the Parties together Presbyterian Muggletonian Anabaptist c. being as the Colours of Yellow Tawny Green c. by which the several Regiments are to be distinguished And these you think meet the City of London should lead the way to address for their Protection until they may conveniently be as is aforesaid united and formed into a Body that can defend and set up for it self But your Lordship is still unfortunate advising impertinently for the City seeing the Design hath in the Lord Mayor and Lieutenancy taken a truly safe commendable and contrary way to your prescription and so have bid your Honour good Night wishing you to sleep for more wit And when Parliaments shall in stead of Endeavours to perfect the important matters of the Kingdom sit down and spin out more time in doing nothing than other Parliaments have taken to dispatch Multitudes of Affairs or rather in doing nothing but chalking out unwarrantable Rules for the Subject to grow licentious and act as in an authorized Disobedience What Reason is there that good and peaceable Men should not make to their Prince grateful Addresses for his Care of them in dissolving such Parliaments and scattering the impending Mischiefs which threatned Ruine to our Universe As an Anniversary day of Thansgiving for our Deliverance from the ineffable Calamities we sustained by that trayterous Convention called a Parliament assembled under K. Charles the First whom they devilishly persecuted unking'd and murthered is appointed upon the day of his Sacred Majesty now reigning his Birth and happy Return it seems to me as reasonable that those days whereon his Majesty secured the Liberty of the Subject by dissolving the last Parliaments be kept Festival in Commemoration of our Deliverance from those great and apparent Dangers wherewith we were compassed while they were in Session Neither are all Associations as either your Nine-eyed Perusal reads or your distorted and grieved Fancy interprets them abhorred in any of these Addresses which detest only those two Diabolical ones the first of the Sole â—n League and Covenant and this seized in the E. of S.'s Closet but are themselves pious and Loyal Associations excellently adapted to use your Words for the Preservation of his Majesties Person and Dignity and the Protestant Religion now by Law establish'd But for your so justly abhorred Association which you would insinuate was to have had the Royal Stamp pray tell me where and when those audacious Ruffians who would not allow their King in the Management of his setled Revenues the Priviledge which the meanest Owner of a Chattel Lease hath in the disposal of it did agree and consent more than in the taking the Covenant to ask the King's Leave and Liking Or rather tell me whether you would not first have taken it and have afterward upon the Point of a Spear tendered it to him for his Approbation and Stamp at Holmby House the Isle of Wight or Hurst Castle How strangely you say it looks that the Mayor of Gl. who is recorded to have done Service against Ch. Stewart at Worcester should now be hugged for advancing these Addresses From a Person of good Credit I am assured that this Gentleman now Mayor of Gl. was in those times with all the Family expelled that City because Persons of known Loyalty But if it be as you say it is not so strange to see deceived men undeceived which happening none are wont to be more zealous Maintainers of the Cause which they once opposed But it may be you reflect on him and the eminent Magistrate in the City of London by reason of the Opinion received by many That Rebellion is never truly repented of But 't is a Mistake for although it be rare yet we have seen divers Eminent Persons great in the Rebellious times far greater in the King 's as Col. J. B. and D. L. H. one of the five Members yet since a Privy Counsellor and Ambassador entrusted with the weightiest Affairs of the Realm and above all the E. of S. whose Riches Honours and Trusts were almost unaccountable yet to say these were not Men of Principles acting uniformly but swayed by Interest ready to engage with the same heat in every thing that lieth in Subserviency to their Gain What is this but to upbraid those pious great and wise Ministers of State with Insincerity which must be an Inlet to all Villany and Corruption which for you to think or me to say were a Crime never to be expiated Therefore if nothing in Mens Actions and Manners doth appear but what speaks them obedient all good Men will rejoyce at their Conversion notwithstanding the affrightful Blackness of their former Transactions As for your Brethren and Fathers of your Protestant Corporation and Interest discourse them as you please at your own Leisure But while your Zeal to the former Times transport you no wonder you mistake Men and Business and dream all things transacted after the Vsurper's Mode as if the Country-Gentlemen Grand-Jurors and chief Burgers of Corporations in these days are like your Upstarts who were indeed mere Tools and must be managed like Puppets ere they could squeek a pittiful Address to those Bables of Authority And then you mentioning the different Opinions of the Papists in our days from those in Queen Elizabeth's Reign in the Cause of Succession make we wonder at your either Error or imposing Confidence if you either believe or would persuade others to believe the whirling Zealots have not a Papistical Rule and Method for all they do and say and change Sense and Language as they are taught from Rome You now all along say expresly the same which they then but the Doctrine introduced under the Title of the whole Clergy Nobility Gentry and Courtiers Arguments concerning the Succession of Mary Queen of Scots is wholly false for whereas some of the Puritan Gang which then began to be somewhat in esteem with Religious Time-servers did preach up and throw forth such Discourses as you mention yet was it far from the Sense of the Clergy or sincere States-man who would not alter from the Pattern of Loyalty set before them and sealed with the Blood and Sufferings of those who drew it in the Case of Queen Mary's and the Lady Jane Grey's Title to the Crown Tho' they saw the Danger yet they had learned to believe in and relye upon the Divine Providence which takes Care for the Safety of the Church and blesseth it chiefly when the Governours thereof renounce the Refuge of indirect Politicks And then what a Story you tell of Associations in Queen Elizabeth's Time Which had they been entred into without her Consent and of such a Draught as this abhorred one which you so much dandle no Ignoramus Jury should have rescued the Abettors and Concealers from the Gallows And yet you presently destroy your own rare Tale in the following Paragraph by pratling where the King should reign even in the Hearts of his People which you would
A RETURN to the LETTER OF A NOBLE PEER Concerning the ADDRESSES My Lord THE Favour you conferred upon me to permit me to write to your Honour with a condescending Invitation occasioned that of March the 4th directed to your hand in which my Thoughts of the numerous Addresses seemed to me so plainly set down that no Mistake could ensue yet it hath otherwise happened and your Answer although not altogether differing from my Expectation is not wholly such nor so ingenious as I expected I could have wish'd that as you printed the Answer you had with it published my Letter which gave the Occasion that if any Knowledge of the Persons between whom this Intercourse is used should give the World occasion to repeat our Names and descant upon our Judgments I might not appear after so much resolute Constancy now dotish and fluctuating But for your whole Discourse Noble Peer I must be plain in telling you that not I but the Likeness of it to that Speech you made in the House which being published the Hangman committed to the Flames hath publish'd you the Author And you do so mince this Association and turn and wind it so tenderly that it seems your own Projection and a Brat so taking in your Affections that every Abhorrence of it is a Daggers point at your Heart You are much in Labour to have it believed never to have a Being thinking that way to secure it from the zealous Abhorrors and yet at every other turn your Fondness of it makes you break out into Commendations of it's pretty Features and Usefulness Indeed your Shiftings shew you have something of a debauch'd Modesty left and that you are ashamed of what you so much love my Willingness to excuse what will bear it saith this of you but the Generality cry out upon your Impudence in saying An Association pretended to have been seized in the E. of S's Closet when nothing was ever more exactly proved nothing more unquestionable and free from dispute nothing more defended by that Lord's Clientage and even owned in the Court by two of his Compurgators for they acted such more than Jury-men who looking upon it said This is the same with that which we saw produced and promoted in the House of Commons And by the way you may take notice what Justice was like to be done the King when his Cause was in the hand of Persons guilty of the same Conspiracy for should they have found the Bill they had directed the Attorney General to draw up one against themselves as truly it is to be lamented that they and all others should escape free from Punishment who in the House saw and promoted this damnable Plot of Association and did not so discover it as to have the Projectors and Forwarders rewarded with their merited Rope The Authors of such Parliamentary Proceedings ought to have their Heads advanced to the House-top to admonish their Successors of Modesty and Allègiance But to return Your Title at the first sight made me merry with the Remembrance of your Lordship's and that Religious Party's you so diligently served accustomed Activity that out run their Sagacity laying open dangerous Plots and Designs before they were detected As your Lordship hath been frequently termed a Catt from your noted Skill in falling safely so you further merit it from the Apology of the Catt changed into a beautiful Woman receiving a Change only in Form not in Conditions You are by the exceeding Greatness of Royal Favour raised to very great Riches and Honour not only out of a mean Fortune but pray pardon my Plainness and necessary Freedom an ill State as you are too conscious that merited Severity yet all Indulgences all immerited Additions of Lustre and Fortune cannot alter you but you must be Catting still playing your old Tricks laying open before detecting Your Wit hath like Galba's very unseemly Lodgings and is no other than what may be conjectured to proceed out of so ill contrived a Frame mischievous and unlucky it serveth to no eminent Counsel but to impose upon the silly and credulous Multitude who adore you as some Idolaters are said to choose and worship their God for it 's excellent Deformity No Man who makes a just and serious Inspection into these Addresses seeth any thing but what becomes generous and loyal Subjects whom the Sense of their own Duty and the odious Practises of Men of your Principles stir up to these Expressions of Fidelity on their own part and a most reasonable Abhorrence and Detestation of the others And now because it is an Answer to my Letter you lay upon me the Task of enquiring what this Monster which you have rip'd up and laid open is You begin to tell me that the Fermentation which the Nation is put into must be cherish'd by the ways that first occasioned it and that the Romish Designs against the Protestant Religion and Liberties of England would miscarry if the Heats and Animosities between Protestants were not artificially fomented Here the Tale you tell of the Romish Designs is so exceedingly stale that it stinks abominably and is rejected by most of the apprehensive Dissenters and Factious Party who see it in vain to talk any more at that rate the Generality of the Nation being cured of those Fits which the affrightful Noise of Popery put it into For as soon as honest and quiet Men hear any begin to blutter those fusty Discourses they leave them as men tainted and rusty Tools as you call them to your Trade of Protestant Joynery And the Truth is you all so torment and saw what you take in hand to polish that it 's great pity the Masters of the Company are not hanged for Company with the Journey-man It 's time indeed some end were put to the Lunacy the Kingdom hath been afflicted with and I hope we may conclude it wrought or near effecting seeing the greatest part of what you stile distracted are recovered and you are found not Lords of the Ascendent Predominant over Affections but Witches and Juglers that have held men under some short Surprizal but are delivered by Divine Providence President at the Council-Table Even they who commend you do not believe you and the rest will never trust you Neither have you shot your Bolt any thing near the Mark in saying the Operation of the Declaration against the two last Parliaments being wholly spent this against the Association is slipt in and managed to perpetuate Rancours for your self I fear to your Grief find the contrary both that the Efficacy of the Declaration is not spent but hath produced this brisk and genuine Off-spring the natural Issue of so incomparable a Conjunction as the Peoples Affections answering their Prince's Condescension and Love and that it is so far from fostering Animosities that it is the most certain Bond of Union that could ever have been framed a League indeed offensive and defensive not as your squinting Loyalty and unmannerly Comparison
would make it seem between the Prince and a Faction but between the King and all his Subjects who conscientiously respect their own duty and the general Welfare We never think or call that a Faction which compelled by the Fear of God honoureth the King but you who of all Men living have the greatest Provocations to admire and love regal Clemency and Bounty do most wretchedly after all the strictest Engagements to Loyalty turn back like a Dog to his Vomit and are pleased no otherwise but during your Respect to that vile Excrescence of Government which hath been spued out and abhorred as your beloved Association is now chiefly for it's Tendency toward the same After you have made a Citation of a Loyal Gentleman's words you will needs insinuate from them a parity of His most Excellent Majestie 's and that basest of Usurper's Oliver's Cause and do in effect deride all that out of Devotion worship the true God because some out of Fear or Illusion have worship'd the Devil Usurpers conscious to themselves what Hatred their ambitious and tyrannical Invasions merit study Popularity and are forc'd to fawn upon the worst of men whom they interest to impose upon others and always rule by Arts contrary to the Prescriptions of Legal and just Monarchy They either affright or corrupt men to obsequious acknowledgments These with Majestical but Gracious Countenance receive the due Tributes of voluntary Obedience and encourage Fidelity to the shame and terrour of such as associate and consult by their Kings to disturb the Publick Peace Because some unduely flattered Oliver once your Master therefore you will allow none to give our Lawful King those proper Eulogies and Thanks which his wise and excellent Government challenges from all whom God hath blessed with Judgment to see and rejoyce in their happiness by and under him But this with your Lordship is a base and destructive Design a strong Affirmation which you would have received although you have forgotten to tell us the Reason And so in truth you have the Sense which should direct us to what you mean in saying It would have been some Argument of the Addressors Candour and sincerity of their Intentions in what they did before if they had forborn their late Applications till they had found that they were not mistaken in the grounds upon which they think to vindicate themselves for what they then did Something your Lordship did here conceive but being ill Midwiv'd is spoil'd in the production As to what you said a little before you are as unfortunate in your expressions and reasoning For these Addressors are not sick of your Lordships Megrims and distempers of Brain that giddily rave and anticipate the Fruits of Royal Counsels before maturity They as all brave Spirits are blessed with Humility and meddle not with the King's Prerogative neither take upon them to instruct him when a Parliament will be most seasonably called but leave it to his Wisdom from which by God's blessing upon it they hope to reap the satisfactory Effects of these and their former Addresses while your Lordship and your Factious Adherents shall sit in melancholick postures and enviously assist your tormenting Angels in your own vexation How you call Mr. Groyâ—'s Oath a bare suggestion I understand not neither what credit you gain by saying this Association was for what appears only feigned and imaginary Those few words upon this account before spoken may I think suffice for all your scrupulous artifice will neither cover nor colour that Villany You may as well call in question Whether that Noble and Loyal Peer was accused and indicted as whether that Paper was seized in his Closet or any where promoted by Associators you may as well question Whether that Lord ever was Lord Chancellor and afterward made good his own words in his Speech to L. Treasurer and found His Majesty a Prince under whom the unfortunate fall gently Whether afterward in the House of Peers he made any Speeches in opposition to a certain strict Test for the discovery of Popery promoted in that House Whether he was since at Oxford and afterward committed to the Tower Your Lordship thinks it congruous that the Addressors testifie their detestation of the many Sham-Plots whereby Loyal and innocent Protestants have been endeavoured to be destroyed and what is more evident than that they do this abhorring both the real and Sham-Plots which bold and bloody-minded Factions under the name forsooth of Protestants were engaged in to the destruction of the King Religion and Government This you are fierce and zealous to have done yet being done you dislike and complain of it and what 's the reason but because while you cry out of Popish Plots and Popish Sham-Plots onely these Addressors the true Friends of the Protestant Religion and Peace of these Kingdoms see you involved in the same Plots which you cry out against and engage to defend the King and establish'd Religion against all Conspirators whatsoever whether Popishly Scismatically or Heretically affected But when all of you make such a dinn about Protestants and name the Protestant Religion why do you not set forth what this Protestant Religion is that we may know it before we engage to defend it The Religion establish'd in the Church of England we are sure you would destroy not preserve for this the Addressors promise and desire to preserve which promises onely give you these Galls and Disturbances Neither will you own the Presbyterian to be the onely Protestant nor with the Presbyterian the Independent for then the other younger Brethren Anabaptist Brownist Quaker Fifth Monarchy man and all the rest of this large Family will take it very ill to be rejected as Spurious and unprovided of Protestant Portions If you take all into your politick Ark whether feathered or naked cloven-footed clawed or hoofed this Conjunction will make England in the next Generation surpass any part of Africa for monstrous Issue when those of Baxter's Vincent's and Jacomb's holy Protestant Herds shall mingle with Protestant Muggletons Protestant Quakers Protestant Ranters and your Honour 's which is Protestant Atheists Considering then the impossibility of such pretended Union in different Opinions knit together in one Band of Religion and yet that if any one or more Part or Opinion be rejected the Project is that way inconsistent with what it throws out and would seem because there 's a Rupture made with the Muggletonian or Ranter or whomsoever this Holy League receives not who yet hath as good a title to that Vocabulum of Protestant as Jack Presbyter Jack of Leyden George of Munster or Hugh Peters when he came from New England So that in time I find the League hits not upon the score of Religion but all these are Protestants as protesting against Monarchy and the whole present frame of Government and that can no otherwise come under one name of Protestant than by joyning with it the word Rebell and then Protestant Rebell speaks all