25 us, is not so great as many make it; nor their tenets so pernicious, but, if we saw them naked, we should, if not embrace them as truths, yet not condemn them as errors, much less as pernicious doctrines. Yet if, notwithstanding all this, we cannot perfectly agree in some points, let us, however, endeavour to live together in the bonds of love and charity, as becomes good Christians and loyal subjects, and join together to oppugn those known maxims, and pernicious errors, which destroy the essence of religion, loyalty, and good government. This is, my dearest children, the remonstrance I thought good to make you, and I doubt not but your wisdoms will so order it, that if not by this method, at least by some other efficacious means, all our differences may be soothed; and when heats about religion cease, we may hope for a future stable quiet in the nation. This is what I shall daily pray for, and that God would by his grace so guide this great assembly, that all their acts, votes, and councils, may tend to his honour and glory, the good of his church, and the prosperity and lasting peace of the kingdom. God save King James the Second. A Second Remonstrance, by way of Address, from the Church of England, to both Houses of Parliament. This Tract appears to have been published during Monmouth's invasion, and after his having as sumed the title of King at Taunton. My Lords and Gentlemen, I HOPE the tender concern of a mother for her children's safety, and the tye of nature for self-preservation, will sufficiently apologise for this my second remonstrance: and I hope, if either piety towards my children, or sollicitude for myself, or both, should make me seem importunate, or, as you may think, too apprehensive, nature will be my plea; which cannot hinder the one, and also commands the other. Yet I cannot think my apprehensions vain, nor my importunity unseasonable, when I consider what mischief the basilisk may do, if not crushed in the egg; what conflagrations have been occasioned from neglected sparks, and what countries and kingdoms have been embroiled and ruined, for not obviating small beginnings. I am concerned for you and all my children, and you ought also to be concerned with me, both for me and for yourselves; I am concerned for the king and the kingdom's good and quiet, and you ought equally to share with me in this concern; for when I see rebellion begin to appear bare-faced, and my fanatic enemies flock to an ungrateful aspiring wretch,' I cannot but think, that though his and their cry be, The security of the protestant religion, yet it is not the protestant religion as by law established; it is not me they mean thereby, but a religion composed of all dissenters; it is not episcopacy they would secure, but, on the contrary, I fear, pull down, under the name of popery; or rather, if we look upon their practices, though religion be in their mouths we may assure ourselves it is not in their intentions, seeing they destroy the very foun dation of it by rebellion. No, no, it is not religion, it is ambition and despair animate the unthinking tool, their leader. It was not religion, it was the hatred of mo narchy excited the republicans to invite him in and lend him their assistance: It is not religion, it is a delight to fish in troubled waters, and to enrich themselves by the spoils of others, causes the crowd to follow him. And if some be led by a zeal (no less criminal than blind) for religion, they are but like their leaders, tools in the hands of knaves, who, should they obtain their ends, (which God forbid) would throw them by as useless. When, therefore, I see ambition grasping at a crown as the last refuge of despera tion; when I see republican spirits lending their assistance to pull down monarchy; when I see the discontented hungry rabble flock together, in hopes once more to enrich themselves by the ruin both of church and state; and when I see blinded zealots cry up religion, with all the other damned crew of rebels, whilst they all join hands to pluck it down, I think I have great reason to fear my own, and my dearest children's ruin, and to offer up my poor endeavours towards our common security, from the rage of those plodding knaves and hood-winked fools. I know no thinking persons, who are either zealous for mine or the kingdom's good and quiet, will ever join with them; for they cannot but see the methods these pretended zealots take to secure religion are the only means to ruin it. We find ourselves safely sheltered under the promise of our most great and gracious sovereign, and we see and experience in this, as in all other things, his constancy to his promise; but it behoves us to reflect this promise was conditional, if we were true to monarchy: Those, therefore, who join with or abet rebellion against their lawful prince, have neither right nor title to his promise, as having broken the necessary conditions required by it. Religion is, and always has been, the common cry of rebels; but what religion must that be which takes its rise and its security from rebellion? I am sure it cannot be orthodox which does so manifestly thwart the gospel that teaches due submission. No, no, it is not religion, but interest, sways such monsters as this ungrateful rebel; and we may assure ourselves also, that those republicans who help to set up such a tool, and lead the rabble-rout by the plausible cry of religion, intend no other but a republican religion, as well as government; and then a farewell being given to monarchy, we must give a farewell also to episcopacy, and your mother, the church of England. Can we imagine a person, who has no religion but debauchery, will be a fit instrument to protect or establish truth and piety? Can we imagine he, who never sought any thing but his own private ends, will have any generous thoughts for the public? Can we imagine he who plotted the death of a tender and a royal father, and preferred the lives of those conspirators who seduced him before the safety of the king and kingdom, has any sense of piety, honesty, or religion in him? Can we think he, who declares against all you my children here assembled, as a packed company of papists, because you have shewn yourselves true and loyal subjects to your king, and zealous for the welfare and honour of the nation, can intend any thing but your and my destruction, with the kingdom's ruin? In a word, can we imagine he who is a monster of ingratitude, of impiety, of debauchery, and of all the ills imaginable, as appears by this, and all his late attempts, carries any thing but the seeds of these crimes, under the goodly husks of liberty, property, and religion? Or can we imagine those who abet such villanies, have either better or more religious designs, though they cloak them under that most specious appearance? It is not an age since we sufficiently experienced the effects of rebellion. That tree, though it may for some time spread and flourish, yet the fruits thereof are always bitter; it may promise much in the blossom, but the fruit (though fair in appearance) is poisonous in the effect. It behoves you, therefore, (my dearest children) to endeavour, by all means, to defend his sacred majesty against his enemies, upon whom the future quiet and glory of the nation does depend. It behoves you to defend him upon whom depends my peace and my support. It behoves you to defend him upon whose security your own lives and fortunes do depend, and to obviate all those evils which make haste to ripen, if they be not nipped in the bud. This it behoves you to do, if you love your king, if you love your country, if you love me, if you love yourselves; and, when so many mo tives excite you to resist those rebels, and to quell them to secure our quiet, methinks nothing that is conducing thereunto but may be seasonably represented to you. My own thoughts I told you in my last remonstrance, which I must here again repeat. The only way, and most secure is, without doubt, to procure a union with those who are undoubtedly the king and kingdom's friends, and whose interest, as well as principles, oblige them to be faithful to him. We ought to secure all the friends we can, and not to exclude those who are both able and willing to assist us by oaths and tests, which are so far from assuring us of their fidelity, that we cannot firmly rely upon their allegiance who take them. The Romanists have often offered to swear allegiance to their king in any form, so it thwart not what is due to God; and, as we may assure ourselves that they who break their allegiance due to God, under pretence of serving their king, are led by nothing but their interest, which would biass them to any thing; so those who are known to be faithful to their God, and prefer their religion and conscience before their interest, will, no doubt, make a conscience likewise to serve their king and country, when the same God and religion obliges them to do it. Our former Christian kings were, for many ages, secure even under the Roman religion, when their subjects were tyed by oaths, no less obliging, 'tis true, than these, but couched in other terms. Other kings and kingdoms think themselves no less secured than we, when such an allegiance is sworn unto them; and shall we alone endeavour to fetter the consciences of those who make a conscience to serve their king and country, though tyed by no other bonds than the true principles of religion and sound morality? We know it is not allegiance they boggle at, for that they are always ready to pay, with the hazard of their lives and fortunes; but it is their religion they would not abandon, their faith they would not quit, their God, to whom they would not be rebellious. Shall we, therefore, when we know they are persons will be faithful to a king who has promised us his protection, and under whose protection alone we can ever hope to subsist,-shall we, I say, refuse their assistance in these conjunctures? We know many of the Romanists have shewn their valour and their conduct in foreign countries, where they learned military discipline by practice, not by speculation only; and shall we, when we know them to be fit persons to be employed, so far injure ourselves and the nation, as to exclude them from assisting us for niceties in religion? We cannot doubt of their fidelity to their own king, who fought so faithfully for foreigners: We cannot doubt their courage, who shewed their valour in the greatest hazards; and we may hope their conduct will be no less advantageous, having learned it in so great a school. Those, no doubt, who are either for his majesty's security, for my safety, or the kingdom's good, will be desirous to see them employed. None, certainly, but. those who care not if they saw me again pulled down, and the kingdom turned into a commonwealth, can be against it: Both they and I, and all those who are for monarchy, are concerned in the preservation of his sacred majesty; and, where our concern is common, why should we not be at perfect union ? My Lords and Gentlemen, It depends wholly upon your generous action to see this great thing effected. We see his majesty is not willing to infringe the laws, nor alter any thing without your counsel, nor give occasion to the discontented to esteem him arbitrary; but you,, me- thinks, should prevent him in this, and, before you break up this assembly, freely desire him to employ any that are known to be his friends. If you be afraid of persons who are not tyed by oaths, either take those old ones which secured his predecessors, or frame new ones with all the tyes imaginable to fidelity, so they touch not upon religion: Then will you shew yourselves true subjects to your king, truly concerned for me, your tender mother, who run the same fate with him, true friends to monarchy, and may therefore expect his majesty's protection, under God's. his majesty's protection, under God's. I hope you will be unanimous in this step to our unity, peace, and security, which I shall perpetually pray for in giving you my blessing. God save King James the Second, "It is now to be observed, 1. That the king, in the November following, met his parliament the second time, and in the stile of a master, gave them to understand, not only that a standing army was necessary for the support of government, but also that he had already established one, which he expected them to provide for; that among the commanders some were not qualified, according to the late test, for their employment; and that, to deal plainly with them, the said officers having approved the loyalty of their principles by their practices, he would not expose them to disgrace, nor himself to the want of them. 2. That the Commons not proving so tractable as the king expected, but, on the contrary, addressing him, though in very respectful terms, against the said officers, and reducing the supply demanded from 1,200,000 to 700,000l. his majesty thought fit to prorogue them without accepting the said supply. And, Sdly, That in this interval, probably, as a previous step to another favourite measure of the court, (for Mr Penn, the famous Quaker, was a known privado of his majesty's) the following case was set forth." The favourite measure hinted at by the former editor was the repeal of the test and penal laws, in prosecuting which, James had in view the benefit of the popish religion only, although he affected the language of general toleration. As for Penn, the settler of Pennsylvania, through whose medium the following petition seems to have been procured, he was so much favoured by James, and attended Whitehall so regularly, that he incurred suspicions of being a papist, from which he was at pains to vindicate himself by two letters to Dr Tillotson. Burnet tells us he was even employed by the king on a mission to the Prince of Orange, in hopes his eloquence might place the repeal of the test in a favourable light to that court. To the King, and both Houses of Parliament, the suffering Condition of the peaceable People called Quakers, only for tender Conscience towards Almighty God, humbly present, SHEWING, That of late one thousand five hundred of the said people (both men and women) having been detained prisoners in England, and part of them in Wales, (some of which being since discharged by the judges, and others freed by death, through their long and tedious imprisonment) there are now remaining (according to late accounts) about one thousand, three hundred, eightp-and-three, above two hundred of them women; many under sentence of premunire, (both men and women,) and more than three hundred near it, not for denying the duty, or refusing the substance of allegiance itself, but only because they dare not swear. Many on writs of excommunication and fines for the king, and upon the act for banishment. Besides, above three hundred and twenty have died in prison and prisoners, since the year 1660; near one hundred whereof, by means of this long imprisonment, (as it is judged) since the account delivered to the late king and parliament, in 1680, thereby making widows and fatherless, and leaving them in distress and sorrow; the two last hard winters restraint, and the close confinement of great numbers in divers gaols, unavoidably tending towards their destruction, their healths being evidently impaired thereby. And here, in London, the gaol of Newgate hath been from time to time crowded, within these two years, (sometimes near twenty in one room) to the prejudice of their health; and several poor innocent tradesmen, of late, have been so suffocated by the closeness of the prison, that they have been taken out sick of a malignant fever, and died in a few days after. Besides these long continued and destructive hardships upon the persons of men and women, as aforesaid, great violences, outragious distresses, and woeful havock and spoil have been and still are frequently made upon our goods and estates, both in and about this city of London and other parts of this nation, by a company of idle, extravagant, and merciless informers, and their prosecutions upon the conventicle act, many being convicted and fined unsummoned and unheard in their own defence. As also on qui-tam writs at the suit of informers, (who prosecute for one-third part for themselves) and on other processes, for twenty pounds a-month, and two-thirds of estates seized for the king; all tending to the ruin of trade, husbandry, and farmers, and the impoverishing of many industrious families, without compassion shewn to widows, fatherless, or desolate. To some not a bed left to rest upon; to others, no cattle to till their ground, nor corn for bread or seed, nor tools to work withal; the said informers and sheriffs' bailiffs in some places being outragious and excessive in their distresses and seizures, breaking into houses, and making great waste and spoil. And all these and other severities done against us by them, under pretence of serving the king and the church, thereby to force us to a conformity, without inward conviction or satisfaction of our tender consciences, wherein our peace with God is concerned, which we are very tender of. The statutes on which we, the said people, suffer imprisonment, distress, and spoil, are as followeth : The 5th of Eliz. chap. 23, de excommunicato capiendo. The 23d of Eliz. ch. 1, for twenty pound per month. The 29th of Eliz. ch. 6, for continuation. The 35th of Eliz. ch. 1, for abjuring the realm, on pain of death. The 1st of Eliz. ch. 2, for twelve pence a-Sunday. The 3d of King James I. ch.4, for præmunire, imprisonment during life, and estates confiscated. The 13th and 14th of King Charles II., against Quakers, &c. transportation. The 17th of King Charles II., ch. 2, against con-conformists. Upon indictments at common law, pretended and framed against our peaceable, religious assemblies, for riots, routs, breach of the peace, &c., many, both men and wo men, thereupon fined, imprisoned, and detained for non-payment, some till death. Instance the city of Bristol, what a great number have been these divers years straitly confined and crowded in gaol, mostly above one hundred on such pretence, about seventy of them women, many aged; and in the city of Norwich, in the years 1682 and 83, about seventy kept in hold, forty-five whereof in holes and dungeons for many weeks together, and great hardships have been, and are in other places. So that such our peaceable meetings are sometimes fined on the conventicle act, as for a religious exercise, and other times at common law, as riotous, routous, &c., when nothing of that |