I. IF the just Apprehensions of the Danger of Popery gave the Birth to the two Laws for the two Tests, the one with relation to all pub­lick Employments in 73. and the other with relation to the Constitution of our Parliaments for the future in 78. the present time and conjuncture does not seem so proper for repealing them; unless it can be imagined, that the Danger of Popery is now so much less than it was formerly, that we need be no more on our guard against it. We had a King, when these Laws were enacted, who as he declared himself to be of the Church of England, by receiving the Sacrament four times a year in it, so in all his Speeches to his Parliaments, and in all his Declarations to his Subjects, he repeated the assu­rances of his firmness to the Prote­stant Religion so solemnly and fre­quently, that if the saying a thing often gives just reason to believe it, we had as much reason as ever People had to depend upon him: and yet for all that, it was thought necessary to fortifie those Assurances with Laws: and it is not easie to imagin, why we should throw away those, when we have a Prince that is not only of ano­ther Religion himself, but that has ex­pressed so much steadiness in it, and so much zeal for it. that one would think we should rather now seek a further security, than throw away that which we already have.

II. Our King has given such Testi­monies of his Zeal for his Religion, that we see among all his other Royal Qualities, there is none for which he desires and deserves to be so much admired. Since even the passion of Glory, of making himself the terrour of all Europe, and the Arbiter of Christendom (which as it is natural to all Princes, so must it be most particu­larly so to one of his Martial and Noble Temper) yields to his Zeal for his Church; and that he, in whom we might have hoped to see our Edward the Third, or our Henry the Fifth reviv'd; chooses rather to merit the heightning his degree of Glory in another World, than to Acquire all the Lawrel [...] and Conquests that this low and vile World can give him: and that, instead of making himself a terrour to all his Neighbours, he is contented with the humble Glory of being a terrour to his own People; so that instead of the great Figure which this Reign might make in the World, all the News of England is now only concerning the practises on some fearful Mereena­ries. Th [...]se things shew, That His Majesty is so possessed with his Religi­on, that this cannot suffer us to think, that there is at present no dan­ger from Popery.

[Page 2] III. It does not appear, by what we see, either abroad or at home, that Popery has so changed its nature, that we have less reason to be afraid of it at present, than we had in former time. It might be thought ill nature to go so far back, as to the Councils of the Lateran, that decreed the extir­pation of Hereticks, with severe Sancti­ons on those Princes that failed in their Duty, of being the Hangmen of the Inquisitors; or to the Council of Constance, that decreed, that Princes were not bound to keep their faith to Hereticks; tho it must be acknowledg­ed, that we have extraordinary Memo­ries if we can forget such things, and more extraordinary Understandings if we do not make some inferences from them. I will not stand upon such in­considerable Trifles as the Gunpowder-Plot, or the Massacre of Ireland; but I will take the liberty to reflect a little on what that Church has done since those Laws were made, to give us kinder and softer thoughts of them, and to make us the less apprehensive of them. We see before our Eyes what they have done, and are still, doing in France; and what seeble things Edicts, Coronation Oaths, Laws and Promises, repeated over and over again, proved to be, where that Re­ligion prevails; and Louis le Grand makes notso contemptible a Figure in that Church, or in our Court, as to make us think, that his example may not he proposed as a Pattern, as well as Aid may be offered for an encourage­ment, to act the same things in England, that he is now d [...]ing with so much Applause in France: and it may be per­haps tho rather desired from hence to put him a little in countenance, when so great a King as ours is willing to for­get himself so far as to copy after him, and to depend upon him: so that as the Doctriue and Principles of that Church must be still the same in all Ages and Places, since its chief pre­tension is, that it is Infallible, it is no unreasonable thing for us to be afraid of those, who will be easily induced to burn us a little here, when they are told, that such servent Zeal will save them a more lasting burning hereafter, and will perhaps quit all scores so en­ttirely, that they may hope scarce to endure a Singeing in Purgatory for all their other Sins.

IV. If the severest Order of the Church of Rome, that has breathed out nothing but Fire and Blood since its first formation, and that is even de­cryed at Rome it self for its Violence, is in such credit here; I do not see any inducement from thence to per­suade us to look on the Councils that are directed by that Society, as su [...]h harmless and inoffensive things, that we need be no more on our guard a­gainst them. I know not why we may not apprehend as much from Father Petre, as the French have felt from Pere de la Chaise, since all the difference that is observed to be between them, is, that the English Iesuite has much more Fire and Passion, and much less Conduct and Judgment than the French has. And when Rome has expressed so [Page 3] great a Jealousy of the Interest that that Order had in our Councils, that [...]. Morgan, who was thought to influ­ence our Ambassadour, was ordered to leave Rome, I do not see why England should look so tamely on them. No reason can be given why Card. Howard should be shut out of all their Coun­cils, unless it be, that the Nobleness of his Birth, and the Gentleness of his Temper, are too hard even for his Religion and his Purple, to be mastered by them. And it is a Contradiction, that nothing but a Belief capable of receiving Transubstantiation can recou­cile, to see Men pretend to observe Law, and yet to find at the same time an Ambassadour from England at Rome, when there are so many Laws in our Pook of Statutes, never yet Repealed, that have declared over and over again all Commerce with the Court and S [...]e of Rome to be High Treason

V. The late famous Judgment of our Judges, who knowing no other way to make their Names immortal, have found an effectual one to preserve [...]hem from being ever forgot, seems to call for another Method of Proceeding. The P [...]esident they have set must be Fatal either to them o [...]ns. For if Twel [...]e Men, that get into Scarlet and Fu [...]s, have an Authority to dissolve all our Laws, the English Government is to be hereafter lookt at with as much Scorn, as it has hitherto drawn Admi­ration. That doubtful Words of Laws, made so long ago, that the intention of the Lawgivers is not certainly known, must be expounded by the Judges, is not to be question'd▪ but to infer from thence, that the plain Words of a Law so lately made, and that was so vigorously asserted by the present Parliament, may be made void by a Decision of theirs, after so much Pra­ctice upon them, is just as reasonable a way of A [...]puing, as theirs is, who be­cause the Church of England acknow­ledges that the Church has a Power in Matters of Rites and Ceremonies, will from thence conclude, that this Power must go so far, that tho Christ has said of the Cup, Drink ye all of it, we must obey the Church when she decrees that we shall not drink of it: Our Judges for the greater part, were Men that had past their Lives in so much Retirement, that from thence one might have hoped, that they had studied our Law well, since the Bar had [...]alled them so seldome from their Studies: and if Practice is thought often hur [...]ful [...]o Speculation, as that which disorders and hurries the Judgment, they who had practi­sed so little in our Law, had no byass on their Understandings: and if the habit of taking Money as a Lawyer is a dangerous preparation for one that is to be an incorrupt Judge, they should have been incorruptible, since it is not thought, that the greater part of them got ever so much Money by their Profession as pay'd for their Furs. In short, we now see how they have, merited their Preferment, and they may yet expect a further Exalcation when the Justice and the Laws of England come to be in hands, that will [Page 4] be as careful to preserve them, as they have been no destroy them. But what an Infamy will it lay upon the Name of an English Parliament, if instead of call­ing those Betrayers of their Countrey to an account, they should go by an after­game to confirm what these Fellows ha [...]e done.

VI. The late Canferences with so many Members of both houses, will give such an ill-natured piece of Jealousy a­gainst them, that of all Persons living, that are the most concern'd to take care how they give their Votes, the World will believe, that Threatnings and Pro­mises had as large a share in those secret Conversations, as Reasoning or Persuasi­on: and it must be a more than ordi­nary degree of zeal and Courage in them, that must take off the Blot, of being sent for, and spoke to, on such a subject and such a manner. The wor­thy Behaviour of the Members in the last Session, had made the Nation unwill­ing to remember the Errors committed in the first Election: and it is to be hop­ed, that they will not give any cause for the future to call that to mind. For if a Parliament, that had so many Flaws in its first Conception, goes to repeal Laws, that we are sure were made by Legal Parliaments, it will put the Nation on an Enquiry that nothing but necessi­ty will drive them to. For a Nation may be laid asleep, and be a little cheated; but when it is awakned, and sees its danger, it will not look on and see a Rape made on its Religion and Liberties, without examining, from whence have these Men this Authority? they will hard­ly find that it is of Men; and they will not believe that it is of God. But it is to be hoped, that there will be no oc­casion▪ given for this angry question which is much easier made than answer­ed.

VII. If all that where now asked in favour of Popery, were only some Gen­tleness towards the Papists, there were some reason to entertain the Debate, when the Demand were a little more modest: If Men were to be attainted of Treason, for being Reconciled to the Church of Rome, or for Reconciling o­thers to it; If Priests were demanded to be hanged, for taking Orders in the Church of Rome; and if the two thirds of the Papists Estates were offered to be Levied, it were a very natural thing to see them uneasy and restless: but now the matter is more barefaced; they are not contented to live at ease, and en­joy their Estates; but they must carry all before them: and F. Petre cannot be at quiet, unless he makes as great a Figure in our Court, as Pere de la Chaise does at Versailles.

A Cessation of all Severities against them, is that to which the Nation would more easily submit; but it is their Behaviour that must create them the continuance of the like Compassion in another Reign. If a restless and a persecuting Spirit were not inherent in that Order, that has now the Ascendant, they would have behaved themselves so decently under their present Advanta­ges; as to have made our Divines, that have charged them so heavily, look a little out of countenance: and this [Page 5] would have wrought more on the good Nature of the Nation, and the Princly Nobleness of the Successors whom we have in view, than those Arts of Craft and Violence, to which we see their Tempers carry them even so early, be­fore it is yet time to show themselves. The Temper of the English Nation, the Heroical Vertues of those whom we have in our Eyes, but above all, our most holy Religion, which instead of Re­venge and Cruelty, inspires us with Charity and Mercy, even for Enemies, are all such things, as may take from the Gentlemen of that Religion all sad apprehensions, unless they raise a Storm against themselves, and provoke the Iustice of the Nation to such a degree, that the Successors may find it necessary to be Iust, even when their own Incli­nations would rather carry them to shew Mercy. In short, they need fear no­thing but what they create to them­selves: so that all this stir that they keep for their own Safety, looks too like the securing to themselves Pardons for the Crimes that they intend to com­mit.

VIII. I know it is objected as no small prejudice against these Laws, that the very making of them discover­ed a particular Malignity against His Majesty, and therefore it is ill Manners to speak for them. The first had per­haps an Eye at his being then Admiral: and the last was possibly levelled at him: though when that was discover­ed, he was excepted out of it by a speci­al Proviso, And as for that which past in 73, I hope it is not forgot, that it was enacted by that Loyal Parliament, that had setled both the Prerogative of the Crown and the Rites of the Church, and that had given the King more Money than all the Parliaments of England had ever done in all former Times. A Par­liament that had indeed some Disputes with the King, but upon the first step that he made with relation to Religion or Safety, they shewed how ready they were to forget all that was past: as ap­peared by their Behaviour after the Triple Alliance. And in 73, though they had great cause given them to dislike the Dutch War, especially the strange be­ginning of it upon the Smirna Fleet: and the stopping the Exchequer, the De­claration for Toleration, and the Writes for the Members of the House, were Mat­ters of hard Digestion; yet no saoner did the King give them this new assu­rance for their Religion then, though they had very great Reasons given them to be jealous of the VVar, yet since the King was Engaged, they gave him 1200000 Pounds for carrying it on; and they thought they had no ill Penni­worths for their Money, when they carried home with them to their Countries this new Security for their Religion, which we are now desired to throw up, and which the Reverend Judges have already thrown out as a Law out of date. If this had carried in it any new piece of Severity, their Complaints might be just; but they are extream tender, if they are so un­easie under a Law that only gives them Leisure and Opportunities to live at Home, And the last Test, which was [Page 6] intended only for shutting them out from a share in the Legislative Body, appears to be so just, that one is rather amased to find that it was so long a doing, than that it was done at last; and since it is done, it is a great pre­sumption on our Understandings to think, that we should be willing to part with it. If it was not sooner done, it was because there was not such cause given for Jealousie to work upon but what has appeared since that time and what has been Printed in his Ma­jesties Name, shews the World now, that the Jealousies which occasion'd those Laws, were not so ill grounded, as some well meaning Men perhaps then believed them to be. But there are some times in which all Mens Eyes come to be opened.

IX. I am told, some think it is very indecent to have a Test for our Par­liaments, in which the King's Religion i [...] accused of Idolatry; but if this rea­son is good in this particular, it will be full as good against several of the Ar­ticles of our Church, and many of the Homilies. If the Church and Religion of this Nation is so formed by Law, that the King's Religion is declared over and over again to be Idolatrous, what help is there for it? It is no other, than it was when His Majesty was Crowned, and Swore to Maintain our Laws.

I hope none will be wanting in all possible Respect to his sacred Person; and as we ought to be infinitely sorry to find him engaged in a Religion which we must believe Idolatrous, so we are far from the ill manners of re­flecting on his Person, or calling him an Idolator: for as every Man that re­ports a Lye, is not for that to be called a Lyar; so that tho' the ordering the Intention, and the prejudice of a mis­perswasion are such abatements, that we will not rashly take on us to call every Man of the Church of Rome an Idolater; yet on the other hand, we can never lay down our Charge against the Church of Rome as guilty of Idolatry, unless at the same time we part with our Religion.

X. Others give us a strange sort of Argument, to perswade us to part with the Test; they say, ‘The King must imploy his Popish Subjects, for he can trust no other; and he is so assu­red of their Fidelity to him, that we need apprehend no Danger from them.’ This is an old Method to work on us, to let in a sort of People to the Parliament and Government, since the King cannot trust us, but will depend on them: so that as soon as this Law is repealed, they must have all the Imployments, and have the whole Power of the Nation lodged in their hands; this seems a little to gross to impose, even on Irish-men. The King saw for many Years together, with how much Zeal both the Clergy, and many of the Gentry appeared for his Interests; and if there is now a Me­lancholy Damp on their Spirits, the King can dissipate it when he will; and as the Church of England is a Body that will never Rebell against him, so any Sullenness under which the late [Page 7] Administration of Affairs has brought them, would soon vanish, if the King would be pleas'd to remember a little what he has so often promised, not only in Publick but in Pivate; and would be contented with the Exercise of his own Religion, without imbroil­ing his whole Affairs, because F. Petre will have it so: and it tempts Eng­lishmen to to more than ordinary de­grees of Rage, against a sort of Men, who it seems, can infuse in a Prince, born with the highest Sense of Honour possible, Projects to which without do­ing some Violence to his own Royal Nature, he could not so much as hear­ken to, if his Religion did not so fa­tally muffle him up in a blind Obedi­ence. But if we are so unhappy, that Priests can so disguise Matters, as to mis-lead a Prince, who without their ill Insluences would be the most Glo­rious Monarch of all Europe, and would soon reduce the Grand Lauis to a much humbler Fgure, yet it is not to be so much as imagined, that ever their Arts can be so unhappily successful, as to impose on an English Parliament, com­posed of Protestant Members.

I. THe Preamble of a Pr [...]clama­ma [...]ion is fst writ in hast, and is the flourish of some wa [...] ­t [...]n Pen: but one of such an Extraor­dinary [...] as this is, was probably more severely Examined; there is a new designation of his Majesties Au­thority here set forth of his Absolute Power, which is so often repeated, that it deserves to be a little searched into. Prerogative Royal and Sove­raign Authority, are Terms already received and known; but for this Absolute Power, as it is a new Term, so those who have coined it, may make it signifie what they will. The Roman Law speaks of Princeps Legibus solutus, and Absolute in its natural signification, importing the being without all Ties and Restraints; then the true meaning of this seems to be, that there is an Inherent Power in the King, which can neither be restrained by Laws, Promises, nor Oaths; for nothing less than the being free from all these, ren­ders a Power Absolute.

II. If the former Term seemed to stretch our Allegiance, that which comes after it, is yet a step of another nature, tho one can hardly imagine what can go beyond Absolute Power: and it is in these Words, Which all our Subjects are to obey without reserve. And this is the carrying Obedience many sizes beyond what the Grand Seigneur ever yet claimed: For all Princes, even the most violent Pretenders to Absolute Power, till Lewis the Great's time, have thought it enought to oblige their Subjects to submit to their Power, and to bear whatsoever they thought good to impose upon them; but till the Days of the late Conversions by the Dragoons, it was never so much as pretended, that Subjects were bound to Obey their Prince without Reserve, and to be of his Religion, because he would have it so. Which was the only Argument that those late Apostles made use of; so it is probale this qualification of the Duty of Subjects was put in here, to prepare us for a terrible le Roy le veut; and in that case we are told here, that we must Obey without Reserve; and when those Se­vere Orders come, the Privy Council, and all such as execute this Proclama­tion, will be bound by this Declarati­on to shew themselves more forward than any others, to Obey without Re­serve: and those poor pretensions of Conscience, Religion, Honour, and Reason, will be then reckoned as Re­serves upon their Obedience, which are all now shat out.

III. These being the grounds upon [Page 10] which this Proclamation is founded, we ought not only to consider what consequences are now drawn from them, but what may be drawn from them at any time hereafter; for if they are of force, to justify that which is inferred from them, it will be full as just to draw from the same promises an Abolition of the Protestant Religion, of the Rights of the Subjects, nor on­ly to Church-Lands, but to all Pro­perty whatsoever. In a word, it As­serts a Power to be in the King, to Command what he will, and an Obli­gation in the Subjects, to Obey what­soever he shall Command.

IV. There is also mention made in the Preamble of the Christian Love and Charity, which His Majesty would have established among Neighbours; but another dash of a Pen, founded on this Absolute Power, may declare us all Hereticks; and then in wonderful Charity to us, we must be told, that we are either to Obey without Reserve or to be Burnt without Reserve. We know the Charity of that Church pretty well: It is indeed Fervent and Burning: and if we have forgot what has been done in former Ages, France, Savoy, and Hungary, have set before our Eyes very fresh instances of the Charity of that Religion. While those Examples are so green, it is a little too imposing on us, to talk to us of Christian Love and Charity. No doubt His Ma­jesty means sincerely, and his Exact­ness to all his Promises, chiesfly to those made since he came to the Crown, will not suffer us to think an unbecoming Thought of his Royal-In­tentions; but yet after all, tho' it seems by this Proclamation, that we are bound to Obey without Reserve, it is hardship upon hardship to be bound to Believe without Reserve.

V. There are a sort of People here Tolerated, that will be hardly found out: and these are the Moderate Pres­byterians: Now, as some say, that there are very few of those People in Scotland that deserves this Character, so it is hard to tell what it amo [...]nts to; and the calling any of them Im­moderate, cuts off all their share in this Grace. Moderation is a quality that lyes in the mind, and how this will be found out, I canot so readily guess. If a Standard had been given of Opinions or Practices, then one could have known how this might have been disti [...]g [...]ished; but as it lyes, it will not be easy to make the Discrimination; and the declaring them all Immoderate, shuts them out quite.

VI. Another Foundation laid down for repealing all Laws made against the Papists, is, That they were Enacted in King Iames the Sixth's Minority: with some harsh expressions, that are not to be insisted on, since they shew more the heat of the Penner, than the Dignity of the Prince, in whose name they are given out; But all these Laws were ratifyed over and over again by [Page 11] King Iames, when he came to be of fall Age: and they have received ma­ny Confirmations by King Charles the First, and King Charles the Second, as well as by his present Majesty, both when he represented his Brother in the Year 1681, and since he himself came to the Crown: so that whatsoever may be said concerning the first Formation of those Laws, they have received now for the course of a whole hun­dred Years, thet are lapsed since King Iames was of full Age, so many Con­firmations, that if there is any thing certain in Human Government, we might depend upon them; bat this new coyned Absolute Power must carry all before it.

VII. It is also well known, that the whole Settlement of the Church Lands and Tythes, with many other things, and more particularly the Establish­ment of the Protestant Religion, was likewise enacted in King Iames's mi­nority, as well as those Penal Laws: so that the Reason now made use of, to annul the penal Laws, will serve full as wel for another Act of this Ab­solute Power, that shall abolish all those; and if Maximes that unhinge all the Se­curities of Human Society, and all that is sacred in Government, ought to be lookt on with the justest and deep­est prejudices possible, one is tempted to lose the respect that is due to every thing that carr [...]es a [...]Royal Stamp upon it, when he sees such grounds made use of, as m [...]st shake all Settlements whatsoever; for if a prescription of 120 Years, and Confirmations reite­rated over and over again these 100 Years past, do not purge some Defects in the first Formation of those Law, what can make us secure: but this looks so like a Fetch of the French Prerogative Law, both in their proces­ses with Relation to the Elict of Nantes, and those concerning Dependences at Mets, that this seems to be a Copy from that famous Original.

VIII. It were too much ill nature to look into the History of the last Age, to examine on what grounds those Characters of pious and blessed given to the Memory of Q. Mary are built, but since K. Iames's Memory has the character of glorious given to it, if the Civility of the fair Sex makes one unwilling to look into one, yet the other may be a little dwelt on. The peculiar Glory that belongs to K. Iames's Memory, is, that he was a Prince of great Learning, and that he imployed it chiefly in writing for his Religion: of the Volume in Folio in which we have his Works, two thirds are against the Churh of Rome, one part of them is a Commentary on the Revelation, proving that the Pope is Antichrist; another part of them belonged more naturally to his Post Dignity; which is the warning that he gave to all the Princes and States of Europe, against the Treasonable and Bloody Doctrines of the Papacy. The first Act he did when he came of Age, was to swear in person with all his Fa­mily, and afterwards with all his peo­ple [Page 12] of Scotland, a Covenant, contain­ing an Enumeration of all the points of Popery, and a most solemn Renuncia­tion of them, somewhat like our Par­liament Test: his first Speech to the Parliament of England was Copious on this Subject: and he left a Legacy of a Wish on such of his Posterity as should go over to that Religion, which in go [...]d manners is suppressed. It is known, K. Iames was no Conquerour, and that he made more use of his Pen than his Sword: so the Glory that is peculiar to his Memory must fall chiefly on his Learned and Immortal Writings: and since there is such a Veneration ex­pressed for him, it agrees not ill with this, to wish, that his Works were more studied by those who offer such Incense to his Glorious Memory.

IX. His Majesty assures his people of Scotland, upon a certain Knowledge and long Experience, that the Catho­licks, as they are good Christians, so they are likewise Dutiful Subjects: but if we must believe both these equally▪ then we must conclude severely against their being good Christians; for we are sure they can never be good Sub­jects, not only to a Heretical Prince if he does not extirpate Hereticks; for their beloved Council of the Late­ran, that decreed Transubstantiation has likewise decreed, that if a Prince does not extirpate Hereticks out of his [...]ominions, the Pope must depose him, and declare his Subjects absolved from their Allegeance, and give his Dominions to another: so that even his Majesty, how much soever he may be a Zealous Catholick, yet cannot be assured of their fidelity to him, unless he has given them secret Assurances, that he is resolved to extirpate Here­ticks out of his Dominions; and that all the P [...]omises which he now makes to these poor wretches are no other way to be kept, than the Assurances which the Great Lewis gave to his Pr [...] ­testant Subjects, of his observing still the Edict of Nantes even after he had resolved to break it▪ and also his last promise made in the Edict, that re­pealed the Edict of Nantes, by which he gave Assurances, that no Violence should be used to any for their Religi­on, in the very time that he was or­dering all possible Violences to be put in execution against them.

X. His Majesty assures us, that on all Occasions the Papists have shewed themselves good and faithful Su [...]jects to him and his Royal Predecessors; but how Absolute soever the King's Power may be, it seems his Knowledge of History is not so Absolute, but it may be capable of some Improvement. It will be hard to find out what Loyal­ty they shewed on the Gunpowder Plot, or during the whole progress of the Rebellion of Ireland; if the King will either take the words of King Iames of Glorious Memory, or K. Charles the first, that was indeed of pious and blessed Memory, rather than the penners of this Proclamation, it will not be hard to find Occasions where they were a little wanting in this their so much boasted Loyalty: and we are sure, that by the Principles [Page 13] of that Religion, the King can never be assured of the Fidelity of those he calls his Catholick Subjects, but by en­gaging to them to make his Heretical Subjects Sacrifices to their Rage.

XI. The King declares them capa­ble of all the Offices and Benefices which he shall think fit to bestow on them, and only restrains them from invading the Protestant Churches by force: so that here a Door is plainly opened for admitting them to the Ex­ercise of their Religion in Protestant Churches, so they do not break into them by force; and whatsoever may be the Sense of the term Benefice in its antient and first signification, now it stands only for Church Preferments; so that when any Churches, that are at the King's Gift, fall vacant, here is a plain intimation, that they are to be provided to them; and then it is very probable, that all the Laws made against such as go not to their parish Churches, will be severely turned upon those that will not come to Mass.

XII. His Majesty does in the next place, in the vertue of his Absolute Power, Annul a great many Laws, as well those that Established the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy, as the late Test, enacted by himself in per­son, while he represented his Brother: upon which he gave as strange an Essay to the World of his Absolute Justice in the Attainder of the late Earl of Argile, as he does now of his Absolute Power in condemning the Test it self, he also repeals his own Confirmation of the Test, since he came to the Crown, which he offered as the clear­est Evidence that he could give of his Resolution to maintain the Protestant Religion, and by which he gained so much upon that Parliament, that he obtained every thing from them that he desired of them; till he came to try them in the Matters of Religion. This is no Extraordinary Evidence to assure his people, that his Promises will be like the Laws of the Medes and Per­fians, which alter not; nor will the disgrace of the Commissioner that en­acted that Law, lay this matter wholly on him; for the Letter, that he brought, the Speech that he made, and the Instructions which he got, are all too well known to be so soon forgotten: and if Princes will give their Subjects reason to think, that they forget their Promises, as soon as the turn is served for which they were made, this will be too prevailing a Temptation on the Subjects to mind the Princes promise as little as it seems he himself does and will force them to conclude, that the Truth of the Prince, is not so Abso­lute as it seems he fancies his power to be.

XIII. Here is not only a repealing of a great many Laws, and established Oaths and Tests, but by the Exercise of the Absolute Power, a new Oath is impo­sed, which was never pretended to by the Crown in any former time, and as the Oath is created by this Absolute [Page 14] Power, so it seems the Absolute Power must be supported by this Oath: since one branch of it, is an Obligation to Maintain His Majesty and His Lawful Successors in the Exercise of this their Absolute Power and Authority against all deadly, which I suppose is Scotch for Mortals: now to impose so hard a yoke as this Absolute Power on the Subject, seems no small stretch; but it is a won­derful exercise of it to oblige the Sub­jects to defend this: it had been more modest, if they had been only bound to bear it, and submit to it: but it is a terrible thing so far to extinguish all the remnants of natural Liberty, or of a Legal Government, as to oblige the Subjects by Oath to maintain the Exer­cise of this, which plainly must destroy themselves: for the short execution by the Bow-strings of Turkey, or by sending Orders to Men to return in their Heads, being an Exercise of this Absolute Pow­er, it is a little too hard to make men swear to maintain the King in it: and if that Kingdom has suffered so much by the many Oaths that have been in use among them, as is marked in this Pro­clamation, I am afraid this new Oath will not much mend the matter.

XIV. Yet after all, there is some Comfort; his Majesty assures them, he will use no Violence nor Force, nor any Invincible Necessity to any man on the account of his perswasion: It were too great a want of respect to fancy, that a time may come in which even this may be remembrad, full as well, as the promises that were made to the Parlia­ment after His Majesty came to the Crown: I do not I Confess, apprehend that; for I see here so great a Caution used in the choice of these words, that it is plain, very great Severities may very well consist with them: It is clear, that the general words of Violence and Force are to be determined by these last of Invincible Necessity, so that the King does only promise to lay no Invincible Necessity on his Subjects; but for all Necess [...]ies that are not Invin­cible, it seems thy must expect to bear a large share of them; Disgraces, want of Imployments, Fines and Imprison­ments, and even Death it self are all Vincible things to a man of a [...]irmness of mind: so that the Violences of Tor­ture, the Furies of Dragoo [...]s, and some of the Methods now practised in France, perhaps may be Included within this Promise; since these seem almost In­vincible to Humane Nature, if it is not fortified with an Extraordinary mea­sure of Grace: but as to all other things, His Majesty binds himself up from no part of the Exercise of His Absolute Power by this Promise.

XV. His Majesty Orders this to go Immediately to the Great Seal, with­out passing through the other Seals: now since this is [...]unter-signed by the Secretary in whose hands the Signet is, there was no other step to be made but through the Privy Seal; so I must own I have a g [...]eat Curiosity of know­ing his Character in whose hands the Privy Seal is at present; for it seems his Conscience is not so very supple, as [Page 15] the Chancellors and the Secretaries are; but it is very likely, if he does not quickly change his mind, the Privy Seal at least will very quickly change its Keeper; and I am sorry to hear, that the Lord Chancellor and the Secretary have not another Brother to fill this post, that so the guilt of the ruin of that Nation, may lie on one si [...]gle Family, and that there may be no others in­volved in it.

XVI. Upon the whole matter many smaller things being waved, it being extream unpleasant to find fault, where one has all possible dispositions to pay all respect; we here in England see what we must look for. A Parliament in Scotland was tryed, but it proved a little Stubborn; and now Absolute Power comes to set all right; so when the Closetting has gone round, so that Noses are counted, we may perhaps see a Parliament here; but if it chan [...]s to be untoward, and not to Obey with­out Reserve, then our Reverend Judges will copy from Scotland, and will not only tell us of the King's Imperial Pow­er, but will discover to us this new Mystery of Absolute Power, to whch we are all bound to Obey without Re­serve.

These Reflexions refer in so many places to some words in the Proclamation, that it was thought necessary to set them near one another, that the Reader may be able to Iudge, whether he is deceived by any false Quotations or not.

1. I Thank you for the Favour of sending me the late Declaration that His Majesty has granted for Liberty of Conscience. I confess, I long­ed for it with great Impatience, and was surprised to find it so different from the Scotch Pattern; for I imagined, that it was to be set to the second part of the same tune: nor can I see why the Penners of this have su [...]k so much in their stile; for I suppose the same men penned both. I expected to have seen the Imperial Language of Absolute Power, to which all the Subjects are to Obey without reserve; and of the Cassing, Annulling, the stopping, and disabling of Laws set forth in the Preamble and body of this Declaration; whereas those dreadful words are not to be found here: for instead of Repealing the Laws, His Majesty pretends by this only to Suspend them; and tho in effect this a­mounts to a Repeal, yet it must be confessed that the words are softer. Now since the Absolute Power, to which His Maj [...]sty pretends in Scotland, is not founded on such poor things as Law; for that would look as if it were the gift of the People; but on the Divine Au­thority, which is supposed to be dele­gated to His Majesty, this may be as well claimed in England as it was in Scot­land: and the pretentions to Absolute Power is so great a thing, that since His Majesty thought sit once to claim it, he is little beholding to those that make him fall so much in his Language; especially since both these Declarations have appeared in our Gazettes; so that [...]s we see what is done in Scotland, we know from hence what is in some peo­ples hearts, and what we may expect in England.

II. His Majesty tells his people, that the perfect Injoyment of their Property has never been in any Case invaded by him since his coming to the Crown. This is indeed matter of great Incouragement to all good Subjects; for it lets them see, that such Invasions, as have been made on Property, have been done without His Majesties knowledge: so that no doubt the continuing to levy the Cust­omes and the Additional Excise (which had been granted only during the late Kings Life,) before the Parliament could meet to renew the Grant, was done without His Majesties knowledge; the many Violences committed not only by Soldiers, but Officers, in all the Parts of England, which are severe Invasions on Pr [...]perty, have been all without His Majesties knowledge; and since the first Branch of Property is the Right that a man has to his Life, the strange Essay of Mahometan Government, that was shewed at Taunton; and the no less strange proceedings of the present [Page 22] Lord Chancellour, in his Circuit after the Rebellion (which are very justly called His Campagne, for it was an open Act of Hostility to all Law) and for which and other Services of the like nature, it is believed he has had the reward of the Great Seal, and the Ex­ecutions of those who have left their Colours, which being founded on no Law, are no other than so many Mur­ders; all these, I say, are as we are sure, Invasions on Property; but since the King tells us, that no such Invasions have been made since he came to the Crown, we must conclude that all these things have fallen out without His Priv­ity. And if a standing Army, in time of Peace, has been ever lookt on by this Nation as an Attempt upon the whole Property of the Nation in gross, one must conclude, that even this is done without His Majesties know­ledge.

III. His Majesty expresses his Chari­ty for us in a kind wish, that we were all Members of the Catholick Church; in return to which we offer up daily our most e [...]rnest Prayers for him, that he may become a Memebr of the truly Catholick Church: for Wishes and Prayers do no hurt on no side: but His Majesty adds, that it has ever been his Opinion, that Cons [...]ience ought not to be constrained, nor people forced in matters of meer Religion. We are very happy if this continues to be al­ways his sense: but we are sure in this he is no Obedient Member of that which he means by the Catholick Church: for it has over and over ag [...]in decreed the Extirpation of Heriticks. It encourages Princes to it, by the Of­fer of the Pardon of their Sins; it threatens them to it, by denouncing to them not only the judgments of God; but that which is more sensible, the loss of their Dominions: and it s [...]ems they intend to make us know that part of their Doctrine even before we come to feel it, since tho some of that Com­munion would take away the Horror which the Fourth Council of the La­teran gives us, in which these things were decreed, by denying it to be a General Council, and rejecting the Au­thority of those Canons, yet the most learned of all the Apostates that has fall­en to them from our Church, has so lately given up this Plea, and has so f [...]rmally a [...]knowledged the Authority of that Council, and of its Canons, that it seems they think they are bound to this piece of fair dealing of w [...]rning us before hand of our Danger. It is true Bellarmin says, ‘The Church does not always execute her Power of de­posing Heretical Princes, tho she always retains it:’ one reason that he assigns, is, ‘Because she is not at all times able to put it in execution:’ so the same reason may perhaps make it appear unadviseable to Extirpate Here­ticks, because that at present it cannot be done; but the Right remains inti [...]e, and is put in execution in such an unre­lenting manner in all places where that Religion prevails, that it has a very ill Grace, to see any Member of that Church speak in this strain: and when neither the Policy of France, nor the [Page 23] Greatness of their Monarch, nor yet the Interests of the Empero [...]r joyned to the Gentleness of his own temper, could withstand these Bloody Councils, that are indeed parts of that Religion, we can see no reason to induce us to believe, that a Toleration of Religion is proposed with any other design but either to divide us, or to lay us asleep till it is time to give the Alarm for de­stroying us.

IV. If all the Endeavonrs, that have been used in the last four Reig [...]s, for bringing the Subjects of this Kingdom to a Unity in Religion have been ineffectual, as His Majesty says; we know to whom we owe both the first beginnings and the progress of the Di­visions among our selves; the gentle­ness of Q. Elizabeth's Government, and the numbers of those that adhered to the Church of Rome, made it scarce possible to put an end to that Party during her Reign, which has been ever since restless, and has had Credit e­nough at Court during the three last Reigns, not only to su [...]p [...]rt it self, but to distract us, and to divert us from apprehending the danger of being swallowed up by them, by fomenting our own Diff [...]rences, and by setting on either a Toleration, or a P [...]rsecu [...]i [...]n, as it has happened to serve their Inter­ests It is not so very long since, that nothing was to be heard at Co [...]rt but the supporting the Church of England, and the Extirpating all the Nonconfor­mists: and it were easie to name the persons, if it were decent, that had this in their Mouths; but now all is turned round again, the Church of England is in Disgrace; and now the Encouragement of Trade, the Quiet of the Nation, and the Freedom of Conscience are again in Vogue, that were such odious things but a few Years ago, that the very mention­ing them was enough to load any man with Suspicious as backward in the King's Service, while such Me­thods are used, and the Government is as in an Ague, divided between hot and cold fits, no wonder if Laws so unsteadily executed have fa [...]led of their effect.

V. There is a good reserve here left for Severity, when the proper Oppor­tunity to set it on presents it self: for his Majesty declares himself only a­gainst the forcing of men in matters of meet Religion: so that whensoever Religion and P [...]licy come to be so in­terwoven, that meer Religion is not the Case, and that publick Safety may be prete [...]ded then thi [...] Declaration is to b [...] no mo [...]e claimed: so that the fastning any thing upon the Protestant Religion, that is inconsistent with the publick Peace, will be pretended to shew that they are no persecuted for meer Religion. In France, when it was resolved to extirpate the Prote­stants, all the Discourses that were written on that Subject were full of the Wars occasi [...]ned by those of the Religion in the last Age, tho as these was the happy Occa [...]ons of bringing the House of B [...]u [...]bon to the Crown, they had been ended above 80 Years ago, and there had not been so much [Page 24] as the least Tumul [...] raised by them these 50 Years past: so that the French who have smarted under this Severity, could not be charged with the least Infraction of the Law: yet Stories of a huddred years old were raised up to inspire into the King those Apprehen­sions of them, which [...]ave produced the terrible effects that are visible to all the World. There is another Expres­sion in this Declaration, which lets us likewise see with what Caution the Of­fers of Favour are now worded, that so there may be an Occasion given when the Time and Conjuncture shall be favourable to break through them all: it is in these words, So that they take especial Care that nothing be preached or taught amongst them, which may any ways tend to alienate the Hearts of our people from us or our Goverment. This in it self is ve­ry reasonable; and could admit of no Exception, if we had not to do with a set of men, who to our great Misfor­tune have so much Credit with His Ma­jesty, and who will be no sooner lodg­ed in the Power to which they pre­tend, then they will make every thing that is preached against Popery pass for that which may in some manner a­lienate the Sabjects from the King.

VI. His Majesty makes no doubt of tthe Concurrence of his Two Houses of Parliament, when he shall think it convenient for them to meet. The Hearts of King are unsearchable, so that it is a little too presumptuous to look into His hajesties secret Thoughts: but according to the Judgments that we would make of other mens Thoughts by their Actions, one would bet [...]mpted to think, that his Majesty made some doubt of it, since his Af­fairs both at home and abroad could not go the worse, if it appeared that there were a perfect understanding be­tween Him and his Parliament, and that his people were supporting him with fresh Supplies; and this House of Commons is so much at his Devotion, that all the World saw how ready they were to rant every thing that he could desire of them, till he began to lay off the Mask with relation to the Test, and since that time the frequent Pro­rogations, the Closetting, and the pains that has been taken to gain Members, by Promises made to some, and the Disgraces of others, would make one a little Inclined to think, that some doubt was made of their Concurrence. But we must confess, that the depth of His Majesties Judgment is such, that we cannot fathom it, and therefore we can­not guess what his Doubts or his Assu­rances are. It is true, the words that come after unriddle the Mistery a litt­le, which are, when His Majesty shall think it convenient for them to mett: for the meaning of this seems plain, that His Majesty is resolved that they shall never meet, till he receive; such Assu­rances, in a new round of Closetting that he shall be pat out of doubt con­cerning it.

VII. I will not enter into the dispute concerning Liberty of Conscience, and the Reasons that may be offered for it to a Session of Parliament; for there is [Page 21] scarce any one point, that either with relation to Religion, or Politicks, af­fords a greater variety of matter for Reflection: and I make no doubt to say, that there is abundance of Reason to oblige Parliament to review all the nal Laws, either with relation to Pa­pists, or to Dissenters: but I will take the boldness to add one thing, that the Kings Suspending of laws strikes at the root of this whole Government, and subverts it quite: for if there is any thing certain with relation to English Government, it is this, that the Exe­cutive Power of the Law is entirely in the King; and the Law to fortifie him in the Management of it has cloathed him with a vast Prerogative▪ and made it unlawful on any pretence wh [...] oev [...] to resist him: whereas on the other hand, the Legislative Power is not so entirely in the King, but that the Lords and Commons have such a share in it, that no Law can be either made, repealed, or which is all one suspended, but by their consent: sh [...] that the placing this Legislative Power singly in the King, is a subversion of this whole Government, since the Essence of all Governments consists in the Subjects of the Legisla­tive Authority, Acts of Violence or Injustice, committed in the Executive part, are such things that all Princes being subject to them, the peace of mankind were very ill secured if it were not unlawful to resist upon any pretence taken from any ill Admini­strations, in which as the Law may be doubtful, so the Facts may be uncer­tain, and at worst the publick Peace must always be more valued than any private Oppressions or Injuries what­soever. But the total Subversion of a Government, being so contrary to the Trust that is given to the Prince who ought to execute it, will put men up­on uneasie and dangerous Inquiries: which will turn little to the Advantage of those who are driving matters to such a doubtful and desperate Is­sue.

VIII. If there is any thing in which the Exercise of the Legislative Power seems indispensable, it is in those Oaths of Allegeance and Tests, that are thought necessary to Qualifie men ei­ther to be admited to enjoy the Prote­ction of the Law, or to bear a share in the Government; for in these the Se­curity of the Government is chiefly concerned; and therefore the total Extinction of these, as it is not only a Suspension of them, but a plain re­pealing of them, so it is a Subverting of the whole Foundation of our Go-Government: For the Regulation that King and Parliament had set both for the Subjects having the Protection of the State by the Oath of Allegeance, and for a share in the places of Trust by the Tests, is now pluckt up by the roots; when it is declared, That these shall not at any time hereafter be re­quired to be taken or subscribed by any persons whatsoever: fot it is plain, that this is no Suspension of the Law, but a formal repeal of it, in as plain Words, as can be con­ceived.

[Page 22] IX. His Majesty says, that the Be­nefit of the Service of all his Subjects is by the Law of Nature Inseparably an nexed to and inherent in his Sacred Person. It is somewhat strange, that when so many Laws, that we all know are suspended, the Law of Nature, which is so hard to be found out, should be clted; but the Penners of this Declaration had best let that Law lie forgotten among the rest; and there is a scurvy Paragraph in it con­cerning self-Preservation, that is capa­ble of very unacceptable Glosses. It is hard to tell what Section of the Law of Nature has markt either such a Form of Government, or such a Fa­mily for it. And if His Majesty re­nounces his Pretensions to our Allege­ance as founded on the Laws of Eng­land; and betakes himself to this Law of Nature, he will perhaps find the Coun­sel was a little too rash; but to make the most that can be, the Law of Na­tions or Nature does indeed allow the Governors of all Societies a Power to serve themselves of every Member of it in the cases of Extream Danger; but no Law of Nature that has been yet heard of will conclude, that if by special Laws, a sort of men have been disabled from all imployments, that a Prince who at his Coronation Swore to maintaiu those Laws, may at his plea­sure extinguish all these Disabilities.

X. At the end of the Declaration, as in a Postscript, His Majesty assures his Subjects, that he will main­tain them in their Properties, as well in Church and Abbey Lands, as other Lands: but the chief of all their Pro­perties being the share that they have by their Representatives in the Legislative Power; this Declaration, which breaks thro that, is no great E­vidence that the rest will be maintain­ed: and to speak plainly, when a Co­ronation Oath is so little remembred, other Promises must have a proportio­ned degree of Credit given to them: as for the Abbey Lands, the keeping them from the Church is according to the Principles of that Religion Sacri­ledge; and that is a mortal Sin, and there can no Absolution be given to any who continue in it: and so this Pro­mise being an Obligation to maintain men in a mortal Sin, is [...] and void of it self: Ch [...]rch Lands are also accor­ding to the Doctrine of their Cano­nists, so immediately Gods Right, that the Pope himself is the only Admini­strator and Dispeneer, but is not the Master of them; he can indeed make a truck for God, or let them so low, that God shall be an easie Landlord: but he cannot alter God' s Property, nor translate the Right that is in him to Sacrilegious Laymen and Here­ticks.

XI. One of the Effects of this De­claration, will be the setting on foot a new run of Adresses over the Nation: for there is nothing how impudent and base soever, of which the abject flattery of a slavish Spirit is not capa­ble. It must be confest, to the Re­proach of the Age, that all those strains [Page 23] of flattery among the Romans, that Tacitus sets forth with so much just Scorn, are modest things, compared to what this Nation has produced with­in these seven Years: only if our Flat­tery has come short of the Refinedness of the Romans, it has exceeded theirs as much in its loathed Fulsomne [...]s: The late King set out a Declaration, in which he gave the most solemn As­surances possible of his adhering to the Church of England, and to the Religi­on established by Law, and of his Re­solution to have frequent Parliament; upon which the whole Nation fell as it were into Raptures of Joy and Flat­tery: but tho he lived four Years after that, he called no Parliament, notwith­standing the Law for Trien [...]ial Parlia­ments: and the manner of his Death, and the Papers printed after his Death in his Name, having sufficiently shew­ed, that he was equally sincere in both those Assurances that he gave, as well in that relating to Religion, as in that other relating to frequent Parliaments; yet up­on his Death a [...]ew let of Addresses ap­peared, in which all that Flattery could invent was brought forth, in the Commendations of a Prince, to whose Memory the greatest kindness can be done, is to forget him and be­cause his present Majesty upon his coming to the Throne give some very general Promise of maintaining the Church of England, this was magnified in so Extravagant a st [...]ain, as if it had been a Securiry greater than any that the Law could give: tho by the re­gard that the King has both to i [...] and to the Laws, it appears that he is resol­ved to maintain both equally: since then the Nation has already made it srlf sufficiently ridiculous both to the present and to all succeeding Ages; it is time that at last men should grow weary, and become ashamed of their Folly.

XII. The Nonconformists are now in­vited to set an Example to the rest: and they who have valued themselves hitherto upon their Oppositian to Po­pery, and that have quarrelled with the Church of England, for some small Approaches to it, in a few Ceremo­nies, are now solicited to rejoyce, be­cause the Laws that secure us against it, are all plucked up: since they en­joy at present and during pleasure leave to meet together. It is natural for all men to love to be set at ease, e­specially in the matter, of their Con­sciences; but it is visible, that thos who allow them this favour, do it with no other design, but that under a pretence of a General Toleration, they may Introduce a Religion which must persecute all equally: it is like­wise apparent how much they are hated, and how much they have been persecuted by the Instigation of those who now Court them, and who have now no game that is more promising, than the engaging them and the Church of England into new Quarrels: and as for the Promises now ma [...]e to them, it cannot be supposed that they will be more l [...]sting than those that were made some time ago to the Church of Eng­land, [Page 24] who had both a better Title in Law and greater Merit upon the Crown to assure them that they should be well used than these can pretend to. The Nation has scarce forgiven some of the Church of England the Persecution in­to which they have suffered themselves to be cosened; tho now that they see Popery barefaced, the Stand that they have made, and the vigorous Oppositi­on that they have given to it, is that which makes all men willing to forget what is past, and raises again the Glory of a Church that was not a little stained by the Indiscretion and Weakness of those, that were too apt to believe and hope, and so suffered themselves to be made a Property to those who would make them a Sacrifice. The Sufferings of the Nonconformists, and the Fn [...]y that the Popish party expressed against them, had recommended them so much to the Compassions of the Nati­on, and had given them so just a pre­tension to favour in a better time, that it will look like a Curse of God upon them, if a few men, whom the Court has gained to betray them, can have such an ill Influence upon them as to make them throw away all that Merit, and those Compassions which their Sufferings have procured them; and to go and court those who are only seemingly kind to them, that they may destroy both them and us. They must remember that as the Church of England is the only Establishment that our Religion, has by Law; so it is the main body of the Nation, and all the Sects are but small and stragling par­ties: and if the Legal Settlement of the Church is dissolved, and that body is once broken, these lesser bodies will be all at Mercy: and it is an easy thing to define what the Mercies of those Church of Rome are.

XIII. But tho' it must be confessed, that the Nonconformists are still un­der some Temptations▪ to receive every thing that gives them present ease, with a little too much kindness; since they lie exposed to many severe Laws, of which they have of late felt the weight very heavily, and as they are men, and some of them as ill Na­tured men as other people, so it is no wonder if upont he first surprises of the Declaration, they are a little delight­ed, to see the Church of England, after all its Services and Submissions to the Court, so much mortified by it; so that taking all together it will not be strange if they commit some Follies upon this occasion. Yet on the other hand it passes all imagination, to see some of the Church of England. espe­cially those whose Natures we know are so particularly sharpned in the point of Persecution, chiefly when it is levelled against the Dissenters, re­joyce at this Declaration, and make Addresses upon it. It is hard to think that they have attained to so high a a pitch of Christian Charity, as to thank those who do now Despitefully use them, and that as an earnest that within a little while they will Persecute them. This will be an Original, and a Master-piece in Flattery, which must [Page 29] needs draw the last degrees of Con­temption such as are capable of so ab­ject and sordid a Compliance, and that not only from all the true Members of the Church of England, but likewise from those of the Church of Rome it self; for every man is apt to esteem an Enemy that is brave even in his Misfor­tunes, as much as he despises those whose minds sink with their Conditi­on, for what is it that these men would the King? Is it because he breaks those Laws that are made in their Favour, and for their Protection: and is now striking at the Root of all Legal Set­tlement that they have for their Religi­on? Or is it because that at the same time that the King professes a Religion that condemns his Supremacy, yet he is not contented with the Exercise of it as it is warranted by Law, but carries it so far as to erect a Court contrary to the express worps of a Law so lately made: That Court takes care to main­tain a due proportion between their Constitution and all their Proceedings, that so all may be of a piece, and all e­qually contrary to Law. They have suspended one Bishop, only because he w [...]uld not do that which was not in his power to do: for since there is no Ex­trajudiciary Authority in England, a Bishop can no more proceed to a Sen­tence of Suspension against a Clergy­man without a Tryal, and the hearing of Parties, than a Judge can give a Sentence in his Chamber without an Indictment, a Tryal, or a Jury, and because one of the greatest bodies of England would not break their Oaths, and obey a Mandate that plainly con­tradicted them, we see to what a pitch this is like to be carried. I will not anticipate upon this illegal Court, to tell what Judgments are coming; but without carrying our Jealousies ton far, one may safely conclude, that they will never depart so far from their first Institution, as to have any regard, ei­ther to our Religion, or our Laws, or Liberties, in any thing they do. If all this were acted by a owed Papists, as we are sure it is projected by such, there were nothing extraordinary in it: but that which carries our Indig, nation a little too far to be easily go­verned, is to see some pretended Pro­testants, and a few Bishops, among those that are the fatal Instruments of pulling down the Church of England and that those Mercenaries Sacrifice their Religion and their Church to their Ambition and Interests; this has such peculiar Characters of Misfortune upon it, that it seems it is not enough if we perish without pity, since we fall by that hand that we have so much supported and fortified, but we must become the Scorn of all the world, since we have produced such an unna­tural Brood, that even while they are pretending to be the Sons of the Church of England, are cutting their Mothers Throat: and not content with Iudas's Crime, of saying, Hail Master, and kissing him, while they are betraying him into the hands of othnrs; these carry their Wickedness f [...]rth [...]r, and say. Hail Mother, and then they them­selves murthe [...] her. If after all this we [Page 30] were called on to bear this as Christians, and to suffer it as Subjects, if we were required in Patience to pos­sess our own Souls, and to be in Chari­ty with our Enemies; and which is more, to forgive our False Brethren who add Trea [...]ery to their Hatred; the Exhortation were seasonable, and indeed a little necessary: for humane Nature cannot easily take down things of such a hard digestion: but to tell us that we must make Addresses, and of­fer Thanks for all this, is to insult a little too much upon us in our Suffer­ings: and he that can believe that a dry and cautiously worded Promise of maintaining the Church of England, will be religiously observed after all that we have seen, and is upon that carried so far out of his Wits as to Ad­dress and give Thanks, and will believe still, such a man has nothing to ex­cuse him from believing Transubstaetia­tion it self; for it is plain that he can bring himself to believe even when the thing is contrary to the clearest E­vidence that his senses can give him.

1. THE Accusing the Church of England of want of Loyalty, or the putting it to a new Test, after so fresh a one, with relation to His Majesty, argues a high degree of Confidence in him who undertakes it. She knew well what were the Doctrines and Practices of those of the Roman Church, with Relation to Hereticks; and yet She was so true to her Loy­alty, that She shut her Eyes on all the Temptations that so just a fear could raise in her; and She set her self to support His Majesties Right of Successi­on, with so much Zeal, that She there­by not only put her self in the power of her Enemies; but She has also Exposed her Self to the Scorn of those who in­sult over her Misfortune. She lost the Affections even of many of her own Children; who thought that her Zeal for an Interest, which was then so much decry'd, was a little too fer­vent: and all those who judged se­verely of the proceedings, thought that the Opposition which She made to the side that then went so high, had more Heat than Decency in it. And indeed all this was so very Extraordi­nary, that if She was not acted by a principle of Conscience, She could make no Excuse for her Conduct. There appeared such peculiar Marks of Af­fection and Heartiness, at every time that the Duke was named, whether in Drinking his Health, or upon graver Occasions, that it seemed affected: and when the late King himself (whose Word they took that he was a Pro­testant) was spoke of but coldly, the very Name of the Duke set her Chil­dren all on fire: this made many con­clude, that they were ready to Sacri­fice all to him, for indeed their Beha­viour was inflamed with so much Heat, that the greater part of the Nation be lieved they waited for a fit oppor­tunity to declare themselves, Faith in Jesus Christ was not a more frequent Subject of the Sermons of many, than Loyalty; and the Right of the Suc­cession to the Crown, the Heat that appeared in the Pulpit, and the Learn­ing that was in their Books on these Subjects, and the Eloquent Strains that were in their Addresses, were all Ori­ginals, and made the World conclude, That whatever might be laid to their Charge, they should never be accused of any want of Loyalty, at least in this King's time, while the remem­brance of so signal a service was so fresh. When His Majesty came to the Crown, these men did so entirely [Page 32] depend on the Promise that he made, to maintain the Church of England, that the doubting of the performance ap­peared to them the worst sort of Infide­lity. They believed, that in His Ma­jesty, the Hero, and the King, would be too strong for the Papists, and when any one told them, How weak a tie the Faith of a Catholick to Hereticks must needs be, they could not hearken to this with any patience: but looked on his Majesties Promise as a thing so Sa­cred, that they imploy'd their interest to carry all Elections of Parliament-Men, for those that were recommended by the Court, with so much Vigour, that it laid them open to much Cen­sure. In Parliament they moved for no Laws to secure their Religion; but assuring themselves, that Honour was the Kings Idol, they laid hold on it, and fancied, that a publick reliance on his Word, would give them an Interest in his Majesty, that was Generous, and more suteable to the Nobleness of a Princely Nature than any new Laws could be: so that they acquieseed in it, and gave the King a vast Revenue for Life: In the Rebellion that followed. they shewed with what Zeal they ad­hered to his Majesty, even against a Pretender that declared for them. And in the Session of Parliament, which came after that, they shewed their disposition to assist the King with new Supplies, and were willing to Excuse and indem­nifie all that was past; only they desi­red with all possible Modesty, that the Laws which His Majesty had both pro­mised, and at his Coronation had Sworn to maintain might be Ex [...]cuted. Here is their Crime, which has raised all this Out-cry; They did not move for the Ex [...]cution of [...]evere and penal Laws but were willing to let those sleep, till it might appear by the Behaviour of the Papists, whether they might de­serve that there should be any Mitiga­tion made of them in their Favour. Since that time, our Church-men have have been constant in mixing their Zeal for their Religion against Popery, with a Zeal for Loyalty against Rebellions because they think these two are very well consistent one with another. It is true, they have generally expressed an unwillingness to part with the two Tests; because they have no mind to trust the keeping of their Throats to those who they believe will cut them, and they have seen nothing [...] the con­duct of the Papists, either [...]thin or without the Kingdom, to make them grow weary of the Laws for their sakes, and the same principle of common sense, which make it so hard for them to believe Transubstantiation, makes them conclude that the Author of this Paper, and his Friends, are no other, than what they hear, and see, and know them to be.

II. One instance in which the Church of England shewed her Submission to the Conrt, was, that as soon as the Nonconformists had drawn a new Storm upon themselves, by their medling in the matter of Exclusion, many of her Zealous Members went into that Pro­secution of them, which the Court set [Page 33] on foot. with more Heat, than was perhaps justifiable in it self, or reaso­nable in those Circumstances; but how censurable soever some angry men may be, it is somewhat strane to see those of the Church of Rome blame us for it, which has decreed some unrelenting Severities against all that differ from her, and has enacted that not only in Parliaments but even in General Coun­cils. It must needs sound odly to hear the Sons of a Church, that must de­stroy all others as soon as it can com­pass it, yet complain of the Excesses of Fines and [...]mprisonments, that have been of late among [...]s. But if this Reproach seems a little strange when it is in the Mouth of a Papist, it is much more provoking▪ when it comes from any of the Court. Were not all the Orders [...] late Severity sent from thence? Did not the Judges in every Circuit, and the Favourite Justices of Peace in every Sessions, imploy all their Eloquence on this Subject? The Dire­ctions that were given to the Justices and the Grand Iuries were all repeated Aggravations of this Matter: and a little Ordinary Lawyer, without any o­ther Visible Merit, but an Outragious Fu­ry in those Matters, on which he has chiefly valued himself, was of a sud­den taken in his Majesties special Fa­vour, and raised up to the Highest Posts of the Law. All these things, led s [...]me of our Obedient Clergy, to look on it as a piece of their Duty to the King, to encourage that Severity, of which the Court seemed so fond, that almost all people thought, they had set it up for a Maxime, from which they would never depart. I will not pretend to excuse all that has been done of late Years: but it is certain, that the most crying Seve [...]ities have been acted by persons that were raised up to be Judges and Magistrates for that very end: they were Instructed, Tr [...]sted and Rewarded for it, both in the last and under the p [...]esent Reign, Church-preferments were distinguished rather as Recompences of this devouring Zeal, than of a real Merit; and men of more mode ate Tempers were not on­ly ill lookt at, but ill used. So that it is in it self very unreasonable to throw the load of the late Rigour on the Church of England, without distincti­on: but it is worse than in good man­ners it is fit to call it, if this Reproach comes from the Court. And it is some­what unbecoming to see that; which was set on at one time, disowned at a­nother; while yet he that was the chief Instrument in it is still in so high a post; and begins now to treat the men of the Church of England, with the same Brutal Excesses, that he be­stowed so lately and so liberally on the Dissenters; as if his design were to render himself equally odious to all Mankind.

III. The Church of England may justly expostulate when she is treated as Seditinus; after she has rendred the highest Services to the Civil Authority, that any Church now on Earth has done, She has beaten down all the Principles of Rebellon, with more Force and Learn­ing than any Body of men has yet [Page 34] done; and has run the hazard of En­raging her Enemies, and losing her Friends, even for those, from whom the more learned of her Members knew well what they might expect. And since our Author likes the figure of a Snake in ones Bosom so well; I could tell him, that according to the Apo­ [...]ogue, we took up and sheltred an In­terest, that was almost Dead, and by that warmth gave it Life, which yet now with the Snake in the Bosom, is like to bite us to Death. We do not say, that we are the only Church that has the Principles of Loyalty, but this we may say, that we are the Church in the World that carries them the highest; as we know a Church that of all o­thers sinks them the lowest. We do not pretend that we are inerrable in this Point, but acknowledge that some of our Clergy miscarried in it upon King Edwards Death: Yet at the same time others of our Communion adhered more ftedily to their Loyalty in favour of Q. Mary, that She did to the Promises that she made to them. Upon this Subject our Aurhor by his false Quotation of Hi­story, forces me to set the Reader right, which if it proves to the Disadvantage of his Cause, his Friends may thank him for it. I will not enter into so te­dious a Digression, as the justifying Queen. Elizabeths being Legitimate, and the throwing the Bastardy on Queen Mary must carry me to; this I will only say, that it was made out, that according to the best sort of Arguments, used by the Church of Rome, I mean the con­stant Tradition of all Ages, King Henry the Eighth marrying with Queen Catherine, was Inces [...]uous, and by consequence Q. Mary was the Bastard, [...]d Queen Eli­zabeth was the Legitimate Issue. But our Author not satisfied with defaming Queen Elizabeth, tells us, that the Church of England was no sooner set up by her, than She Enacted those Bloo­dy Cannibal Laws, to Hang, Draw and Quarter the Priests of the Living God: But since these Laws disturb him so much, what does he think of the Laws of Burning the poor Servants of the Li­ving God, because they cannot give Di­vine Wership to that which they believe to be only a Piece of Bread? The Re­presentation he gives of this part of our History, is so false, that tho upon Q. Elizabeths coming to the Crown, there were many Complaints exhibited of the illegal Violences that Bonner and o­ther Butchers had committed, yet all these were stifled, and no Penal Laws were Enacted against those of that Re­ligion. The popish Clergy were in­deed turned out; but they were well used, and had Pensions assigned them; so ready was the Queen and our Church to forgive what was past, and to shew all Gentleness for the future. During the first thirteen Years of her Reign, matter went on calmly, without any sort of Severity on the account of Reli­gion. But then the restless spirit of that Party, began to throw the Nation into violent Convulsions. The Pope deposed the Queen, and one of the Party had the Impudence to post up the Bull in London; upon this followed se­veral Rebellions, both in England and [Page 35] Ireland, and the Papists of both King­doms entred into Confederacies with the King of Spain and the Court of Rome the Preists disposed all the people that depended on them, to submit to the Popes Authority in that Disposition, and to reject the Queens; These endeavours, besides open Rebelion, produced many Secret Practices against her Life. All these things gave the rise to the severe Laws, which began not to be enacted before the twentieth year of her raign. A War was formed by the Bull of De­position, between the Queen and the Court of Rome, so it was a necessary Piece of Precaution, to decleare all those to be Traitors who were the Missiona­ries of that Authority which had stript the Queen of hers: yet those Laws were not executed upon some Secular Priests who had the Honesty to condemn the Deposing Doctrine. As f [...]r the unhap­py Death of the Queen of Scotland, it was brought on by the wicked Practi­ces of her own Party, who fatally in­volved her in some of them; She was but a Subject here in England; and if the Queen took a more Violent way, than was decent for her own Security, here was no Disloyalty nor Rebellion in the Church of England, which owed her no sort of Allegeance.

IV. I do not pretend that the Church of England has any great cause to value her self upon her Fidelity to King Charles the First, tho [...] our Author would have it pass for the only thing of which She can boast: for I confess, the cause of the Church was so twi [...]ed with the King`s, that Interest and Duty went together: tho` I will not go so far as our Author, who says, that the Lavs of Nature dictates to every Individual to fight in his own Defence: This is too bold a thing to be delivered so crude­ly at this time. The Laws of Nature are perpetual, can never be cancelled by any special Law: So if these Gen­tlemen own so freely, that this is a Law of Nature, they had best take care not to provoke Nature too much, lest She fly to the Reliefe that this Law may give her, unless she is restrained by the Loyalty of our Church Our Author values his Party much upon their Loy­alty to King Charles the first: but I must take the Liberty to ask him of what Religion were the Irish Rebells; and what sort of Loyalty was it, that they shewed either in the first Mas­sacre, or in the progress of that Rebel­lion? Their Messages to the Pope, to the Court of France, and to the Duke of Larrain, offering themselves to any of these, that would have undertaken to protect them, are acts of Loyalty which the Church of England is no ways in clined to follow: and the Authentical Proofs of these things are ready to be produced. Nor need I add to this, the hard terms that they offered to the King, and their ill usage of those whom he Imployed. I could likewise repress the Insolence of this Writer, by telling him of the Slavish Submissions that­their Party made to Cromwel, both Fa­ther and son. As for their Adhering to King Charles the first, there is a pe­culiar Boldness in our Authors A [...]ert [...] ­on, [Page 36] who says, that they had no Hope nor Interest in that Cause: The State of that Court is not so quite forgot, but that we do well remember what Cre­dit the Queen had with the King, and what Hopes She gave the Party; yet they did not so entirely espouse the Kings Cause, but that they had likewise a flying Squadron in the Parliaments Army, how [...]oldly soever this may be denyed by our Author, for this I will give him a proof, that is beyond excep­tion, in a Declaration of that Kings, sent to the Kingdom of Scotland, baring date the 21 of April 1643. which is printed over and over again, and as an Author that writes the History of the late Wars, had assured us the clean draught of it, corrected in some places with the King's own Hand, is yet extant: so that it cannot be pretended, that this was only a bold Assertion of some of the Kings Ministers, that might be ill affected to their Party. In that De­claration the King studied to possess his Subjects of Scotland with the Justice of his Cause, and among other things, to clear himself of that Imputation that he had an Army of Papists about him, after many things said on that head, these words are added: ‘Great num­bers of that Religion have been with great Alac [...]ity entertained in that Re­bellious Army against us: and others have been seduced, to whom we had formerly denyed Imployments; as ap­pears by the Examination of many Prisoners, of whom we have taken twenty and thirty at a time of one Troop or Company of that Religion.’ I hope our Author will not have the Impudence to dispute the Credit that is due to this Testimony: but no Dis­coveries, how evident soever they may be, can affect some sort of men; that have a Secret against bl [...]shing.

V. Our Author exhorts us, to charge our Principles of Loyalty, and to take Example of our Catholick Neighbours, how to behave our selves towards a Prince, that is not of our Perswasion: But would he have us learn of our [...]ish Neighbours, to cut our Fellow Subjects Throats; and rebel against our King, because he is of another Religion? for that is the freshest Example that any of our Catholick Neighbours have set us: and therefore I do not look so far back, as to the Gunpowder-plot, or the League of France in the last Age. He reproa­bhes us for failing in our Fidelity to our King. But in this matter we appeal to God, Angels and Men; and in parti­cular to His Majesty: Let our Enemies shew any one Point of our Duty, in which we have failed: for as we can­not be charged for having preacht any Seditious Doctrine, so we are not wan­ting in the Preaching of the Duties of Loyalty, even when we see what they are like to cost us. The Point which he singles out is, That we have failed in that grateful Return, that we owed his Majesty for his Promise, of Main­taining our Church as it is Established by Law; since upon that we ought to have repealed the Sanguinary Laws, and the late impious Tests: the for­mer being enacted to maintain the U­surpation [Page 37] of Queen Elizabeth; and the other being contrived to exclude the present King. We have not failed to pay all the Gratitude and Duty that was possible, in return to His Majesties Pro­mise; which we have carried so far, that we are become the Object even of our Enemies Scorn by it. With all Humi­lity be it said, that if His Majesty had promised us a farther Degree of His Favour, than that of which the Law had assuered us, it might have been expected, that our return should have a degree of Obedience beyond that which was required by Law; so that the return of the Obedience injoyned by Law, answers a Promise of a protecti­on according to Law: yet we carried this matter farther; for as was set forth in the beginning of this paper, we went on in so high a pace of Compli­ance and Confidence, that we drew the censuers of the whole Nation on us: nor could any Jealousies or Fears give us the least Apprehensions, tell we were so hard pressed in matters of Religion, that we conld be no longer silent; The same Apostle that taught us to Honour the King, said likewise, that we must obey God rather than man. Our Au­thor knows the History of our Laws ill; for besides wha has been allready said, touching the Laws made by Queen E­lizabeth, the severest of our Penall Laws, and that which troubles him and his friends most, was past by K. Iames after the Gunpowder-plot; a provocation thut might have well Ju­stified even greater Severities. But tho our Author may hope to Im­pose on an Ignorant Reader, who may be apt to believe Implicity, what he says concerning the Laws of the last Age, yet it was too hold for him to assert, that the Tests, which are so lately made, were contrived to exclude the present King: when there was not a thought of Exclusion many Years after the first was made, and the Duke was accepted out of the second by a special Proviso. but these Gentlemen will do well never to mention the Exclusion; for every time that it is named, it will make people call to mind, the Service that the Church of England did in that matter, and that will carry with it a Reproach of Ingratitude that needs not be aggravated. He also con­founds the two Tests, as if that for publick Imployments, contained in it a Declaration of the Kings being an I­dolater, or as he makes it, a Pagan: which is not at all in it, but in the o­ther for the Members of Parliament, in which there is indeed a Declaration, that the Church of Rome is guilty of Idolatry; which is done in general terms, without applying it to His Ma­jesty, as our Author does: Upon this he would infer, that his Majesty is not safe till the Tests are taken away: but we have given such Evidences of our Loyalty, that we have plainly shewed this to be false, since we do openly de­clare, that our Duty to the King is not founded on his being of this or that Religion; so that his Majesty has a full Security from our Principles, tho the Tests contiune, since there is no reason that we, who did run the hazard of be­ing [Page 38] ruined by the Excluders, when the Tide was so strong against us, would fail his Majesty now, when our Interest and Duty are joyned together: but if the Tests are taken away, it is certain that we can have no Severity any lon­ger; for we shall be then laid open to the Violence of such restless and ill-na­tured men, as the Author of this Pap [...]r and his Brethren are.

VI. The same reason that made our Saviour refuse to throw himself down from the Roof of the Temple, when the Devil tempted him to it, in the vain Confidence, that Angels must be assistant to him to preserve him, holds good in our Case. Our Saviour said, Thou shalt not Tempt the Lord thy God. And we dare not trust our selves to the Faith and to the Mercies of a Society, that is but too well known to the World, to pretend, that we should pull down our Pales, to let in such Wolves among us. God and the Laws hath given us a legal Security, a [...]d His Majesty has promised to maintain us in it: and we think it argues no Distrust, either of God, or the Truth of our Religion, to say, that we can­not by any Act of our own, lay our selves open, and throw away that De­fenee. Nor would we willingly expose his Majesty to the unwearied Solicita­tions of a sort of men, who, if we may Judge of that which is to come, by that which is past, would give him no rest, if once the Restraints of Law were taken off, but would drive mat­ters to those Extremities, to which we see their Natures carry them head­long.

VII, The last Paragraph is a strain worchy of that School that bred our Author; he says, ‘His Majesty may withdraw his Royal Protection from the Church of England which was promised her, upon the account of her constant Fidelity,’ and he brings no other Proof to confirm so bold an Assertion but a false Axiome of that despised Philosophy, in which he was bred: Cessante causa tollitur Effectus This is indeed such an lndignity to His Majesty, that I presume to say it with all humble Reverence, these are the last persons whom he ought to pardon, that have the Boldnels to touch so sa­cred a point as the Faith of a Prince, which is the chief Security of Go­vernment, and the Foundation of all the Confidence that a Prince can pro­mise himself from his People, and which, once blasted, can never be re­covered: Equivocations may be both taught and practised with less danger by an Order that has little Credit to lose; but nothing can shike Thrones so much, as such treacherous Maxims I must also ask our Author, in what point of Fidelity has our Church failed so far, as to make her forfeit her Title to His Majesties Promises? for as he himself has stated this matter, it comes all to this. The King promised that he would maintain the Church of England as Established by Law. Upon which in Gratitude he says, that the Church of England [Page 39] was bound to throw up the Chief Se­curity that she had in her Establish­ment by Law; which is, that all who are intrusted either with the Legisla­tive or the executive Parts of our Go­vernment, must be of her Communi­on; and if the Church of England is not so Tame and so Submissive, as to part with This, then the King is free from his Promise, and may withdraw his Royal Protection; though I must crave leave to tell him, that the Laws gave the Church of England a Right to that Protection, whether His Majesty had promised it or not.

Of all the Maxims in the World, there is none more hurtful to the Government, in our present Circumstan­ces, than the saying, that the Kings Promises and the Peoples Fidelity ought to be Reciprocal; and that a Fai­lu [...]e in the one, cuts off the other: for by a very natural consequence the Subject may likewise say, that their Oaths of Allegeance being founded on the Assu­rance of His Majesties Protection, the One binds no longer than the O­thir is observed: and the Inferences that may be drawn from hence will be very terrible, if the Loyalty of the sos mueh decryed Church of England, does not put a stop to them.

THis Letter came to London with the return of the first Post after his late Ma­jesties Papers were sent into the Countrey; some that saw it, liked it well, and wished it to have it publick, and the rather, because the Writer did not so entirely confine himself to the Reasons that were in those Papers, but took the whole Controversy to task in a little compass, and yet with a great variety of Re­flections. And this way of examining the whole matter, without following those Papers word for word, or the finding more fault than the common concern of this Cause required, seemed more agreeing to the respect that is due to the Dead, and more particularly to the Memory of so great a Prince; but other Conside­rations made it not so easie nor so adviseable to procure a License for the Printing this letter, it has been kept in private hands till now: those who have boasted much of the Shortness of the late Kings Papers, and of the length of the Answers that have been made to them, will not find so great a disproportion between them and this Answer to them.

I Know the Disadvantages of plead­ing ones Innocence, especially when he is prosecuted at the suit of his Natural Prince, to whom he owes so profound a Duty: and this has kept me so long in a respectful silence, after I had seen my Name in so many Gazettes, aspersed with the blackest of all Crimes: but there is both a time to be silent, and a time to speak: and as hitherto I have kept my self within the bounds of the one, so I do now take the Liberty which the other al­lows me: but I was not hitherto silent where I ought to speak; for I have made many humble Addresses to His Majesty by the Earl of Midletoune his Secretary of State; hoping that my Innocence, joyned with my must hum­ble Duty, would have broke through all those Prejudices and false Informa­tions, with which my Enemies had possessed His Majesty against me.

Upon the first Notice that I had of His Majesties having writ to the Privy-Council in Scotland, ordering Process to be issued out against me for High-Treason, I writ my First Letter: in that I could enter into no particulars; for in the Advertisement that was sent me, it was said, that there was no special Matter laid to my Charge in the King's Letter. Some days after that, I received a Copy of my Citation, to which I presently writ an Answer, and sent that with my Second Letter to the same Noble Person; to both these Letters I received no Answer: but I was advertised, that some Exceptions were taken at some words in my First Letter, and this led me to write my Third Letter, for explaining and justi­fying those words. I have kept my self thus within all those Bounds that I thought my Duty set me; and am not a little troubled, that I am now forced to speak for my self. I have delayed doing it as long as I had any reason to hope, that my Justification of my self was like to produce the effect which I most humbly desired, and which I ex­pected: but now the Day of my Ap­pearance being come, in which it is probable Sentence will pass against me, since I have had no Intimations given me to the Contrary, I hope it will not shew either the least impatience, or the want of that Submission, which I have on all occasions payed to every thing that comes to me from that Au­thority, under which God had placed me that I publish these Papers for my own Vindication. If it had been only in defence of my Life and Reputation, that I had been led to appear in such a manner, I could have more easily re­st [...]ained my self: and have lest these to be Sacrifices to the Unjust Rage of those, who have so far prevailed on His Majesties readiness to believe them, as to drive this matter so far: but the [Page 50] Honour of that Holy Religion which I profess, and the Regard I bear to that Sacred Function to which I am dedi­cated, lay such Obligations on me, that I am determined by them, to declare my Innocence to the World, which I intend to do more copiously within a little while: but in the mean time, I hope the following Papers will serve to shew how clear I am of all the Matters that are laid to my Charge.

There is one Particular, which is come to my Knowledge since I writ my Answer, that will yet more evidently discover my Innocence: I have receiv'd certain informations from England, that both Sir Iohn Cochran and his Son, and Mr. Ba [...]ter, have declared upon many Occasions, and to many Persons, that they cannot imagin how they come to be Cited as Witnesses against me; that they can scarce believe it can be true; since they know nothing that can be any way to my Prejudice; and that they must clear me of all the Matters objected to me in this Citation, and the Two Witnesses, that as it seems are citkd for that Article that relates to Holland, have solemnly declared, that they know nothing relating to me, or to the Matters specified in this Citation, which one of them has signifyed to my Self in a Letter under his hand; so that the Falsehood of this Accusation is so Evident, that it serves to discover the Folly, as well as the impudence of those who have contrived it.

But it is yet too early to set on a Per­secution for Matters of Religion, there­fore Crimes against the State must be pretended, and fastned on those whom these Men intend to destroy. And as foul and black Scandals are invented to defame me, and put in the mouths of those who are ready to believe and re­port every thing that may disgrace me, without considering that they do a thing that is as unbecoming [...]hem, as it is Base and injust in it self, so all Arts are used to destroy me; but I trust to the Protection of that Great God, who sees the injustice that is done me, and who will in his own Time and Way vindicate my Inno­cence: and under Him I trust to the Protection of the HIGH AND MIGH­TY STATES OF HOLLAND AND WEST-FRIESLAND.