Abdication and our late Measures I come next to examine how exactly the Prince hath fulfilled and made good unto us the pretended Ends and Designs of his Declaration how well he hath kept the Original Contract we made with him and what benefit we may expect to reap for the future by this Revolution I shall take his Conduct in both Kingdoms joyntly under Consideration since he hath not only united them in the same Declaration but likewise issu'd out a Declaration apart for Scotland intimating thereby That the Oppressions in that Kingdom were more weighty and numerous than here and that the Arbitrary Designs of our Prince did always first commence there to make a Precedent for this Kingdom and that the Conduct and Posture of Affairs there did always certainly Prognosticate to the curious Observer what was designed to be Copied and Executed here I do not pretend to give a particular detail of the present Administration in that Kingdom but there are some considerable Errors have been acted there which have made a Noise and rais'd such publick Complaints there as hath convey'd the Knowledge of them here to us The assuming a Power of Dispensing with the due Execution of Laws enacted by King and Parliament for Security of Religion Liberty and Happiness of the Subject is much urged against King James as a great Motive to the Prince's undertaking A Dispensing Power assumed by any Prince doth fatally threaten the Liberties of a People where it is practised and makes them Tenants at Will for those Privileges which the Laws of the Land hath given them a Freehold in This is really such an important Point and of such Consequence for the Subject to have been cleared that it was indispensably the Duty of a Reforming Prince Convention of Estates and Parliament to have decided this Controversie and placed such Marks and Boundaries for the future so plain and obvious both to Prince and People that each might have known their particular Rights and governed themselves for the future accordingly But our Parliaments have thought fit to leave it where they found it dark and undecided to this day and the Prince hath discovered he was well enough pleased with this Omission by taking as large and broad Steps that way as any can be charged upon King James The Irish Treaty furnisheth us with a convincing Proof of this where such Indulgences were granâ—ed unto them solely and siâ—gâ—y by his own Authority with relation to the exercise of their Religion proâ— of their Arms dispensation from Oaths and security against â—rsuits for their Plunderings as were directly contrary to the Laws of the Land the Safety Rights and Privileges of the Protestant Subjects of that Kingdom This Treaty I do acknowledge was afterwards ratified by Parliament but though in some Cases the Authority of Parliament may give a legal Being for the future yet that new Life commenceth only from the date of their Sanction and doth not justifie preceeding Errors and the many Difficulties which arose in both Houses about the Ratification was a clear Innuendo how dangerous and illegal they judg'd the Treaty to be How strangely are we altered King James's exercise of this Dispensing Power could neither be forgotten nor attoned for but King William's stretch that way shall obtain a Parliamentary Approbation such is the Justice and unbyassed Integrity of these Times But we need not look so far as Ireland for Instances We have our personal Liberties secured to us by positive and express Statutes and Methods appointed by our Law whereby to recover our Liberties when lost with such severe Animadversions against those who obstruct the due course of Law in obtaining of our Freedom with such great and considerable Damages appointed in that case as plainly enough Points out unto us the Value and Worth of this true English Privilege It is the choisest piece of our Magna Charta and Original Contract and for my part I should much rather allow a Prince to dispence with Penal Statutes and issue out a Proclamation for Liberty of Conscience than to sport himself at Pleasure with my personal Freedom without which there can be no relish in any other Enjoyment and yet there never was a Reign wherein our Birth-right in this hath been more abused spoiled and broken in upon The English Subjects have been put into Proclamations and clapt into Prisons for High Treason and refused the benefit of their Habeas Corpus though there was no Information upon Oath against them according as the Law appoints to warrant such a Procedure Nay so grosly frequently and impudently have our publick Ministers affronted the Laws upon this Head that they have found themselves obliged to apply to Parliament for Pardon For we have found out a new Trick in this Government and reforming Age first to act all imaginable Violences against the best and choisest of our Laws and than to obtain either a Ratification or Pardon in Parliament whereby they have struck our English Constitution and the Liberty of the Subject Dead at one Blow by Debauching our Parliaments into a Confederacy against in place of Protecting the Liberties of the People and so making the Nation as it were Felo de se No period of History doth furnish us with such wholesale Merchants for our best and most valuable Rights neither do we know when this Trade shall be at an end or when our Rulers will be weary of Tricking us out of our Liberties We have a fresh Instance of late of the Knowledge and Learning of our Judges When the Earls of Huntington Midleton and others moved at the Barr for their Habeas Corpus there was no Information upon Oath against them to warrant a refusal otherways to be sure we should have heard of it But Aaron Smith must make Affidavit that they had Evidence for the High Treason charged against them which could not be got ready and so by his Liberty and Freedom of Conscience save in some measure the Credit of the Court By this fine new Knack they were all remitted back to Prison again Such Judges may at last come to be fit enough for the Bench even under a Conquest but in the mean time all such Expedients which are not warranted from the Statutes do rather prove the Injustice of the Court than fulfil the Law and however it may be Gilded we cannot but see and feel the bitter Pill we must swallow Was not the Habeas Corpus Act suspended for many Months It 's true this was done by Parliament but so much the worse if our own Delegates in whose Hands we trust the care but not the intire surrender of our Liberties make a Complement of that which is not in their Power to the Ambition or Necessities of any Prince Parliaments can no more justly over-turn Foundations than the Prince can Such Privileges as are derived from King and Parliament upon the account of the Subjects Temporary Conveniences are trusted to the review of the same Court
it practicable And as to the miraculous and enterprizing Faith of Priests and new Converts the zeal folly and warmness of their Brains will always prevent any real Mischiefs nay K. James his Reign even upon the supposition that it were as bad as is alledged is an undeniable Proof that the Protestant Religion cannot be undermined nor the Popish Religion Established in these Kingdoms by the Address or Authority of any Prince I shall give it for granted that all imaginable Methods were taken for propagating the Popish Religion that they were indulged in the publick Exercises of it that Court Preferments were thrown upon them meerly upon the account of their Religion without any Vertue or Mâ—rit to Intitle them to it that Protestants were absolutely and upon all occasions discourag'd that it was endeavour'd to make the World â—eâ—â—â—ve that all Favours and Preserments were for the one and nothing but Disâ—races and Frowns for the other that there was the greatest Care Pains and Application in the World made use of to make the Army and Courts of Judicature I do belive by this supposition I have out-done all that the most malicious Enemies will urge against K. James and yet all the World knows what little Progress was made how few Converts were gained and how really weak their best and surest Precautions did appear when it came to the touch If so many of his Subjects Soldiers and Servants were prevailed upon by Fears and Jealousies which were maliciously and industriously heightened above what any reason which was given for them could well bear what must then have been the Consequence if by real publick and undoubted Discoveries the King's intentions to ruin the Established Religion had been made unquestionably plain and evident Nothing less than an universal Defection and his perpetual Banishment from the Hearts and Affections of every English Man could have followed The Catholicks of Britain are not one of a hundred they have neither Heads Hearts nor Hands enough to force a National Conversion As the Protestants are the most Numerous so the Laws and Constitutions are upon their side their Civil Rights and Liberties are twisted together with their Religious and whosoever strikes at the last must infallibly wound the first It is not easie to overturn the Laws and Fundamental Constitutions whereby Religious and Civil Rights are secured to free born People we are in Possession by our Laws of our Religion and of that Liberty which distinguisheth our Happiness from that of other Subjects we love it and know it 's true worth we value and esteem our selves above other People upon the account of our native Freedoms and we will not easily part with 'em all Attempts and Designs upon them have been unsuccessful Ambitious Princes and Arbitrary Ministers may be forming Projects and Designs fortifying them the best way they can and making Parties for it but our Constitution together with the Protestant Religion which is now become part of it and our Laws will prove always too hard for them at last Nothing can expose or betray our Religion and Constitution to any danger but overmuch fondness in the People to a Prince who under some popular Mask and Pretence covers close and fatal Designs against either Let us but examine the present condition of our neighbouring States and we shall find that Raptures of Love in the people hath overturned more Constitutions and built up more Despotick Governments than the Force or Address of Princes could ever do It is commonly received for a Truth That Love is blind and credulous and certainly holds good with relation to a Political Affection There is a certain allowable Jealousie in the People which is very consistent with the Duty Affection and Respect due to the Prince and guards and protects their Laws and Constitution Without some Measures of this Jealousie the Constitution will be always in danger and this Antidote can never be wanting in the Protestant Subjects of Britain under a Popish King His Religion gives us such a lively and active Jealousie of him and his Designs makes us so watchful and puts us so much upon our guard that all the Efforts of such a Prince thô never so dextrous supported by so weak and inconsiderable a Party as the Catholicks of Britain can never endanger Religion and Liberty Rather his Circumstances and Inclinations to those of his own Religion their ease and quiet might have been improved into farther and more real Securities for Religion and Liberty by a wise and discreet Treaty orderly managed in Parliament To all this it may be alledged That though the Catholicks of Britain be not a Party sufficient to carry on and effectuate such Designs yet the Forces of the Hector of France were still at the Command and Service of his Dear and Faithful Ally for carrying on so good and meritorious a Work as that of Reducing again Great Britan into the Bosom of the Roman Church This is maliciously and artfully enough suggested but let us examin it a little How does it appear that King James was become so lost to all Reason Morality and Discretion as to resolve to call in a French Power to over-run a Countrey which was his own and destroy a People who were living peaceably under him by which from one of the most Considerable and Potent Monarchs of Europe he became the Least and most Contemptible His refusal of French Troops and Assistance when threatened with a Foreign Invasion seems to be no great Proof of this and his betaking himself at that time to the Love and Affection of his Subjects as it was a plain discovery he was not Conscious to himself of any real Design which could destroy that mutual Love and Confidence betwixt Prince and People which is a Debt due from the one to the other however his Measures might have been Traduced or maliciously Poysoned so it may let us see how improbable it is to imagine that a Prince could ever form Designs of destroying a People whose Affections he durst trust in such an Extremity Again What Reason is there to imagine that the French King vvould be so ready to furnish Troops and be at the Charge of such a Reformation He is generally allowed to be a Prince who studies his own Interest the most of any and fits all his Maxims his Conduct and Allyances exactly to it and never takes a step which upon the remotest view may seem to cross the Interest of his Crown and Monarchy And if it do appear as certainly it will to any judicious thinking Man that the Reducing Great Britain to the Bosom of the Roman Church may greatly endanger the Crown of France than all â—â—â—rs of a French Reformation will fall to the Ground The English Pretences to the most considerable Maritime Provinces nay upon the Crown of France it self are generally known and Histories can inform us how troublesome how dangerous and how successfully they were many times carried on against those Monarchs partly
GREAT BRITAIN's JUST COMPLAINT FOR HER Late Measures Present Sufferings And the Future Miseries She is exposed to With the Best Safest and most Effectual WAY of Securing and Establishing Her Religion Government Liberty Property Upon Good and Lasting Foundations Fully and Clearly Discovered In ANSWER To Two Late Pamphlets concerning the Pretended French Invasion Printed in the Year MDCXCII Great Britain's Just Complaint FOR Her Late Measures Present Sufferings and the Future Miseries She is Exposed to THE last great Revolution in Britain which doth so much exercise the Heads Hands Purses and Pens of the Inhabitants of this Island is not to be paralel'd by any Instance from ancient or modern History When we have ransackt the Annals of all the Nations of Europe and travell'd as far as the Indies to find an Example we shall at last be forced to acknowledge after all Circumstances are exactly weighed That we have been blindly following the Dictates of our own personal Prejudices and intoxicated Judgments rather than tracing the Footsteps of our Predecessors or of the most zealous Assertors of publick Liberties in other Nations I do not deny that in every Province and Kingdom of the Universe we may find Instances where Subjects have been at last necessitated by force of Arms to secure themselves their Religion and Liberties against such violent and repeated Acts of Tyranny in their Princes as did visibly endanger the Frame of the Government it self as well as the Safety of every Individual And many Princes have lost their Crowns by a tract of Cruelties and Exorbitances in Government and an incorrigible Obstinacy and Deafness to all the humble Petitions and repeated Complaints of their Subjects But we scorned to be confined within such ancient Rules to be regulated by the Practices of our Forefathers or to be taught at the Expence or by the Experience of others We have walked without Guides amidst dark and dangerous Precipices Our Fears have overrun our Reason we have taken things upon Trust without searching them to the bottom and we have been imposed upon by the cunning and artificial Disguises of self-designing and ambitious Men to overlook a most infallible way of securing Liberty and Property to all future Ages which the Ambition of the Prince of Orange and the hard Circumstances of our own King had put into our hands We have vacated a Throne for the pretended Disertion of a Prince violently forced away by a surprizing Defection of his Children Servants Subjects and Soldiers and under the terror of dangers threatning his Life and Liberty We have justified this Severity by enumerating Miscarriages in Government which though Errors and Mistakes were very far from overturning Foundations and which the King was put upon by the artifice and cunning of his Son in-law who was grasping at his Crown And we have obstinately refused all Treaties when offered whereby Grievances might have been redressed and provided against for the future and we have ventured upon such Steps as have no Precedent and furnished an Example for History which will be found too desperate and expensive for imitation Yet so far hath this Poyson spread and diffused it self that though the pretended Reasons of our Proceedings appear at last to be empty false and forged though the principal Actors are ashamed of their former grounds and love the sound of Conquest better than that of a Deliverance and are countenanced in it by the Practises as well as Inclination and Maxims of our present Monarch there are some People who would gladly continue the Cheat and amuse us still with a Hodge-podge of Right of Succession Election and Conquest and the lofty and agreeable sound of Religion Liberty and Property which appears to be as little the care as it was the design of our principal Reformers Hence it is That we have of late been entertained with two famous Pamphlets the one entituled The pretentions of the French Invasion examined Licensed or rather written by the E. of Nottingham The other is A Letter to a Friend concerning the French Invasion which must be the Offspring of a Person of equal Quality with the former since his Character stamps it legitimate without a License These two Pieces do not in the least answer the Figure which the Authors who are assign'd them make in the World For all along they falsifie disguise or absolutely conceal Matter of fact they labour to impose Falshoods for Truths and their base Alloy as good Coin upon us They advance Positions for undoubted Maxims which have been controverted all the World over and upon this Sandy Foundation they raise their Building and their Reasonings are either false sophisticated or most conclusive on the other side To make good this Charge and acquit my self of the Duty I owe my Country and fellow Subjects in contributing my Mite towards the rectifying their Judgments in such a nice and important Affair wherein our own Peace and Happiness as well as that of our Posterity is so much wrapt up I shall endeavour to make a full and distinct Answer to these Two Pamphlets by a true unbyassed and impartial Deduction of Matter of fact by seting out the publick Councils Designs and Conduct of particular Persons in their true Light without those Disguises which were Art-fully thrown over them and by their own Reasons and Maxims concluding a great deal more forcibly against themselves And to deal fairly by them I shall confine my self to those very Arguments which are assigned by the Author of The French Invasion examined as the Motives upon which the Restauration of King James is desired and endeavoured viz. The repairing the Injury done to the King the setling the Government upon its old Basis the delivering us from the Oppressions we suffer under the present King and the securing the Protestant Religion for the future There is no English-man but must allow these Considerations to be Grave Weighty and Important and if as True as Considerable sufficiently conclusive and persuasive for a speedy Restauration I will then enter upon a particular Enquiry and I do not dispair before I have done to establish the Truth as well as the Importance of those Reasons against the Cavils of those Authors I joyn them together because their Reasonings are much the same equally levelled against the aforesaid Motives and must stand or fall together As to the first Motive Of the repairing the Injury done to King James If it can be made appear That he was unjustly upon false Pretences deprived of his Birth-right by his Subjects who by Nature and Oaths were bound to defend him in it then must it be acknowleged a Duty by all as well as those Authors to repair that Injury done him by restoring his Right again I shall apply my self particularly to the clearing of the Injustice done him since upon that a great part of the Controversie depends and most of the Reasons assigned by these Authors against his Restauration will fall to the ground In
his imprisonment of the E. of Feversham who was a publick Messenger and Peer of England and under the Cognizance of none but the King his imprisoning and banishing King James from his own Pallace though acknowleged as the just Monarch by his own Declaration his banishing the French Embassador out of England as soon as he came to London and before the Administration was put into his Hands by which these Kingdoms were ingaged without their own Consent in a War with France without so much as any pretence of Entertainment given to their Abdicated Monarch being a considerable time before K. James's retreat thither were direct possitive and most Solemn Acts of Sovereignty before ever the Crown was confer'd upon him and are so many plain and evident Indications of that early Ambition I have charged upon him And in farther Evidence that all his Designs from the very first were aimed at the Crown and the Crown Vested too with the most towring Prerogatives When the Convention was Deliberating upon some future Provisions against Arbitrary Power the Prince sent my Lord Wharton to several Lords and Mr. Coulin to Sir Edward Seymor and Mr. Hambden and other Commoners to let them known That if the House insisted so much upon Limitations that he would return again and leave them in the lurch to the Mercy of King James So generously Tender was this great Deliverer of our Religion and Liberty As to the Dispencing Power assumed by King James I do not pretend to justifie it I am heartily sorry that so bad a Measure was taken to carry on and establish so desirable and necessary a Good and Birth right of Mankind as Liberty of Conscience which carries its own native Beauty and Usefulness so visibly stampt upon it as could never have failed to obtain an Establishment from the Reason and Judgement of an English Parliament But this would have so much united the Hearts and Affections of English Subjects with their King and laid such an invincible rub in the Way of the Prince's ambitious Designs that it became one of the nicest and most sicklish Points to manage the hardest to ward off and the most dextrous and artful part of their Game there was no downright opposing of so general and desirable a Good 〈◊〉 was easier to poyson and divert 〈◊〉 The King was first put upon Establishing this Liberty by a Proclamation that so the Parliament might be prejudiced against a Thing which otherwise they would have granted upon the account of the first Measure taken about it but finding that the general Good and Benefit which was to be reaped from this Liberty would have digested and sweetned this Pill from a pretence of saving the King's Honor from a Foyl and making all sure though really with a design to ruin Him and baffle the Thing they put him upon the Regulating and Closetting Projects and upon obliging the Clergy to read his Proclamation for Liberty of Conscience from their Pulpits This did alarm the Bishops as was designed and obliged them to think upon Petitioning against it upon which those Beautefeux being afraid lest the KING should call in his Proclamation having always found it hard enough to bring Him to such Methods they ordered the business so that the Bishops were so long in presenting of their Petition to the King that though their Reasons had convinced and satisfied Him there was not time enough to countermand his former Orders though never so willing Upon which they took occasion to incense the King against them as if they had delay'd their Petition so long with design to embroyl Him with his People and so they run the Bishops into the Tower and from thence to the Barr. This is the true History of the Dispencing Power and of the Bishops Persecution which was so warmly and bitterly urged against the King as undeniable Proofs that his Inclination to Catholicks was too strong for the Laws But to speak plain English I hope those Stretches in favour of Catholicks which were Criminal in King James are not become more Legal and Meritorious in King William the exercise of the Dispencing Power in their favours I hope is as much a fault now as ever The Charge will be denied but I shall make it good when I come to discourse upon the Third Motive to the King's Restauration Are not Catholicks employ'd now in the Army thô not qualified by Law It will be alleg'd they are Foreigners so much the worse for an English Catholick will still have some regard for the Laws and Liberties of his Countrymen whereas a mercenary Foreigner is absolutely at the disposal of his Master Are not the Catholicks as much Countenanced and in the exercise of as much Liberty for their Religion as ever The necessity of humouring a Confederacy which must support us the great Strength of which are Catholicks may be urged as a very good Reason for this but if we examine it to the bottom this threatens our Religion more than any Indulgence was granted them by King James When the Catholicks of England hold their Liberty merely from the favour of the Protestants of England they must be thankful for it and humble under it but when they come to derive their Favours Immunities and Liberty from the necessity of our Circumstances and humble Regard and Deference we must pay to Catholick Princes without whose Assistance and Friendship we cannot Subsist their Spirits Hopes and Haughtiness will be enlarged by it They must make grateful acknowlegements to those Catholick Princes by whose kind Influences they injoy their Liberty This begets a Correspondence with and Dependance upon Foreign Princes and we do not know how far by the Instigation of Catholicks here those Princes may be prevailed upon to improve the necessity we have of their Allyance to the advantage of those of their own Religion amongst us The House of Austria within our remembrance was the most zealous Champions for the Roman Religion and the dependance of the Catholicks of England upon that House hath been always terrible and troublesom to this State And though their Losses and the growth of France hath humbled and levelled all the towring Thoughts and Ambition of that Family which did so much exercise both the Councils and Forces of their Neighbours yet since by our Assistance that House is to recover its Losses and France to be reduced within its ancient bounds with their lost Provinces the House of Austria may resume their old Designs They were but covered up not extinguished concealed through Weakness to be discovered upon a greater Encrease of Strength and Vigour in which case we may come to be whipt for our present Politicks May the great God avert those dangers and difficulties which inviron us and visibly threaten the Religious and Civil Concerns of these Kingdoms We have been pulling Destruction with both our hands upon our selves and desperately risking our Religion and Civil Rights without any necessity and unless we repent and repair
other aggravating Circumstances Bonds have been imposed by Authority of Council without Warrant of Parliament as may appear from 〈◊〉 publick Proclamations and many Thousands of Soldiers have been maintained upon free Quarter and for many Months together countenanced and abetted in it by the Government and the Funds for reimbursing the Countrey which were appointed by Parliament have been otherways diverted The Commissionating the Officers of the Army to sit as Judges upon the Lives and Estates of the Subjects and the putting People to death without a legal Tryal Jury and Record were complained of in the Declaration were thought good Reasons for Fore-faulting of K. J. and were provided against upon this last Setlement of the Crown And yet both the caution given by the Sentence against K. J. and the future Provision made by the Estates prove to weak to restrain this Government from practising the same things by ordering and impowering Colonel Hill and Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton to put Glencou and all the Males of his Clan under Seventy to death which was partly executed upon them without any legal Tryal Jury or Record Neither can their former Enmity and opposition to the Government furnish any Apology for so barbarous a Murther since they had all either actually taken the benefit of the Indemnity then granted and so were Pardoned or had Protections in their Pockets which put them under the immediate care and safeguard of the Government It may pusle the best Heads to find out the reason why Irish Papists though stated Enemies should be indulged to the prejudice of our Laws and Rights and yet Protestants though formerly Enemies barbarously Massacred when indemnify'd and under protection unless K. W. be resolved from the Obligations he is under and the Deference he must pay to the Pope and Popish Princes to imbrace every occasion of destroying the one and cherishing the other By the Declaration we are assured That the Prince will concur in every thing that may procure the Peace and Happiness of these Nations and which a free and lawful Parliament shall determine and yet how many necessary and useful Bills for the Happiness of the Nation have been stifled by the Interest Intreigues and Sollicitations of the King himself his Ministers and Courtiers and the Royal Assent refused to many Bills in our Neighbouring Kingdom And in this to the Bill about Judges which was thought so necessary an expedient for the Establishing of Justice and to cut off their servile Dependance upon the Court which was charged as such a blemish upon the Judges in K. James's Reign and was always look'd upon as dangerous to the Lives and Liberties of the English Subjects We were assured that the only design of the Prince's Undertaking was The preservation of the Protestant Religion the covering all Men from Persecution for their Consciences and the securing to the whole Nation the free injoyment of all their Laws Rights and Liberties under a just and legal Government How well and truly he hath confined himself within these Limits and other Bounds he prescribed to himself in his Declaration may partly appear from what hath been said and shall yet be made more clear and evident by a true and impartial Enquiry into his Conduct and some considerable Stretches which have been made in Points not glanced at by the Declaration because they were Strains of Absolute and Despotick Power which K. James's Reign did not furnish us with any Instances of the like The Power of imposing Taxes is unquestionably lodg'd in Parliament and the People of this Island have a natural Right unto and Dominion over their Properties and the Prince cannot share with them in it in whole or in part except in so far as they consent to it themselves by their Representatives in Parliament And our Parliaments though abundantly liberal in other respects have never indulged the least Liberty to our Monarchs on that head being so far tight to their Trust and their Constituents Interest And the Estates of both Kingdoms judg'd it necessary upon the present Settlement of the Crown to assert the Peoples Right in it and plainly to express it as one of the Conditions of that Settlement And yet the Privy Council of the Kingdom of Scotland have openly and avowedly in Contempt of the antient Laws and late Original Contract by their publick Proclamations commanded and appointed under the severest Penalties the Subjects of that Kingdom at their own Charge and Expence to furnish a great number of Horses for the use and service of the Army and for carrying Ammunition and Provision of Victuals with Men to attend the said Horses And I am informed That when upon cool and second Thoughts the Council considering what they had done how illegal it was and the danger they had run themselves into by it thought fit to apply unto the Parliament for an Approbation it was refused them Extravagant Bail was complained of and provided against by the States of both Kingdoms and yet it is daily and frequently imposed and exacted many times far above the Value of their Estates The Freedom of Elections to Parliament from the Bribes and Directions of Court and Courtiers was expresly conditioned by the States of both Kingdoms upon their Tender of the Crown How well that is kept and observed may appear from the bare faced and open Applications made to Counties Corporations and particular Electors for the Choice of such and such Persons with Threats and promises of Reward Nay I have known Three thousand Pounds expended for secret Service to prevent the Election of a Person who had been eminently Serviceable to this Government becâ—me he was found tighter to the â—nterest of his Country than to the Court for there never was a Reign wherein the Interest of King and People are more confidently stated as contradistinct than in this though it be only the Consent and pretended Interest of the People gives Birth Rise and Title to it The frequency of Parliaments for redressing of Grievances the amending strengthning and preserving of the Laws with all Freedom of Speech and Debates in them was insisted upon and fundamentally established by the States of both Kingdoms when they elected their present Majesties to the Throne How well this is observed and made good to both Kingdoms is obvious enough It is not for redressing of Grievances amending or preserving the Laws they are assembled but for giving of Money The craving Necessities of the State the pressing Circumstances of the Consederates and foreign Affairs the early Preparations of the French King an honourable Peace the Good of the Protestant Religion and Fears of King James are become the cruel and everlasting Topicks the common and ordinary Stale whereby the true Intent of Parliaments is baffled and the Money business quickened and finished The last is now so much the business of Parliaments and the firit so little that it is an equal Wager that this Court may come at last to plead Prescription against
It seems God Almighty did always discover more of Passion and Worldly Designs than true Zeal for Religion in those Undertakings and I am afraid That since we deserve the like Charge our Punishment may be the same unless by a seasonable and early Repentance we prevent it The first Example I find in History is Zisca's War in Bohemia against the Emperor Sigismond which thô managed as successfully in the beginning as any thing we can flatter our selves with yet had an end very fatal to the Reformation in that Kingdom The Civil Wars in Germany managed by the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse against Charles V. had no better Issue many Imperial Cities and Provinces were lopt off from our Communion and the principal Actors themselves were remarkably Sufferers by it and their Families wear the Scars of it to this day The second Bohemian War under the Elector Palatine whom they had chosen for their King was yet more fatal to that Kingdom than the first and almost ruined the King of Denmark did exceedingly weaken the Protestant Interest in Germany and laid the Foundation for the present Grandure of France which is so terrible to Europe at this time Upon the Event of that War the Civil Rights and Liberties of the Subject as well as the Protestant Religion in the Kingdom of Bohemia were intirely ruined and extinguished The principal Electorate of the Empire together with the Palatinate of Bavaria were wrested out of a Protestant and placed in a Popish Family Several other Protestant Princes and States were lost and the French possessed of both the Alsatias which hath since given infinite Disturbances to that Empire And the Hungarian War commenced first upon pretence of Religion and came at last to be managed by Tekely hath quite buried the Protestant Religion in Hungary and Transilvania and it is very Remarkable That so long as they kept Petitioning as Subjects Though with Arms in their Hands for the free Exercise of their Religion they were constantly Victorious and got into the absolute Possession of the greatest part of that Kingdom and might have fully secured their Religion and Liberties by Concessions and Immunities which the Emperor offered them in repeated Treaties And yet no sooner was the Crown given to Tekely and an Allyance made with the Turks to support him in it but by a series of Misfortunes all their former Successes were unravelled and their Affairs reduced to the miserable Condition we now see them in What sad alarms may such Instances give us How truly do they point at our Case and perhaps our Fate Can any of the above-mentioned Examples discover such plain and visible Marks of worldly Ambition Self-interest and corrupted Designs and Artifices for their Original as have evidently actuated the Contrivers of and principal Agitators in our Revolution And yet how fatally were they punished And can we hope to escape The Emperor Ferdinando was in a worse Condition to resist the Elector Palatine backed by the Protestant Princes of Germany countenanced by Brâ—â—an and Holland and the present Emperour Rodolph was under harder Circumstances to support a War against his Hungarian Rebels and the Turkish Power than any that France hath to graple with from Us and our Allies and yet their numerous Armies and strong Allies could not secure them from those Miseries which did at last overtake them There is no way for us to get safe from the Precepices we have been walking upon to retrieve our Religion from the desperate Danger we have run it into and to setle and secure it but by a National returning to our Duty which will sufficiently atone for so general a Defection by resuming that Treaty we so foolishly br k off and refused and thereby securing Religion and Property by those Concessions which our Sovereign is still ready to grant us Let us put it home to him and lay it at his own Door let him have it in his Choice to return by his People if he pleaseth convince him that his Protestant Subjects upon securing their Religion and Liberties will repair their former Errors by contributing heartily towards his Restauration And if he decline to return upon a Protestant and English Foot there is an end of the Controversie and of all Disputes amongst Protestants for Religion and Liberty will never be Sacrificed by true English Men. I am come in the last place to the Objections raised by the new Authors against King James's return which are stuffed with virulent false and sophistical Reasonings and in a great Measure taken off by what hath been already said The first thing they endeavour to frighten us with is a Conquest and with Popery and Slavery as the necessary Consequences of it since it is impossible K. James can return otherways because K. William will not Abdicate I abhor the thoughts of Conquering my native Countrey as much as any Man more it seems than The Author of a Letter to a Friend who would allow of it in the Person of K. William and I am against it in any Case But by whom are we to be Conquered and to whom must the Conquest belong Are we to be Conquered by such Troops as K. James in point of Prudence and according to the practises of all Ages in the like Case must bring with him for the defence of his Person and the untying of that Force which the Prince hath put upon us I know no reason why it may not be as Lawful for K. James to bring Fifteen thousand Men to assist him in recovering his Throne as it was for the P. of O. to bring the like Number to chase him out of it and that without giving any Jealousie to us of a Conquest Thrice that Number were too few to make a Conquest of this Island and I hope they will be so well seconded and so far out numbered by the Accession of his own Subjects upon a feeling Discovery of the Pr. of Orange's Tyranny as well as of the Injustice done their King as may justly Stamp it a Revolution brought about by English Men who have Conquered their Passions and not their Countrey rescued and not enslaved the Nation and who have preserved and not endangered their Religion Is this imaginary Conquest to make us Slaves to the Fr. King or Catholicks and Slaves to K. James I cannot believe the first For I do not think K. James so much in love with the French King as to make him a Present of Three Crowns to the prejudice of Himself and his Posterity and so become either his Subject or his Vassal These are suppositions fit only to pass upon Children deserves no serious Answer and plainly shews the weakness of the Cause which can furnish no better Reasons wherewith to defend it As to the last The French King will never force us to be Catholicks for the Reasons already assigned and it doth as little agree with his Interest to have us Slaves to our Monarch Friendships are
Troops which were under Pay by their unheard of Plunderings Robberies and Oppressions committed upon the poor Protestants within their Lines gave such Examples of Insolence and loose Discipline that the Irish could be no longer restrained as formerly thô they never acted so extravagantly as the others And I dare appeal to all the Irish Protestants if the greatest part of the ruine of that miserable Country be not due to the Plunderings Abuses and want of Discipline in King William's Army which though Protestant and Reformers did far outdoe the wild Irish in desolating the Country without regard to Friend or Foe And I have heard many Irish Protestants affirm That their Preservation and Protection was due to K. James's own particular Care over them As to the Proceedings of the Irish Parliament he did so much wrestle against them was so little Master of himself and Actions and so much in the hands of Irish that he is rather to be pitied than blamed for them And 't is very hard and unreasonable that when a King is forced from a Throne by his Protestant Subjects and opposed by them in his Endeavours after the recovery of his Inheritance and so necessitated to betake himself to the Assistance Protection and Services of Catholicks unless he would Renounce his undoubted Rights which neither the Laws of God nor Man oblige him to that Acts of Grace which his Circumstances and the necessity of their Assistance forced from him should be charged upon him as Crimes Let us labour for his Restauration let us get him into our hands and deliver him from that cruel Necessity which carries him farther than his Inclinations would otherwise do and whenever he is at liberty to act as an Englishman he will convince us that he is such The Treatment that Charles I. met with is a sad Instance of the Vanity of all human Greatness and a lasting Reproach to our Nation but reacheth a more pertinent and apposite Reproof to K. William's Conduct than K. James's The most considerable and important points which occasioned those fatal Disputes betwixt that Prince and his People were illegal Imprisonments the undue refusal of Liberty to Prisoners upon Bail the free quarterings and Plunderings of Soldiers and the unwarrantable exacting of Money from the Subject without Consent of Parliament Are not all these illegal and arbitrary practices frequently repeated in this Government and without any Precedent from K. James's Reign The many Pages imploy'd by the Author of A Letter to a Friend concerning the French Invasion to prove That the Non-swearing Protestants as well as others can merit nothing by their endeavours for the King's Restauration but a bare Pardon at most discovers more Logick and Method in dividing of his Text than true solid and convincing Reason For since a few Scotish Gentlemen who had acted warmly and vigorously against him and could contribute but little to his Service were able to procure not only Pardon but those great and important Securities for their Religion and the Liberties of their Country which K. William had refused to the Desires and Addresses of a Parliament that had given him the Crown and pre engaged his Consent before the Gift Is it to be imagined That so many worthy Prelates Lords Gentlemen and inferiour Clergy who have testified so much Zeal Firmness and Fidelity by their Sufferings joyn'd with the early Repentance and vigorous Endeavors of others for his Service who have been hitherto blinded and misled will not prove of more Weight Importance and Consideration with him be as kindly treated and their Country for their sakes Or rather will not all Securities for Religion and Liberty be granted from a due regard to their Application as well as from his own Inclination Neither is it to be feared that any of their former Measures which unhappily and accidentally have contributed towards that Ferment which begot this Revolution will be remembred against them since the King is sensible how far he himself was imposed upon as well as his Subjects by the Cunning and Artifice of wicked and corrupted Ministers which were about him And whatever Jealousies this Author may labour to infuse into the minds of People of the firey and lax Principles of the Jacobites with Relation to the Protestant Religion Church of England and English Liberties there are Jacobites whose Principles are better more fixed and rational who have already and will upon all occasions never fail to give greater and more generous Testimonies of their zeal and affection for the Establishment and Security of those great Concerns than any can be brought by our present Ministers and topping Reformers and who will never be found with this Author in justifying a Conquest of their native Country The Caution which is given us against another Revolution lest the Monarchy receive more vigour from a Restauration than is convenient for the Liberties of the Subject which the Author fortifies from an Instance in the Return of Charles II. at which time betwixt zeal flattery and fear the King encreased in Power and the People lost their Liberties concludes very strongly against himself and for what I have been all along pressing If we do but consider the true reason of those Concessions made in favour of the Monarchy upon the Return of K. Charles the Nation was so wearied out exhausted and undone by the Tyrannies and Executions Taxes Imprisonments and other arbitrary Courses against their Liberties and Properties that were practiced during that Anarchy which intervened betwixt the Murther of the Father and Return of the Son that upon a Prospect of some Relief by the reestablishment of the antient Monarchy the People fell into such Raptures of Joy which never fails of making Subjects so liberal to Princes as many times occasions a hearty but late Repentance If K. William continue a little longer to oppress our Liberties and drein our Purses or if the Title of Conquest be advanced we shall be infallibly exposed to the like hazard again which cannot be prevented but by an early Return to our Duty whilst we have some Patience Wit and Money left to enable us to take care of our selves and our Posterity The hard and difficult Questions which this Author thinks he hath gravelled us with and the obligation of the Oaths of Allegiance to K. William comes next to be considered The first Question is Whether we think our selves bound in Conscience to fight for Popery against the Protestant Faith I Answer not nor doth this Answer make any thing for King William since in no Sense can the fighting for the Restauration of King James be called the fighting for Popery against the Protestant Religion for it is both K. James's Interest and his Inclination to return upon a Protestant Foot and by assisting him in it we vindicate the Honor of our Religion and rescue it from the Dangers which threatens it from this Reign The second Question is Whether we think our selves bound in Conscience to fight for