his Throne if he pursued partial Notions and ungrateful Measures I would rather make a Vow of Voluntary Exile than accept the best Employment that a King of England has in his Power to give I have many times told Him so And farther I would always advise him to take into his Business Popular Men and to let them serve him by the Methods that made them Popular But at the same time I say I would advise him to forget as well as forgive all our Miscarriages I would have a perfect Act of Oblivion from Him and I would have the People pass on their part so entire an Act of Oblivion that they should not gall any one Man for what they did amiss in his Reign or under this Usurpation on condition they testifie their Repentance by their Amendment of Life Tho' Henry 4. of France so justly called the Great was in his absence arraigned and condemned to 〈…〉 Harquebusses and this by the Votes and Order of the Parliament of Tholouse yet notwithstanding he recovered his Kingdom by force of Arms that Great and Excellent King did not in the least revenge their Trayterous and Rebellious Usage by which Generous as well as Politick Carriage he added to the Conquest of his Country the Conquest of the Hearts of all his People reconciling at once all the Animosities and Factions which had been the Product of near Forty Years Civil Wars Let a new Face of things arise likewise out of our State-Chaos May the King govern with that Equal Hand that Merit may be rewarded and nothing but Vice in disgrace that those may be thought to serve him best that most serve the General Good and let it be a Crime as well as ill Manners to revive any of our old Distinctions let there be no distinction upon the account of Ecclesiastical or Civil Faith and let Obedience and Allegiance to the Civil Power be the only Test for Preferment You know my Friend I am no Papist tho' I am for a Civil Comprehension And as falsly as your Irish Dr. King has traduc'd His Majesty for what he did in Ireland I am told one thing for which his Wisdom and Goodness can never be enough commended and that is that he required no Oath from any one Man that serv'd him but trusted to their Honour and their Interest rather than the Obligation of Oaths being sure an honest Man would do his Duty without them and being also convinced by a late and sad Experience that they never bind a Knave And thus he truly made himself the King of all Perswasions The Discipline of the Lacedemoniuns was positive That every Man should keep his Rank or Die yet they never put an Oath to their Souldiers Shame and Honour had more Power over those brave Minds made them even scorn Death which is the greatest Tryal had a more infallible effect upon them than we can pretend all Oaths have upon us Notwithstanding this short Remark about Oaths I am neither Quaker nor Sectaria therefore a hint is enough from me upon that Subject But from the several Heads of Discourse I have handled methinks I find my self under a necessity of clearing at least briefly Three things and I will do it as briefly as I can The First is That those that are both Zealous and Jealous for Liberty and Property are more in number than those that are for the Strains and Stretches of Prerogative I find there is a vast and unlucky mistake in the Computations of some People and that by reason that they do not distinguish between the State and Religious Whigg I allow the Fanatick Whigg or those that refuse to come to our Communion are not perhaps the twentieth Man in England but there are very great numbers of Men who never went formerly nor do now go even by reason of their Principle to any other Church but the Church of England There are likewise many others who are not at all Biggotted to any particular Form of Church Worship who yet mostly if not altogether go to the Church of England and yet both the one and the other of these are as much or perhaps more nicely Whiggs in Civils than are the Fanaticks though not so generally called so So that there are Church of England and Latitudinarian or as the Scotch call them Erastian as well as Fanatick Whiggs Now let us consider what Interest all these Three sort of Whiggs have in our Affairs what influence they have over them and you will find by Matter of Fact that these many years last past they all joyning upon a Civil Bottom have all along been too hard for that which is the Church of England as it is contra distinguished to the Whigg They were fatally so in King Charles the First 's Time But to bring things within all our Memories and Observation the three last Parliaments in King Charles the Second's Reign is not an improper Season to calculate their Interest and Influence For then they chose before any illegal or unwarrantable Tricks had been plaid by either side with Charters and if the Nation was inflamed by a Popish Plot I am sure the Court lean'd wholly to the High Prerogative Church of England Then you see that the Bill of Exclusion tho' it was an excessive and exotick Rant rather than a natural Effect or Production of Whiggism was carried in the House of Commons and that tho' almost all the Members were Charch goers But I will shew you yet by a later Instance that State Whiggism runs thro this Nation All those that are for this Government act upon that Principle and lay aside the Passive Obedience and Prerogative Notions of the high Church of England men notwithstanding that they keep up the Episcopal Order the Pomp Ceremony and Discipline of the Church of England And whoever will turn one a King for Mâ—le-administration of his Ministers will never receive him without a Reformation in the Constitution They will be State-Whigs tho' they do not call themselves so It is for Liberty and Property that these Men struggle tho' they do not know how to name their own Actions The second thing that seems necessary for me to clear is That it is necessary to give a Liberty of Conscience and that these Assertors of Liberty and Property will be for Liberty of Conscience and be able upon the King 's giving good Securities for our Civil Rights to give in exchange of them an Impartial Toleration I will not dispute the inconsistency of Persecution with either the Christian or Moral Law nor will I take pains to prove that where a Nation is greatly divided into Sects it is the Interest of that Nation to give every body leave to worship God in their own manner but I will shew the likelihood that the State-Whigs should and will exchange Religiâ—us Liberty for Civil Security And now I must again carry you back to the beginning of the late Civil Wars and then you will find because the
Fortune by his illegal Sentence from the Heirs of the Vnjust Judge The Saxons punished false Judges by giving Satisfaction to the Party wrong'd by them and as the Case required by Forfeiture of the Residue to the King and by his disabling them for ever for Places of Judicature and by leaving their Lives to the King's Mercy Who can have the Face to oppose the Revival of something equivalent to that Law But I will not discuss too particularly the Particulars I shall mention The granting of that Bill for Judges that the Prince of Orange refused and Whitlock's for Tryals will be the Glory of King James's Reign whenever he is Restored As to the Armed Force of England I think there may be ways found out to make our Militia as serviceable as any Mercenary Bands to employ all our Officers that have had Military Experience to raise from time to time such Numbers of Officers and such Nurseries of Private Centinels as may make both the King and Kingdom safe add to the Glory and Majesty of our Monarch and yet not leave the least Umbrage for Jealousie in the Minds of the People But this is not a time of day for me to lay before the World such Plans I will not hold forth such Doctrines under any Government I think Unjust and that I think too have not the Honesty to embrace them if I would But if ever I see an English Parliament under a Rightful Prince I will not be wanting in offering my Mite in this and all other things that may contribute to the Good of my Country And sure no body can be so unreasonable as to be unwilling to hear from One that has given Testimony of his Loyalty to his King and Nation too any thing that such an One will propose to establish the Throne and quiet the Minds of his Fellow-Subjects Praetorian Bands in Rome Butchered as well as Guarded their Emperors It is but very lately that the Janisaries Deposed the Grand Seignior and King James's own Army Deserted from Him in these Kingdoms and I am confident I can shew that the Love of his Subjects is the best Standing Army for an English King as well as how he shall have it and be able to look all his Foreign Enemies in the face to boot But I say it is not time for the Publication of these things by my hand nor will I be too prolix upon any one thing therefore to come to Parliaments Is there any Man of Sense and Fortune that does not know them to be the Conservators of all that we hold dear Can there be an unjuster thing any thing more fatal than a partial Representation of the Minds and Interests of Men in that House Tho' this Reign has taught them to do very little else but give Money or Sanction to or Pardons for the Irregularities of Ministers yet the Design of their Institution is as well to provide Remedies for the Complaints of the Kingdom as Cash for the Prince's Coffers I will not debate what is necessary to make them Free but I am sure they should be so I will not say how often they must sit but I am sure they should frequently Both these Considerations are â—â—test for their own House and I am not willing to make narrow Spirits peevish But sure no Man of Interest or that hopes to keep any Reputation with the World will deny they should be free and frequent and that they should not be too much Officer'd that they may be Faithful I shall not enter into a Detail of what is the Work of Parliaments but there is One Thing I am sure is very properly Theirs and that is to make an exact Scrutiny into the Publick Administration and to bring Ministers who are above the reach of Common Courts of Judicature and can stem all other Prosecutions I say It is the Work of Parliaments to bring such Ministers to condign Punishment if they deserve it I know not any thing wherein Princes and some of their Subjects have been more unfortunately mistaken than in their Wishes that Ministers should be Impunible whereas Favourites that are not a Cement between Prince and People that don't consult in all their Actions the Laws of the Constitution and Inclinations of the Inhabitants become Rocks of Offence and bring Ruin sometimes upon Alâ— too often upon their Princes and God be praised for it more generally upon Themselves What is the Reason of that admirable Maxim That the King of England can do wrong Why do the People of England make him an Epicurean God so happy in the enjoyment of His own Majesty Why do we say That He neither can nor does disturb the Peace of our World but because His Eyes and His Ears His Omnisciency and His Omnipresency are comprehended in his Ministers but because if those Ministers are Troublers of our State they are to be punished even for Inadvertencies and much more for Sins of Malice Tho' this Revolution has blotted out all our Original Contract razed all our Statutes and Law-Books turned our Monarchy topsie-turvey and scandalously prevaricated from all our Civil Compacts by employing the Men that persuaded King James to and acted in what we imputed to him as false steps yet it was his Ministers should have been punished and not he himself dethroned and sure King James after he has found so many Ministers were false others flattering and foolish cannot be unwilling to leave it an everlasting Law to his and our Posterity that Ministers shall be accountable It is our Law tho' both weak and profligate Men have the one fancied and the other pretended the contrary and for that Reason and that Reason only it ought to be written more legibly in our Statute-Books Is it not the Interest of Kings that Ministers should not Male-administer away all the Affection of their good and loving Subjects Is it not the Interest of Kings that the Representative Body should plainly shew them by whom and how they are betray'd Yet after all those that will read that excellent Chapter in Machiavel which shews how necessary it is for the Conservation of the State that any Citizen be securely accused p. 277. of his Works ought to read the two next pages which shew that unjust Calumnies are no less pernicious to a Commonwealth than legal Accusations are profitable and good and there you will find a great difference betwixt Accusation and Calumny Ministers ought to be punished I am satisfied the King is willing they should be so for the future Sunderland's Ministry suggests that Advice to Him very effectually and strongly but Beautefeaux also are to be suppressed in all well ordered States One thing seems naturally here to fall in my way which I beg leave to handle in the most inoffensive manner that I can I foresee this will less please some Men for whom no Man living can have a greater Honour than I have yet I think it of so much Necessity and Importance that I cannot
forbear mentioning it There was not an ill thing done in King James's Reign that I did not call so then and all that know me know that I have taken it as my Province to represent Truths be they never so bold or bitter whilst they are for Instruction I I am no Advocate for any Man's Faults nor for any Faults tho' I would be charitable and good-natured forgiving and forgetting towards all Mens Persons Methinks the State of things require this measure I scarce believe there ever was a Period of Time wherein an Universal Amnesty was so requisite a forgetfulness as well as forgiveness of all past Crimes Methinks all sides stand in need of this Temper If the Ministers of King James exceeded in their Management of our Affairs as doubtless they did we have doubtless exceeded too in our Revenge upon the King's Person and besides those that have fallen in with the Usurpation have not proceeded against any one Man that has been in their hands for any thing that was done amiss in the two late Reigns and therefore methinks it is very hard if we cannot forgive those that have undergone Banishment which in all Countries has been reckoned some sort of Punishment or such as have hazarded Prisons or the Gallows every day Why should we not forgive all those that serve him amongst us or that are with the King tho' they may have had Faults when we desire or I am sure ought to desire that the whole Land should be forgiven All Parties and almost all Men have some way or other been to blame and therefore there seems to me to be a little too much Passion and Self-interest in keeping up old Grudges I avoid saying there is any infatuation in keeping them up tho' I cannot think that it is the likeliest way to prepare the King to close with Wise Councils to revive or continue our Piques For the King can scarce be supposed to be without some Kindness for those who have either followed His Fortunes or venturâ—d their Necks for Him and cons quently it is not perhâ—ps advisable to make those that transact in his Affairs tho' they have been peccant believe they can have no Quarter no Share in him unless he return with a High Hand They will have some Opportunities to put ill Constructions upon good Advices I have read of but few of those Heroic Spirits in any Age who have so divested themselves of all Regard for their own Persons and Posterity as to be willing to become a Sacrifice to their Country I think this Age affords fewest Instances of those Great Minds and therefore I think it the likeliest way to mâ—ke Men instrumental towards the Good of their Country to shew them that they shall find their own Account in being so I hope I have expressed my self in as modest and inoffensive words as any in which I could conceive my Thoughts and I hope I shall not be so mis-understood as if I would justifie any thing that was by any body done amiss for I will not justifie a false step even in the King but I would have us lay aside all the Byasses of Factions and Friendships and much more all Enmities that we may unanimously offer to the King Right Notions and thereby Restore Him to His Hereditary Kingdoms After all I would not have less than such a Repentance as gives evidence of Amendment entitle to Absolution but I would leave Room and Rewards for such Repentance I fear this Moderation and forgiving of Enemies will be thought a hard Lesson but I bless God I have practised it and I think it not only the noblest Precept in Christian Morality but an admirable Rule in Civil Prudence especially in our Case for it is as difficult for a Party that is subdivided within it self to pull down an Usurpation as it can be for a divided Kingdom to stand But I am sensible I have made too long a Digression and therefore must omit many other particulars upon which I would explain my self and the Sense of many other Jacobites and I can assure you I am sorry that any Jacobites say any thing that offends well-meaning Men but I wish for their own sakes my Country-men would not take a Standard either of the King's Inclinations or the rest of his Friends from their indiscreet Tattle There are in His Interest those that know that to talk too loftily and dogmatically to dispute as they do in the Schools concerning Prerogative and the Nature of Monarchy to stand nicely upon Punctilio's to consult Aristotle's and Xenophon's Kings is as unlikely a way to come to a mutual Accommodation as to peruse and and or am of Plato's Commonwealth Sir Thomas More 's Utop a Harrington's Oceana c. There are Men of his sid that think as the great Lawgiver Solon did that a Government must be framed according to the Nature of the Governed and that he is the best Subject as well as Politician that adapts all his Notions to our Tempers that considers Men as well as peruses Books when he is to draw a Scheme and I believe as you say that the high flights of some Jacobites hinder many honest Men from coming into his Interest and farther that they sometimes mislead the King Nevertheless there are in his Interest Men that I assure you are not frighted at Words nor startled at Nicknames that know the King of England makes the greatest Figure in Europe when he is best with his People and that is when he governs by the Measures of Commonweal These Men know a good Commonwealths-man was not a Character of Reproach in our Legislation and Politicks till all our Glory dwindled and the Absoluteness of Ministers was more consulted than the true Interest of King or Kingdom till a pack of Knaves forged a separate Interest between the King of England and his People and till they began to call a Mix'd Monarchy an errant Bull and would Reform our State by Metaphysical and Court Distinctions whereas if our Histories and Statute-Books were consulted they are every where full of Explanations Are these Gentlemen you complain of weary of Magna Charta which was but a Revival and Recitation of the Saxon Liberties and ancient British Laws I will prove them farther That Laws and Lawful Prerogatives may be so abused that it may be fit to take away the One and to desire that the Other may never be again so used and that our former Kings have thought so But I will go no farther back than the Conjunction of the Two Roses and they may find that in Henry the Seventh's Time Empson and Dudley harassed the People by obsolete unrepealed Laws nay it has never been thought mean by our greatest Kings to make Condescentions to their People And as haughty as King Henry VIII was my Lord Herbert in his History of his Reign tells you That in his first Parliament he Repealed Explained or Limited those Statutes by which his Father had taken Advantage
Snare to the People but given Kings too often an Handle to fall into such Measures as have proved destructive to themselves Powers in a Crown that are wholly unfit to be exercised are only Temptations to Oppression and Misunderstanding Knight Service was once a very Politick Tenure It was once fit before the several People of this Kingdom were mixed and civilised that whoever was born upon a Lord's Land should be brought up under his Care and that no Woman that held Land of any Lord should carry her Estate to any Man that was an Enemy to that Lord yet in King James the First 's days the same Sir Francis Bacon tho' then Sollicitor-General to him in a Conference with the Lords by Commission from the Commons made a Speech to persuade the Lords to joyn with the Commons in a Petition to the King to obtain Liberty to treat of a Composition with his Majesty for Wards and Tenures This was in the seventh year of K. James's Reign in Halcyon-days The Speech is in the 34th page of my Lord Bacon's Resuscitatio and worth any Man's reading He therein proposeth in Recompence of the Revenue of Tenures a more ample a more certain and a more Loving Dowry Loving Dowry expresseth admirably well that Kings should be willing to change any part of their Revenue for what may suit better with the Peoples inclinations But I won't make Remarks upon this Speech The next Paragraph speaks of the Nature of those things and how it is changed with the times Vocaâ—â—â—â— manent Res fugiunt are his words And the next Paragraph to that says a great deal in these two Axioms Naturae vis maxima suus cuique discretus sanguis for restoring Children to the care of their most affectionate Relatives I come to the Reign of K. Charles I and must say that the strained use of some Powers and Prerogatives for which the flattering Lawyers had some dark semblance of Authority in our Law-Books gave the fatal Rise to the late Civil Wars which ended in the horrid Murther of that King and when K. Charles II. was Restored tho' the first Parliament he called will be allowed by every body to be sufficiently devoted to him yet he therein when they were under the greatest Transports and Raptures of Loyalty passed many Acts that plainly own the great Inexpediency if not Illegality of several things done in his Father's Days and secured us against the like Abuses hereafter and had he lived he must have owned that he himself had carried the Quo Warrantoes too far or he would have sate uneasie and those very Men that were instrumental in Quo-Warrantoing Corporations did every where declare that Regulations which however illegal I take them to be in themselves how much soever I think them a Fanatick Rowland for the Church of England Oliver yet I think they were agreeable to the Powers the Crown reserved to its self in the New Charters I say That those very Men that were instrumental to the Quo Warrantoing Corporations did every where declare that the Regulations in the succeeding 〈…〉 Power insecure and resolved all our Government into an Absolute and Despotick Rule Questionless there should be some way to punish the Abuses in Corporations but the Penal Laws that are against Corporations have perhaps annexed to them too great a Penalty perhaps it would be better to punish the Persons that offend than to fall upon the poor innocent Charter I would have the Body Corporate be able to do no wrong tho' the Members may But it is not my business in this place to propound the Remedies but to shew that it is lawful to make and that there used to be made and that there ought to be Reformations now as well as there have been formerly And I hope I have made it plain both from our Histories and Statute-Books That Civil Infallibility was not formerly an Article in our Politicks nor has it the Universality on its side nor will any Party abide by it unless for Personal Ends or when it serves their own Party The Papists did not believe it in their days the Church of England did not believe it when His Majesty was amongst us and the Fanaticks never pretended to believe it Thus you see my thoughts and as different as they may be from the Williamites that have deluded or from the Jacobites that have afrighted you I defie any of the One to be readier to hazard themselves for their Country or the Other to venture farther for the Service of King James All that I desire is That the King may have for his Motto what the sincere Historian says of the two best Emperors of Rome Tacitus his words are DIVUS NERVA ET DIVUS TRAâ—â—◠〈…〉 MISCUERUNT IMPERIUM ET LIBERTATEM And may the remainder of King James the Second's days give yet leave after He has lived long here to write upon his Tomb Divus JACOBUS Secundus c. Res olim insociabiles miscuit Imperium Libertatem I would have the King consult his own Honour but I think he does it best when he considers well and throughly of the Liberties of the People I allow that Maxim to be true Principum actiones proecipue sunt ad famam componendoe But no English King will preserve his Memory grateful in the Records of Time or his Name dreadful in Foreign Courts who is not beloved by his People and none will be so that does not carefully Fence and inviolably preserve our Rights We have been a People always jealous of our Rights Tenacissimi libertatis The Word Conquest is often met with in our common Histories and misleads our common Readers but though our Nation has been often stormed our Essential Laws and Customs were never carried The Romans governed us in great part by our own Laws and the wisest of their Lieutenants found we were more easily governed by Gentleness and Justice than by Force The Danes made no alteration in our Constitution and the Saxon and Norman Invasions ended in Treaty and the Saxon Government was homogeneous to our Temperament and when William called the Conqueror would have introduced the Customs of Norway the People neither would nor did receive them If a Man reads Histories to understand Government he 〈…〉 Tale of them and whoever looks into our Antiquities will find the footsteps of our Liberties are as ancient as of our Being But to return to what I was saying some time since I would not injure my Country for K. James nor would I injure K. James for my Country I think your Party wicked and I fear too many Jacobites are weak They are weak by fantastick Notions and violent Aversions and Personal Party and Church-Quarrels But I would rather lament than expostulate too freely and I desire no body to serve King James but on the Principles of making him the Father of his Country I once again assure you I neither do nor will upon any other and were he reinstated in
Church of England would not give Liberty of Conscience the State-Whigs set up Presbytery The next Consultation I must make you acquainted with are the Debates of the above-mentioned three last Parliaments of King Charles the Second and you may easily recollect they were for Liberty of Conscience to all Protestant Dissenters nay they made some Votes that were thought extravagant in their favour some suspending dispensing Votes for they resolved it as the Opinion of that House that it was contrary to the Interest of the Nation to put the Laws which were then in being in execution against them But you will say they did not Vote as much for the Papists You must consider the Season Besides that the Papists have been esteemed errant Courtiers ever since the Reformation The Pacliament then thought they had a Popish Plot on foot they thought that Plot was not a Plot for Liberty to worship in the Popish Way but to introduce Popery by the Destruction of all our Civil and Religious Liberties You know at the beginning of my Letter I charged my Country with National Intoxications We can at some times believe Invisible Pilgrims Black Bills St. Jones's Gridirons and that three thousand Irish can Massacre all England And when that Popish Plot was prosecuted so violently the generality of Men looked upon the Papists as Banditti and Misanthropi in relation to the Protestants they looked upon them as the Partizans or Janizaries of the Court Propagators of Civil as well as Religious Superstition and Idolatry And if these Men had a mind to ruin the Papists at that day it was not because of their Prayers and Beads but because they thought them Enemies to our Constitution not only from their dependance upon the Roman See but for a mischief that was nigher at hand their excessive flattery of the Court and Crown whereas the Dissenters being avowedly tender of Liberty and Property were not only favoured by all those Parliaments but influenced great numbers of those who were not of their own Communion at the respective Elections of each of those Parliaments So that the Principle of Liberty of Conscience was perfectly prevalent though they held a strict hand over the Papists out of the Principle of Self-preservation and consequently a trulychosen Parliament will make the Papists English-men where they find them so In farther proof of this last Assertion I must beg you to remember how King James's Declaration of Indulgence was at first entertained I know the Universal Joy with which it was first received lasted but a little while but I know that tho' the Whigs misliked that it should be put out upon a Dispensing Power yet believing it a Preface to Comprehensive Measures and Latitudinarian Politicks they forgave that blemish in its Birth and every where so unanimously embraced it that those narrow Spirits of the Church of England who had a mind were ashamed if not afraid to oppose it Liberty of Conscience would have made K. James the Second Memorable and Glorious in our Histories had not Sunderland's Artifices such Speeches as Mr. Alsop's and such Pampalets as Can there come any Good out of Galilee spoil'd the Noblest Project any English Monarch ever set on foot which was A separation of Religious from Civil Interests I confess we can make Popery a Ball-begger when we please and that ought to teach the Papists Moderation bue the Liberty and Property-men can also call off the Mob when they please For you see at this time the Nation finds no fault with the Emperor's and the Duke of Bavaria's Idolatry and Persecution no nor with the Spanish Inquisition whilst they fancy tho' wildly and falsly they are by their help supporting their own Civil Rights They fall not upon the Papists here that they may not displease the Confederates abroad so that Popery is not so dreadful as Property and Privileges are dear and charming And now since I have been proving that Interest governs the World however Men may mistake what is their own Interest I think my self obliged in the third place to shew that it is the Interest of the King and every sort of Men that he should be Restored upon Civil Securities and that it is not the Interest of the King or any sort of Men to endeavour that the Restauration should be put upon any other Foot Whilst I shew that it is the King's Interest I shall answer the Objection of those who say the Whigs won't think their Properties and Privileges sufficiently secured unless the King part with some of his Prerogative I am sure whilst he is dispossessed he has no Prerogative or at least no exercise of and benefit by it and the Chance of War is too doubtful to know whether he shall have any unless the People please He is outed of his Estate and can in all probability only have it upon Composition which if he will not make with us the Nation will try to the last to keep the Possession and it has those eleven points of the Law Nor are all things Prerogatives that flattering Lawyers have called so in Westminster Hall and some well-meaning and other self-designing Ciergy-men have believed so in their Closets or preached for as such in their Pulpits They can see farther than I that expect to do any thing without an Accommodation I think it impossible he should be Restored or were he that he should keep his Throne without it I think it impossible for One Man to govern the People of England unless they have a mind he should and they will never have such a mind unless he sometimes gives way to their Impetuosities But farther His Age and the Minority of his Son are the highest Inducements imaginable for him to endeavour to leave a settled Government to quiet the Minds as well as suppress the Insurrections of the People There is likewise another Reason why as a Man of Conscience he must be yielding for be cannot but be willing that his Son should be educated in his own Religion and if he will let the Kingdom be secure of their own Religion and of their own Laws notwithstanding that the Crown should be of one Religion and the People of another I am satisfied that the People of England will be little sollicitous which way our Kings think the best to Heaven This has Argument as he is a Religious Man But I must again inforce Condescentions as the Interest of the King under a Natural Consideration Good Securities will make the Nation own the Legitimacy of his Son more than all other Proofs and without out good Securities there will be pretences that his Birth is disputable though I affirm it impossible for any thinking Man to question in his own Mind the Prince of Wales's being born of the Queen's Body Compliance with the People made Queen Elizabeth's Title unquestioned so that those that flatter the King with His Right and seem to despise our Rights take the most infallible Course to destroy both the