and nothing to be heard there but Heresie and Sedition to the dishonour of Christ and scandal of Religion The Ministers of Gods Holy Word cast out of their Livings by hundreds and their Children expos'd to the wide World to beg their Bread and not a Friend that dares open his mouth for them Women running with their Hair about their ears Men cover'd with Blood and Children sprawling under Horses feet and only the Walls of Houses left standing Your Women running with their Hair about their ears one half to the Works like Pioniers the other dancing Attendance at some Merciless Committee to put in Bail perhaps for some Malignant Friend or Husband Men cover'd with Blood lost Limbs and mangled Bodies from Edg-hill Branford c. and with horror of Conscience over and above Altars Robb'd Churches Demolish'd and only the Walls left standing In Fine What the Devil himself would do were he here upon Earth will in his absence infallibly be acted by his Agents the Papists Those who had so much Ingratitude and Baseness to attempt the Life of a Prince so Indulgent to them will hardly be less cruel to any of his Protestant Subjects In Fine What the Devil himself would do were he here upon Earth will in his absence infallibly be acted if they may have their will by his Agents the Perjurious and Hypocritical Regicides that Betray'd their Prince and their Country by the Solemnity of a Covenant and Poyson'd the unwary People in that very Sacrament Those who had so much Ingratitude and Baseness not only to attempt but take away the Life of a Prince so Indulgent to them as the late King was who deny'd them nothing but his Crown and his Blood which afterward they took These I say again that are so ungrateful to our present Soveraign as after so much Mercy and Bounty to the Murtherers of his Father and of his Friends have now enter'd into fresh attempts upon his Life his Crown and Dignity will hardly be less Cruel to any of his Majesties obedient Subjects Now to shew you that this way of Incentive to the Multitude is only the Old story new furbish'd and not our Appellants Mother-wit and Contrivance as he would have the world imagine See his Majesties Declaration of Aug. 12. 1642. Husbands Collections pag. 540. One day the Tower of London is in danger to be taken and Information given that Great Multitudes at least a Hundred had that day resorted to visit a Priest then a Prisoner there by Order of the Lords and that about the time of the Information about fifty or sixty were then there and a Warder dispatcht of purpose to give that notice Upon Inquiry but four persons were then found to be There and but eight all that day who had visited the Priest Another day a Taylor in a Ditch over-hears two passengers to Plot the Death of Mr. Pym and of many other Members of Both Houses Then Libellous Letters found in the Streets without Names probably contrived by themselves and by Their Power Published Printed and Enter'd in their Iournals and Intimations given of the Papists Training under ground and of notable Provision of Ammunition in Houses where upon Examination a Single Sword and a Bow and Arrows are found A Design of the Inhabitants of Covent-Garden to Murther the City of London News from France Italy Spain Denmark of Armies ready to come for England And again Pag. 536. they cause Discourses to be Published and Infusions to be made of Incredible Dangers to the City and Kingdom by that our coming to the House in the case of the five Members An Alarum was given to the City in the Dead time of the Night that we were coming with Hâ—…rse and Foâ—…t thither and thereupon the whâ—…le City put in Arms And howsoever the Envy seem'd to be cast upon the Designs of the Papists mention was only made of Actions of our own Upon a fair understanding of the whole this supposition of his is no more than the Counterpart of the old Story and the Declamatory dangers that he foresees in Vision were outdone by those sensible Cruelties and Oppressions that this poor Kingdom suffered in very deed If it be true that these and forty times more Cruelties were committed And that the People were frighted into these Precipices only by shadows If it be true again that those Glorious Pretenders when they had the King and his Papists as they call'd his most Orthodox Friends under foot that these People I say never lookt further after Religion but fell presently to the sharing of the Church and Crown Revenues among themselves It will concern every sober man to look well about him and to make use of his Reason as well as of his Faith for these Fore-boders seldom Croak but before a Storm We in the Country says he have done our parts in chusing for the generality Good Members to serve in Parliament But if as our two last Parliaments were they must be Dissolv'd or Prorogâ—…ed when over they come to redress the Grievances of the Subject we may be Pitied but not Blam'd If the Plot takes effect as in all probability it will our Parliaments are not then to be Condemn'd for that their not being suffer'd to sit occasion'd it Fol. 1. There are just as many Affronts put upon the Government in these two Periods as in the Printed Folio there are Lines in 't First Upon the House of Commons for a Representative constituted for the generality of such men as our Appealer calls Good Members would lâ—…y the Kingdom in Blood which is manifestly the deist of the Libel from the one end of it to the other Secondly The Appellant Usurps upon the Kings Authority as if his Majesty were bound to give an Account to every Libeller why he Prorogues or Dissolves his Parliaments which is a Priviledge inseparable from the Supreme Power in all forms of Government Thirdly It is a Tacit Charge of Tyranny upon the King for it is done he says when ever they come to redress the Grievances of the Subject And lastly He makes the King a Promoter of the Plot but whether with more Indignity or Folly it is hard to determine either in the Intimation oâ—… in the Supposal of his Majesty to be Felo de se and a Party to the Conspiracy against his own Liâ—… The Plot he says will in all Probability take 〈◊〉 and he is the occasion of it that would not suffer these Parliaments to sit The Plot is now 〈◊〉 so far out of our Enemies reach that no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Triâ—…k can ever hope to extinguish it Wherefore they must either suffer all to come oâ—…t or begin by force to justifie it which we see they are going to do by their endeavouring to get those Worthy and Brave Commanders Banished who as they think are the most likely Persons to conduct and lead us up against any Popish Army Fol. 1. The Appellants
same Principles and no less pregnant Evidence We do not speak here of the Popish Plot which the Papists would most sillily have turn'd upon the Presbyterians the shallowest Contrivance certainly that ever was hatch'd and the most palpable Imposture But we speak of a Plot that was Bred and born in the Fanatical party whereof we have as many Witnesses almost as Readers in Forty Libells of That Leaven and Extraction Beside several Open and Violent attempts upon the Government which do unanimously bear Testimony against them The Following parts of This Paragraph are wrought into such a Complication of Zeal and Scandal one Snap at the King and another at the Plot that every period is a Bait And whoever touches upon it is sure of a Hook in his Nostrills Under Colour of Asserting and making out the Truth of the Plot which no sober man doubts of he throws Dirt upon his Majesty and his Ministers for dodging and Imposing upon the People in favour of it One while too Much comes out another while too Little The Frequent Dissolutions and Prorogations of Parliaments he says expresly were to prevent the Tryal of the Lords And so the Squib runs sputtering on from the King to his Privy Councell Thence to his Courts of Justice and in One word the whole Story comes to no more then a Political abstract out of Harris's Domestick Intelligence But why these Pamphlets to the Multitude First There 's no fear of the peoples running into Popery For 't is their Horrour and Aversion Secondly There 's no need of Convincing Them of the Truth of the Plot But rather to keep them from Extravagances upon the Jealousies and apprehensions they conceive of it already Thirdly There 's no need neither of calling Them to our assistance toward the suppressing of it For the sifting and Examining of this Conspiracy with the bringing of the Confederates to Publique Justice is a great part of the business of the Government So that these Libells cannot be reasonably understood to have any Other then these Two ends First to Teaze and Chafe the Rabble into a Rage disposing and preparing them to entertain any occasion for uproar and Tumult Secondly when their Blood is up against This Detestable Plot with the Contrivers Promoters and abetters of it what does he but turn the Rancour of That Outragious Humour upon the King rivy Councell Courts of Justice and Briefly all his Friends by marking Them out for Parties in the Treason And so rendring his Majesty and his Government Odious by these Malicious Insinuations and endangering the Peace of the Publique to the Highest Degree The Fourth and Last Argument says he which may sometimes prevail with the Prince to disbelieve any report of a Conspiracy is taken from the Nature and Principles and from the Interest of the Pretended Conspiratours But neither of these Motives can pretend to Influence Our Prince into a Disbelief of This Popish Plot Fol. 7. The Appellants Observation and Inference is this that the Popish Plot is to be Believ'd because it squares with the Principles and Interest of the Party We are better informed in the History and Doctrine of Massacres and Regicides then to question the Malice of the Iesuiticall Positions or the credibility of the Plot here in Debate and so we shall yield him the Hellish Tenet which he insists upon of Murthering KINGS and a Hellish Tenet it is indeed and as Hellish undoubtedly in a Schismatique as in a Iesuit For his Quarrel otherwise is to the Faction not to the Maxim which is equally Dangerous and detestable in all Factions Now wheresoever we find the same Principles we have the Appellants leave honestly to suspect the same Designs Was not this the Doctrine of the Fanatiques from Forty to Sixty And did they not make good their Doctrine by their Practice Did they not declare the King Accountable to the People And did they not put him to Death upon that Foundation We have the very Iournals themselves of those Times to prove what we say beside the Damned Harmony of their best received Authors to that purpose We propound say the Remonstrants that the Person of the King may be speedily brought to Iustice for the Treason Bloud and Mischief he is Guilty of An Act says another agreeing with the Laws of God Consonant to the Laws of Men and the Practices of all Well-order'd States and Kingdoms Let Iustice and Reason blush says another and Traytors and Murtherers Parricides and Patricides put on white Garments and Rejoyce as Innocent ones if this man speaking of the Late King should escape the hands of Iustice and Punishment The Government of England says a Fourth is a Mixt Monarchy and Govern'd by the Maior Part of the three Estates assembled in Parliament Whensoever a King says a Fifth or other Superior Authority Creates an Inferior they invest it with a Legitimacy of Magistraticall Power to punish themselves also in case they prove Evill Doers It is Lawfull says a Sixth for any who have the Power to call to account a Tyrant or wicked King and after due Conviction to Depose and put him to Death if the Ordinary Magistrate have deny'd to do it Detrahere Indigno c. It is not for private persons to Depose a wicked Governnour but that the Universality of the People may Lawfully do it I think no body questions These Seditious Pasitions with many more and some worse perhaps were publiquely Printed and avow'd before his Majesties Return And the very same Principles with Pestilert Additions to them have been expos'd by the same Party in the face of the Sun since his Majesties Restauration And there is scarce a Pamphlet without something of this Mixrure that comes from any of the Private and Pragmaticall Intermeddlers in the present Controversy So that the Principles are the very same as to the Quality and Ingredients under several Colours And so much for their Principles Now to their Interests In his following way of Reasoning under the Countenance of proving it to be the Papists Interest to Murther the King he does all he can in the world by a side-wind to possesse them with the Necessity of doing it and consequently to force them upon it Only as good luck is the Arguments will not bear that stress I should not dare to speak his words after him if it were not First that the Libell is allready by several Impressions of it made as Publique as a News-Book And Secondly that his Propositions are erected upon a false Bottom Upon which two Considerations we shall presume to insert only two Periods of his upon this Subject Their Interest says he does unavoidably excite them to Murther his Sacred Majesty For First they know he cannot long subsist without a Considerable Sum of Money which he must Receive either from the Party or from the Parliament Now for them to supply him with so vast a Suâ—… is a Charge that you may well
meaning is that the Popish Plot is so notoriously Publique there 's no Concealing of it and so far we are agreed For we have had Legal Tryals Proofs Verdicts Sentences and Legal Executions in the Case But yet to my thinking we have had also as Competent Evidences of another Plot under that as a body would wish But whoever crosses the second Plot is presently Libell'd as a Friend to the former What do we hear what do we read what do we see but Seditious Discourses Scandalous Invectives and Mutinous Practices against the Government Is not the Kings Administration and his Authority publiquely Arraigned And is not his Sacred Life struck at in this way of Proceeding First They expresly tell the World that his Majesty Misgoverns Secondly They lay it down for a Maxim that the People may call him to Account in case he does Misgovern And this being admitted the next point is directly by an undeniable Consequence to Arraign him as a Traytor to the Sovereign People But the Faction it self expounds its own meaning What have they to say for that Inhuman and Execrable Murther acted upon the late Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews in Scotland and to their Declaration against the King himself which was follow'd with an Open Actual and Formâ—…d Rebellion This is a Plot that me-thinks a Man may see without his Spectacles and according to our Appellants conceipt they began by force to justifie it for fear all should come out To follow him in his Politiques he tells us further in the passage above recited that to facilitate the Papists work his Majesty Banishes the Persons most capable of Opposing it So that he makes his Majesty evidently a Party to the Plot or at best no more than a King upon a Chess-board to be turn'd and carry'd which way the Gamester pleases Beside the putting of the Illustrious Duke of Monmouth in the head of Popish Troops in contradiction to himself But for all this yet Gentlemen says he be not dismaid the Lord of Hosts will be of your sides for so long as you fight his Cause he will fight your Battels And if God be for you who dares be against you Fear nothing but as your Interests are United so let your Resolutions be the same and the first hour wherein you hear of the Kings Untimely End let no other noise be heard among you but that of Arm Arm to Revenge your Sovereigns Death both upon his Murtherers and their whole Party for that there is no such thing as an English Papist who is not in the Plot at least in his good Wishes Fol. 2. And why be not dismaid Where 's the danger I beseech you The Popish Plot is Master'd and there 's hardly a Roman Catholique dares shew his head Nay and for want of Popish matter to work upon the Church of England it self is made Papal and Antichristian And whoever looks narrowly into this business will find these Bugbears to be of the Appellants own making What is all this but Curse ye Meroz over again He claps the Rabble on the back and spits in their mouths and without more adoe turns them loose upon the Government The first hour says he c. Here 's no Supposition of the Kings Marther to qualifie the matter but the thing so Positively pronounc'd as if he himself wâ—…re of the Conspiracy So that without any Iâ—…s or And 's the Murther is given for Granted and upon this Instigation the least Rumour in the world that way puts the People upon a General Massacre which the bare report lately of the French appearing before the Isle of Purbâ—…ck had like to have done in several places Now if they should Arm upon such a mistake or but an hour too soon it were enough to put the whole Nation iâ—… Blood again And then his Orders to the City to be ready with their Arms at an hours warning are as Perempâ—…ory as if he had the Command of the Militia Beside that if a Fanatique should Murther the King the Papists are to be Puniâ—…d forâ—…t Because says â—…e every English Papist is in the Plot at least in his good wishes And it is no less probable on the other side that every Unrepenting Covenanter is in the Counterplot for upon that Covenant it was that they founded the Destruction and the Dissolution of the Government And it behoves us to beware of King-killers on the one hand as well as on the other Now see how he goes on Think not to â—…are better than the rest by medâ—…ling less for the Conquerors Promises are never kept especially coming from that sort of People whose Mâ—…xim it is never to keep their word with Heretiques Fol. 2. What a wonderful strain of Logick is this Draw your Swords says he and go to the Devil for Company for the Papists keep no Faith with Heretiques This was the Song of 41. and he that would see what Faith the Covenanters kept either with God King Church or People has no more to do than to compare their 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 with their actions Now Gentlemen says he leâ—…t any amongst you should be ignorant either of your Enemies or their Designs both against the King and Kingdom they are young Beggarly Offiâ—…ers Courtiers over-hoâ—… Church-men and Papists The Young Officer or Souldiers Interest makes him wish for a Standing Army the Courtier endeavours to advance Taxes Oppressive and Illegal Impositions The over-hot Church-men wish well to Popery in hope of a Cardinals Cap or at least the Command of some Abby Priory or other Ecclesiastical Prefâ—…rment whereof the Roman Church hath so great plenty These are the men who exclaim against our Parliaments Proceedings in relation to the Plot as tâ—…o Violent calling these times by no other name but that of Forty or Forty-one when to amuse his Sacred Majesty and his good People they again threaten us with another Forty-eight And all this is done under-hand to Vâ—…ndicate the Catholique Party by throwing a Suspicion on the Fanatiques These are the Episcopal Tantivies who make even the very Scriptures Pimp for the Court who out of Urim and Thummim can extort a Sermon to prove the not paying of Tyths and Taxes to be the Sin against the Holy Ghost And had rather sâ—…e the Kingdom â—…un down with Blood than part with the least Hem of a Consecrated Frock which they themselves made Holy Here 's a very fair and round distribution of the Cities Enemies into Younger Brothers Dependents upon the King Friends to the Church and into Profest Papists And the whole Kingdom it self is again split into Two Parties the one consisting of Mâ—…iniers and Sâ—…hismatiques the other of the Loyal Servants and Subjects of the Government which under the three first Heads he brands as the Cities Enemies These Men he Charges with lessening the Plot with resembling the present times to Forty-one and talking of another Forty-eight Now how is it possible but the Positions of Forty-one should put
the Kings Authority and person as those that stand indebted to the King for their Lives and Estates who yet act as confidently as if one Rebellion might be placed in Justification of another For they do now afresh and in publick avow the methods and practices of the late Times while the true sons and servants both of the English Church and State lie in the dust waiting for the righteous Judgment of the Lord in want and patience Now if according to the Appellants Rule those are the most dangerous to whom the King has been most kinde that Danger must be understood of the Fanatiques for otherwise the Appealer runs the Hazzard of a Premunire upon the Act for the safety of the Kings Person in scandalizing his Majesty for a Favourer of Popery It is not yet that the general Rule fails because of this Exception For the greater the Obligation the greater in reason ought to be the confidence though the Appellaâ—…t seems to be of another opinion Who betrays you in your Beds says he your Friend for your Enemy is not admitted to your House Who betrays you in your Estate your Friend for your Enemy is not made your Trustee So that nothing is more dangerous then a blinde friendship This is an admirable fetch of his to prove his Royal Highness dangerous to his Majesty because he is both a Friend and a Brother and still the Nearer the more dangerous as if the King were safer in the hands of his Enemies then of his Friends But he expounds himself that they are more dangerous in respect of greater Confidence and fairer Opportunities There is no sence against that danger but utterly to cast off and renounce all the Bonds and Dictates of Society and Good Nature We must contract no Friendships and trust no Relations for fear they should cut our Throats How much more wretched then the very Beasts has our Appealler at this rate made Mankinde by poysoning the very Fountain of Human Comforts Nor is it a Friend that betrays us but an Enemy under that appearance By which Rule an Episcopal a Fanatical a Popish Friend are all equally dangerous For a Man has no more security of a Friend under one denomination then under another But the Appellant in this place speaks of the danger of a blinde Friendship that is to say a kindness that is taken up without any consideration or Choice and runs on without fear or wit which in this application must either be very little respectfull or altogether Impertinent He produces instances of perfidious Favourits and Relations as if there were no other to be found in Nature By his Argument because One Woman poyson'd her Husband all men should destroy their Wives Because One Son supplanted his Father all Parents should drown their Children like Kitlins Because One Younger Brother offer'd violence to his Elder there should be no longer any Confidence or Faith maintain'd among Brethren If little petty Interests says he make one Brother wish the others Death how much more prevalent will the Interest of a Crown be Nay of two Crowns viz. One here and another hereafter in Heaven promis'd him by an Old fellow with a bald pate and a spade-beard As to the Argument this is only the Second Part to the same tune and a Particular Instance emprov'd into an Universal Exception There are Wicked Husbands Wives Children Let there be no more Marrying Men have been poyson'd in the Sacrament in their Cups and Dishes shall we therefore never receive the Communion nor Drink nor Eat There have been Tyrants in all forms of Governments shall we therefore have no Government at all And moreover as this way of Reasoning Lessensall the Bonds of Human Trust and Concord and runs us back again into Mr. Hobb's Original State of War so does it as little serve the Appellants purpose even if it were admitted First the Temptation of a Crown does not work upon any Man either as a Brother or as a stranger but equally upon Both and more or less as the man is more or less Consciencious or Ambitious So that the danger arises from the Humour of the Person not from the Relation Nay Secondly The Danger is Greater from a Popular Faction that has no Right at all to a Crown then from a Legal Pretendent to it upon a Claim of Descent For the One only waits his Time according to the course of Nature whereas the Other presses his end by the ways of Bloud and Violence having no other way to compass it He makes it yet a stronger argument where there is but One Life betwixt a Successor and Three Kingdoms But does not this Argument hold as strong on the other side There was only the Kings Life betwixt the Faction of 1641 and the Three Kingdoms which Life they took away and so possest themselves of his Dominions Their pretence was only a Reformation of Abuses with Horrid and Multiply'd Oaths that they designed Only the Glory of God the Honour of the King the Preservation of the Protestant Religion His Majesty they said was misled by Popish Counsells and their Business was no more then to rescue him out of the hands of Papists and bring him home to his Parliament And what was the Event of all A Gracious Prince was Murther'd and 500. Tyrants set up in his stead Our Religion and Our Laws were Trampled upon and the Free-born English-men subjected to a Bondage below that of Gally-slaves The whole Nation becoming a Scandall a Hissing and a Scorn to all our Neighbours round about us But what were these â—…eople all this while If we may credit the Appellant they were Priests and Iesuits Or at least Papists But the King tells us they were Brownists Anabaptists and Other Sectaries Preaching Coachmen Felt makers c. The Act for Indempnity gives us a List of the Regicides The Act of Uniformity stiles them Schâ—…smatiques and throughout the whole History of their Acts and Ordinances there appear none but Dissenting Protestants The Church of England being the Only Sufferer betwixt the Two Extreams And these People had the Interest of the Two Crowns in prospect too which the Appellant descants so Jollily upon Almost every Pulpit promising Salvation to the Fighters of the Lords Battels against the Lords Anointed with a Cursed be He at the End on 't that doth the work of the Lord Negligently Upon the Third Head he says that most Princes Believe or Disbelieve the Information which is given them of a Plot according to the Nature of the Evidence and Credit of the Informants There is no more in This then that most Princes Believe upon the Common Inducements that move all men of Reason whatsoever to Believe Viz. the Probability of the matter in Question and the Credit of the Witnesses Now as to the Popish Plot we shall give him these Two Points for Granted but without discharging a Plot likewise on the Other hand upon the