would make it seem between the Prince and a Faction but between the King and all his Subjects who conscientiously respect their own duty and the general Welfare We never think or call that a Faction which compelled by the Fear of God honoureth the King but you who of all Men living have the greatest Provocations to admire and love regal Clemency and Bounty do most wretchedly after all the strictest Engagements to Loyalty turn back like a Dog to his Vomit and are pleased no otherwise but during your Respect to that vile Excrescence of Government which hath been spued out and abhorred as your beloved Association is now chiefly for it's Tendency toward the same After you have made a Citation of a Loyal Gentleman's words you will needs insinuate from them a parity of His most Excellent Majestie 's and that basest of Usurper's Oliver's Cause and do in effect deride all that out of Devotion worship the true God because some out of Fear or Illusion have worship'd the Devil Usurpers conscious to themselves what Hatred their ambitious and tyrannical Invasions merit study Popularity and are forc'd to fawn upon the worst of men whom they interest to impose upon others and always rule by Arts contrary to the Prescriptions of Legal and just Monarchy They either affright or corrupt men to obsequious acknowledgments These with Majestical but Gracious Countenance receive the due Tributes of voluntary Obedience and encourage Fidelity to the shame and terrour of such as associate and consult by their Kings to disturb the Publick Peace Because some unduely flattered Oliver once your Master therefore you will allow none to give our Lawful King those proper Eulogies and Thanks which his wise and excellent Government challenges from all whom God hath blessed with Judgment to see and rejoyce in their happiness by and under him But this with your Lordship is a base and destructive Design a strong Affirmation which you would have received although you have forgotten to tell us the Reason And so in truth you have the Sense which should direct us to what you mean in saying It would have been some Argument of the Addressors Candour and sincerity of their Intentions in what they did before if they had forborn their late Applications till they had found that they were not mistaken in the grounds upon which they think to vindicate themselves for what they then did Something your Lordship did here conceive but being ill Midwiv'd is spoil'd in the production As to what you said a little before you are as unfortunate in your expressions and reasoning For these Addressors are not sick of your Lordships Megrims and distempers of Brain that giddily rave and anticipate the Fruits of Royal Counsels before maturity They as all brave Spirits are blessed with Humility and meddle not with the King's Prerogative neither take upon them to instruct him when a Parliament will be most seasonably called but leave it to his Wisdom from which by God's blessing upon it they hope to reap the satisfactory Effects of these and their former Addresses while your Lordship and your Factious Adherents shall sit in melancholick postures and enviously assist your tormenting Angels in your own vexation How you call Mr. Groyâ—'s Oath a bare suggestion I understand not neither what credit you gain by saying this Association was for what appears only feigned and imaginary Those few words upon this account before spoken may I think suffice for all your scrupulous artifice will neither cover nor colour that Villany You may as well call in question Whether that Noble and Loyal Peer was accused and indicted as whether that Paper was seized in his Closet or any where promoted by Associators you may as well question Whether that Lord ever was Lord Chancellor and afterward made good his own words in his Speech to L. Treasurer and found His Majesty a Prince under whom the unfortunate fall gently Whether afterward in the House of Peers he made any Speeches in opposition to a certain strict Test for the discovery of Popery promoted in that House Whether he was since at Oxford and afterward committed to the Tower Your Lordship thinks it congruous that the Addressors testifie their detestation of the many Sham-Plots whereby Loyal and innocent Protestants have been endeavoured to be destroyed and what is more evident than that they do this abhorring both the real and Sham-Plots which bold and bloody-minded Factions under the name forsooth of Protestants were engaged in to the destruction of the King Religion and Government This you are fierce and zealous to have done yet being done you dislike and complain of it and what 's the reason but because while you cry out of Popish Plots and Popish Sham-Plots onely these Addressors the true Friends of the Protestant Religion and Peace of these Kingdoms see you involved in the same Plots which you cry out against and engage to defend the King and establish'd Religion against all Conspirators whatsoever whether Popishly Scismatically or Heretically affected But when all of you make such a dinn about Protestants and name the Protestant Religion why do you not set forth what this Protestant Religion is that we may know it before we engage to defend it The Religion establish'd in the Church of England we are sure you would destroy not preserve for this the Addressors promise and desire to preserve which promises onely give you these Galls and Disturbances Neither will you own the Presbyterian to be the onely Protestant nor with the Presbyterian the Independent for then the other younger Brethren Anabaptist Brownist Quaker Fifth Monarchy man and all the rest of this large Family will take it very ill to be rejected as Spurious and unprovided of Protestant Portions If you take all into your politick Ark whether feathered or naked cloven-footed clawed or hoofed this Conjunction will make England in the next Generation surpass any part of Africa for monstrous Issue when those of Baxter's Vincent's and Jacomb's holy Protestant Herds shall mingle with Protestant Muggletons Protestant Quakers Protestant Ranters and your Honour 's which is Protestant Atheists Considering then the impossibility of such pretended Union in different Opinions knit together in one Band of Religion and yet that if any one or more Part or Opinion be rejected the Project is that way inconsistent with what it throws out and would seem because there 's a Rupture made with the Muggletonian or Ranter or whomsoever this Holy League receives not who yet hath as good a title to that Vocabulum of Protestant as Jack Presbyter Jack of Leyden George of Munster or Hugh Peters when he came from New England So that in time I find the League hits not upon the score of Religion but all these are Protestants as protesting against Monarchy and the whole present frame of Government and that can no otherwise come under one name of Protestant than by joyning with it the word Rebell and then Protestant Rebell speaks all
A RETURN to the LETTER OF A NOBLE PEER Concerning the ADDRESSES My Lord THE Favour you conferred upon me to permit me to write to your Honour with a condescending Invitation occasioned that of March the 4th directed to your hand in which my Thoughts of the numerous Addresses seemed to me so plainly set down that no Mistake could ensue yet it hath otherwise happened and your Answer although not altogether differing from my Expectation is not wholly such nor so ingenious as I expected I could have wish'd that as you printed the Answer you had with it published my Letter which gave the Occasion that if any Knowledge of the Persons between whom this Intercourse is used should give the World occasion to repeat our Names and descant upon our Judgments I might not appear after so much resolute Constancy now dotish and fluctuating But for your whole Discourse Noble Peer I must be plain in telling you that not I but the Likeness of it to that Speech you made in the House which being published the Hangman committed to the Flames hath publish'd you the Author And you do so mince this Association and turn and wind it so tenderly that it seems your own Projection and a Brat so taking in your Affections that every Abhorrence of it is a Daggers point at your Heart You are much in Labour to have it believed never to have a Being thinking that way to secure it from the zealous Abhorrors and yet at every other turn your Fondness of it makes you break out into Commendations of it's pretty Features and Usefulness Indeed your Shiftings shew you have something of a debauch'd Modesty left and that you are ashamed of what you so much love my Willingness to excuse what will bear it saith this of you but the Generality cry out upon your Impudence in saying An Association pretended to have been seized in the E. of S's Closet when nothing was ever more exactly proved nothing more unquestionable and free from dispute nothing more defended by that Lord's Clientage and even owned in the Court by two of his Compurgators for they acted such more than Jury-men who looking upon it said This is the same with that which we saw produced and promoted in the House of Commons And by the way you may take notice what Justice was like to be done the King when his Cause was in the hand of Persons guilty of the same Conspiracy for should they have found the Bill they had directed the Attorney General to draw up one against themselves as truly it is to be lamented that they and all others should escape free from Punishment who in the House saw and promoted this damnable Plot of Association and did not so discover it as to have the Projectors and Forwarders rewarded with their merited Rope The Authors of such Parliamentary Proceedings ought to have their Heads advanced to the House-top to admonish their Successors of Modesty and Allègiance But to return Your Title at the first sight made me merry with the Remembrance of your Lordship's and that Religious Party's you so diligently served accustomed Activity that out run their Sagacity laying open dangerous Plots and Designs before they were detected As your Lordship hath been frequently termed a Catt from your noted Skill in falling safely so you further merit it from the Apology of the Catt changed into a beautiful Woman receiving a Change only in Form not in Conditions You are by the exceeding Greatness of Royal Favour raised to very great Riches and Honour not only out of a mean Fortune but pray pardon my Plainness and necessary Freedom an ill State as you are too conscious that merited Severity yet all Indulgences all immerited Additions of Lustre and Fortune cannot alter you but you must be Catting still playing your old Tricks laying open before detecting Your Wit hath like Galba's very unseemly Lodgings and is no other than what may be conjectured to proceed out of so ill contrived a Frame mischievous and unlucky it serveth to no eminent Counsel but to impose upon the silly and credulous Multitude who adore you as some Idolaters are said to choose and worship their God for it 's excellent Deformity No Man who makes a just and serious Inspection into these Addresses seeth any thing but what becomes generous and loyal Subjects whom the Sense of their own Duty and the odious Practises of Men of your Principles stir up to these Expressions of Fidelity on their own part and a most reasonable Abhorrence and Detestation of the others And now because it is an Answer to my Letter you lay upon me the Task of enquiring what this Monster which you have rip'd up and laid open is You begin to tell me that the Fermentation which the Nation is put into must be cherish'd by the ways that first occasioned it and that the Romish Designs against the Protestant Religion and Liberties of England would miscarry if the Heats and Animosities between Protestants were not artificially fomented Here the Tale you tell of the Romish Designs is so exceedingly stale that it stinks abominably and is rejected by most of the apprehensive Dissenters and Factious Party who see it in vain to talk any more at that rate the Generality of the Nation being cured of those Fits which the affrightful Noise of Popery put it into For as soon as honest and quiet Men hear any begin to blutter those fusty Discourses they leave them as men tainted and rusty Tools as you call them to your Trade of Protestant Joynery And the Truth is you all so torment and saw what you take in hand to polish that it 's great pity the Masters of the Company are not hanged for Company with the Journey-man It 's time indeed some end were put to the Lunacy the Kingdom hath been afflicted with and I hope we may conclude it wrought or near effecting seeing the greatest part of what you stile distracted are recovered and you are found not Lords of the Ascendent Predominant over Affections but Witches and Juglers that have held men under some short Surprizal but are delivered by Divine Providence President at the Council-Table Even they who commend you do not believe you and the rest will never trust you Neither have you shot your Bolt any thing near the Mark in saying the Operation of the Declaration against the two last Parliaments being wholly spent this against the Association is slipt in and managed to perpetuate Rancours for your self I fear to your Grief find the contrary both that the Efficacy of the Declaration is not spent but hath produced this brisk and genuine Off-spring the natural Issue of so incomparable a Conjunction as the Peoples Affections answering their Prince's Condescension and Love and that it is so far from fostering Animosities that it is the most certain Bond of Union that could ever have been framed a League indeed offensive and defensive not as your squinting Loyalty and unmannerly Comparison
suppose he doth only of those who subscribe these Addresses An inconsiderable parcel of Men you say if compared with the Bulk of Nation Pray my Lord tell me whether the Subscribers in Queen Elizabeth's time were a tenth part of the Number Yet were they a joyful Guard to her who having their hands was assured of the rest of inferiour Ranks who were under the Subscribers Command And whereas you pretend these Addresses do proclaim the Weakness of the Government you are out in that Note upon the Text for they most certainly magnifie it rendring it glorious abroad and at home in the Eyes of all who wish the Prosperity of it being also a disheartening to it's Enemies whether Forreign or Domestick Nothing can be imagined more to encrease the Honours of Esteem towards him in our Neighbours Affections than to see the Readiness of the King of Great Brittain's Subjects throughout the whole Kingdom to assert the Royal Prerogatives and give such hearty Engagements to defend his Majesties Sacred Person Crown and Dignities the Religion by Law established and the Right of Succession which last is no less Reputation abroad and at home than the former because all Disputes and Heart-burnings concerning his Successor disturbing his Peoples Affections make him uneasie and frequently proves of as ill Consequence to any Prince as if his own Title were in Controversie but that setled and undubitable strengthens his Power and blunts the sharpest Edge of Malice against that Prince that hath such a Revenger of any his Reproaches or Injuries And when the Heads and principal Members of all Counties Cities Towns and other Corporations do with so filial a Respect purge themselves of all sinister Designs or Intentions-towards the Crown either in the present Fruition or future Inheritance and out of the Ardency of honest Affections abhorr all such vitiated and rotten Members as you and others who are and have been versed in indirect and disloyal Practises not only Forreign Malignity but yours is hereby shattered in pieces and you who pretend you tremble at others are in an Agony with the Thoughts of this and the cooperating Stings of Conscience What your Lordship mentions concerning the Portugal King is Forreign to the Matter discours'd and more ridiculously introduced than I should a Petition that your Honour as a Reward for your Oratory and Manners should be sent to the House of Correction To conclude seeing your Lordship so great a Counsellor and fortunate States-man as never to be believed or loved never to attain to what you seek because your Mind 's more Changling than your unsightly Body gives us to suppose and alway knowing that you never speak Truth but as the Devil did Scripture to corrupt the Holy to Apostacy our own Searchings having caused us strongly to confide in the D. of York's Loyalty and unparalelled Love of his Prince his untainted Candor and Sincerity towards all who faithfully respect their Duty and Allegiance your forming such terrible Dangers to the King and Kingdom by his Authority and Succession doth sufficiently secure us from Fear For were there any real Danger imminent you would never discover it it being impossible but you should have an Hand in it And this Giant Popery as it is magnified by your Opticks to us is but a Dwarfe How much properer he may appear to some when shewn from off your Munkey Shoulders I cannot tell and leave you to the Tryal whom I desire to pardon for any thing harshly expressed because I hope it may prove beneficial to your Honour and if so it is the same to From Newmarket March 16th Your Lordships very Friend and Servant c. Printed for Ralph Stamp 1682.