of Religion Laws and Liberties which are the very fundamentals of this Contract and Covenant may be controlled and opposed and if he set himself to overthrow all these by Arms then they who have power as the Estates of a Land may and ought to resist by Arms Because he doth by that opposition break the very Bonds and overthroweth all the Essentials of this Contract and Covenant This may ☜ serve to Justifie the proceedings of this Kingdom against the late King who in an hostile way set himself to overthrow Religion Parliaments Laws and Liberties I think this needs no Comment About the same time Smectymnuus was revived by Mr. Manton a most auspicious welcome doubtless to his Majesty wherein five Champions of the Cause take up the Cudgels against one Bishop on the behalf of scandalous Pamphlets and Tumultuary Petitions against Episcopacy This is the naked Truth what ever the Jolly Priest may tell the Reader of the Faction against which they dealt Five Orthodox Divines he says were the Authors Four of the Five I shall not mention the Fifth was Marshal of whose Divinity a Taste that by the sweet Agreement we may the better judge of Mr. Manton's In a Letter printed 1643. arguing for the Authority of the two Houses page 14. Thus. Let every soul in England be subject to King and Parliament for they are the higher Powers ordained unto you of God whosoever therefore resisteth King and Parliament resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation The man was no Conjurer yet he had wit enough when Presbytery went down to Court the rising Interest and ' though the Common-prayer was an Abomination to marry his Daughter by it for fear of After-claps But I suppose 't was huddl'd up as 't is in Mr. Manton's Church that no man might be able to make Oath 't was not the Directory If the Case had been concerning the Allowance of Christian Burial to a Gentleman that was Quartered for his Loyalty Or to determine in the great Point of the late Kings Death upon an Anniversary Fast whether or no 't was Murther Truly considering the potent Arguments brought on both sides 't is possible that Mr. Marshal would have contented himself as well as his Neighbours barely to put the Case and leave the point at last undecided to his Auditory Not to spend time and paper needlesly The whole stream of the Disciplinarians runs this way onely perhaps more or less Bold and Open according to the present strength or weakness of the Faction But to return Can any thing be more gentle then A Reformation and due Regulation of things in Church and State words smoother than Oyle yet are they very Swords First To Reform and Regulate belongs to the Supreme Magistrate if they intended That they were to blame Now to take it in a Qualifi'd and softer sense 't was a Due Regulation they intended To put this General notion in more Intelligible terms upon this point depends no less then all that 's dear to every honest man The Dignity of the King the Liberty of the Subject the Freedome of Parliaments and the Honor of the Nation God knows my thoughts I do not envy any man either the Benefit of his Majesty's Mercy or the Blessing of his Favour that hath the Grace at last not to Abuse it I look upon his Royal Act of Pardon with Reverence and upon every Soul within that pale as in a Sanctuary But yet I do not understand a Pardon for one Rebellion to be a Dispensation for another nor how the Argument lies from Fact to Right Under these two words Due Regulation Thus much is comprehended waiving less Differences and Greater 1. The transferring of the Power of chusing Great Officers and Ministers of State from the King to the Two Houses 2. All matters of State in the Interval of Parliaments must be Debated and Concluded by a Counsel so chosen and in number not above twenty five nor under fifteen and no Publick Act esteemed of any Validity as proceeding from the Royal Authority unless it be done by the Advice and Consent of the Major part of that Counsel Attested under their Hands And These too sworn to the sense of Both Houses 3. The Lords and Commons must be intrusted with the Militia 4. His Majesty may appoint but the Two Houses or the Counsel in such manner as aforesaid must Approve of All Governors of Forts and Castles Lastly No Peers hereafter made must Sit or Vote in Parliament unless Admitted thereunto by the Consent of Both Houses Upon these Terms his Majesty shall be supported in Honor and plenty by his most Humble and Faithful Subjects who have in their Thoughts and Desires nothing more precious next to the Honor and immediate Service of God than their just and faithful performance of their Duty to the King and Kingdom This is the Due Regulation they Intended for sure they Meant what they Proposed to our Late Soveraign I speak not this of Persons but of the Gross of the Party nor to reproach That neither but to remove a Scandal from the Ashes of that Blessed Martyr and to direct a Reverence towards his Successor What provocation have these restless People now to revive This Question but an unruly Impotency of Passion against the Government This is their way In Generals they justifie from first to last the Presbyterians Cause The multitude they look into Particulars and from those Injuries which the late King suffered draw Inferences Dis-honourable and Dangerous to this In the next Periode me-thinks he falls upon a Non-sequitur The Re-admission of the Secluded Members he says did necessarily draw after it the Restoring of King Lords and Commons according to the antient Constitution Not Necessarily under favour according to the antient Constitution I will not say nor probably but there were two shrewd Blocks cast in the way The First in the Militia where no Commissionated Officer was to Act that should not first acknowledge in these words viz. I do Acknowledge and Declare that the Warre undertaken by both Houses of Parliament in their defence against the Forces raised in the Name of the late King was Just and Lawful and that Magistracy and Ministery are the Ordinances of God The Second was in the Exclusion of the Royal Party from the next Choice as followeth Resolved that all and every Person who have advised or voluntarily aided abeited or assisted in any War against the Parliament since the first day of January 1641. his or their sons unless he or they have since Manifested their good affections to this Parliament shall be uncapable to be elected to serve as members of the next Parliament Now how a Choice thus limited in the House and Principled in the Field should Necessarily set us right does not to me appear Perhaps it was the most the Time would bear but God forbid That Declaration charging the Guilt and
Nation turning up their Tails to a pack of Pedants Yet hateful as it is even that it self establish'd by Authority might challenge our Obedience I have digress'd too far yet in convenient place I must say something further upon this Subject If our new fangled Polititian had consider'd that the Kings Interest leads him to support that which the Presbyterians strive to overthrow the Protestant Religion I am perswaded he would have spared the Duke of Rhoan in this particular The Maxime even as it lies before us affording matter of dangerous Deduction to his disadvantage but taken in Coherence nothing can be more sharp and positive against him That great and wise Captain the Duke of Rhoan discoursing upon what reasons of State Q. Elizabeth acted toward Spain France and the United Provinces tells us particularly how much she favoured the Protestants in France Germany Par toutes ces maximes dit il cette sage Princesse a bien fait comprendre a ses successeurs que outre l' interest que l' Angleterre a commun avec tous les Princes c. By all these Maximes says he this wise Princess hath given her Successors to understand that besides the Interest which England hath common with other Princes yet one particular it hath which is to advance the Protestant Religion with the same zeal the King of Spain does the Catholick Be it here noted that when the Queen was most concern'd and busie to promote the Protestant Cause even at that very time was She as much employ'd to crush the Presbyterian Faction viz. Cartwright Coppinger Arthington Hacket and their Confederates The First of these was imprison'd and fined for Seditious and Schismatical practises against the Church and State The Second starved himself in a Gaol The Third repented and publickly recanted The Fourth was put to Death for horrid Blasphemies These people talk'd of a practical Ministery too The Men are gone but their positions are still in being and only attend a blessed opportunity to be put in execution This may appear from divers late discourses which are effectually no other then Cartwrights Principles and Model couch'd in warier terms and other Authority than these or such as these I think the very Authors of them will scarce pretend to One Observation more Our Paraphrast renders the advancement of the Protestant Religion Enmity with Rome to the great scandal of the Reform'd Profession We have no Enmity but with Errour which in a rigid Puritan to us is the same thing as in a Papist But Popery he tells us hath been ever infamous for excommunicating murthering and deposing Princes I am no advocate for the Roman Cause but upon this account I think betwixt the Jesuite and the Puritan it may be a drawn Battel And yet he follows with an assurance that the Protestant Religion aims at nothing but that the Kings Prerogative and popular Liberty may be even Ballanced That is the Puritan the Presbyterian Religion as he explains himself a little lower I cannot call to mind one single passage in this whole Discourse concerning the Kings Power or the Peoples Liberty which is not either worded Doubtfully or with some popular Limitation upon the Royal Authority What does he mean by even Ballancing Cheek by Joul Or by what Warrant from the word of God does a Presbyters Religion intermeddle with Popular Liberty Unless the holy man intends to bring Homage to Kings within the compass of Ceremonies of Humane and Mystical Institution Yet once again The Presbyterian Principle he sayes is for subjection to Princes though they were Hereticks or Infidels and if they differ herein from the Prelatical Protestant I was afraid we had been all Papists it is only that they plead for Liberty setled by known Laws and fundamental Constitutiont Still ad Populum these are the Incantations which have bewitch'd this Nation This Charm of qualify'd Disloyalty and Conditional Obedience Behold the very Soul of the Faction in these five lines a fair profession first to his Majesty and with the same breath a seditious hint to the People What is that Liberty he talks of but a more colourable title to a Tumult That Legal Freedome to which both by the Royal Bounty and our own Birth-right we stand entituled we ought not to contest for with our Soveraign and God be prays'd we need not Now for another fit of kindnesse His Majesty our Native King may govern as he pleases without fear of Hazards by continuing to shew himself a Common Father Observation What 's this cause a kin to the third Article of the Covenant To preserve and defend the Kings Majesties person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms as who should say if he does otherwise let him look to himself The excessive Dominion of the Hierarchy with the rigorous imposition of humane Ceremonies was accounted much of the malady of former times which ended in those deadly Convulsions of Church and State Observation Since this pragmatical Levite will provoke a Controversie I am content to entertain it If the Bishops excesses were the Cause of War how came the Kings ruine to be the effect of it But 't is no new thing for a Presbyterian to saddle the wrong Horse Just in this manner did the Covenanters treat his late Majesty and by those very Troops that cryed down Bishops was the King murther'd Ridiculous Brutes to boggle at a Surplice and yet run headlong into a Rebellion The grand source of our Miseries was the Covenant by which as by a Spell in the Name of the blessed Trinity the people were insensibly bewitched into an aptnesse to work any wickednesse which the Interpreters of that Oracle should say was the Intendment of it The first notorious Rupture was in Scotland in 1637. attended with a COVENANT which without Question was formerly agreed upon by the confederate Faction of both Kingdoms as the most proper and least hazardous way of tasting the Kings patience and the Peoples humours That their design was laid and carried on by Counsels and Intelligence as aforesaid may be collected from the Consequent and brotherly Agreements and truly the Retrospect of the Act of Indemnity seems to hint no lesse for it commences from the first Scottish Broyls tho' four or five years before the War brake out in England what was begun by Covenant was so prosecuted By virtue of the Covenant the Kirk-party supply'd themselves with Men and Monies Armies were brought into the Field and beyond doubt many that truly loved the King not knowing what they did ingaged against him To keep up this delusion the Press and Pulpit did their parts and to deal freely after this advance I should as much have wondred if they had stop'd short of his death as I find others wondering how they durst accomplish it Death with a Bullet or an Axe is the same Mischief to him
Impostors and after all our wandrings brought once again into the Channel We have our Prince our Laws our Freedoms our Interest lies before us and certainly we cannot be so mad as now to dash a second time upon the same Rock Yet they shall lose nothing for want of offering at it The Arguments of 1641. are set on foot again The very same with Cartwright's that Consistorian Patriarch as Bancroft terms him nay they are advanc'd already beyond pleading of their Cause to pressing of it by sawcy Importunities and peremptory threatnings From what I have deliver'd it cannot be deny'd but their Positions are destructive to all Civil Government And for their Practices the story is written in Blood This might suffice to end the Controversie concerning Reason of State for certainly a Faction so Principled cannot with safety to the Publick be incorporated into any Politick Constitution But I shall add some further Reasons why by no means they are to be admitted 1. They 'r a Party never to be gain'd by Obligations and this is manifest from their proceedings toward the late King whose most unhappy Tenderness of Nature rost him his Life And at this instant that irreclaimable ingratitude is yet more clear toward his Majesty in beeing whose unexampled Mercy so much as lies in them is converted to his Dishonor and Destruction 2. They ground their claim upon the Equity of their Cause which if allow'd by the same reason they may serve this King as they did his Father 3. Their Demands are Endless as well as Groundless and it is not prudential to grant any thing to a Faction that will be satisfi'd with nothing It is but Giving them a power to Take the rest 4. They Expostulate and what they get upon those Terms they look upon rather as a Submission than a Concession The very manner of their Address has a spice of Mutiny in it and they will hardly make an honest use of what they compass by dishonest means 5. It is not advisable to encourage Tumultuary combinations by Rewarding them 6. The Dispute is not so much what their Consciences will Bear as what their Importunities can Obtain and to feel the Pulse of the Supreme Authority In fine It is a contest betwixt the Law and a Faction and a fair step toward a New Rebellion So much for Reason of State Now to the Justice of their pretences The Quaere is Whether in Justice or Reason of State the Presbyterian Party should be Rejected and Depressed or Protected and Incouaged 'T is one thing what the King may do in point of Justice and another thing what the Presbyterians may demand upon that score There is a Justice of Conscience Honor and of Prudence By the First His Majesty is ty'd up in common with the meanest of his Subjects That is if the King find himself in Conscience bound to maintain Episcopacy in the state he found it Legally settled he is not free to alter it In point of Honor There 's more Liberty and whatever the King does in that particular is well done But his Majesty not having as yet declar'd himself what do we know how far even upon That Point he may concern himself to reject the Presbyterian's Demands Partly out of Reverence to his Royal Father In part out of a Princely Strictness to His own Dignity and partly out of a Generous tenderness toward his Ruin'd Party First as to what may seem relating to His Majesty's Father That which these people urge is what the late King chose rather to Die than Grant which in His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is intimated in these words In these two points the preservation of establish'd Religion and Laws I may without vanity turn the reproach of my sufferings as to the worlds censure into the honor of a kind of Martyrdom as to the testimony of My own conscience the troublers of My Kingdoms having nothing to object against me but this that I prefer Religion and Laws established before these alterations they propounded Every word hath its weight which fell from the Pen of that pious and judicious Prince Nor can I over-pass a Caution of his learned Father's when I consider the sum of their Proposals which in effect is but a condemnation of the late King in the bold needless justification of Themselves These are the words As for offences against your own Person and Authority since the fault concerneth your self I remit to your own choice to punish or pardon therein as your heart serveth you and according to the circumstances of the turn and the quality of the Committer Here would I also eike another Crime to be unpardonable if I should not be thought partial But the Fatherly love I bear you will make me break the bounds of shame in opening it unto you It is then the false and unreverent writing or speaking of malicious men against your Parents and Predecessors And a little further It is a thing monstrous to see a Man love the Child and hate the Parents as on the other part the infaming and making â—dious of the Parents is the ready way to bring the Son into contempt And for conclusion of this point I may also alledge my own experience for besides the judgments of God that with mine eyes I have seen fall upon all them that were chief Traitors to my Parents I may justly affirm I never found yet a constant biding by me in all my straits by any that were of perfect ☞ age in my Parents days but onely by such as constantly bode by them I mean specially by them that served the Queen my Mother for so that I discharge my Conscience to you my Son in revealing to you the truth I care not what any Traitor or Treason-allower think of it Thus far his Majesty may find himself concern'd in Honour to his Fathers Ashes now to his dying Counsels Take heed of abetting any factions or applying to any publick Discriminations in matters of Religion contrary to what is in your judgement and the Church well setled I cannot yet learn that lesson nor I hope ever will you that it is safe for a King to gratifie any Faction with the perturbation of the Laws in which is wrapt up the publick Interest and the good of the Community What in effect do these people now desire but that his Majesty would rather take their Counsel than his Fathers In the next Page the King expresses a more than ordinary earnestness in these words My Counsel and Charge to you is that you seriously consider the former real or objected miscarriages which might occasion my troubles that you may avoid them Herein his Majesty is tacitly conjured against them it being a most notorious Certainty That The late King lost both his Crown and Life by Over-granting The now-pretended cause of the quarrel was not mentioned till after the War was begun The colour of raising an Army being to
Interest Mistaken OR THE Holy Cheat PROVING From the undeniable Practises and Positions of the Presbyterians that the Design of that Party is to enslave both King and People under the Masque of RELIGION By way of Observation upon a Treatise INTITULED The Interest of England in the Matter of RELIGION c. By ROGER L'ESTRANGE The Second Impression Aug. De Civ Dei Nullo modo his artibus placatur Divina Majestas quibus Humana Dignitas inquinatur LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in Ivy-lane 1661. To the Honourable HOVSE of COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT Most Honourable TO begg your Pardon or Protection were to suppose a Fault or Hazzard but in this Dedication finding neither I shall waive that Formality humbly submitting what I have to say my Reasons and my Self to your Authority and Wisdom without more Prologue or Apology There is a Faction which under the note of Presbyterian seems much concerned to stickle against Bishops Church-rites on the behalf of tender Consciences Their Writings and Opinions are with great Freedom Craft and Diligence dispers'd throughout the Nation to the great Scandal of the true Church and the Encouragement of those of the Revolt But this is yet the least part of the Mischief or in effect of their Design Their Ayme being to Tumultuate the People and make a Partie against the Civil Power Indeed their Pamphlets wear the Face of Church-disputes and Modells but he that reads them through and marques them narrowly shall find the King's Authority the Question That the late War against the King was Lawfull is a Position common to them all and this they publiquely maintain as the main Basis of the Cause By which assertion they cast the Bloud and Guilt upon His Majestie make his Adhaerents Traitors place the Supreme Authoritie in the two Houses subject the Law to an Ordinance the Government to a Faction and animate the Schismatiques to serve His Majestie in beeing as they did His Father This is the drift of their seditious Libells and of their Projects too if any judgement may be made upon their strict conformity of Argument and Methode to those that first embroyl'd us How farr this matter may require your Care becomes not me to meddle I thought it might be worth your Honours Knowledge and led by an Opinion of my Duty this state of the Affair such as it is I doe most humbly lay before you His Majesty had no sooner set Foot upon English ground but swarms of Pestilent papers were in a Readiness to enterteyn him Some of the sharpest of them I delivered to several Members of that Session with the Stationers name for whom they were Printed Smith at the Bible in Cornhill Croftons Agent but all too little to suppress them One Passage is this that Follows speaking of the limited Power of Kings This may serve to justify the proceedings of this Kingdom against the late King who in a hostile way set himself to overthrow Religion Parliaments Lawes and Liberties Hand in hand with this Pamphlet came forth Smectymnuus Reviv'd and recommended by Mr. Manton and since that time some Hundreds more of the same stamp whose common business 't is by Affronting of the Law and Flattering of the Rabble to cast all back into Confusiâ—n Among the many other Actours of Religion I find not any man playes his part better then the Author of That Treatise which hath extorted This who indeed abuses the People in very good terms Some hasty Observations I have pass'd upon him in favour of the easie and deceivable Vulgar which Prailties I submit to your Honours Charity but the main Equitie of the Cause I hope will stand the test of your severest Justice for doubtlesse much is due to the late King's Honour as well as to his Blood And somewhat with submission to your Wisdoms may be allow'd to his Partie at least sufficient to protect them from Popular contempt and the Infamous lash of every daring Libell I dare not trust my self further with my own thoughts and yet I take them to be such as very well consist with the Duty of Your Honours most Obedient and Humble Servant Roger L'estrange TO THE GOOD PEOPLE OF ENGLAND THe Cm mon good is the Common pretence of all seditious Combinations and it is no new thing for a Crafty Faction to impose upon a simple Multitude empty Appearances for Truths and Reason But our Reformers scorn to stop at this dull general method of Confusion The Law of God must be subjected as well as that of the Nation we must call Treason Loyalty and commit Murther as a point of Conscience No lesse than this is hinted in the Presbyterians Justification of the Scotish League and Quarrel nor have they any other aim than by procuring an Allowance of That War to make way to Another To this end they disperse their poysonous Infusions into all Quarters of the Kingdom under those very Forms of Piety and Tenderness by which they first betrayed us and by those very means do they now prosecute afresh their first Intentions That is they labour to promote the Cause by scandalous and rank Invectives against the Church and stirring up of Tumults to Reform it by a loud Pharisaical ostentation of their own Holyness a sour churlish Censure of all Others by sharp and sawcie Aspersions upon the Royal Party and by Reflections yet more bitter and Audacious upon his Sacred Majesty and his Murtherd Father To see these Libells passe with Freedom and Impunitie as if they were Authorized and to observe what foul Mistakes are grounded upon these grosse Allowances to the Kings Disadvantage and all without Controll or Confutation This and no other Reason so God blesse me that is of private Passion or Animosity of temper hath drawn this honest Folly from me I reckon it my Duty to my Prince and Country to my own Honour and to the Oath I have taken Where ever I find a publique Enemy to discover him And being thus Commissioned both by Authority and Conscience I proceed The Benefit of this Treatise is directed to the People and the Design of it is onely to lay open the Presbyterian Juggle that in one Age they be not twice deluded by the same Imposture My Arguments are Drawn from their own Practises and Positions from Presidents of Former times Cartwright and his Disciples from what hath passed within our own Experience from what these very men have done and from the very Logique of their own Writings what they professe they do intend to doe As the Delusion is apparent so is the Justice of Discoursing it Can it be thought that by the Act of Pardon his Majestie ever meant to subject all the Sober and Legal Interests of the Nation to be worried by a Faction Who of the Royal Party charges them Or if they did what has the Law done to offend them Or say the Law be sharp against them his Majesties unparalell'd Mercy has by
his Royal Grace taken off the edge of it hazzarding himself to preserve these unthankfull People which are now practising upon that Authoritie that saved them And I beseech you what is the goodly Subject of the Controversie The Presbyterian Discipline forsooth and Ceremonies of Mystical and Humane Institution Touching the Former St. Augustine tells us that Aërius turn'd Heretique upon the misse of a Bishopprick the first assertor of Church-Parity I am affraid some of our Reverend Clergy are sick of his disease for their design is not so much to convert Bishops into Presbyters as to make every Presbyter a Bishop And then for Ceremonies they teaz and chafe the Common-people into a pettish scruple that would be well and quiet enough without them They make their Consciences like Skittish Jades that boggle at their own shadowes and start into a Precipice to avoid a Feather They tell us too of Number and press their Importunities in the Name of many thousands of the good people of the Nation so did the Kings insolent Judges and with as much truth the one as the other Let it be further noted that in this case the Factious and Schismatical Clergy are but with reverence Bawds to a State-faction A Tumult for Religion is within one step of Rebellion Nor do they only shape their loose Opinions to their lewd purposes but by all secret arts and practises they form their Parties But here I am confin'd All I design is only a fit Caution to all Well-meaning Subjects not to believe their Eares against their Reason If they can adde one Syllable of Weight to what they have already Promised and Broken I 'le give my self up to the Partie This is not yet to cast a general Blot upon all persons of that Judgement nor to excite any unquiet thoughts toward the rest but only to present a Modest and an Usefull warning to the people So far am I from a desire to move any distemper that I do positively affirm should the King which is impossible pick out of all his Subjects those very persons who upon twentie years experience have proved through all extremities how much they love his Cause and Person above their Lives and Fortunes should I say these be pick'd out by his Majestie and marqu'd for Slaves to those that with an equal Zeal and Steadynesse have opposed him Our Dutie were the same yet Severitie and Kindnesse may move us as Men but not as Subjects Obedience to Kings being a Divine Precept and not subjected to those accidents which work upon our Passions Nor shall this sense of my own Clearness betray me yet to a surprize for I fore-see a thousand mischiefs may befall me and all which either private Malice or open and bold Prejudice can cast upon me I am provided for To those of the Presbyterian perswasion that truly love the King I bear a more then Ordinarie Respect because it is a more then Ordinarie Virtue and for the rest I care not I am not now to learn the temper of the Rigid Presbyterians They did me once the Honour to Condemn me almost at Mid-night by a Pack'd Committee and without a Hearing well-nigh four years they kept me in Newgate upon that Account This was a pretty tast of their good Nature I do not now Complain but I Confesse it would have pleas'd me as well if the Bishop that Christens still by the Directory had chosen some other Chancellour instead of my Judge Advocate But I desire only to make a sober use of these Mistakes The King knowes nothing of them God Preserve his Majesty Convert his Enemies Comfort his Friends Farewell THE HOLY CHEAT PROVING From the undeniable Practices and Positions of the Presbyterians that the design of that Party is to enslave both King and People under the Masque of RELIGION c. IF the Authour of the Interest of England c. had meant fairly to the Question he would as well have told us the Good of Bishops and the Ill of Presbyters as he hath done the contrary and never have concluded For or Against Either from the Best Actions of the One and the Worst of the Other At least a man would think this partiality of Method might content him without the further service of those little Arts he uses to aid and recommend his Undertaking The Present state of things he represents quite other then it is and raises thence a Political expedience of doing This or That of Linking Interests never considering that he Himself Creates that Interest and gives Affairs the Face of that expedience Page the 16. he laies his ground-work In these following words Among the various dis-agreeing Parties within this Kingdom which seem to render it an indigested Mass of People two main ones appear above the rest of so large an interest that if by any means they might become no more twain but one they would take in and carry along the whole stream and strength of the Nation And these two are the Episcopal and Presbyterian Parties each of them highly laying claim to the Protestant Religion And undoubtedly whilst these two remain divided the Kingdom of England and the Protestant Religion is divided against it self This dis-union is removed either by the Abolition of one Party or by the Coalition of both into one The former if supposed possible cannot be accomplished but by violent perillous ways and means The latter is brought to pass by Accommodation or mutual yielding Moreover there is a third way imaginable Toleration indulged to the weaker side In which of these ways lies the true Interest of the King and Kingdom is the greatCase of the time and the Subject of this Discourse which presumes not to inform his Majesty but in subordination unto his declared Moderation and Condescention endeavours by shewing things as they are to convince and perswade Interessed persons that the Pacification begun for this Interim may be entire and perfect and fully setled for perpetual unity Observation Let it be here observed First what the Difference is Next betwixt whom In the Third place the Danger of it And Lastly the Expedient to remove it It seems the Episcopal and Presbyterian Parties United in Religion cannot Agree yet about Discipline and while These Two remain Divided the Publick is in Danger From hence results the Interest of Mutual Yielding his Coalition of both Parties into One Upon which Hinge moves the whole frame of his Design and in two Pages he gives the Presbyter possession of his Claim Deciding with exceeding ease the Case of King and Kingdom Opinion is a great Mistress for that which He so Magisterially Lays down and Challenges appears to me mis-stated and worse Managed I must confess his Reduction of all other Interests under Episcopal and Presbyterian is in some sense no ill Dichotomy that is intended of the two main Parties whereof the One's against the Law the Other for it But why the single Presbyterian should be Esteemed the Ballance
of the Nation I cannot Comprehend If they are so they should do well to cast their Cause upon a Popular Vote and try the Issue by the Poll. For Quiet sake no matter Many or Few there may be Equity where there wants Number We 'l rather see in point of Right what 't is they insist upon Which if exemption from Episcopal Authority in things Indifferent and of Humane Institution We must plead judgment of Discretion too as well as They A Freedom and Capacity to distinguish betwixt a Scandal Given and Taken betwixt a Dis-conformity proceeding from Conscience and from Passion Where the Dissent proceeds from Conscience a Toleration clears That Scruple but our good peoples Liberty consists in Burthening Others as well as Freeing Themselves and that 's Intolerable How many strange Indecencies are here one upon the neck of another I First here 's the Minor part imposing upon the Major Secondly a Novel and Vulgar Imagination bearing down an Apostolical Institution Thirdly a Private Opinion contesting with a Solemn and Publike Sanction and Finally the Subject of all this Earnestnesse in their own phrase is but a very Accommodable difference From what I have said I am perswaded that Severity to the Pertinacious Presbyter is the true interest of this Nation allowing yet Indulgence to the Conscientious Well but our Authour tells us that Abolition if possible is perillous and Toleration only an Imaginary Remedy Is not this to intimate that the Party makes less Conscience of a Tumult than of a Ceremony and to argue the necessity of Complying from the danger of Refusing What would these people do if they had Power that are so Bold without it And yet our Politician makes it the Kings Interest to Close with them He means perchance According to the Covenant The Coalition There of all Schisms and Heresies into One Interest was of great Reason and Important Service to the Commune work but we are now advising how to Settle not to Disjoynt a Government and to Incorporate Dis-agreements were to begin upon a Principle of Confusion As the Case stands with us in my weak Judgement Persons should rather be Indulg'd than Parties My Reason is this Some Individuals of that Perswasion have done His Majesty some Service but to the best of my Remembrance the Entire Party never any Yet one Reflexion more Allow these People all their Askings in what concerns their Discipline will they rest Quiet There without a further Hankering after more the Legislative Power perhaps the Militia or some such Trifle I am the more suspitious because I do not well remember where ever That Party was satisfied with less than All. Nor need I look far back for Instances to justifie my Fears But having in some measure hitherto Discovered his Foundation we 'l forward now and see what work he makes upon this Sandy Bottom taking his Title-page in my way for to my thinking he stumbles at the Threshold It runs thus The Interest of England In the Matter of RELIGION Unfolded in the Solution of these three QUESTIONS I. Qu. VVhether the Presbyterian Party should in Justice or Reason of State be Rejected and Depressed or Protected and Encouraged II. Qu. VVhether the Presbyterian Party may be Protected and Encouraged and the Episcopal not Deserted nor Disobliged III. Qu. Whether the Upholding of both Parties by a just and equal Accommodation be not in it self more desirable and more agreeable to the State of England Then the absolute Exalting of the one Party and the total Subversion of the other Written by J. C. Observation I would fain know what is meant by The Matter of Religion as it stands here related to Civil Interest Doctrine it cannot be for That were to advise a yielding upon a Principle of Policy in Opposition to a Rule of Conscience subjecting Interest of Religion which is Eternal Happiness to Reason of State which regards but Temporal Convenience If it be Discipline What 's that to the Interest of England Our Settlement depends upon a due Obedience to the Establish'd Law not the Encouraging of froward Humors by an Audacious and Mis-govern'd Zeal under pretext of Conscience to Affront it Let Authority Reform and Private Persons either Obey or Suffer we are to Answer for our own faults not those of the Government And in fine If the Hill will not come to Mahomet let Mahomet go to the Hill After a pleasant Breviate of the Story of our late Troubles handsomely Penn'd indeed in his tenth Page he takes his Biass At length says he a full Tide of Concurring Accidents carries him the Duke of Albemarle then General to a closure with the sober part of the Parliamentary Party who from first to last intended onely a Reformation and due Regulation of things in Church and State but abhorred the thought of destroying the King or changing the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Observation I thought the Act of Pardon and Oblivion had quieted all Animosities and silenc'd all Discourses of this Quality but 't is it seems The Interest of England in the matter of Religion to keep the Quarrel waking and by Asserting the proceedings of the two Houses in the late War to engage this King within the danger of his Fathers President To be as free with the Authour as he is with his Majesty I 'le put his meaning in a little plainer English Beside the Grand Division of the Nation into a Royal and a Popular Party that Party which he here calls Parliamentary is again Split and under this Subdivision are Comprised those which did Actually destroy the King and those which by good Fortune did it not Presbyterians and Independents The Sober part meaning the Presbyterian He justifies from first to last even to their very Intentions I must tread warily for I am here upon a narrow and a slippery path Not to Dispute the Gentlemans Intuitive Knowledge we 'l rather modestly believe that They mistook their way then He their meaning for certainly the Murther of the King was not the onely Unlawful violence Acted upon that Sacred Person and he that stops there does as much as nothing I would not touch upon this Subject were I not bound by Oath and Duty to discharge my Soul in what concerns the Honor and the Safety of my Prince Can the first Cause asserted by both Houses in opposition to his late Majesty be justifi'd and not the King condemn'd And is not the Honor and Safety of his Majesty that now is concern'd in these Indignities upon his Murther'd Father What was Then lawful is so still and he that but implicitly charges the Last King strikes at This. The Text will bear no other sense without a Torture But I shall by-and-by compare him with himself In the mean while we may explain one Presbyterian by another Douglas in 1651. preach'd the Kings Coronation-Sermon Which since his Majesties Return is over and over again Reprinted A King says he abusing his Power to the overthrow
aforegoing we firmly build this Position That the Presbyterian Party ought not in Justice or Reason of State to be rejected and depressed but ought to be protected and encouraged This is but one Doctor 's opinion we think otherwise Nevertheless says he there being a seeming complication in this business and an other ample Party appearing in competition a difficulty remains and the matter falls into a further deliberation And thereupon we are fallen upon the second Main Enquiry II. Quest. Whether the Presbyterian Party may be protected and encouraged and the Episcopal not deserted nor disobliged Observation 'T is a particular Grace that the Bishops Party may yet be admitted into the Competition and that the man of the short Robe will vouchsafe to enquire into the Consistence of Episcopacy and Presbytery yet it was boldly ventur'd to Determine what Ought to be done before he had examin'd whether the Thing was Fesible or no. I shall not spend my Time to Controvert Idea's and wrangle about Governments in the Air we are for Plain and Practicable Contrivements such as Authority Good Order and Long Experience have recommended to us I suppose the agreeing of Both Parties in such Middle terms as he proposes a thing not utterly Impossible Many things may be fair enough in Notion yet of exceeding hazzard to be put in Practice especially 't is dangerous to try Tricks with Politick Constitutions Great alterations are scarce safe even where they are Lawful and wrought with good Intention Much less are those so which are promoted by a Disorderly and Popular Earnestness and with seditious meaning For this I dare lay down as a Position Never did any Private Party band against a Publick Settlement with an intent to mend it But what have we to do with the Imaginary Coalition of the two Church-Parties when the Kirk-Discipline affronts the Civil Sanction and Actually invades the Kings Authority Let them first bring their Principles to their Duties Treating like Subjects and Submitting as Christians Can any man believe those People Friends to the Church that are Enemies to the State or that the God of Order can be pleased with the Promoters of Confusion Were there no other reason to deny the thing they ask than their bare manner of Asking it ought not to be Granted What signifies their talk of Number Power Resolution but a false Muster of the Faction to make a party with the Rabble when yet God knows they 're Inconsiderable let every man but over-look his Neighbour and Count he 'l find the Disproportion Undoubtedly the most Insufferable of all their Arguments is that of Danger there 's but one step between that Word and Violence First it implies a Seditious Complication They move for such as they believe will Tumult if not where lies the Hazzard Besides those Subjects that dare tell their Prince 't is dangerous to deny their Askings do by that insolence render his Concessions much more hazzardous Persons of that audacious temper will hardly make a sober use of an extorted Bounty So far as Presbyterian and Episcopal purely refer to the Church I shall not much concern my self in Our Resolvers Second main Enquiry Equal to all the World is the Incomparable Hooker upon that Subject but where these terms are in a greater Latitude applyed to Civil matters I shall be bold to pass some further Observations The Dissenting side oppose not all Liturgy but desire that the present onm may be Changd or reformed Observation That 's but a modest Motion But now suppose his Majesty the Law and Forty for One of the Nation should desire the Continuance of it as it is what Equity have the Dissenters to the Change or what would be the Benefit if Granted Not the Tenth part even of the Presbyterians would be contented with it Some of them are against all set-Forms of Common-prayer whatever Others more moderate forsooth do not oppose a prescript Form so it be not enjoyn'd A third sort will vouchsafe to permit the English Liturgy provided they may have the purgeing of it themselves And when all 's done the Sectaries may claim as much right to abolish That as they to alter This. And now for Ceremonies They oppose not any Circumstance of Decency and Order but desire that mystical Ceremonies of humane Institution may be abolished or not enjoyned First the Dissenters are not the Judges of Decency and Order and for Mystical Ceremonies of humane Institution as Scaliger says of the Sepia Caliginem effundit evadit He troubles the Water and escapes in the Dark Multiformity in Religion says our Reconciler pleading for Accommodation publickly profess'd doth not well comport with the spirit of this Nation which is free eager jealous apt to animosities and jealousies besides that it hath ever had a strong propension to Vniformity Observation Had this fallen from a Common pen I could have better born the Disproportion of his Character of the English Temper Free Eager Jealous and yet propense to Vniforformity This seems to me a mixture incompossible But the good man means well and writes so when he lists His drift is to perswade us that to comply with the Presbytery is to comport with the spirit of this Nation which being Free and Eager seems to Cry Beware How blessedly would these Free-spirited Worthies order their Subjects if they were once in power that thus presume from their own Level to Menace and Control Authority If Toleration might compose the Difference there were some hope but That alas is more than they can afford the Government and much less will they accept it for themselves The temper of this Kingdom says he does not well accord with extremes on either hand and to see the fortune of it the Presbyterians are just in the Middle Toleration being not the Daughter of Amity but of Enmity at least in some degree supposeth the party tolerated to be a burden especially if conceived dangerous to the way established and commonly holds no longer than meer necessity compels and consequently neither party take themselves to be safe the one always fearing to lose its Authority and the other its Liberty Observation Behold a learned Expostulation and a dutiful Where the party toelrated appears dangerous to the way established the one fears to lose its Authority and the other its Liberty There 's no great depth in the discovery that from an Opinion of mutual Danger arises mutual Jealousie But what 's this case to the Subject of our Debate By Toleration is not meant an Imprudential Yielding to an Untractable and Churlish Faction but a discreet and pious Application of Tenderness toward such as by their Fair Comportment in the Main of Order and good Manners appear to merit it True it is God himself is the onely Searcher of Hearts who sees our Thoughts even in the bed of their Conception Yet where we find an inconformity of practise to profession people that strein at a