such Danger they upon the opening of every Parliament or Session of Parliament would have put the several Members of the House of Commons as well as the Lords upon a right Course of preventing the Mischiefs they seemed to fear and delivering us from the Grievances they pretended the Kingdom suffered under but as if they had not believed what they reported they took the contrary Course and instead of perswading the Parliament to moderate sober Councils and Proceedings studied to put them into Heats and Passions and upon Exclaiming against particular Persons to whom they owed prejudice as being His Majesties Servants and Ministers These upon common Fame before heard or Witnesses examined against them must be Removed from the Kings Presence and Councils for Ever on Addresses from the House of Commons no Body knew for what save I ancies and Immaginations But some of them being too Great and their Integrities and Abilities for His Majesties Service better known to him then them His Majesty not thinking fit to Remove them Thereupon some of these worthy Patriots of their Countrey for several Sessions of Parliament made it their business to doe nothing save to contrive Differences between the Two Houses of Parliament for which purpose they questioned the Lords Jurisdiction in matters of Appeals particularly in the Cases of Sherly and Fag and others which Controvercy they carried so high that Sir John Fag and several Lawyers were Committed by the House of Commons to the Tower for only appearing before the Lords at their Bar and owning their Judicature in Cases of Appeals from Courts of Equity this single Point caused several Prorogations and rendred several Sessions Fruitless though the same was never before called in question since His Majesties Restauration Now if those Gentlemen who so highly concerned themselves in these matters had been of such publick Spirits as to spend their time in laying open the Dangers they apprehended we were in and the Grievances we suffered under with Design to have prevented those Dangers and redressed those Grievances They would certainly then have applied to the several Members of Parliament prest for Moderation desired them to avoid all Heats and Passions and to look into the Plot search it to the bottom Try the Lords in the Tower and examine the Truth of the several Grievances complained of and find means to prevent the Danger of the former and secure us for the Future against the latter in doing whereof they must necessarily have found who had occasioned both and after securing the Subjects then to have fallen on the Persons Guilty would have been more proper for if then these Persons had been too great for the Parliament and procured Prorogations and Dissolutions yet had the Parliament discharged their Consciences done their Duty preserved their Countrey and deserv'd Thanks and Honour from those they Represented But to fall upon particular Persons first and to doe nothing for our Security because they could not have their Ends against those Persons they had prejudice too give me leave to say for them to be perswaded to this method of Proceedings in my apprehension did not argue that either they themselves or those persons that informed them of the Grievances and Dangers the Nation was said to lie under believed the truth of either and if so then was it a Barbarous Act to amuse alarm and frighten the People from their Duty to their Prince with groundless Noise and Clamor If really there were at those times such Grievances and Dangers as Represented how could the Parliament have answered it to God and their Countrey if through their private Heats and Animosities the Mischiefs threatned and which the Nation seared had fallen upon us if they had then believed our Danger so great as they discoursed it to be and had not known that more Noise and Clamor was made then there was just occasion for I am of opinion they would for their own Honour as well as the publick Good have first endeavoured to have secured our future Happiness rather than hazarded the same out of some private Peak they had to particular Persons Again If these Gentlemen by the Endeavors they used to have obtained an Act for Secluding his Royal Highness from the Imperial Crown of England had designed to secure the Protestant Religion against a Popish Successor had that I say been their single Intention certainly they would have made the Act general to bar for the future all Persons of the Popish Religion from Inheriting or wearing the Imperial Crown of England but to bring in a Bill against James Duke of York alone by name and that whether he be Papist or Protestant at the time of the Kings Death provided he should happen to survive him this kind of procedure seems rather to be the effect of the Malice and Revenge of some particular persons against the Dukes Person who have gone so far as that they judg they cannot be safe if ever he Reigns than a Design to secure the Protestant Religion against a Popish Successor For First If such Bill was past and his Royal Highness should die before the King that Act dies with him Secondly If the Duke survive the King he being near as Old it cannot be expected he should live long after him so it would do little good nor will it be any great Security to the Kingdom to have him bar'd and no Body else Besides the offering of such Bill was unmannerly and put a hardship upon the King to Exclude by a Law his only Brother from Inheriting the Crown of England though he should be a Protestant and at the same time out of Zeal to the promotion and preservation of the Protestant Religion leave room for the King of Spain or any other Popish Successor except the Duke of York to Succeed our present King and bring in the Spanish Inquisition with him What savors this of or looks it like but a malicious Design of particular persons against the Duke of York I am sure I can find nothing of a real Design in it to Secure the Protestant Religion and Interest Whereas if the Bill had been made general to have barred all Popish Successors it would have been more excusable and might perhaps have been judged the effect of the Parliaments Care of the Protestant Interest and it may be would not have appeared so difficult for the King to have past if he had found reason to believe it for his Subjects Good and with tendency to the Security and Happiness of his Kingdoms Because in such Case His Majesty had done his Royal Brother no wrong only by advice of Parliament had past a general Law for the publick Good and Security of his Kingdoms That could neither hurt the Duke or bar him the Succession without his own consent by Declaring himself a Papist Besides if this Bill had past into an Act what would it have signified has not many of the like nature been past against several former Princes who
Popish Successor then in prospect though the Reformation was in its Infancy and most Subjects were Papists so that after his Decease Queen Mary was admitted to the Crown from whom the Kingdom had little reason to expect any great Happiness rather then the Lady Jane Gray who was a Protestant and this done because they would not bring a desputable Title of the Crown upon themselves and Posterity In Queen Elizabeth's Reign which was after the severe Persecution of Queen Mary a Persecution sufficient to have begot an Eternal Hatred in the Nation of any future Popish Successor and to have Justified that Queen in passing a Law for preventing the same yet was there no positive Law made in her Reign to bar Mary Queen of Scots then alive who was a Papist and Her Majesties Lawful Successor all that then was done was by the Act of 13th of her Reign which made it Treason to say the Queen and Parliament could not dispose the Crown but they never actually disposed thereof And give me leave to say That such a President would most certainly be as dangerous to our King now as that wise Queen thought it might have been to her then for that Prince that shows his People a Method of disposing the Succession at the same time shakes the Title of his own Possession All the Instances of former Parliaments setling the Crown upon Henry the Fourth Edward the Fourth Henry the Seventh and their Issues comes not to our point at all not being done upon account of Religion but before the Reformation when all were of the Religion of the Church of Rome Those Acts therefore was made to quiet the Succession which Force had unsettled not to discompose a Rightful Succession undisturbed and to prevent that War and Blood-shed that was rational enough to believe would have followed and been the consequence of disturbing the Lawful Succession not to break in peices an acknowledged and peaceful Succession and Involve the Nation in Blood for many Generations to come they were so far from doing that that rather then the Kingdom should be Distracted with uncertain Titles an Act was past in Henry the Seventh's Reign to command Obedience from the Subject to the King De facto afterwards the Kingdom though secure was never satisfied till Henry the Seventh Married the Princess Elizabeth Daughter of King Edward the Fourth Again If matter of Opinion in Points of Religion shall be esteemed a reason of State sufficient to Exclude a Lawful Successor from his Crown then has a Prince harder measure than the meanest of his Subjects by any Law yet made and the Peace and Happiness of these Kingdoms hangs upon a very slender Thred for then if the People should design Rebellion they need only pretend a dislike of their Princes Religion to bar him from his Crown and Government I hope the Wisdom of our Parliaments will give no such advantage against Protestants to their Adversaries of Rome as that Rome shall ever have occasion to say with Truth We Protestants in England have by a Law made our Prince uncapable of Reigning because a Heretick from the Protestant Religion whilst we our selves are striving to make Rome look black and odious for that most Damnable Doctrine of theirs that Princes may be Excommunicated as hereticks afterwards deposed by the Pope so detestable a Doctrine that we make all persons that take the Oath of Allegiance Renounce and Forswear it let us therefore have a care we do not Imitate them in that Doctrine we so much Condemn Consider seriously whither such a Course will lead us and then Judg whether fit to be taken especially upon such a Contingency as this of the Dukes Surviving his Brother which perhaps may never happen but if it should he is of too great an Age now to begin such Change of Government and Religion as is suspected with any hopes of accomplishing the same in his own time if so and it be also true as it is that he is without hopes of a Successor of his own Religion to carry on such attempt by him begun the Prince of Orange and Princess and the Lady Ann being all Protestants why then should any man believe his Royal Highness so weak a Prince as to attempt such Change with so small a number of men as his Religion shall have left him which will appear so very small as not to be feared by English men when Rome shall assault their Religion and Properties and oblige them to Fight for the same That Prince be he who he will that shall at any time come into England with Popery will come in with Weakness and Inability to hurt his Subjects by any Force of his own nor will any Neigbouring Prince unless he and all his Subjects be Luniticks help to make him Absolute that being to Endanger themselves What Prince will be at Charges Exhaust his Treasure Weeken himself to Strengthen his Neighbour nor is that Prince much less then Mad that should in such a Case relye on or trust to such Neighbouring Prince for Assistance And for his own Subjects they will be more dangerous and uneasie to him then he can be to them for such Prince being without Reputation Trust and Mony at home will be without Assistance from abroad and his own Subjects will never assist him to break their own Laws well knowing no Prince ever attempted the same but the hazarded his Crown by making the Essay nor did ever any Prince Actually break through the Laws but he was Ruined and lost his Crown thereby Nor is it in the Power of the Duke of York if he Succeed his Brother to break our Laws in either of the respects feared but if ever they be broken it must be with the mutual Assent of both Prince and People assembled in Parliament for as our Law now stands no Magistrate can do any Legal or Judicial Act in any Inferior Court of Justice nor bear any publick Office Civil or Military nor accept of or be admitted into any Ecclesiastical Promotion or meet to Vote in either House of Parliament till they shall have first Renounced Popery by taking the Oaths and Test and making the Subscriptions by Law required If therefore a Popish Successor should hereafter happen to Reign over us he will find it very difficult to Repeal those Laws that Establish our Religion the Codsideration that the Subjects will always have being fresh in their Memories of the Fire and Faggot Queen Mary exercised in her Reign for the Rescueing the Popish Religion will oblige them to a stedfast Resolution never to depart from that of their own I mean the true Protestant Religion and until those Laws be Abrogated by Parliament it will be absolutely impossible for any Popish Successor to Establish Popery here If then what I have offered to Consideration be true and it shall appear impossible to Settle a Government in this Kingdom out of the Royal Family that shall continue as the late Rebellion hath
Plain Dealing IS A JEWEL AND HONESTY THE BEST POLICY Both set forth In an Answer to a Letter received by a Gentleman in London from his Friend in the Countrey Wherein is plainly demonstrated the Grounds and Reasons of our present Distractions And Methods proposed for preventing the same for the Future By a Lover of Truth and a hearty well-wisher to the Prosperity of the King and his Three Kingdoms LONDON Printed for the Author 1682. Plain Dealing IS A JEWEL AND HONESTY the best POLICY SInce the Arguments I have used for obtaining your excuse have been so far from prevailing that on the contrary you are pleased by your last positively to Command my sentiments of the Present Conjuncture of Affairs and Thoughts concerning those scandalous reports industruously spread throughout the Kingdom of His Majesties having had for many years past a design carrying on and which is still kept on foot for the Introducing Arbitrary Power setting up Popery Invading Liberty and Property and extirpating if possible the Protestant Religion Establisht by Law I shall with sincerity account to you my oJudgment and offer such Reasons as I hope will convince all sober and unbyassed Readers to be of opinion that these reports are as false as malitious having nothing of truth in them 〈◊〉 occasioned as followeth There are a sort of Malecontents amongst us most of them men of mean Fortunes turbulent and restless Spirits who design Troubles and Commotions in the Kingdome in hopes thereby to gain advantage to themselves by the miseries and sufferings of others These make it their whole business to create in the minds of the Kings Subjects Fear and Jealousies of His Majesties designing to Govern Arbitrarily Introduce Popery Extirpate the Protestant Religion and Invade Property by setting up Abbyes and Monasteries and restoring to them their Anciant Lands and Revenues now disperst into the hands of most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom In process of time by these and such like evil Practices the Ignorant and unthinking mens minds whose Capacities will neither give them leave to examine whether these Reports be true or false reasonable or unreasonable to be believed possible or impossible to be accomplished are become greatly disturbed and such jealousies are risen in them concerning the King as hath abated the fervency of their former affection to his Royal Person and their Zeal for his Service and Government occasioned such Divisions Animosities and Contentions between Subject and Subject put their Spirits upon such firmentations divided and subdivided them into so many several Parties Factions and Interests each Diamatrical opposite to the other that unless Almighty God in his Infinite mercy goodness and wisdom please to direct a speedy way for the Uniting them in Love together I fear the consequence may in a short time prove pernicious if not fatal both to King and People which it is dreadful to consider should be the Effect and Consequence of some mens Credulity on the one hand and others Impudent falsity on the other Pardon me Sir I beseech you if I happen to differ from you in Opinion when I possitively affirm that by all my own observations and the Scrutiny I have made by inquiring of and conversing with others I never yet found the least ground to believe His Majesty had ever really any design as is falsly suggested to set up Arbitrary Power or Introduce Popery nor is there any shadow or coulor for the Fears and Jealousies of this Nature with which mens minds are so â—trangly possest If His Majesty had ever designed so to Govern sure it would have been showâ— at his first â—â—turn into England to take Possession of his Royal Crown 〈◊〉 Government for having lived most part of the time of his horrid Sufferings under an Illegal and Unjust Banishment in those Countries where the Government was absolute or nearest to absolute their Laws being Enervated and deprest by their Princes it might have been reasonably expected he would then have brought over considering how barbarously his Royal Father had been murdered and himself and the whole Royal Family been dealt with in their Exile a Scheme of such Government with him the which if he had done no Prince in Christendome ever had such an opportunity to have accomplisht the same as our King then had Was he not upon his return to his Kingdoms absolute Lord and Master of all his Subjects Lives and Estates by the Law of the Land occasioned by their own forfeiture either by open Actings or silent acquiessing under the late Rebellion Services done for or Taxes paid to the late Userpors whereby they were all guilty of high Treason and stood in need of His Majesties Royal Pardon Might not His Majesty after his Restauration when all his Subjects either adored or feared him being brought in with the Hearts and most Zealous Affections of his People have had at that time any thing from his Parliament that he could have demanded If therefore he had then had a Design ever to Govern Arbitrarily there never was such an opportunity for accomplishing thereof as when he first came over when he could not have askt that Sum of Mony for his present supply or annual Revenue for the future Support of his Royal Prerogative and such his intended Government but it would have been granted by his Friends in hopes of Reward and durst not have been opposed by his Enemies tho never so unreasonoble for fear of being called to account for their Treasons no Act of Oblivion being then past of which the meanest Subject stood in need and could not have been long safe without So that if His Majesty had any Intention ever tho not at that time to set up for Arbitrary Government he lost it for want of asking for His Majesty well knew that the Interest he then had in his People was such that he need but to have demanded and it would certainly have been given to him Notwithstanding all which to show his Subjects that he valued Reigning in their Hearts and Affections much more than to be Master of their Lives and Fortunes forfeited to him as aforesaid he was graciously pleased himself to press his two first Parliaments to pass a general Act of Indemnity which they did with great regret and threw himself upon his Parliaments for such supplies as they then thought necessary for the present support of the Government without making any Bargain or entring into any Capitulation with them as he might have done for a constant and certain Revenue for the future Nor did His Majesty if he had any such design deny himself in his respect only but in many other that were in his power whereby he might have Inricht himself and brought Immence Sums of Mony into his Coffers to have been kept in readiness when ever he had been pleased to set up for such a Government wherewith to have defrayd the necessary Charges thereof as for Instance His Majesty might have taken all the
of Property committed in any Age as this or any thing done besides this since His Majesties Restauration tending in the least to Invade the same When this was put in Execution and the Creditors of the Bankers began to sue for their Mony and they flew into Chancery for Injunctions which were denyed by the Lord Keeper Bridgeman as being contrary to Law Who was it advised His Majesty to remove his Lordship from the Seal for his tumidity Who was it that afterwards Succeeding him in that Office granted the Injunctions before denyed and continued them till he knew the Seal was like to be taken from him and then to Ingratiate himself with the Populacie dissolved the same This Stopping of Payments in the Exchequer will appear the more hanious and an act that all who are Loyal love the King and concern themselves for his Honour Princely Dignity and Royal Government must obhor if they doe but reflect back and seriously consider for what end this was done and the sad consequences that have happened to England thereupon which take as followeth Those who had advised His Majesty to Issue out the Declaration aforementioned and stop the payments out of the Exchequer had also thought it convenient that the Triple League should be broken that His Majesty should joyn his Forces which they then had advised him to raise and were afterwards Incampt on Black-heath with those of France and that the Dutch Smerna Fleet then coming home richly laden should be seised before any War with Holland Declared perhaps the most pernicious and dishonourable Act that ever Prince was put upon by his Ministers dilenda est Carthago and from whence this poor Kingdom may justly date all its late Miseries and Distractions For hereby was the Peace of all Christendome Disturbed This hath occasioned the loss of some hundred thousands of Christian lives Exhausted the Treasure of England as well as all Europe besides weakned the Protestant Interest throughout the World and strangly advanced the Growth and Power of France helpt him in all his late Conquests and made him at this day who is the Common and Grand Enemy to the Protestant Religion a terrour to all Nations about him as well as a most cruel Persecutor of all his Protestant Subjects at home of whose miseries and intollerable sufferings we have every day fresh Instances before our Eyes Whilst these Gentlemen who gave His Majesty these Advises were in his Councils and Prerogative Royal proved subservient to their private Interests it could never be thought high enough tho now they are of opinion as appears by their Actions it can never be too low nor too much exposed and brought in contempt Who was it that declared the Prerogative of the King to be Law and not only the Law but the principal part of the Law and his Royal Edicts above Law Who was it that before the sitting of the Parliament advised the Issuing of Writs for the Electing New Members to serve in the House of Commons in the rooms of those Deceased during their recess and when the Parliament met and the Commons had Voted those Elections void and ordered new Writs to be Issued for the choice of others in the rooms of those so unduly Elected and Returned Who was it that for some days refused to Seal the same declaring it to be an Intrenchment upon Prerogative and when obliged thereto by His Majesties possitive Commands went home and turned his back upon the Sealers whilst the Seal was affixing to those Writs to the end as he said that his Eyes might never behold Prerogative trampled upon by a House of Commons I shall forbear to name any persons it being fresh in every mans memory that took any kind of notice of publick transactions who were then our Premier Ministers of State and took mighty care to maintain Prerogative and advance it to the height the better to improve the same to their own Advantage But no sooner upon the Adresses of the House of Commons had His Majesty resolved to Cancel the before Mentioned Declaration and Issue out Writs for new Elections then one of those Noble Peers finding he could not deswade the King as he Endeavoured from Complying with his Parliament therein aplyed to the Commons Rigled himself into their Cabals and by subtil Insinuations stopt the Impeachment designed against him in Parliament for such his Pernitious Councels Which done he presently fell to work and plaid his Exploits in the House of Lords where being one day Privately Charged with high Ingratitude in having deserted his Master his Lordship made answer It was the King that had left him by departing from his Declaration and not he the King and Immidiately with some other Lords closed with the Mobile set up for Populer Interest and Endeavour'd in all parts of the Kingdom to possess the People with Prejudice to His Majesties Royal Person and Government on pretence that his Majesty really designed to Introduce Arbitrary Power and Popery amongst them and that they for opposing the same were removed from his Councels and all places of Trust when as if any such Intreagues were then on foot they had been the first advisers and cheif promoters thereof By these and other such like false Suggestions they fomented differences between the King and his People Created in them Jealosies and Distrusts of each other prevented the Parliaments giving His Majesty the Suplies necessary for Enabling of him to have Joyned his Arms with those of the States General and their Allyes which he declared himself ready to have done for preventing the further Growth of the Power of France and yet all that while alarmed and frightned the Subjects with daily Printing and Spreading abroad Pamphlets wherein they Represented how dangerous a Condition they were in by reason of the Increase of that Kings Power with whom they seemingly prest His Majesty to make War tho' certainly they never Intended he should so doe for if they had they would have Endeavoured to have gotten him the Sinues thereof To witt Money wherewith to have defrayd the Charge thereof and not used all their Art and Skill as they did to hinder him from the same By way of degression give me leave here to offer two Questions to serious Considerations First wither those who advised His Majesty to break the Triple League Seiz the Dutch Smirna Fleet before a War with Holland was declared Suspend all his Penal Lawes stop payments out of his Exchequer and Joine his Arms with those of the French King against the States General of the United Provinces may not reasonably and without breach of Charity be suspected to have been at the time of such advice given Pentioners of France and whether if any thing done since His Majesties most happy Restauration ever had any tendency towards the Introducing of Arbitrary Power and Popery into this Kingdom It was not His Majesties proceedings upon those Councils 2ly His Mejesty upon the Adresses and advice of his Parliament
notwithstanding thereof after lived to sway the Scepter in this Kingdom I know but they will tell you they designed to have seconded this Bill with another for an Association whereby to have enabled the People to keep the Duke out by Force and perhaps they would have been as angry and uneasy to if that had not past which if it had then might they have presently Dethron'd His Majesty the present Possessor of the Crown and that with as much ease and Justice as they can hinder his Royal Brother from Succeeding him and thereby Intaile a War Domestick and Foreign upon the Kingdom Pray Consider whoever sets up against his Royal Highness's Title must have at least Fifty Thousand Horse and Foot constantly in Arms to Defend himself and keep the Crown on his Head for the Duke is an Excellent Soldier a Gentleman of Personal Valor and Resolution a Prince of great Conduct and Interest beloved both abroad and at home therefore cannot want Supplies from his Friends here or the Aid of Foreign Princes at least of those who are Allied to him to assist him in recovering his Right which perhaps may Intail upon us another War for Fifty Years and the Miseries attending the same such as that formerly between the Two Houses of York and Lancaster and if such an Army must be raised though no War happen must not the People of England pay them and what that will cost or what Arbitrary Power that Prince may set up that hath such an Army at his Devotion I leave to Judgment Consider if those that advise to this Course of Procedure be Friends to their Countrey and the Protestant Religion take care to preserve the Liberty and Property of the Subject or rather whether they are not such as put us upon Methods to destroy them all lay us open to Arbitrary Power as we were in the time of the late Horrid Rebellion and to all the Plunderings Freequarters Taxes of 60000 l. per Month as was raised by Oliver and his Council without a Parliament Sequestrations Decimations Imprisonments Banishments c. God knows how many Mischiefs more may ensue upon such Force being raised and maintained as a standing Army amongst us as is absolutely necessary to be kept on Foot if the Succession be altered I cannot believe any honest man who is really a Protestant Loyal to the King loves his Countrey and desires its Interest Happiness and Peace especially if he lived in the times of the late Intestine War and beheld the Miseries the Nation then groaned under can or will if he has any Estate or Trade ever desire a change of Government in England or a necessity of having a standing Army to support that Government which necessarily this Bill desired for altering the Succession must have therefore none but some few Male-contents or such as desire the Destruction of the Protestant Religion will pursue the same any further Having done with this point and shown how rediculous it is for men to distract their minds with the fear or apprehension of His Majesties Governing Arbitrarily I proceed to the Second thing proposed and hope to demonstrate by reason That we are in as little danger of Popery prevailing howbeit a Popish Successor hereafter should happen to Inherit the Imperial Crown of this Realm Before I enter upon this give me leave for my own Justification and to prevent being Censured by the Reader Solemnly to Declare in the presence of Almighty God and the whole World That I am a Protestant and have been bred up in that Religion from my Youth I am so far from being a Papist that to my remembrance I never was in any Parish Church Chappel or other Place where Mass was said or the Popish Religion Exercised during such Service being performed I have an equal Love and Esteem for all Protestants though of different perswasions so that they be Conscientious and Religious and submit to Government and I would have them allowed all Liberty so long as they use it not to the Disturbance of publick Peace or the Government of Church and State therefore hope a Charitable Interpretation will be made of what is here offered to Consideration since I argue not out of any approbation to the Popish Religion or desire of its being Establish'd here or to live to see a Popish King Reign over us nor out of any prejudice to any Protestant Dissenter but meerly to quiet the minds of those who distract themselves with Jealousies of Poperies over-running the Kindom if ever a Popish Successor should Reign over us knowing how dangerus it may be to the Protestant Religion for Protestants to be misled by such Idle Perswasions Suppose such a Popish Successor should happen the Question then will be Whether that Prince or his Subjects will suffer most I am of oppinion that a Prince of that Religion will find himself very uneasie and Reign with great difficulty over the English and Scotch Nations whatever he may do over Ireland there being in the Two former One Hundred Protestants for One Papist though in Ireland perhaps there is Ten Papists for one Protestant and yet even in that Kingdom will it not be in his Power to Establish the Romish Religion or Invade his Subjects Liberty and Property much less to hurt us in England in either of these particulars It hath been observed in History that Princes of the weakest Titles have always yeilded to the best Laws complying with their People and compounding with them for the Government If a Popish Prince ever happen to Reign in England though he be Right and Lawful Heir both by Birth and Succession yet will his Religion render him suspected by his People of having a design to change theirs and invade their Properties consisting much in Abby and Monastery Land so they will always keep him as uneasie as they can and never give him Revenue sufficient to maintain such Power and Force as shall endanger them And when the King to whom I beseech Almighty God to great a long Life and happy Reign shall happen to Die his whole Revenue excepting about 450000 l. per Annum Determines with him so that if his Royal Highness survive him and be King he will not with all his own present Revenue joined to that of the Crown have above 550000 l. per Annum How can any rational man then believe that with that Revenue he will be able to raise and maintain such Force as must necessarily be kept on foot for his own Security if he goes about to change the Government or alter the Religion of the Kingdom Establish'd by Law Our present King though he hath had a Revenue of Two Millions or a Million and half Yearly and now had above a Million per Annum never yet attempted such alteration and shall the Duke of York supposing he had a Will to do it which I am confident he neither hath ever had nor will have be able to Establish Arbitrary Government or Popery with