so Important and Laudable a Cause and not to be hindred and prevented by those that were evil inclined towards it it was necessary to pass over into that Kingdom accompanied with some Military Forces hath thereupon made known his Intentions to their Highnesses and desired Assistance from their Highnesses that their Highnesses having maturely weighed all things and considered that the King of France and Great Britain stood in very good Correspondence and Friendship one with the other which their Highnesses have been frequently very well assured of and in a strict and particular Alliance and that their Highnesses were informed and advertised that their Majesties had laboured upon a Concert to divide and separate this State from its Alliances and that the King of France hath upon several occasions shew'd himself dissatisfied with this State which gave cause to fear and apprehend that in case the King of Great Britain should happen to compass his Aim within his Kingdom and obtain an absolute Power over his People that then both Kings out of Interest of State and Hatred and Zeal against the Protestant Religion would endeavour to bring this State to Confusion and if possible quite to subject it have resolved to commend His Highness in his undertaking of the above said Designs and to grant to him for his Assistance some Ships and Militia as Auxiliaries that in pursuance thereof His Highness hath declared to their Highnesses that he is resolved with God's Grace and Favour to go over into England not with the least insight or intention to invade or subdue that Kingdom or to remove the King from his Throne much less to make himself Master thereof or to invert or prejudice the Lawful Succession as also not to drive thence or persecute the Roman Catholicks but only and solely to help that Nation in re-establishing the Laws and Priviledges that have been broken as also in maintaining their Religion and Liberty and to that end to further and bring it about that a free and lawful Parliament may be call'd in such manner and of such Persons as are regulated and qualified by the Laws and Form of that Government and that the said Parliament may deliberate upon and establish all such Matters as shall be judged necessary to assure and secure the Lords the Clergy Gentry and People that their Rights Laws and Priviledges shall be no more violated or broken that their High and Mightinesses hope and trust that with God's Blessing the Repose and Unity of that Kingdom shall be re-established and the same be thereby brought into a Condition to be able powerfully to concur to the common benefit of Christendom and to the restoring and maintaining of Peace and Tranquillity in Europe That Copies hereof be delivered to all their Foreign Ministers residing here to be used by them as they shall see occasion The P. O's Letter to the English Army Gentlemen and Friends VVE have given you so full and so true an Account of our Intentions in this Expedition in our Declaration that as we can add nothing to it so we are sure you can desire nothing more of us We are come to preserve your Religion and to restore and establish your Liberties and Properties and therefore we cannot suffer our selves to doubt but that all true English-Men will come and concur with us in our desire to secure these Nations from POPERY and SLAVERY You must all plainly see that you are only made use of as Instruments to enslave the Nation and ruine the Protestant Religion and when that is done you may judg what ye your selves ought to expect both from the cashiering of all the Protestant and English Officers and Souldiers in Ireland and by the Irish Souldiers being brought over to be put in your places and of which you have seen so fresh an Instance that we need not put you in mind of it You know how many of your fellow-Officers have been used for their standing firm to the Protestant Religion and to the Laws of England and you cannot flatter your selves so far as to expect to be better used if those who have broke their word so often should by your means be brought cut of those Straits to which they are reduced at present We hope likewise that you 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 Country 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 Country and securing your Religion and we will ever remember the Service you shall do Us upon this Occasion and will promise unto 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 will 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. An Account of a wicked Design of Poysoning the PRINCE of Orange before he came out of Holland ALSO A Relation from the City of Orange of a strange METEOR representing a Crown of Light that was there seen in the Air May the 6 th 1688. In a Letter from a Gentleman in Amsterdam to his Friend in London Octob. 1. 1688. SIR THE two inclosed Relations are sent me from an Eminent Divine now at the Hague you will do well to make them publick The poysoning Business I doubt not but was contriv'd by a sort of Men that in all Ages stick at nothing to carry on their Bloody Religion An Account of a Design of Poisoning the PRINCE of ORANGE THere is a Man of Lunenburg Wolfenbuttel who being fallen in Debt in Amsterdam upon his Father's Death his Brother taking no Care of him was put in Prison and brought extream low yet he was brought out by the means of a Friend And soon after a Man who pretended to know him and to have seen him before though the German believes he never saw him seem'd to take pitty on him seeing him in a Coffee-House and gave him a Ducatoon and promised he should never want so he entred into a great familiarity with him but would never let him know where he lodged only he gave him Appointments in Coffee-Houses and Taverns and fed him from time to time with Mony At last after some weeks he drew him into a secret Walk in the Grounds that are not yet built and ask'd him if he had a Heart to do a bold Thing The German said he had if it were not such a Thing as might bring him to a Scaffold The other said There was no Danger only it would require a little hardiness Then he ask'd an
falling off of the Nobility and Gentry who avow to have no other End than to prevail with the King to secure their Religion which they saw so much in danger by the Violent Counsels of the Priests who to promote their own Religion did not care to what Dangers they exposed the King I am fully perswaded that the Prince of Orange designs the King's Safety and Preservation and hope all things may be composed without more Bloodshed by the Calling a Parliament God grant a happy End to these Troubles that the King's Reign may be prosperous and that I may shortly meet You in perfect Peace and Safety till when let me beg You to continue the same favourable Opinion that you have hitherto had of Your most Obedient Daughter and Servant ANNE A MEMORIAL OF THE Protestants of the Church of England Presented to their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of ORANGE YOur Royal Highnesses cannot be ignorant that the Protestants of England who continue true to their Religion and the Government established by Law have been many ways troubled and vexed by restless Contrivances and Designs of the Papists under pretence of the Royal Authority and things required of unaccountable before God and Man Ecclesiastical Benefices and Preferments taken from them without any other Reason but the King's Pleasure that they have been summoned and sentenced by Ecclesiastical Commissioners contrary to Law deprived of their Birth-Right in the free Choice of their Magistrates and Representatives divers Corporations dissolved the Legal Security of our Religion and Liberty established and ratified by King and Parliament annull'd and overthrown by a pretended Dispensing Power new and unheard-of Maxims have been preached as if Subjects had no Right but what depends on the King's Will and Pleasure The Militia put into the Hands of Persons not qualified by Law and a Popish Mercenary Army maintained in the Kingdom in Time of Peace absolutely contrary to Law The Execution of the Law against several high Crimes and Misdemenours superceded and prohibited the Statutes against Correspondence with the Court of Rome Papal Jurisdiction and Popish Priests suspended that in Courts of Justice those Judges are displaced who dare acquit them whom the K. would have condemned as happened to Judg Powel and Holloway for acquitting the seven Bishopâ— Liberty of chusing Members of Parliament notwithstanding all the Care taken and Provision made by Law on that behalf wholly taken away by Quo Warranto's served against Corporations and the three known Questions All things carried on in open view for the Propagation and Growth of Popery for which the Courts of England and France have so long jointly laboured with so much Application and Earnestness Endeavours used to perswade your Royal Highnesses to consent to Liberty of Conscience and abrogating the Penal Laws and Tests wherein they fell short of their Aim That they most humbly implore the Protection of your Royal Highnesses as to the suspending and Incroachments made upon the Law for maintenance of the Protestant Religion our Civil and Fundamental Rights and Priviledges and that your Royal Highnesses would be pleased to insist that the Free Parliament of England according to Law may be restored the Laws against Papists Priests Papal Jurisdiction c. put in Execution and the Suspending and Dispensing Power declared null and void the Rights and Priviledges of the City of London the free Choice of their Magistrates and the Liberties as well of that as other Corporations restored and all things returned to their ancient Channel c. THE PRINCE of ORANGE HIS DECLARATION of Novemb. 28. 1688. WE have in the course of our whole Life and more particularly by the apparent Hazards both by Sea and Land to which We have so lately exposed our Person given to the whole World so high and undoubted Proofs of our fervent Zeal for the Protestant Religion that we are fully confident no true English-man and good Protestant can entertain the least Suspicion of our firm Resolution rather to spend our dearest Blood and perish in the Attempt than not carry on the blessed and gloâ—ious Design which by the Favour of Heaven we have so successfully begun to rescue England Scotland and Ireland from Slavery and Popery and in a Free Parliament to establish the Religion the Laws and the Liberties of those Kingdoms upon such a sure and lasting Foundation that it shall not be in the Power of any Prince for the future to introduce Popery and Tyranny Towards the more easy Composing this great Design We have not been hitherto deceived in the just Expectation we had of the Concurrence of the Nobility Gentry and People of England with Us for the Security of their Religion the Restitution of the Laws and Re-establishment of their Liberties and Properties Great Numbers of all Ranks and Qualities having joined themselves to us and others at great Distances from Us have taken up Arms and declared for Us. And which we cannot but particular mention in that Army which was raised to be the Instrument of Slavery and Popery many by the special Providence of God both Officers and Common Souldiers have been touched with such a feeling Sense of Religion and Honour and of true Affection for their Native Country that they have already deserted the Illegal Service they were ingaged in and have come over to Us and have given Us full Assurance from the rest of the Army that they will certainly follow this Example as soon as with our Army we shall approach near enough to receive them without the Hazard of being prevented and betray'd To which End and that We may the sooner execute this just and necessary Design We are ingaged in for the Publick Safety and Deliverance of these Nations We are resolved with all possible Diligence to advance forward that a Free Parliament may be forthwith called and such Preliminaries adjusted with the King and all Things first settled upon such a Foot according to Law as may give Us and the whole Nation just Reason to believe the King is disposed to make such necessary Condescentions on his part as will give intire Satisfaction and Security to all and make both King and People once more Happy And that we may effect all this in the way most agreeable to our Desires if it be possible without the Effusion of any Blood except of those execrable Criminâ—als who have justly forfeited their Lives for betraying the Religion and Subverting the Laws of their Native Country We do think fit to declare that as we will offer no Violence to any but in our own Necessary Defence so we will not suffer any Injury to be done to the Person even of a Papist provided he be found in such Place and in such Condition and Circumstances as the Laws require So we are resolved and do declare that all Papists who shall be found in open Arms or with Arms in their Houses or about their Persons or in any Office or Imployment Civil or Military upon any
his Highness the Prince of Orange and with one another to stick firm to this Cause and to one another in the Defence of it and never to depart from it until our Religion Laws and Liberties are so far secured to us in a Free Parliament that we shall be no more in danger of falling under Popery and Slavery And whereas We are ingaged in the Common Cause under the Protection of the Prince of Orange by which means his Person may be exposed to Danger and to the desperate and cursed Designs of Papists and other Bloody Men We do therefore solmnly ingage to God and to one another That if any such Attempts be made upon Him We will pursue not only those that made them but all their Adherents and all we find in Arms against Us with the utmost Seveâ—â—ty of just Revenge in their Ruine and Destruction and that the executing any such Attempt which God of his Infinite Mercy forbid shall not deprive us from pursuing this Cause which we do now undertake but that it shall encourage Us to carry it on with all the Vigor that so barbarous Approach shall deserve The Declaration of the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty at the Rendezvous at Nottingham Nov. 22. 1688. WE the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of these Northern Counties assembled together at Nottingham for the defence of the Laws Religion and Properties according to those free-born Liberties and Priviledges 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 hath been of late too apparent 1. By the King's dispensing with all the Establish'd 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 incâ—pable by the Establish'd Laws of our Land. 3. By destroying the Charters of most Corporations in the Land. 4. By discouraging all persons that are not Papists 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 meerly 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 8. By discountenancing the Establish'd Reformed Religion 9. By forbiding 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 and Tyrannical Government that is by the Influence of Jesuitical Counsels 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 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 Insolencies and Usurpations for we assure our selves that no rational and unbyassed Person will judg it Rebellion to defend our Laws and Religion which all our Princes have sworn at their Coronations Which Oath how well it hath been observed of late we desire a Free Parliament may have 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 an 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 pesent restoring of Charters and reversing the oppressing and unjust Judgment given on Magdalen Colledge Fellows is plain are but to still the people like Plums 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 assoon as they shall be resetled the former Oppression will be put on with greater vigour but we hope in vain is the Net spread in the sight of the Birds For 1. 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 Heresy And 2. Queen Mary's so ill observing her promises to the Suffolk-men that help'd her to her Throne And above all 3. the Popes 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 His Grace the Duke of NORFOLK's Speech to the Mayor of NORWICH on the First of December in the Market-place of Norwich Mr. MAYOR NOT doubting but you and the rest of your Body as well as the whole City and Country may be allarmed by the great Concourse of Gentry with the numerous Appearance of their Friends and Servants as well as of your own Militia here this Morning I have thought this the most proper place as being the most publick one to give you an account of our Intentions Out of the deep sense we had that in the present unhappy Juncture of Affairs nothing we could think of was possible to secure the Laws Liberties and Protestant Religion but a Free Parliament WE ARE HERE MET TO DECLARE that we will do our utmost to defend the same by declaring for such a Free Parliament And since His Majesty hath been pleased by the News we hear this day to order Writs for a Parliament to sit the 15 th of Ianuary next Iâ— can only add in the Name of my Self and all these Gentlemen and others here met That we will ever be ready to support and defend the Laws Liberties and
Estates that they are not to be subjected to the Arbitrary Proceedings of Papists that are contrary to Law put into any Employments Civil or Military Both We our selves and our Dearest and most Entirely Beloved Consort the Princess have endeavoured to signify in terms full of Respect to the King the just and deep Regret which all these Proceedings have given us and in Compliance with his Majesties Desires signified to us We declared both by word of Mouth to his Envoy and in writing what our Thoughts were touching the repealing of the Test and Penal Laws which we did in such a manner that we hoped we had proposed an Expedient by which the Peace of those Kingdoms and a happy Agreement among the Subjects of all Perswasions might have been settled but those Evil Counsellors have put such ill Constructions on these our good Intentions that they have endeavoured to alienate the King more and more from us as if We had designed to disturb the Quiet and Happiness of the Kingdom The last and great Remedy for all those Evils is the calling of a Parliament for securing the Nation against the evil Practices of those wicked Counsellors but this could not be yet compassed nor can it easily be brought about For those Men apprehending that a lawful Parliament being once assembled they would be brought to an account for all their open Violations of Law and for their Plots and Conspiracies against the Protestant Religion and the Lives and Liberties of the Subjects they have endeavoured under the specious Pretence of Liberty of Conscience first to sow Divisions among Protestants between those of the Church of England and the Dissenters The Design being laid to engage Protestants that are all equally concerned to preserve themselves from Popish Oppression into mutual Quarellings that so by these some Advantages might be given to them to bring about their Designs and that both in the Election of the Members of Parliament and afterwards in the Parliament it self For they see well that if all Protestants could enter into a mutual good Understanding one with another and concur together in the preserving of their Religion it would not be possible for them to compass their wicked Ends. They have also required all Persons in the several Counties of England that either were in any Imployment or were in any considerable Esteem to declare before-hand that they would concur in the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws and that they would give their Voices in the Elections to Parliament only for such as would concur in it Such as would not thus preingage themselves were turned out of all Imployments and others who entred into those Engagements were put into their places many of them being Papists And contrary to the Charters and Priviledges of those Buroughs that have a Right to send Burgesses to Parliament they have ordered such Regulations to be made as they thought fit and necessary for assuring themselves of all the Members that are to be chosen by those Corporations and by this means they hope to avoid that Punishment which they have deserved tho it is apparent that all Acts made by Popish Magistrates are null and void of themselves so that no Parliament can be lawful for which the Elections and Returns are made by Popish Sheriffs and Mayors of Towns and therefore as long as the Authority and Magistracy is in such hands it is impossible to have any lawful Parliament And tho according to the Constitution of the English Government and immemorial Custom all Elections of Parliament-Men ought to be made with an entire Liberty without any sort of Force or the requiring the Electors to chuse such Persons as shall be named to them and the Persons thus freely elected ought to give their Opinions freely upon all matters that are brought before them having the Good of the Nation ever before their Eyes and following in all things the Dictates of their Consciences yet now the People of England cannot expect a Remedy from a free Parliament legally called and chosen But they may perhaps see one called in which all Elections will be carried by Fraud or Force and which will be composed of such Persons of whom those Evil Counsellors hold themselves well assured in which all things will be carried on according to their Direction and Interest without any regard to the Good or Happiness of the Nation Which may appear evidently from this that the same Persons tried the Members of the last Parliament to gain them to consent to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws and procured that Parliament to be dissolved when they found that they could not neither by Promises nor Threatnings prevail with the Members to comply with their wicked Designs But to crown all There are great and violent Presumptions inducing us to believe that those Evil Counsellors in order to the carrying on of their ill Designs and to the gaining to themselves the more time for the effecting of them for the encouraging their Complices and for the discouraging of all good Subjects have published that the Queen hath brought forth a Son tho there have appeared both during the Queen's pretended Bigness and in the manner in which the Birth was managed so many just and visible grounds of Suspicion that not only We our selves but all the good Subjects of those Kingdoms do vehemently suspect that the pretended Prince of Wales was not born by the Queen And it is notoriously known to all the World that many both doubted of the Queen's Bigness and of the Birth of the Child and yet there was not any one thing done to satisfie them or to put an end to their Doubts And since our Dearest and most Entirely Beloved Consort the Princess and likewise We our Selves have so great an Interest in this Matter and such a Right as all the World knows to the Succession to the Crown Since also the English did in the Year 1672. when the States General of the Vnited Provinces were invaded in a most unjust War use their uttermost Endeavours to put an end to that War and that in opposition to those who were then in the Government and by their so doing they run the hazard of losing both the Favour of the Court and their Imployments And since the English Nation has â—ver testified a most particular Affection and Esteem both to our Dearest Consort the Princess and to Our Selves We cannot excuse our selves from espousing their Interests in a Matter of such high Consequence and from contributing all that lies in us for the maintaining both of the Protestant Religion and of the Laws and Liberties of those Kingdoms and for the securing to them the continual Enjoyment of all their just Rights To the doing of which we are most earnestly solicited by a great many Lords both Spiritual and Temporal and by many Gentlemen and other Subjects of all Ranks Therefore it is that we have thought fit to go over to England and to carry over
the proceeding of a Parliament But if to the great Misfortune and Ruine of these Kingdoms it should prove otherwise We further Declare That We will to our utmost defend the Protestant Religion the Laws of the Kingdom and the Rights and Liberties of the Subject A Letter from a Gentleman at Kings-Lyn Decemb 7. 1688. to his Friend in London SIR THE Duke of Norfolk came to Town on Wednesday Night with many of the chiefest of the County and yesterday in the Market-place received the Address following which was presented by the Mayor attended by the Body and many hundreds of the Inhabitants To his Grace the most Noble HENRY Duke of Norfolk Lord Marshal of England My Lord THE daily Allarums we receive as well from Foreign as Domestick Enemies give us just Apprehensions of the approaching Danger which we conceive we are in and to apply with all earnestness to your Grace as our great Patron in all humble Confidence to succeed in our Expectations That we may be put into such a posture by your Grace's Directions and Conduct as may make us appear as zealous as any in the Defence of the Protestant Religion the Laws and Ancient Government of this Kingdom Being the desire of many hundreds who most humbly challenge a Right of your Grace's Protection His Grace's Answer Mr. Mayor I Am very much obliged to you and the rest of your Body and those here present for your good Opinion of me and the Confidence you have that I will do what in me lies to support and defend the Laws Liberties and Protestant Religion in which I will never deceive you And since the coming of the Prince of Orange hath given us an opportunity to declare for the defence of them I can only assure you that no Man will venture his Life and Fortune more freely for the Defence of the Laws Liberties and Protestant Religion than I will do and with all these Gentlemen here present and many more will unanimously concur therein and you shall see that all possible Care shall be taken that such a Defence shall be made as you require AFter which the Duke was with his Retinue received at the Mayor's House at Dinner with great Acclamations and his Proceedings therein have put our County into a Condition of Defence of which you shall hear further in a little time our Militia being ordered to be raised throughout the County Our Tradesmen Seamen and Mobile have this morning generally put Orange Ribbon on their Hats Ecchoing Huzza's to the Prince of Orange and Duke of Norfolk All are in a hot Ferment God send us a good issue of it Lyn-Regis Decemb. 10. 1688. SIR BY mine of the 7 th Instant I gave you an Account of the Address of this Corporation to hiâ— Grace the Duke of Norfolk and of his Grace's Answer thereto Since which his Grace has sent for the Militia Troops and put them in a posture of Defence as appears by the ensuing Speech The Duke of Norfolk's Second Speech at Lynn I Hope you see I have endeavoured to put you in the posture you desired by sending both for Horse and Foot of the Militia and am very glad to see such an Appearance of this Town in so good a Condition And I do again renew my former Assurances to you that I will ever stand by you to defend the Laws Liberties and the Protestant Religion and to procure a Settlement in Church and State in concurrence with the Lords and Gentlemen in the North and pursuant to the Declaration of the Prince of Orange And so God save the King. The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in and about the Cities of London and Westminster Assembled at Guildhal Dec. 1688. WE doubt not but the World believes that in this Great and Dangerous Conjuncture We are heartily and zealously concerned for the Protestant Religion the Laws of the Land and the Liberties and Properties of the Subject And We did reasonably hope that the King having Issued His Proclamation and Writs for a Free Parliament We might have rested Secure under the Expectation of that Meeting But His Majesty having withdrawn Himself and as We apprehend in order to His Departure out of this Kingdom by the Pernicious Counsels of Persons ill Affected to Our Nation and Religion We cannot without being wanting to Our Duty be silent under those Calamities wherein the Popish Counsels which so long prevailed have miserably involved these Realms We do therefore Unanimously resolve to apply Our Selves to His Highness the Prince of Orange who with so great Kindness to these Kingdoms so vast Expence and so much hazard to his own Person hath Undertaken by endeavouring to Procure a Free Parliament to rescue Us with as little Effusion as possible of Christian Blood from the imminent Dangers of Popery and Slavery And We do hereby Declare That We will with our utmost Endeavours assist his Highness in the obtaining such a Parliament with all speed wherein Our Laws Our Liberties and Properties may be Secured the Church of England in particular with a due Liberty to Protestant Dissenters and in general the Protestant Religion and Interest ovâ—r the whole World may be Supported and Encouraged to the Glory of God the Happiness of the Established Government in these Kingdoms and the Advantage of all Princes and States in Christendom that may be herein concerned In the mean time We will Endeavour to Preserve as much as in Us lies the Peace and Security of these great and populous Cities of London and Westminister and the Parts Adjacent by taking Care to Disarm all Papists and Secure all Jesuits and Romish Priests who are in or about the same And if there be any thing more to be performed by Us for promoting His Higness's Generous Intentions for the Publick Good We shall be ready to do it as occasion shall Require W. Cant. Tho Ebor. Pembroke Dorset Mulgrave Thanet Carlisle Craven Ailesbury Burlington Sussex Berkeley Rochester Newport Weymouth P. Winchester W. Asaph Fran. Ely. Tho. Roffen Tho. Petribtrg P. Wharton North and Grey Chandos Montague T. Iermyn Vaughan Carbery Culpeper Crewe Osulston WHereas His Majesty hath privately this Morning withdrawn himself We the Lords Spiritual and Temporal whose Names are Subscribed being assembled at Guild-hall in London having Agreed upon and Signed a Declaration Entituled The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in and about the Cities of London and Westminister Assembled at Guild-hall 11 Decemb. 1688. Do desire the Right Honourable the Earl of Pembroke the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Weymouth the Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of Ely and the Right Honourable the Lord Culpeper forthwith to attend his Highness the Prince of Orange with the said Declaration and at the same time acquaint his Highness with what we have further done at that Meeting Dated at Guild-hall the 11 th of December 1688. A Paper delivered to his Highness the Prince of Orange by the Commissioners sent by
since obtained as such Hence I infer that the present Convention may if they please assume to themselves a Parliamentary Power and in Conjunction with such King or Queen as they shall declare may give Laws to the Kingdom as a legal Parliament A LETTER to a Member of the CONVENTION SIR I Hear you are elected a Member of this next Convention and therefore expect to see you very suddenly in Town but I caâ— tell you my mind more freely in Writing and you may think better of it when you see it before you and therefore I have rather chose to give you the trouble of this Paper than to leave all to a personal Conference at our next Meeting I will not dispuâ—e with you about what is past or what is to come it is too late to do the first and as for the second whatever becomes of other Arguments Interest is most apt to prevail and therefore all that I beg of you is to take care that you do not mistake your own and the Nations Interest in a matter of such high Concernment There is no less Affair before you than the Fate of Princes and of three Kingdoms which requires the most calm mature and deliberate Advice and yet when you come to London you will find such Distractions and Divisions in Mens Counsels that all the threatning Dangers of Popery were not a more formidable prospect to Considering Men all old Animosities are revived and new ones fomented every day some are visibly acted by Ambition others by Revenge the Dissenter is very busie to undermine the Church and the Commonwealths Man to subvert Monarchy and the Lord have Mercy upon us all I doubt not but you will readily confess that it is the common Interest to have things settled upon such a bottom as is most like to last and then I am sure you must consult both Law and Conscience in the matter and keep to your old Establishment as near as you can for when there are so many Distempers in Mens Minds and such contrary Interests it is no time to innovate it is no time to lay new Foundations when there are frequent Earthquakes which will not give them time to settle The Revolutions of State have been so quick and sudden of late that all prudent Men will be cautions how they try Experiments which are commonly dangerous and uncertain but especially in matters of Government which depend on the good liking of free and moral Agents and when so many Hundred Thousands are to be satisfied you can never guess at the prevailing Opinion by the major Vote of a Convention Let us then consider what is most likely to give the most general satisfaction to the Nation for that I am sure is most likely to be lasting and because you may be a Stranger to these Matters yet I will give you an Account of the different Projects now on foot as well as I can learn them Some are for sending to the King and Treating with him to return to his Government under such Legal Restraints as shall give security to the most jealous Persons for the preservation of their Liberties Laws and Religion and if he will not consent to this to make the next Heir Regent Others are for declaring the Crown forfeited or demised and proclaiming the Princess of Orange Others will have the Government dissolved and begin all de novo and make the Prince of Orange King or Crown him and the Princess together and postpone the Title of the Princess Ann till after the Prince's Death if he survive the Princess I shall not pretend to tell you which of these I should prefer were it Res integra for the Question is not which you and I should like best but which will be the firmest Foundation for the Peace and Settlement of these Kingdoms 1. As for the first though it be horribly decried and such Men foolishly exposed as Friends to Popery and Arbitrary Power yet I could never meet with any Man yet who had the face to reject all Treaty with the King upon any other pretence but that it was in vain that it is impossible he should give any Security to the Nation that he would Govern by Law which is so ridiculous a pretence that it will satisfy no Body but those who are resolved that he shall never return For as little as I am versed in this matter I could frame such Laws as should put it utterly out of the King's Power to invade our Liberties or Religion However I am sure we should have thought our selves very secure would the King have called a Free Parliament and given them liberty to have made what Laws they pleaseâ— and that which would have given such general satisfaction before had it been granted I suspect should it be now granted and refused that would give as general dissatisfaction nay the very refusal to Treat will be thought such a scandalous neglect of our Duty to a Sovereign Prince and give such Jealousies to People that those who oppose it are only afraid that the King should comply as will be the foundation of universal Discontents which will shew themselves upon the first occasion It is certain would the Convention Treat with the King either they would agree or they would not agree if they could not agree upon the proposal of reasonable Securities this would satisfie Multitudes of People that they had tried if they did agree this would give universal satisfaction and there were an happy end of all our Troubles But now let us suppose that part of the Convention should prevail which is against Treating with the King and for deposing or setting him aside without more ado let us consider what is like to be the most probable Consequence of this Iâ— is certain this fundamental Change in the Government cannot be made by any Legal Authority for the Convention will not pretend to any such Legal Power and there can be no Parliament without a King and a King whose whole Authority depends upon a Convention that has no such Authority is but in a weak state as to Civil Right No Man will think himself bound in Conscience to obey him and when every Mans Conscience is free let such a Prince beware of Epidemical Discontents And let you and I calmly consider what Discontents may probably arise upon such a Juncture 1. First then All those who think themselves bound by their Oath of Allegiance to defend the King's Person Crown and Dignity who wonder at Men of Law who talk of a Forfeiture or Demise of the Crown while the King lives and flies out of his Kingdoms only for the safety of his Person and because he will not trust himself in the power of his Enemies I say all such Persons will be greatly discontented at Deposing the King and will never own any other King while their own King to whom they have sworn Allegiance lives and tho you should suppose such Conscientious Men to be very few
yet if these few should happen to be Persons of Character of known Prudence and Abilities Integrity and Honesty in Church or State their Examples would give a terrible Shock to such a new tottering Government tho they were never so Tame and Peaceable void of Faction and Sedition themselves And yâ—t lâ—t me tell you you must not judge of the Numbers of â—hese Men by the late general defection The whole Nation I confess was very unanimous for the Prince great numbers of Gentlemen nay of the King 's own Soldiers went over to him very few but Papisâ—s offered their Service to the King but the reason of this was very evident not that they were willing to part with the King and set up another in his room but because they were horribly afraid of Pâ—pery and very desirous to see the Laws and Religion of the Nation settled upon the old Foundations by a Free Parliament which was all the Prince declared for but many who were Well-wishers to this Design will not renounce their Allegiance to their King and now they see what is like to come of iâ— are ashamed of what they have done and ask God's pardon for it and are ready to undo it as far as they can 2. Besides a thousand occasions of Discontent which may happen in such a Change of Government as this which no Body can possibly foresee and yet may have very fatal Consequences there are some very visible occasions for it besides the sense of Loyalty and Conscience How many Discontents think you may arise between the Nobility and Gentry who attend the new Court Every Man will think he has some Merit and expect some marks of Favour to have his share of Honour and Power and Profit and yet a great many more must miss than those who speed and many of those who are Rewarded may think they han't their Deserts and be disconternted to see others preferred before them and those whose expectations are disappointed are disobliged too and that is a dangerous thing when there is another and a righful King to oblige for Duty and Discontent together to be revenged if a new King and to be reconciled to an old One will shake a Throne which has so sandy a Foundation The like may be said of the Soldiery who are generally Men of Honour and Resentment and have the greater and sharper Resentments now because they are sensible of their mistake when it is too late yet as they ought not to have Fought for Popery nor against the Laws and Liberties of their Country fo neither ought they to have deserted the defence of the King's Person and Crown but have brought the Prince to Terms as well as the King. Thus you easily foresee what a heavy Tax must be laid upon the Nation to defray the Charge of this Expedition and I believe the Country would have paid it very chearfully and thankfully had the Prince resâ—ored to them their Laws and Liberties and Religion together with their King but you know Men are apt to complain of every thing when Money is to be paid and it may be it will be thought hard to lose their King and to pay so deaâ— for it too And tho what the Convention does is none of the Prince's fault no more than it was his design yet angry People don't use to distiâ—guish so nicely But there is a greater Difficulty still than all this There are no Contentions so fierce as those about Religion this gave Life and Spirit to the Prince's Design and had the main stroke in this late Revolution And though Popery were a hated Religion yet most Men are as zealous for their own Religion as they are against Popery Those of the Church of England are very glad to get rid of Popery but they will not be contented to part with their Church into the Bargain for this would be as bad as they could have suffered under Popery The several Sects of Dissenters are glad to get rid of Popery also but now they expect glorious Days for themselves and what they expect God Almighty knows for I am confident they don't know themselves Now consider how difficult it will be for any Prince who has but a crazy Title to the immediate possession of the Crown to adjust this matter so as neither to disgust the Church of England nor the Dissenters and if either of them be disobliged there is a formidable Party made against them This being the Case should the King be deposed and any other ascend the Throne it will be necessary for them to keep up a standing Army to quell such Discontents for where there are and will be Discontents without any tye of Conscience to restrain Men there can be no defence but only in Power and this will raise and encrease new Discontents for it alters the frame of our Constitution from a Civil to a Military Government which is one of the great Grievances we have complained of and I believe English People will not be better pleased with Dutch or German or any foreign Souldiers than they were with their own Country-Men and I believe English Souldiers will not be extreamly pleased to see themselves disbanded or sent into other Countries to hazard their Lives while their Places are taken up by Foreigners who live in ease plenty and sasety And when things are come to this pass which is so likely that I cannot â—ee how all the Wit of Man can prevent it I will suppose but one thing more which you will say is not unlikely that the King return with a foreign Force to recover his Kingdoms how ready will the Men of Conscience and the Men of Discontent be to join him nay to invite him Home again and if he returns as a Conqueror you will wish when it is too late that you had treated with him and brought him back upon safe and honourable Terms Secondly Let us suppose now that all this should be over-voted for I am sure it can never be answered and the Convention should resolve to proclaim the next Heir 1. You must be sure to examine well who is the next Heir that is you must throughly examine the Pretences of the Prince of Wales and yet if you have not good Proofs of the Imposture you had better let it alone For tho the Nation has had general presumptions of it yet a Male Heir of the Crown is mightily desired and People would be very fond of him if they had one and seem to expect some better Proofs than meer Presumptions against him because common Fame has promised a great deal more and if you should either say nothing to it or not what is expected it would be a very plausible pretence for discontented People to quarrel 2. Suppose the Princess of Orange should aâ—pear to be the next Heir what if a Lady of her eminent Vertue should scruple to sit upon her Father's Throne while he lives Or what if she should scruple it hereafter and
to return to his Government under such legal Restraints as shall give security to the most jealous Persons for the preservation of their Laws Liberties and Religion iâ— horribly decryed c. yet the only Reason against it is because it is vain Now Sir that Reason is so very good that it may perhaps justily that dreadful Consequence you so shrink at for though I do not doubt but you are a wonderful Legislator yet if Twenty wiser Men than you were joined with you to frame these new Laws yet let but a Popish Prince have the Supreme Executive Power and the Legal Prerogatives and he will break through all your Restrictions with wonderful Facility as we have seen by Experience But then if you leave him the Name and take away the Power of a King you set up a Common-wealth immediately which will not end with your Popish Prince but there will be stickling to keep all things in the same State in the following Reign of what Religion soever the Prince is which was the Reason why the Limitations offered by Charles II. in 1679 were rejected And let it be remember'd also how well that Prince that was supposed to be a Protestant kept his Word and the Solemn League and Covenant which he solemnly with Hands and Eyes lifted up to Heaven swore to observe in Scotland c. Well but we would have thought our selves very secure if the King would hâ—ve called a Free Parliament Yes Sir if he would have call'd it Freely so that it had been the production of his Will without Force but Sir it is notorious he was resolved the Parliament should either not be free or not meet and if your Memory will not serve you to recall the virulent Reflection on the humble Petition presented by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal the 17th of November last in which the Author tells us That the summoning a Parliament 〈◊〉 is so far from being the only way to preseâ—ve His Majesty and the Kingdom that it will be one of the principal causes of much Misery to the Kingdom c. and nothing would do then but driving the Prince of Orange out of the Kingdom with Force and Arms. Now I say Sir If you cannot remember this you shall never be trusted to frame Laws if I can help it There is another and a better Reason to refuse a Treaty than the fearing the King should comply Suppose that he should grant all that you can ask bating White-Hall the Reveâ—â—e the Title of King and the Right of calling Parliaments and making Peace and War What Security have we that he will acquiesce in this low restrained Estate Oaths Laws and Promises we had before but what did they signify Who shall be Guarantee what shall we do if he break out again In short quis eustodiet Custodes So that the many who desire a Treaty are desired to read the Enquiry into the presenâ— State of Affairs that they may not come into the Discipline of the severe Lady who has taught the Protestants in France and Piedmont a Lesson which England too must have gone through with if God and H. W. P. O. had not saved us But if the Convention should refuse to treat and Depose the King it would act without a Legal Power § 8. Why Sir here is no occasion to talk of a Deposition the King is gone of his own accord freely and they are only to consider whether we shall perish in a State of Anarchy reâ—al him and suffer over again all that is past and all that was intended but prevented or whether they shall recognize the next immediate Heir and enquire who that is Well but the next Heir it seems shall have small joy of it his whole Authority depending on a Convention that has no Authority In good time Will the Authority of this Prince when acknowledged depend on the Authority of the Convention Did Queen Elizabeth or King Iames I owe all their Authority to the Parliaments which recognized their respective Rights But no Man will think himself bound in Conscience to obey this Heir Have you Sir the keeping of all Mens Consciences or the knowledg of their Thoughts I can assure you mine is not in your custody § 9. All those who think themselves bound still by their Oath of Allegiance to defend the King's Person his Crown and Dignity c. will be greatly discontented Why Sir then they may go over into France and be admitted into his Guards and perhaps the generous Allowance given him by the French King will maintain them if their Heresie do not over-ballance their Loyalty and turn it into a Crime as it happened to the Hâ—gonots Well but they will never own any other whilst their own King lives Assuredly this is a wonderful Man if he could but as certainly inform us of the number as he can of the Thoughts and future Actions of these Loyalist's Well but if they should happen to be Persons of known Prudence Abilities Integrity Honesty though they were never so few and never so tame it would give a terrible stroke to this Toâ—tâ—ring Government Why Sir all or the greatest part of such Men in the Nation were a dreadful Body tho they were and ever will be few but Sir there must be a considerable Body of such Men first satisfied in the Convention a number without Doors are already satisfied and more will when the States have passed their Resolves and the remainder of the Men of this High Character who will still remain Discontented if they are any thing Peaceable though not over Tame will never be able to shock the most Tâ—â—tering Government in the World by their Examples how well soever he thinks of them Yet § 10. He endeavours to shew the number will not be small because many who joyned with the Prince are ashamed of what they have done and ask God pardon for is and are ready â—o undo it as far as they can Well Sir how many such do you know besides your self A List of these Men were worth the having and may perhaps be easily taken if one knew how to separate them from the rest however I should not fear greatly the terrible Shock of these wonderful Men till I had better information of their Numbers than you can possibly give us They were not willing to part with the King tho they were horribly afraid of Popery Why Sir has the King changed his Religion in France or are those Gentlemen so fond of the King that they would now be contented to suffer all that Popery threatned so lately Or are they become as weary of their Delivery as they were before of Popery Or will they sacrifice their Laws Religion old Foundations and Free Parliaments to their Allegiance to their King If you say Yes I have done if no then you would have what was not to be had and will not be contented with what may be hâ—d and if the Number of these Men is great farewel
Years been Embezl'd to keep up a standing Army of Irish Ragamuffins as if England were now in its Turn to have been conquer'd by Ireland as formerly Ireland had been conquer'd by England From which fears when his present Majesty had delivered the Nation it was but reason that his Army should be pay'd out of the Publick Stock for their happy Toyl and labour For the Publick Revenue of all Kingdoms and States was ever Originally intended for the Preservation and not the Destruction of the People Upon the Disbanding of the Papists the Discusser makes a special Observation That no Test-Acts nor any Others could barr the King from Listing them as Common Souldiers This perhaps may be true that is to say that a Protestant Prince may list Papists and a Popish Prince Protestants to follow him in a lawful War. But when a Popish Prince in a Protestant Nation had made his chiefesâ— Levies of Popish Common Souldiers to over-aw his Protestant Subjects and put his sole Confidence in them for his known and open Designs and manifest Endeavors to introduce Popery into a Protestant Kingdom contrary to the Law 't was time then to think of disbanding such Vermin and ridding them out of the Land. And the reason why the Protestants could not be trusted was as certain For if the King would not trust his Protestants nay disarm'd them when Papists were both arm'd and Employ'd what reason had the Protestants to trust the King. And this was that which among other Things created and foster'd those General and Violent Dissatisfactions in the Nation For Men have naturally a general and violent Antipathy against having their Throats Cut if they can help it And therefore since the Kingdom by a Miraculous Providence had obtain'd its Redemption 't is to be wonder'd the Discusser should imagine 't was ever intended that the late K. should be in a Condition again to oppose either his own or the persons of any others against the Arms of the Prince or those of his own Subjects And whereas he says that the King 's Mortal Enemies were to be the Judges of his Crown and Dignity the Discusser should have done well before he had made his Reflection upon so many Eminent Patriots to have consulted Grotius l. 1. c. 4. Par. 8. and the Example of Pausamias King of Lâ—cedaemon there cited Certainly there was no such Impossibility but that a Free and Indifferent Parliament might have been chosen to deal equally between the King and the People For tho the King perhaps might be conscious that he could not so well rely upon the Kindness of those to whom he had always had such an inveterate Antipathy yet he might have rely'd upon the Justice of so many Great and Worthy Personages So that it is the Discusser himself who out-faces the Sun and tramples upon the Understandings and Senses of the whole Nation who makes these little Rhetorical Flourishes to palliate and obscure the Truth and to insinuate among the People as if Wrong and Injustice had been done where nothing was acted but what was a due debt to Self-Preservation And with the same Brazening the Discusser out-faces the Sun and tramples upon the Senses of the Nation to assert that a Desertion of the Government after such Proposals which were rather Assurances of his Safety was no Desertion He had been safer in the Affection of the People when all his evil Counsellers had been remov'd from about him he had been safer from the Importunities of his Priests and Jesuites He had been more secure from running himself into farther danger and safer in the Enjoyment of his Royal Dignity But he who had so Solemnly sworn to Establish Popery in England or die in the Attempt thought himself no where safe perhapps but where he might be procuring his future Bliss by the Performance of his Vow The Discusser now advances to the King 's second withdrawing and puts the Question what the King had done to incur a forfeiture by his first Retirement Indeed what had he not done If the Discusser â—orgot in his Discussing Heat the Declaration presented to their Present Majesties would have rubb'd up his Memory Among the rest there was one That he had endeavoured to Subvert and Extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom by raising and keeping a Standing Army in the Kingdom in time of Peace without Consent of Parliament and quartering Souldiers contrary to Law and by causing sâ—veral of his good Subjects to be Disarm'd at the same time when Papists were both Arm'd and Employ'd Now to what purpose was all this but to Subject the Kingdom to the Tyranny of the Pope In such a case Barclay cited by Grotious l. 1. c. 4. per. 10. gives this for his Opinion Si Rex regnum alienet aut alij Subjiciat amitti ab eo Regnum To which Grotius himself adds Si Rex reipsa tradere regnum aut Subjicere molliatur quin ei resisti in boc posse non dubite Aliud est enim Imperium aliud habendi modus qui nâ— mutetur obstare poâ—est Populus After all this it cannot be imagin'd that the King returned the second time with an intention to govern unless he might govern at his own will and Pleasure as he did before But that would not be suffer'd him for they who had now avoided the Yoke so near putting about their Necks would never endure it should come so near their shoulders again Therefore all the Probality in the World is on this side That the King perceiving that by taking the Government upon him again he should not be able to attain those Ends which he had made the Business of his whole Reign resolv'd to relinquish it altogether At which time being at liberty to go or stay his Departure must of necessity be accounted Voluntary and consequently an Absolute Abdication Lastly it is impossible that the King could be frighted out of his Dominions by the making of two or three Addresses to his then Royal Highness the Prince of Orange for it was no more than rationally he could expect would be done more especially from the City to the Person who next under God had deliver'd them from their Continual fears of Fire and Sword. Nor by the denying him a little Gold to Heal with which looks like an improbable Story of the Discusser's own framing These are Motions so inconsiderable for a King to forsake his Dominions that the Discusser seems to have Conjur'd them up meerly to degrade the Courage of the Absenting Monarch and to mortify his own Discussion But after all the Question may be fairly put whether Withdrawing in the Construction of our Law does not rather imply a Guilt than an Apprehension of Danger unless it be that of being call'd to an Account since the Query always propounded to the Jury is Did he fly for 't Which indeed ought to be the Legal Determination of this Dispute However the Discusser goes on and tells
accuse him of Capital Crimes but being defeated in that Villanous Attempt they first procured King Charles the Second to withdraw that Protection and Subsistence his Majesty had at the Request of several Parliaments allowed to your Petitioner and then instigated his Royal Highness the Duke of York to prosecute your Petitioner in an Action of Scandalum Magnatum for speaking this notorious Truth viz. That he the said Duke of York was reconciled to the Church of Rome and that It is High Treason to be so reconciled wherein a Verdict and Judgment for one Hundred Thousand Pounds Damages were obtained against your Petitioner and your Petitioner was committed to the King's Bench-Prison After this the same Popish Party obtained leave from King Charles the second to prefer two several Indictments against your Petitioner for two pretended Perjuries in his Evidence concerning the said Conspiracy which they brought on to Tryal in the Reign of King Iames the second and your Petitioner was upon the Evidence of those very Witnesses who had confronted him in three former Tryals and were disbelieved and through the Partial Behahaviour of the Chief Justice Ieffreys in brow-beating his Witnesses and misleading the Juries convicted of the said Pretended Perjuries and received this inhumane and unparallel'd Sentence following viz. To pay two thousand Marks to the King To be devested of his Canonical Habit To be brought into Westminster-Hall with a Paper upon his Head with this Inscription Titus Oates convicted upon full Evidence of two horrid Perjuries To stand in and upon the Pillory two several days for the space of an Hour To be whip'd by the comman Hang-man from Aldgate to Newgate on Wednesday and to be whip'd again on the Friday following from Newgate to Tiburn To stand in and upon the Pillory five times in every Year of his Life and to remain a Prisoner during his Life Which Sentence being intended as your Petitioner hath just reason to believe to murther him was accordingly executed with all the Circumstances of Barbarity he having suffered some thousands of Stripes whereby he was put to unspeakable Tortures and lay ten Weeks under the Surgeons Hands Neither did their Cruelty cease here but because your Petitioner by God's Mercy miraculously supporting him and the extraordinary Skill of a Judicious Chirurgion outlived that Bloody Usage some of them afterwards got into your Petitioner's Chamber whilst he was weak in his Bed and attempted to pull of the Plaisters apply'd to cure his Back and threatned to destroy him And that nothing within their Power or Malice might be wanting to compleat your Petitioner's Misery they procured him to be loaded with Irons of excessive Weight for a whole Year without any Intermission even when his Legs were swoln with the Gout and to be shut up in the Dungeon or Hole of the Prison whereby he became impair'd in his Limbs and contracted Convulsion Fits and other Distempers to the great Hazard of his Life All which illegal Proceedings and barbarous Inhumanities your Petitioner humbly conceives were not only intended as a Revenge upon him but likewise to cast a Reproach upon the Wisdom and Honour of four successive Parliaments who had given him Creâ—it and upon the Publick Justice of the Nation And your Petitioner humbly hopes that since the Papists themselves have verified and confirmed his Evidence by their late open and avowed Violations of our Religion Laws and Liberties this Honourable House will vindicate the Proceedings of former Parliaments and discharge your Petitioner from those Arbitrary and Scandalous Judgments and the unjust Imprisonment he lies under Your Petitioner doth therefore most humbly beseech your Lordships and your Honours to take his deplorable Case into your gâ—nerous and tender Consideration and to give him such Redress â—herein as to your Lordships and your Honours great Wisdom Iustice and Goodness shall seem meet And your Petitioner shall ever pray c. An Account of the Convention of SCOTLAND THE Convention of Scotland met the 14 th of March 168â— in Obedience to the Prince of Orange's Letters They choice the Duke of Hamilton their President after which they had several Debates about the Duke of Gâ—rdon a Papist who keeps the Castle notwithstanding many offers of Surrender does still keep it for King Iames. They read a Letter from the King of England in which he exhorts them to lay aside all Animosities and Factions and mind the Publick Good in securing the Protestant Religion and the ancient Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom on sure and lasting Foundations particularly that they would endeavour a Union between both Kingdoms as one of the best Means for the Happiness of both especially at this time when the common Enemy is restless to procure the ruine of Britain and the Protestant Religion every-where After which a Letter was read from King Iames requiring them to support his Royal Authority by many Threats and Promises which made no Impression on them but after some time they drew up and sent a Letter to King William full of dutiful Respects promising to do that which may be acceptable to him and suitable to the Genius of the Nation After setling the Militia and other State-Matters and having resolved the Power into themselves they appointed a Committee of 24 made up of all the Estates to settle the Government Which Committee have provided for the full Meeting of the Convention Grounds and Reasons on which they have declared the Throne Vacant A SPEECH made by a Member of the Convention of the States in SCOTLAND WE are now called together by his Highness the Prince of Orange to Consult and Deliberate what Methods will be most proper to secure Our Religion Laws and Liberties in order to which the first thing that will fall under our Consideration is the setling the Sovereign Power I take for granted that you are fully convinced that King Iames the Seventh by his many Violations of the Fundamental Laws by his endeavouring to establish a Despotick and Arbitrary Power and introduce Popery tho he himself had confirmed all the Laws that were enacted in Favour of the Protestant Religion has thereby subverted the Constitution and that our Miseries might have no Redress from him has left us in a time when we needed his Protection most The Eyes of all Europe are upon us and it is in our Power to make our Selves and our Posterity either Happy or Miserable by making a choice either to call back the same King Iames and hazard once more all that Men account dear to his Mercy or to settle the Government on some other under whom we may live Quiet and Peaceable Lives without the perpetual Terror of being swallowed up by Popery and Arbitrary Government which all good Men hoped were now banished and yet behold a new Off-spring is sprung up which plead eagerly for both tho under the mistaken Names of Duty and Allegiance It 's strange that any Man can so far degenerate as to prefer Slavery
Burlington Anglesey Rochester Newport Nom. Ebor. W. Asaph Fran. Ely. Tho. Roffen Tho. Petriburg Tho. Oxon. Paget Chandois Osulston We therefore do most earnestly beseech your Majesty That you would be graciously pleased with all speed to Call such a Parliament wherein we shall be most ready to promote such Counsels and Resolutions of Peace and Settlement in Church and State as may conduce to your Majesty's Honour and Safety and to the quieting the Minds of your People We do likelise humbly beseech your Majesty in the mean time to use such means for the preventing the Effusion of Christian Blood as to your Majesty shall seem most meet His Majesty's most Gracious Answer My LORDS WHAT You ask of Me I most passionately desire And I promise You upon the Faith of a King That I will have a Parliament and such an One as You ask for as soon as ever the Prince of Orange has quitted this Realm For How is it possible a Parliament should be Free in all its Circumstances as You Petition for whil'st an Enemy is in the Kingdom and can make a Return of near an Hundred Voices The Lords Petition with the King's Answer may be printed Novemb. 20. 1688. A Modest Vindication of the Petition of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for the Calling of a Free Parliament THIS Dâ—fence is grounded upon three Fundamental Principles I. The Right of Petitioning II. The Necessity III. The Duty I. It is the undoubted Right of the Subjects to Petition being founded upon an Act of Parliament and the highest Reason in the World for that is a very monstrous Government where the People must not approach their King and acquaint him with their Grievances The People have the greatest Property in the Land and therefore the most concern'd when a Foreign Enemy is upon it their Welfare is the Supream Law and yet they must not desire to meet in order to consult their own Preservation The Jesuits the sworn Enemies to the English Nation will take care of us and our Posterity therefore why should we trouble our selves at this Juncture They can levy Mony with a Proclamation they can dispense with all Laws and what should we do with a Parliament when the whole Statute-Book serves for no other End but to wipe the Tails of these Reverend Satyrs who fly into their Dens and Thickets at the very sound of a House of Commons II. The Necessity and that an indispensible one The Government turn'd Topsy-Turvy no Law no Rule all in a state of War all Treaties broken all Obligations ceas'd and yet the People must not come together to know why or wherefore they Fight or how they may avoid destroying one another they must hack and cut one another to pieces blindfold and to no other End but to save the Iesuits and the Knaves and to ruin themselves But the most Reverend Bishops are told that they shall have a Free Parliament as soon as ever the Prince of Orange has quitted this Realm that is such a Free Parliament as they were like to have had before the Prince came hither shuffl'd cut and pack'd by Mr. Brent and his Missionaries or perhaps ten times worse or rather none at all for the Church of Rome is grown such an infamous Bankrupt that no Body will trust her further than they can command her She may be compar'd to the Tyger which fawns sneaks and lurks as long as the Hunter is arm'd with his Spear and his Gun but when once the Weapons are laid down the Beast flies upon the unwary Forester tears and devours him III. The Duty For what better Office could those pious Prelats and Patriots of their Country do for the Publick-Good than to make all People Friends to save the Lives of many Thousands and to heal all our Wounds and Sores which they of the Roman Faith have inflicted upon a People too kind and good natur'd for such ravenous Monsters who go about seeking whom they may devour France Ireland Hungary and the Valleys of Piedmont are still reeking with the Blood of their poor innocent Preys and ecchoing with the Lamentations of a People ruin'd by trusting these Crocodiles too much and if God in his infinite Mercy had not watch'd over these Kingdoms and sent a Gabriel to guard them they had certainly fallen a Victim to the intollerable Pride the lawless Fury and untractable Barbariety of a sort of Animals call'd Catholicks subtile and treacherous by Custom and Discipline not to be chain'd by any Law either of God or Man and therefore every Body knows how far we may rely upon them when the Arch-Angel leaves us Exeter Nov. 21. 1688. Extract of the States General their Resolution Thursday 28th October 1688. UPon mature Deliberation it is found sit and resolved that notice be given to all their Ministers abroad of all the Reasons which induce their H. and M. to assist the Prince of Orange going over to England in Person with Ships and Forces with Orders to the said Ministers to make use thereof in the several Courts where they reside as they shall think most convenient and that it be also writ to the said Ministers that it is known to all the World that the English Nation hath a good while very much murmured and complained that the King no doubt with the Evil Counsel and Inducement of his Ministers had gained upon their Fundamental Laws and laboured through the violation thereof and by the bringing in the Roman Catholick Religion to oppress their Liberty and to ruine the Protestant Religion and to bring all under an Arbitrary Government That as this inverted and unjust Conduct was carried on more and more and the Apprehensions thereupon were still greater and that thereby such Diffidence and Aversion was stirred up against the King that nothing was to be expected in that Kingdom but general Disorder and Confusion His Highness the Prince of Orange upon the manifold Representations and the reiterated and earnest Desire which was made to His Highness by several Lords and other Persons of great Consideration in that Kingdom as also upon the account that Her Royal Highness and His Highness Himself are so highly concerned in the Welfare of that Kingdom could not well endure that through Strife and Disunion they should run the danger however it went of being excluded from the Crown held himself obliged to watch over the Welfare of that Kingdom and to take care thereof and also had the thoughts of assisting the Nation and giving them a helping-hand upon so many just and good Grounds against the Government that oppressed them in all manner of ways that lay in his Highness's Power for that His Highness was perswaded that the Welfare of this State the Care whereof is also entrusted to him was in the highest manner concerned that the said Kingdom might continue in Tranquillity and that all misunderstanding between the King and the Nation might be taken away That His Highness well knowing that to succeed in
of Delays whereas the second of taking Revenges or Reparations is not of such haste but that it may be brought under Rules and Forms III. The true and Original Notion of Civil Society and Government is that it is a Compromise made by such a Body of Men by which they resign up the Right of demanding Reparations either in the way of Justice against one another or in the way of War against their Neighbours to such a single Person or to such a Body of Men as they think fit to trust with this And in the management of this Civil Society great distinctions is to be made between the Power of making Laws for the regulating the Conduct of it and the Power of executing those Laws The Supream Authority must still be supposed to be lodged with those who have the Legislative Power reserved to them but not with those who have only the Executive which is plainly a Trust when it is separated from the Legislative Power and all Trusts by their nature import that those to whom they are given are accountable even though that it should not be expresly specified in the words of the Trust it self IV. It cannot be supposed by the Principles of Natural Religion that God has authorised any one Form of Government any other way than as the general Rules of Order and of Justice oblige all Men not to subvert Constitutions nor disturb the Peace of Mankind or invade those Rights with which the Law may have vested some Persons for it is certain that as private Contracts lodg or translate private Rights so the Publick Laws can likewise lodg such Rights Prerogatives and Revenues in those under whose Protection they put themselves and in such a manner that they may come to have as good a Title to these as any private Person can have to his Property so that it becomes an Act of high Injustice and Violence to invade these which is so far a greater Sin than any such Actions would be against a private Person as the publick Peace and Order is preferrable to all private Considerations whatsoever So that in Truth the Principles of Natural Religion give those that are in Authority no Power at all but they do only secure them in the Possession of that which is theirs by Law. And as no Considerations of Religion can bind me to pay another more than I indeed owe him but do only bind me more strictly to pay what I owe so the Considerations of Religion do indeed bring Subjects under stricter Obligations to pay all due Allegiance and Submission to their Princes but they do not at all extend that Allegiance further than the Law carries it And though a Man has no Divine Right to his Property but has acquired it by human means such as Succession or Industry yet he has a Security for the Enjoyment of it from a Divine Right so tho Princes have no immediate Warrants from Heaven either for their Original Titles or for the extent of them yet they are secured in the Possession of them by the Principles and Rules of Natural Religion V. It is to be considered that as a private Person can bind himself to another Man's Service by different degrees either as an ordinary Servant for Wages or as one appropriate for a longer time as an Apprentice or by a total giving himself up to another as in the case of Slavery in all which cases the general Name of Master may be equally used yet the degrees of his Power are to be judged by the nature of the Contract so likewise Bodies of Men can give themselves up in different degrees to the Conduct of others and therefore though all those may carry the same Name of King yet every ones Power is to be taken from the measures of that Authority which is lodged in him and not from any general Speculations founded on some Equivocal Terms such as King Sovereign or Supream VI. It is certain that God as the Creator and Governour of the World may set up whom he will to rule over other Men But this Declaration of his Will must be made evident by Prophets or other extraordinary Men sent of him who have some manifest proofs of the Dvine Authority that is committed to them on such occasions and upon such Persons declaring the Will of God in favour of any others that Declaration is to be submitted to and obeyed But this pretence of a Divine Delegatation can be carried no further than to those who are thus expresly marked out and is unjustly claimed by those who can prove no such Declaration to have been ever made in favour of them or their Families Nor does it appear reasonable to conclude from their being in Possession that it is the Will of God that it should be so this justifies all Usurpers when they are successful VII The measures of Power and by consequence of Obedience must be taken from the express Laws of any State or Body of Men from the Oaths that they swear or from immemorial Prescription and a long Possession which both give a Title and in a long Tract of Time make a bad one become good since Prescription when it passes the Memory of Man and is not disputed by any other Pretender gives by the common Sense of all Men a just and good Title so upon the whole matter the degrees of all Civil Authority are to be taken either from express Laws immemorial Customs or from particular Oaths which the Subjects swear to their Princes this being still to be laid down for a Principle that in all the Disputes between Power and Liberty Power must allways be â—roved but Liberty proves it self the one being founded onâ—y upon a Positive Law and the other upon the Law of Nature VIII If from the general Principles of Human Society and Natural Religion we carry this matter to be examined by the Scriptures it is clear that all the Passages that are in the Old Testament are not to be made use of in this matter of neither side For as the Land of Canaan was given to the Iews by an immediate Grant from Heaven so God reserâ—â—â— still this to himself and to the Declarations that he shoulâ—â—â—â—â—ke from time to time either by his Prophets or by the Answers that came from the Cloud of Glory that was between the Cherubims to set up Judges or Kings over them and to pull them down again as he thought fit Here was an express Delegation made by God and therefore all that was done in that Dispensation either for or against Princes is not to be made use of in any other State that is founded on another Bottom and Constitution and all the Expressions in the Old Testament relating to Kings since they belong to Persons that were immediately designed by God are without any sort of Reason applied to those who can pretend to no such Designation neither for themselves nor for their Ancestors IX As for the New Testament it is
mistaken as Monmouth was Notwithstanding those eminent Peers Gentry and Commonalty of all sorts that are already in his Camp and such as are going daily as well Souldiers as others nor considering the great number of the Nobility that are in the Country and have not been examin'd and that such as were examin'd here in Town did no more than answer Not Guilty to the Charge of High-Treason So that there are more Nobility and Gentry with him than with his Majesty In his three and twentieth Reflection on the 19 th and 20 th Paragraph where the Prince refers all to a free Parliament our Reflector says it belongs not to him to refer other Mens business as if the Prince had no relation to the Crown Then tells us we are already in possession of what the Prince promises us as if the Catholicks were all out of imployment the Dispensing power given up no standing Army no apprehensions of Popery and Arbitrary Power and a Free Parliament for redressing of Grievances of all kinds in being 24. In the twenty fourth Reflection on the three last Paragraphs of the Princes Declaration he tells us The Prince has a manifest design upon the-Crown because he summons the Nobility Gentry and People of England to his Standard And if so who must stay with the King To that may be answered All such as believe the Prince of Orange has brought this Army and intends to make War upon England to subdue it to his meer will and pleasure trample all Laws both Divine and Humane under his Fleet dethrone his present Majesty and make himself King they will stay and fight for him or at least to the best of their power in some other manner assist and help him On the contrary part such as believe the Prince means nothing of all this but brought over his Army only the better to assist the Nobility Gentry and People of England upon their earnest desires and frequent solliciations and reiterated complaints in the recovering of the old Legal way of choosing Members for Parliament which by Illegal new Charters on pretended Forfeitures was in a ready way to be for ever lost in rescuing all the Laws of England from the devouring Jaws of a Dispensing Power in reducing Popery within those bounds the Law has prescribed it which like an Inundation had so over-flowed its Banks that our Religion and Government were in peril to be swallowed up by it and finally to redress these and all other grievances if for these and no other ends or concerns Men think the Prince has landed here such Men will take his part espouse his quarrel and contribute to his success and in these cases every Man will judg for himself as they did in our late Civil Wars Again he charges the Prince with a design of Conquest which not only the Prince himself disclaims throughout his Declaration and will hereafter disown in all his Manifesto's but the States of Holland who have so vigorously assisted and engaged themselves with all their Power and Credit to maintain him in this Attempt have assur'd us he left Holland under high and solemn Protestations to the contrary All this is I hope sufficient to dash the strain'd inferences of an inconsiderable Reflector As for that impudent Calumny of Perjury he endeavours to fix upon the Prince it needs no other refutation than a serious consideration of the Charge it self his Words are The Prince of Orange swore to the States of Holland never to be their State-holder tho' it were offered him and yet is now that very State-holder he swore never to be on any terms Now let any reasonable Man consider whether it be possible a Wise State should by an Oath given him disable the Prince of Orange from being their State-holder tho' Circumstances and times should so change that their immediate preservation and very existence of their State should require him to accept and execute that Office. For his personal Reflections towards the latter end I think very Impertinent and only fit to be buried in Contempt Thus having followed my tedious Reflector through his twenty four Reflections I take my leave of him reserving the Princes farther Vindication to some time when I shall be more at leisure to write and people willinger to read than they can be under the present surprize hourly expectation and continual anxiety for the event of this Heroick Enterprise Admiral HERBERT's Letter to all Commanders of Ships and Sea-men in His Majesty's Fleet. Gentlemen I Have little to add to what his Highness has express'd in general Terms besides laying before you the dangerous Way you are at the present in where Ruin or Infamy must inevitably attend you if you don't join with the Prince in the Common Cause for the Defence of your Religion and Liberties for should it please God for the Sins of the English Nation to suffer your Arms to prevail to what can your Victory serve you but to enslave you deeper and overthrow the True Religion in which you have liv'd and your Fathers dy'd Of which I beg you as a Friend to consider the Consequences and to reflect on the Blot and Infamy it will bring on you not only now but in all After-Ages That by Your means the Protestant Religion was destroy'd and your Country depriv'd of its Ancient Liberties And if it pleases God to bless the Prince's Endeavours with Success as I don't doubt but he will consider then what their Condition will be that oppose him in this so good a Design where the greatest Favour they can hope for is their being suffer'd to end their Days in Misery and Want detested and despised by all good Men. It is therefore and for many more Reasons too long to insert here that I as a true English-man and your Friend exhort you to join your Arms to the Prince for the Defence of the Common Cause the Protestant Religion and the Liberties of your Country It is what I am well assured the major and best part of the Army as well as the Nation will do so soon as convenience is offered Prevent them in so good an Action whilst it is in your Power and make it appear That as the Kingdom hath always depended on the Navy for its Defence so you will yet go further by making it as much as in you lies the Protection of her Religion and Liberties and then you may assuâ—â— your selves of all Marks of Favour and Honour suitable to the Merits of so great and glorious an Action After this I ought not add so inconsiderable a thing as that it will for ever engage me to be in a most particular manner Your faithful Friend and humble Servant AR. HERBERT Abord the Leyden in the Gooree AN ENGAGEMENT OF THE Noble-men Knights and Gentlemen at EXETER to Assist the Prince of ORANGE in the defence of the Protestant Religion Laws and Liberties of the People of England Scotland and Ireland WE do ingage to Almighty God and to
with Hereticks do watch for all Advantages and Opportunities to destroy them being commanded thereunto by their Councils and the principles of their Church and instigated by their Priests The History of the several Wars of the Barons of England in the Reigns of King Iohn Henry the Third Edward the Second and Richard the Second in Defence of their Liberties and for redressing the many Grievances under which the Kingdom groaâ—'d is a full representation of the Infidelity and Treachery of those Kings and of the Invalidity of Treaties with them how many Grants Amendments and fair Promises had they from those Princes and yet afterwards how many Ambuscades and Snares were laid to destroy those glorious Patriots of Liberty what Violations of Compacts and Agreements and what havock was made upon all Advantages and Opportunities that those false Kings could take Read their Histories in our several Chronicles FINIS A FOURTH Collection of Papers Relating to the Present Juncture of Affairs in England VIZ. I. The Prince of Orange's first Declaration from the Hague Octob. 10. 1688. With his Highnesses Additional Declaration from the Hague Octob. 24. 88. Corrected by the Original Copy printed there II. The Bishop of Rochester's Letter to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners III. The Prince of Orange's Speech to the Gentlemen of Somersetshire and Dorsetshire coming to joyn his Highness at Exeter Nov. 15. 88. IV. A true Copy of a Paper delivered by the Earl of Devonshire to the Mayor of Darby Nov. 20. 1688. V. An Address of the Mayor c. of Lyn-Regis in Norfolk to the Duke of Norfolk And the Duke's Answer Decemb. 6. 88. VI. A Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in and about the City assembled at Guild hall Decemb. 11. 1688. VII A Paper delivered to the Prince of Orange by the Commissioners sent by his Majesty VIII The King's Letter to the Earl of Feversham on his Majesties leaving White-hall with the Earl's Answer IX A Declaration of the Prince of Orange to the Commanders in Chief of the Dispersed Regiments Troops and Companies to keep them together in Order X. An Address of the Lieutenancy of London to the Pr. of Orange XI An Address of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council of London to the Prince of Orange XII A Speech of Sir G. Treby on delivery of the City Address Licensed and Entred according to Order London printed and are to be sold by Rich. Ianeway in Queen's-head Court in Pater-Noster Row 1688. THE DECLARATION Of His HIGHNESS VVilliam 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 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 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 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 Though there is nothing more certain than that as no Laws can be made but by the joint 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 For though 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 entirely subject to him which must infallibly follow on the King 's having a Power to suspend the Execution of the Laws and to dispense with them 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 made open profession of the Popish Religion though those are by Law rendred incapable of all such Employments 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 though 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 enjoiment 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 Rights and Liberties and of the Protestant Religion And among other Securites 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 Imploiment 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 Emploiments 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 Majesty's 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 â—he Proâ—estant Religion and declared himself a Papist by which he is become incapable of holding any Publick Emploiment 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 Magdalâ—ne Colledg and afterwards all the Fellows of that Colledg 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 Judg. 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 iâ—â—â—igation of those Evil Counsellors Though the right of a free Election belonged undoubtedly to them But they were turned out of their Freeholds contrary to Law and to that express Provision in 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 Colledg wholly into the Hands of Papists though as is above said they are incapable of all such Imploiments both by the Law of the Land and the Statutes of the Colledg These Commissioners have also cited before them all the Chancellors and Arch-deacons of England requiring them to certify 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 enjoined 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 Relâ—â—ion that the most Reverend Father in God William Arch-bishop 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 concur in it And though 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 Exercise 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 Colledges of Iesuits 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 or 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 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 believe 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 professed Papists though the Law has disabled them and warranted the Subjects not to have any regard to their Orders They have also invaded the Priviledges and seized on the Charters of most of those Towns that have a right to be represented by â—heir 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 Priviledges 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 has put them And whereas no Nation whatsoever can subsist without the Administration of good and impartial Justice upon which Mens Lives
with us a Force sufficient by the Blessing of God to defend us from the Violence of those Evil Counsellors And We being desirous that our Intentions in this may be rightly understood have for this end prepared this Declaration in which as We have hitherto given a true Account of the Reasons inducing us to it so we now think fit to declare that this our Expedition is intended for no other Design but to have a free and lawful Parliament assembled as soon as possible and that in order to this all the late Charters by which the Elections of Burgesses are limited contrary to the Ancient Custom shall be considered as null and of no force and likewise all Magistrates who have been injustly turned out shall forthwith resume their former Imployments as well as all the Buroughs of England shall return again to their Ancient Prescriptions and Charters And more particularly that the Ancient Charter of the great and famous City of London shall again be in force and that the Writs for the Members of Parliament shall be addressed to the proper Officers according to Law and Custom That also none be suffered to choose or to be chosen Members of Parliament but such as are qualified by Law and that the Members of Parliament being thus lawfully chosen they shall meet and sit in full Freedom that so the two Houses may concur in the preparing such Laws as they upon full and free debate shall judg necessary and convenient both for the confirming and executing the Law concerning the Test and such other Laws as are necessary for the Security and Maintenance of the Protestant Religion as likewise for making such Laws as may establish a good Agreement between the Church of England and all Protestant Dissenters as also for the covering and securing of all such who will live peaceably under the Government as becomes good Subjects from all Persecution upon the account of their Religion even Papists themselves not excepted and for the doing of all other things which the two Houses of Parliament shall find necessary for the Peace Honour and Safety of the Nation so that there may be no more danger of the Nations falling at any time hereafter under Arbitrary Government To this Parliament we will also refer the Enquiry into the Birth of the pretended Prince of Wales and of all things relating to it and to the Right of Succession And We for our part will concur in every thing that may procure the Peace and Happiness of the Nation which a Free and Lawful Parliament shall determine since We have nothing before our Eyes in this our Undertaking but the Preservation of the Protestant Religion the covering of all Men from Persecution for their Consciences and the securing to the whole Nation the free Enjoyment of all their Laws Rights and Liberties under a just and legal Government This is the Design that We have proposed to our Selves in appearing upon this occasion in Arms In the Conduct of which We will keep the Forces under our Command under all the strictness of Martial Discipline and take a special care that the People of the Countries through which we must march shall not suffer by their means and as soon as the State of the Nation will admit of it We promise that We will send back all those Foreign Forces that we have brought along with us We do therefore hope that all People will judg rightly of us and approve of these our Pâ—oceedings but We chiefly relie on the Blessing of God for the Success of this our Undertaking in which We place our whole and only Confidence We do in the last place invite and require all Persons whatsoever all the Peers of the Realm both Spiritual and Temporal all Lords-Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants and all Gentlemen Citizens and other Commons of all Ranks to come and assist us in order to the executing of this our Design against all such as shall endeavour to oppose us that so we may prevent all those Miseries which must needs follow upon the Nations being kept under Arbitrary Government and Slavery and that all the Violences and Disorders which have overturned the whole Constitution of the English Government may be fully redressed in a FREE AND LEGAL PARLIAMENT And We do likewise resolve that as soon as the Nations are brought to a State of Quiet We will take care that a Parliament shall be called in Scotland for the restoring the Ancient Constitution of that Kingdom and for bringing the Matters of Religion to such a Settlement that the People may live easie and happy and for putting an end to all the injust Violences that have been in a course of so many Years committed there We will also study to bring the Kingdom of Ireland to such a State that the Settlement there may be religiously observed and that the Protestant and British Interest there may be secured And we will endeavour by all possible means to procure such an Establishment in all the three Kingdoms that they may all live in a happy Union and Correspondence together and that the Protestant Religion and the Peace Honour and Happiness of those Nations may be established upon lasting Foundations Given under our Hand and Seal at our Court in the Hague the Tenth day of October in the Year 1688. WILLIAM HENRY PRINCE OF ORANGE By His Highnesses special Command C. HUYGENS. His Highnesses Additional Declaration AFter We had prepared and printed this our Declaration we have understood that the Subverters of the Religion and Laws of those Kingdoms hearing of our Preparations to assist the People against them have begun to retract some of the Arbitrary and Despotick Powers that they had assumed and to vacate some of their unjust Judgments and Decrees The sense of their Guilt and the distrust of their Force have induced them to offer to the City of London some seeming Relief from their great Oppressions hoping thereby to quiet the People and to divert them from demanding a Secure Reestablishment of their Religion and Laws under the shelter of our Arms. They do also give out that we intend to Conquer and Enslave the Nation and therefore it is that we have thought fit to add a few words to our Declaration We are confident that no Persons can have such hard Thoughts of us as to imagine that we have any other Design in this Undertaking than to procure a Settlement of the Religion and of the Liberties and Properties of the Subjects upon so sure a Foundation that there may be no danger of the Nation 's relapsing into the like Miseries at any time hereafter And as the Forces we have brought along with us are utterly disproportioned to that wicked Design of Conquering the Nation if we were capable of intending it so the great Numbers of the principal Nobility and Gentry that are Men of Eminent Quality and Estates and Persons of known Integrity and Zeal both for the Religion and Government of England many of them
have heard forfeit all Right either to chuse or be chosen in any Publick Councils And then all Laws which have been made for the Protestants and against the Popish Religion will be null and void as being enacted by an incompetent Authority as being the Acts of Hereticks Kings Lords and Commons who had forfeited all their Rights and Priviledges But Thirdly suppose our Laws were valid as enacted by competent Authority and such good and wholsome Provisions as were those Statutes made by our Popish Ancestors in those Statutes of Provisoes in Edward the I. Edward the III. Time and that of Praemunire in Richard the II. and Henry the IV. for Relief against Papal Incroachments and Oppressions Yet being against the Laws and Canons of Holy Church the Sovereign Authority they will be all superseded For so they determine That when the Canon and the Civil Laws clash one requiring what the other allows not the Church-Law must have the observance and that of the State neglected And Constitutions they say made against the Canons and Decrees of the Roman Biâ—hops are of no moment Their best Authors are positive of it And our own Experience and Histories testify the Truth thereof For how were those good Laws before-mention'd defeated by the Pope's Authority so that there was no effectual Execution thereof till Henry the 8 th's Time as Dr. Burnet tells us And how have the good Laws to suppress and prevent Popery been very much obstructed in their Execution by Popish Influence An Answer to a late Pamphlet Intituled A Short Scheme of the Usurpations of the Crown of England c. THE World may very justly wonder at several Passages in this ill-designed and as ill-writ Pamphlet which the Author has taken the pains to collect from some petty Grubstreet Chronicle Henry II. is call'd an Usurper pag. 4. because he accepted of the Crown of England in his Mothers Life-time tho' by her not opposing his Claim it may very reasonably be concluded that she freely consented to his Promotion as the most effectual means to secure the Crown to her Posterity But we are told That a Crown is no Estate to be made over in Trust If our Author's meaning is that a Crown is an Estate which the Possessor cannot divest himself of by a voluntary Resignation both Reason and a multitulde of Examples in several Ages and â—ations prove that the Principle our Author has laid down is founded on a gross Mistake Therefore if our Author designs to publish any more Schemes of Usurpation let him first inform us what it is and how far it extends lest the World should accuse him of having as notoriously usurped to himself the Title of a Writer as any of our Princes ever did the Crown of England He would perswade his Readers to believe that God punish'd King Edward III. and King Henry V. for their Usurpations with frequent and unexpected Victories in the acquisition of which tho' there was some English Blood shed as it was impossible it should be otherwise yet the Enemies paid an excessive Price for it after the defeat of their great Armies and the Imprisonment of their King they being forced to buy their Peace upon such Terms as our conquering Usurpers pleased to impose Nor did ever any well-wisher to the English Nation deny that these Two Princes were the Glory of their Age and of our British History If I should reckon up all the evident Mistakes and false Inferences in this Libel it would be too tedious since a careless Eye cannot easily overlook them If the Pamphlet finds so undeserved a Reception in the World as to need a Second Impression the Author is desired to add to it this Postscript which being founded on the Principles asserted by him will shew the World that he hath wilfully and perhaps partially forborn to speak of as notorious an Usurper as any that are mentioned in his Scheme Queen Mary the Off-spring of an Incestuous Marriage had no other unquestionable Divine Right to the Crown of England than what was given her by an Act of Parliament made in her Father's Reign and the common Consent of the Nobility and People after the Death of her Brother King Edward VI. whose disposal of the Crown by Letters Patents under the Great Seal being directly contrary to the former Entail of it limited by a higher Authority His Sister the Lady Mary was acknowledged Queen Therefore according to our Author 's abstruse Notions She as well as her Grand-father Henry VII must be reckoned among the Usurpers of the Crown of England Let us now see what success attended her and whether the Nation was happy under her Government As soon as She saw her self fixed in the Throne She imprisoned and deprived several of the Protestant Bishopâ— contrary to the then Establish'd Laws of the Realm She intruded Popish Bishops into the Sees thus declared vacant the small remainder of the Protestant Bishops who had beâ—n called to Parliament by Writ were nevertheless violently thrust out of the Parliament-House for refusing to worship the Mass. The Members of the House of Commons in her First Parliament were chosen by force and threats the Free-holders were hindred by violence from exercising their Right of chusing Representatives false Returns were made and those who were for the Reformed Religion tho' duly elected were by force expelled the House So that we cannot wonder at the Statues made in this pretended Free Parliament which was in every Thing influenced by the Court-Party Shortly after her Marriage with the haughty jealous Spaniard of which She her self felt the ill Consequences was justly disliked by the Nobility and Commonalty Her base Design of setting up a Supposititious Child for Heir to the Crown was not only happily defeated but deservedly exposed to the Censure of the Nation Her Design to erect the Spanish Inquisition in England was disappointed Calais after having belonged to the Crown of Englâ—nd about two hundred and eleven Years and which was gained with great difficulty after eleven Months Siege was in the depth of Winter lost in a Weeks time And quickly after all the English Territories were with small difficulty recovered by the French. We must not forget how exactly She put in practice the base treacherous and destructive Principles of the pretended Catholick Religion in these remarkable Particulars She barbarously used her only Sister the Lady Elizabeth and designed to have taken away her Life for no other Cause but her firm adherence to the Protestant Religion She imprisoned and burnt Arch-Bishop Cranmer who had formerly sheltered her from her Father's Fury She deprived and imprisoned Judg Hales who alone resolutely opposed King Edward the Sixth's Will and preferred Judg Bromley to be Lord Chief Justice though he had without any reluctancy prepared the Letters-Patents for her Exclusion The Inhabitants of Norfolk and Suffolk who were the first that took up Arms for her upon her Promise to permit them the Exercise of their Religion
went first to the Chappel forced the Doors broke all to pieces and carried several parcels in Triumph up to the Cross and burnt them there The next day strong Guards were set through the whole City and Suburbs in convenient places to repress any farther Tumults and so all was quiet and continues so This Morning there was coming into Leith a Boat from Burnt-Island with eighty Men aboard being a part of two or three hundred which had been sent for by the Duke of Gordon from the North to reinforce the Castle and the rest to follow But the Bayliff of Leith having notice before-hand of their coming sent on Board and discharged their coming into the Harbor and desired to speak with their Commander who came ashoar and owned the Design being believed to be all Papists He was seized and the Men commanded back to the other Shoar under the highest Pains The Lords of the Treasury have called in all Commissions given to Papists for collecting His Majesty's Revenue Edinburgh Decemb. 22. THE Chancellor thinking as Affairs stood he was not secure at home resolved for France and with all the Privacy imaginable he in Womans and his Lady in Mans Clothes got aboard a Vessel bound from this Firth the 20 th instant being Thursday which set Sail the Wind being fair But a certain Person on Horse-back riding by Kircaldie where the Seamen use to walk called to them and told them there was a good Prize in that Ship under Sail namely the Chancellor of Scotland Whereupon about thirty six common Sea-men commanded by one Wilson that had been a Bucaneer in America which had Guns or Muskets manag'd a light Boat and without any Provision save a little Brandy or any Order from a Magistrate set Sail immediately and came up with the Ship that Night boarded her inquired for the Chancellor whom they denied to be aboard but after search found him and his Lady cloathed as aforesaid brought the Ship back and carried the Prisoners with Mr. Nicolson a Priest late Regent in the Colledg of Glasgow ashoar to Kircaldie Talbooth or Prison The Chancellor wrote Letters yesterday to several of the Privy-Council complaining of the Injury done him The Council have ordered him to be carried by the Earl of Marr and a Company of the Militia to Sterling-Castle The Duke of Gordon has been desired by the Council to lay down his Charge of Governour of the Castle but he still declines it alledging that seeing he has his Commission immediately from the King and to be accountable to none else he cannot in Honour lay it down till he has His Majesty's Command for it and says he had sent a Gentleman expresly to know His Majesty's Pleasure upon that point fourteen days ago and expects his return every day And in the mean time has assured the Council by Letters and this day the Provost and Magistrates of the City whom he sent for to speak with that he will upon his Word and Honour be a good Neighbour and not do them or the City any Prejudice Two days ago his Captain put an Oath to the Souldiers whereby they bound themselves to be faithful to His Majesty and their Superior Officers and to defend the Protestant Religion which being refused by twenty or thirty whereof five were Papists they were turned out There was a Pink arrived at Leith on Thursday sent by His Majesty The Searchers seized two Boxes in it directed to the Chancellor c. and being brought to the Council there were found in them several Precepts upon the Treasury for payment of certain Sums to Papists and some Commissions in particular a Commission to one Peter Winste a Papist to be Major of the Gates of the Castle and have Power of all the Keys without being accountable to the Lieutenant who is a Protestant but only to the Duke and his Deputy who is a Papist too Edinburgh Decemb. 25. THis Day the Students burnt the Pope solemnly at the Cross before Thousands of Spectators our Privy Counsellors and Magistrates were Spectators and no Inconveniences followed The Students were divided according to their Classes that is their Years of standing each Class with its Captain They advanced orderly with Swords in their Hands and Hoitboys before them the College Mace was carried before them by the under-Janitor in his Gown and bare We have many Reports here of the Landing of Irish-men but false the whole Country is in Arms and Apprehends the Papists and at Dumfriese they have taken and imprisoned the Provost with some other Papists and Priests and guard their Town with Six Companies a-night and have planted Cannon taken from their Ships at the Cross and Ports and recovered their Ammunition which was sent to Carlavorock Castle Edinburgh Decemb. 27. OUR Council has sent an Address to the Prince of Orange at least it may go hence on Saturday next At Glasgow the Prince of Orange was Proclaimed the Protestant Protector The whole Country is up for the Prince or at least under pretence for their Safety against Papists but there is no fear of them in this Kingdom unless it be in Nithisdale and Galloway and I think neither there However there were some long Knives or Bagonets of a strange shape taken at Kirkudbright His HIGHNESS the PRINCE of ORANGE his SPEECH to the Scots Lords and Gentlemen VVith their Advice and his Highness's Answer VVith a True Account of what past at their Meeting in the Council-Chamber at Whitehal Ianuary 7. 1688 9. His Highness the PRINCE of Orange having caused Advertise such of the Scots Lords and Gentlemen as were in Town met them in a Room at St. Iames's upon Monday the Seventh of Ianuary at Three of the Clock in the Afternoon and had this Speech to them My Lords and Gentlemen THE only Reason that induced me to undergo so Great an Vndertaking was That I saw the Laws and Liberties of these Kingdoms overturned and the Protestant Religion in Eminent Danger And seeing you are here so many Noblemen and Gentlemen I have called you together that I may have your Advice what is to be done for Securing the Protestant Religion and Restoring your Laws and Liberties according to my Declaration As soon as his Highness had retired the Lords and Gentlemen went to the Council-Chamber at Whitehall and having chosen the Duke of Hamilton their President they fell a consulting what Advice was fit to be given to his Highness in this Conjuncture And after some Hours Reasoning they agreed upon the Materials of it and appointed the Clerks with such as were to assist them to draw up in writing what the Meeting thought expâ—dient to advise his Highness and to bring it in to the Meeting the next in the Afternoon Tuesday the Eighth Instant the Writing was presented in the Meeting And some time being spent in Reasoning about the fittest way of Coveening a General Meeting of the Estates of Scotland At last the Meeting came to agree in their Opinion and appointed
the Advice to be writ clean over according to the Amendments But as they were about to part for that Dyet the Earl of Arran proposed to them as his Lordship's Advice that they should move the Prince of Orange to desire the King to return and call a Free-Parliament which would the best way to Secure the Protestant Religion and Property and to Heal all Breaches This Proposal seemed to dissatisfy the whole Meeting and the Duke of Hamilton their President Father to the Earl but they presently parted Wednesday the Ninth of Ianuary they met at three of the Clock in the same Room and Sir Patrick Hume took notice of â—he Proposal made by the Earl of Arran and desired to know if there was any there that would second it But none appearing to do it he said That what the Earl had proposed was evidently opposite and inimicous to his Highness the Prince of Orange's Undertaking his Declaration and the Good Intentions of preserving the Protestant Religion and of Restoring their Laws and Liberties exprest in it and further desired that the Meeting should declare this to be their Opinion of it The Lord Cardross seconded Sir Patrick's Motion it was answered by the Duke of Hamilton President of the Meeting That their Business was to prepare an Advice to be offered to the Prince and the Advice being now ready to go to the Vote there was no need that the Meeting should give their Sense of the Earl's Proposal which neither before nor after Sir Patrick's Motion any had pretended to own or second so that it was fallen and out of doors and that the Vote of the Meeting upon the Advice brought in by their Order would sufficiently declare their Opinion This being seconded by the Earl of Sutherland the Lord Cardross and Sir Patrick did acquiesce in it and the Meeting voted unaâ—imously the Advice following To His HIGHNESS the PRINCE of ORANGE WE the Lords and Gentlemen of the Kingdom of Scotland Assembled at your Highness's desire in this Extraordinary Conjunction do give your Highness our humble and hearty Thanks for your Pious and Generous Undertaking for Preserving of the Protestant Religion and Restoring the Laws and Liberties of these Kingdoms In order to the Attaining these Ends our humble Advice and Desire is That your Highness take upon You the Administration of all Affairs both Civil and Military the Disposal of the Publick Revenues and Fortresses of the Kingdom of Scotland and the doing every Thing that is necessary for the Preservation of the Peace of the Kingdom until a General Meeting of the States of the Nation which we humbly desire your Highness to Call to be holden at Edinburgh the Fourteenth day of March next by your Letters or Proclamation to be published at the Market-Crosses of Edinburgh and other Head-Boroughs of the several Shires and Stewartries as sufficient Intimation to All concerned and according to the Custom of the Kingdom And that the Publication of these your Letters or Proclamation be by the Sheriffs or Stewart Clerks for the Free-holders who have the value of Lands holden according to Law for making Elections and by the Town-Clerks of the several Burroughs for the meeting of the whole Burgesses of the respective Royal Burroughs to make their Elections at least Fifteen Days before the Meeting of the Estates at Edinburgh and the Respective Clerks to make Intimation thereof at least Ten Days before the Meetings for Elections And that the whole Electors and Members of the said Meeting at Edinburgh qualified as above exprest be Protestants without any other Exception or Limitation whatsoever to Deliberate and Resolve what is to be done for securing the Protestant Religion and Restoring the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom according to Your Highness's Declaration Dated at the Council-Chamber in Whitehal the Tenth Day of January 1689. This Address being Subscribed by 30 Lords and about 80 Gentlemen was presented in their presence at St. Iames 's by the Duke of Hamilton their President to his Highness the Prince of Orange who thanked them for the Trust they reposed in him and desired a Time to consider upon so weighty an Affair Upon the Fourteenth of Ianuary his Highness the Prince of Orange met again with the Scots Lords and Gentlemen at St. Iames 's And spoke to them as follows My Lords and Gentlemen IN persuance of your Advice I will untill the Meeting of the States in March next give such Orders concerning the Affairs of Scotland as are necessary for the Calling of the said Meeting for the Preserving of the Peace the applying of the Publick Revenue to the most pressing Vses and putting the Fortresses in the Hands of Persons in whom the Nation can have a just Confidence And I do further assure you That you will always find me ready to concur with you in every Thing that may be found necessary for Securing the Protestant Religion and Restoring the Laws and Liberties of the Nation The Earl of Crawfourd desired of his Highness That himself the Earl of Louthian and others come to Town since the Address was presented might have an opportunity to subscribe it which was accordingly done His Highness retireâ— and all shewed great Satisfaction with his Answer A LETTER to a Friend advising in this Extraordinary Iuncture how to free the Nation from SLAVERY for ever SIR I Doubt not but the Wisdom of the Nation will take the most effectual way to secure our Religion our Liberties and Property However being a Lover of all these I can't forbear communicating my Thoughts unto you with an assurance you 'l consider them God hath done great things for us and yet the greatest thing is not yet done there are many Difficulties in the way and many more will be thrown into it Slavery is most to be dreaded at this time What is done must be chiefly to guard against it How to do it is the principal business of the Great Men in the next Convention To know where we are is the first step to be taken Is the Government dissolved or only under some Disorders If the latter Are the Disorders such as must be laid to the Charge of the King or to his Ministers or both If to the King Are they sufficient to depose him If that be done Are we more secure from Slavery than now Will there be more than a Change of Persons in the Throne A Child for a Father a Protestant for a Papist And in a few Years the Succession may fall to the Queen of Spain or Dutchess of Savoy both Roman Catholicks and we in as great or greater danger of Popery and Slavery than we were the other day the Constitution remains the same the Iura Majestatis viz. the Militia the Power to make War or Peace the choosing Judges Sheriffs c. still in the Person of the King or if only by one Parliament restored to the People another Parliament may give them the King again Leges Posteriores priores abrogant And
proved that it is utterly impossible for a Popish Prince who has none but these Three Kingdoms to set up Popery in this Nation and that all he can gain by the Attempt will be the Ruine of himself And certainly they could not but apprehend this might possibly if not probably be the Event yet after all King and Kingdom was at last to be sacrificed to the holy See of Rome and on they went when they had proved it impossible to succeed I need be the less exact in setting down what they have done it being within the space of four Years last past that they have had the management of Affairs and so all things are as fresh in all Mens Memories as if they had been acted but yesterday I think then that I may from these Premises safely conclude that a more daring restless and implacable Faction never appeared under the Sun than this is And that it is the Interest of every true English Protestant of what Perswasion soever he be to do his utmost to free this miserable Nation from the Danger and Fear too if it be possible of ever feeling again the dire Effects of Popish Zeal or rather Fury Our wise Ancestors for above these three hundred Years have been labouring to restrain this Demonâ—ick by Laws Oaths and Tests and when all the Methods of Severity fail'd we have tried the Charms of Kindness Trust Friendship and Reliance We set up a Prince of their Communion and opposed all those that would have Excluded him with a Zeal which made us look a little too much in love with one who seem'd designed to be our Scourge by Heaven it self When he had declared his Religion and some of his Party amongst whom Nevel Paine was one had given us clear Indications of their Rage against us yet we in Parliament not only attainted and thereby ruin'd the late Duke of Monmouth and his Party but when some Gentlemen propos'd to have the Security of the Protestant Religion taken into Consideration the House declared they would intirely rely upon his Majesty's Promise for the Security of their Religion which they valued more than their Lives And before this when Charles the Second the 30 th of April 1679 to avoid the Exclusion-Bill propos'd very advantageous Restrictions of the Authority of a Roman Catholick Prince the Church-of-England-men rejected them for fear they should too much weaken and expose the Regal Authority not to mention the Favours shewn to all the whole Roman Catholick Party during the fierce Prosecution of the Popish Plot in that Prince's Reign Well what could have been done more than was to oblige Men or Christians to treat us like Friends when they had an opportunity to express their Gratitude No stay you there Gentlemen we Roman Catholicks have but one Friend in this World and if you are not for him too stand off expect nothing from us but Ruin and Desolation Will you Repeal the Penal Laws and the Tests Why I cannot betray my Religion Then make room for one that will Turn out Ite Procul Ite Profani And we all know what follow'd and I suppose no body in this Generation will have so little wit as to pretend any more to oblige a Roman Catholick by any of these things Well will Oaths bind them No they have a Pope and a Maxim that will frustrate that Ligament when ever it is for their convenience to be free And of this we have seen and felt too much already Will Laws If you catch and hang the Priest the Traitor the Cut-throat he is made a Martyr his Crime 's deny'd palliated excus'd or it may be justified and defended as occasion serves and yet after all they shall have the Satisfaction of clamouring against you for a persecuting Church and a bloody Nation Well what is to be done Why for my part I can see but one possible Method to quiet the Nation and that is once for all to clear it of these Monsters and force them to transplant themselves not out of the English Dominions but out of this Island As long as they continue amongst us they neither can nor will be quiet Priests they must and will have and that Ferment will suffer nothing near it to be at rest The remembrance of what is past will irritate the Minds of Men and make them jealous of future Evils so that no care of the wisest and best Governours can long keep the Nation in Tranquillity and Peace if these Men-catchers are suffered to nestle amongst us But then I would have this extended only to England and Scotland because Ireland would be laid desolate by such an Expedient and if the English Nation which has not above 40000 Roman Catholicks were once cleared it would very easily suppress and revenge any Attempt could be made in that Kingdom Besides this all Feme Coverts all Persons above sixty or fifty years of Age all Day-labourers and Handy-crafts-men might be excepted these can maintain no Priests nor much imbroil the Peace of the Nation or at least for no long time but then all the Nobility Gentry Merchants and rich Tradesmen of that Religion I think ought to be sent packing and for the future a Law be made to disfranchise them and make them incapable of possessing purchasing inheriting or transmitting any Lands Tenements or Hereditaments to the value of forty Shillings per Annum or upwards To make this the more easy yet it were fitting that every individual Person should be asked whether he had rather leave Country or his Religion and all that would promise the latter upon Oath to be excused but so as to forfeit their Estates if they relapsed after the Oath so taken or brought up their Children in that Religion Secondly To allow all that would transplant themselves the full value of their Estates both Real and Personal their Debts being first paid and deducted This would enable them to live in as great or a greater Equipage and Grandeur in our Plantations as they ever had here in England and if they removed into Germany or France Italy or Spain their Estates would make their Lives easy and their Banishment honourable The World is wide and if I were one of them I should never stay for an Act of Parliament but would certainly sell what I had and be gone that I might enjoy my Religion and my Estate in a warmer Climate But alas they love their Country too dearly to leave it what is it in England they love The Civil Liberties they had brought to the utmost limits of Destruction The Religion of England they hate above all other the Earth is not more Fruitful and the Air is much colder than that of other Countries and I am confident the English Humour is so far exasperated against Popery that half a hundred Years will not allay the Fever the last four Years have raised in the English Blood against Popery so that they have nothing to attach them to England but the sullen
to the Liberties Laws Religion and Priviledges of England and its Wealth and Inhabitants too and what is left you may be pleased to divide amongst your Men of Character To all this he assures us § 10. There will be a Thousand Occasions of Discontent Juâ—â— a Thousand neither one more or less besides those springing from the sense of Loyalty and Conscience Strange that these Two should be so troublesome as to equal if not exceed the whole Thousand that went before He that had been before so liberal of his Informatiâ—n now sets us to guess in § 10. How many will be discontented in the new Court for want of Preferment Why Sir If you please to inform me how many days in February shall be clear and how many shall be cloudy I will fall a guessing how many in the new Court shall be pleased and how many shall be dissatisfied but when I have done it will not be worth the while because this ever happens and Courtiers have an old way of keeping these Malecontents in hope till they fall off or gain what they desire and so if there should happen to be a Thousand of them they will not be able to shock the Government if there is no other cause of Discontent than that Well but here Duty and Discontent will mix because they are sensible of their Mistake when it is too late For as they ought not to have fought for Popery nor against the Laws and Liberties of their Country so neither â—ught they to have deserted the defence of the King's Person and Crown but have brought the Prince to Terms as well as the King Why Sir Nemo tenetur ad impossibilia The King was never brought to Terms nor perhaps never will So that if they 〈◊〉 Fought at all it must have been for Popery and against both our Laws and Liberties Sir shew when and where the King offered us or the Prince any Terms and I will pass my word you shall be employed to frame Laws for the Convention which is certainly a good Employ for one that is so expert at it as you pretend to be Well § 13. A heavy Tax must be laid upon the Nation to defray the Charge of this Expedition Why Sir Are you of the Privy Câ—uncil to the Prince Surely he will be able to find some other Cause or not make the Tax so very heavy But Men will be very sorry to lose their King and pay so dear for it too Yes doubtless a Gracious King is a great Loss but if he will be gone and inâ—olve us in a War too Taxes must be pâ—id yea heavy Taxes to support the Charge of it or Louis will in a short time teach us what the Prince's Expedition was worth whatever it cost But this is not all we must part with our Church too the crazy Title will require the giving the Church to the Dissenters § 14. The Dissenters have or late acted very well and perhaps if a wise Man has the mannaging of them and the Popish Emissaries be carefully looked after we may compound the Quarrel better cheap than the parting with our Church Sir I am well assured a great deal less will for the present content them and the King is not Immortal and whenever he Dies the Crazy Title will be Soâ—â—red again if no Body be to blame for giving it another terrible Shock § 15. Should the King be Deposed or any other ascend the Throne it will be necessary to keep a standing Army to quell such Discontents You may be a good Law-framer for ought I know but I will swear you are no States-Man this whole Section is meer Whimsey borrowed from the Dutch Design Anatomized who had the folly to talk of Governing England by an Army of Dutch and Germans but why God knows except it were because a few were brought over to deliver us and cannot presently be returned back to Holland The Prince is both a wise and a good Prince and knows the Consequence of keeping those Forces long here better than a Thousand such Law-framers Supposâ— the King should return with a Foreign Force to recover his Kingdom how ready will the Men of Conscience be and the Men of Discontent to joyn with them nay to invite him Home again This looks so like a Roman Catholick Zeal that if I were not assured he is a Church of England-Man I could not believe but it was a Disciple of St. Omers But will the Conscientious Men invite the King home again with all his Apostolick Vicars Jesuits Ecclesiasticall Judges Dispensing Power and a round Army of French Dragoons to teach us the French Faith after the French Fashion Are these the Men of Character Prudence Ability Integrity or of Conscience either Would one of the Primitive Christians have talked thus have stood for a Licinius against a Constantine Well if the King comes in a Conqueror we shall wish we had Treated Truly I shall not I had rather be forced than deceived for then I know what I have to trust to and I would not willingly be accessary to my own Ruine Well suppose this unanswerable stuff is over-voted § 17. We are to bring good proof the Prince of Wales is an Imposture or else we hâ—d better let it alone Very good the Negative is to be proved we may guess by this what kind of Laws you Sir would frame Well but if this be not done the Discontented Men will have a plausible pretence to quarrel What the Conscientious Men will do we must guess but in all probability they will not be better qualiâ—ed What if the Princess of Orange be a Lady of that eminent Virtue that she should scruple to sit upon her Father's Throne whilst he lives Well his Majesty has deserted his Throne and Kingdom when he needed not except he had pleased and some Body must sit upon his Throne though he is yet Alive Now if it be her Right after his Death why not now Our Author is at his Prayers that God would give her Grace to resist the Temptation and I at mine That the Author may never be one of her Chaplains till he is better inform'd The rest of that Section is not unanswerable but not worth answering He has all along supposed the Prince of Orange Crown'd yet in the 19th Section he proves he can have no Right to it neither by Descent nor Gift and truly I am of the same mind for many Reasons and especially for the sake of the Three alledged by him Sect. 20 21 22. and for some others too of as great weight which may be found in the Lord Virulam 's History of Henry VII And yet our Case now before us has three Difficulties that had not 1. A King living 2. A Prince of Wales true or false 3. A Nation divided in Religion to which I might perhaps add the Excessive Power of France and the Excessive Zeal of this Generation to preserve the Descent of the Crown in the
is in the Church as National must heal our Breaches The Catholicks are for one Universal Organical Church throughout the World whereof the Pope is Head according to some and the Bishops Convened in a General Council according to others That there is a Catholick Church Visible on earth as well as invisible whereof CHRIST is Head who was on Earth and is now Visible in Heaven is past doubt also with Protestants But that this Church is Organical and under the Government of a Monarchy by the Pope or of an Aristocracy by a General Council it seems a thing not possible in nature because neither can any Oeâ—umenical Council ever be Called or any One Man he sufficient to take on him the Concernmenâ—s of the whole World. A Political Church is a Community of Chrisâ—â—ans brought into an Orber of Superiority and Inferiority by an Head and Members organized for the Exercise of that Government which is proper to it but the whole Earth is not capable of any such Order And Councils therefore which are gather'd out of several Countries or of Bishops belonging to more Dominions than of one Supreme Power may behad for mutual Advice and Concord but not for Government A Nation Empire or Kingdom which consists of one Supreme Magistrate and People who are generally Christians are capable of such an Ecclesiastical Polity and a National Church Political in England is to be asserted and maintained The Church of England then is a Political Society of all the Christians in the Land united in the King as Head and organized by the Bishops for the executing those Laws or Government which he chooses for their spiritual Good and the publick Peace There is this difference between a Church National the Church Catholick and Particular Churches The two latter-are of Divine Right and Essential Consideration but the former is and can be only of Humane Institution for it is manifestly Accidental to the Church of Christ that the chief Magistrate and the whole People should be Christian. Distinguish we here of the Government of the Church as Internal belonging to the Spirit and External which belongs to Men And of the External Regiment thereof which is either Formal belonging to the Ministers or Officers of Christ or Objective belonging to the Magistrate the one being only by the Keyes the other by the Sword. Whether the Community now of Christians in England may be accounted a National Church in respect to any Formal Government of it we leave for dispute to others let them judg according to the foregoing Definition of a Political Church But that the main Body of the Nation are or may be constituted a proper Political Church National in respect to that External Objective Regiment which is or should be exercised by the Bishops as the proper Organs thereof under the King is what we hold reasonable and would lay as the Foundation-Stone of Peace in the matter of Religion between all Persons in the Kingdom Let the Parliament therefore we have be heartily for the Publick Good and thriving of England which must and can be only by an entire Liberty of Conscience in opposition to the narrow Spirit of any single Party or Faction and when such a Parliament as this shall set themselves about the Business of Union to purpose a Bill should be brought in Entituled An Act for declaring the Constitution of our Church of England A Parliament is the Representative of the whole Nation and no doubt but by Consent and Agreement they might upon the account mentioned Make a new Constitution and much more may they Declare the Constitution of it It should be declared then in such a Bill or Act that the Church of England consists of the King as the Head or pars Imperans who is to give Laws thereto and all the several Assemblies of Christians which he shall tolerate as the pars subdita or Body Some Discrimination between the Tolerable and Intolerable is indeed never to be gainsaid by any wise and good Man unto whom there is no Liberty can be desirable which is not consistent at least with these three things the Articles of our Creed a Good Life and the Fundamental Government of the Kingdom It is not for any private persons but a Parliament to prescribe the Terms of National Communion But we would have all our Assemblies that are Tolerable to be made Legal by such an Act and thereby parts of the National Church as well as the Parochial Congregations The Church here therefore must come under a double consideration as the Church of Christ and as the Church of England Take the Church as the Church of Christ and there must be as we have said at first endless Controversy about this point who are the true Members of it but take it under the consideration as National and there will be none at all for those must be Membâ—rs whom the Head by a Law does allow to be parts of the Body and the King under this notion only is made Head of the Church by the Stature that is as it is called Ecclesia Aâ—glicana The Protestant Dissenterâ— of all sorts as well as the Conformists will acknowledg the King to be Supreme Coercive Governour over all Persons and in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil throughout his Dominions And will not those who are Roman Catholicks do the like Did they not do so in Henry the Eight's time when they were generally such Again the Dissenters of all sorts even the Congregationalists of every Sect are ready to submit to any power legally derived from the King and upon such an account will admit of a superintendency of the Bishops as Ecclesiastical Magistrates under him when they cannot own any Authority that they have over other Ministers from Iesus Christ and will not Papists also be subject to all Authority that is exercised legally in his Name howsoever they may question the Spiritual Title of the English Clergy and their succession We would have the Bishops then qua Bishops as distinct in Office from Priests declared no other than the King's Officers whose power is but Objectively Ecclesiastical and to act Circa Sacra only by Vertue of his Authority and Commission As Iehoshaphat did comit the Charge incumbent upon him as Supreme Magistrate in regard to all Matters of the Lord unto the care of Amariah being Chief Priest and in regard to the King's Matters unto Zebadiah being as the Chief Iustice of the Realm so should the Diocesian Bishop be in our Ecclesiastical as the Judges are in Civil Matters the Substitutes altogether of His Majesty and execute his Jurisdiction This is indeed at State point which was throughly canvased by Henry the Eight whose Divines did agree on two Orders alone Priest and Deacon to be of Divine Appointment and that the Superiority of a Bishop over a Presbyter or of one Bishop over another was but by the Positive Laws of Men only as appears in that Authentick Book then put out entituled
Prince of Orange was a Foreign Prince Will you be pleased in answer to this to fix your Thoughts upon that of the great Apostle St. Paul he is excepted that put all things under him So here without Question the King may divest himself of all Authority and Power and when this is done the Obligation ceaseth as if he were really Dead The Preface to the New Oath is not an authoritative Abdication but rather a Declaration of Matter of Fact that the late King Iames hath abdicated So that in fine the main of the Controversy lies here Whether the late King did abdicate For if he did without all Question the Obligation of all Oaths taken unto him is ceased In confirmation of the Affirmative I shall endeavour to make it clear that any King may And secondly That the late King did abdicate That Kings may denude themselves of their Princely Power and Sovereignty appears from what was done by Charles the Fifth Emperor of Germany and King of Spain at the same time who did abdicate both and his Subjects took new Oaths of Fealty to other Princes Some of those Times might question his Courage but none did ever except against the Validity of it May it not seem something unjust to deny this Liberty to Princes when they find themselves overcharged with the Weight of Government to retire into a Privacy for the better enjoyment of their inward Peace and Quiet But I presume no Man will deny this Hypothesis It remains to prove the Thesis That the late King did abdicate 1. I will not dwell upon what was done by the Metropolitan and other Lords of the Council upon his first withdrawing they came into the City and with the Lord Mayor sent for the Lieutenant of the Tower seize upon the Keys dispossess the Souldiers place a new Garrison there and desire the Prince of Orange to assume the Regency Why all this if he had not Abdicated Upon what other ground durst they raise Arms seize upon his Royal Fort Or how can they excuse themselves from formal Rebellion and breach of Oaths if this be not granted and is not unpresidented That Princes shall take up their Scepters again when they have laid them down But to pass by this 2. I would willingly be resolv'd by any Thinking Man whose Judgment and Testimony is most authentick in this Particular Whether I am to resolve my self into the Judgment of the whole Nation in a full and clear Representation in Parliament or into the private Francies or Opinion of a few Men I remember what you once repli'd to this That every Mans Conscience is to judg for himself in point of Practice But do you not know when and by whom this Principle was exploded whilst some were prosecuted for meer Matters of Worship And shall this be pleaded by those Men who so vigorously have acted against it when in its own Nature it is so destructive of the Civil Peace A Line and a Line is an Abomination Did ever any Government upon the Pretence of Conscience dispence with Disobedience in Things necessary to its Establishment And can any Man expect to be excus'd from taking the Oaths which is the only Moral Security the Government can expect or require and upon this very Pretence which if allowed all Kingdoms must dissolve into Anarchy and Confusion Religion and Conscience being the Common Pretentions of all Male-Contents This may suffice to satisfy any sober Rational Man that is not resolv'd to maintain the Conclusion be the Premises never so weak Some there are that presume their Subscription to the Doctrine of the Church of England in her Book of Articles will not permit them to yield their Obedience to these Alterations But if this shall prove a Mistake and our Obedience shall be conformable to our Principles will it not rather be esteemed Peevishness than Conscience To discover the Mistake let us consider when and by whom the Articles were composed and refer the Practices of those Times to the Articles as an authentick and clear Interpretation of them and this also will vanish like Smoak 1. The Articles were made or at least confirmed in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth who was a constant asserter and maintainer of this Maxim That it is lawful for a neighbouring Prince to relieve and defend the Subjects of another when invaded in their Laws Liberties and Religion Who was it that protected and assisted the Hugonets in France against the Tyranny and Violence of their Princes Was it not this Gracious and Heroick Queen And who was it that protected the Netherlands against the Violence and Usurpations of the Spanish Monarch And was all this contrary to the avowed Doctrines of our Church of which she was the Defender Was not this defended or at least allowed of by the Church-Men of those Times must it be now inconsistent with the Principles of our Times Do they bind our Hands so that if we are invaded we may not crave the like Protection Let any sober scrupulous dissatisfied Person give a sober Answer and Resolution to these Queries The Dutch Netherlands erected a new Model of Government under her Protection after they had shaken off the Spanish Yoak 2. Let it be granted what ought not to be denied That the late King did abdicate and that the Government did devolve upon the People and these in a full Representative of the whole Nation whether in Parliament or in a Convention it matters not which whilst that was a free and fair Choice have constituted these to be our Governours Are we not to pay and swear Obedience unto them as well as their Predecessors And if this were rightly weigh'd would answer an Objection from that Declaration in the Act of Uniformity I abhor that Traiterous Position c. If after all this Men will fix all upon a Ius divinum and fly to Scriptures let them give plain positive Texts for a general Form with Rules universally relating unto and obliging all Places and Men. If they cannot let them confess that God hath left all Nations and People to be ruled by that Government and those Laws which are most suitable to the Constitution and Temperament of the People and this I lay down for a Foundation not to be overthrown But to Answer those places which are so much insisted upon that of our Saviour's St Paul's and St Peter's we need to make use of that absurd Assertion of some of the Romanists That this was only enjoyn'd and to be performed until they had opportunity to make a Resistance This would stain the Glory of the Primitive Martyrs Not a forced but a voluntary Martyrdom deserves the Crown however this gives a taste of the Loyalty of these Men and their Religion to the maintaining of which the Popish Princes sacrifice all their Power and Policy But for a more Substantial Answer by way of Satisfaction to these Scruples let it be duly considered that the Primitive Christians and we were under
Counsellors whom he had pardoned and was in Honour bound to protect them having himself forced them to be Criminals 3. The third was The consenting to the entire Ruin of Popery in England by hanging many of his Priests and Jesuits and banishing all the rest and pulling down all the Schools and Chappels they had erected all over England a sure Sign they were built upon an Immortal Prince of Wales though this was done before by the unaccountable Zeal of the Mobile 4. He foresaw such a Parliament would not only damn the Ecclesiastical Court that Beast with seven Heads and the Dispensing Power but would in all probability lessen his Revenue and bind up the Prerogative which his great Spirit could not bear 5. The Prince he foresaw would have demanded some Forts to be put into his Hands and the Parliament for their Security so said he If I stay I shall be but a Nominal King of England and only be an Instrument to ruin my Religion my â—riends the Monarchy and the Child also At first he alledged That the Disorders the Preparations to repel the Invasion caused would not suffer a Parliament to meet Secondly After the Prince was landed that all the Countries he had under him would not be free Thirdly That all that had joined with him ought not to sit but when he saw the whole Army and Nation the Roman Catholicks excepted of the same mind mere Force drove him to consent to Call a Parliament and when he had again considered the Consequences of it he at last resolved to throw up the Crown and Government all at once rather than to submit to all these Hardships He seems to have had at the same time a fluttering hope that 1. We should never be able long to agree after he had made it impossible for us to have a Legal Parliament by burning the Writs 2. That the Church of England Principles would when the fear and disorder was over form for him a potent Army in the Nation And 3. That the French King would lend him potent Forces and good store of Mony and if he recovered the Throne by force he should be freed of all these Miseries and have what he only wanted before a Popish Army to insure the Slavery of England for ever Now I would desire those Protestants who pretend now too late to be so zealous for him to consider whether what I have said would not have been expected from him by them for their Security and what they would have done had he called a Parliament and refused them all these things and have insisted That they should have taken his Word as to the Birth of the Prince of Wales have suffered him to have been educated in France and have suffered the Army the Prerogative the Ministers and the Revenues to have continued entirely as they were upon a Promise He would have used them better for the future If they say No They would have had the best Security that Law or Reason could have required Then all the hard things I have mentioned must have been granted them and I much question whether he would now return to the Throne on those terms If they say We ought however to have treated with him have offered him terms I say it would have come to a separate Treaty and the Church the Liberties of the Nation and the Government would have been ruined that way and when all had been done no Bond that he could have broken would have held him longer than the Necessity had continued The only Advantage we could pretend to have by the coming over of the Prince of Orange with an Army was to force the King to what he would never have yielded without that Force Now when he had accordingly passed his Word to the Nation in the Proclamation of the Thirtieth of November That there should be a Free Parliament and to the Prince of Orange in his Message by the three Lords That he would consent to every thing that could reasonably be required for the Security of those that come to it and yet without any Provocation would burn the Writs and resolve to withdraw his Person before these Lords couâ—d possibly return him any Answer for he promised the Queen to follow her who went away the day before him I say this breach of his Word so solemnly made and given both to the Nation and the Prince shew that he was not Master of himself but turned about by others whither they pleased Now suppose the Prince had suffered him to continue at Whiteâ—al and to call a Third Parliament what aâ—surance could he have given that in the end of another forty days we should not have the same trick play'd us and then in March or April have been left in the same state of Confusion we were in in December to the certain Ruin of these three Kingdoms and Holland into the bargain And when all had been done the Scruples would have been the same they are now the Obligations of the Oath of Allegiance the same and the sin of Deposing a Lawful Prince who resolved to do the Nation no Right would have been much greater and more scandalous than barely to take him at his Word and since he had left the Throne empty when he needed not to resolve he should ascend it no more Lastly Suppose the Prince had been Expelled by the King Would the King have then granted us what he would not grant us now Would he not have Disbanded his Protestant Army and have kept the Irish Forces in Pay and have every day encreased them What Respect would he ever after this have shewn to the English Laws Religion or Liberties when he had no longer any thing to fear The memory of what happened after the Monmouth defeat though effected only by Church of England Men will certainly never be forgotten by others whatever the Bigots of this sort of Loyalty may pretend or say That Expression of the Lord Churchil's in his Letter That he could no longer joyn with Self-interested Men who had framed Designs against His Majesty's true Interest and the Protestant Religion to give a pretence by Conquest to bring them to effect ought to be seriously considered by all the Protestants of the Nation This one Argument prevailed upon him when he ran the hazard of his Life Reputation and Fortunes and now they are all on the other side I should consider very seâ—iously if I were one of them what Answer I could make to this turned into a Question in the Day of Death and Judgment before ever I should Act the direâ—t contrary to what he has done For my part I am amazed to see Men scruple the submitting to the present King for if eveâ— Man had a just cause of War he had and that creates a Right to the thing gained by it the King by withdrawing and disbâ—nding his Army yielded him the Throne and if he had without any more Ceremony ascended it he had done no more
after their being exhausted have been Plundered and after Plundering have been burned and razed The Palaces of Princes which in all times and even in the most destructive Wars have been preserved are now burnt down to the Ground The Churches are robbed and such as submitted themselves to them are in a most Barbarous manner carried away as Slaves In short it is become a Diversion to them to commit all manner of insolences and Cruelties in many places but chiefly in Catholick Countries exceeding the Cruelties of the Turks themselves which having imposed an absolute necessity upon us to secure our selves and the Holy Roman Empire by the best means we can think on and that no less against them than against the Turks We promise our selves from your justice ready assent to this That it ought not to be imputed to us if we endeavour to procure by a just War that security to our selves which we could not hitherto obtain by so many Treaties and that in order to the obtaining thereof We take measures for our mutual Defence and Preservation with all those who are equally concerned in the same Design with us It remains that we beg of God that he would direct all things to his Glory and that he would grant your Majesty true and solid Comforts under this your great Calamity we embrace you with tender Affections of a Brother At Vienna the 9 th of April 1689. An Account of what was done between the Time the Prince of Orange came to London till the Proclaiming him King of England 1688. IN December last the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and all the Members of the three last Parliaments of King Charles the Second with the Lord Mayor and Aldermen and several of the Common Council of London were summoned by the Prince in that extraordinary Conjuncture when the late King had deserted the Government to consult what was fit to be done And they the said Lords and Commons did desire the Prince to take upon him the Administration of Publick Affairs both Civil and Military and the disposal of the Publick Revenue for the preservation of our Râ—ligion Rights Laws Liberties and Properties and of the Peace of the Nation and that he would take into his Care the Condition of Ireland till the Meeting of a Convention of Lords and Commons which he was entreated by his Circular Letters to summon to meet on the 22 d of Ianuary The Prince accordingly accepted the Administration and issued out his Letters for a Convention to meet on the 22 d of Ianuary as aforesaid The Prince then on December the 30 th issued out his Proclamation for the Continuance of the Sheriffs Justices of the Peace and other Officers and Ministers not being Papists to act in their respective Places till the Meeting of the Convention or other Order to the contrary c. On the 2 d of Ianuary He put out a Declaration for the better collecting of the Publick Revenue On the 5 th of Ianuary he put forth an Order for all Military Officers with their respective Companies to march out of the Quarters where any Elections should be the several Garisons excepted the day before the same be made to the next adjoining Town or Towns being not appointed for any Elections and not to return to their first Quarters till the said respective Elections be made and fully compleated that so the Election of Members for the intended Convention may be free and without any colour of Force or Restraint On the 7 th of Ianuary the Scotish Nobility and Gentry waited on the Prince what was done by them see the 6 th Collection pag. 9 10 11 12. On the 8 th day his Highness put out a Declaration against Quartering of Souldiers in private Houses He found the Treasury very empty of Cash it being said to be but 40000 l. Whereupon he desired the City of London to advance a Sum for his present Occasion and on the 10 th of Ianuary they agreed to lend 100000 l. But it being raised by Subscription it amounted to above 150000 l. On the 16 th of Ianuary He put out a Declaration to assure the Mariners and Seamen of their Pay. The two Houses met on the 22 d of Ianuary 1688 9 the Lords chose the Marquess of Hallifax for their Speaker and the Commons chose Henry Powle Esq for theirs After which a Letter was read in both Houses from the Prince of Orange on the occasion of their Meeting to this Effect That he had endeavoured to perform what was desired from him for the Publick Peace and Safety during his Administration and that it now lay on them to lay a Foundation of a firm Security for their Religion Laws and Liberties That he did not doubt but that by such a full and free Representative of the Nation the Ends of his Declaration would be attained He recommended to them the dangerous Condition of Ireland and also of the States of Holland both which required large and speedy Succours and told them That since it had pleased God hitherto to bless his good Intentions with so great Success he trusted in him that he would compleat his own Work by sending a Spirit of Peace and Union to influence their Counsels that so no Interruption may be given to a happy and lasting Settlement The first Thing the two Houses took care of was by mutual Consent to make an Address to the Prince in which they acknowledged him the Glorious Instrument under God in the great Deliverance of the Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power They acknowledged also his great Care in the Administration and entreated him to continue it till further Application and that he would take into his Care the State of Ireland Then the Houses ordered that Thursday Ian. 31. be a Day of Thanksgiving in the City of London and places adjacent within ten Miles and the 14 th of February throughout the whole Kingdom Then the Lords ordered that no Papist or reputed Papist should presume to come into the Lobby Painted Chamber Court of Requests or Westminster-Hall during the Sitting of the Convention And after several Days Debates in both Houses about the Abdication of the Government and the Vacancy of the â—hrone On the 12 th of February the two Houses at last fully agreed all Things in Dispute between them in the following Declaration The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminster Concerning the Misgovernment of King James and filling up the Throne Presented to King William and Queen Mary by the right Honourable the Marquess of Hallifax Speaker to the House of Lords With His Majesties most gracious Answer thereunto WHEREAS the late King Iames the Second by the Assistance of divers Evil Counsellors Judges and Ministers imploy'd by Him did endeavour to Subvert 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
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 Iurisdiction Power Superiority Preeminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm So help me God. Io. Browne Cleric ' Parl. Die Veneris 15 Feb. 1688. His Majesties Gracious Answer to the Declaration of both Houses My Lords and Gentlemen THis is certainly the greatest proof of the Trust you have in Vs that can be given which is the thing that maketh us value it the more and we thankfully Accept what you have Offered And as I had no other Intention in coming hither than to preserve your Religion Laws and Liberties so you may be sure That I shall endeavour to support them and shall be willing to concur in any thing that shall be for the Good of the Kingdom and to do all that is in my Power to advance the Welfare and Glory of the Nation Die Veneris 15 Februarii 1688. ORdered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Assembled at Westminster That His Majesties Gracious Answer to the Declaration of both Houses and the Declaration be forthwith Printed and Published And that his Majesties Gracious Answer this Day be added to the Engrossed Declaration in Parchment to be Enrolled in Parliament and Chancery Io. Browne Cleric ' Parliamentorum The Declaration of the Estates of Scotland concerning the Mis-government of King James the Seventh and filling up the Throne with King William and Queen Mary THat King Iames the 7 th had acted irregularly 1. By His Erecting publick Schools and Societies of the Jesuits and not only allowing Mass to be publickly said but also inverting Protestant Chappels and Churches to Publick Mass-houses contrair to the express Laws against saying and hearing of Mass. 2. By allowing Popish Books to be Printed and Dispersed by a Gift to a Popish Printer designing him Printer to his Majesties Houshold College and Chappel contrair to the Laws 3. By taking the Children of Protestant Noblemen and Gentlemen sending them abroad to be bred Papists making great Funds and Donations to Popish Schools and Colleges abroad bestowing Pensions on Priests and perverting Protestants from their Religion by Offers of Places Preferments and Pensions 4. By disarming Protestants while at the same time he employed Papists in the Places of greatest Trust Civil and Military such as Chancellour Secretaries Privy Councellors and Lords of Session thrusting out Protestants to make room for Papists and intrusting the Forts and Magazines of the Kingdom in their hands 5. By Imposing Oaths contrair to Law. 6. By giving Gifts and Grants for exacting of Money without Consent of Parliament or Convention of Estates 7. By Levying and keeping on foot a Standing Army in time of Peace without consent of Parliament which Army did exact Locality free and day Quarters 8. By Employing the Officers of the Army as Judges through the Kingdom and imposing them where there were held Offices and Jurisdictions by whom many of the Leiges were put to Death summarily without legal Tryal Jury or Record 9. By imposing exorbitant Fines to the Value of the Parties Estates exacting extravagant Bail and disposing Fines and Forfaulture before any Process or Conviction 10. By Imprisoning Persons without expressing the Reason and delaying to put them to Tryal 11. By causing pursue and forfault several Persons upon stretches of old and obsolete Laws upon frivolous and weak pretences upon lame and defective Probations as particularly the late Earl of Argyle to the scandal and reproach of the Justice of the Nation 12. By Subverting the Right of the Royal Boroughs the Third Estate of Parliament imposing upon them not only Magistrates but also the whole Town Council and Clerks contrair to the Liberties and express Charters without the pretence outher of Sentence Surrender or Consent So that the Commissioners to Parliaments being chosen by the Magistrates and Councils the King might in effect alsweel nominate that entire Estate of Parliament many of the said Magigrates put in by him were avowed Papists and the Burghs were forced to pay Mony for the Letters imposing these illegal Magistrates and Council upon them 13. By sending Letters to the Chief Courts of Justice not only ordering the Judges to stop and desist sine die to determine Causes but also ordering and commanding them how to proceed in Cases depending before them contrair to the express Laws And by changing the Nature of the Judges Gifts ad vitam aut culpam and giving them Commissions ad bene placitam to dispose them to compliance by Arbitrair Courses and turning them out of their Offices when they did not comply 14. By granting Personal Protections for Civil Debts contrair to Law. All which are utterly and directly contrair to the known Laws Freedoms and Statutes of this Realm Therefore the Estates of the Kingdom of Scotland find and declare That King Iames the Seventh being a profest Papist did assume the Regal Power and acted as King without ever taking the Oath required by Law and have by advice of Evil and Wicked Counsellors invaded the Fundamental Constitution of the Kingdom and altered it from a Legal limited Monarchy to an Arbitrair and Despotick Power and hath exercised the same to the subversion of the Protestant Religion and the violation of the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom Inverting all the Ends of Government whereby he hath forfaulted the Right to the Crown and the Throne is become vacant And whereas his Royal Highness William then Prince of Orange now King of England whom it hath pleased the Almighty God to make the Glorious Instrument of delivering these Kingdoms from Popery and Arbitrary Power did by advice of several Lords and Gentlemen of this Nation at London for the time call the Estates of this Kingdom to meet the Fourteenth of March last in order to such an Establishment as that their Religion Laws and Liberties might not be again in danger of being subverted And the said Estates being now assembled in a full and free Representative of this Nation taking to their most serious consideration the best means for attaining the Ends aforesaid Do in the first place as their Ancestors in the like cases have usually done for the vindicating and asserting their Ancient Rights and Liberties declare That by the Law of this Kingdom no Papist can be King or Queen of the Realm nor bear any Office whatsoever therein nor can any Protestant Successor exercise the Regal Power until he or she swear the Coronation Oath That all Proclamations asserting an Absolute Power to cass annul and disable Laws the erecting Schools and Colledges for Jesuits the inverting Protestant Chappels and Churches to publick Mass-houses and the â—llowing Mass to be said are contrair to Law. That the allowing Popish Books
by my Lord of Canterbury intimate their Thoughts about that Affair and their readiness to the King who was pleased not only to permit them to give him the best and most particular Advices but to encourage them to do it with all the freedom that was necessary for the present Occasion Upon this Royal Invitation their Lordships assembled together the next day at my Lord of Canterbury's Palace and prepared upon the most mature deliberation such Matters as they judged necessary for hiâ— Majesty's Knowledg and Consideration And on the Wednesday after waited on the King in a Body when his Grace in his own and in the name of the rest of the Bishops then present did in a most excellent Speech represent to his Majesty such things as were thought by them absolutely necessary to the Settlement of the Nation amidst the present Distractions and to the publick Interest of Church and State. I am assured that his Grace delivered himself upon this Critical Occasion as with all dutifulness to his Majesty so with all the readiness and the courage that did become such an Apostolical Arch-Bishop as God hath blest our Church of England with at this Time. You must not expect here his excellent Words but an Abridgment of them according to my Talent in a meaner Stile I. First the Bishops thought fit to represent in general to his Majesty That it was necessary for Him to restore all things to the state in which He found them when He came to the Crown by committing all Offices and Places of Trust in the Government to such of the Nobility and Gentry as were qualified for them according to the Laws of this Kingdom and by Redressing and Removing such Grievances as were generally complain'd of II. Particularly That his Majesty would Dissolve the Ecclesiastical Commission and promise to His People never to Erect any such Court for the future III. That He would not only put an effectual stop to the issuing forth of any Dispensations but would Call in and Cancel all those which had since his coming to the Crown been obtained from Him. IV. That he would Restore the Vniversities to their Legal State and to their Statutes and Customs and would particularly Restore the Master of Magdalen Colledge in Cambridge to the Profits of his Mastership which he had been so long Deprived of by an Illegal Suspension and the Ejected President and Fellows of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford to their Properties in that Colledge And that He would not permit any Persons to enjoy any of the Preferments in either Vniversity but such as are qualified by the Statutes of the Vniversities the particular Statutes of their several Foundations and the Laws of the Land. V. That He would suppress the Iesuits Schools opened in this City or elsewhere and grant no more Licenses for such Schools as are apparently against the Laws of this Nation and His Majesty's True Interest VI. That He would send Inhibitions after those Four Romish Bishops who under the Title of Apostolick Vicars did presume to Exercise within this Kingdom such Iurisdictions as are by the Laws of the Land Invested in the Bishops of the Church of England and ought not to be Violated or Attempted by them VII That He would suffer no more Quo Warranto's to be issued out against any Corporations but would restore to those Corporations which had been already disturbed their ancient Charters Priviledges Grants and Immunities and Condemn all those late Illegal Regulations of Corporations by putting them into their late Flourishing Condition and Legal Establishment VIII That He would fill up all the Vacant Bishopricks in England and Ireland with Persons duly qualified according to the Laws and would especially take into His Consideration the See of York whose want of an Archbishop is very prejudicial to that whole Province IX That He would Act no more upon a Dispensing Power nor insist upon it but permit that Affair at the first Session of a Parliament to be fairly Stated and Debated and Settled by Act of Parliament X. That upon the Restoration of Corporations to their Ancient Charters and Burroughs to their Prescriptive Rights He would Order Writs to be issued out for a fair and free Parliament and suffer it to Sit to Redress all Grievances to Settle Matters in Church and State upon just and solid Foundations and to Establish a due Liberty of Conscience XI Lastly and above all That His Majesty would permit some of His Bishops to lay such Motives and Arguments before him as might by the Blessing of GOD bring back His Majesty unto the Communion of Our Holy Church of England into whose Catholick Faith He had been Baptized in which He had been Educated and to which it was their earnest and daily Prayer to Almighty GOD that His Majesty might be Reunited All these Counsels were concluded with a Prayer to GOD in whose Hands the Hearts of Kings are for a good Effect upon them especially the last about bringing the King back to the Protestant Religion And now Sir I cannot but ask you What grounds there are for any Mens Jealousies of the Bishops Proceedings Pray shew this Letter to all your Friends that some may lay down their Fears and others may have this Antidote against taking any up I do assure you and I am certain I have the best grounds in the World for my assurance That the Bishops will never stir one Jot from their PETITION but that they will whenever that happy Opportunity shall offer itself let the Protestant Dissenters find that they will be better than their Word given in their Famous PETITION In the mean time let You and I Commend the Prudence of these Excellent Bishops Admire their Courage and Celebrate their just Praises and never forget to offer up most fervent Thanks to GOD for his Adorning the Church of England at this Juncture with such Eminent Apostolical Bishops I am with all Respect Yours N. N. The PETITION of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for the Calling of a Free Parliament Together with his Majesty's Gracious Answer to their Lordships To the KING 's most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Whose Names are Subscribed May it please your Majesty WE your Majesty's most Loyal Subjects in a deep Sense of the Miseries of a War now breaking forth in the Bowels of this your Kingdom and of the Danger to which your Majesty's Sacred Person is thereby like to be Exposed and also of the Distractions of your People by reason of their present Grievances do think our selves bound in Conscience of the Duty we owe to God and our Holy Religion to your Majesty and our Country most humbly to offer to your Majesty That in our Opinion the only visible Way to preserve your Majesty and this your Kingdom would be the Calling of a Parliament Regular and Free in all its Circumstances And Your Petitioners shall ever pray c. W. Cant. Grafton Ormond Dorset Clare Clarendon
taste of the Method whereby he will maintain his Army And you may see of what sort of People he intends his Army to consist and if you have not a mind to serve such Masters then stand not by and see your Country-men perish when they are endeavouring to defend you I promise this on my Word and Honour to every Tenant that goes along with me That if he fall I will make his Lease as good to his Family as it was when he went from home The thing then which I desire and your Country does expect from you is this That every Man that hath a tollerable Horse or can procure one will meet me on Boden-Downs to morrow where I Randezvouz But if any of you is rendred unable by reason of Age or any other just Excuse then that he would mount a fitter Person and put five Pounds in his Pocket Those that have not nor cannot procure Horse let them stay at home and assist with their Purses and send it to me with a particular of every Man's Contribution I impose on no Man but let him lay his Hand on his Heart and consider what he is willing to give to recover his Religion and Liberty and to such I promise and to all that go along with me that if we prevail I will be as industrious to have him recompenced for his Charge and Hazard as I will be to seek it for my self This Advice I give to all that stay behind That when you hear the Papists have committed any Out-rage or any Rising that you will get together for it is better to meet your Danger than expect it I have no more to say but that I am willing to lose my Life in the Cause if God see it good for I was never unwilling to die for my Religion and Country Prince GEORGE'S LETTER TO THE KING SIR WIth a Heart full of Grief am I forced to write that Prudence will not permit me to say to your Face And may I e'er find Credit with your Majesty and Protection from Heaven as what I now do is free from Passion Vanity or Design with which Actions of this Nature are too often accompanied I am not ignorant of the frequent Mischiefs wrought in the World by factious Pretences of Religion but were not Religion the most justifiable Cause it would not be made the most specious Pretence And your Majesty has always shewn too uninterested a Sense of Religion to doubt the just Effects of it in one whose Practices have I hope never given the World cause to censure his real Conviction of it or his backwardness to perform what his Honour and Conscience prompt him to How then can I longer disguise my just Concern for that Religion in which I have been so happily educated which my Judgment throughly convinces me to be the best and for the Support of which I am so highly interested in my Native Country and is not England now by the most endearing Tie become so Whilst the restless Spirits of the Enemies of the REFORMED RELIGION back'd by the cruel Zeal and prevailing Power of France justly alarm and unite all the Protestant Princes of Christendom and engage them in so vast an Expence for the support of it can I act so degenerous and mean a part as to deny my Concurrence to such worthy Endeavours for disabusing of your Majesty by the Reinforcement of those Laws and Establishment of that Government on which alone depends the well-being of your Majesty and of the PROTESTANT RELIGION in Europe This Sir is that irresistable and only Cause that cou'd come in Competition with my Duty and Obligations to your Majesty and be able to tear me from you whilst the same Affectionate Desire of serving you continues in me Could I secure your Person by the Hazard of my Life I should think it could not be better emploied And wou'd to God these your distracted Kingdoms might yet receive that satisfactory Compliance from your Majesty in all their justifiable Pretensions as might upon the only sure Foundation that of the Love and Interest of your Subjects establish your Government and as strongly unite the Hearts of all your Subjects to You as is that of SIR Your Majesty's most Humble and most Obedient Son and Servant The Lord CHURCHIL'S LETTER to the KING SIR SInce Men are seldom suspected of Sincerity when they act contrary to their Interests and though my dutiful Behaviour to your Majesty in the worst of Times for which I acknowledg my poor Services much over-paid may not be sufficient to incline You to a charitable Interpretation of my Actions yet I hope the great Advantage I enjoy under Your Majesty which I can never expect in any other Change of Government may reasonably convince Your Majesty and the World that I am acted by a higher Principle when I offer that violence to my Inclination and Interest as to desert Your Majesty at a time when your Affairs seem to challenge the strictest Obedience from all Your Subjects much more from one who lies under the greatest personal Obligations imaginable to Your Majesty This Sir could proceed from nothing but the inviolable Dictates of my CONSCIENCE and a necessary concern for my RELIGION which no good Man can oppose and with which I am instructed nothing ought to come in Competition Heaven knows with what partiality my dutiful Opinion of Your Majesty hath hitherto represented those unhappy Designs which inconsiderate and self-interested Men have framed against Your Majesty's true Interest and the Protestant Religion But as I can no longer joyn with such to give a pretence by Conquest to bring them to effect so will I always with the hazard of my Life and Fortune so much Your Majesty's due endeavour to preserve Your Royal Person and Lawful Rights with all the tender Concern and dutiful Respect that becomes SIR Your Majesty's most dutiful and most obliged Subject and Servant The Princess ANNE of Denmark's LETTER to the QVEEN MADAM I Beg your pardon if I am so deeply affected with the surprising News of the Princes being gone as not to be able to see You but to leave this Paper to Express my humble Duty to the King and your Self and to let You know that I am gone to absent my self to avoid the King's Displeasure which I am not able to bear either against the Prince or my self and I shall stay at so great a distance as not to return before I hear the happy News of a Reconcilement And as I am confident the Prince did not leave the King with any other Design than to use all possible means for his Preservation so I hope You will do me the Justice to believe that I am uncapable of following him for any other End. Never was any one in such an unhappy Condition so divided between Duty and Affection to a Father and a Husband and therefore I know not what to do but to follow one to preserve the other I see the general
Pretence whatsoever contrary to the known Laws of the Land shall be treated by Us and our Forces not as Souldiers and Gentlemen but as Robbers Free-Booters and Banditti they shall be incapable of Quarter and intirely delivered up to the Discretion of our Souldiers And We do further declare that all Persons who shall be found any ways aiding and assisting to them or shall march under their Command or shall joyn with or submit to them in the Discharge or Execution of their Illegal Commissions or Authority shall be looked upon as Partakers of their Crimes Enemies to the Laws and to their Country And whereas we are certainly informed that great Numbers of Armed Papists have of late resorted to London and Westminister and parts adjacent where they remain as we have reason to suspect not so much for their own Security as out of a wicked and barbarous Design to make some desperate Attempt upon the said Cities and their Inhabitants by Fire or a sudden Massacre or both or else to be the more ready to joyn themselves to a Body of French Troops designed if it be possible to land in England procured of the French King by the Interest and Power of the Jesuits in Pursuance of the Engagements which at the Instigation of that pestilent Society his most Christian Majesty with one of his Neighbouring Princes of the same Communion has entred into for the utter Extirpation of the Protestant Religion out of Europe Though we hope we have taken such effectual care to prevent the one and secure the other that by God's Assistance we cannot doubt but we shall defeat all their wicked Enterprises and Designs We cannot however forbear out of the great and tender Concern we have to preserve the People of England and particularly those great and populous Cities from the cruel Rage and bloody Revenge of the Papists to require and expect from all the Lord-Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants and Justices of Peace Lord-Mayors Mayors Sheriffs and all other Magistrates and Officers Civil and Military of all Counties Cities Towns of England especially of the County of Middlesex and Cities of London and Westminster and Parts adjacent that they do immediately Disarm and Secure as by Law they may and ought within their respective Counties Cities and Jurisdictions all Papists whatsoever as Persons at all Times but now especially most dangerous to the Peace and Safety of the Government that so not only all Power of doing Mischief may be taken from them but that the Laws which are the greatest and best Security may resume their Force and be strictly Executed And We do hereby likewise declare that We will Protect and Defend all those who shall not be afraid to do their Duty in Obedience to these Laws And that for those Magistrates and others of what condition soever they be who shall refuse to assist Us and in Obedience to the Laws to Execute vigorously what We have required of them and suffer themselves at this Juncture to be cajoled or terrified out of their Duty We will esteem them the most Criminal and Infamous of all Men Betrayers of their Religion the Laws and their Native Country and shall not fail to treat them accordingly resolving to expect and require at their Hands the Life of every single Protestant that shall perish and every House that shall be burnt or destroyed by their Treachery and Cowardise William Henry Prince of Orange By his Highness special Command C. HUYGENS. Given under our Hand and Seal at our Head-quarters at Sherburn-Castle the 28 th day of November 1688. FINIS A SECOND Collection of Papers Relating to the Present Juncture of Affairs in England VIZ. I. An Enquiry into the Measures of Submission to the Supreme Authority and of the Grounds on which it may be lawful or necessary for Subjects to defend their Religion Lives and Liberties II. An Answer to a Paper intituled Reflections on the Prince of Orange's Declaration III. Admiral Herbert's Letter to all Commanders of Ships and Seamen in his Majesty's Fleet. IV. An Engagement of the Noblemen Knights and Gentlemen at Exeter to assist the Prince of Orange in the Defence of the Protestant Religion Laws and Liberties of the People of England Scotland and Ireland V. The Declaration of the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty at the Rendezvous at Nottingham Novemb. 22. 1688. VI. The Duke of Norfolk's Speech to the Mayor of Norwich on the first of December instant in the Market-place of Norwich VII The Address of the Lord Dartmouth and the Commanders of his Majesty's Fleet giving his Majesty hearty Thanks for calling a Parliament to settle the Realm both in Church and State. Printed in the Year 1688. AN ENQUIRY Into the Measures of SUBMISSION TO THE SUPREAM AUTHORITY And of the Grounds upon which it may be lawful or necessary for Subjects to defend their Religion Lives and Liberties THis Enquiry cannot be regularly made but by taking in the first place a true and full view of the nature of Civil Society and more particularly of the nature of Supream Power whether it is lodged in one or more Persons 1. It is certain That the Law of Nature has put no difference nor subordination among Men except it be that of Children to Parents or of Wives to their Husbands so that with Relation to the Law of Nature all Men are born free and this Liberty must still be supposed entire unless so far as it is limited by Contracts Provisions and Laws For a Man can either bind himself to be a Servant or sell himself to be a Slave by which he becomes in the power of another only so far as it was provided by the Contract since all that Liberty which was not expresly given away remains still entire so that the Plea for Liberty always proves it self unless it appears that it is given up or limited by any special Agreement II. It is no less certain that as the Light of Nature has planted in all Men a Natural Ptinciple of the Love of Life and of a desire to preserve it so the common Principles of all Religion agree in this that God having set us in this World we are bound to preserve that Being which he has given us by all just and lawful ways Now this Duty of Self-preservation is exerted in Instances of two sorts the one are in the resisting of violent Aggressors the other are the taking of just Revenges of those who have invaded us so secretly that we could not prevent them and so violently that we could not resist them In which cases the Principle of self-Preservation warrants us both to recover what is our own with just Damages and also to put such unjust Persons out of a Capacity of doing the like Injuries any more either to our selves or to any others Now in these Instances of Self-Preservation this difference is to be observed that the first cannot be limited by any slow Forms since a pressing Danger requires a vigorous Repulse and cannot admit
plain that there are no Rules given in it neither for the Forms of Government in general nor for the degrees of any one Form in particular but the general Rules of Justice Order and Peace being established in it upon higher Motives and more binding Considerations than ever they were in any other Religion whatsoever we are most strictly bound by it to observe the Constitution in which we are and it is plain that the Rules set us in the Gospel can be carried no further It is indeed clear from the New Testament that the Christian Religion as such gives us no grounds to defend or propagate it by force It is a Doctrine of the Cross and of Faith and Patience under it And if by the order of Divine Providence and of any Constitution of Government under which we are born we are brought under Sufferings for our professing of it we may indeed retire and fly out of any such Country if we can but if that is denied us we must then according to this Religion submit to those Sufferings under which we may be brought considering that God will be glorified by us in so doinâ— and that he will both support us under our Sufferings and gloâ—iously reward us for them This was the State of the Christian Religion during the three first Centuries under Heathen Emperors and a Constitution in which Paganism was establish'd by Law. But if by the Laws of any Government the Christian Religion or any Form of it is become a part of the Subjects Property it then falls undâ—â—â—â—other Consideration not as it is a Religion but as it is become one of the principal Rights of the Subjects to believe and profess it and then we must judg of the Invasions made on that as we do of any other Invasion that is made on our other Rights X. All the Passages in the New Testament that relate to Civil Government are to be expounded as they were truly meant in opposition to that false Notion of the Iews who believed themselves to be so immediately under the Divine Authority that they could not become the Subjects of any other Power particularly of one that was not of their Nation or of their Religion therefore they thought they could not be under the Roman Yoke nor bound to pay Tribute to Cesar but judged that they were only subject out of Fear by reason of the force that lay on them but not for Conscience sake And so in all their Dispersion both at Rome and elsewhere they thought they were God's Freemen and made use of this pretended Liberty as a Cloak of Maliciousness In opposition to all which since in a course of many Years they had asked the Protection of the Roman Yoke and were come under their Authority our Saviour ordered them to continue in that by his saying Render to Cesar that which is Cesar 's and both St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans and St. Peter in his general Epistle have very positively condemned that pernicious Maxim but without any formal Declarations made of the Rules or Measures of Government And since both the People and Senate of Rome had acknowledged the Power that Augustus had indeed violently usurped it became Legal when it was thus submitted to and confirmed both by the Senate and People and it was established in his Family by a long Prescription when those Epistles were writ So that upon the whole Matter all that is in the New Testament upon this Subject imports no more but that all Christians are bound to acquiesce in the Government and submit to it according to the Constitution that is setled by Law. XI We are then at last brought to the Constitution of our English Government so that no general Considerations from Speculations about Sovereign Power nor from any Passages either of the Old and New Testament ought to determine us in this Matter which must be fixed from the Laws and Regulations that have been made among us It is then certain that with Relation to the Executive part of the Government the Law has lodged that singly in the King so that the whole administration of it is in him but the Legislative Power is lodged between the King and the two Houses of Parliament so that the Power of making and repealing Laws is not singly in the King but only so far as the two Houses concur with him It is also clear that the King has such a determined extent of Prerogative beyond which he has no Authority As for Instance If he levies Mony of his People without a Law impowring him to it he goes beyond the Limits of his Power and asks that to which he has no Right So that there lies no Obligation on the Subject to grant it and if any in his Name use Violence for the obtaining it they are to be looked on as so many Robbers that invade our Property and they being violent Aggressors the Principle of Self-Presâ—rvation seems here to take place and to warrant as violent a Resistance XII There is nothing more evident than that England is a Free Nation that has its Liberties and Properties reserved to it by many positive and express Laws If then we have a Right to our Property we must likewise be supposed to have a Right to preserve it for those Rights are by the Law secured aginst the Invasions of the Prerogative and by consequence we must have a Right to preserve them against those Invasions It is also evidently declared by our Law that all Orders and Warrants that are issued out in opposition to them are null of themselves and by consequence any that pretend to have Commissions from the King for those Ends are to be considered as if they had none at all since those Commissions being void of themselves are indeed no Commissions in the Construction of the Law and therefore those who act in vertue of them are still to be considered as private Persons who come to invade and disturb us It is also to be observed that there are some Points that are justly disputable and doubtful and others that are so manifest that it is plain that any Objections that can be made to them are rather forced Pretences than so much as plausible Colours It is true if the Case is doubtful the Interest of the publick Peace and Order ought to carry it but the Case is quite different when the Invasions that are made upon Liberty and Property are plain and visible to all that consider them XIII The main and great Difficulty here is that though our Government does indeed assert the Liberty of the Subject yet there are many express Laws made that lodg the Militia singly in the King that make it plainly unlawful upon any Pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King or any Commissioned by him And these Laws have been put in the Form of an Oath which all that have born any Employment either in Church or State have sworn and therefore those
Administration of Justice so that it is really a Dissolution of the Government since all Trials Sentences and the Executions of them are become so many unlawful Acts that are null and void of themselves The next Thing in our Constitution which secures to us our Laws and Liberties is a Free and Lawful Parliament Now not to mention the breach of the Law of Triennial Parliaments it being above three Years since we had a Session that enacted any Law Methods have been taken and are daily a taking that render this impossible Parliaments ought to be chosen with an entire Liberty and without either Force or Preingagements whereas if all Men are required before-hand to enter into Engagements how they will vote if they are chosen themselves or how they will give their Voices in the Electing of others This is plainly such a preparation to a Parliament as would indeed make it no Parliament but a Cabal if one were chosen after all that Corruption of Persons who had preingaged themselves and after the Threating and Turning out of all Persons out of Imploiments who had refused to do it And if there are such daily Regulations made in the Towns that it is plain those who manage them intend at last to put such a number of Men in the Corporations as will certainly chuse the Persons who are recommended to them But above all if there are such a number of Sheriffs and Mayors made over England by whom the Elections must be conducted and returned who are now under an Incapacity by Law and so are no legal Officers and by consâ—quence those Elections that pass under their Authority are null and void If I say it is clear that things are brought to this then the Government is dissolved because it is impossible to have a Free and Legal Parliament in this state of things If then both the Authority of the Law and the Constitution of the Parliament are struck at and dissolved here is a plain Subversion of the whole Government But if we enter next into the particular Branches of the Government we will find the like Disorder among them all The Protestant Religion and the Church of England make a great Article of our Government the latter being secured not only of old by Magna Charta but by many special Laws made of late and there are particuâ—ar Laws made in K. Charles the First and the late King's Time securing them from all Commissions that the King can raise for â—udging or Censuring them If then in opposition to this a Court so condemned is ercted which proceeds to Judg and Censure the Clergy and even to disseise them of their Free-holds without so much as the form of a Trial though this is the most indispensable Law of all those that secures the Property of England and if the King pretends that he can require the Clergy to publish all his Arbitrary Declarations and in particular one that strikes at their whole Settlement and has ordered Process to be begun against all that disobey'd this illegal Warrant and has treated so great a number of the Bishops as Criminals only for representing to him the Reasons of their not obeying him If likewise the King is not satisfied to profess his own Religion openly though even that is contrary to Law but has sent Ambassadors to Rome and received Nuncio's from thence which is plainly Treason by Law If likewise many Popish Churches and Chappels have been publickly opened if several Colledges of Iesuits have been set up in divers parts of the Nation and one of the Order has been made a Privy Counsellor and a principal Minister of State And if Papists and even those who turn to that Religion though declared Traitors by Law are brought into all the chief Imploiments both Military and Civil then it is plain That all the Rights of the Church of England and the whole Establishment of the Protestant Religion are struck at and design'd to be overturned since all these Things as they are notoriously illegal so they evidently demonstrate That the great Design of them all is the rooting out of this Pestilent Heresy in their stile I mean the Protestant Religion In the next place If in the whole course of Justice it is visible that there is a constant practising upon the Judges that they are tâ—rned out upon their varying from the Intentions of the Court and if Men of no Reputation nor Abilities are â—ut in their places If an Army is kept up in time of Peace â—â—d Men who withdraw from that illegal Service are hanged up as Criminals without any colour of Law which by consequence are so many Murders and if the Souldiery are connived at and encouraged in the most enormous Crimes that so they may be thereby prepared to commit greater ones and from single Rapes and Murders proceed to a Rape upon all our Liberties and a Destruction of the Nation If I say all these things are true in Fact then it is plain that there is such a Dissolution of the Government made that there is not any one part of it left sound and entire And if all these things are done now it is easie to imagine what may be expected when Arbitrary Power that spares no Man and Popery that spares no Heretick are finally established Then we may look for nothing but Gabelles Tailles Impositions Benevolences and all sorts of Illegal Taxes as from the other we may expect Burnings Massacres and Inquisitions In what is doing in Scotland we may gather what is to be expected in England where if the King has over and over again declared that he is vested with an Absolute Power to which all are bound to obey without reserve and has upon that annulled almost all the Acts of Paâ—liament that passed in K. Iames I. Minority though they were ratified by himself when he came to be of Age and were confirmed by all the subsequent Kings not excepting the present We must then conclude from thence what is resolved on here in England and what will be put in Execution as soon as it is thought that the Times can bear it When likewise the whole Settlement of Ireland is shaken and the Army that was raised and is maintained by Taxes that were given for an Army of English Protestants to secure them from a new Massacre by the Irish Papists is now all filled with Irish Papists as well as almost all the other Imployments it is plain that not only all the British Protestants inhabiting that Island are in daily danger of being butchered a second time but that the Crown of England is in danger of losing that Island it being now put wholly into the Hands and Power of the Native Irish who as they formerly offered themselves up sometimes to the Crown of Spain sometimes to the Pope and once to the Duke of Lorrain so are they perhaps at this present treating with another Court for the Sale and Surrender of the Island and for the
Massacre of the English in it If thus all the several Branches of our Constitution are dissolved it might be at least expected that one 〈◊〉 should be left entire and that is the Regal Dignity But â—â—â—cerâ—â—ng the Birth of the supposed Prince of Wales no Proofs â—â—re ever given either to the Princess of Denmark or to any othâ—â— Protestant Ladies in whom we ought to repose any Conâ—â—â—â—â—ce that the Queen was ever with Child that whole Matter bâ—â—â—g managed with so much Mysteriousness that there were violent and publick Suspicions of it before But the whole Contrivance of the Birth the sending away the Princess of Denmark the sudden shortning of the Reckoning the Queen 's sudden going to St. Iames's her no less sudden pretended Delivery the hurrying the Child into another Room without shewing it to those present and without their hearing it cry and the mysterious Conduct of all since that time no Satisfaction being given to the Princess of Denmark upon her Return from the Bath nor to any other Protestant Ladies of the Queen's having been really brought to Bed. These are all such evident Indications of an Imposture in this Matter that as the Nation has the justest Reason in the World to doubt of it so they have all possible Reason to be at no quiet till they see a Legal and Free Parliament assembled which may impartially and without either Fear or Corruption examine that whole Matter If all these Matters are true in Fact then I suppose no Man will doubt that the whole Foundations of this Government and all the most sacred Parts of it are overturned And as to the Truth of all these Suppositions that is left to every Englishman's Judgment and Sense An ANSWER to a PAPER intituled Reflections on the Prince of ORANGE's Declaration IT seems a strange piece of Arrogance that any Man should reflect on a Declaration because it does not begin as he would have it that is with a Manifestation of our Clandestine League with France whereby an Army of Frenchmen together with our Papists Irish and other Mercenaries might establish Popery in England The Reflector ought to have consider'd that a Clandestine League tho' it may be very notorious to its Existence and Effects may likewise be very difficult to prove according to the meaning of the word Clandestine But that there is such a one we have the Testimony of the King of France in a Memorial delivered to the States of Holland and though it has been since disowned by our Court and Mr. Skelton upon it committed to the Tower his short Confinement and sudden Advancement to a Regiment shews that his Disgrace was but a trick of State It is also an inconsequential way of Arguing that because the Prince does not begin his Declaration with it therefore there is no such League things of that high consequence being easier and better carried on by secret Messages than Writings under Hand and Seal 2. In his second Reflection he tells us the Prince had needed less Apology if he had pretended only to have come to deliver the King from Evil Counsellours and to ingage him further in the Interest of Europe forgetting the Prince does declare to us he comes for that end tho' not singly and brought over his Army to secure him from the Rage and Fury of those Evil Counsellours His next Quarrel is that the Prince uses the Stile Of We and Vs within His Majesties Dominions a thing I believe ordinary enough in Great Princes when they speak or write to their Inferiours The Prince of Orange is General of a great numerous Army Admiral of a vast Fleet State-holder to a High and Mighty Common-wealth and consequently too great to speak in the Stile of a Private Person so that Rewarding Punishing Commanding Advancing may very naturally fall within his Power Nor is it any Crime to endeavour the calling of a Free Parliament and settling the Nation tho by ways and methods unusual in our days nothing being more frequent in our Histories than for our Barons with Arms in their Hands to compel their Kings to call and hearken to their Parliaments But now there being a standing Army of fourty thousand Mercenaries in the Land it was grown a Crime to petition for a Parliament and a Folly to expect a free one new Charters and Corporations and a general Nomination of incompetent Magistrates having taken the Election of Members for Parliament out of those Hands the Laws of the Land and Memorial Custom had intrusted with them According to the new Scheme designed by those Upstart and Popish Counsellours no Man was to Elect or be Elected for Parliament that would not ingage as far as in them lay to take away the Penal Laws and Test nay those wicked Counsellors prevailed yet farther upon his Majesty and he that pardoned so many of his Enemies was not suffered to forgive his best Friends and most Loyal Subjects a Refusal or Excuse in that particular That the Prince will send back his Army seems to some a strong presumption that he will not stay behind since even our own lawful King thinks himself not safe without an Army of Mercenaries in his own Kingdom From a strain'd Phrase or two Of We and Vs Require and Command sometimes used in his Declaration to infer That the Prince of Orange intends to make himself King of England seems to all rational Men a very captious and unsatisfactory way of arguing and a very unjust Calumny cast upon so great a Prince since more than once in express terms he declares he has no design upon his Majesty's Crown or Person so that all that Reproach falls to the Ground 3. In his third Reflection he tells us the Prince wants a clear Call and that a Son against a Father a Nephew against and Unkle a Neighbour against a Neighbour cannot be such That he is a Son-in-Law and a Nephew to his Present Majesty gives the Prince a fair and just pretence to interpose in our Affairs had he been a Foreigner as our Reflector terms him it might have look'd like an intended Conquest had he not been a Neighbour it had been Impossible for him to have afforded us this seasonable Assistance But some think that where Attempts are made to introduce the Catholick Religion by a Conspiracy against the Laws that secure and establish the Protestant Religion and the Test that only can keep the Papists out of the Government And to carry on this Conspiracy the better the old Charters are taken away under pretence of Forfeiture and Surrender new ones granted such as might bring Elections within the Power of those Evil Counsellors Papists upon the Bench a Jesuit in the Council and whole Troops of them in the Army 'T was high time for a Protestant Prince that had so near relation to the Crown of England to look about him and choose rather to be censured by our Reflector and such as he for entering upon the Stage a little before
his time than be justly reproach'd and curs'd to the End of the World by all such as love the Protestant Religion and ancient Government of England for appearing too late in their Defence The Example of Henry the Fourth of France may teach us how hard it is for a Protestant Prince to obtain his Right where the Catholick Religion is predominant nor was the new Armour of Popery he put on at last sufficient to defend the old Protestant against the Stab of a Jesuited Novitiate 4. His fourth Reflection acquaints us the Protestant Religion is at once expos'd and hazarded for if the King prevail what can the Prince of Orange's sort of Protestants expect at his Hands which are indeed all sorts of Protestants that I know of for the Presbyterians Independants Phanaticks Church-of-England Men are in his Army 'T is fair warning and I hope God will give the Protestants Grace to make the right use of it As for their changing Masters 't is a Chimera of his own and utterly foreign to the Declaration he pretends to reflect upon Lest we should forget he remindâ— us with that admirable Demonstration of I say that the whole Protestant Religion is at stake for which I heartily thank our worthy Reflector for tho it be very true we had not seen it in Print but for him 5. In his fifth Reflection he tells us that some Laws are better broken than kept which will not be easily granted 't is indeed true that some Laws were better be repealed than continued But then they must be null'd by the same Power they were constituted and not by any part of it in contradiction to the whole His instance is That Christianity could not have been introduc'd had the Pagan Laws been executed by which Parallel he would warrant Popery to be the true Christianity and the Protestant the Heathen Persecutors Laws for Idolatry cannot bind therefore Laws against it cannot a very strange Inference and I allow that a Lawful Authority by exceeding their just Bounds may act unlawfully but the Legislative Power cannot since all over the World the Supream Power ever was absolute be it in one or more He says no Man is obliged to maintain a Religion that is not true be it never so legally established So that it is but saying the Protestant Religion is not true and His Majesty notwithstanding his repeated Ingagements is no longer bound to protect it For in the words of our Reflector 't is an Absurdity and Impiety to do so 6. The sixth thing considerable in our Reflector is his Defence of the Dispensing Power and the use His Majesty seduc'd by his Evil Councellors makes of it which is no other than the setting aside of all our Laws made for the Security of the Protestant Religion but sure such a Prerogative can never be legally vested in the Crown which if admitted were the destruction of all Law. Had those Evil Counsellors only prevailed with his Majesty to have dispensed with the Penalties inflicted on Catholicks and other Dissenters for serving of God according to their particular Consciences though perhaps contrary to Law the matter had never been complained of But to put them into Places of the highest Trust to make one Lieutenant of Ireland another President of the Council a third Lieutenenant General of the Tower a fourth a Judg imploying numbers of them in the Army Court c. is a Transgression of the Law which is certainly very dangerous if not immediately yet inevitable in its Consequences to the Protestant Religion and Government and therefore a Mischief remote only as an Egg is from a Chicken from the worthy Reflector's Malum in se which he acknowledges this Dispensing Power extends not to And the particular Catholicks breaking the Law in these Points are without Excuse For no Man is obliged in Conscience to be a Judg a Priest a Minister a Privy-Councellor a Courtier or a Souldier in time of Peace contrary to the Laws of the Land. Nor do those Laws deprive the King of the Service of any of his Subjects absolutely since all Men if they please may capacitate themselves for Imployment If the High-Commission-Court be at an end Magdalen-Colledge and the Bishop of London restored we may in all appearance thank the Honesty and Caution of some of its worthy Members and the Noise of what our Reflector calls the Prince of Orange's Invasion though some will say a Descent upon England made by a Prince of the Blood Married to the Eldest Daughter of the present King upon the Invitation of many Lords both Spiritual and Temporal and of the considerable Gentry Commonalty of all Counties might have deserved a fairer Name Nor ought any Man to complain if his honest Neighbour break violently into his House at a time when his Family cry out Fire or Murther the common Obligation of Humanity and a due care of their own Preservation exact no less of them But this Paper is not intended for a Vindication of the Prince I will therefore return to my Reflector again who undertakes for all good Protestants that they only refus'd to repeal the Test by reason of the Security it affords to their Religion As if they had cast off all care of their Civil Concerns and were only intent upon Religious Affairs so as to consent to give his Majesty a Majority of Papists in the House of Lords by which he might have two Negative Voices upon all Laws to be offer'd and an House of Pears ready to repeal the Habeas Corpus Bill and such Statutes as any ways seem to incumber what Papists think his Majesties Prerogative of which they maintain the Dispensing Power to be an Essential Part and well they may since it is the very Power by which he maintains them in Places and Imployments So that by leave of my worthy Reflector the Considerations of Religion tho they are the principal are not the only Reasons that have determined all good Protestants to a Non-concurrence with his Majesty in the Repeal of the Test. 8. In his eighth Reflection he tells us That Chappels are places of Devotion so are Turks Mosques and the Iews Synagogues yet no good Christian but would be offended to see them multiply'd and encouraged either in his own or his Neighbours Country 9. In his ninth he tells us The King was content the Test should remain I answer These Evil Counsellors were not content the Test should remain but sent their Regulators and other Agents to threaten promise remove and change the Magistrates in all Corporations in order to the procuring Members of Parliament such as were to enter the House under solemn Promises and firm Resolutions to take off the Penal Laws and Test notwithstanding all the weighty nay convincing Arguments they might meet with there to the contrary A desperate sort of Senators and fitter for Catalines Conspiracies than an English Parliament Nor did these Evil Counsellors cease to sollicit even Knights of the Shire till
to whom the Irish are compar'd by Historians for their Idleness and Inhumanity tho not for their Wit. The Persecutions of the Protestants in the Vallies of Piedmont are another instance of Popish Immanity and Baseness they were under the common shelter of publick Pactions and Treaties and had been solemnly own'd by the Dukes of Savoy to be the most Loyal and the most Couragious of their Subjects The present Duke who undertook this last Persecution was not content to destroy them with his own Troops but call'd in the French to assist at the Comedy to shoot them off the Rocks to hunt them over the Alps and to sell the strongest of them to the Gallies that the very Turkish Slaves themselves might deride and insult over them Catholicks who have not Power or Opportunity to execute the same things seem to condemn the Conduct in Publick but sing Te Deum in Private and as soon as ever they have got a sufficient Force commit the like Barbarities so essential to their Religion that all the Instinct of Nature cannot separate them The Holy Father at Rome tho he sets up for a moderate and merciful Pontificate order'd Te Dèum to be sung up and down for the extirpation of Heresy out of France and Piedmont and our English Catholicks have given us as their Army and Interest encreas'd several Proofs how well they can juggle and disguise themselves setting up Courts of Inquisition turning Protestants out of all Employs and even out of their Freeholds dispensing with Laws Ravishing Charters packing Corporatione c. and all under a notion of Liberty or a Divine Right they with their Accomplices defended illegal Declarations and set up an Authority above all our Laws under the Cloak of a sham Liberty of Conscience racking at the very same time the Consciences of the Church-of England-men and undermining the Foundation of our State. If Mr. Pen and his Disciples had condemn'd the unlawfulness of the Declarations and the Dispensing Power when they wrote so fast for Liberty of Conscience they had then shew'd a generous Zeal for a just Freedom in Matters of Religion and at the same time a due Veneration to the Legislative Power King Lords and Commons but the secret of the Machine was to maintain and erect a Prerogative above all Acts of Parliament and consequently to introduce upon that bottom Tyranny and Popery yet notwithstanding all this uncontroulable Power and shew of â—randeur an Easterly Wind and a Fleet of Fly-Boats would cancel and undo all again Our Monkish Historians relate of King Iohn that being in some distress he sent Sir Tho. Hardington and Sir Ralph Fitz-Nicholas Ambassadours to Mirammumalim the great Emperor of Morocco with offers of his Kingdom to him upon Condition he would come and aid him and that if he prevail'd he would himself turn Mahometan and renounce Popery I will not insist upon the Violations of Laws and Treaties in the Low Countries or the Spanish Tyranny over them because the Spaniards have got so much by that Persecution and Cruelty that they might be tempted to practise the like again for by forcing the Netherlanders to take up Arms for their Defence and by necessitating Queen Elizabeth to assist and preserve them they have set up a Free and Glorious State as they themselves have call'd them in some Treaties that hath preserv'd the languishing Monarchy of Spain and the Liberty of Christendom The base and cowardly Massacre of that great Hero William Prince of Orange of the Renowned Admiral Coligny and the Prince of Conde the many Bloody Conspiracies for the Extirpation of the whole Race of the House of Orange the Murders of Henry the Second and Henry the Fourth are all Records and everlasting Monuments of Popish Barbarity what incredible Effusions of Blood hath been occasion'd by the frequent Revolts of the Popes against the Emperors by the Image-Worship and the Holy Wars What Treachery in the Bohemian Transactions and Treaties What Inhumanity in burning Ierome of Prague and Iohn Hus when they had the Emperor's Pass and all other publick Securities from the Council it self that put to Death those two good Men. The Reign of Queen Mary is another Scene of the Infidility and Treachery of the Church of Rome what Oaths did she take What Promises and Protestations did she make to the Suffolk Men who had set the Crown upon her Head and yet they were the first that felt the strokes of Persecution from Her Read her History in Fox's Martyrs and Dr. Burnet's History of the Reformation The many Conspiracies to destroy Queen Elizabeth and King Iames the Gunpowder-Plot the Counsels carried on in Popish Countries to take off King Charles the First and the many late Popish Plots are a continued Series and Thred carried on by the Church of Rome to break through all Laws both of God and Man to erect an Universal Monarchy of Priest-Craft and to bring the whole World under their Yoke The Swedes have taken an effectual and commendable way to keep Popish Priests and Iesuits those Boutefeus and Disturbers of Societies the declared Enemies to the Welfare of Mankind out of their Countries by Gelding them and consequently rendring them incapable of Sacerdotal Functions tho the Priests have found out a Salvo and will say Mass and Confess if they can procure their Testicles again and carry them in their Pockets either preserv'd or in Powder In Aethiopia China and Iapan the Romish Priests have been so intollerably turbulent and such extravagant Incendiaries that they have been often banished and put to Death so that now they disguise themselves all over the Eastern Nations under the Names and Characters of Mathematicians Mechanicks Physicians c. and dare not own their Mission to propagate a Faith which is grown ridiculous all over Asia The long and dreadful Civil Wars of France the many Massacres and Persecutions and lastly the Siege of Rochel are living Instances how far we may rely upon Engagements and Laws both as to the taking of that Bulwark and the promised Relief from hence The Protestant Defenders of it refusing to rely any longer upon Paper Edicts and the Word of a Most Christian King had this City granted them as a Cautionary Town for their Security for before they had always been deluded out of their Advantages by fair Promises insignificant Treaties and the Word of a King yet Lewis the 13 th following the vitious Examples of Treacherous Princes fell upon this Glorious City which upon the account of their Laws and Privileges made a Resistance and brave Defence having never heard of Passive Obedience amongst their Pastors thinking it more lawful to defend their Rights than it was for Lewis to invade them As for the late and present Reign here in England they are too nice and tender Things for me to touch whether the Transactions of them are consistent with the Coronation Oaths the many Declarations Protestations publick and solemn Promises I am no fit Judg
being also distinguished by their constant Fidelity to the Crown who do both accompany Us in this Expedition and have earnestly solicited Us to it will cover Us from all such Malicious Insinuations For it is not to be imagined that either those who have invited Us or those that are already come to assist Us can join in a wicked Attempt of Conquest to make void their own lawful Titles to their Honours Estates and Interests We are also confident that all Men see how little weight there is to be laid on all Promises and Engagements that can be now made since there has been so little regard had in Time past to the most solemn Promises And as that imperfect Redress that is now offered is a plain Confession of those Violations of the Government that we have set forth so the defectiveness of it is no less Apparent for they lay down nothing which they may not take up at pleasure and they reserve entire and not so much as mentioned their Claims and Pretences to an Arbitrary and Despotick Power which has been the root of all their Oppression and of the total subversion of the Government And it is plain that there can be no Redress nor Remedy offered but in Parliament by a Declaration of the Rights of the Subjects that have been invaded and not by any pretended Acts of Grace to which the extremity of their Affairs has driven them Therefore it is that we have thought fit to declare that we will refer all to a Free Assembly of the Nation in a Lawful Parliament Given under our Hand and Seal at our Court in the Hague the 24 th day of October in the Year of our Lord 1688. William Henry Prince of Orange By his Highness special Command C. HUYGENS. To the Right Honourable My Lords of his Majesty's Commission Ecclesiastical IMost humbly Intreat your Lordships Favourable Interpretation of what I now Write That since your Lordships are resolved to Proceed against those who have not complyed with the King's Command in Reading His Deelaration It is absolutely impossible for me to Serve His Majesty any longer in this Commission I beg leave to tell your Lordships that though I my Self did submit in that particular yet I will never be any way Instrumental in Punishing those my Brethren that did not For as I call God to Wittness that what I did was meerly in a Principle of Conscience So I am fully satisfied that their forbearance was upon the same Principle I have no Reason to think otherwise of the whole Body of our Clergy who upon all Occasions have signaliz'd their Loyalty to the Crown and their Zealous Affections to His Present Majesty's Person in the worst of Times Now my Lords the safety of the whole Church of England seeming to be exceedingly concerned in this Prosecution I must declare I cannot with a safe Conscience Sit or Iudg in this Caufe upon so many Pious and Excellent Men with whom if it be God's Will it rather becomes me to Suffer than to be in the least an Occasion of their Sufferings I therefore earnestly request your Lordships to interceed with His Majesty that I may be Graciously dismissed from any further Attendance at your Board And to assure him that I am still ready to Sacrifice what ever I have to His Service but my Conscience and Religion My Lords I am your Lordships most Faithful and Obedient Servant ROCHESTER This Letter as also the foresaid Declaration should have been in the first Collection but were forgotten till this The Speech of the Prince of Orange to some Principle Gentlemen of Somersetshire and Dorsetshire on their coming to Ioyn his Highness at Exeter the 15th of Nov. 1688. THO we know not all your Persons yet we have a Catalogue of your Names and remember the Character of your Worth and Interest in your Country You see we are come according to your Invitation and our Promise Our Duty to God obliges us to protect the Protestant Religion and our Love to Mankind your Liberties and Properties We expected you that dwelt so near the place of our Landing would have joyn'd us sooner not that it is now too late nor that we want your Military Assistance so much as your Countenance and Presence to justify our declar'd Pretensions rather than accomplish our good and gracious Designs Tho we have brought both a good Fleet and a good Army to render these Kingdoms happy by rescuing all Protestants from Popery Slavery and Arbitrary Power by restoring them to their Rights and Properties established by Law and by promoting of Peace and Trade which is the Soul of Government and the very Life-Blood of a Nation yet we rely more on the Goodness of God and the Justice of our Cause than on any Humane Force and Power whatever Yet since God is pleased we shall make use of Humane means and not expect Miracles for our preservation and Happiness let us not neglect making use of this gracious Opportunity but with Prudence and Courage put in Execution our so honourable Purposes Therefore Gentlemen Friends and Fellow-Protestants we bid you and all your Followers most heartily Well come to our Court and Camp. Let the whole World now Judg if our pretentions are not Just Generous Sincere and above Price since we might have even a Bridg of Gold to Return back But it is our Principle and Resolution rather to dye in a Good Cause than live in a Bad one well knowing that Vertue and True Honour is its own Reward and the Happiness of Mankind Our Great and Only Design The True Copy of a Paper delivered by the Lord Devonshire to the Mayor of Darby where he quarter'd the One and twentieth of November 1688. WE the Nobility and Gentry of the Northern Parts of England being deeply sensible of the Calamities that threaten these Kingdoms do think it our Duty as Christians and good Subjects to endeavour what in Us lies the Healing of our present Distractions and preventing Greater And as with Grief We apprehend the sad Consequences that may arise from the Landing of an Army in this Kingdom from Foreign Parts So We cannot but deplore the Occasion given for it by so many Invasions made of late years on our Religion and Laws And whereas We cannot think of any other Expedient to compose our Differences and prevent Effusion of Blood than that which procured a Settlement in these Kingdoms after the late Civil Wars the Meeting and Sitting of a Parliament freely and duly Chosen We think our Selves obliged as far as in Us lies to promote it And the rather because the Prince of Orange as appears by His Declaration is willing to submit His own Pretensions and all other Matters to their Determination We heartily wish and humbly pray That His Majesty would Consent to this Expedient in order to a future Settlement And hope that such a Temperament may be thought of as that the Army now on foot may not give any Interruption to
Orange and present to His Highness the Address agreed by the Lieutenancy for that purpose And that they begin their Journey to Morrow Morning By the Commissioners Command Geo. Evans Cl. Lieut. London To His Highness the Prince of Orange The Humble Address of the Lieutenancy of the City of London May it please Your Highness WE can never sufficiently express the deep Sence we have conceived and shall ever retain in our Hearts That Your Highness has exposed Your Person to so many Dangers both by Sea and Land for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom without which unparallel'd Undertaking we must probably have suffered all the Miseries that Popery and Slavery could have brought upon us We have been greatly concerned that before this time we have not had any seasonable Opportunity to give Your Highness and the World a real Testimony that it has been our firm Resolution to venture all that is Dear to Us to attain those Glorious Ends which Your Highness has proposed for restoring and settling these Distracted Nations We therefore now unanimously present to Your Highness our just and due Acknowledgments for the Happy Relief You have brought to us and that we may not be wanting in this present Conjuncture we have put our selves into such a Posture that by the Blessing of God we may be capable to prevent all ill Designs and to preserve this City in Peace and Safety till your Highness's Happy Arrival We therefore humbly desire that your Highness will please to repair to this City with what convenient speed you can for the perfecting the Great Work which Your Highness has so happily begun to the general Joy and Satisfaction of us all December the 17 th 1688. THE said Committee this day made Report to the Lieutenancy that they had presented the said Address to the Prince of Orange and that His Highness received them very kindly December the 17 th 1688. By the Lieutenancy Ordered That the said Order and Address be forthwith Printed Geo. Evans To His Highness the Prince of ORANGE The Humble ADDRESS of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons of the City of London in Common Council assembled May it please Your Highness WE taking into Consideration your Highness's fervent Zeal for the Protestant Religion manifested to the World in your many and hazardous Enterprizes which it hath pleased Almighty God to bless you with miraculous Success We render our deepest Thanks to the Divine Majesty for the same And beg leave to present our most humble Thanks to your Highness particularly for your appearing in Arms in this Kingdom to carry on and perfect your Glorious Design to rescue England Scotland and Ireland from Slavery and Popery and in a Free Parliament to establish the Religion the Laws and the Liberties of these Kingdoms upon a sure and lasting Foundation We have hitherto look'd for some Remedy for these Oppressions and Imminent Dangers We together with Our Protestant Fellow-Subjects laboured under from His Majesty's Concessions and Concurrences with Your Highness's Just and Pious purposes expressed in Your Gracious Declarations But herein finding Our Selves finally disappointed by His Majesty's withdrawing Himself We presume to make Your Highness Our Refuge And do in the Name of this Capital CITY implore Your Highness's Protection and most humbly beseech Your Highness to vouchsafe to repair to this CITY where Your Highness will be received with Universal Joy and Satisfaction The Speech of Sir GEORGE TREBY Kt. Recorder of the Honourable City of London to his Highness the Prince of Orange Dec. 20. 1688. May it please your Highness THE Lord Mayor being disabled by Sickness your Highness is attended by the Aldermen and Commons of the Capital City of this Kingdom deputed to Congratulate your Highness upon this great and glorious Occasion In which labouring for Words we cannot but come short in Expression Reviewing our late Danger we remember our Church and State over-run by Popery and Arbitrary Power and brought to the Point of Destruction by the Conduct of Men that were our true Invaders that brake the Sacred Fences of our Laws and which was worst the very Constitution of our Legislature So that there was no Remedy left but the Last The only Person under Heaven that could apply this Remedy was Your Highness You are of a Nation whose Alliance in all Times has been agreeable and prosperous to us You are of a Family most Illustrious Benefactors to Mankind To have the Title of Sovereign Prince Stadtholder and to have worn the Imperial Crown are among their lesser Dignities They have long enjoyed a Dignity singular and transcendent viz. To be Champions of Almighty God sent forth in several Ages to vindicate his Cause against the greatest Oppressions To this Divine Commission our Nobles our Gentry and among them our brave English Souldiers rendred themselves and their Arms upon your appearing GREAT SIR When we look back to the last Month and contemplate the Swiftness and Fullness of our present Deliverance astonish'd we think it miraculous Your Highness led by the Hand of Heaven and called by the Voice of the People has preserved our dearest Interests The Protestant Religion which is Primitive Christianity restor'd Our Laws which are our ancient Title to our Lives Liberties and Estates and without which this World were a Wilderness But what Retribution can We make to your Highness Our Thoughts are full-charged with Gratitude Your Highness has a lasting Monument in the Hearts in the Prayers in the Praises of all Good Men amongst us And late Posterity will celebrate your ever-glorious Name till Time shall be no more Chapman Mayor Cur ' special ' tent ' die Iovis xx die Decemb ' 1688. Annoque R R. Iacobi Secundi Angl ' c. quarto THis Court doth desire Mr. Recorder to print his Speech this day made to the Prince of Orange at the time of this Court 's attending his Highness with the Deputies of the several Wards and other Members of the Common-Council Wagstaffe FINIS A FIFTH Collection of Papers Relating to the Present Juncture of Affairs in England VIZ. I. The hard Case of Protestant Subjects under the Dominion of a Popish Prince II. An Answer to a late Pamphlet entitled A Short Scheme of the Vsurpations of the Crown of England c. III. An humble and hearty Address to all English Protestants in the Army Published by Mr. Iohnson in the Year 1686. IV. Several Reasons against the Establishment of a standing Army and Dissolving the Militia V. A Discourse of Magistracy of Prerogative by Divine Right of Obedience and of the Laws VI. The Definition of a Tyrant by Abr. Cowley With several Queries thereupon proposed to the Lawyers VII A Letter to the King inducing him to return to the Protestant Religion VIII Ten Seasonable Queries proposed by an English Gentleman at Amsterdam to his Friends in England Licensed and Entred according to Order London printed and are to be
so well that he doubted not in a little time their Business would be managed to the utter Ruin of the Protestant Party The effecting whereof was so desirable and meritorious that if he had a Sea of Flood and an hundred Lives he would lose them all to carry on the Design And if to effect this it were necessary to destroy an hundred Heretical Kings he would do it Singleton the Priest affirmed That he would make no more to stab forty Parliament-Men than to eat his Dinner Gerard and Kelley to encourage Prance to kill Sir E. B. G. told him It was no Murther no Sin and that to kill twenty of them was nothing in that case which was both a charitable and meritorious Act. And Grant one of the Massacring Gun-powder Traitors said upon his Execution to one that urged him to repent of that wicked Enterprize That he was so far from counting it a Sin that on the contrary he was confident that that noble Design had so much of Merit in it as would be abundantly enough to make Satisfaction for all the Sins of his whole Life See Everard Digby speaking to the same purpose also the Provincial Garnet did teach the Conspirators the same Catholick Doctrine viz. That the King Nobility Clergy and whole Commonalty of the Realm of England Papists excepted were Hereticks and That all Hereticks were accursed and excommunicated and That no Heretick could be a King but that it was lawful and meritorious to kill him and all other Hereticks within this Realm of England for the advancement and inlargement of the Authority and Jurisdiction of the Pope and for the restoring of the Romish Religion This was that Garnet whom the Papists here honoured as a Pope and kissed his Feeâ— and reverenced his Iudgment as an Oracle and since his Death given him the Honour of Saintship and Martyrdom Dugdale deposed That after they had dispatched the King a Massacre was to follow But surely it may be supposed that the Temper of such a Prince or his Interest would oblige him to forbid or restrain such violent Executions in England Yea but what if his Temper be to comply with such Courses Or his Temper be better Whâ—t if it be over-rul'd What if he be perswaded as other Catholicks are that he must in Conscience proceed thus What if he cannot do otherwise without hazard of his Crown and Life For he is not to hold the Reins of Government alone he will not be allowed to be much more than the Pope's POSTILLION and must look to be dismounted if he act not according to Order The Law tells us That it is not in the Power of any Civil Magistrate to remit the Penalty or abate the Rigour of the Law. Nay if the Prince should plight his Faith by Oath that he would not suffer their Bloody LAWS to be executed upon his Dissenting Subjects this would signify nothing For they would soon tell him That Contracts made against the Common Law are invalid though conâ—irmed by Oath And That he is not bound to stand to his Promise though he had sworn to it And That Faith is no more to be kept with Hereticks than the Council of Constance would have it So that Protestants are to be burnt as Io. Huss and Ierom of Prague were by that Council though the Emperor had given them his safe Conduâ—t in that Solemn manner which could secure them only as they said from the Civil but not Church-Process which was the greatest For 't is their General Rule That Faith is either not to be given or not kept with Hereticks Therefore saith Simanca That Faith ingaged to Hereticks though confirmed by Oath is in no wise to be performed For saith he if Faith is not to be kept with Tyrants and Pirats and others who kill the Body much less with Hereticks who kill the Souls And that the Oath in favour of them is but Vinculum Iniquitatis A Bond of Iniquity Though Popish Princes the better to promote their Interest and to insnare the Protestant Subjects to get advantage upon them to their Ruin have made large Promises and plighted their Faith to them when they did not intend to keep it As the Emperor to Iohn Huss and Ierom Charles the Ninth of France to his Protestant Subjects before the Massacre the Duke of Savoy to his Protestant Subjects before their designed Ruin and Queen Mary before her burning of them But if there were neither Law nor Conscience to hinder yet in point of Interest he must not shew favour to Hereticks without apparent hazard both of Crown and Life for he forfeits both if he doth The Pope every Year doth not only curse Hereticks but every Favourer of them from which none but himself can absolve Becanus very elegantly tells us If a Prince be a dull Cur and fly not upon Hereticks he is to be beaten out and a keener Dog must be got in his stead Henry the Third and Henry the Fourth were both Assassinated upon this Account because they were suspected to favour Hereticks And are we not told by the Discoverers of the Popish Plot That after they had dispatch'd the King they would depose his Brother also that was to succeed him if he did not answer their Expectations for rooting out the Protestant Religion But may not Parliaments secure us by Laws and Provisions restraining the Power which endangers us Not possible if once they secure and settle the Throne for Popery For First They can avoid Parliaments as long as they please and a Government that is more Arbitrary and Violent is more agreeable to their Designs and Principles It being apparent that the English Papists have lost the Spirit of their Ancestors who so well asserted the English Liberties being so generally now fix'd for the Pope's Universal Monarchy sacrificing all to that Roman Moloch being much more his Subjects than the King 's and though Natives by Birth yet are Foreigners as to Government Principle Interest Affection and Design and therefore no Friends to Parliaments as our Experience hath told us But Secondly if their Necessity should require a Parliament there is no question but they may get such a one as will serve their turns For so have every of our former Princes in all the Changes of Religion that have been amongst us As Henry the 8 th when he was both for and against Popery Edward the 6 th when he was wholly Protestant Queen Mary when she was for Burning Alive and Queen Elizabeth when she ran so Counter to her Sister And the Reason is clear that he who has the making of the publick Officers and the Keys of Preferment and Profit influenceth and swayeth Elections and Votes as he pleaseth And by how much the Throne comes to be fix'd in Popery the Protestants must expect to be excluded from both Houses as they have excluded the Papists For as Hereticks and Traitors they as ignominous Persons c. you
the Number of Ninety or upwards attended his Highness the Prince of Orange at St. Iames's being introduced by the Earl of Devonshire the Lord Wharton and the Lord Wiltshire Their Sense was represented by one of those Ministers to this effect viz. That they professed their grateful Sense of his Highness's Hazardous and Heroical Expectition which the Favour of Heaven had made so surprizingly prosperous c. That they esteemed it a common Felicity that the worthy Patriots of the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom had unanimously concâ—rred unto his Highness's Design by whose most prudent Advice the Administration of Publick Affairs was devolved in this difficult Conjuncture into Hands which the Nation and World knew to be Apt for the greatest Undertakings and so suitable to the present Exigency of our Case That they promised the utmost Endeavour which in their Stations they are capable of affording for the promoting the excellent and most desirable Ends for which his Highness had declared That they added their continual fervent Prayers to the Almighty for the Preservation of his Highness's Person and the Success of his future Endeavours for the Defence and Propagation of the Protestant Interest throughout the Christian World. That they should all most willingly have chosen That for the Season of paying this Duty to his Highness when the Lord Bishop and the Clergy of London attended his Highness for the like purpose which some of them did and which his Lordship was pleased condescendingly to make mention of to his Highness had their notice of that intended Application been so early as to make their more general Attendance possible to them at that time That therefore tho they did now appear in a distinct Company they did it not on a distinct Account but on that only which is common to them and to all Protestants That tho there were some of Eminent Note whom Age or present Infirmities hindred from coming with them yet they concurred in the same grateful Sense of our common Deliverance His Highness was pleased very favourably to receive this Application and to assure them That he came purposely for the Defence of the Protestant Religion and that it was his own Religion wherein he was Born and Bred the Religion of his Country and of his Ancestors That he was resolv'd by the Grace of God always to adhere to it and to do his utmost Endeavours for the Defence of it and the promoting a firm Vnion among all Protestants The Speech of the Recorder of Bristol to his Highness the Prince of Orange Monday January the 7 th 1688. The Mayor Recorder Aldermen and Commons of the Principal Citizens of the City of Bristol waited upon the Prince of Orange being introduced by his Grace the Duke of Ormond their High-Steward and the Earl of Shrewsbury VVhere the Recorder spake to this Effect May it please your Highness THE Restitution of our Religion Laws and Liberties and the Freeing us from that Thraldom which hath rendred us for many Years useless and at last dangerous to the Common Interest of the Protestant World by your Highness's singular Wisdom Courage and Conduct are not only a Stupendious Evidence of the Divine Favour and Providence for our Preservation but will be and ought to be an Everlasting Monument of your Highness's Magnanimity and other the Heroick Vertues which Adorn your Great Soul by whom such a Revolution is wrought in this Nation as is become the Joy and Comfort of the Presenâ— and will be the Wonder of all Succeeding Ages In the Contrivance and Preparation of which Great Work your Highness like the Heavens did shed your propitious Influences upon us whilst we slept and had scarce any prospect from whence we might expect our Redemption But as since your happy Arrival in England we did amongst the first Associate our selves to assist and promote your Highness's most Glorious Design with our Lives and Fortunes so we now think our selves bound in the highest Obligation of Gratitude most humbly to present to your Highness our humble and hearty Thanks for this our Deliverance from Popery and Arbitrary Power and likewise for declaring your Gracious Intentions That by the Advice of the Estates of this Kingdom you will Rectifie the late Disorders in the Government both Ecclesiastical and Civil according to the known Laws The due and inviolable Observation of which will in our poor Opinion be the only proper Means to render the Soveraign Secure and both Sovereign and Subject happy To which his Highness returned a most Gracious Answer A Word to the Wise for Settling the Government IT is an Universal Truth That no Nation can subsist without some Government and the Wisdom of this Nation hath framed their Government to consist in a King the Lords and the Commons In these three Conjunct wholly resides the Power of making and altering Laws for the Common Good of the whole and iâ— called the Legislative Power The King alone is entrusted with the due Execution of these Laws for the Preservation Protection and Comfort of the People both in Church and State and this Trust and Power is called the Râ—gal Power If then this Nation being Protestant and under Protestant Laws have a King who shall declare hâ—mself a Zealous Roman Catholick and put himself under the Power and Conduct of the Papal Jurisdiction admitting the Pope's Supremacy Nuntio Bishops Appeals c. And to his power endeavour to Establish the Popish Religion in the Realm Quest I. Whether such a King hath not thereby made himself Incompetent and uncapable to Govern a Protestant Church and a Protestant People by their Protestant Laws and notoriously Abdicated or Renounced the Government II. If a King entrusted with the Regal Power ut supra shall Subvert the Fundamental Laws Dispense with Statutes Destroy Colleges and Corporations Erect High and Illegal Courts Invade the Peoples Freeholds and Free Elections to Parliament put the Ports and Power of the Nation into Enemies hands Protect and Promote Traytors and turn the Protective Power of the Nation to the Ruine and Destruction of the People their Laws and Religion Whether by so doing such a King doth not in Fact declare That he will not Rule the Kingdom by its Laws and Constitutions but by his own Absolute Will and Pleasure III. If a King so entrusted with the Regal Power ut supra shall and do voluntarily depart the Realm with the Signals of Government without any provision for the Publick Administration and so deserting both the People Place and Power Whether such a King hath not Divested himself of that Trust and Regal Power IV. If so and the Lawyers Rule be true Quod non est haeres Viventis Then whether this Regal Power be Descended so long as the King is Living V. If the Regal Power be Fallen and yet not Descended whether of necessity it must not fall to its Center or Root from whence it Sprang which is the whole Nation now consisting in Lords and Commons as
hopes of being a Plague and a Terror to us But it will be said The transporting so much Wealth out of the Nation will too much impoverish us This ought well to be considered and a true Estimate made both of the Estates and Debts of the Roman Catholicks and of the Methods of returning their Effects beyond the Seas and then perhaps it would rather increase our Trade than abate our Wealth And as for the weakning us by the taking off so many of our People this I am sure is a meer Chimera two or three thousand Persons would be the utmost that we should lose And those who bought their Estates would be better Subjects and Neighbours than ever they will be as long as they continue Roman Catholicks It is not to be imagin'd that all or any considerable Part of this Wealth will be transported in English Mony in specie but in Merchandise Bills of Exchange c. So that I am confident we have more sent away to the Iesuits Colledg beyond the Seas in seven Years than would be carried out in specie on such an occasion and hereby we should at once rid our selves of one of the greatest Plagues that any Nation ever struggled so long with Nor would it be only Profitable but Iust. They have given us the greatest Provocation that ever was given by Men to Men. Did ever 40000 Men in any other part of the World ever before endeavour to do what they themselves had proved to be impossible Did ever such an handful of Men before by Fraud and Violence design to enslave a Free to impoverish a Rich to subdue a Valiant and Generous Nation What could they mean by the Force they in Print and in common Discourse intimated that was to compel us to give up our Laws if fair Means would not do but a Massacre or a French Invasion Let them consider how they have treated thofe of our Religion in France and Piedmont and then tell me and all the World if we have treated them in the same manner when we have sent them away with all they can justly call their own only that we might not be forced to ruin them by a flower Prosecution The Facility is equal to the Justice of this Method they are few in number hated by all the rest of the Nation and besides all their former Misdemeanours have by the late Attempts upon the Religion and Liberties of England so far encreased the Aversion of all degrees of Men amongst us that they will find very few to pity them and not many to speak for them The only Objections I can foresee are first That it will impoverish England to suffer them to carry away their Estates and look too like Popish Cruelty to turn them out despoiled of what they have or of a great part of their Fortunes Now this Objection must be considered in Parliament because no one Man can make any thing near a true Estimate what the value will be their Debts being deducted till a true Account is given of their Estates and Debts and then I verily believe it will be found much less than it seems at first The second Objection is That it will weaken us and strengthen our Enemies to lose so many of our People To this I say it is apparently otherwise For if those Estates were in the Hands of Protestants they would much more contribute to the Union and Strength of England than the Persons of these Roman Catholicks do of whom we can make little or no use in Civil or Military Affairs at Home or Abroad in Peace or War. And if they were added to any other Country the Peace and Union they would leave us in would infinitely over-ballance the loss of their Persons and as I believe of their Estates too But now on the contrary if they be continued still amongst us we must still struggle with all those Inconveniences which have necessitated our Ancestors to make so many Laws against them and the Severities which must be used to keep them under will by degrees when the Memory of the late Transactions is worn off beget compassion and that will grow greater as they grow fewer and less dangerous and yet at last one single Iesuit may destroy the best of our Princes and two or three Gentlemen of Estate may disquiet and enjealous a whole County and when all is done no hopes is left that any lasâ—ing Peace can be made with them so that as long as there is any of that Religion in England there is a Ferment in the Veins of the Nation which will cause dreadful Paroxims Their Emissaries will also sow Dissentions between us and the Dissenters and exasperate the Parties against each other so that the good Correspendence which is now between us and them will in short time be turn'd into Hatred on both sides if all the Care imaginable be not taken on both Sides of these Incendiaries which will never be wanting whilst we have a Popisâ— Nobility and Gentry how small soever it is in Number The Seminaries at St. Omers Doway c. are kept up by the Nobility and Gentry of that Communion and tend very much to the imbroiling and weakning England and the advancing the Interest of France but would soonâ—d windle away if they had no Supplies from England as they could have little if we had no Popish Nobility or Gentry and the Lands of England were only in the Hands of Protestants The retiring of His late Majesty into France is another strong Inducement as long as He or the Child is living they will have a pretence to Plot and cut Throats and they will have some to pity and others to applaud them so that if there were no other Reason this alone were sufficient to determine the Question unless we are resolved to shew our selves as careless of a Protestant Prince as we have been over-fond of a Roman Catholick which will be an ill Recompence for our Deliverance The Present CONVENTION A PARLIAMENT I. THat the Formality of the King 's Writ of Summons is not so essential to an English Parliament but that the Peers of the Realm and the Commons by their Representatives duly elected may legally act as the great Council and representative Body of the Nation though not summon'd by the the King especially when the Circumstances of the time are such that such Summons cannot be had will I hope appear by these following Observations First The Saxon Government was transplanted hither out of Germany where the meeting of the Saxons in such Assemblies was at certain fixed times viz. at the new and full Moon But after their Transmigration hither Religion changing other things changed with it and the times for their publick Assemblies in Conformity to the great Solemnities celebrated by Christians came to be changed to the Feasts of Easter Pentecost and the Nativity The lower we come down in Story the seldomer we find these general Assemblies to have been held and
Right Line and in the Legal Steps and Degrees And this being done I am persuaded nothing can divide the English Nation or lessen their Zeal and Affection to the Prince of Orange who has deserved the Crown if it were ours to give him The Postscript which is an Huy and Cry after the French League to cut our Throats I leave to the Convention And if I durst be so bold as to ask a Favour of them it should be to enquire what the Ro. Catholick meant by that Threat of theirs so frequently printed and spoken by them If fair means would not obtain the Repeal of our Penal Laws and Tests foul should Now for a Conclusion I would desire you Sir to propose your method of Restoring the King and Securing our Laws and Religion and it shall go hard but I will shew you it is impracticable or impossible that it will never be granted or if it be never observed And if you please to bless the World with a Receipt of an Obligation that will bind the Conscience of any other Roman Catholick so fast that neither Iesuit and Pope can break or untie it I assure you I will joyn with you in a Petition to the Convention for a Treaty forthwith without any other Terms to be proposed than the giving us that Security whatever it is And in the Interim I am SIR YOURS Ian. 24. 1688 9. FINIS The EIGHT Collection of Papers Relating to the Present Juncture of Affairs in England VIZ. I. Proposals to the present Convention for Setling the Government II. Several Queries relating to the present Proceedings in Parliament III. A Protestant Precedent offer'd for the Exclusion of King Iames the Second IV. Reasons offer'd for placing the Prince of Orange singly in the Throne during his Life V. A Breviate for the Convention represented to the Lords and Commons of England VI. King Iames the First his Opinion of a King and of a Tyrant and of the English Laws Rights and Priviledges VII Proposals to the present Convention for perpetual Security of the Protestant Religion and Liberty of the Subjects of England London printed and are to be sold by Rich. Ianeway in Queen's-head Court in Pater-Noster Row 1689. PROPOSALS Humbly offered To the Lords and Commons in the present CONVENTION for Settling of the Government c. My Lords and Gentlemen YOV are Assembled upon Matters of the highest Importance to England and all Christendom and the result of your Thoughts in this Convention will make a numerous Posterity Happy or Miserable If therefore I have met with any Thing that I think worthy of your Consideration I should think my self wanting in that Duty which I owe to my Country and Mankind if I should not lay it before You. If there be as some say certain Lineaments in the Face of Truth with which one cannot be deceiv'd because they are not to be counterfeited I hope the Considerations which I presume to offer You will meet with your Approbation That bringing back our Constitâ—tion to its first and purest Original refining it from some gross Abuses and supplying its Defects You may be the Ioy of the present Age and the Glory of Posterity FIrst 'T is necessary to distinguish between Power it self the Designation of the Persons Governing and the Form of Government For 1. All Power is from God as the Fountain and Original 2. The Designation of the Persons and the Form of Government is eirther First immediately from God as in the Case of Saul and David and the Government of the Ievs or Secondly from the Community chusing some Form of Government and subjecting themselves to it But it must be noted that though Saul and David had a Divine Designation yet the People assembled and in a General Assembly by their Votes freely chose them Which proves that there can be no orderly or lasting Government without Consent of the People Tacit or Express'd and God himself would not put Men under a Governor without their Consent And in case of a Conquest the People may be called Prisoners or Salves which is a State contrary to the Nature of Man but they cannot be properly Subjects till their Wills be brought to submit to the Government So that Conquest may make Way for a Government but it cannot constitute it Secondly There is a Supreme Power in every Community essential to it and inseparable from it by which if it be not limited immediately by God it can form it self into any kind of Government And in some extraordinary Occasions when the Safety and Peace of the Publick necessarily require it can supply the Defects reform the Abuses and re-establish the true Fundamentals of the Government by Purging Refining and bringing Things back to their first Original Which Power may be called The Supreme Power Real Thirdly When the Community has made choice of some Form of Government and subjected themselves to it having invested some Person or Persons with the Supreme Power The Power in those Persons may be called The Supreme Power Personal Fourthly If this Form be a mix'd Government of Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy and for the easy Execution of the Laws the Executive Power be lodg'd in a single Person He has A Supreme Power Personal quoad hoc Fifthly The Supreme Power Personal of England is in Kings Lords and Commons and so it was in Effect agreed to by King Charles the First in his Answer to the nineteen Propositions and resolved by the Convention of Lords and Commons in the Year 1660. And note That the Acts of that Convention tho never confirmed by Parliament have been taken for Law and particularly by the Lord Chief Justice Hales Sixthly The Supreme Power Personal of England fails three Ways 1. 'T is Dissolved For two Essential Parts fail 1. A King. 2. A House of Commons which cannot be called according to the Constitution the King being gone and the Freedom of Election being destroyed by the King's Incroachments 2. The King has forfeited his Power several Ways Subjection to the Bishop of Rome is the Subjection against which our Laws cry loudest And even Barclay that Monarchical Politician acknowledges That if a King alienate his Kingdom or subject it to another he forfeits it And Grotius asserts That if a King really attempt to deliver up or subject his Kingdom he may be therein resisted And that if the King have part of the Supreme Power and the People or Senate the other part the King invading that part which is not his a just Force may be opposed and he may lose his Part of the Empire Grotius de Bello c. Cap. 72. But that the King has subjected the Kingdom to the Pope needs no Proof That the has usurp'd an absolute Power superior to all Laws made the Peoples Share in the Legislative Power impertinent and useless and thereby invaded their just Rights none can deny 'T were in vain to multiply Instances of his Forfeitures And if we consider the Power exercis'd
of the Law of Nature did not press us at this time to come to some speedy and pertinent Determinations as to the business especially of settling the Government that Nicety which seems to be promoted and set afoot in all our Counsels might considering the Weightiness of the business in hand rather claim the just Commendation and Applauses of every good Man than as it seems now fall under their Censure and I may say Indignation If the matter debated were extraneous and the Kingdom within it self peaceably and firmly settled if the Circumstances of our Affairs were ordinary and usual and could admit of an unlimited time for their Decision if we were secure from injurious Resolutions of our Enemies abroad or from the private Machinations of disaffected Persons at home If these â—hings were so it were worthy the Wisdom of those who by their unseasonable Scruples so generally resolv'd against and now again by them started may seem either ignorant of the desperate languishing condition of these Kingdoms at present or prejudic'd and dis-affected to the Eâ—ace and Settlement of them for the future I say it were then worthy the Wisdom of these Men to dissect every particular of so important an Affair before they made any Determination of the General As we all acknowledg the extraordinary Circumstances of this Juncture so they themselves have not been a little contributing to this happy Revolution The Prince's first Declaration tells us he had the Invitation of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Was it Justice and agreeable to Conscience then to call for Foreign Arms to assist us against our own King in the recovery of those Rights Liberties and Properties which contrary to Law he had invaded and taken from us And is it now become a Scruple in those same Consciences to be confirm'd in those Rights c. by the same Arms and Power Is that pretended absolute unlimited Power which in their Prayers and Sermons they have so often nibbled at and endavoured to retrench now in its just Debasement become so Inviolable and Sacred that it must become a Point of Faith entirely to submit to it Has this small fit of Fear and Discouragement in our implacable Enemies so well secur'd us from any future Enchroachments that we need not be careful of any further Assurance Has these Men's Re-embellish'd Honours so obliterated the Memory of the Dangers some of them so lately have escap'd and the rest justly fear'd as to free them from all Apprehensions for the future What is it these Gentlemen would be at what do they fear Is it without Reason without Justice without Precedent that we desire to be everlastingly secur'd from Popery Slavery Not without Reason for when we have seen many of our fairest Branches lopp'd off many of our Liberties invaded many of our Laws perverted and the Axe at last laid to the Root of our Government 't is high time then I say to provide for our our Safety and to put a stop to that Current which would have quickly over-run and drowned us Not without Justice for where my Life and Property is hunted after and assaulted I may by the Law of God and Man â—epel the Injury and stand in my own Vindication Not without Precedent even in Protestant Kingdoms not to mention the Romanists who both teach and practise the Deposing of evil and wicked Magistrates and though in England we may perhaps think the Changes we have very lately seen among our selves admit of no Precedent it may easily be prov'd that which hath been done of late in this Nation hath been in great part formerly presented and allowed of upon Foreign Stages yea and not many Years out of the Memory of some yet living if we would but look into the Actions of other Regions and those too wherein the Reform'd Religion is professed we shall find that they by their publick Records acknowledged that in case of Tyranny and Oppression it was lawful not only to defend their Lives and Liberties against all Assaults but reduce and declare the Persons so offending incapable of holding the Government A lively Example of this and almost exactly parallel with ours was the Case of Sigismond the Third Hereditary King of Sweden who by a Convention of the States of that Kingdom was Excluded even with his Heirs a Severity which both the Honourable Houses of Parliament here have with great Justice and Wisdom declined from that Crown for ever Some of the Articles drawn up against him were these First For swerving from their received Christian Religion as also from his Oath and Promise and Solemn Engagement made to his People at his Coronation to preserve their Rights and Priviledges as also their Holy Reform'd Religion Inviolated For departing the Country without the Consent and unwilling to the States and Orders of the Realm For exporting several Acts of great Concernment out of the Cancellarie For prosecuting such as would not embrace or favour the Romish Superstition For contemning and endeavouring to undermine and annul those laudable Institutions and Laws made for the Security of the Realm and the Establishment of the Protestant Reformed Religion For raising up what Enemies he could against his Native Country thereby to involve his Subjects in a Deluge of Blood which he intended and had almost effected For inhumanely designing and suborning Russians and Villains to Murder and Assassinate one of the chief Nobles for no other Reason but that out of Conscience and Duty he would have perswaded him from those Irregularities and notorious Breaches of the known Laws of the Land. For these and many more Causes as the sending his Son out of the Land without the Consent of the States and causing him to be brought up and educated in the Romish Superstition did the Swedes submitting the same to the Judgment of all sincere and candid Arbitratours justify their Abdication for ever of King Sigismond the Third and his Heirs from the Crown of Sweden c. and proceeded strait to the Constituting and Electing of Charles Duke of Sudermannia vid. Spanheim 's Hist. of Sweden c. And in conclusion they pray for and doubt not of a candid Construction a benign and favourable Acceptation from all Christian Emperors Kings Princes States c. of this their Legitimate Defence and to vindicate them and their most equal Cause from all Calumny or eâ—il Interpretation whatsoever The Circumstances relating to this present Juncture in England bear so near a resemblance almost in all these Grievances objected against the said Sigismond that our late King by a sort of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to have breath'd his Soul rather than to have copy'd after him though indeed in some Cases he has plainly out-done the Original especially in relation to his supposed Son. And as our King thought fit to Copy a King of Sweden I cannot apprehend how it can lessen our Judgments or Integrity our Piety or our Loyalty to follow the Example of the Swedes excepting
in the case of the Lawful Heirs whom every good Englishman and Protestant to their utmost Danger and Peril are ready to defend and maintain to take such Measures for our future Security and lawful Establishment as shall not by any Humane Art or Endeavour be liable to Interruption But as Precedents are least satisfactory or least confronting to obstinate Opposers where they make only for one party A Popish Sigismund deposed for Male-Administration in a Protestant Kingdom may not perhaps be allowed to carry its sufficient Justification with the Romanists and therefore the Tables ought to be turn'd and the Ballance made by Parallels of their own side the most prudent way of combating and securing a Victory in this matter being to lay the Scene of War in the Enemies Country To confute therefore and silence all the Romish Pretensions of Disgust and Murmur against the Injustice of such a Deprivation from Examples of Popish Deposals of Male-administring Protestants we 'll begin with Henry of Navarre afterwards Henry the Fourth of France The famous Holy League enter'd into by the Pope himself and so many potent Allies together with all the Romish Subjects of Franâ—e against that undoubted Heir of the Crown of France and at that time by succession the rightful King is so notoriously known to the World that all the tedious Particulars of the History would be impertinent Let it suffice here was a Prince the unquestion'd Inheritor of the Crown of France actually by all Open and Hostile Means and all such Hostility avowed and abetted and his very Birth-right fore-closed by the Pope himself opposed and denied his Accession to the Throne for no other Unqualifications but be a Hugonot that is of a Perswasion contrary to the Establish'd and Regnant Romish Religion in France being in all other Respects acknowledged a most excellent Prince Insomuch that after all other ineffectual Endeavours of recovering his Birth-right he had no means left to repeal his Exclusion and Debarment from the Throne but by his Abjuration of the Reformed Religion and return to the Romish Worship This Case of Henry the Fourth instead of a Parallel to ours does not come up to half the Justification of the present Measures of England For here was a Soveraign Prince under Deprivation for no other Default but his meer Religion for this Henry the Fourth being then but in his Entrance to the Empire if truly that was consequently yet at least whatever they might fear under no Dilemmas of the least breach of Compact with his People no Forfeitures for Male-Administration or Violation of the Laws of the Land or Rights of his Subjects their Dangers as then being only Apprehensions If therefore the meer private Opinion of a Crowned Head different from the Establish'd Religion of the Land has been of weight enough it self alone in their own Scales to oversway the Birth-Right of Princes and make a Bar to Empire and that too so solemnly confirmed and ratified even by the Sanction Apostolick the Decretals of Rome it self What Objections or Allegations can our Romish Disputants whether Foreign or Domestick make against the like Bar in Empire after so notorious an actual Male-Administration in the present Case of England such too visible Ruptures of the Laws of the Land and in defiance of all Obligations of Engagements Covenant Word Honour or OATHS themselves The next Example I shall point them to is that of the late Portuguese King who by the Ordinance of the States of Portugal ratified by the Pope's Assent was dethroned and his Brother invested with the Soveraignty and not only that but his Queen too taken from him Divorced and by a Dispensation married to his Brother The Grounds of this Deposal being only this that the King was sometimes taken with Delirious Fits. If such a Personal Infirmity was ground sufficient to displace the Crown Have not the Peopâ—e or Community of England in Convention asseâ—bled as much Right on their Side for the Deposal of a King for a far greater Infirmity of the two a more violent Madness his loâ—g tried and radicated Incapacity of being held either by the Bonds or Ties of Honour Laws or Oaths There being this infinite Difference between the Outrages of the one and the other as that a Prince so bigotted resolved for the Introduction right or wrong of his own Religion is the more Dangerous Frantick For his Superstitious Frency may push him to Violences that will hurt whole Nations whereas the Outrages of the other can be only Personal And if the Hands of the Lunatick Portuguese were thought Just to be tied up with no less Shackles than taking both his Kingdom and Queen away from him who shall Arraign the Wisdom of the English for depriving their King of his Kingdom much good may do him with his Queen under an infinite larger Capacity and more dangerous propensity to Mischief And for so doing what Warrant shall they want when the present unforced Desertion of the King and quitting the Helm has put the Power of Decision in that Point into their own Hands and lost him all Right of Appeal against the Alienation I shall venter to add one last Consideration viz. The Bull of Pope Pius Quintus against Queen Elizabeth by which the Pope deprives her of all Title to the Imperial Crown and all Dominion Dignity and Priviledg whatever declaring that all the Nobility Subjects and People of England and all others which have in any sort sworn unto her to be for ever absolved from any such Oath and all manner of Duty of Dominion Allegiance and Obedience c. and all forbidden to obey her or her Motions Mandates or Laws upon pain of Anathema Vide Bishop of Lincoln's Brutum Fulmen p. 6. I recite this unjust Deposal of a Lawful Queen by the pretended Authority of the Pope no other than to let the World know that the Romish Party have the least Reason in Nature to complain of the Deprivation of Princes They whose Infallible Guides can so insolently and arbitrarily place or displace Crown'd Heads not to mention the Illegality of the Pope's Interposition in the Affair in any kind for only acting by Law in Matters of Religious Changes for such were all Ecclesiastick Alterations of that Queen by the unquestion'd Authority of Acts of Parliament can be but ill furnish'd with Arguments against the present Deprivation enacted by the whole Community of England for such violent Measures and Foundations already form'd and begun for the subversion of Church and State against all Law. Reasons humbly offer'd for placing his Highness the Prince of Orange singly in the Throne during his Life I. IT will be a clear Assertion of the Peoples Right Firm Evidence of a Contract Broken and a sure Precedent to all Ages when after a most Solemn Debate the Estates of England Declare That the King having Abdicated the Government and the Throne thereby Legally Vacant They think fit to Fill it again with One who is
of the Constitution The Constitution and Laws thereof being agreed upon and it being impossible for Humane Prudence to foresee all Accidents which must be provided for therefore as they arise the Administration necessarily must lie in these two Things The making farther Laws subordinate still to those fore-priz'd as occasion requires and seeing them executed that is in Legislation and Judgment The One is the Business of the Supreme Authority the Other of the Inferior Magistrates or Officers and Executioners of the same according to that Fundamental Agreement made by the People Our Government now as constituted in order to this Administration is we know a mixt Government A Government is known to be pure or mixt by the placing the Supreme Authority If the People place it singly in the King or singly in the Nobles or singly in the People then it is a pure Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy But when it is placed in all Three it is a mixt Government as Ours is where there are no Laws in the Administration made but by King Lords and Commons These Things I pursue only so far as is necessary to the reaching my main Purpose and the leading me to a right discernment of the present Condition into which we are now brought in regard to this said Government The Supreme Power of the Nation being placed in a Parliament which is a Corporation of King Lords and Commons that is the Supreme Authority residing in King Lords and Commons as One Corporation there does appear at this Conjuncture a Dissolution of the Government A Dissolution manifestly as to the Exercise of it This Appearance does arise from the opening of the last Scene For the King being now gone gone from his People and departing from his Government that One Corporation we speak of is broke so that there remains now no subject for that supreme Authority It being evident that a Parliament wherein an Essential point of our Constitution does consist cannot now be Assembled And the Providence of God it self hath extraordinarily determin'd our Case If a King dies he hath a Successor and the Right devolves upon Him but whilst the King lives he hath no Successor and the Right remaining in Him and no Other and he being divided from his Lords and Commons the Subject of the Supreme Power or this One Corporation whereof the King is a Chief Essential and Constituent Part does perfectly cease and must necessarily cause a Dissolution I choose not to found this upon what does more convince Others which comes to this Account The King by his frequent Malversation in the Government and rooted Design of subverting our Religious and Civil Rights for the Introduction of Arbitrary Power and Popery which being aggravated by such an Endeavour as the destroying that Share in the Government which every Commoner hath that hath Right to choose his Representative in Parliament by his Garbling Corporations and so evacuating this Liberty in effect and by such an endeavour also as the exterminating his Protestant Subjects seeing that Religion which he would have introduced is such as by the Principles of it if it comes into Domination must do so to all Hereticks and thereupon may he be look'd on no longer as Rex but Hostis and Hostis Publicus Besides the subjecting us to a Foreign Jurisdiction and the very changing the Government by that indefinite Dispensing Power over the Laws as was carved to him by his Judges from Regal to Despotical It is judged by them that he is fallen thereupon from his Royal Dignity and that the Universality thereby have Warrant not only to defend themselves against him but by Vertue of that Sanction which is tacitly implyed in the Laws of the Constitution to proceed on to take the Forfeiture He hath made of his Government and Depose Him For it is a fond thing think they to imagine any Laws without a Sanction and impossible there should be any other Sanction in Treaties between Free Nations or between a Free People and the Governour they set over Themselves than Force to be used by the Parties concern'd there being no Third Party on Earth to appeal to in such Cases However this be it being taken for granted That the Government is dissolved and I suppose upon that preceding Account of the One Corporation I say being broke the Supreme Authority that lay before in the Three as united in One does escheat or fall to the Community who must therefore choose a new Subject for that Power and it lies at their Discretion to place it in what Subject they please They may lodg it in the Lords and Commons alone without a King if they think that Government best the matter lies altogether upon their Agreement and Consent I suppose it most likely that they will agree to place it again in a Monarch Lords and Commons the Person only left at Choice and Care had to prevent all Danger of Law in the Case according to the Ancient Constitution Though what Man can know the Mind of a Nation when once come together if he knows his own Mind There is one thing we have now Opportunity to obtain which we can never recover again if it be lost and that is what His Highness the Prince of Orange hath made one of his two Designs The Delivery of the People from Slavery which can never be done effectually and radically but upon this Advantage The delivering us from Popery is contained in the setling our Religion and that being a Work of great length is the business more properly of a Parliament but this is a thing must be done by the Community and consequently by thofe that are the Representatives of it a Convention so called in regard to a higher Capacity hereunto and not a Parliament for that represents the People not as in a Community but as in a Common-wealth where there is pars imperans as well as subdita which now is not A Parliament makes Laws for the Administration but the People as in a Community make Laws for the Constitution I would therefore humbly offer it to the Consideration of those who shall meet as Members of this Convention That in order to the Effect premised they do but agree and pitch upon this one certain Point of good Policy that where they place the Supream Authority they lay also the Rights or Properties of it that is the Iura Majestatis Majestas being Maxima Potestas all together The Rights of Majesty or the Supream Power are mainly these The first is Legislation or making Laws and this undoubtedly lies in a Parliament The next is the Power of raising Arms or Armies or the Militia the Power of making Peace and War or the Power of the Sword which is necessary to maintain those Laws The third is a Power over our Estates or the Purse or raising Mony which must maintain the Sword. A fourth is the Power of choosing Magistrates to rule Us according to these Laws such as Judges and Sheriffs
is evident no Man can serve two Masters Secondly It 's highly necessary and prudent rather to vest the Administration in the Husband than in the Wife 1. Because a Man by Nature Education and Experience is generally rendred more capable to Govern than the Woman Therefore 2. the Husband ought rather to Rule the Wife than the Wife the Husband especially considering the Vow in Matrimony 3. The Prince of Orange is not more proper to Govern as he 's Man and Husband only but as he is a Man a Husband and a Prince of known Honour profound Wisdom undaunted Courage and incomparable Merit as he 's a Person that 's naturally inclin'd to be Just Merciful and Peaceable and to do all Publick Acts of Generosity for the Advancement of the Interest and Happiness of Humane Societies and therefore most fit under Heaven to have the solâ— Executive Power A LORD'S Speech Without Doors To the Lords upon the present Condition of the Government My Lords PRay give me leave to cast in my Mite at this time upon this great Debate and though it be with an entire dissent to some Leading Lords to whom I bear great reverence it is according to my Conscience and that is the Rule of every honest Man's Actions My Lords I cannot forbear thinking that a greater Reproach can hardly come upon any People than is like to fall upon us Protestants for this unpresidented usage of our poor King We feared the security of our Religion because of Him and are now like to Violate a great part of it by forfeiting our Loyalty towards Him Religion is the Pretence but some fear a New Master is the Thing This I take to have been to Business of to Day for notwithstanding we see how feeble a thing Popery is in England that it is beaten without Blows and routed so effectually that it can never hope nor we justly fear it should return upon us and consequently our Religion pretty secure yet I don't see that this satisfies us unless the King goes also He must be turned away and the Crown change its Head for if the Crown be not the Quarrel more than Property and his Majesty's Person than his Religion Why did not the Prince stop when he heard a Free Parliament was calling by the King's Writs where all Matters especially that of the Prince of Wales might have been considered or at least where his Majesties Commissioners of Peace met â—im Who advised him â—o adâ—ance and give his Majesty that apprehension of â—is own insecurity and if any thing but a Crown would have served him Why was a Noble Peer of this House clapt up at Winsor when his Majesty sent him on purpose to invite the Prince to St. Iames's a Message that affected all good Mens Hearts more then any thing but his Majesty's return it look'd so Natural and Peaceable But it seems as if it had been therefore affronted for the Invitation could not have been received without the King 's remaining King and who was there that did not lately say it should be so I and who is there now that does not see it is not so We can my Lords no longer doubt of this if we will remember that the same Night the Prince should have answered his Majesty's kind Message The King's Guards were changed and at midnight the Prince's Guards were clapt upon hiâ— Majesty's Person and which is yet more extravagant to accomplish the business Three noble Lords in view were sent to let him know It was not for his safety or the Princes honour that he should stay in his own Palace A strange way my Lords of treating ones own King in his own House I cannot comprehend how it was for the Prince's Honour the King should go against his Will or how it was against his Honour that his Majesty should be safe in his own House I leave it with your Lordships to think who could render the King's stay unsafe at White-hall after the Dutch Guards were posted there My Lords this I confess is the great Iniquity that sticks with me and deserves our severest Scrutiny and Reflection that after driving our King away we should offer to â—ddress our selves to any Body to take the Government as if he had formally disserted it It becomes us rather to ask Where the King is how he came to go and who sent him away I take the Honour of the Peâ—rage of England to be deeply ingaged both at Home and Abroad to search but this Minor and especially those who are now present most of whom owe their share iâ— thâ—t noble Order to his Majesty his Brother Father or Grandfather It is not unreasonable to believe the King had not gone at first but upon some Messagâ— sent and Letters received to take care of his Person for that nothing less than the Crown was intended but being not out of his own Territories and therefore no Dissertion Abdication or Remise as the Criticks of the Conjuncture we are under pretend for the King may be where â—e will in his own Kingdom we â—ee while it was in his choice to go he returned and by as good as our advise too so that we cannot in truth say his Dissertion is the cause for it is plainly the Effect of our late extraordinary proceedings If any should say He needed not have gone now it is a great mistake for â— King ought to go if he cannot stay a King in his own Kingdom which Force refused to let him be And to stay a Subject to another Authority had been a meaner forfeiture of his Right then can in justice be charged upon his Retirement Wherefore his going must and will lie at their Doors that set him an hour to be gone out of his own Palace Many are angry and yet pleased that he is gone for France but where my Lords should he go Flanders dared not receive him Holland you could not think he should go to and Ireland you would have liked less and when we consider how far a League with France has been made the cause of his Misfortune though to this day it is in the Clouds what other Prince had the same Obligation to receive and succor him Therefore whatever Arts are used to blacken his Retreat we cannot with any shew of Reason imagine that he could think himself safe with us that had exercised Soveraign Power without him our Soveraign Lord and under the protection of a Forraign Prince and his Army though at the same time we had Sworn Allegiance to him and that it was unlawful for us to take up Arms against him under any Pretence whatever My Lords if this be not virtually and in effect to pull the Crown off his Head and dethrone him unheard I am to learn my Alphabet again This is short warning to give Kings for us at least my Lords that boast of Loyalty and were brought to these Seats by the favour of the Crown What can other Nations think of the Nobility of
matter of Fact doth not back and maintain them And this is an Advantage which I would not have us give our Adversaries in these things no more than we have done in the matters of Dispute betwixt them and us Here we have proved all our Charges against their Religion let us therefore prove or else not so eagerly insist upon these Accusations brought against their Persons I shall add nothing further but my real Wishes That I could tho with the loss of all that 's dear to me in this World contribute to the utter Exclusion of Popery by all lawful means and I do and shall always pray for a Blessing upon their Designs who sincerely endeavour to procure a Settlement of the Religion Liberties and Properties of the Subjects upon so sure a foundation that there may be no danger of the Nations relapsing into the like miseries at any time hereafter Some short Notes on a Pamphlet entitled Reflections upon our late and present Proceedings in England A Man must read much of this Author 's profound Work before he can fathom the Depths of it and find what his Design is or whether indeed he has any Design at all unless it be that of making a Book He tells us at length after much Strugling and a tedious Repetition of what every body knows perhaps better than himself That all Orders of Men Ecclesiastick Civil and Military did put the Regal Administration into the Prince of Orange's Hands and that the Intent of our Proceedings will at least excuse if not justify us I would have this knowing Gentleman inform the World into what Hands the Regal Administration could be better put And if the Nation could not do better whether this their Action does not justify it self But says he a little above How did we all generally concur and unanimously agree to forget our Obligations to our Soveraign And in Page 4 he tells us That the Prince of Orange hath done a great thing for us and wrought such Deliverance for the Nation as ought never to be forgotten and can never be sufficiently requited I do not at all doubt but this Gentleman can more easily write half a dozen such Books as this is than reconcile these notable Passages He acknowledges we have been rescued out of the Hands of him that hated us and would have destroyed us without a cause and yet reproaches us with forgetting our Obligations to our Soveraign In Page 5. he has this sharp Question Let every Man ask himself for what reason he became a party in this general Defection Was it to divest the King of all Power to protect his Subjects c. To repeat these Absurdities is a sufficient Answer to them And then again in the next Page That whatever some obnoxious and ambitious Men might aim at all good Christians had other Intentions They were sensibly concerned for the Preservation of their Holy Religion in the first place Their Lives their Laws their Liberties in the next And after the way which some call Heresy so were they desirous still to worship the God of their Fathers and after that manner which some might say was Rebellion so they thought themselves oblig'd to stand up for the Laws and Liberties of their Forefathers What measures of Obedience this Man is for and what he would have us to do or not to do I am not able to divine from his Book for he seems to dislike in one place what he approves in another But he tells us in Page 6 7 of his Fears of the Government being undermined both in Church and State and that he shall be reduced to the Dutch or some other foreign measures which can never be well received in England till an Act be past to abolish Monarchy Episcopacy c. If this Gentleman's Distractions be not so great as to hinder him the use of his two chief Senses he may now perceive that his Fears are as vain as others perceive his Reasoning to be But in Page 8. he states a notable Question for he supposes his Father to be as churlish as Cain and as poor as Job and yet maintains he is his Father O admirably put But what 's this to a King 's apparent Design of ruining and enslaving a People who have the same both Natural and Civil Right to their Lives and Liberties as he has to his But shall we run says he into Popery and perhaps Slavery too and is not the Deposing a Popish Doctrine p. 11. and as for Slavery Must not a standing Army be necessarily kept up to maintain a Title founded only on the consent of the fickle and uncertain People If the Lords and Commons of England are this fickle and uncertain People I know not where our Author will find more substantial Folks unless he fancies they are to be met with amongst the Mobile And as to the Popish Deposing Doctrine I have already shewed our case comes in no sort near it for the late King's Religion did not hinder his possessing himself of the Throne neither was that the Cause of his leaving it for he might have enjoyed it and made the best of it as to himself in all Freedom but he thought it beneath him to stop here and not impose his false Worship on all his Subjects trampling all the Laws of the Kingdom under his Feet and thereby claiming not only an absolute Empire over the Bodies but the Minds of his Subjects Our Author likewise shews himself a notable Well-wisher to our Religion and Liberties when he represents a standing Army page 11. in the present Exigency of Affairs to be such a Grievance and that too under a Prince who has not been only born and educated in the greatest Aversion to Popery and the only Prince uncorrupted by the French King but whose Genius and Interests do every ways so answer the Necessity of our Nation that we have no other cause of Fear or Trouble but at the sense of our own Unworthiness of so great a Blessing He seems in p. 12 and 13 to be in great Labour left the Prince of Orange should make himself a King contrary to the express Terms of his Declaration and Pretences of coming over here To which may be answered that he has in no sort violated that Declaration for he did not thrust himself into the Throne and as to his being so now both de jure and de facto this being a matter decided by the Justice Wisdom and Supream Authority of the Nation it 's foolish Presumption and no less conceited Ignorance for any private Person to argue it Our wise Author seems to be moreover concerned and greatly troubled at the Effects produced by the third Declaration for he says It did more harm to the King's Affairs than all the other Papers publisht at that time whence he concludes its plain that Sophistry and Tricks are made use of if they will but do the Business What would this Man have would he have both to
the Act and Oath of Council that such Confession should not militate yet they have brought it in as Evidence and given it upon Oath when their former Act and Oath was produced in open Court in Demonstration of their Perjury They used frequently to pack Juries picking out such as they thought any thing tender and not bloody enough and sometimes listed some who they concluded would not concur that thereupon they might get occasion to exact their Fines Sometimes when the Jury hath brought in their Verdict in Favour of the Pannal they have made them return and resume the Cognition of the Process again and threatned them with an Assize of Error if they did not bring him in Guilty yea frequently the Advocate theatned them under most peremptory Certifications if they found not the Impannalled Guilty so that their using Juries was but for the Fashion They have sentenced innocent Persons twice once to have their Ears cut off and banished and after the lopping of their Ears they have re-examined them and sentenced them to Death They used to stage several together of whom they knew some would comply to tantalize others with the sight of their Liberty thereby tempting them to bite more eagerly at their snaring Baits to wound the Conscience They have not only Murdered many innocent Christians in taking their Lives but also endevouâ—ed to Murder their Reputation and the Cause they owned loading it with most reproachful Epithets which was their peculiar Policy to bring the Heads of Suffering to Points most obnoxious to common Censer and most Extrinsick to Religion cutting off the Faithful Professors of Religion and true Lovers of Liberty under the odium of Enemies to Government Some they arraigned whom they could neither reach by adducing many Witnesses against in Tryal nor by their Examination with their cruel Torture of the Boots yet hath had their whole Estate seized and also been sent to Pâ—ison in a Rock within the Sea without being convicted of any Crime They finding their means and motions under Colour of Law and Trials were too slow and troublesome to acquire their designed Cruelties and that the publick Executions tended more to confirm and multiply the Lovers of Religion and Liberty than to diminish and deter took a more compendious way of sending out thâ—ir Souldiers impowered to challenge and examine whom they pleased and to tender Oaths required by no Law and to punish such by present Death who refused to swear or scrupled to answer their ensnaring Qâ—estion which bloody Commissions were so faithfully Executed that within few Weeks above fifty innocent Persons were cruelly murdered in cold Blood without either Tâ—yal or Convâ—â—â—â—on or respeâ—t to Age or Sex. Although the Multitudes of Familâ—es ruined by Exorbitant Finingâ— Forfeitures Banishments Imprisonments Free quaâ—terings and Plunderings of Souldierâ— and Barbarities of their Highland Host the many cruel Edicts and Proclamations they have published the unlawful Bonds and wicked self-contradicting Oaths imposed and pressed the many Exactions whereby they have impoverished the Country the many open Oppressions horrid Tortures and Cruelties practised upon Innocents the multitudes of Persons Male and Female whom they have Murdered Persecuted Oppressed and Destroyed are so many and various that they cannot be collected Yet some have been at no small pains to gether as much of these as when published in a Martyrology of these times which is purposed to be done with all convenient speed will give the World to know as well the Faithfulness Patience Courage and Constancy of these who suffered together with the Equity of their Cause as the Inhumanity Illegality and Severity of their Cruel and Bloody Persecutors The Late Honourable CONVENTION proved a Legal PARLIAMENT I. THE necessity of a Parliament agreed by the Lords and Commons Voting that the Throne is Vacant for there being a Vacancy there follows an immediate necessity of settling the Government especially the Writs being destroyed and the Great Seal carryed away put a period to all publick Justice and then there must be a supply by such means as the necessity requires or a failure of Government II. Consider the Antecedents to the calling the Convention that is about three hundred of the Commons which is a majority of the fullest House that can be made above sixty Lords being a greater number than any part divided amounted to at this great Meeting the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council of the City of London by application to His then Highness the Prince of Orange desired him to accept of the Administration of Pâ—blick Affairs Military and Civil which he was pleased to do to the great satisfaction of all good People and after that His Highness was desired to Issue forth His Circular Letters to the Lords and the like to the Coroners and in their absence to the Clerks of the Peace to Elect Knights Citizens and Burgesses this was more than was done in Fifty nine for the calling a Parliament in April 1660. for there the Summons was not real but fictitious i. e. in the names of the Keepers of the Liberties of England a meer Notion set up as a Form there being no such Persons but a meer Ens rationis impossible really to exist so that here was much more done than in 1659 and all really done which was possible to be invented as the Affairs then stood Besides King Ch. the 2d had not abdicated the Kingdom but was willing to return and was at Breda whither they might have sent for Writs and in the mean time have kept their form of Keepers of the Liberties c. But in the present case there was no King in being nor any style or form of Government neither real or notional left so that in all these respects more was done before and at the calling of this Great Convention than for calling that Parliament for so I must call it yet that Parliament made several Acts in all thirty seven as appears by Keebles Statutes and several of them not confirmed I shall instance but in one but it is one which there was occasion to use in every County of England I mean the Act for Confirming and Restoring Ministers being the 17 th of that Sessions all the Judges allowed of this as an Act of Parliament tho' never confirmed which is a stronger case than that in question for there was only fictitious Summons here a real one III. That without the Consent of any Body of the People this at the Request of a Majority of the Lords more than halâ— the number of the Commons duly chosen in King Ch. the 2 d's time besides the great Body of the City of London being at least esteem'd a 5 th part of the Kingdom yet after the King's Return he was so well satisfied with the calling of that Parliament that it was Enacted by the King Lords and Commons Asâ—embled in Parliament that the Lords and Common then Sitting at Westminster in the present Parliament were thâ— two Houses of Parliament
notwithstanding any want of thâ— Kings Writs or Writ of Summons or aâ—y defect whatsoever and as if the King had been present at the beginning of the Parliament this I take to be a full Judgment in full Parliament of the case in question and much stronger than the present case is and this Parliament continued till the 29 th of December next following and made in all thirty seven Acts as aboâ—e mentioned The 13 Caroli 2. chap. 7. a full Parliament called by the Kings Writ recites the other of 12 Caroli 2. and that after his Majesties return they were continued till the 29 th of December and then dissolved and that several Acts passed this is the plain Judgment of another Parliament 1. Because it says they were continued which shews they had a real being capable of being continued for a Confirmation of a void Grant has no effect and Confirmation shews a Grant only voidable so the continuance there shewed it at most but voidable and when the King came and confirm'd it all was good 2. The dissolving it then shews they had a being for as ex nihilo nihil sit so super nihil nil operatur as out of nothing nothing can be made so upon nothing nothing can operate Again the King Lords and Commons make the great Corporation or Body of the Kingdom and the Commons are legally taken for the Free-holders Inst. 4. p. 2. Now the Lords and Commons having Proclaimed the King the defect of this great Corporation is cured and all the Essential parts of this great Body Politique united and made compleat as plainly as when the Mayor of a Corporation dies and another is chosen the Corporation is again perfect and to say that which perfects the great Body Politique should in the same instant destroy it I mean the Parliament is to make contradictions true simul semel the perfection and destruction of this great Body at one instant and by the same Act. Then if necessity of Affairs was a forcible Argument in 1660 a time of great peace not only in England but throughout Europe and almost in all the World certainly 't is of a greater force now when England is scarce delivered from Popery and Slavery when Ireland has a mighty Army of Papists and that Kingdom in hazard of final destruction if not speedily prevented and when France has destroyed most of the Protestants there and threatens the ruin of the Low-Countries from whence God has sent the wonderful Assistance of our Gracious and therefore most Glorious King and England cannot promise safety from that Forreign Power when forty days delay which is the least can be for a new Parliament and considering we can never hope to have one more freely chosen because first it was so free from Court-influence or likelihood of all design that the Letters of Summons issued by him whom the great God in infinite Mercy raised to save us to the hazard of his Life and this done to protect the Protestant Religion and at a time when the people were all concerned for one Common interest of Religion and Liberty it would be vain when we have the best King and Queen the World affords a full house of Lords the most solemnly chosen Commons that ever were in the remembrance of any Man Living to spend Mony and lose time I had almost said to despise Providence and take great pains to destroy our selves If any object Acts of Parliament mentioning Writs and Summons c. I answer the Precedent in 1660 is after all those Acts. In private cases as much has been done in point of necessity a Bishop Provincial dies and sede vacant a Clerk is presented to a Benefice the Presentation to the Dean and Chapter is good in this case of Necessity and if in a Vacancy by the Death of a Bishop a Presentation shall be good to the Dean and Chapter rather than a prejudice should happen by the Church lying void Surely â fortiori Vacancy of the Throne may be supplied without the formality of a Writ and the great Convention turn'd to a Real Parliament A Summons in all points is of the same real force as a Writ for a Summons and a Writ differ no more than in name the thing is the same in all Substantial parts the Writ is Recorded in Chancery so are His Highnesses Letters the proper Officer Endorses the Return so he does here for the Coroner in defect of the Sheriff is the proper Officer the People Choose by virtue of the Writ so they did freely by Virtue of the Letters c. quae re concordant parum differunt they agree in Reality and then what difference is there between the one and the other Object A Writ must be in Actions at Common Law else all Pleadings after will not make it good but Judgment given may be Reversed by a Writ of Error Answ. The case differs first because Actions between party and party are Adversary Actions but Summons to Parliament are not so but are Mediums only to have an Election 2. In Actions at Law the Defendant may plead to the Writ but there is no plea to a Writ for electing Members to serve in Parliament and for this I have Littleton's Argument there never was such Plea therefore none lies Object That they have not taken the Test. Answ. They may take the Test yet and then all which they do will be good for the Test being the distinguishing Mark of a Protestant from a Papist when that is taken the end of the Law is performed Object That the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy ought to be taken and that the new ones are not legal Answ. The Convention being the Supream Power have abolish'd the old Oaths and have made new ones and as to the making new Oaths the like was done in Alfreds time when they chose him King vide Mirror of Justice Chap. 1. for the Heptarchy being turn'd to a Monarchy the precedent Oaths of the seven Kings could not be the same King Alfred swore Many Precedents may be cited where Laws have been made in Parliament without the King 's Writ to summon them which for brevity's sake I forbear to mention For a farewel the Objections quarrel at our Happiness fight against our Safety and aim at that which may indanger Destruction The Amicable Reconciliation of the DISSENTERS to the CHURCH of ENGLAND being a Model or Draught for the Universal Accommodation in the Case of Religion and the Bringing in all Parties to Her Communion Humbly presented to the Consideration of Parliament WHereas there are several parties of Christians in the Nation who must and will ever differ in their Opinions about the Church and Discipline of it in the Question which is of Christ's Institution it is not our Disputes about the Church â—s Particular which are rather to be mutually forborn and every party left herein to their own Perswasion but a common Agreement in what we can agree and that
as the Discusser imposes upon the World. Besides the many Instances in History of several Princes who have forfeited their Succession and consequently their Title to the Crown for revolting from the Establish'd Religion of the Realm But says the Discusser for I look upon his Friend and Him to be all one and that he does but put the Question with one side of his Mouth and answer it with the other I had thought our Laws as well as our Religion had been against the Deposing Doctrine That 's not the Question but whether a Prince may commit those Miscarriages in Government whether he may not so far peccare in Leges Rempublicam as to incur the Forfeiture of his Regal Power and whether a Prince may be allow'd to subvert the ancient Constitutions and Religion of a Nation and yet be said to be the Lawful King of that Realm These are the Questions For theâ— it is not the Law that deposes him nor the Religion that justifies it But it is He that deposes Himself 't is the bad Advice of Evil Counsellors to which he Listens and which he follows to the ruin of the Kingdom contrary to the Original Contract between Princes and People grounded upon the Foundations of all Original Government I say 't is that Adhering to Evil Counsel which deposes a Prince by degrading him from a Lawful King to an Unlawful Tyrant and renders him Liable to the Animadversion of the Law and the impeachments of the oppress'd and injur'd People To assert otherwise were to deprive all National Law and Religion of their self Defence which is against all the Law and Religion in the World. I am apt to believe that Christ himself had no very good Opinion of the lawfulness of Herod's Regality when he sent him that Message Go tell that Fox Herod Which I look upon as a Deposal and Degrading of that Arbitrary Prince by the Founder of our Religion in his own Breast and Judgment though he forbore the Execution of his Celestial Power And therefore it is not the Error of Religion but the Fault of those that do not well distinguish that Religion suffers in her Doctrines For only he who governs according to Law is a King he that endeavours to subvert the Law is none Nor is every rambling and precipitate Brain to be Judg of this neither but the Solid Law and fundamental Constitutions of the Realm So that the Country Gentleman was mistaken in his Thoughts both of our Laws and our Religion However the pretended Scrupulous Country-Gentleman desires the Discusser to expound the State-Riddle of the Vacancy and to give him the Ground of the late extraordinary Revolution To which the Discusser gives no direct answer at present but desires his Friend to take notice That the Gentlemen of the Convention who declar'd a Vacancy in the Government lay'd the main Stress of their opinion upon the King's withdrawing himself For that since the Story of the French League and the Business of the Prince of Wales were pass'd over in silence most Men believed that the pretended Breach of that which they called the Original Contract was no more then a popular Flourish All which is such an imperfect peice of Incoherence that none but a madman would have thrust in by Head and Shoulders as the Discusser has done For how can it be inferr'd that the Breach of the Original Contract should be a Popular Flourish because the Clandestin League and the False Birth are hitherto pass'd over in silence As for the surreptitious Birth one would think it was sufficiently dilated upon in the Declaration of the Lords and why it is not farther brought upon the Stage there may be several Reasons given and among the rest because it may be thought that the Imposture will vanish of it self and so there will be no need of casting an Eternal Blot upon the memory of them that contriv'd and own'd it Then for the Clandestin League it Suffices that there is apparent Proof of it in Bank. But to call the Breach of the Original Contract pretended and a Popular Flourish is a yerk of Malitious Reflection which only serves to expose the Discusser to Publick censure For as there is nothing more certain then that there is an Original Contract between the King and People of England the Breach of which has cost the Effusion of so much Blood so is it as certain that that Original Contract was never so infallibly broken then it was of late Which as it is allow'd by all the Laws of God and Man to be a sufficient ground to seek a Remedy so was nothing more vigorously urg'd by the Convention Which might have convinc'd the Discusser that they did not pretend it for a popular Flourish But now lest the Country Gentleman should be shogg'd by seeing the Votes of so considerable a Meeting debated by a private Hand the Discusser reminds him That a Parliament and a Convention are two different Things The latter for want of the King's Writs and Concurrence having no share in the Legislative Power But the Discusser forgets that it was only a Convention of Lords that sent to Richard the Second to meet them at Westminster which the King at first promis'd to do but upon altering his Mind sent him another peremptory Message that if he would not come according to his Promise they would chuse another King and then proceeding farther according to that Power they had expell'd against the King's Will several of his chiefest Favourites from the Court constrain'd others to put in Sureties to appear at the next Parliament and caus'd several others to be arrested and committed to several Prisons If a Convention could do this where the King was present what signifi'd the Writs and Concurrence of an absent Prince Nor did they contend for Legislative Power but only met in a kind of embodied Dictatorship to take care of the present Necessity of Affairs But this says the Discusser was not justifiable for that the Nenessity which they pretended was either of their own making or of their own submitting to which is the same Thing But this is all Nonsence For if the Necessity was of their own making then were the Lords and Commons the Authors of all the Miscarriages which they laid to the late King's Charge If of their own submitting to then would they never have call'd out for succour and crav'd Relief from their Oppressions No They were those crying Grievances sum'd up in the Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembl'd at Westmister presented to their Present Majesties upon the Twelfth of February Last which when the late King could not justify them by force of Arms but fled for it not being able to answer his endeavours to subvert and Extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom put them to that necessity of assembling after an Unusual Manner to provide for the Common Safety How ever the Discusser will have it a
different and distinct Administrations they liv'd under absolute Monarchs their Grandeur was won by the Sword and confirm'd by a pure Despotick Power and therefore their Resistance had been unlawful contrary to the Rule and Force of their Government but it is quite otherwise with us We are setled upon a Gothick Model our Princes make no Laws without our own Consent they are obliged to the excution of Laws made by our selves with their Consent they have no Power to dispense with the breach of them by others nor to invade them themselves This was own'd by the seven Bishops declar'd by former Parliaments so that no Man is bound to pay their Allegiance any further Let Caesar have what is Caesar's and the Subjects what is theirs their Laws their Birth-right In some cases Moral positive Duties are superseded by what is naturally Moral as in the Duties of the fourth Command so here Tho Government in general be founded upon Nature yet this or that Form is but positive and if it be not consistant with the end of Government Self-preservation Why should not it be either altered or fixed in those who will prosecute the right end the Preservation of the publick Peace and Liberties of the People To what hath been said let me add ex abundanti the late King 's retiring into France if it amount not to an Abdication it comes near unto a Forfeiture and no Prince or State can have less Reason to indeavour to restore him to his Crown and Dignity than that Monarch Whence hath he his Claim but from Hugh Capet and he from the Election of the great Men of the Kingdom and why did they pretend to lay aside Charles Duke of Lorrain whose Right it was by Succession but meerly upon this ground He had joyned himself to the Enemies of the Kingdom and so they transfer the Crown unto another Family that of the Capets And does not all Christendom in general and the English Nation in particular look upon that great Man of France as a Common Enemy shall not that which may hinder Succession justify in part a translating of it unto another But blessed be God all these are cleared in an Abdication and that asserted by the Representative Body of the whole Nation And now good Sir be perswaded to lay aside all Prejudice submit your Sentiments to the Judgment of your Superiors yield your Obedience and Fealty in taking the Oaths this you see is your Duty and not only so but your Interest It is not long since we were apprehensive of Popery and the Church-of England-Men did set themselves in direct Opposition against it and all the Accesses toward it for which the Generations to come shall call them blessed But whence come these Apprensions to be lessened can we expect a perfect Freedom from these Fears should he be re-admitted to his Authority It is not possible a Popish Soveraign should keep Promise with his Heretical Subjects as they stile us their words and Oaths if Roman Catholicks bind no further then stands with the Interest of their Religion and we know who both can and will dispence with Oaths and Promises made to Hereticks Would you fetter him by Laws these have been like Sampsons Cords easily broken Would you place him under Tutors and Governours He is no minor cannot submit aut Caesar aut Nullâ—s Men are but Men at the best and Time and Preferment may alter their Judgments However these would make him a Prisoner and no King. Should we submit in hopes of another Opportunity Would he not settle a Correspondence with Male-contents at Home and Foreign Princes Abroad and if he prosper in the Design hath that Common plea That his Promises are Void because made by him when under Restraint And then What will become of all that is dear unto us Religion Lives Liberties and Estates This is prevented by an Abdication so that if he return it must be by Conquest and then he will rule by the Sword we shall all be in the same Condition lie under the charge of Hereticks Rebels and Traytors the Government chang'd from a regulated Monarchy into an absolute Tyranny our Religion abrogated we shall be sold as Slaves or burnt as Hereticks If Men love Bonds and Imprisonments Rapine and Sequestration Racks and Tortures Fire and Faggots let them continue this Humor and Aversation but if none of these be lovely as indeed they are not let us bless God who hath redeemed us from the Hand of our Enemies and the Hand of all that hate us Let us joyn issue with the Divine Providence which hath delivered us from all these Evils in submitting and yielding our Obedience to our Soveraign Lord and Lady by whose Conduct and Courage we are brought into a state of Freedom and Peace Be not affrighted out of this by the false Rumors and Reports spread abroad by evil-minded Men but let us unite in our Submission to our present Rulers that thereby we may strengthen their Hearts and Hands in our common Defence There remains one Prejudice but no Objection arising from the vain Fears of some Men that the Church begins to be shaken in her Authority whilst matters of Religion fall under a Dispute and no Convocation consulted with But this if fully considered would swell a private Letter into too great a Bulk Let me for the present desire you to consider there is nothing design'd in Doctrinals but meer Matters of Ceremony and a relaxation of some Laws not consistent with the greatest Interest of the Nation in this present Juncture the Union of Protestants And out of experience that the severity of those Laws never reclaim'd one Dissenter but rather did drive others out of the Pale of the Church it is not unworthy of but highly becoming the Wisdom of those worthy Patriots to find out a Method whereby all Protestants of every Form may be brought into an easy Condition This Subject if this Letter find a candid Reception may be more fully considered of by Your very Friend Servant and Brother R. B. To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal And to the Honourable the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in this present PARLIAMENT Assembled The Humbletition of TITUS OATES D. D. Most Humbly sheweth THat your Petitioner in the Year 1678 discovered a horrid Popish Conspiracy for the Destruction of the late King Charles the Second His Present Majesty and the Protestant Religion within these Kingdoms and prov'd it so fully that several Parliaments and Courts of Justice before whom he gave his Testimony declared their Belief of it by publick Votes and the Condemnation of several of the Conspirators For which Reason and because your Petitioner would not be terrified by their Threats nor seduced by their Promises of great Rewards with both which Temptations they often assulted him to desist in his Discovery the Jesuits and Papists pursued him with an implacable Malice and endeavoured to take away his Fame and Life by suborning Witnesses to
to Liberty and that they should be so much in love with Chains that when they were fairly shaken off they shouâ—d run furiously to be Fettered again as if the Ottoman and French Government were so charming in our Country that we cannot live without it tho we have so lately groaned under the dismal Burden of it And it might have been supposed that even these who had been Instrumental in Enslaving their Fellow-Brethren and were grown Fat with Sucking the Nations Blood would have taken another Method to Reconcile themselves than by persuading us to purchase their Safety at so vast an Expence as the Ruin of more than three Parts of the Nation will necessarily amount to If we do but a little reflect on the Motives which these Men blinded by Self-Interest make use of to delude the Nation into a Security that wanted very little of proving Fatal to it and compare them with the strong Reasons we have to disswade us from being so imposed on they will be found so Weak and Impertinent that we must judg it next to Impossibility to suffer our selves to be twice Deceived But if the Experience of our former Miseries so lately hanging over our Heads the very Thoughts of renewing which make all good Men to tremble has not made us Wiser and be not of Efficacy enough to deter us from venturing another Shipwrack and exposing all again to the Discretion of Roman Catholicks It 's more than probable that GOD has abandoned us and given us up to believe strong Delusions First Thay will endeavour to perswade us that Kings are eximed from Punishments here on Earth and nothing they do can be quarrelled by their Subjects which indeed might with some Reason be urged among the Turks who reserve nothing from the Power of their Sultans and where it 's Death to dispute his Commands tho never so Arbitrary and Tyrannical But with what Impudence can such Stuff be imposed on us who never admit our Kings to the Government till they swear to rule us according to Law and no otherways The Laws are the only Security we have for our Lives and Properties which if our Sovereign subvert Subjects cannot be blamed for making use of the ordinary means to preserve them and since that cannot be done without withdrawing Obedience from such a Magistrate as goes about to destroy them such an Act cannot properly be said to punish him because we take nothing from him to which he has a just Claim but do only shun the occasion of making our selves miserable The Speculative Doctrine of Passive Obedience has done too much mischief among us and what has befallen the King may be justly imputed to it for the believing that without Opposition he might do what he pleased encouraged him to take such measures as have drawn all these Misfortunes on him Secondly Others are so Fond as to believe that we may be Secure in calling the King back provided they so Limit him that it will not be in his power to hurt us These Men do not consider how small a Complement this is to a Man of the Kings Temper from an an Absolute Prince as he was pleased to fancy himself to content himself with the bare Title of a King and how insupportable the Charge must be if from being Master of all he must force himself to comply with a thousand Masters and see his Throne become his Prison But how airy is it to fancy that any Restrictions of our Contrivance can bind the King For 1 st It 's most certain they can never be Voluntary and what is constrained and done by Force is by Law declared to be Void and Null to whose Assistance the Popes Dispensing Power being joined would quickly blow off these Sampson Cords and the Royal Power would again revive with all its Vigour and Luster Thirdly The King is of a Religion that has in a famous Council decreed That no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks much less with Subjects whom he looks upon as so many Rebels and will not miss to treat them as such whenever they give him the Opportunity of doing it for his greatest Admirers do not run to that height Idolatry to imagine him so much Angel as not to take all methods to revenge so great an Affront and secure himself at our Cost from such a Treatment for the future the apprehensions of which Resentments will strike such terrour in Mens minds that nothing will be capable to divert them from offering up All for an Atonement and Popery and Slavery will be thought a good Bargain if they can but save their Lives Then we may lament our Miseries but it will not be in our power to help them for a Prince of Orange is not always ready to rescue us with such vast Expence and so great hazard to his Person and if our Madness hurry us so far we deserve rather is pity than his resentment Fourthly What Arguments has the King given since he left us to persuade us he will be more faithful in observing his Words and Oaths than hitherto he has been Does he not in a Letter lately printed here expresly say he has ruled so as to give no occasion of complaint to any of his Subjects Is not the same Letter signed by one who sacrificed both Conscience and Honour to Interest whoâ—e pernicious and headstrong Counsels has posted him to his Ruine tho' all that has been done cannot make Him sensible of it Sure the re Hereticks to the See of Rome is not less Meritorious than before nor King Iames the Seventh by breathing the French Air become less Bigot It were a Dream to fancy it For so long as the Vatican thunders Excommunications against all such as do not use their utmost endeavours to extirpate Heresie a Roman Catholick must have no Religion at all if they be not terrible to him The fourth Argument they made use of to persuade such as are and shall be chosen Members of the Convention That their Interest to call back the King is That the Peace and Happiness of the Nation cannot be otherwise secured nor Factions or Divisions extinguished But what Factions do you observe but such as they themselves do foment on purpose to disturb our Harmony all which would immediately die if the Government were once setled on those who deserved it best for then if these Fops continued still fond of Popery and Tyranny they would be chastised as Disturbers of the Publick Peace The Argument may very justly be retorted for if the King return we will burst out into a flame and England which has already declared will quickly be on our Top an Enemy too Potent and too Numerous for us tho' we were all united besides the Danger to which such a Procedure will expose us we cut off all hopes of an Union with that Nation and thereby deprive our selves of an unspeakable Advantage which would redound to all sorts of People and would be the only means to
or his Deputs his Brethren Heraulds Macers and Pursevants and at the Head-Burghs of all the Shires Stewarties Bailliaries and Regalities within the Kingdom by Messengers at Arms. Extracted forth of the Meeting of the Estates by me J A. DALRYMPLE Cls. God save King WILLIAM and Queen MARY The Manner of the King and Queen taking the Scotish Coronation Oath May 11. 1689. THis day being appointed for the publick Reception of the Commissioners viz. the Earl of Argyle Sir Iames Montgomery of Skelmerly and Sir Iohn Dalrymple of Stair younger who were sent by the Meeting of the Estates of Scotland with an Offer of the Crown of that Kingdom to Their Majesties they accordingly at 3 of the Clock met at the Council-Chamber and from thence were Conducted by Sir Charles Cotterel Master of the Ceremonies attended by most of the Nobility and Gentry of that Kingdom who reside in and about this place to the Banqueting-House where the King and Queen came attended by many Persons of Quality the Sword being carried before them by the Lord Cardrosse and Their Majesties being placed on the Throne under a rich Canopy they first presented a Letter from the Estates to His Majesty then the Instrument of Government Thirdly a Paper containing the Grievances which they desired might be Redressed and Lastly an Address to His Majesty for turning the Meeting of the said Estates into a Parliament All which being Signed by his Grace the Duke of Hamilton as President of the Meeting and read to Their Majesties the King returned to the Commissioners the following Answer When I engaged in this Undertaking I had particular Regard and Consideration for Scotland and therefore I did emit a Declaration in relation to That as well as to this Kingdom which I intend to make good and effectual to them I take it very kindly that Scotland hath expressed so much Confidence in and Affection to Me They shall find Me willing to assist them in every thing that concerns the Weal and Interest of that Kingdom by making what Laws shall be necessary for the Security of their Religion Property and Liberty and to ease them of what may be justly grievous to them After which the Coronation-Oath was tendred to Their Majesties which the Earl of Argyle spoke word by word distinctly and the King and Queen repeated it after him holding Their Right Hands up after the manner of taking Oaths in Scotland The Meeting of the Estates of Scotland did Authorize their Commissioners to represent to His Majesty That that Clause in the Oath in relation to the rooting out of Hereticks did not import the destroying of Hereticks And that by the Law of Scotland no Man was to be persecuted for his private Opinion And even Obstinate and Convicted Hereticks were only to be denounced Rebels or Outlawed whereby their Moveable Estates are Confiscated His Majesty at the repeating that Clause in the Oath Did declare that He did not mean by these words That He was under any Obligation to become a Persecutor To which the Commissioners made Answer That neither the meaning of the Oath or the Law of Scotland did import it Then the King replyed That He took the Oath in that Sense and called for Witnesses the Commissioners and others present And then both Their Majesties Signed the said Coronation-Oath After which the Commissioners and several of the Scotish Nobility kissed Their Majesties Hands The Coronation-OATH of England The Arch-Bishop or Bishop shall say WIll You solemnly Promise and Swear to Govern the People of this Kingdom of England and the Dominions thereto belonging according to the Statutes in Parliament agreed on and the Laws and Customs of the same The King and Queen shall say I solemnly Promise so to do Arch-Bishop or Bishop Will You to Your Power cause Law and Justice in Mercy to be Executed in all Your Judgments King and Queen I Will. Arch-Bishop or Bishop Will You to the utmost of Your Power Maintain the Laws of God the true Profession of the Gospel and the Protestant Reformed Religion Established by Law And will You Preserve unto the Bishops and Clergy of this Realm and to the Churches committed to their Charge all such Rights and Priviledges as by Law do or shall appertain unto them or any of them King and Queen All this I Promise to do After this the King and Queen laying His and Her Hand upon the Holy Gospels shall say King and Queen The Things which I have here before Promised I will Perform and Keep. So help me God. Then the King and Queen shall kiss the Book The Coronation OATH of Scotland WE William and Mary King and Queen of Scotland Faithfully Promise and Swear by this Our solemn Oath in presence of the Eternal God that during the whole course of Our Life we will serve the same Eternal God to the uttermost of Our Power according as he has required in his most holy Word reveal'd and contain'd in the New and Old Testament and according to the same Word shall maintain the True Religion of Christ Jesus the Preaching of his Holy Word and the due and right Ministration of the Sacraments now Received and Preached within the Realm of Scotland and shall abolish and gainstand all false Religion contrary to the same and shall Rule the People committed to our Charge according to the Will and Command of God revealed in his aforesaid Word and according to the Landable Laws and Constitutions received in this Realm no ways repugnant to the said Word of the Eternal God and shall procure to the utmost of Our power to the Kirk of God and whole Christian People true and perfect Peace in all time coming That we shall preserve and keep inviolated the Rights and Rents with all just Priviledges of the Crown of Scotland neither shall we transfer nor alienate the same That we shall forbid and repress in all Estates and Degrees Reif Oppression and all kind of wrong And we shall Command and Procure that Justice and Equity in all Judgments be keeped to all Persons without exception as the Lord and Father of all Mercies shall be merciful to uâ— And we shall be careful to root out all Hereticks and Enemies to the true Worship of God that shall be Convicted by the true Kirk of God of the aforesaid Crimes out of Our Lands and Empire of Scotland And we faithfully affirm the things above written by Our Solemn Oath God save King WILLIAM and Queen MARY FINIS a a Distinct. 19. cap. a Caus. 25. q. 1. cap. 11. b b Cap. Vergent de Hereticis c c Cap. Infam 6. q. 1. p. 297. d d Suar. de Fide disp 12. §. 9. n. â— l. 2. c. 29. e e Cap. de Haer. f f Aâ—zoâ— Tom. 1. l. 8. c. 12. q. 7. g g Cap. 2. Sect. fin de Haer. in 6. h h Cap. cum secundum Legis de Haer. Inno III. cap. de Vergentis i i Vasque in Suar. disp 22. S. 4. n. 11. k k S. 1. n. 5. l l Cap. Vergent de Haer. m m Cap. ad abolendum de Haâ—r Suâ—r Dis. 23. Bul. Vrb. 4. Inno. 4. n n Jac. de Gra. decis l. 2. c. 9. n. 2. o o Bonacina Diano Castro Molanus c. Car. Allen. ad mon. to Nobl. Peop. p. 41. p p â—riess of P. G. 13. Clem. 8. q q 5. Ies. Trial p. 28. r r Col. Lr. â—o the Internâ—ncio s s Prance 's Nar. p. 4. t t Caus. Ep. p. 189. u u Five Ies. Tâ—iâ—ls p. 2â— x x Caput Offiâ—â—â—m y y Bonâ—ciâ—â—a dâ— prinâ— prat Disp. 3. q. 2. z z Parson 's Philop. p. 109. a a Becan Cont. Aug. p. 131 132. In Fowlis p. 60. b b Oats 's Nar. p. 4. N. 5 c. c c Hist. Ref. p. 110. a a Prout Regalis Officii exposcit utilitas b b Sicome le profit de Office Demaunde The Kingly or Regal Office of this Realm Mar. Sess. 3. cap. 1. Give us a King to judg us 1 Sam. 8.5 6 20. 18 Edw. III. 20 Edw. III. Cap. 1 2. 1 Iac. 1. cap. 1. 35 H. 8. cap. 1. 6 E. 6.11.1 2 3. Om. 10. 1 El. 6. 1 El. 3. Church-man
Protestant Religion And so GOD SAVE THE KING To this the Mayor Aldermen and the rest of the Corporation and a numerous Assembly did concur with his Grace and the rest of the Gentry His Grace at his lighting from his Horse perceiving great numbers of Common People gathering together called them to him and told them He desired they would not take any occasion to commit any Disorder or Outrage but go quietly to their Homes and acquainted them that the King had ordered a Free Parliament to be called TO THE KING's Most Excellent Majesty The Humble Address of GEORGE Lord DARTMOUTH Admiral of Your Majesties Fleet for the present Expedition and the Commanders of Your Majesties Ships of War now actually at the Spitehead in Your Majesties Service under his Lordships Command Most Dread Sovereign THE deep sense we have had of the great Dangers your Majesties Sacred Person has been in and the great Effusion of Christian Blood that threatned this your Majesties Kingdoms and in probability would have been shed unless God of his infinite Mercy had put it into your Majesties Heart to call a Parliament the only means in our opinion under the Almighty left to quiet the Minds of your People We do give your Majesty our most humble and hearty Thanks for your gracious Condescension beseeching God to give your Majesty all immaginable Happiness and Prosperity and grant that such Counsels and Resolutions may be promoted as conduce to your Majesties Honor and Safety and tend to the Peace and Settlement of this Realm both in Church and State according to the Establish'd Laws of the Kingdom Dartmouth Berkley Ro. Strickland I. Berry Io. Beverley Iohn Leake George S. Lo. Iohn Lacon Fr. Wicell Will. Davis Iohn Munden Tho. Legg Tho. Leighton St. Akerman W. Cornwal W. Ienning Ioh. Clements Io. Ashby Rob. Wiseman Iohn Ieniper Will. Booth Tho. Coale R. D'Lavall Tho. Iohnson M. Aylmer Fr. Frowde Tho. Skelton Ab. Potter A. Hastings Io. Montgomery M. Tennant Clo. Shovell E. Dover R. Weston W. Botham I. Tyrrel St. Fairborne Henr. Botler William Pooley Io. Fraseby Ba. Wild. On board the Resolution at Spitehead Decemb. 1. 1688. FINIS A THIRD Collection of Papers Relating to the Present Juncture of Affairs in England VIZ. I. The Expedition of the Prince of Orange for England giving an Account of the most Remarkable Passages thereof from the Day of his setting Sail from Holland to the first Day of this Instant December II. A further Account of the Prince's Army in a Letter from Exon Novemb. 24. III. Three Letters 1. A Letter from a Jesuit of Leige to a Jesuit at Friburg giving an Account of the happy Progress of Religion in England 2. A Letter from Father Petre to Father La Cheese 3. The Answer of Father La Cheese to Father Petre. IV. Popish Treaties not to be rely'd on In a Letter from a Gentleman at York to his Friend in the Prince of Orange's Camp. Addressed to all Members in the next Parliament Licensed and Entred according to Order London printed and are to be sold by Rich. Ianeway in Queen's-head Court in Pater-Noster Row 1688. THE EXPEDITION Of His HIGHNESS the Prince of ORANGE For ENGLAND Giving an Account of the most remarkable Passages thereof from the Day of his setting Sail from Holland to the first Day of this instant December 1688. HIS Highness the Prince of Orange set Sail from Holland with 51 Men of War 18 Fire-ships and about 330 Tenders being Ships hired of Merchants for the carriage of Horse and Foot Arms Ammunition c. The Fleet stood out at Sea to the Norward which met with horrid Storms for two Days and two Nights together in which bad Weather there were lost above 500 Horse and a Vessel parted from the Fleet wherein were 400 Foot supposed to be lost but now known to be arrived safe at the Texel but grievously shatter'd and torn by the Storms two of the Prince's principal Men of War were forced to new Rigg at Helversluse The Prince immediately on his return back inform'd the States of the condition of the Fleet which was not so damnified as was represented by the Vulgar and Ignorant who thereupon to lull a great Man asleep the States or some one employed by them order'd That the Harlem and Amsterdam Courantier should make a dismal Story of it by representing to the World that the Prince returned with his Fleet miserably shatter'd and torn having lost nine Men of War and divers others of less Concern 1000 Horse ruin'd a Calenture among the Sea-men the loss of Dr. Burnet and the chief Ministers under the Prince the ill Opinion the States had of the Expedition In short that a 100000 l. would not repair the Dammage sustained and almost next to an impossibility that the Prince should be in a condition to pursue his Design till the Spring And yet at the same time all hands were at work to repair the damaged Ships which were inconfiderable so that in eight days time they were all re-fitted The Signal being given by the discharge of a Gun all the Fleet immediately weigh'd Anchor and stood out at Sea steering their Course Norward all that Night next day upon Tide of Ebb they made a Stretch and made a Watch above a League and then stood Westward and lay all Night in the same posture not making two Leagues of Watch. In the middle of the Night an Advice-Boat brought us an Account that the English Fleet consisting of 33 Sail lay to the Westward of ours Upon which the Prince fired a Gun which caused a great Consternation in the whole Fleet we having a brisk Easterly Wind concluded themselves to be all ruin'd But the small Advice-Boats crusing for a more certain Account of the English brought us back word That instead of the English Fleet which the former Advice had alarm'd us with it was Admiral Herbert with part of our Fleet which had been separated some hours from the Body of the Fleet Upon whose arrival great rejoicing was among us all and a Signal of Joy was given for it by the Prince In the Morning about Eight the Prince gave a Signal that the Admirals should come aboard him Immediately after the whole Fleet was got into the North-foreland upon which the Prince gave the usual Sign of Danger according to the printed Book and ordered that the Fleet should all come up in a Body some fifteen or sixteen deep his Higness leading the Van in the Ship Brill in English Spectacles His Flag was English Colours the Motto impailed thereon is THE PROTESTANT RELIGION AND LIBERTIES OF ENGLAND and underneath instead of Diu Mon Droit AND I WILL MAINTAIN IT The Council of War from aboard the Prince sent three small Frigats into the
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 called The Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes By Levying Mony 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 this Kingdom in time of Peace without Consent of Parliament and Quartering Souldiers contrary to Law. By causing several Good Subjâ—cts being Protestants to be Disarmed at the same time when Papists were both Armed and Imployed contrary to Law. By violating the Freedom of Election of Members to serve in Parliament By Prosecutions in the Court of Kings-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 Freeholders 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 Subjects 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 said late K. Iames the 2 d 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 and 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 22 d Day of Ianuary in this Year 1688 in order to such an Establishment as that their Religion Laws and Liberties might not again be in danger of being Subverted Upon which Letters Elections having been accordingly made And thereupon the said Lord's 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 pretending 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 Mony for or to 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 with Consent of Parliament is against Law. That the Subjects which are Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Condition and as allowed by Law. That 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 empannell'd and return'd 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 strengthening 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 Surviver 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 joint 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 Ann 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 Oaths 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 Abhor