I. THe Preamble of a Proclamation, is oft writ in hast, and is the flourish of some wanton Pen: but one of such an Extraordi­nary nature 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 Termes already received and known; but for this Absolute Power, as it is a new Term, so those who have coined it, may make it signify 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 Lawes, 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 Allegeance, 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 sises beyond what the Grand Seigneur has ever yet claimed: For all Princes, even the most Violent pretenders to Absolute Power, till Lewis the Great's time, have thought it enough 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 probable 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 shut out.

III. These being the grounds upon which this Proclamation is founded, we ought not only to consider what consequences are [Page 2] 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 now inferred from them, it will be full as just to draw from the same pre­mises an Abolition of the Protestant Reli­gion, of the Rights of the Subjects, not 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, chiefly 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 very hardly found out: and these are the Moderate Presbyterians: Now, as some say, that there are very few of those People in Scotland that deserve this Character, so it is hard to tell what it amounts 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 cannot so readily guess. If a Standard had been given of Opinions or Practices, then one could have known how this might have been distinguished; 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 K. James 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 K. Iames, when he came to be of full Age: and they have received many Confirmations by K. Charles the First, and K 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, that are lapsed since K. Iames was of full Age, so many Confirmations, that if there is any thing certain in Humane Govern­ment, we might depend upon them; but 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 K. 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 well for another Act of this Absolute Power, that shall abolish all those; and if Maximes that unhinge all the Securities of Humane 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 carrys a Royal stamp upon it, when he sees such grounds made use of, as must shake all Settlements [Page 3] 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 Laws, 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 Edict 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. James's Memory has the character of glorious given to it, if the civility due to the fair sex makes one unwilling to look into the one, yet the other may be a little dwelt on. The pe­culiar Glory that belongs to K. James'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 Church 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 and 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 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 the same subject: and he left a Legacy of a Wish on such of his posterity as should go over to that Religion, which in good 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 Maj. assures his people of Scotland, upon his 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, but even to a Catholick 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 Dominions, 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 Promises 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 Protestant 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 faithfull subjects to him and his Royall Predecessors; but how Absolute soever the Kings 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 occasion of the Gunpowder Plot, or during the whole progress of the [Page 4] Rebellion of Ireland; if the King will either take the words of K. Iames of Glorious Memory, or K. Charles the first, that was indeed of pious and blessed Memory, rather than the word of 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 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 Kings 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 Lawes 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 / An­null 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 Iustice 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 Lawes of the Medes and Persians, 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 Lawes, 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 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 Lawfull Successors in the exercise of this their Absolute Power and Authority against all deadly, which I suppose is Scotch for Mortalls: now to Impose so hard a yoke as this Ab­solute Power on the Subjects, seems no small stretch; but it is a wonderfull 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 naturall Liberty, or of a legall 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 litle hard to make men swear to maintain the King in it: and if [Page 5] 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 affraid 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 Per­suasion: It were too great a want of re­spect to fancy, that a time may come in which even this may be remembred, 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 generall 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 Necessities, that are not Invincible, it seems they 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 firmness of mind: so that the Violences of torture, the Furies of Dragoons, 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 thro the other Seals: now since this is coun­ter-signed by the Secretary, in whose hands the Signet is, there was no other step to be made but thro the Privy Seal; so I must own, I have a great 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 the Chancellors and the Secretaryes 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 L. 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 single 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 chances to be un­toward, and not to obey without Reserve / then our Reverend Iudges will copy from Scotland, and will not only tell us of the Kings Imperial Power, but will discover to us this new Mystery of Absolute Power, to which we are all bound to obey without Re­serve.