neversomuch Hazard and Difficulty The Prince in his Declaration after an Enumeration of Grievances assures us He came for no other Design than to have a free and full Parliament assembled and the Elections made and returned according to the antient forms and that the Members of this Parliament should meet and sit in full freedom until such Laws be prepared as the two Houses should concur in and find necessary for Maintenance of the Protestant Religion and securing the Peace Honour and Safety of this Nation that there may be no more Danger of falling at any time under Arbitrary Government and that he had nothing before his Eyes in this Undertaking but the Preservation of the Protestant Religion the Covering of all Men from Persecutions 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 For the accomplishing of which since he had only brought a Force with him for defending his Person against the Violence of Evil Counsellors all the Peers of this Realm Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants and others of all Ranks and Degrees are invited to assist him against all who shall endeavour to oppose the redressing of Violences done to the Constitution of the English Government These Pretences can never be adjusted to the Notion and Title of Conquest The Nobility Gentry and Commons of this Realm acting in a free and legal Parliament for the securing of their Laws Rights and Liberties under a just and legal Government neither can nor will ever design it I will charitably suppose the Convention of Estates and their Constituents did believe they had valuable Rights and Privileges their Religion Liberties and Properties which were derived and secured unto them from positive Statutes and Laws of the Land as well as from the Dictates of Nature and Original Contract that those Rights and Privileges were invaded and in danger to be lost which made them run into that general Defection and make a Present of the Crown to the Prince of Orange as the only expedient they could then think of So long as the Prince's Title runs in this Channel they are at Liberty when they please to review those Measures examine the Grounds and upon a Rectification of their Judgments and Conviction that their beloved Rights and Privileges may be better secured under their antient Monarch to betake themselves again unto him Sublata causa tollitur effectus Or they may enquire into the Conduct and Government of the Prince whether it Quadrate with the Original Contract they made with him whether their Rights and Privileges have been entirely preserved and if they can discover any bad Influences or Aspect towards Liberty and Property then to make a Sacrifice of the Workmanship of their own Hands to a fresh Establishment of those Sacred and Venerable Rights by the Maxims of this last Revolution The Interest of the People is paramount to that of the Prince But if our Conquest take place then Adieu to Rights and Privileges Liberty and Property The old musty Statute Books and Records of Westminster hall and the Tower may be committed to the Flames as so much waste Paper His Will and Pleasure must be the Law whereby we are governed our Liberties must lie at the Mercy of his Ministers and our Properties must be committed to the Stewardship of his Soldiers Let us examine the Condition of Conquered People and Provinces from antient and modern History Their old Government Laws and Customs which they had been inured to from their Infancy recommended and endeared to them by long Use and Acquaintance must be swept off the Stage strange Orders strange Customs strange Ministers must take their place Our Persons our Liberty our Estates and all our most valuable Earthly Enjoyments must lie at the Mercy Pleasure and Will of the Conqueror Industry and Virtue will vanish there being no Reward for them for a Conquered People must aspire no higher than to learn to obey submissively and to eat the Bread of Tribulation and Affliction with Patience The care and desire of Posterity will languish being unwilling to beget Children to become Slaves and miserable as our selves The Indian Women strangled their own Children after their Birth that they might not become Servants to the Spaniards and Dutch Severities will be found nothing short upon the Record of History of Spanish Cruelties The Annals of all Nations can furnish us with dreadful Instances of the unspeakable Miseries of a Conquered People We may find those Examples of the Calamities of that Condition which would make us embrace Death for a Favour and be able to sink us into utter Despair unless at the same time these very Histories had given us a view of the strenuous and successful Endeavours of those generous and worthy Spirits who have despised Dangers Difficulties Torments and Death it self for the Rescue and Deliverance of their Country and fellow Subjects The greater and more terrible the Dangers were the more vigorously and undauntedly did they court them when they were in pursuit of so glorious a Quarry The Efforts of Conquered Nations for the Recovery of their lost Liberties stand fairest upon the Records of Fame and are handed down to us with the greatest Exactness and Encomiums as if our Ancestors had judged it necessary and all Writers had conspired together to rouze up when Occasion called for it that desire of Liberty which was born with us If Conquest must be forced upon us as our present Lot I hope all true Englishmen now will discover as great a Sense as any upon Record of a vindicative Duty to their Country and love for their Liberties be as tender and careful to transmit them safe and sound to their Posterity as their Ancestors have been vigilant and active in handing them down to them that they will be no less careful of the ancient Government and Monarchy of this Nation than of their own particular Rights since every blow which reaches the one must certainly wound and endanger the other and that it shall be impossible to make the English a Conquered People because they will generally chuse not to be rather than to be Slaves It may be alledged that all that I have said upon Conquest might have been forborn since the King sets up for no such Title perhaps it is not seasonable to do it But to have Conquest so publickly pleaded for in Pamphlets Written or Licensed by Secretaries of State and that without any Check or Punishment from the Prince is very suspicious especially if upon Examination of those Oppressions which we suffer under the present King we shall find his Conduct smell Rank that way If we be treated as a Conquered People the Misery is still the same or rather greater though the Prince who deals so by us should be called a Reformer It being made evident and plain That King James was highly injur'd and the antient Government quite unhinged by the Sentence of
Abdication and our late Measures I come next to examine how exactly the Prince hath fulfilled and made good unto us the pretended Ends and Designs of his Declaration how well he hath kept the Original Contract we made with him and what benefit we may expect to reap for the future by this Revolution I shall take his Conduct in both Kingdoms joyntly under Consideration since he hath not only united them in the same Declaration but likewise issu'd out a Declaration apart for Scotland intimating thereby That the Oppressions in that Kingdom were more weighty and numerous than here and that the Arbitrary Designs of our Prince did always first commence there to make a Precedent for this Kingdom and that the Conduct and Posture of Affairs there did always certainly Prognosticate to the curious Observer what was designed to be Copied and Executed here I do not pretend to give a particular detail of the present Administration in that Kingdom but there are some considerable Errors have been acted there which have made a Noise and rais'd such publick Complaints there as hath convey'd the Knowledge of them here to us The assuming a Power of Dispensing with the due Execution of Laws enacted by King and Parliament for Security of Religion Liberty and Happiness of the Subject is much urged against King James as a great Motive to the Prince's undertaking A Dispensing Power assumed by any Prince doth fatally threaten the Liberties of a People where it is practised and makes them Tenants at Will for those Privileges which the Laws of the Land hath given them a Freehold in This is really such an important Point and of such Consequence for the Subject to have been cleared that it was indispensably the Duty of a Reforming Prince Convention of Estates and Parliament to have decided this Controversie and placed such Marks and Boundaries for the future so plain and obvious both to Prince and People that each might have known their particular Rights and governed themselves for the future accordingly But our Parliaments have thought fit to leave it where they found it dark and undecided to this day and the Prince hath discovered he was well enough pleased with this Omission by taking as large and broad Steps that way as any can be charged upon King James The Irish Treaty furnisheth us with a convincing Proof of this where such Indulgences were granâ—ed unto them solely and siâ—gâ—y by his own Authority with relation to the exercise of their Religion proâ— of their Arms dispensation from Oaths and security against â—rsuits for their Plunderings as were directly contrary to the Laws of the Land the Safety Rights and Privileges of the Protestant Subjects of that Kingdom This Treaty I do acknowledge was afterwards ratified by Parliament but though in some Cases the Authority of Parliament may give a legal Being for the future yet that new Life commenceth only from the date of their Sanction and doth not justifie preceeding Errors and the many Difficulties which arose in both Houses about the Ratification was a clear Innuendo how dangerous and illegal they judg'd the Treaty to be How strangely are we altered King James's exercise of this Dispensing Power could neither be forgotten nor attoned for but King William's stretch that way shall obtain a Parliamentary Approbation such is the Justice and unbyassed Integrity of these Times But we need not look so far as Ireland for Instances We have our personal Liberties secured to us by positive and express Statutes and Methods appointed by our Law whereby to recover our Liberties when lost with such severe Animadversions against those who obstruct the due course of Law in obtaining of our Freedom with such great and considerable Damages appointed in that case as plainly enough Points out unto us the Value and Worth of this true English Privilege It is the choisest piece of our Magna Charta and Original Contract and for my part I should much rather allow a Prince to dispence with Penal Statutes and issue out a Proclamation for Liberty of Conscience than to sport himself at Pleasure with my personal Freedom without which there can be no relish in any other Enjoyment and yet there never was a Reign wherein our Birth-right in this hath been more abused spoiled and broken in upon The English Subjects have been put into Proclamations and clapt into Prisons for High Treason and refused the benefit of their Habeas Corpus though there was no Information upon Oath against them according as the Law appoints to warrant such a Procedure Nay so grosly frequently and impudently have our publick Ministers affronted the Laws upon this Head that they have found themselves obliged to apply to Parliament for Pardon For we have found out a new Trick in this Government and reforming Age first to act all imaginable Violences against the best and choisest of our Laws and than to obtain either a Ratification or Pardon in Parliament whereby they have struck our English Constitution and the Liberty of the Subject Dead at one Blow by Debauching our Parliaments into a Confederacy against in place of Protecting the Liberties of the People and so making the Nation as it were Felo de se No period of History doth furnish us with such wholesale Merchants for our best and most valuable Rights neither do we know when this Trade shall be at an end or when our Rulers will be weary of Tricking us out of our Liberties We have a fresh Instance of late of the Knowledge and Learning of our Judges When the Earls of Huntington Midleton and others moved at the Barr for their Habeas Corpus there was no Information upon Oath against them to warrant a refusal otherways to be sure we should have heard of it But Aaron Smith must make Affidavit that they had Evidence for the High Treason charged against them which could not be got ready and so by his Liberty and Freedom of Conscience save in some measure the Credit of the Court By this fine new Knack they were all remitted back to Prison again Such Judges may at last come to be fit enough for the Bench even under a Conquest but in the mean time all such Expedients which are not warranted from the Statutes do rather prove the Injustice of the Court than fulfil the Law and however it may be Gilded we cannot but see and feel the bitter Pill we must swallow Was not the Habeas Corpus Act suspended for many Months It 's true this was done by Parliament but so much the worse if our own Delegates in whose Hands we trust the care but not the intire surrender of our Liberties make a Complement of that which is not in their Power to the Ambition or Necessities of any Prince Parliaments can no more justly over-turn Foundations than the Prince can Such Privileges as are derived from King and Parliament upon the account of the Subjects Temporary Conveniences are trusted to the review of the same Court
it practicable And as to the miraculous and enterprizing Faith of Priests and new Converts the zeal folly and warmness of their Brains will always prevent any real Mischiefs nay K. James his Reign even upon the supposition that it were as bad as is alledged is an undeniable Proof that the Protestant Religion cannot be undermined nor the Popish Religion Established in these Kingdoms by the Address or Authority of any Prince I shall give it for granted that all imaginable Methods were taken for propagating the Popish Religion that they were indulged in the publick Exercises of it that Court Preferments were thrown upon them meerly upon the account of their Religion without any Vertue or Mâ—rit to Intitle them to it that Protestants were absolutely and upon all occasions discourag'd that it was endeavour'd to make the World â—eâ—â—â—ve that all Favours and Preserments were for the one and nothing but Disâ—races and Frowns for the other that there was the greatest Care Pains and Application in the World made use of to make the Army and Courts of Judicature I do belive by this supposition I have out-done all that the most malicious Enemies will urge against K. James and yet all the World knows what little Progress was made how few Converts were gained and how really weak their best and surest Precautions did appear when it came to the touch If so many of his Subjects Soldiers and Servants were prevailed upon by Fears and Jealousies which were maliciously and industriously heightened above what any reason which was given for them could well bear what must then have been the Consequence if by real publick and undoubted Discoveries the King's intentions to ruin the Established Religion had been made unquestionably plain and evident Nothing less than an universal Defection and his perpetual Banishment from the Hearts and Affections of every English Man could have followed The Catholicks of Britain are not one of a hundred they have neither Heads Hearts nor Hands enough to force a National Conversion As the Protestants are the most Numerous so the Laws and Constitutions are upon their side their Civil Rights and Liberties are twisted together with their Religious and whosoever strikes at the last must infallibly wound the first It is not easie to overturn the Laws and Fundamental Constitutions whereby Religious and Civil Rights are secured to free born People we are in Possession by our Laws of our Religion and of that Liberty which distinguisheth our Happiness from that of other Subjects we love it and know it 's true worth we value and esteem our selves above other People upon the account of our native Freedoms and we will not easily part with 'em all Attempts and Designs upon them have been unsuccessful Ambitious Princes and Arbitrary Ministers may be forming Projects and Designs fortifying them the best way they can and making Parties for it but our Constitution together with the Protestant Religion which is now become part of it and our Laws will prove always too hard for them at last Nothing can expose or betray our Religion and Constitution to any danger but overmuch fondness in the People to a Prince who under some popular Mask and Pretence covers close and fatal Designs against either Let us but examine the present condition of our neighbouring States and we shall find that Raptures of Love in the people hath overturned more Constitutions and built up more Despotick Governments than the Force or Address of Princes could ever do It is commonly received for a Truth That Love is blind and credulous and certainly holds good with relation to a Political Affection There is a certain allowable Jealousie in the People which is very consistent with the Duty Affection and Respect due to the Prince and guards and protects their Laws and Constitution Without some Measures of this Jealousie the Constitution will be always in danger and this Antidote can never be wanting in the Protestant Subjects of Britain under a Popish King His Religion gives us such a lively and active Jealousie of him and his Designs makes us so watchful and puts us so much upon our guard that all the Efforts of such a Prince thô never so dextrous supported by so weak and inconsiderable a Party as the Catholicks of Britain can never endanger Religion and Liberty Rather his Circumstances and Inclinations to those of his own Religion their ease and quiet might have been improved into farther and more real Securities for Religion and Liberty by a wise and discreet Treaty orderly managed in Parliament To all this it may be alledged That though the Catholicks of Britain be not a Party sufficient to carry on and effectuate such Designs yet the Forces of the Hector of France were still at the Command and Service of his Dear and Faithful Ally for carrying on so good and meritorious a Work as that of Reducing again Great Britan into the Bosom of the Roman Church This is maliciously and artfully enough suggested but let us examin it a little How does it appear that King James was become so lost to all Reason Morality and Discretion as to resolve to call in a French Power to over-run a Countrey which was his own and destroy a People who were living peaceably under him by which from one of the most Considerable and Potent Monarchs of Europe he became the Least and most Contemptible His refusal of French Troops and Assistance when threatened with a Foreign Invasion seems to be no great Proof of this and his betaking himself at that time to the Love and Affection of his Subjects as it was a plain discovery he was not Conscious to himself of any real Design which could destroy that mutual Love and Confidence betwixt Prince and People which is a Debt due from the one to the other however his Measures might have been Traduced or maliciously Poysoned so it may let us see how improbable it is to imagine that a Prince could ever form Designs of destroying a People whose Affections he durst trust in such an Extremity Again What Reason is there to imagine that the French King vvould be so ready to furnish Troops and be at the Charge of such a Reformation He is generally allowed to be a Prince who studies his own Interest the most of any and fits all his Maxims his Conduct and Allyances exactly to it and never takes a step which upon the remotest view may seem to cross the Interest of his Crown and Monarchy And if it do appear as certainly it will to any judicious thinking Man that the Reducing Great Britain to the Bosom of the Roman Church may greatly endanger the Crown of France than all â—â—â—rs of a French Reformation will fall to the Ground The English Pretences to the most considerable Maritime Provinces nay upon the Crown of France it self are generally known and Histories can inform us how troublesome how dangerous and how successfully they were many times carried on against those Monarchs partly
his imprisonment of the E. of Feversham who was a publick Messenger and Peer of England and under the Cognizance of none but the King his imprisoning and banishing King James from his own Pallace though acknowleged as the just Monarch by his own Declaration his banishing the French Embassador out of England as soon as he came to London and before the Administration was put into his Hands by which these Kingdoms were ingaged without their own Consent in a War with France without so much as any pretence of Entertainment given to their Abdicated Monarch being a considerable time before K. James's retreat thither were direct possitive and most Solemn Acts of Sovereignty before ever the Crown was confer'd upon him and are so many plain and evident Indications of that early Ambition I have charged upon him And in farther Evidence that all his Designs from the very first were aimed at the Crown and the Crown Vested too with the most towring Prerogatives When the Convention was Deliberating upon some future Provisions against Arbitrary Power the Prince sent my Lord Wharton to several Lords and Mr. Coulin to Sir Edward Seymor and Mr. Hambden and other Commoners to let them known That if the House insisted so much upon Limitations that he would return again and leave them in the lurch to the Mercy of King James So generously Tender was this great Deliverer of our Religion and Liberty As to the Dispencing Power assumed by King James I do not pretend to justifie it I am heartily sorry that so bad a Measure was taken to carry on and establish so desirable and necessary a Good and Birth right of Mankind as Liberty of Conscience which carries its own native Beauty and Usefulness so visibly stampt upon it as could never have failed to obtain an Establishment from the Reason and Judgement of an English Parliament But this would have so much united the Hearts and Affections of English Subjects with their King and laid such an invincible rub in the Way of the Prince's ambitious Designs that it became one of the nicest and most sicklish Points to manage the hardest to ward off and the most dextrous and artful part of their Game there was no downright opposing of so general and desirable a Good 〈◊〉 was easier to poyson and divert 〈◊〉 The King was first put upon Establishing this Liberty by a Proclamation that so the Parliament might be prejudiced against a Thing which otherwise they would have granted upon the account of the first Measure taken about it but finding that the general Good and Benefit which was to be reaped from this Liberty would have digested and sweetned this Pill from a pretence of saving the King's Honor from a Foyl and making all sure though really with a design to ruin Him and baffle the Thing they put him upon the Regulating and Closetting Projects and upon obliging the Clergy to read his Proclamation for Liberty of Conscience from their Pulpits This did alarm the Bishops as was designed and obliged them to think upon Petitioning against it upon which those Beautefeux being afraid lest the KING should call in his Proclamation having always found it hard enough to bring Him to such Methods they ordered the business so that the Bishops were so long in presenting of their Petition to the King that though their Reasons had convinced and satisfied Him there was not time enough to countermand his former Orders though never so willing Upon which they took occasion to incense the King against them as if they had delay'd their Petition so long with design to embroyl Him with his People and so they run the Bishops into the Tower and from thence to the Barr. This is the true History of the Dispencing Power and of the Bishops Persecution which was so warmly and bitterly urged against the King as undeniable Proofs that his Inclination to Catholicks was too strong for the Laws But to speak plain English I hope those Stretches in favour of Catholicks which were Criminal in King James are not become more Legal and Meritorious in King William the exercise of the Dispencing Power in their favours I hope is as much a fault now as ever The Charge will be denied but I shall make it good when I come to discourse upon the Third Motive to the King's Restauration Are not Catholicks employ'd now in the Army thô not qualified by Law It will be alleg'd they are Foreigners so much the worse for an English Catholick will still have some regard for the Laws and Liberties of his Countrymen whereas a mercenary Foreigner is absolutely at the disposal of his Master Are not the Catholicks as much Countenanced and in the exercise of as much Liberty for their Religion as ever The necessity of humouring a Confederacy which must support us the great Strength of which are Catholicks may be urged as a very good Reason for this but if we examine it to the bottom this threatens our Religion more than any Indulgence was granted them by King James When the Catholicks of England hold their Liberty merely from the favour of the Protestants of England they must be thankful for it and humble under it but when they come to derive their Favours Immunities and Liberty from the necessity of our Circumstances and humble Regard and Deference we must pay to Catholick Princes without whose Assistance and Friendship we cannot Subsist their Spirits Hopes and Haughtiness will be enlarged by it They must make grateful acknowlegements to those Catholick Princes by whose kind Influences they injoy their Liberty This begets a Correspondence with and Dependance upon Foreign Princes and we do not know how far by the Instigation of Catholicks here those Princes may be prevailed upon to improve the necessity we have of their Allyance to the advantage of those of their own Religion amongst us The House of Austria within our remembrance was the most zealous Champions for the Roman Religion and the dependance of the Catholicks of England upon that House hath been always terrible and troublesom to this State And though their Losses and the growth of France hath humbled and levelled all the towring Thoughts and Ambition of that Family which did so much exercise both the Councils and Forces of their Neighbours yet since by our Assistance that House is to recover its Losses and France to be reduced within its ancient bounds with their lost Provinces the House of Austria may resume their old Designs They were but covered up not extinguished concealed through Weakness to be discovered upon a greater Encrease of Strength and Vigour in which case we may come to be whipt for our present Politicks May the great God avert those dangers and difficulties which inviron us and visibly threaten the Religious and Civil Concerns of these Kingdoms We have been pulling Destruction with both our hands upon our selves and desperately risking our Religion and Civil Rights without any necessity and unless we repent and repair
other aggravating Circumstances Bonds have been imposed by Authority of Council without Warrant of Parliament as may appear from 〈◊〉 publick Proclamations and many Thousands of Soldiers have been maintained upon free Quarter and for many Months together countenanced and abetted in it by the Government and the Funds for reimbursing the Countrey which were appointed by Parliament have been otherways diverted The Commissionating the Officers of the Army to sit as Judges upon the Lives and Estates of the Subjects and the putting People to death without a legal Tryal Jury and Record were complained of in the Declaration were thought good Reasons for Fore-faulting of K. J. and were provided against upon this last Setlement of the Crown And yet both the caution given by the Sentence against K. J. and the future Provision made by the Estates prove to weak to restrain this Government from practising the same things by ordering and impowering Colonel Hill and Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton to put Glencou and all the Males of his Clan under Seventy to death which was partly executed upon them without any legal Tryal Jury or Record Neither can their former Enmity and opposition to the Government furnish any Apology for so barbarous a Murther since they had all either actually taken the benefit of the Indemnity then granted and so were Pardoned or had Protections in their Pockets which put them under the immediate care and safeguard of the Government It may pusle the best Heads to find out the reason why Irish Papists though stated Enemies should be indulged to the prejudice of our Laws and Rights and yet Protestants though formerly Enemies barbarously Massacred when indemnify'd and under protection unless K. W. be resolved from the Obligations he is under and the Deference he must pay to the Pope and Popish Princes to imbrace every occasion of destroying the one and cherishing the other By the Declaration we are assured That the Prince will concur in every thing that may procure the Peace and Happiness of these Nations and which a free and lawful Parliament shall determine and yet how many necessary and useful Bills for the Happiness of the Nation have been stifled by the Interest Intreigues and Sollicitations of the King himself his Ministers and Courtiers and the Royal Assent refused to many Bills in our Neighbouring Kingdom And in this to the Bill about Judges which was thought so necessary an expedient for the Establishing of Justice and to cut off their servile Dependance upon the Court which was charged as such a blemish upon the Judges in K. James's Reign and was always look'd upon as dangerous to the Lives and Liberties of the English Subjects We were assured that the only design of the Prince's Undertaking was The preservation of the Protestant Religion the covering all Men from Persecution for their Consciences and the securing to the whole Nation the free injoyment of all their Laws Rights and Liberties under a just and legal Government How well and truly he hath confined himself within these Limits and other Bounds he prescribed to himself in his Declaration may partly appear from what hath been said and shall yet be made more clear and evident by a true and impartial Enquiry into his Conduct and some considerable Stretches which have been made in Points not glanced at by the Declaration because they were Strains of Absolute and Despotick Power which K. James's Reign did not furnish us with any Instances of the like The Power of imposing Taxes is unquestionably lodg'd in Parliament and the People of this Island have a natural Right unto and Dominion over their Properties and the Prince cannot share with them in it in whole or in part except in so far as they consent to it themselves by their Representatives in Parliament And our Parliaments though abundantly liberal in other respects have never indulged the least Liberty to our Monarchs on that head being so far tight to their Trust and their Constituents Interest And the Estates of both Kingdoms judg'd it necessary upon the present Settlement of the Crown to assert the Peoples Right in it and plainly to express it as one of the Conditions of that Settlement And yet the Privy Council of the Kingdom of Scotland have openly and avowedly in Contempt of the antient Laws and late Original Contract by their publick Proclamations commanded and appointed under the severest Penalties the Subjects of that Kingdom at their own Charge and Expence to furnish a great number of Horses for the use and service of the Army and for carrying Ammunition and Provision of Victuals with Men to attend the said Horses And I am informed That when upon cool and second Thoughts the Council considering what they had done how illegal it was and the danger they had run themselves into by it thought fit to apply unto the Parliament for an Approbation it was refused them Extravagant Bail was complained of and provided against by the States of both Kingdoms and yet it is daily and frequently imposed and exacted many times far above the Value of their Estates The Freedom of Elections to Parliament from the Bribes and Directions of Court and Courtiers was expresly conditioned by the States of both Kingdoms upon their Tender of the Crown How well that is kept and observed may appear from the bare faced and open Applications made to Counties Corporations and particular Electors for the Choice of such and such Persons with Threats and promises of Reward Nay I have known Three thousand Pounds expended for secret Service to prevent the Election of a Person who had been eminently Serviceable to this Government becâ—me he was found tighter to the â—nterest of his Country than to the Court for there never was a Reign wherein the Interest of King and People are more confidently stated as contradistinct than in this though it be only the Consent and pretended Interest of the People gives Birth Rise and Title to it The frequency of Parliaments for redressing of Grievances the amending strengthning and preserving of the Laws with all Freedom of Speech and Debates in them was insisted upon and fundamentally established by the States of both Kingdoms when they elected their present Majesties to the Throne How well this is observed and made good to both Kingdoms is obvious enough It is not for redressing of Grievances amending or preserving the Laws they are assembled but for giving of Money The craving Necessities of the State the pressing Circumstances of the Consederates and foreign Affairs the early Preparations of the French King an honourable Peace the Good of the Protestant Religion and Fears of King James are become the cruel and everlasting Topicks the common and ordinary Stale whereby the true Intent of Parliaments is baffled and the Money business quickened and finished The last is now so much the business of Parliaments and the firit so little that it is an equal Wager that this Court may come at last to plead Prescription against
that Case we have injured slighted and despised to the last degree Nay upon the Issue of a successful War against France we may be obliged to undergo the same Fate So far will this War in any Event be from terminating in an Establishment of our present Settlement that it doth visibly tend to the contrary This will appear no Paradox to any Man who doth exactly weigh the different Interests and Politicks of the several States of Europe with Relation to us and amongst themselves Such a curious and diligent Observer will quickly discover how much more agreeable King James's Restauration would be to the secret concealed Interest of all our Neighbouring States than the Prince of Orange's present Royalty The good Intentions of France towards it is not to be doubted The House of Austria after their Pretences upon France are satisfied do certainly become Favourers of King James's Restauration both upon the account of Religion and to remove a Dutch Stadtholder from being King of Britain thereby to facilitate their antient Pretences upon those revolted Provinces The Dutch will heartily agree to his Restauration to get rid of their Stadtholder who presseth so hard upon their Liberties they will be in no more Fears from France from this supposed Issue of the War and the Interest of England would always oblige its Monarch to cover and protect them from the Ambition of the House of Austria The best Wishes of Sweden cannot be wanting were it only by the Admission of the Prince of Wales's Right to place the Prince of Denmark a Remove farther from the Crown since his Accession to the Royalty amongst us by Vertue of his Princess's Title might endanger the Conquests which that Crown hath made upon Denmark And since the Politicks of Denmark with relation to us are solely levell'd at his Brother's Interest whenever the Indignities done to the Prince and Princess of Denmark shall oblige them to resume that Duty and Loyalty which is due from them to their kind old Father who is still ready to receive them and to secure unto them those Advantages which they can never expect from the Pr. of Orange the Concurrence of that Crown towards King James's Restauration can be no longer wanting I do but hint at things which are of sufficient Importance to make all true Englishmen who love their Country and their Liberties to bethink themselves seriously how to cover and secure all those great and valuable Rights from the Oppression of the P. of Orange the Miseries Poverties and Dangers which will inevitably attend either a successful or unsuccessful War We have thrown our selves into a State-Hurricane from which there is no way of escaping but by restoring the just and legal Government of this Nation into its antient and unquestioned Channel Having fully established and made out the first three Motives assigned for K. James's Restauration I shall enquire a little into the fourth and last viz. the Securing of the Protestant Religion for all future Ages This appears a great Paradox to the Author of The Pretences to the French Invasion examined at which he falls into Exclamations against Mankind as the oddest Piece of the Creation for believing such incredible things But it is not his bold impudent and false Assertions supported only by empty and noisy Eloquence which can hide the Danger from us that our Religion as well as our Liberties and Properties lies under from this Revolution For clearing the Truth and Weight of this Motive I shall make it evident That our Religion was in no probability of being overturned by K. James's Practices before this Revolution That it was in our power to have secured it even against our Fears and Jealousies without any Breach upon the antient Government That the Dethroning of Monarchs upon the Pretence of Religion hath been fatal and destructive to all the several Protestant States who attempted it That according to all appearance it will be equally fatal in our Case and Circumstances And lastly I shall make it evident from a full and distinct Answer to all the Arguments adduced by the Authors against King James's Restauration that the best surest and most infallible way whereby to secure the Protestant Religion our Liberties and Properties upon lasting and durable Foundations is by returning to our Duty and restoring our Abdicated Monarch by as general a Consent as he was chased away by us It is very natural and common with Mankind and with Princes as well as others to have some more particular regard towards those of their own Religion to wish them well and to endeavour their ease when it lies in their Power so that it was nothing extraordinary to find King James labouring to give his Catholick Subjects a Right and Title to that ease and security which the Laws of the Land had deprived 'em of I do not believe that Liberty of Conscience in general and the covering of People from Persecution on that score can be rationally condemned as destructive and ruinous to the Protestant Religion we ought to have a better Opinion of the Principles of our Faith and be better convinced of their Truth and Excellency than to be afraid to have 'em bassled or shaken much less ruined by the Reasons of any other Persuasion That Religion which dares not shew its Face publickly and stand the shock of all its Adversaries without skeening it self under the Severity of Penal Laws furnisheth great Suspicion to curious and prying Men of its weakness and insufficiency But this I hope is not our Case our most holy Religion is built upon that Rock of Ages which can never be shaken is fortified by the Testimonies of the Law and the Prophets and expressly contained in the Word of God or derived from thence by clear and necessary Consequences and can subsist by its own worth and excellency without robbing the rest of Mankind of that Liberty their Birth-right Intitles them to and enslaving Consciences So that King James his Principle about Liberty of Conscience if duly and legally Established will be allowed But it is the Method we complained of which discovered some farther Design than bare Liberty of Conscience and thereby did visibly threaten our Civil Rights and Liberties and endanger our Religion Why truly the Measures taken were unjustifiable but we know to whose Council and Advice they were owing The whole was a Plot upon that Prince to spoil the Project of Liberty of Conscience which would have rivitted him in his Throne and to improve his Inclinations for the Roman Religion to his own ruin and destruction But suppose something more was intended by some than a bare Liberty perhaps the opening a Door of Preferment to Catholicks or the propagating that Religion over this Island Such an undertaing is irrational foolish and desperate can never be accomplished and the impossibility of it is so plain and obvious that no Man who understands the World and knew England and English Men so well as King James did could believe
Troops which were under Pay by their unheard of Plunderings Robberies and Oppressions committed upon the poor Protestants within their Lines gave such Examples of Insolence and loose Discipline that the Irish could be no longer restrained as formerly thô they never acted so extravagantly as the others And I dare appeal to all the Irish Protestants if the greatest part of the ruine of that miserable Country be not due to the Plunderings Abuses and want of Discipline in King William's Army which though Protestant and Reformers did far outdoe the wild Irish in desolating the Country without regard to Friend or Foe And I have heard many Irish Protestants affirm That their Preservation and Protection was due to K. James's own particular Care over them As to the Proceedings of the Irish Parliament he did so much wrestle against them was so little Master of himself and Actions and so much in the hands of Irish that he is rather to be pitied than blamed for them And 't is very hard and unreasonable that when a King is forced from a Throne by his Protestant Subjects and opposed by them in his Endeavours after the recovery of his Inheritance and so necessitated to betake himself to the Assistance Protection and Services of Catholicks unless he would Renounce his undoubted Rights which neither the Laws of God nor Man oblige him to that Acts of Grace which his Circumstances and the necessity of their Assistance forced from him should be charged upon him as Crimes Let us labour for his Restauration let us get him into our hands and deliver him from that cruel Necessity which carries him farther than his Inclinations would otherwise do and whenever he is at liberty to act as an Englishman he will convince us that he is such The Treatment that Charles I. met with is a sad Instance of the Vanity of all human Greatness and a lasting Reproach to our Nation but reacheth a more pertinent and apposite Reproof to K. William's Conduct than K. James's The most considerable and important points which occasioned those fatal Disputes betwixt that Prince and his People were illegal Imprisonments the undue refusal of Liberty to Prisoners upon Bail the free quarterings and Plunderings of Soldiers and the unwarrantable exacting of Money from the Subject without Consent of Parliament Are not all these illegal and arbitrary practices frequently repeated in this Government and without any Precedent from K. James's Reign The many Pages imploy'd by the Author of A Letter to a Friend concerning the French Invasion to prove That the Non-swearing Protestants as well as others can merit nothing by their endeavours for the King's Restauration but a bare Pardon at most discovers more Logick and Method in dividing of his Text than true solid and convincing Reason For since a few Scotish Gentlemen who had acted warmly and vigorously against him and could contribute but little to his Service were able to procure not only Pardon but those great and important Securities for their Religion and the Liberties of their Country which K. William had refused to the Desires and Addresses of a Parliament that had given him the Crown and pre engaged his Consent before the Gift Is it to be imagined That so many worthy Prelates Lords Gentlemen and inferiour Clergy who have testified so much Zeal Firmness and Fidelity by their Sufferings joyn'd with the early Repentance and vigorous Endeavors of others for his Service who have been hitherto blinded and misled will not prove of more Weight Importance and Consideration with him be as kindly treated and their Country for their sakes Or rather will not all Securities for Religion and Liberty be granted from a due regard to their Application as well as from his own Inclination Neither is it to be feared that any of their former Measures which unhappily and accidentally have contributed towards that Ferment which begot this Revolution will be remembred against them since the King is sensible how far he himself was imposed upon as well as his Subjects by the Cunning and Artifice of wicked and corrupted Ministers which were about him And whatever Jealousies this Author may labour to infuse into the minds of People of the firey and lax Principles of the Jacobites with Relation to the Protestant Religion Church of England and English Liberties there are Jacobites whose Principles are better more fixed and rational who have already and will upon all occasions never fail to give greater and more generous Testimonies of their zeal and affection for the Establishment and Security of those great Concerns than any can be brought by our present Ministers and topping Reformers and who will never be found with this Author in justifying a Conquest of their native Country The Caution which is given us against another Revolution lest the Monarchy receive more vigour from a Restauration than is convenient for the Liberties of the Subject which the Author fortifies from an Instance in the Return of Charles II. at which time betwixt zeal flattery and fear the King encreased in Power and the People lost their Liberties concludes very strongly against himself and for what I have been all along pressing If we do but consider the true reason of those Concessions made in favour of the Monarchy upon the Return of K. Charles the Nation was so wearied out exhausted and undone by the Tyrannies and Executions Taxes Imprisonments and other arbitrary Courses against their Liberties and Properties that were practiced during that Anarchy which intervened betwixt the Murther of the Father and Return of the Son that upon a Prospect of some Relief by the reestablishment of the antient Monarchy the People fell into such Raptures of Joy which never fails of making Subjects so liberal to Princes as many times occasions a hearty but late Repentance If K. William continue a little longer to oppress our Liberties and drein our Purses or if the Title of Conquest be advanced we shall be infallibly exposed to the like hazard again which cannot be prevented but by an early Return to our Duty whilst we have some Patience Wit and Money left to enable us to take care of our selves and our Posterity The hard and difficult Questions which this Author thinks he hath gravelled us with and the obligation of the Oaths of Allegiance to K. William comes next to be considered The first Question is Whether we think our selves bound in Conscience to fight for Popery against the Protestant Faith I Answer not nor doth this Answer make any thing for King William since in no Sense can the fighting for the Restauration of King James be called the fighting for Popery against the Protestant Religion for it is both K. James's Interest and his Inclination to return upon a Protestant Foot and by assisting him in it we vindicate the Honor of our Religion and rescue it from the Dangers which threatens it from this Reign The second Question is Whether we think our selves bound in Conscience to fight for
our Prince against the Laws and Liberties of our Countrey I Answer in the Negative and we do assure the World That it is from a tender regard to our Laws and Liberties as well as from a sense of Duty to repair the injury done our Exiled Prince that we resolve to contribute to his return The antient Constitution was broke in upon by the Abdication and our Laws Rights and Liberties have been more eminently and signally over-run during the P. of Orange's Kingship than by any of our most Violent and Arbitrary Princes even when he was under the greatest Obligation clearest and distinct Barriers placed against it and we are possessed with reasonable â—â—ars nay a certainty of having 'em â—â—iâ—e ruined and extinguished by his future Conduct which layeth an Obligation upon all true English Men to repair these Breaches made upon the Constitution and to vindiâ—â—â—â— and restore their oppressed and â—â—ined Laws and Liberties by returning K. James and the P. of O. into their proper and respective Stations But we are desired and pressed to have some Care of the Protestant Religion and Church of Christ which will be visibly endangâ—red by the King's Restauration all Europe over and a due regard for the Rights and Liberties of all the Princes in Europe which will be sacrificed by it that this ought to be more tenderly minded by us since we are Citizens of the World and so the good of Mankind or the greatest part of it layeth a more sacred Obligation upon us and is to be preferred to the particular Interest of our own Prince and Countrey The security of Religion is a Duty never to be forgotten by good Protestants and is never to be endangered and desperately hazarded by honest Men. But alas this hath been little regarded by our late Reformers Have they not quite unhinged our Constitution of which the Protestant Religion was become apart Have they not already and are they not in a fair way to ruine our Laws and Liberties which are the best Fences about our Religion After we are become Slaves we may quickly be made any thing else the multitude of new Converts in France is an undeniable Instance of this Have they not unnecessarily exposed the Protestant Religion to the hazard of a rude and uncertain War from the commencement of which we can form no great hopes of a Successful Issue and that in Conjunction with Allies who are the greatest Enemies of our Religion who when their particular Interests have been served by our Blood and Treasure will certainly give us the slip and nick some Opportunity which our present Circumstances can never furnish them with of Establishing themselves at the Expence of our Religious and Civil Rights and Liberties And finally have we not dethroned our King upon the account of his Religion by which we have commenced a religious War which may come to be fatally retorted upon us and may endanger the whole Protestant Religion in Europe A religious War is carefully to be avoided by Protestants since they are the weakest and no Pretence ought to be furnished to the Catholicks for the like Measure For thô particular Animosities and Interest seem to divide them at present how quickly may these be adjusted by the Necessities of one of the contending Parties and how easie will it be then for the Pope to unite them together under the Banners of Religion to give us and the Protestants of Europe a Rowland for our Oliver This is no Chimera or Dream but we may probably expect to see and feel it A far weaker Pretence viz. the Union established amongst the Protestants of Germany at Leipsick and Smalcald gave Birth to the Catholick League there which over-run all the Protestants forced several Princes and Cities from their Communion and endangered Denmark It is upon such weighty Considerations and to prevent the danger which threatens the Protestant Religion both at home and abroad from our late Measures that all true Englishmen and good Protestants ought to endeavour the Restauration of our King As to the Caution given us to beware how we sacrifice the Rights and Liberties of all the Princes in Europe the greatest part of the Princes and States of Europe are not engaged in this War against France and consequently in no danger by it The two Northern Crowns Moscovy and Poland Portugal all the Princes and States of Italy except Savoy together with the Switzers are in perfect Peace with France and so the Supposition of this Author is absolutely false the Original and Ground of this War is purely private Contests betwixt the Crown of France and House of Austria and such other Princes as that House can draw into their Interest Do we not see that the Princes of Germany themselves who seem to have the most immediate Concern in it and should understand and be more alarmed at the Consequences of it than we do but make Merchandise of their Assistance and engage in and withdraw from this War as it contributes most to their particular Interests and according as they are best paid by the several Principals Do not the Northern Crowns whose Territories and Provinces lie more exposed to the Consequences of this War than our Islands maintain an exact Neutrality which will give their Subjects Possession of the best part of the Trade of Europe We are the only Fools who have been prevailed upon to engage inconsiderately in this War to be at the greatest Charge of it to drein our Blood and Treasure and to hazard our Religion and Liberties by it without so much as proposing any Return to ballance this Expence and Danger Our Conduct is such an Instance of Folly and Madness as amazeth the present and will not find Credit in future Ages As to the Maxim established by the Author upon which he buildeth all his fine Reasoning it is false and Phanatical to perfection Can any Man in his right Wits assert That the Interest of our Prince and Country must give place to the Interests of other States suppose them to be the greatest part of Mankind Much less then to those of the House of Austria which is the present Case Must the Interest of the British Monarchy be postponed to the Interest of the Mahometan and Pagan Countries which make the greatest part of Mankind Or must the Interest of Britain and so of the Protestant Religion which makes a part of it give way to the Interest of the Pope and Catholick Princes which make the greatest part of Europe We may quickly guess what our Fate would be by following such a Rule and may easily be persuaded that the Cause must be very bad which requires such wretched Maxims and Reasonings to â—â—pport it The last Question is Whether we would think our selves bound to sight 〈◊〉 him did we believe he would promote the same Designs he did before and what we would think our selves obliged to do in the like case and under the same Circumstances after he had remounted
Reasonings which more perfectly resembled the Pretences Motives and Grounds of this Revolution by their Weakness Falshood and Prevarications How well our present Payments secure our native Countrey and Religion from Destruction may appâ—ar from the ruine of Ireland the Plunderings and free Quarters practised in Britain the Breaches made upon our ancient Monarchy and Constitution whereby a War is entailed upon Us and our Posterity from the Violences done to our Laws Rights and Liberties and Original Contract made with K. William and from the present visible and eminent Dangers which our Religion and Liberties are threatned with by any probable Issue of this War under a Prince who hath quite overturned the Liberties of his own native Countrey made fair advances towards the ruine of ours and was never yet Successful in any Enterprise he undertook except when he invaded his Father in Law contrary to all Divine and Humane Rules which perhaps God designed as a Scourge to these Nations for our Sins and when he fought Luxemburgh's Out-guards at St. Denis with the Peace in his Pocket contrary to the publick Faith and Law of Nations as if he were Predestinated to be Successful only in Crimes but unfortunate in heroick brave and generous Actions such as restraining the ambitious Encroachments of Princes and vindicating the Rights and Liberties of oppressed Nations having always practised in his own Case what he pretended to reform in another's How little the Deliverance of Europe is carried on by our present Payments is but too evident from the growing Successes of France in Flanders and the taking their most considerable Towns and Fortresses in the sight and under the nose of our present Monarch and those mighty Consederate Armies It is equally false to insinuate That our Payments during King Charles the Second's Reign bore any proportion with the Taxes under this and that they were employed only for assisting France to ruine Europe For the Subsidies we have already paid to this K. which Sir Edward Sâ—ymer who might very well know it assured the House of Commons did amount to 18 Millions before the last Impositions which were granted do far exceed all the Taxes paid to K. Charles joyn'd with the several Payments made to our Edwards our Henries and our Elizabeth who raised the Honour and Reputation of this Nation so high and spread our Conquests so far And it was to King Charles his Authority and Mediation the Peaces of Aix-la-Chapelle and Nimiguen were due which put then a Stop to the French Carreer And I am afraid our present Payments will very hardly bring about a Peace again upon the Foot of those Treaties and we are to take it as a very great Favour for which we are to be thankful to God and our present King if the Taxes we pay during this Government fall any thing short of the French Oppressions and Four Millions a Year over and above an Allowance for the Abatement of Chimney-Money and the ordinary Revenues of the Crown are but inconsiderable Payments in the opinion of these Authors It seems their Court Preferments are great and rich that they are so little sensible of those Taxes which are already become so heavy to this Nation and of which we see no end But the growing Debt to the French King for those Sums already spent upon K. â—ames 's Subsistance and the defence of Ireland and to be farther Expâ—nded for his Restauration will quite sink and undo this Nation It appears that these Authors take it for granted That the mercenary Temper of the Dutch in demanding and obtaining Satiâ—faction for their Expences which 〈◊〉 of a tender regard forsooth to our Liberties they bestowed upon our Deliverance will be exactly copied by other Princes But this is the first Instance of such Merchandise and it is not to be believed that great Princes who study Fame and tenderly regard their Honor and Glory will imitate so base an Example But suppose they should our Author is as wide in his Estimate of this Expence as in his other Reasonings We are frightned with a Charge Ten times bigger for many Years than our present Payments and yet will very much fall short of the half of one Years Tax we pay now The Sums spent upon the King's Subsistence and Ireland doth not amount to Three hundred thousand Luâ—dores and as for the Charge of his return I wish and heartily pray that all true English Men would unanimously concur together to prevent the pretence of demanding any such Charges the necessity of Foreign Troops and even the remotest Fears of French Popery and Slavery by returning our King with as general a Consent as he was forced from us which will vindicate the Protestant Religion from the reproach of Deposing Principles and establish it for the nature will reseâ—â—e the ancient Monarchy and Constitution of this Nation upon its old Basiâ— will repair the Injury done to our lawful King whereby we may legaly obtain those Securities for our Religion and Liberties which we are Courting unsucces fully amidst so many desperaâ—e Dâ—â—gâ—rs and Diffâ—â—â—lâ—â—s will infallibly relieve us from the weighty Oppressions and manifest Infractions of our choicest and most valuable Rights which we at present feel and have so much reason to be apprehensive of for the future will deliver us from the heavy Burthen of so many Taxes which we have already paid and which yet must be continued if we design to support a crazy and unjust Settlement any longer which after all our Blood and Expence must certainly fall to the ground and give place to the natural Force and Weight of our ancient Government and Monarchy to the just Title and undoubted Rights of our lawful Sovereign and his Posterity to the Love Affections and native Inclinations of English Men when the present fit is over and to the Interests of our Neighbouring Princes and States which lie visibly cross unto it so soon as their present Differences are at an end And lastly by this Method we shall be secured against those fatal Influences upon our Liberties which never fail to accompany all forced irresistable and unexpected returns of Exiled Monarchs I do humbly beseech Almighty God That of his Infinite Mercy for the good of these Nations and of all Europe he would open the Prince of Orange's Eyes give him a sight and discovery of the Vanity as well as Injustice of possessing his Father's Throne and incline his Heart to establish Religion and Liberty among us and give Peace to all Europe by doing an Act which would bury in Oblivion the famed Instances of Dioclesian and Charles V. and immortalize his Name even by restoring his old Father to his Right and Inheritance Was it really the Danger our Religion and Liberties were in which put him upon coming to Britain this would be an infallible way fully to secure them by new Laws and Concessions against which there lay no Objection Or was it to put himself at the head of the British Forces thereby to give a Check to the towring Ambition of the French Monarch this would more effectually do it for either that King would think himself obliged out of Gratitude to a Prince who is truly a Martyr for a supposed French League to give a reasonable Peace to Europe in order to King James's Restauration or by a Refusal our King was at Liberty to consult his own Interest and to unite with the Consederates by the Advice of Parliament which would make such a general and vigorous Application of the English Forces that way without any fear of Domestick Distraction as would quickly oblige that great Monarch to give ear to Reason and a Peace to his Neighbours And the Glory of having given Peace to Europe and subdued himself would place the Prince of Orange's Name upon the highest Pinnacles of Fame furnish the greatest Character imaginable for History give a great and noble Example to future Ages declare him the Benefactor of the Christian World and oblige all British Subjects to acknowlege that he had most generously contributed his best Endeavours for the securing of the Protestant Religion and the free Enjoyment of all our Laws Rights and Liberties under a just and legal Government according to his Declaration FINIS ERRATA PAge 5. Col. 1. Line 23. r. upon a Review of that bl ssed Occasion p. 8. c. 1. l. 37. deâ—e in p. 10. c. 2. l. 9. after Troops add to support 〈◊〉 p. 13. c. 2. l. 16. 〈◊〉 it r. th y. p. 14. c. 2. l. 39 r. easie p. 21. c. 1. l. 38. r. was not with p. 22. c. 1. l. â—â— lâ—â—e anoth r. p. 26. c. 1. l. 13. dele our p. 27. c. 2. l. 21. r. Princes p. 32. c. 1. l. 13. r. the. p. â—2 c. 1. l. 30 dele upon whole Counties p. 37. c. 1. l. 6. after in add the. dele are l. 23. r. Towns p. 41. c. 2. l. 3. r. scrâ—ening p. 43. c. 2 l. 4. dele and his Designs p. 4â— c. 2. l. 9. r. instanc p. 54 c. 2. l. 32. 〈…〉 fail to furnish