing put our Hands and Seals and shall be most ready to accept and admit any others hereafter to this Society and Association You may be pleased to Compare this Association with the other which pretends Effectually to write after this Coppy You have in this an Ample and Solemn Acknowledgement of Soveraign Power in the Queen and Indispensible Obedience in the Subject but in the other not only a Disclaimer of the Kings Authority and the Subjects Duty unless his Majesty will Comply with whatsoever his People shall Impose upon him but a Total Abdication of his Imperial Power And a Vow of Conspiracy to Oppose him by Force and set up an Inconsiderable part of the people Masters of the Government You have here ane Association to defend the Queen against any pretendent whatsoever upon a false Title The other is a Conspiracy for the Destruction even of the present King brcause he will not Consent to the Dispossessing his Brother of a Just and Legal Title both before God and Man This Engagement Extends only to a Remote Prospect of Injury to the Crown with a Resolution to Employ Violence when the Occasion requires it and not before But the other is a Confederacy to offer Violence to the Crown themselves and to Embroile the Nation forthwith in a Civil War upon a pretended Fear of Danger at a Distance This is a Combination against the Queens Enemies with Her Royal Approbation and consent The other is a Confederacy against the Kings Brother and his Friend and against his Majesties Approbation and Consent The one in short is for a Submission to a Lawful Authority The other for the Final and Irreparable Extirpation of it To Conclude whoever layes both Ends together of this Late Association will find that it begins in the Name of God for the Preservation of Religion and Ends in the Divils Name with the Total Extinction of King and Government Imprimatur WILLIAM PATERSON December 20. 1681. Edinburgh Re-printed by David Lindsay 1681. Cum Privilegio
pious Work should be any ways obstructed or hindred for want of discipline and Conduct or any evil minded persons under pretence of raising Forces for the service of this Association should attempt or commit disorders we will follow such Orders as we shall from time to time receive from this present Parliament whilst it shall be sitting or the Major part of the Members of both Houses subscribing this Association When it shall be prorogued or Dissolved and obey such Officers as shall by them be set over us in the several Countreys Cities and Burroughs until the next meeting of this or another parliament and will then shew the same Obedience and Submission unto it and those who shall be of it Neither will we for any respect of persons or Causes or for Fear or Reward separate our selves from this Association or fail in prosecution thereof during our Lives upon pain of being by the rest of us prosecuted and suppressed as perjur'd persons and publick Enemies to God the King and our Native Countrey To which pains and punishments we do voluntarily submit our selves and every one of us without benefit of any Colour or pretence to excuse us In Witness of all which promsies to be Inviolably kept we do to this present Writing put our Hands and Seals and shall be most ready to accept and admit any others hereafter into this Society and Association THis form of Association is only the Covenant Reviv'd with the same Licence Limitations Reserves and Equivocations And to the very same End and purpose And all Schismatiques and Heretiques whatsoever Taken and Invited into the Combination under the Colour of preserving the True protestant Religion the papists only excepted The Guards to be Disbanded as Illegal His R. H. to be Expell'd or Depos'd and all his Adherents even the King himself to be destroy'd by Force of Arms That is to say The King is to be allow'd no other Ministers Officers but what the Associates shal vouchsafe to affoord him and he himself likewise upon his Good Behaviour under the pain of Immediate Insurrection Tumult and Revolt Being engaged by this Vow promise protestation or what else you please to a downright Rebellion unless the King will deliver up his Crown without Striking a Stroke for 't the Oath is carry'd on even to the Manner and Method by which the Nation is to be Govern'd after such Violence Acted upon the person and Authority of the King And this Confederacy is Extended even to the Devolving of the Soveraign Power upon the House of Commons during Sitting the Parliament and upon the Major part of the Members of both Houses Subscribing this Association after the Prorogation or Dissolution thereof And they never to Recede upon any Consideration whatsoever So that here 's a King Depos'd a Monarchy Destroy'd a Common-wealth Erected a Free People Enslav'd And all in a Trice by the help of this Pious Vnion if ever it should come to take Effect And in Conclusion the Supreme Power Vested in the Two Houses to Prepetuity This is the Fairest Construction can be made on 't the paper calls it the present Parliament in a Complement 't is only the House of Commons in Effect Now look back upon the whole and take notice how Frivolous all those Colours and pretensions are that have been produced in Favour or Excuse of this Paper We the Kinights do Declare and Swear that what we connot Compass in a Parliamentary way we will endeavour to bring about by force of Arms. Here 's the very Constitution of Parliaments overthrown at a Dash And pursuant to this Resolution so many Members that were Chosen and Entrusted to serve their Countrys and as much as in them lay to uphold and maintain the Laws of the Land and the Liberties of the people have now propounded to set up themselves by this project without either King or House of Lords as a Standing Committe and to Exercise an Arbitary power over their Fellow-Subjects to the Subversion of the Common Rights and in Defiance of the Fundamental priviledges of King parliaments and people So much for the pretended project of a BILL Now to this Scheme of an Association for Defence against a popish King The paper begins with Exclamations against a popish plot and concludes in an Oath of Conspiracy against a protestant prince It begins with a pretended Tenderness of Religion and ends in a peremptory Sentence and Determination of State For fear of a popish King here 's a Certain provision that we shall have no King at all and under pretext of Opposing an Arbitrary power in the Crown here 's an Expedient offer'd as for the Avoidance of it by Swearing Allegiance to the Unlimited will and pleasure of a Committes of Disbanded Members of our own Fellow Subjects But this is no more they say then was propounded and Debated in the House of Commons There was an Address of the Commons 't is true bearing date May 10. 1679. That His Majesty would be graciously pleased to give Order for raising the Militia and keeping of it up for some certain time and the Lords were afterwards reminded of it To which as I remember His Majesties Answer was That He would not part with it so much as for an horu But here was no Associating to take possession of it by Force in case it should be refused It is True likwise that the Commons December 15. 1680. pass'd a Vote that a Bill should be brought in for an Association of all his Majeistes Protestant Subjects c. And that upon the one and twentieth of the same Month they presented an Address to the King desiring therein that his Majesty would be Graciously pleased to assent to an Act whereby his Majesties Protestant Subjects might be Enabled to Associate themselves for the Defence of His Person c. Which very Word Enabled Imports a Concession and Acknowledgment that without the Kings Passing such a Bill they had no Right to Authorize such a Combination But that which has misled people into a mistake so Derogatory to the Honour of the House of Commons I presume may be this There were several Questions put by the Foreman of the Jury First to Mr. Gwin and afterwards to Mr. Secretary Jenkins that carryed some sort of Countenance as if This Association had been Debated and This very Paper Read in the House of Commons 'T is a short Passage and I 'le recite it as you will find it in the Printed proceedings Pag. 34. Foreman Don't you know Sir there was a Discourse in the Parliament of an Association Mr. Gwin Sir I was not of the last Parliament I know nothing of it Foreman You have not heard then that there was such a Thing in Parliament concerning an Association Mr Gwin I have heard of an Association Talk'd of Foreman Mr. Secretary I would ask you some Questions If you did not know of a Debate in Parliament of an Association Mr. Secretary I was not present at the Debate
REMARQUES Upon the NEW PROJECT OF ASSOCIATION In a Letter to a Friend SIR YOU would have me give you the sence of the Town together with my own Private Thoughts upon the Subject of your Last The Former would be Tedious and Extravagant in a Case where People either through Passion or Interest are so Extremely divided And the Latter with Submission would be as Vnsafe But I shall however Gratifie your Curiosity in as full and as Particular an Answer to the Sum of your Demands as the Quality of the Matter in question and the Compass of a Letter will conveniently bear You are so far in the Right as that the Paper you speak of is said by some to be the project of a Bill for an Association And grounded upon the Precedent of an Association 27. Eliz. It is said further that it is no more then what was mov'd in the last Westminster Parliament and only a short draught or Scheme of an Association for a General Defence against a Popish King But one the other hand it is cry'd out against as the Instrument of a Treasonous Conspiracy against his Majesty and the Government under the Countenance of a Religious Association Thus far Sir you are rightly inform'd as to the Business of Ordinary Conjecture and Discourse but your Intelligence afterwards runs a little too large for the paper was barely found in my Lords Closet And any man may have Papers perhaps in his possession that he does not approve of How far the Members of that Parliament which is the next point will find themselves concern'd in Honour to search farther into this Affair I am not able to Divine It will be both for your Ease and mine to consult and compare the Pieces themselves and to see how far this late Draught of Association agrees with the Ends and Intent of the Former And after that to Examine it's Consistency with it selfe To which purpose I shall in their due place lay both the Associations before you with such Notes upon and concerning them as may serve in some measure to Explain the Matter in hand And therein I shall speak to the several Points of your Letter as they fall in my way The Words of the Former are as follows The Paper which was Seized in the E. of Shaftsbury's Closet by Francis Gwin Esquire One of the Clerks of His Majesties Privy Council and Read November 24. 1681. at the Old-Baily before His Majesties Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer 1. WE the Knights c. Finding to the griefe of our Hearts the Popish Priests Jesuits with the Papists and their Adherents and Abetters have for several years last past pursued a most pernicious and hellish Plot to root out the true Protestant Religion as a pestilent Heresie to take away the Life of our Gracious King to subvert our Laws and Liberties c. to set up Arbitrary Power and Popery NOTE That the Stile of the First Clause in these Words We the Knights c. Imports an Act of the Commons Exclusive of the Lords and Rege Inconsulto The Dread and Danger of the Popish Plot is made the Inducement to it The Papists Adherents Abettors ranged with the Papists themselves and joyned in the same Design of Murdering the the King c. 2. And it being Notorious that they have been highly encouraged by the Countenance and Protection given and procured for them by J. D. of Y. and by their expectations of his succeeding to the Crown and that through crafty Popish Councils his Designs have so far prevailed that he hath created many and great Dependents upon him by his bestowing Offices and Preferments both in Church and State In the Second Clause his R. H. falls under the same Accusation and the Government Effectually put into his hands toward the Gaining of his Ends. Now the meaning of Adherents and Abetters is Expounded by the Author of Smith's Quaeries upon the Duke's Bill where he says that the Pleaders for a Popish Successor ought to be Esteem'd no other then Betrayers of their King and Country Renegado's from their Religion if ever Protestants at all and the worst of Papists and so to be dealt with all in City and Country Here 's an Anathema pronounc'd already against all Men under that Qualification and the Invalidating of the Kings Witnesses is One Condition of the Sentence which does most Expresly conclude all the Present Defamers of the Kings Witnesses under the same Condemnation This way of Exposing the Kings Loyal Subjects of the English Communion under the Notion of Papists or in truth beyond them and that not only in Libellous Papers but in some Councils also is too Notorious to need any Instances to confirm it And what 's the drift of these practices but under a General Scandal to Stigmatize that Party that will not Close with the Faction and to set them up as a Mark to the Fury of of the Rabble And this is only a Preparatory toward a greater Work that is to follow and whosoever is not wilfully Blind cannot but see the Design to be all of a Thrid From this Aversion toward a sort of people in general represented under such a Character the next Step is the Naming of particular persons the Discriminating of parties the Computing of Numbers and Intrests and so from Listing to Pass on into Associations and Levies Let not this be taken for a Trivial Speculation upon the Common Methods and Preliminaries to Rebellion for I have heard and I do as firmly believe it as a Man can believe any thing that he never saw that there is Extant a Calculation upon all the Counties of England and Wales Alphabetically Digested Dividing the Men of Interest and Consideration in each Respective County into Two Columns One against another The One under the Title of Worthy Men and the Other of Men Worthy to be Hang'd that is Ranging the Country Party as they call it under the Former and the Court-Party under the Other Which appears as I am assur'd by the Transporting of Names from One to the Other as any Man is found to Change his Side and Opinion By the Benefit of this Roll 't is not above a Week or Ten Days Work to take a Muster of the Nation To Communicate Orders To know whom to Impeach and whom to Trust And they that have Money shall never want Evidence There is a Wonderful Correspondence betwixt the Tendency of this List the paper of Association betwixt the Dictates of the Factious pamphlets and the matter of Fact in Evidence and it were little less then a Miracle if all this should come by chance 3. It appearing also to us That by his Influence Mercenary Forces have been levied and kept on Foot for his secret Designs contrary to our Laws the Officers thereof having been named and appointed by him to the apparent hazard of His Majesties Person our Religion and Government if the danger had not been timely foreseen by several