Readers of his printed Speech apprehend but that he means and would seem to fear all this in England to what purpose else can so wise a Lord be thought to make so serious and eager a Protestation against it or to what purpose else was it so carefully made publick in print but that it was the ready way to get the World to understand it so and that seems the sole drift of the zeal of these impertinent excursions But yet he goes on 3. That â—e cannot find that the Jesuites or Popish Clergy ever owned Monarchy to be of Divine Right but onely some Episâ—opal clergy of our Britiâ—h Isles Then the Episcopal Clergy are it seems the better Subjects in a Monarchy As for the two sorts of Jesuites the Popiâ—h One and the Presbyterian the former will not allow it to the Monarch because he would leave a gap open for the Popes Claim over Him the latter also is of the same mind because he would subject Him to his Presbytery There needs no reasoning to evince these things seeing there are few men in our age who have not seen the truth in facto so that 't is the clear interest of the Crown That if it will have a Church National to Govern by it must be Protestant-Episcopal otherwise its self cannot be secure from the Invasions and Insolencies of the Pope on the one side or of the Many-headed Presbyter on the other 4. That to say this Family are our Kings and this particular Frame of Government is our Lawful Constitution and obligeth us is owing onely to the particular Laws of our Countrey Well urged in print my Lord here is a fair Gap laid open for another Family and another sort of Government And Why The reason is plain because 't is possible we may have other laws Let but the Game go on the Men of Shaftsbury if they get it will soon shew us that the Laws also may be changed and then what may become of the Frame of Government And what may become of the Family if it shall not give way to the alteration of the old Laws and Government He that makes a Crown to have no other Foundation but particular Laws ought first in a Monarchy to shew me whence those particular Laws could come but from the Crown and him that first wore it Law and popular Consent came in afterward not to constitute but to confirm and corroborate it on his head I find after long Observation and Experience of these matters 't is among all our State-Hereticks and Spurious Politicians an Errour in Fundamento which leads them to dispute with Crowned Heads and that boldness prepares them to rebel that they will needs suppose in the Original of Monarchy a Priority of Laws to make it such As to Fact the Histories of Nations in general do consute that vain Hypothesis upon which all their Arguments are built and do shew that for the most part Laws about Monarchy came in after its Institution to second it by the peoples Confirmative Consent Not that this gave it any Authority but their Assent to the Laws about it was onely a Signal of their submission and obedience to it And as it was thus in the beginning of Monarchies so as to the Reason of the Point it holds much the more strongly against them in Monarchies already Constituted for there no Law can be supposed Prior to the Monarch because they all slow from him and cannot have being without him Therefore that Mans Allegiance stands upon very slippery and uncertain Terms who concludes the King and his Family and their Rights as meer Creatures of some particular Laws of the Countrey and prints this Doctrine to the whole Kingdom to beget in them mean thoughts of that Royal Right to the Crown Imperial of this Realm which is naturally inherent in his very Bloud and Person and Family and cannot in a true English Political Sence be otherwise consider'd So that if ever his Lordships Notion be started again among the Peers 't is like it may in that House meet with an Animadversion much more severe than mine 5. Nevertheless the Print goes on very roundly in the Name of his Lordship and saith Page 11. If the Doctrine of the Divine Right of Monarchy be true then our Mâ—gna Charta is of no use our Laws are but Rules during the Kings Pleasure Monarchy if of Divine Right cannot be bounded or limited by Humane Laws nay what 's more cannot bind it self All our Claims of Right the Rights of the Peers House and of the Commons House and of all People must give way to the Interest and will and pleasure of the Crown and the best Men must Vote to deliver up all we have not onely when Reason of State and the separate Interest of the Crown require it but when 't is known the will and pleasure of the King would have it so For that must be to a Man of that Principle the only Rule and Measure of Right and Justice Excellent State-Logick this and were it my Aim to pervert the people I would thus chop Allegiance into a thousand Niceties as the School-men do Divinity for making such like Inferences to intoxicate the peoples minds for the Scripture makes Witchcraft near of kin to Rebellion they seldom part company and the Vilany intended by such Arguments is usually masqued and hid in ambiguous phrases What ado is here made with the word Divine Right It may be remembred the same was made use of to purpose by the Presbyterians to inflame people into the former Rebellion We would fain forget all their past Intrigues but it seems there is fresh use of them or else these thinâ—s had not been thus boldly conjured up again into the House of Peers a place too sacred for such discourses In all Debates about the high Points of Polity every Expression ought not only to be season'd by the Speaker cum grano Salis but to be understood so also by the Hearers If among Men of honest and fair intentions towards the King it be said the King holds his Monarchy by a Divine Right none but a Mad-man or a Man of design a Man whose Business 't is to catch at words and cramp them with Commentaries to his own purpose a Man that can blow up Molâ—hills to Mountains who carries a Microsâ—ope in his Pocket upon occasâ—on to see all in great who when he plâ—ases strains at Gâ—ats in State while he is out of Government but can swallow Camels when he is in it none but such a Man would presently conclude that such a Divine Right was meant as excludes all bounding or limitation by Humane Laws such a One as leaves no Obligation from the Prince to the People A Father hath a Divine Right to Rule his Son and a Master his Servant else the Scripture had never made Divine Injunctions investing them with Rights of absolute Power over them and yet the same Scripture also signifies that notwithstanding those Rights
now for an Oath than the Nobility and Gentry yet at their own time they have been able and while they retain such Principles can be again when time serves to swallow all manner of Oaths and devour Nobles Gentlemen too Clergy and All. And this our Letter-Man knows very well who having at this time great need of them in the Pulpit is you see very angry they are under hatches He only wants such a House of Commons as he could wish for he reckons himself sure of his Clergy they are of another Kidney than the Church of England's Clergy These he is pleased to brand as Men of little Understanding and of a pitiful sort of Learning which teaches to Obey and Justifie not to Disoute the Commands of their Superiours Meer Milk-Sops they but his are the Myrmidoâ—s Men of Arguments as strong as Gun-Powder Profound Men of Letters who have written and can write RATIO â—LTIMA REGUM round the Mouth of a Cannon LETTER THe fourth and last Act found fault with is The Five Miles Aâ—â— passed at Oxford whiâ—â— introduces the Oath in the Terms the Courtiers would have it This was thâ—â— strongly opposed by the Lord Treasurer Southampton Lord Wharton Lord Ashley and others not only in the concern of those poor Ministers that were so severely handled but as it was in it self an unlawful and unjustisiable Oath however the Zeal of that time against all Noâ—conformists â—asâ—ly passed the Act. ANIMADVERSION THat my Lord Wharton and Lord Ashley might oppose it is not impossible but of my Lord Southampton 't is hardly probable but if he did it serves for some excuse to Lord Aâ—hley because his Lordships Interest at that early time of day was nothing in Court without him and so he could lose nothing there then For it was afterwards that he crept up like Ivy upon that old Oak of Loyalty Southampon into His Majesties favour and many a good place which while his Lordship enjoyed we do not remember that ever he was angry at this Act Nor do we know any reason why it might not have been stretcâ—â— at that time a Mile or two more without grieving his Lordship or stretching his Conscience so that this Story might have been very well omitted so far as concerns my good Lord Ashley If the Ministers were then so severely hâ—ndled let it be noted that now is the time his Lordship would be thought to have had no hand in it But whose fault was it then was it not their own were they not very severe towards the King when they refused the Oath contained in that Act which enjoined only these particulars viz. to declare That it is not lawfâ—l upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King That they do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissionated by him in pursuance of such Commissions And that they will not at any time endeavour any Alteration of Government either in Church or State Now let us reason together Is it rational to imagine that any Governour will not provide for the safety and peace of his Government Are not Protection and Allâ—giance correlative Do they not Mâ—tuo se ponere can either be understood without the other Is not the Band of Politicks utterly broken by conceiving the contrary If a Subject will not declare it Not lawful to take Arms against the King Is there not a clear Implication of the Affirmative that he may or perhaps will when he shall have an opportunity Is it imaginable then that any King can think himself secure of such a Man or that he could permit him to enjoy the Common Liberties of his Government who refuseth to give the Common Caution required by Governours for the place of Government Or if such person have formerly by any Overt Acts declared or preached to others that it is lawful to take Arms can he with any colour of reason find fault with the King when he demands onely gentle Cauâ—ion of him by declaring that he hath alter'd his Opinion and will do so no more And in case of his refusal can he in his Conscience condemn the Kings making a Law to prevent him from doing the like again Come Gentlemen let us to the great Rule of Conscience Whatsoever ye would that Men should do to you do ye so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets Now pray tell me you that are Kings of those little Kingdoms called Families If any one of your Children or Servants hath taught or shall teach the rest that it is lawful to dispute and fight with you and perhaps they do it in your Houses would you not think it strange that any Man should blame you if you not punishing that Child or Servant should onely demand this gentle Caution of him that he oblige himself never to do the like again It 's much rather to be supposed that in stead of that you would turn him out of your little Kingdom and no Man could find fault with you for it Now for Inference If His Majesty a Prince Gracious and Indulgent beyond all example hath laid aside the severe part and if you by your refusing to give him the Security of a Promissory Oath have in effect declared that ye will not lay aside or quit that unruly Principle of taking Arms against him what could he do less than to take the Viper out of his own and the Churches Bosom and not nourish it any longer Whereas by the Laws of God and Man and by that Law of Nature called Self-preservation he might have taken another kind of Course for the Security and Quiet of Himself and His Subjects and not onely have shut these Men out of Corporations but out of the Kingdom And yet so far hath His Majesty been from this severity that the Five Miles Aâ—t it self hath languisht with very little Execution insomuch that those Men and their Friends have at this time of day small cause to complain of it but rather much for a heart-melting into grateful acknowledgments of so great Lenity If another Pen had been ousied in this Work of Animadverting it might perhaps have dropt here many notable Reasons of State justifying the Policy and Prudence of that Act and its Execution as to name one for an Instance Viz. Seeing that by the Constitution of this Kingdom the Commons House of Parliament have an Interest in the Power of Legislation that no Law can be made or repealed without them And whereas the major part of their Members are chosen by Corporations it must needs be of highest concern to preserve those Bodies Corporate as free as may be from the Infection of Preachers of such Principles as are destructive of the Kingdoms Constitution and Government lest in a little time the swarming Prosâ—lytes of Nonconformity come to bear away the Bell at Elections and then Trump a Major Vote in the Commons House to play a New Game again at
and Liberty of Parliaments to Inspect the Actions and Behaviour of the great Officers of Trust and call them to account if faulty it being confessed a good advantage and security to the King and Kingdom and necessary to be continued but my purpose here is onely to note when and how the Abuse of that Parliamentary Power and by what Faction it was first made so extravagant that no sooner could a Favourite or Minister of State be warm in his Office or in the Kings Favour and had resolved to look strictly to a maintaining the Rights and Constitution of Government in Church and State but immediately they fell upon the Back of him and gave out the word for his Displacing or his Destruction No doubt but the best of Men in great place will have Errours and Faults being more then other Men distracted with many Businesses and exposed to many Temptations as the Earl of Strafford said at his Tryal but that they should by Popular Breath and Faction be blown up to the degree of high Crime or Treason when they have perhaps in the Judgment of Men moderate and wise onely served the King with the best of their â—kill this is both uncharitable and cruel or the effect of Faction or Envy and it is this onely that I redargue for it is in a factious time the great Interest of the Crown to see to it and to nip this Grand Abuse whenever it shall be practised always taking due measure between a just or conscionable and a factious prosecution Else these Inconveniences will follow As 't is in the Nature of Man to be well-conâ—eited of himself otherwise most Men would even hang themselves so generally a secret Envy arises in him at the preferment of another because he thinks he deserves better than he and the King presently gets his ill-will for passing him by This Man then meets with many other of his own sence and humour and so by rubbing each others Sores till they smart they resolve presently that the Preferree is a Common Enemy and as such to fall upon him And so the Issue at last shall be this when the course of Accusation grows customary that the King shall never be free of his own Choice nor secure of his Ministers when he hath chosen them Moreover â—hen to be preferr'd shall be to be exposed and shot at by all the Darts of Envy and Danger what Man of Wisdom or Fortune will be willing to accept of Preferment or be true and tight to the Kings Concern and Interest in the Government if he do accept it Or will he not rather be tempted through fear of that Accusatory Faction to serve the Regal Interest but by halves or perhaps to betray his Masters Government in Church and State as sâ—me did in the time of the Kings Father when they saw him forced to leave Strafford to make a Friend of that Faction For thus Men will be too apt to do when they cannot be sure of their Masters So that if Kings once quit their Constancy in this particular nothing brings greater hazard to their own Interest of Government and their Persons nor greater diminution to the Kingly Dignity and Power in the opinion of other Princes while his Ministers and himself shall remain liable to be baited at every turn of humour by so busie and impetuous a Faction as if himself were not wise enough to chuse or as if we had none but Knaves in the Kingdom to be chosen Finally 'T is and ought ever to be an Arcanum kept as the Jewels are in the Royal Cabinet to preserve all places which are nigh the Throne so sacred as not to be easily invaded for that draws a Reverence to the Throne it self which should be religiously fenced about not only as the Sacrary of Royalty but as the Sanctuary also of other Princes for such are his great Men and high Officers of State in their places They are as the Lyons about the Throne of Solomon to beget a dread and sence of Majesty in all that approach to it and those are not Beasts for Sacrifice nor to be offer'd up as such nor to be pull'd down without very great cause of Justice require it because the frequency of pulling down the Fence hardens Men and renders them by custom so hardy as to make bold with the Throne it self This licentious Abuse of criminating the Kings Ministers hath by the same Faction which first began it been carried of late times to such a height that were a Man before reputed never so honest yet no sooner doth the King make him one of his great Officers but that if he sticks close to his Masters Interest of Government he presently becomes a publick Enemy and as such they brand him and teaze him and seek to tire out his Majesty with Importunities and Addresses to be rid of him This sort of Behaviour was the reason which made his Majesties Grandfather and Father not so frequent in calling Parliaments and the Protesting Lords may do well to consider how little reason their Son His present Majesty is like to have to become fond of New Parliaments till he can have some good ground to believe that they will return to the like temper and moderation as they had in old time when those ancient Laws and Statutes for frequent calling them were made or until the people see their errour at Elections in suffering Men of that implacable Faction which first poyson'd the fair stream of Parliamentary Duty still to creep into the House to shelter themselves in acting their mischievous Designs under the Covert of Priviledge of Parliament and publick good So I have done with their Lordships First Reason in the Protestation and proceed to the Second which is this Secondly It seems not reasonable that any particular number of men should for many years ingross so great a trust of the People as to be their Representatives in the House of Commons and as good men as these Members of the Counties and Corporporations be so long excluded This kind of reasoning I never expected from the mouths of such Noble Lords Nay then methinks I see John Lilburn putting on Robes and uttering his old Oracles of State What! Is there no Smith to be found in Israel to whet Arguments for their Lordships that they are fain to go down to him and his Philistines the Levellers for thus they argued nigh Thirty years ago against the then House of Commons and good my Lords remember that the same Argument being but a very little altered served also at that time against the House of Peers Be informed my noble Lords you whose names I find in a Catalogue Printed at the end of this Protestation for ye cannot I suppose remember because when I read your Names I perceive that none of you were then Sitters in the Lords House except one whose name I forbear as I do the names of all the rest beside my good Lord of Shaftsbury who in
having the advantage of siding with Him and under the Notion of Men addicted to His Service they might in the end gain to themselves and their Partakers the Places of greatest Trust Power and Advantage in the Kingdom Who would have imagin'd that Men could be thus Ungrateful to His Majesty after so Gracious an Aâ—t of Oblivion as to be found reviving the Old Names of Distinction What is this but to set the Old Quarrel on foot again and to begin it upon the same Point of charging the Bishops as the Causers of it Thus Nero made it his business to set Rome on fire and then charged the Fact upon the Christians Who are they that are most likely to be Projecting unto themselves the Power and Great Offices of the Kingdom but you your selves who are ready to make room with an Out-cry against the Great Officers There is one among you who knows how to drive a Bargain for Great Offices at the price of your heads if any Body thought it worth the while to truck with him and then we should know who they are that take Courses to overthrow the Act of Oblivion and in the mean while do shoot Slanders at his Majesty and His Ministers through the Bishops sides as if it were they that joyntly design against it whereas His Majesty hath been so far from breaking the First that 't is not long since he granted a Second Act of Oblivion and your Friend MEPHISTOPHILES Himself had so great a share in the benefit of it that one would even swear it was granted for His sake or that He principally for His own sake procured it Therefore he had best take heed He do not bring on a Popular State too fast unless they will beforehand seal him another Oblivion lest My Lords the People come at length to knock at his Door for a better Account and set up Brook-house anew for him hereafter LETTER 3. NExt That the Bishops design to have the Government of the Church sworn to as unalterable and so tacitly owned to be of Divine Right toward the attaining of which station Churchmen easily break through all Obligations whatsoever ANIMADVERSION THus the Blows light on the Bishops but his Aim is at His Majesties Government onely 't is not time of day yet to let us know what he would be at For in the mean time he writes fair after his 41 Copy for you may read in the Grand Remonstrance of the Commons Anno 1641. that it was charged on the Bishops in those days That they imposed a New Oath for maintenance of their own Power God forbid that that Remonstrance which then took the Frame of Government all in pieces should be thought to be the Act of an House of Commons Many thousands are yet living who know it was but a Party in that House who by the help of Tumults continually flowing out of the City like a mighty Inundation upon Whitehall and Westminster did by Threats and Violence upon both Houses animate a Presbyterian Party in that House to be able to over-awe the rest and carry on that Remonstrance by head and shoulders as they did also afterward many other strange Petitions Declarations Votes and Ordinances to the dishonour of the King in order to the undermining of His Authority and the ancient Government of the Kingdom And this way they carried matters so long and with such heat and fury that in tract of time the best part of the House of Commons perceiving they were not able to stop this Career by any prudent Counsels or Endeavours resolved to sit no longer with such Company to be made a State and Property to such Unparliamentary Proceedings and so at length departed from them to Oxford whither His Majesty and most of the House of Lords also had been forced to retire from the insolent Assaults daily made by the City Multitudes which were under the Countenance and at the Command of that All-commanding Party of the Commons seconded by some few of the Lords who helpt to hold up the Form and Shadow of a Parliament so long till the very Name of a House of Peers was at last Obliterated A sad Instance it is to teach their Successors what they may expect in future whensoever seduced through Discontent or Envy to affect Popularity they shall again which God forbid separate their own personal Interests and that of their Peerage from the Interests of the Crown upon any though the most specious pretences whatsoever Here what the King himself said of those Tumults in His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for doubtless He could best tell who felt the effects of them and What person is there that ever loved Him or engaged for Him would be willinâ— to see His Son our most Gracious King assaulted with the like Or that can with patience hear that some Lords and other persons are turn'd Tradesmen and Exchange men in tâ—â— City and become free there of the Company of Demagogues They were saith he not like a Storm at Sea which yet wants not its terror but like an Earthquake shaking the very foundations of all than which nothing in the World hath more of horror No Declaration from the Bishops who were first insolenced and assaulted nor yet from other Lords and Gentlemâ—n of Honour nor yet from my self could take place for the due repression of those Tumults and for the securing not onely our freedom in Parliament but our very persons in the Streets When I found things thus I hoped by my withdrawing to give time for the ebbing of their tumultuous fury Note here ye Shafsburians first the Bishops assaulted then the Members of Parliament and then the King Himself this was the fruit then and this would be again the issue of your Little Leaders trading with ill-humours in the City against Bishops but that there is a Sound and Loyal Magistracy to balance Male-contents and observe both him and them in all their Motions so that it will be a hard matter for that small Boutefeu to Blow up the Government again by undermining it on the Bishops side for one Trick of State is not to be shewn twice within the memory of man so that now I suppose he hath lived to see the utmost of his old Trade of Jugling having Jugled himself out of all at Court and being past hope of Jugling himself in again all his Fears being well understood there he sets up at t'other end o' th' Town to Jugle up a Mutiny in the City in hope to find Combustible matter there to set Fire to in the Countrey and at length inflame a Party for his purpose in this Parliament or rather in a New One which he supposes will be the likeliest Expedient And truly he did as good as tell us so in that Letter written above a Twelve moneth since out of the Counâ—rey to the Earl of Carlisle at London or rather imposed upon him Which was indeed superscribed to his Lordship but intended for a Fireball among
the Citizens here as appeared by the Industrious Spreading Copies of it in all the Coffee-houses and the effect which it and his other Practises since had and which lately inspired Mr. Jenks with the wisdom of a Statesman to instruct His Majesty and move the matter at Guildhall in Common-Council to be managed in the old Presbyterian way of Petitioning a sort of Saucy Humility much used by that Tribe in the beginning of their Rebellion These things should not be remember'd but that they themselves are pleased to revive them and give us cause to judge that they hope one day to have a Pull for it in a New Parliament with the Bishops and then with His Majesty In order to which MEPHISTOPHILES hath one Expedient more upon the Anvile and that is to use all manner of Tricks that may be by LONG SPEECHES and LONG DEBATES among the Lords and the STARTING of CONTROVERSIES about Priviledge betwixt their Lordships and the Commons to FRUSTRATE Dispatches of the King and Kingdome 's Business and so Necessitate the Present Parliament to become Unserviceable that he may obtain a Plausible Pretence to draw in the People to cry out for a New One as the onely Cure of all our Maladies But how improbable a thing that is if not impossible you shall find evidently proved before the end of these Animadversions LETTER 4. AS the Bishops design to have the Government of the Church sworn to as unalterable so in requital to the Crown they declare the Government absolute and arbitrary and allow Monarchy as well as Episcopacy to be Jure Divino and not to be bounded by Humane Laws ANIMADVERSION MOre Sacks to the Mill upon the Bishops Load them till ye sink 'em That it seems must be first done then down with Monarchy that follows of course as we well and wofully remember 'T is done then like a Workman to tell the World that Episcopacy is alterable that the People may not in any sence own it to be of Divine Right and so it will be easily concluded that Monarchy also is alterable because his Believers cannot believe it to be Jure Divino 'T is a great Crime indeed Sirs in the Bishops that they stand thus in the way of this Alterability and that they maintain Kings to have any Divinity about ' em We have had of late many fine Points publickly Printed and exposed to the Debates of the Multitude such as this Whether Kings be made of Clouts or no but What deserves the Man that starts such Hares as these which no man can run down but he must run the ready Road to Rebellion and Alteration of Government which its impossible to prevent unless we hold up the Veneration that is due to the Head and Members of this Monarchy But had I any thoughts of Rebelling or were I a Cashier'd or Broken Statesman not likely in fair weather to lift aside my Rivals and get in again with the Monarch my Master I would had I so little in me of a Christian or a good Subject take all the course I could to gather Clouds about him and create a Storm that I might force him to come to me for shelter or take me to himself again to help him to weather it Had I long'd and long done any thing for the place of Treasurer and unluckily mist the Bag and by all the good Qualities of Judas pretended as high merit to it as any man or to the Seale or to any Grand Office of State that such a Gnat of Ambition as I durst venture to swallow had I been bobb'd out of All I would even fall to Courting the People after the same manner and Preach up the Mortality of Kings till I and my Myrmidons could fright him out of his Divinity and replace me and scare him our of the remembrance also of all my Jugglery into a new Oblivion to secure me Then would I remove and laugh at all my Opposites and the Citizens too and leave them at last to contemplate my wisdom and their own folly All this Sirs with the help of one of your Shaftsbury Consciences I could easily do And if this could not be done then would I march on further and follow the dictates of Nature for Self-preservation and sticking close to the Multitude drive them on to do any thing that might hamper the King and shackle the Monarchy or if need require transform it into the hands of Conservators or else in case that cannot be precipitate my self and it to the very bottom of Democracy rather than not be revenged on my Sovereign Master for favouring and preferring my fellow-servants and competitors before me The Poet saith We are Princes all if we prevail And gallant Villains if we fail Would not any Man then think it well done of the Bishops to plead for the Divinity of Kingly Government and of the Episâ—opal which is a part of the Kingly when there are some in the World that design to handle them without all Humanity and would had they opportunity by a commonruine both of King and Bishops too late convince this Nation that by all means there ought to be a joint Interest of mutual preservation maintained betwixt them and that the Monarchy cannot in reason be supposed maintainable without it If this be so as I shall sufficiently manifest anon when I come to consider the late clamour against the TEST then 't is high time for all Men that have sworn Allegiance to apprehend that the Government of Church and State ought to be sworn to as so Divine as not to be alterable till they can tell us a way how to lay aside the Right of Episcopacy at this time in England without ruining the Monarchy If so be then I have a purpose to make good my Allegiance to the King how can I scruple to swear not to alter the Church which is a principal part of his Kingly Government By the one Oath I have sworn to him in both his Capacities Personal and Politick which are never to be separated why then should I deny an Oath obliging me not to alter the Kingly Polity of the Church which is as much the Kings Government though stiled Ecclesitstical as the other part is which we term Purely Civil Consider then ye Men of Shaftsbury the Obligation to both parts of the Government is equal by vertue of your Oath of Allegiance and if his Majesty and the Bishops and many Noble Peers have thought of passing a New Oath they did no more but what is very necessary in the midst of all the present Underminings of this Monarchy on its Episcopal quarter that is they thought it wisdom to fortifie that part with Mens swearing to it expresly and plainly by a new Oath which is no more than what was implicitely contained before in their old Oath of Allegiance and which is not to be found fault with more than the old by any but such persons as either hold it not lawful or have no
the Presbyterian hath been tickled in his own way and the other sorts of Nonconformists are to be drawn in if they can be brought to forget the Revenges of Presbytery and be perswaded they shall have fairer Quarter under them than under Episcopacy for this purpose 't is known our small Engineer turned City-Merchant and having driven a fine Trade in the Winter 75. in the Great Corporation he hath the following Summers been laying a Train in the lesser Corporations in hope to blow up this Parliament with the noise of a new one The Prologue to the Tragedy must be Down with the Bishops this is determined to be the onely necessary Preliminary But that thinks he and the whole Knot is not to be brought about while this Parliament sits Ergo the onely way is to be rid of this Parliament as soon as may be and shuffle our Pack as well as we can to get sure Cards for a new one to play over again the old pranks of their Brethren This drift of theirs is so well understood by his Majesty and by all Persons of Discretion and Loyalty that although the Succession of Parliaments be a thing most commendable yet no sober Person that is well-affected to His Majesty and the Peace of these Kingdoms can approve the bringing on a new Parliament by Seditious Projectors and Popular Clamours especially at such a time as this when we have a Parliament in being a Parliament which hath had the Honour to Re-settle the Crown and Kingdom after it had by a wonderful Hand of God been but newly rescued out of the Ruines of a late Rebellion A Parliament that hath done perhaps more for the Preservation of this well-temper'd Monarchy than many other of the best Parliaments put together ever did before and I may boldly say because it can be proved by Instances of Fact that they have done more towards the containing of Monarchick Power in its just Bounds than any Parliament ever did that may be counted to have been the most popular and publick-hearted And besides this the Journals of both Houses will shew that they have now lying before them so many excellent Resolves and purposes that their sitting to dispatch them is the onely necessary means to put the Nation into the enjoyment of quick Remedies for our future safety and prosperity And whereas it hath faln out that they have been unable to do any thing to purpose by reason of Differences betwixt both Houses you are to know ye Men of Shaftsbury that the Occasions of that Discord about points of Priviledge and other Matters were but Artificial Contrivances of some Broken-States-Men and other Male-contents made such by their own ill Humours and Emulations against Men whose Abilities Integrity and Merits have gotten place above them in His Majesties Favour and Preferment Those are they that would mingle Heaven and Earth to create a party to keep those Differences on foot and therefore the Occasions are by them made much of and carefully laid up that they may be readily started when time serves to hinder dispatches of the publick Business of the King and Kingdom because the design of the Consederates is thus laid First By Tricks to reduce this Parliament as fast as they can into a state impracticable and unserviceable thereby to introduce a seeming Necessity of a speedy calling another Secondly To make sure Work they have stricken in with the Old Workmen and adopted the Presbyterian Party the onely Canker that frets in the Bowels of this Nation and which gathers all other naughty Humours to its self in hope to aggrandise a Faction big enough and loud enough to uproar a New Parliament for their Turn if it may be One main Plot is so to order it that this Parliament who apprehend a necessity of holding fast in a Factions Time to that part of the Government called Bishops as the most needful Expedient to preserve the Crown may never go off with the reputation of speaking Peace and Settlement to the Nation by perfecting those excellent Intendments and Resolutions which to that end do lie before them By this you may perceive why your Letter-man seeks to destroy the Credit of the Bishops as well as of the Parliament Whatever hath been done still the Bishops must be in fault though it be an Act of the whole Parliament and the wisest Act that can be Enacted And such without all question was that Act about Corporations For of what Temper the Corporations of England were may be collected from the time of the late Richard's short Reign when those Notorious Addresses were by them made to him in Lofty Strains of Recognition Obedience and Allegiance which was but a few Moneths before His Majesties Wonderful Restitution And therefore though it was miraculous it was not to be supposed so great a Miracle as in an instant to transform the Hearts and Spirits of such Addressers into a firm and lasting Frame of Fidelity to the King and his Government what then could the Parliament do less for the securing of both than put Corporation-Men under the Test of such an Oath and Declaration as might either satisfie His Majesty that those Persons were become New Men or else might upon their refusal of that Test give the King a Just occasion for his Own and his Peoples Security and Peace to purge them out of their places and put in Persons Loyal and Faithful Moreover 't is to be noted that this Test upon Corporations was by that Act to continue but to the Year 1663 as short a time as could be set for the doing so great a Work as to put things in order to go on upon a right Wheel of Government in those places for the future after which they were left to proceed in the ordinary ways of Electing their Magistrates and Officers as heretofore This is nothing but what in Prudence and Providence was absolutely necessary And the use of it hereafter may be this to all Corporations That in all occasions be it of Electing Magistrates Officers Parliament-Men and doing any thing of Concern to Government they do carry themselves in such a manner it being indeed their true Interest so to do as not to suffer Factions or particular Factions and ill-affected Persons to grow up and get ground among them for the natural Consequence must be That at length if such considerable Corporated parâ—els of the Body Politick shall by degrees be corrupted with Men who by contracting particular Interests shall march counter to the Publick Interest of Government and imploy the Interests and Credit of their Corporations against it then of course Princes and Parliaments are constrained whether they will or no to provide for a securing the Publick Interest by some extraordinary course And when they do it 't is not their fault that the usual course is broken but they properly are the Authors who by their own Extravagancies first gave the occasion and pressed a necessity upon them so to do And
truly in such case the best-natured Princes in the World if you consider them as Publick Persons cannot avoid it unless you will suppose what is absur'd to conceive that they will relinquish the ends of Government and let all run into confusion So much for the Reason of the Act about Regulating Corporations Now for the next Act about the Militia complained of LETTER 8. THe next step was in the Act of the Militia which went for most of the Chiefest Nobility and Gentry being obliged as Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants c. to Swear to the sâ—â—â— Declaration and Belief with the addition onely of thesâ— words In pursuance of such Milâ—tâ—ry Commissions This Act is of a 〈◊〉 for it Establisheth a Standing Army by a Law and swears us into a Military Government ANIMADVERSION HOw the intent of this Act for ordering the Militia can be wrested to the sence of a Standing Army is a Construction past all Understanding but the blame of this also is laid upon the Bishops It must be said to be their Business though of all Men none are more remote from the Concern of it And as little reason also there is to perswade Men it Establishes a Standing Army or Military Government 〈◊〉 is indeed a constant Force but in whose hands Is it not in the hands of the Nobâ—â—ry and Gentry the persons of the greatest Interest and consequently most concerned in the Maintenance of Civil Government and Laws Liberty and Property Insomuch 〈…〉 as well believe the Men will cut their own Throats as betray either 〈…〉 in the hands of Men most interested by their own Concerns for Universâ—◠〈…〉 as contrary to the nature of a meer Merâ—eâ—ary Army for that he means by 〈…〉 as Fire is to Water so that the one in the very Notion as well as nature of 〈…〉 preventive and privative or exclusive of the other And in the midst of all the idle â—oâ—es that we have had these late years about a design of a Standing Army nothing â—â—s a â—reater stay to sober Mens Minds than this Consideration That as we have a Ring 〈◊〉 no 〈◊〉 designs and Intrigues one that loves his People wise and confident of his Noâ—ility â—nd Gentry so he knows he cannot need Forces to maintain his Government as long as they have the Power by Law to raise them for him nor can there be the least ground for Male-contents to sow Reports of this kind unless wicked designs of their 〈◊〉 â—gainst the Government shall prompt them to New Commotions and then indeed they may have reason to fear an Army and cry out against it before it is in being because they take mutinous courses to force it on us But another fault here found in the Militia-Act is that the Lords Lieutenants and Deputy-Lieutenants are obliged by Oath to declare against this Traiteroas Position of taking Arms against the King and that Arms may be taken by His Authority against His Person or against those that are Commissioned by Him c. Doubtless this Provision in that Act is a point grounded upon High Reason For that Position and the Coveâ—â—â—t were two Vipers that crawled into the World out of the bowels of Presbytery And out of the bowels of those two crawled all those Monstrous Treasons which afterwards were practised As to the first of them not Mariaâ—a himself nor all the curious Preachers of the Mystery of King-killing among the Jesuites ever invented a more nice and serviceable distinction so to split a hair in point of Allegience betwixt the Person of a King and His Authority that the Subjects might be brought to understand how to kill the Man and not hurt the Authority or which is all one how to destroy a King and Justifie the Fact by His own Authority The fine spinning of such Politicks exceeds all that ever was done by all the fine Spinners in Logick or Metaphysicks and 't is so fine a Folly that it would crack an honest man's brains to consider it or puzzle a wise man how to distinguish it from gross Nonsence in Polity And yet when it shall be told to our Posterity what a world of People such a phantastick Notion as this drew in to side with a piece of a Parliament against the whole and against their King too under the Notion of being for Him and for His Parliament I am perswaded it will to them be almost incredible And therefore it was high Wisdom for the Parliament to provide in this Act of Ordering the Militia that the Arms of the Nation might never come into the hands of such High-Notional Politicians in time to come who when Arms were in their hands heretofore sufficiently tutor'd us in the Arts and Effects of Military Government And ye may remember my good Friends of Shaftsbury this Letter-Man your own Countreyman had a fair share in that Military Government and knows the ready road to conduct you to a New One onely it seems another Parliament is wanting for the purpose to make this King a Glorious King too as not long since it was written to my Lord of Carlisle little I believe to his Lordships content or approbation As to that Second Viper the COVENANT Lerna Malorum From whence sprang Hydra infesting the Three Kingdoms till she returned into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone there to stare in the Faces or rather Consciences of its own Authors and Proselytes It came on in Noâ—iâ—â— Domini but whether in the Dâ—â—'is name more properly time did try For this confirm'd all the miseries that were begun and became as it were the Broad Seal of the Decree of God's Judgments upon these Nations That Solemn League and Covenant came on indeed with great Solemnity of pious Pretence of maintaining us in our former Obligations of Allegiance to the King and His Government and the Security of Religion by Reformation and by this fair fraud I am perswaded it was that abundance of men Conscientious but unwary swallowed the Hook and were caught not dreaming what ought to be consider'd for then they might have found under this Fine 〈◊〉 there was Death in the Pot seeing it had been formed and imposed onely by Fâ—â—â—ow-Subjects without and against the Will of the King for which Reason it was indirect and illegal and so great a stranger to the Right Reformed Protâ—stant Profession that Subjects should presume by Covenanting with Fire and Sword to force on a Reformation that we can find no example for it but out of the Records of Presbytâ—ry Nor is there any thing in those of Popery to be compared with it but onely that Holy League which engaged France into many years of Blood and Misery before it could be extinguished They might also had they had wisdom enough and experience have considered what was then in the heart and foresight of His Majesties Father as we find it expressed in His Writings than the insertion of which in this place nothing can be more to the purpose or more
seasonable especially in a time wherein many of the Old Kindlers are visibly blowing this Old Coal again to revive it and with it to over-heat the Brains and Consciences of men into a zeal of the same Obligation in stead of repentance that ever they took it But hear what the King said of it and 't is enough to forewarn and advise men of any Conscience or discretion in the future That saith he which makes such Confederations by way of Solemn Leagues and Covenaâ—ts the more to be suspected is That they are the common Road used in all Factions Perturbations of State or Church Where Formalities of extraordinary zeal and piety are never more studied and elaborate than when Politicians aâ—itate most desperate designs against all that is setled or sacred in Religion and Laws which by such skrues are cunningly yet forcibly wrested by secret stâ—ps and less sensible degrees from their known Rule and wonted practice to comply with the humors of those men who aim to subdue all to their own will and power under the disguises of Holy Combinations Wisdom and Truth greater than this or more Divine never was uttered by any Prince since the days of Solomon And it ought to be for ever written in the hearts of Subjects because we can seal to it upon the sad experience we had in our late Civil Wars to the utter ruine of all Religious Profession which men ought to take care by sincerity and integrity of life to hold up in the height of Reputation as the most sacred thing in the World Otherwise what we may expect of the pretences and disguises of the most Sanctimonious Combinations the same king tells us in the following words They are Cords and â—ythes will hold mens Consciences no longer than force aâ—tends and twists them for every man soon grows his own Pope and easily absolves himself of those Ties which not the command of Gods Word or the Laws of the Land but only the subtilty and terror of a Party casts upon him Indeed such illegal ways seldom or never intend the engaging of men more to Duties but only to Parties therefore 't is not regarded how they keep their Covenants in point of Piety pretended provided they adhere firmly to the Party and design intended The Imposers of such a League will admit of any mens sences of it though divers or contrary with any Salvoes Cautions and Reservations so as they cross not the chief design against the Church and their King There are many thousands yet living who can witness to the truth of it that they had no sooner involved the several Parliamentary Parties in the guilt of that Covenant but they all fastened several Sences and Constructions upon it such as might best suit with the several ends and designs of their particular Parties They like Samson's Foxes had their heads looking divers ways but were tied together by the Tails had one common Interest which tied them fast to each other in Agreement for the destruction of King and Bishops They easily absolved one another and each man himself from the seeming obligations of the Covenant to Loyalty and Government as fast as their particular occasions called them off to other Resolutions And if we may believe Sir Henry Vaâ—e it was in the penning so worded that the Noose might not be too strict and narrow for Conscience to escape out of it when occasion should require For when that Gentleman came to Tower-hill to dye he told us to this purpose that himself had been one of the Commissioners that went out of England into Scotland and was present there in those Councils then on Foot betwixt both Kingdoms which contrived that Covenant And when it was objected by some that if the Terms of the Covenant should run so high for preservation of the King and His Family as they seemed to be the King perhaps might notwithstanding be utterly hardened against it and frustrate all the good intents of it towards himself And in such case it was propounded in Council what then should be done At last it was concluded an Addition should be made to it of that ominous Clause In the preservation and defence of the Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms A Clause which was made use of afterwards to prove that the Nation might be established in a Government without any regard to the King or His Family For manifestation of this Truth there needs no more but to cast an eye back upon that fatal Remonstrance of the Army dated at St. Albans 20th November 1648. penned by Ireton Cromwel's Son-in-law the main scope whereof was â—o prove That they ought to take away the Kings Life with a pretence and form of Justice and extirpate His Family And truly I have the greater cause to remember this having at that time read the Arguments contained in several Prints against it to manifest unto the Authors of such Counsels and all the world that such a Course of proceeding against the King of England is Irrational Monstrous and in consequence pernicious to the three Kingdoms Nevertheless the Argumentation of Colonel Ireton carried it And whosoever pleases to consult the Contents of that Army Remonstrance shall find that the best Arguments he had except the Sword were all fished out of several Topicks contained in the Covenant among which the main one fetcht from that afore cited Clause was like the Sword of Goliah noâ— like it to cut asunder all Obligations both Sacred and Civil and was improved to this point That seeing these Nations were brought to such a pass as the Argumentator wâ—s pleased to say That the ends of the Covenant could not be attained by a Government with â—â— King and his Family Therefore those ends being the Principal Considerations of Mens Covenanting ought to be made good by another Government without any regard of Him or His who were but of a Secondary consideration And thus out of the Belly of that Trojan-Horse the Covenant sprang that Hobby-horse of a Republick with Cromwell on the back of it who himself at length convinced in Judgment about forms of Government saw and confessed by making himself the sole single person in Authority that no Rest is to be â—ad by Government in this Nation but by a Monarchy After this my good Friends of Shaftsbury I suppose you will not venture to gainsay but that it was well done of the Parliament and Bishops too since you will have them nam'd in particular to pass two such Acts as might keep men out of Magistracy in Corporations and out of Command in the King's Militia whose Consciences can yet relish and not abhor such a Covenant or such a Treasonous Maxim in State That the King's Authority may be made use of or turn'd against his Person And yet anon before the end of this Letter the Author will tell you of very strong Instances and Cases Somebody cited in the House of Peers wherein it was and may be lawful again so to do
Which confirms the King's good fortune and the Kingdoms too in being rid of such â— Squirrel out of Power that can crack the points of Conscience Party and Politicks as fast as Nuts to satisfie his own Ambitious and hungry Inclination The third Act that he finds fault with is the Act of Uniformity Of this he discourses as followeth LETTER THat the Clergy of England are obliged to subscribe and declare as the Corporations Nobility and Gentry did swear before That the Clergy readily complied with it being a sort of Men taught rather to obey than understand and to use that Learning they have to justifie not to examine what their Superiours command That Bartholomew-day was fatal to our Church and Religion in throwing out a very great number of Worthy Learned Pious and Orthodox Divines That the time set for them to sabscribe to the Book of Common-Prayer Established by this Act of Uniformity was so short for the Printing and Publishing of it that one Man in Forty could not see that Book which he was to assent and consent unto ANIMADVERSION AS for time to peruse the Alterations and Additions then made in the Common-Prayer-Book they had a fair space to consider after the Printing and Publication of it which was till Bartholomew-day For the principal Divines of the Nonconforming Party sat in Commission with the Bishops so that what Alterations or Additions soever were made it is known they took such care to communicate them abroad that it may be remembred how all their Party talkt of every Particular in the City and all over the Kingdom and had been carefully fixed in resolution to find fault with every thing long before the Printing and never to conform to it Besides the Reasons offer'd for Alterations or Additions desired by those Leading Men were so little considerâ—ble that there were but a very small number agreed on so that a tenth part of the time that passed betwixt its Publication and Bartholomew-day might have served them all sufficiently to consider of it had they been then to consider but alas they had been abundantly schooled by Letters before and by Prints too sent from their London-Tutors to be perfect in that old Lesson against all Reason or Moderation Non persuadebis etiamsi persuasâ—ris So that if our Letter-Man had pleased he might have spared this Objection about want of time but he had undertaken to hâ—ap what faults he could upon the Bishops right or wrong They must be accused though it was the Parliament that set the time This suits with the rest of his design as I told you But then a very great number of good and brave Divines were throwâ— out Thus he phrases it whereas indeed they threw themselves out They were it may be a sort of Divines of Conscience but whether mis-informed and erroneous it will concern them to see against the great Day of Account or whether any thing of Spiritual Pride Singularity Interest or Self-reputation with a Party or shame of receding from former mistaken Zeal Doctrines Engagements and ways of getting a Livelihood which of these Considerations might intervene betwixt the Day of Publication and Bartholoâ—â—w-day God alone knows and will one Day judge who is a God of Order and not of Confusion as in all the Churches However it concerned the Parliament to fear the worst knowing what Doctrines those Men had preached many Years before and what had been their behaviour and therefore to bar the Church-doors against the like Humours in time to come that they might no more climb up into the Publick Pulpits to perplex Affairs of the Church or by mis-leading people with shews of Zeal cause new Inflâ—mmations in the State In both which poinâ—s of Activity had not our Letter-Man very great occasion to use them at present he would not now have been so angry at their being kept out What those Worthy Learned Pious and Orthodox Divines were or still are I am tied up by the Act of Oblivion from telling which Act ought to be punctually observed as sacred by wise Men and good Christians that persons who have formerly erred against His Majesty either in Matters of State or Church may not be frighted into new Crimes for security or from making open profession of repentance for the old Chriâ—t saith 〈◊〉 is more joy in Heaven over one Siâ—nâ—r that repents than over ninety and nine that never went astray Therefore it will be more proper to paint out those Divines by probable signs of what we are to expect from them in future than by Animadverting upon their Actions past If any Divine will not declare his unseigned Assent and Consent to the Common-Prayer-Book which contains the Publick Service and Worship of the Church what reason hath the Magistrate to allow him a part of the Publick Church-Maintenance which is by Law annexed to that Service Especially seeing his refusal of Assent and Consent doth implicitely signifie that he will do all that ever he can to instruct and perswade the people against it Which of these two then is most sitting either for the Magistrate to comply with them or they with the Magistrate Moreover If any Divine shall refuse to declare and swear that he believes it unlawful to take Arms agaiâ—st the King or by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissionated by him And that â—e beliâ—â—es there lies no Oâ—ligation upon him or any other person from the Solemn League and Covenant to endeavour any Alteration in Church or State and that it was an unlawful Oath what can be supposed of such a Divinâ— but that he is capable of Earthly designs And that he may be ready when oportunity serves to take Arms and preach up again the old Doctrine of Sâ—tting the Kings Authority against his Person and the Covenant to booâ— to pull the Government of Church and State in pieces Those two opposite Principles do mutuo se pâ—llere they cannot stand together but the one naturally and absolutely drives out the other Is it in reason then to be imagined that any Prince or State should have less wisdom and fore-sight than every ordinary Animal to provide for Self-preservation by Laws that may secure the Religion and Government Established with Church-Livings also in the hands of a Regular Conforming Clergy Which Laws there was high reason so to pen that they might be as a Tâ—st for discovery and disabling of Pastors retaining Principles inconsistent with Monarchy Let the same Men but turn the Tables and remember what themselves did heretofore to the Episâ—opal Clergy for not engaging and conforming to their wild Phantsies upon every Revolution of Government and then let them and all Men consider with what front any Man of them can condemn this Wise and Provident Act made against the possibility of a Return of the like Confusions in this Kingdom hereafter to purge out such Worthy Pious but not too Learned Divines I pray you Men it seems of a narrower Swallow
Clifford â—â—ll and yet to prevent his ruine this Session had the sooner end As for the Lord Clifford me thinks he might before now have been left at rest in his Grave but there is it seems another Lord in the World is resolved he shall not because while his Lordship tugg'd hard and lay gaping for the Office of Lord Treasurer my Lord Clifford got between and carried it away for which he will never forgive his memory nor any of his Friends Nothing could please after this no not the Great Seal it self though one would have thought that enough to fill the Swallow of any Gnat. But Oh! the Dear Bag was gone the Buâ—t-end of all his hopes and so neither Seal nor Pursâ— could satisfie Nothing now but Revenge for then his Lordship saw plain the Mortality of his own Court-Interest drawing on which had been long before forfeited by many a Juggle Then his Piety began to work when his Covetousness had nothing to work upon and nothing after this could be thought of but Fire and Flames of Zeal to scatter about the Court and Kingdom A loud and sudden Cry must be raised in fear of Popery by pretence of which the old trick the Nation was to be forthwith intoxicated and the Lord Clifford confounded and all Papists also were to be put out of Office because the Maker of this Out-cry was in fear to be so I write not this to plead for their being in Office but only to observe how pat the little Adversary timed all things for his own purpose of commencing the new Game of Popularity He foresaw his own Faâ—e and labour'd hard to get in elsewhere before they had quite thrown him out at White-Hall that so when he went off he might in a new World turn up Trump as the Faith 's great Defender against Popery This was the reason why he spurr'd on that Act so eagerly to run Papists out of Office and why he afterwards appeared so vigorous in putting the Act in execution for in all the time since the King 's Happy Resâ—auration we never heard till this sudden sit of his Lordships having been in any fright before about the Papists or any other sort of Religion whatsoever So that from the time of this first fright we are to reckon the Rise of all the Jealousies and Contests that have ensued lately or which may ensue about the Affairs of the Government and of all the late ill Impressions which have been craftily and most industriously made upon the minds of the people to prepare them if possible for a Mutiny LETTER BUt the Letter goes on thus In this posture matters were found in the Session of Parliament that began Octob. 27. 1673. which being suddenly broken up did nothing ANIMADVERSION 'T is a condition of Affairs much to be lamented that so many Sessions of Parliament have of late been broken Re infecta and we might very much wonder at it considering His Majesties great delight which he hath had in the good Advices and Affections of His Parliament did we not know that some Envious Ones made it their Business to sow Tares and cast Blocks 〈◊〉 the way to impede all happy Proceeding that either House might be Imbroiled in its self and both with one another and so be utterly incapacitated for any dispatch of Publick Business The Instances are too sad to be mentioned and I wish they were for ever in oblivion which necessitated His Majesty for the very Honour of Parliament it self and of His Government to put an end to many strange Debates and Controversies which could by no other means be done but by ending the several Sessions For even in that House whose true Interest is inseparably and more especially annexed to that of the Crown Imperial of this Realm and cannot stand without it there was found a new Lord this last Session whose Speech if we may believe a Paper called a Speech carefully Printed under the Name of the Earl of Shaftsbury vented many strange Passages upon the Debate of appointing a day for the hearing of Dr. Shirley's Cause by the Peers which shew plainly enough who it was which backt and befooled the Doctor to a perpetual attendance on that Business not for any good will to him who poor Man was made a meer Stalking-horse but to catch other ends and create Mischief to King and Kingdom by strangling the great Affairs and Hopes of His Majesty in the mid'st of His many pressing Publick Occasions for Supplies to the want of which Supplies in good time we are to ascribe the late loss of Repute with the other Publick Inconveniences and Damages in our Naval Interests c. which have been complained of Such Men there are as study first how to tye up the Hands of the King and His Ministers with Necessity and then make the People cry out at them for not doing what they were disabled to do And therefore that the Nation may know to what Male-content the King and People do owe those Damages and the fruitlesness of the last Session of Parliament and from thence gâ—â—ess who it was that drave the design of frustrating also the several Sessions that went before it It will not be amiss to give the World some account here of divers Passages of that Speech Printed with the Title of the Earl of Shaftsbury which no Man that reads but would swear it his This Speech confesses the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Bishop of Salisbury had at the same time made Speeches to shew that to set a day to enter upon a Hearing in the Lords House of the Cause of Dr. Shirley before the Great Concerns of the King and Kingdom in Supplies of Money and other Bills should be dispatched would be to induce several Grand Inconveniences As first That seeing both Houses had been highly engaged in Contests with each other about their respective Priviledges occasioned by that Cause the appointing of a short day for their Lordships to hear it would immediately bring on the like Contests again and so cause a Breach betwixt the Houses and Secondly That after such a Breach made for the sake of a private Cause no ordinary way being left for dispatch of the many Publick Bills depending in the Houses or for raising of Moneys the whole Business of Naval Preparations and of other Great Affairs and of the Reputation and Interests of the King and Kingdom at home and abroad would unavoidably fall to ruine And their Lordships were told They could not but be convinced in their Coâ—sâ—iences that if that matter of Shirley were then prosecuted it must cause a Breach This was the Sence also of most other Noble Lords But alass that Printed Speech makes the Earl of Shaftsbury ring another Tune as if his Lordship had other Publick Business or as if it had no longer been Shirley's private Business but his Own so that if we may believe that Print the People need no other Evidence to shew who was the Designer of
the last Sessions of Parliaments non-effect or to enable them to ghess who it was that spoiled several foregoing Sessions by spinning the like long Speeches to start and cherish Controversies instead of doing Business And from thence they may do well to consider if the like shall be done again what kind of Man that is who shall endeavour to render a Parliament of no Effect And what a difference can be made betwixt a Subverter and a Continual Frustrater of the Parliamentary Constitution In the first place that Speech tells the Lords that the All of their Lordships was at Stake in that Business of Shirley as if the House of Peers could not stand unless they resolved to hear him that Minute and yet many Lords if Prints belie them not did seem to believe it But those Lords I suppose cannot but by this time observe this one Passage of the Print Page the 5th which represents my Lord Shaftsbury being in fâ—ar that a Vote might pass there for medling with no private Business for six weeks O my Lords said he if this be your Business see where you are if we are to Postpone our Judicature fâ—r the fear of Offending the House of Commons for six Weeks they in the Interim may pass the MONEY and other acceptable Bills which His Majesty thinks of Importance Sure the Print hath belyâ—d so Loyal a Heart as my Lord Shaftsbury to make him speak thus which in plain English amounts to this My Lords take â—eed what you do the King longs to have the Bill about Money and the other acceptable Bills of Importance dispatched and brought to him and the House of Commons would 〈◊〉 have Shirley 's Business laid aside for six Weeks that the Work may not be hindred but the King satisfied As if it had been a matter of Danger to satisfie the King which is a Reflection upon Majesty not to be darted out by any Subject in so great an Assembly And by it you have the purpose of the great Design pointed out in most Legible Characters his Lordship openly perswading the Peers if he can to thwart the King and render the Parliament unfit to do the Kings Business So that if the Print be a true Copy of his Speech then here 's the Trouble-House Ex ore tuo condemnaberis What need we any more witness who it is that troubles the King and Kingdom But the Print goes on and saith his Lordship said further That to lâ—y sweet Shirley aside Page the 6th would be to alter the Constitution of the Government and there is no Reason of State can be an Argument to your Lordships to turn your selves out of that Interest you have in the Constitution of the Government Nothing may more make us suspect this Speech than that it presents his Lordship as a Man afraid of altering the Constitution of Government I must confess I never knew him like an alteration in any Government as long as himself could be one in it therefore seeing he is none now 't is wisely done of him to insinuate the Crime upon others for so the Print doth very slily upon those Noble Lords whose Judgment and Conscience led them to lay aside Disputes about Judicature that they might do the King and Kingdoms Business before Shirley's And for this they were told Page 6th that they were ready to give away their Peâ—rage with its Rights and Priviledges and â—umbling down their own House to become Creatures as mean and low notwithstanding they have Titles as they are in absolute Monarchies And that there is no Priâ—â—e that evâ—r Govern'd without a Nobility or an Army if you will not have one you must have tâ— other And thus he concludes I therefore declare that I will serve my Prince as a Peer but will not destroy the Peâ—rage to serve him And now let us consider what occasion or need his Lordship had of this high Bravade unless it were craftily to possess mens Minds with a secret Opinion as if the King and those Noble Lords which sâ—uck close to His Majesties Concerns and the Kingdoms in this Debate had an end to Overthrow the House of Peers make the Monarchy absolute and Rule by an Army A thing the most impertinently and senslesly insinuated that can be from such Premises as have been mentioned And it rather argues that the Arguer hath some strange design or other upon the Government if he cannot by hook or by crook get himself in again to the Helm of it But his Reasons and the Design being well enough apprehended this and some other little Delusions of late years practised under Publick good Pretences cannot but be understood by the Lords and Commons as meer Tricks to turn the Frame of Government off its Wheels again and to shatter it into a Presbyterian Aristocratick or a Popular Tyranny for that is the inevitable consequence of unhinging this Well-order'd-Monarchy But the Print saith his Lordship went yet farther being resolved to search the Monarchy to the bottom page 10. and 11. and by the way he digs down as low as the Grave of Archbishop Laud. His Lordships Friends of Presbytery tumbled him in and Why should not he make bold to rake him out again The new Canons also made in that Archbishops time are brought forth and Arraigned with the Bishops for asserting Monarchy to be of Divine Right It seems then the Work is going on again they mean to bait the Bishops and undress the Monarchy once more and then stuff it with Presbyterian Hay or Stubble It may amaze any man to think of his Lordships wild way of discourse how it was possible from so slender a Topick as the Case of Shirley to improve it unto the introducing and determining of so many great and weighty Points and how he had the Art to hale them in thus by head and shoulders but the itch of much Speech-making is a disease that makes men sometimes delirious For the Print boldly infers these following Particulars 1. That the King is King by Law and by the same Law that the poor man enjoys his Cottage What need this have been said at a time when there was no occasion for it unless his Lordship had a mind to maintain That the King hath no Right more Divine than a Cottager For Dolus latet in Generalibus and these things do not portend any good meaning 2. That a King Governing by an Aymy without his Parliament is a Government saith he that I own not am not obliged to nor was born under 'T is a pleasant thing to have thus entertained the House of Peers First with setting up Men of Straw and then to defeat them start Chimâ—raes and run them down again by force of imagination to six a King as Governing in the head of an imaginary Army and then â—out him and the Scene of all this must be supposed to be England because his Lordship was not born nor is obliged to Government any where else Nor can the common
is not ignorant how this Protestation came on nor can the World be ignorant how far his Hand went in promoting it care having been taken by some Body during the time his Lordship was in the Country before the last Session of Parliament to employ certain Emissaries and Agents to carry up and down not only to many Lords in and about this City but likewise to all the most noted Coffeâ—-houses Copies of a Letter said in the Superscription of it to have been first written to the Earl of Carlisle and to have been subscribed Your Lordships humble Servant SHAFTSBURY My Lord of Carlisle is a very noble Person and I would not by any means mis-represent him he having seen too many Experiments of Male-contented Demagogues and their little Tricks to be caught by them or to countenance them 'T is rather to be supposed the Penner made bold with him It was necessary to direct it to some Body and easie to send Copies along with it at the same time to be communicated to every Body for there was no fear but among the Coffee-hâ—unters there would be found Copiers enough to furnish both City and Kingdom the Design being laid now by this new Epistle to prepare Mens Minds for a crying down the present Parliament seeing there are too many Wise Men in it and too Loyal to be shaken by a Shuttlecock and for crying out for a New Parliament while in the mean time matters are so labour'd in the Old One as we have abundantly seen the last Session that no Business should be done by them and then there may thence arise as is imagined an unanswerable Argument for a Trial of Skill in Electing a New for his Tool the Presbyter despairing to get Dominion by the way of the King wants only opportunity to be Canvasing and Tugging for another Forty-One-Parliament and would never be at rest till he hath gotten both Houses over his Head again at Westminster So that if the other Nonconformists will well apprehend the improvement of their own Interest let them know that as they have reason to decline them being their worst Enemies by principle so they have the fairest opportunity in shewing themselves firm henceforth to the Crown to stand most fair in the good opinion and favour of His Majesty as a Party much more tolerable in the Constitution of the Government And then there can be no fear of that they call Persecution because the reason and occasion of it will be gone No Creditor but will be kind when he hath gotten Security Even so it is with Kings and other Governours they grieve no Party more than other when they are once secured they will pay the Debt of Obedience and Loyalty for 't is their Interest to cherish and see every Party thriâ—e and flourish if it be not dangerous Arguments in that Epistle his Lordship offers none having long since arrived to that Noble Confidence as to think his own word sufficient warrant for any Assertion therefore he boldly saith 't is the Interest of the King the Lords and the Commons to have a New Parliament without any more ado But for his Reasons we must have recourse to the Protestation it self which are first for the Dissolution of this Parliament and they are but these few following First The Protestation saith It is according to the ancient Laws and Statutes of this Realm that there should be frequent and new Parliaments and that the practise of several years hath been accordingly 'T is true the Kings of this Realm have formerly had cause to delight in calling them and our Chronicles tell us also that till the Barons Wars came and after the Barons Wars were ended down to the time of King James Parliaments were modest in their station and easie to the King so that the Business of the Kingdom went on current without long Speeches and hot Disputes But in King James his time the Presbyter or Puritaâ— as Men then called him whom Queen Elizabeth in her time not without much ado kept down began to spread his Wings grew numerous and headstrong so that they were able to furnish the Commons House with a Canvasing Party and did it constantly at every Election and divers Members of the House of Peers who in those days affected Preferment at Court and wanted it and envied others that had it or were otherwise male-content or intoxicated with mistaken Zeal of new Phantsies about Religion or Church-Government were not wanting to make a Party of Lords to second that fiery part of the Commons who carried matters divers times so high that That King was necessitated towards the latter end of his Reign for the Honour of his Crown and Preservation of the Government in qâ—iet often to dissolve them Of which the Puritan that is the Presbyter always made advantage by exceeding Clamour against the Court to gain the ignorant and unwary part of the people to his party And so you see to what sort of Men we owe the new invention of Frustrating Parliaments After this comes King Charles the First to the Government upon whom they perpetually practis'd it in all Parliaments that he called and at length you know that working upon the Kings Necessities in the year 1641. they in a manner constraâ—ned him to perpetuate them in Power which was the ruine of the Royal Government and at length of all Government it self It is to be noted also that it was not till the beginning of his Reign that they took up the other New Trick of State which was seeing they durst not yet be so bold as to strike at the King himself for supposed defaults in Government they resolved to strike as near him as they could and so they began to make it constant work to fall upon his Chief Ministers of State and always in the Intervals of Parliament made it their Business to fill the Kingdom with Clamours against them so preparing them thereby as a Sacrifice to their own ends and cruelty and to the Peoples folly against every call of a Parliament Thus it was from the time of the old Duke of Buckingham who by a brave Defence in Parliament made good his Station to the time of that most brave though most unfortunate Man the Earl of Strafford whom they worried to death by Popular Tumults after he had bastled them at the Bar in defending himself most gloriously As they did also Archbishop Laâ—d a Man of high design for the Honour of the King and Glory of the Church which they charged on him to be for introducing of Slavery and Popery so that all the rest of the King's Ministers were glad to flee for safety of their Lives Nay they stopt not here but being flusht drew up Articles of High Treason against the Queens Majesty And then we too sadly remember how easily afterwards they passed on to a Charge against the King himself I write not this as if I meant to scandalize or cast an Odium upon that ancient Right
the King to part with this Parliament as it is for you to depart from that Loyalty Affection and Dutiful Behaviour you have hitherto shewed towards Him Let us bless the King for taking away all our Fears and leaving no room for Jealousies for those Assurances and Promises He hath made us Let us bless God and the King that our Religion is safe That the CHURCH OF ENGLAND is the Care of our Prince That PARLIAMENTS ARE SAFE That our properties and liberties are safe What more hath a good Englishman to ask but that this King may long Reign and that this triple Alliance of King Parliament and People may never be DISSOLVED All which being spoken of this present Parliament may well serve for an Answer to his Lordships Protestation notwithstanding those Reasons therein contained For surely matters cannot in so short a time be so exceedingly alter'd as to deserve this protesting or the declaimings in that violent manner as throughout this whole Discourse we have seen by reflecting upon the Bishops and against the continuance of the Parliament that were in his Lordships good opinion so sacred about five years ago The old saying is Nemo repente â—it turpissimus and 't is a true one that no man grows as bad as bad may be on a sudden and if there be any weight in what his Lordship hath said on both sides it is more reasonable and probable for us to conclude and understand ill of himself rather than of the Parliament because the Transits of great Assemblies are not so quick and another Proverb saith Great Bodies move but slowly so that their principles purposes and designs cannot vary all points of the Compass at so brisk a rate as one nimble States-man's whose motion is wont to be per Saltum after the manner of Leap-Frog from the Artick to the Antartick in a Trice especially if he happen to fall into foul weather at Court and can ride there no longer but must make use of any wind to set sail into some other Port. Which we hope will be consider'd by the rest of the Lords Protesters And truly their Lordships have the fairer excuse to come off because the thing was done in a heat and in haste as appears first by the printed Title of the Protestation which saith it was on the morning that the Parliament was Prorogued 1675 and the printed words at the end of it are That the Lords in print were all that were in the House early enough to Sign it before the Prorogation So that it seems his Lordship could not be at rest till he had given all the World to understand why it was that he was so warm in his Speeches upon Cross-points which must make a Breach betwixt the Houses all along the Session to hinder all manner of publick Business and then from the non-dispatch of it to inâ—er that this Parliament is not fit for it and then forsooth we are to believe what he dictates and admit a protesting Ergo That there is a necessity of dissolving this and calling a new Parliament For his Lordship and the rest in print do close the Protestation with these three Lines That it is in their humble opinion become altogether unpracticable for the Two Houses as the case stands joyntly to pursue those great and good Ends for which they were called That is as much as to say it will be so if the case shall so stand in the opening of this approching Session as it was in the ending of the last For some say his Lordship hath Dr. Shirley in his pocket and can start him again at pleasure to make the same scuffle about priviledge betwixt the Houses But some think he will be wiserâ— because the Trick being now thus plainly understood it will be too ridiculous to play it over again in an Assembly of so many noble seeing and knowing Men as make up the House of Peers Nor is it probable that the Commons House filled with men of great wisdom insight in Affairs and integrity should meet together without Expedients to prevent further Contests and to carry on the King and Kingdoms business Which they are the rather obliged to do for the Honour of their House in a double respect First because if this House of Commons which began and carried on things so gloriously for the Establishment of the King and Settlement of the Kingdom shall be deprived of opportunity to finish what they began What can be the end but to go out in a Snuff according to the Designs of a busie Rampant Faction who mortally hate them for the good they have done and whose Triumph it would be to transmit the memory of them to posterity with igâ—ominy and this bitter Sarcasm That they began to build but could not make an end Secondly They are exceedingly concerned in point of Honour seeing they are represented in Print to the World as a sort of people that may be easily plaid upon and led by the nose to do what other men please For in a print published at the same time with the other prints since the last Session and by the same hand Entituled The Debate or Arguments for Dissolving this present Parliament and the calling frequent New Ones as they were delivered in the House of Peers Novemb. 20th 1675. I find page 9. it is boasted by the Designers concerning the Commons House that they have a party of Members in that House whom the said print calls Many of the ablest and most worthy Patriots among them whose business it was to second the Protesting Lords by carrying this difference betwixt the Houses to the greatest height that by this means they might deliver the Nation from this Parliament by Dissolution and have a New one called So that Here we have OPEN CONFESSION that it was a Design carried on by a PARTY in both Houses to bring on and carry on their Fellow-Members to such disputes as might Disable them to do the Publick Work and thence to conclude that they ought to be dissolved Which certainly is a Conspiracy of such a Magnitude that none ever exceeded it but the Powder-Treason Especially if we consider what course hath been taken by this kind of Prints spread over the Three Kingdoms to Poison mens minds and render the Government Ridiculous by exposing the Debates and Contestings of Parliament to the Scorn and Contempt of the Vulgar through the Artifice and cunning of that Implacable Party which I have so often mentioned and whose DESIGN is now Manifested to be a BLOWING UP of the Parliament after another manner It cannot be amiss therefore before I dismiss this Point to try the strength of what they have DISCOURSED for a NEW PARLIAMENT as it hath been Printed in the forecited Pamphlet called The Debate and Arguments used in the House of Peers c. There are saith that Pamphlet Two Objections that make a great Sound which have really nothinâ— of weight in them The first Objection is That the Crown is
in danger if you call a New Parliament This Objection they pretend to answer by saying there 's no fear of danger because Men of Quality of Estates and of the best Understanding and such as will give Money will be chosen But I reply this Argument hath more Malice than Reason to support it because it reflects as if these were not such The Generality of this House of Commons are known to be men of the best Quality and of Estates and of the best understanding All their Fault is in the Opinion of the Conspiring Party that they too well understand them and their Design and what the true interest of the Crown is and that as they ever have been so they still are tight and firm to it and the Government and that the great interest of the Nobles Gentry and Commons of the Land lies in being so This they understand Besides they are men best acquainted and expert in the management of Parliamentary Affairs and therefore more likely than men newly elected to make dispatch of them if the Projectors did not study all ways to impede them for other ends than the â—ase and supply of the Crown And therefore a New Parliament is not now to be called for these following Reasons I. Because it is not for the honour of the King to be as it were Trepann'd thus by Tricks or worried by Clamors and Importunities into a necessity of calling a new Parliament because it will in the judgment of wise men at home and of Princes abroad be no other than an imposing upon him in one main point of his Prerogative which is to use His own discretion and take His own time for the summoning and dissolving of Parliaments II. It cannot be for his safety or advantage because if Money be wanting know he must pay dear for it before the New One will give it and What can they give which may not more readily be had by the present Parliament if the just indignation of His Majesty and His two Houses shall arise against the stratagems oâ— the Prime Projectors and defeat them I cannot forget what mine eyes have seen in the days of His Royal Father therefore since years teach wisâ—om and the experience of like matters in time past gives instruction for the future it cannot but be good to bring them fresh into remembrance Let us therefore remember how it was with King Charles the First It was the cunning of the same Faction having an aking Tooth at the Bishops and consequently a design to alter the Government as now they have again which they could not easily do without clamouring about matters of Religion and against some Errors and Excesses of the Court and the King's Ministers Therefore as they plied that point home in hope to gain the people so in the beginning of His Reign they finding the King in necessity of Money to satisfie His Fathers Debts and for other great occasions at home and abroad and knowing that a Parliament must be called for Raising Money they laid the Plot thus First to work upon that necessity by high popular demands such as must either bow the King to comply with them and then it would be easie for them to pursue their wild projects of alteration in State and Church or else it would constrain him to break them And that they feared not knowing it could not be long before he would have occasion to call a Second Parliament which they by the like demands would bring to nothing as easily as before unless the King would consent to them which they presumed he would never do And it came to pass as they had before contrived that the King was frustrated of the hopes he had of three or four Parliaments by sending them away one after another not getting one peny but he being tired out and having perceived that they entred upon such debates and made such demands as intrenched upon the Interest of His Crown and that a condescension to them would have brought both him and it into contempt he was constrained to shift without Parliaments to his great sorrow and it proved to be the great occasion of the late War enough to shew what it is for a King in want of Money in these days to call a New Parliament of whose kindness he hath had no experience especially when he hath already a Parliament in being most dutiful wise and able to do his and his Kingdoms business if some few persons would please to study peace and leave off contention The truth of the forementioned Plot of the Commons in those days I shall by and by more particularly demonstrate In the mean while you may remember I told you this sort of Game they began in the latter end of the Reign of King James and now you shall see how they plaid it Before that time the Commons never medled at so high a rate but in the Nineteenth year of that King when he called a Parliament about the assistance of the Prince Palatine his Majesty was in great want of Money to relieve the Palatinate and great hopes were given him of a Supply What was the Issue of this necessity of calling it The King had a mind to Adjourn the Parliament but for a little season and for some Reasons which he foresaw required it whereupon the Faction presently interposed and drew the rest of their Fellow-Members to Petition him against Adjournment insomuch that the wise King being Jealous of his Prerogative and not liking that the Commons should so much as meddle with it though in a way but Petitionary he very much resented it and told a Committee which they sent to him about it That he took it very ill the Commons should dispute his Reasons of Adjournment all Power being in him alone to Call Adjourn and Dissolve Parliaments This made the Faction so bold and Mutinous in discourse every where that His Maiesty was fain to put forth a Proclamation against talking of State-affairs with such inordinate liberty The time of the Parliaments Adjournment being expired they came together again and what then The Palatine Cause requiring Supply more than before and the Lord Treasurer having in a Speech laid open the Kings Wants and how empty his Coffers were the Faction thought they should now in his Necessity be able to work him like Wax therefore in stead of Money they immediately salute him with a Catalogue of his Faults the growing Mischiefs of his Government and dictate unto him Remedies and they called it A Petition and Remonstrance The King then by Letter to the Speaker sharply complains of this Indignity imputes it not to the House it self but to the boldness of some fiery and popular Spirits in the House of Commons which were the Predecessors of our present Faction whom he brands with Breach of his Prerogative Royal by debating publickly Matters which were above them Nevertheless having him at a pinch for Money they grew the bolder and hereupon drew up
another Petition and sent it to back their former Remonstrance To which his Majesty gave a smart Answer taxing the Faction and desiring the Commons henceforth not to give car to those Tribunitial Orators among them advising them also to keep within their Bounds and that the way to preserve their Priviledges was not to pare his Prerogative and pull the Flowers of the Crown Then to shew it was indeed a Fiery Faction they blew the Flame yet higher and by Speech-making got the Major Vote to come to a Protestation that they ought to debate high Matters and it was their Priviledge c. But this was done by the Faction by surprise the Third part of the House not present This so moved the King that to preserve his Prerogative he was forced to send for the Clerk of the House of Commons to bring his Journal-Book to Whitehall and produce it in the Pricy Council where his Majesty thought fit that the Protestation should be razed out of all Memorials and utterly to be annihilated both in respect of the manner by which it was gained and of the Matter therein contained and he did in full Council and in the presence of the Judges declare it void and of none effect because it was Penned in such general and ambiguous words as might serve for future Times to invade most of the Rights and Prerogatives annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm For his Majesty did not deny but that the House might Treat and Debate De Arduis Regni which words said the King were cunningly mentioned in that Protestation but they ought to have remember'd also the word Quibusdam which restraineth the generality of the other words Arduous Affairs of the Kingdom to such particular Cases as his Majesty pleaseth to consult with them upon Therefore the King did further Mann propria take the said Protestation out of the Journal-Book of the Cemmons and made an Act of Council thereupon And in six days after he was necessitated to Dissolve them having got not one Peny of Money for his Extream Occasions For it was the Arcanum of the Faction even in those days to make High Demands and raise Quarrels about Priviledges and other Matters intrenching upon the Rights of the Crown that as oft as they got the Parliament-House over their Heads they took the same Method of working upon want of Money to brave the King and by not supplying him to held his Nâ—sâ— to the Grindstone They clamour'd ever for Parliaments lured the King in witâ— Hopes of Money to call them and then in stead of Money they fell to disputing with him so that the Parliaments in the latter end of King James's Reign were of no use to him except the last a little before he died For in his last appearance with them he complained how the Faction had made him Break the Necks of Three Parliaments together by which he meant the Three Preceding Parliaments King James being gone now let us see more at large how they used his Son King Charles in his first Parliament Annâ— 1625. which by reason of the Plague at London was Adjourned to Oxford The Supplies for carrying on the Palatine Cause had been pressed by the Lord Keeper before at westminster and now at Oxford the Kings Secretaries of State Report to both Houses the Kings great Occasions for Money and the great Debts left upon him by his Father Thereupon the Faction having a Young King to deal with and in Necessity for Money began to Rant more than ever with High Debates reflecting upon his Ministers as Evil Counsellors and upon himself upbraiding him that his Necessities arose from Improvidence and a world of such like stuff they â—witted him with and cried out also on Popery as if it had been just coming in but in the mean time they neglected the Palatine Cause the supplying whereof ought to have been speedy and afterwards Scandalized the King and his Ministers in having the blune of it upon them Next they sell upon High Demands from the King before they would think of a Peny The same 〈◊〉 as before in King James's days So the King perceiving they were resolved against Supplies unless they might have their will upon himself and tear his Ministers and some of his Counsellors in pieces He after three Moneths sitting was forced to Dissolve them About five Moneths after that Dissolution his Majesties great Necessities urged him to the calling of a Second Parliament which was done and no sooner 〈◊〉 but the Faction resumed the very same Courses again onely in one particular they alter'd from calumniating the Kings Ministers in general they now began to fall in stead of Money upon the Duke of Beâ—â—kingham though the King in his Speech willed them rather to remember it was not long since in his Fathers time that They did so much 〈◊〉 anâ— Reâ—pâ—â—him that all the Honour â—â—ferred on him wâ—â—s too little Many hot and high Debates passed nevertheless in despight of the Faction the Loyal part of the Commons made a shift to get a Vote for Three Subsidies and Three Fifteens for the King but it came to nothing for though the King after wards wrote a Letter to them and otherwise also importuned them to bring him that Bill of Subsidy to pass telling them he should look upon Longer delay as a denial yet the Faction so disturbed the House with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Debates that nothing was done the King got not a Eâ—â—thing and was constrained after Four Moneths sitting to Dissolve them a Second time The next year after a Third Parliament was callâ—d and though the 〈◊〉 in it laboured hard in their wonted way yet for meer shame at length a Subsidy was Voted and passed by the Industry of the Loyal Party But on the other hand the Faction stomaching the Matter contrived how to shew their Malice another way and drave on a Remonstrance to take away Tonnage and Poundage one of the chiefest Maintenances of the Crown Which to prevent the King was fain to go Himself in Person to Prorogue them for Four Moneths time and that being â—igh expired it was by Proclamation Prorogued for Three Moneths more after which being Re-assembled the Faction flew out into high Fits about Priests and Popery and Grievances and were so tumultuary that the Speaker was leaving the Chair but that they held him in by force till they had passed Resolves against payment of the Kings Tonnage and Poâ—ndage And so what Money they had given with one hand they took away with another So that nothing being likely but Mischief to the Crown by longer Siâ—ting 〈◊〉 King was glad to Dissolve them by Proclamation afterwards and to acquaint the World with their Behaviour by putting forth a Declaration of the Causes of their Dissâ—â—â—ion Thereupon his Majesty was necesâ—itated to have recourse unto extraordinary ways for Supply to carry on the Government without Parliaments for almost Twelve Years after for by the violent and unreasonable proceedings
of that desperate Faction which at every Election crept in among them they were reduced into a state not onely unpracticable and useless but dangerous to the Crown During this Twelve years interval the Faction now lay at lurch in City and Countrey â—retting and corroding in the bowels of the Government and collecting matter of new accusations against the King and his Ministers out of those extraordinary courses which the necessâ—ty they had forced on them compelled them to take for upholding the Government and which their Factions providence reâ—erved in mind on purpose to make use of whensoever time should bring a necessity upon the King to call another Parliament It was so at length that they contrived this necessity for they truck'd with the Scots and by corresponding there brought them into England in the Year 1639. which put the King to a great charge to raise an Army to oppose them But the matter being composed a Pacification was agreed on the Scots were to be paid a sum of Money and Money the King must provide for them So necessity at last made him call that fatal Parliament which began Novemb. 3. 1641. Which being met the Faction began now to work on his Majesty to purpose told him no Money was to be had but by borrowing and men would not credit them unless they could be sure the Parliament might fit long enough to repay it So by this means the King being desirous to rid away the Scots out of the Kingdom was wrought upon for raising the Money to pass that prodigious Act which enabled that Parliament to fit at Westminster as long as they pleased and so to do what they liâ—t Then you know how they used the King afterward for his kindness what strange things they did and to what Conclusion at length they came From whence arises this sharp Instruction for all succeeding Kings That while this Faction reigns upon the face of the Earth they takeheed of relying upon them in a time of the Crown 's necessity and of giving them opportunity by calling a new Parliament in hope of getting Money forasmuch as woful experience hath shâ—wn us they at such a time make it their business to ask not to give and never to leave asking till they come to be disposers both of the King and Kingdom This is it they would now be at and have fixed their Party for it all over the Nation to scuffle hard at new Elections So I suppose I have sufficiently cleared my Second Reason by ample Experiments that it cannot be for the King's advantage or safety in such a time as the present to part with this Parliament and call a new unless it were possible that a Leopard should change his spots or a Blackmore his skin or that this Mercurial Faction which is now by its Leaders and Drivers made more mad than ever for an opportunity should change its nature and become tame on a sudden and be fix'd in a greater honesty and kindness to this King than they were to his Grandfather and Father or in truth to the established Government and Interest of the Crown Credat Judaeus Apella Non ego 3. A Third Reason ariseth from the natural Temper and Constitution of the Party in respect of the Government He understands little that seeth not Presbytery to be the bottom of all that Bottom wherein we have seen embarquing many years unpreferred Clergy-men broken Factions cashier'd Courtiers guilty Officers by pocritical Citizens mistaken Zealots of both Sexes old Sinners but young Saints and their pedling Levites whose work it is from house to house to blow the Bellows round the Kingdom All which use to employ their Talents to draw in many of the honest-hearted Gentry though not into the same opinion with them in Religious matters yet to side and vote with them in their pretences of redressing publick Grievances reformation of Abuses removing or doing justice upon evil Counsellors and the like And with these charms they have been wont to hold many publick-spirited Countrey-Gentleman fast to their side till they have humbled the King the Court and all the Fast-friends of the Government and brought all to their bow they give them the slip into further proceedings they pull off their Visors shew their Faces and slie higher and higher till they top all that is above and tumble it down as they did of old often in Scotland and of late in England To that Malign Ulcer of Presbytery it is that most of the ill humours of the Kingdom flow because the Preshyterian is for some National Government of the Church though in such a way as is utterly inconfident with the Monarchy The reason of it is plain because it derives no Power from the King but pretends only from the King of Kings Christ yet would have a Secular Influence to Govern the Kingdom in their own Spiritual way which is by a Parity of Presbyters a Power purely Aristocratical directly contradistinct to the form of Monarchy to which the single Bishop only is agreeable because he arrogates not any influence in Government over the people but what he derives from the King Now then so it is that seeing some National Church-Government is that which must be and the Episcopal is that which is the Kings best hold and most firm to him therefore the 〈◊〉 and Leaders of present Quarrels being â—aln from all their interests in Court common Cunning tells them they must strike in with the men of the other Form to build new Fortunes upon the ruine of the Court and the Bishops if they mean to be great and Govern which cannot be more readily done than by becoming pretended Reformers of the old Government in the Church and by introducing a Church-Arisâ—ocracy into the room of it for if one be not the other must be and if so be they slip into the head of it they will never be without such a Conscience as will engage them to maintain it being men of a versatile principle So that when I view the Printed Lists of them me-thinks I already see Lords States or at least Twenty four Conserâ—ators that would be assisted by the Spiritual Aristocracy of a General Assembly for they reckon all is done if they can but come to tug for it in another Parliament This brings us to take notice of a Second Objection against their design of breaking off the Parliament which the projecting Polititiaâ—s seem to flight and 't is this That the Church and this Parliament will fall together 'T were but vain to write much more to shew the grand probability of it and of the debasement or ruine of this glorious Monarchy if the Faction can finish what they have projected But why is it that they utter'd and printed lately so mâ—ny severe Reâ—lections upon his Majesty and his Government Why hath this LETTER upon which I have here written these ANIMADVERSIONS made it its main scope to cast all the Odium of the evils therein pretended upon
and can be no stâ—rters To what purpose should I repeat what this LETTER tells how some Lords spun out such DIVIâ—ITY about State-Oathes that one would even swear they had been furnish't by their own new Chaplains or how one â—ord argued That no State 〈…〉 sâ—curity by Oathes I think so too among sâ—â—e sorts of Chriâ—â—ians but I remember among the Heathens an Oath did signifie Somewhat and that of old it was thought Wisdom and good Policy by all the World By Oathes to oblige men unto Obedience and Loyalâ—y We are assured the Fâ—ther of the Faithful Abraham did so in his Kingdom he being reckoned in those days a mighty Prince And it was to oblige his servant to secure the Succession of his Principality by such an Alliance as himself had appointed Genesis 24. 3. and â— Verses I will said he make thâ—e swear unto me by the Lord the God of Heavâ—n and the God of the Earth c. It follows And hâ—s Servaâ—t put his hand under the 〈◊〉 of Abraham and sware to hiâ— concerning that matter In another place also we find King 〈◊〉 making 〈◊〉 to Swear not to deal falsly with him and his Posâ—erity Aâ—d saith the Text Abraham said I will Swear Abraham was then within the Kingdom of 〈◊〉 and had protection from him therefore took an Oath of Fidelâ—â—y to him Both which Oathes had certainly never passed had not Abraham thought it lawful for him both to exact and to give an Oath of Fealty Which is no more than what is contained in that Oath of the Test about which the Protestâ—â—s made so great a Bustle that the Debates as this LETTER saith took up 〈…〉 debate together And in the foregoing part of thâ—se 〈…〉 you may remember I noted that in the printed Arguments of their Lordships it was confeâ—â—ed 〈◊〉 Conscience about an Oath soever was prâ—tâ—nded 〈…〉 part of the publick 〈◊〉 and that therâ—upon might follow a fair occasion to make an Out-cry to be rid of this Parliament That Oath of Test differs but little from the Oath of Allegiance and 't is shrewdly to be suspected that he who contends against this would refuse likewise the other Oath if it were tender'd uâ—â—â— him again Nor can I see why he should scruple the one more than the other unlâ—â—â— it be for the sake of this one good Clause in it that he was by the Test to have sworn That he abâ—ors that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by the Kings Authority against his Person a Doctrinal distinction used as I told you in the beginning of the late Wars a meer device to pull scruples out of mens Consciences that they might fool themâ—elves into an opinion that they fought for the King as well as the Parliament though they shot their Bullets against his Presence and Person so that in case they had shot him dead they were still to understand it was no hurt to his Authority Thus the Pope heretofore and his party when by sentence they Excommunicated Kings and Deposed them as Hereticks and imployed Villains to assassmate them steel'd their Consciences for the doing of the fatal deed with a like distinction That they killed the Heretick not the King Which comes all to one end with our new Jesuitical Position That you may in your minds separate a Kings Authority from a Kings Person then use it to take Arms against him which if he resists you are to conceive he resists the Kingly Authority by consequence becomes an Enemy or Rebel and so if in the resistance you kill him you kill the Rebel not the King But this is not the only point of subtilty wherein our fine Spinners of Theology and Policy do agree with the Jesuites Was it not then think ye high time for those Noble Lords to promote that Oath of Test and insert in it that most necessary Clause of abâ—orring so damnable a Doctrine For whosoever he be that refuses to declare his abhorrency of it and perswades men publickly to the like refusal doth as good as give an open alarm to the State and threaten Rebellion while he prepares and draws a party into the same perswasion and opens unto them so ready a way to it So that from a sort of people so instructed I easily grant there can â—e no security by Oaths unto any State whatsoever as some of the Protesters did affirm But the LETTER proceeds further about Oaths and tells â—s Christ himself hath forbidden sâ—â—h Oaths and that Grotiâ—s in his Book de Jure Belli Paâ—is seems to make it plain from Matth. 5. 34 37. Swear not at all c. Lord what Absurdities will not men say and do when they are out of humour I shew'd before how shrewdly their Protesting Lordships were put to it in point of State to borrow Arguments from the Lâ—vâ—llers but now for Divinity about Oaths they are fain to borrow of the Quakers and would fain make Grâ—tiâ—s a Quaker too but yet they conâ—ess he doth but seem to make plain the Doctrine therefore since 't is noâ— worth the while nor have I time to shew them at large their mistakes of the Authors meaning I affirm what is plainly the sence of those Texts The Jews had among them an ill custom of mingling Oaths with their ordinary Communiâ—â—tion such as these By Heaven By the â—arth By Jerusalem and By my Head These are nothing of kin to State-Oaths or Oaths before a Magistrate but the prohibition intended there by Chriâ—â— is against idle and prâ—â—ane Oaths in common Conversation as appears by these closing words 〈◊〉 lâ—t â—our Communication be Yea yea Nay nay For whatsoever is morâ— thaâ— thâ—se 〈◊〉 of â—â—il Our Sâ—viouâ— restringeth manifestly the sence and scope of his words to mens evil Communication and the stress of his prohibition is laid upon common Oaths in discourse as is obvious to any man well in his sences and it cannot â—e wrestâ—d against Oaths of any other kind without the torture of an 〈…〉 And yet it must be understood of Stâ—tâ—-Oaths when his little Lordship will have it so and hath a mind to lead about and 〈◊〉 or doze a company of his 〈◊〉 Believers But it waâ— boldly ventur'd to preach such stuff upon those Texts as he did in the very Temple of wisdom I mean that Sacred Assembly of the House of Peers where his Majesty is supposed to be always present Nevertheless we are told by the Letter that in the same House they had every day from his Lordship and his friends one Sermon or other as good as that not upon Points of Divinity but upon Niceties and Quillets and Quibbles and fine-spun Cobwebs of Policy telling the World how to bound Monarchy and shackle Kings with fear of Humane Resistance and not leave them onely to the fâ—â—â— of God to restrain them Thus the Corâ— of Kings is measured by his Lordships little Bâ—â—el He â—â—ses as â—e usâ—s implies the Fear of God to be of little force to govern Kings
A PACQUET OF ADVICES AND ANIMADVERSIONS Sent from LONDON To the Men of SHAFTSBVRY Which is of Use for all His MAJESTIES Subjects in the Three Kingdoms Occasioned by a Seditious Pamphlet Intituled A Letter from a Person of Quality to His Friend in the Country LONDON Printed in the Year 1676. A Pacquet of Advices and Animadversions sent from London to the Men of Shaftsbury c. Ye Men of Shaftsbury both Lords and Gentlemen T IS well that in this Interval of Parliament we have some time for Contemplation and rest from Business that so we might reflect upon what we have done as well as consider what we ought next to do and in cool Blood ponder the Nature and probable Events of those Counsels that some of us so fiercely prosecuted in the Last Session 1675 together with the By-ends of such as first set them on foot and engaged us to serve them the danger whereof while we were in the heats of Passion and Transaction it was hardly possible for us to apprehend And now SIRS this being our season for thinking pray you think in the first place who gave the Occasion for so long an Interval Why was it that His MAJESTY was constrained to put an End to your High Debates and by so long a Prorogation but that it was your Little Friend 's Great Aim it should be so and that the KING should not be able to do otherwise I mean Mephistophiles the Faery Fâ—end that haunts Both Houses of whom I have been told the Witty Duke of Buckingham likened him to Will-with-a-Wisp that uses to lead Men out of the way then leaves them at last in a Ditch and Darkness and nimbly retreats for Self-security This no doubt the Noble Duke had not only observed long since in his srequent Jilting with others but had also if he please to remember fresh experience of him in his late shifting of Counsels ere he left White-Hall So that I suppose all Intelligent Persons will be wary how they imbarque with him any more For this is the prime Quality of the Person now let us next see what the Contents of that LETTER are to the Friend in the Country Truly whoever was its Father it looks like somewhat that would fain get out in the World in the Figure of XLI for upon strict view it will appear so as I shall shew you by and by with every Feature Limb and Proportion of the Old Faction insomuch as there can be no Man that ever felt the sad Consequents of that Year or remembers the Sea of Blood that then we swam in and many Years after with the Plundrings Free-Quarters and Desolations that followed on every side and what in thâ—â—nd we got by the Faction but must reckon himself bound in Conscience and Prudence to bid his Friends in the Country and City too to learn by considering the dark Contrivances past whose dire Effects a little After-time brought to light how to understand the present and prevent a being gull'd in the future and to take heed how they entertain fly Insinuations and Discontents about matters above them or give ear to the Voice of the crafty Charmer Wherefore for his Country-Friend's sake and more particularly for your sakes I hasten to the unraveling of this LETTER which I will not call his though those that have ask'd him do say he but saintly denies it and in such phrases as signified plain enough that he would not for all the World but be thought the Author or at least the Intelligencer So pleasing is the Itch of a little Wit in Print that some Men would not lose it at any rate But from you my good Friends of Shaftsbury I doubt not to find more Wisdom than to be Witticised out of the good old plain way of Honour Allegiance Publick Interest and Peace or to be Wisp'd and Lanthorn'd in the dark by a small Goblin into the Bryers at best but rather I fear into the Pit of Destruction The LETTER IT begins with divers Suggestions 1. That the Test which was under debate in the House of Peers the last Session of Parliament was a State-Master-piece first hatcht among the Great Church-Men ANIMADVERSION RIght 41. in the very Front Thus began the STATE-MASTER-PIECE of those Days it is the common Method of preparing for Rebellion and so it hath been in all Ages For when any one designed it he first assaulted not the Prince himself that would have been too gross but began with some one principal Part or Person of his Government and so proceeded by degrees to alter it Thus it was in 41 For though the Designers well knew the Temper of England that it would not be Govern'd without the Old State Ecclesiastical yet they first found fault with the Governours the Bishops and when they had taken off some of the Persons then they next devised how to diminish their Power and lastly took away their whole Order and so one Pillar of the Throne being gone it was not long ere they tutor'd the People to the overturning of the other as useless and dangerous so that you know what became of the Throne it self Nor were they by the Rules of Ungodly Policy to be blamed for this For when once Men are dipt in an ill beginning they presently think they are bound to prosecute and each Man concludes to himself in the Langaage of Catiline The Ills which I have done cannot be safe But by attempting greater But why the Bill of Test should be Father'd on the Bishops more than upon the other Lords of Parliament I see not since the major part of their Lordships were Zealous in the opinion and promotion of it as a thing that would prove a notable means of the Crowns Stability and the KING's Peace and Safety But it seem'd more advisable to your Prime Engineer after he had labour'd to render the Test as odious as he could then to fasten it on the Bishops that it might the better suit with that lucky Pattern of 41. But more of this Test hereafter where I particularly consider it LETTER 2. THat the Bishops do design to make a distinct Party of the High-Episcopal-man and the old Cavalier by tempting them with the hopes of enjoying all the Power Great Offices and Advantages by overthrowing the Act of Oblivion if they can get any to fight the Old Quarrel over again ANIMADVERSION LOok ye into that Book called An exact Collection of all Remonstrances Declarations Votes Orders Ordinances c. which was Printed Anno 1642. and in the Fourth Page of that Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom which your Masters presented the year before to His Majesties Father you 'l find the Old Copy of your New Calumny against the Bishops for they were then charged with a Design to introduce a Change and by imbroillâ—g the King and his People with Disputes about Prerogative and Liberty to create unto themselves a distinct Party under a Pretence of being for the King that so