of Cherbury we shall find the first Causes of our Reformation not so Religiously and Conscientiously grounded how good soever the Effect proved as it is convenient for us to believe they were I love and adhere to the Reformation as it is Established by Law withal my heart but I hate an Ignorant Fellow should with his slovenly Fingers once touch so pure so nice and so delicate a piece of Discipline and Gospel Perfection In the next place let us examine to what purpose he recites to us the Example of Mary Queen of Scots There are says he Worthies enough that were Excluders with a Witness Rhetorical Numphs Excluders with a Witness what an Expression is here This Grubstreet Vermin is a worthy Offe to write Comparisons of Popery and Paganism truly But let us see what Excluders with a Witness were they Oh says he such as were for Excluding Mary Queen of Scots not only from the Succession but out of the World I 'll warrant him he thinks he has nickt it here What relation has that Queens Case to ours She was under an Accusation of a Conspiracy against the Queen and the Government nor was ever such thing as a Bill of Exclusion against her thought of But this Case of hers has been a standing false Argument with all our Blockheadly Pamphletteers to this purpose these Three years And our present Author who loves Common places so well as to make a whole Book of them certainly could never miss this though I must beg leave to take notice to what purpose Not only from the Succession but out of the World How villainously would he here insinuate the Necessity of shedding more Royal Blood when this miserable Kingdom smells too rank of it already And for the Case even of that unhappy Queen It appeared to the eyes of all the World so horrid and prophane a Violation of the Rights of Majesty that the Memory öf it is an Odium upon us all over Christendom to this very day And for the musty Piece of a Journal which he is pleased to quote for the necessity of Cruelty and Bloodshed of a Writing as he styles it Intituled Reasons to prove the Queens Majesty bound in Conscience to proceed with Severity in this Case of the late Queen of Scots By his good leave I think it no Argument at all to the present purpose but the Writing it self Sir Sim. d'Ewes Journ in the quality of its matter Unchristian and in its manner boyish and frivolous foolishly Sophistical without any foundness of Reasoning or strength in Law It sayes in the first place Every good Prince ought by God's Commandment to punish even with Death all such as seek to seduce the People of God from his true Worship unto Superstition and Idolatry For that offence God hath always most grievously punished as committed against the first Table and to prove this they cite a Text of Scripture of Deut. 13. Now to make that Text of Scripture valid and of force to what we have in hand we must First have a Law of the Kingdom for the Punishment of Death in that Case Secondly That Law of the Kingdom must explain what this Idolatry is Thirdly After all it must be such an Idolatry as that Text of Scripture has express'd or else the Chapter is quoted to no purpose As to the first concerning a Law of the Kingdom for Punishment of Death in that Case I believe upon Examination we shall find none for as our Author has justly observed in another place that Law de Haeretico Comburendo is taken away Besides granting there were a Capital Law against the Idolatry mentioned in that Chapter I question yet to put the worst of the Case whether it would reach Popery or no for if we examine Verse the 6th of that Chapter we shall find the Idolatry there mentioned to be explain'd for the turning aside to serve other Gods which we have not known we nor our Fathers Now I never heard but that the Church of Rome served and adored the very same God that we do in the Trinity of Persons and Unity of the Godhead So that of this sort of Idolatry at least she does not appear to be guilty What other Kind for certainly there are different Kinds may be lay'd to her Charge I could wish some Ingenuous Conscientious and Honorable Divine would for the true Information of all honest and truely Religious Children of the Church of England fairly and candidly lay down and determine I am sure the canting falsifying and mis-interpretation of Scripture which such Fellows as the Author of this Libel and his Companions use to serve their Malice or other Ends in Seducing and Imposing upon the Ignorance of the Vulgar tend rather to the bringing Popery in Credit again than any thing else and if the Author of The Growth of Popery were alive to add to that Treatise I know not where he could raise a better Argument for his Theam than from those Scriblers that are suffered to pretend the defence of the best and truest Religion in the World by the falsest and worst Arguments that their Ignorance or Immorality can furnish them withal To be short this Libel against the Christian Religion this Julian the Apostate which has made so much noise in the World I mean amongst the Ignorant since its Publication is so far from being what it would pretend to be viz. An Argument against the D's Right of Succession that it is nothing but a downright Alarum to Rebellion for as an Alarum in War is nothing but a confused Noise and Rattling upon a Drum without any measure method or distinction so this Whole Book from one end to the other is only an indistinguishable lump of Sedition thrown out in a confused heap to amuze and glut the Vulgar withal without any Arguments raised from any principle or tending to any end except that of provoking our Swords into one anothers Bowels drowning our Fields in blood and overwhelming of our Peace for ever How foolishly does he tugg and heave at an Argument which his Brains want strength to set a going against that Popular one as he calls it of our Allegiance sworn to the King and his Lawful Heirs and Successors by telling us what some Lawyers that is to say of his own Set think of the Matter No Man can have an Heir while he himself is alive Which though I think I have confuted in the following Answer to the Tory Plot yet to come a little nearer him here If no Man can have an Heir while he himself is alive how came that distinction to be once urged in Parliament betwixt Heir Apparent and Heir Presumptive The Noble Gentleman that made it understood Law and I hope good Mr. Author you will not accuse so great an Oracle as he has been to your Party of Nonsence For if the King can have no Heir while he himselflives that telling the Duke how he was not Heir Apparent but Heir
advantage according as it is delivered by our Author I hope our Author will be so ingenuous the next time he has occasion to appear in Print upon the behalf of Paganism as fairly to throw off the Hypocrites Cloak declare to us freely how much he is an Apostates humble Servant and tell us whose Chaplain he is And thus it begins Valentinian being a concealed Christian Collonel of Horse under the Apostate Julian and waiting upon his Master once in a Procession to the Temple of Page the 39th Fortune The Chaplains stood on both sides of the Doors cleansing with sprinklings those that entered in But when Collonel Valentinian saw this Holy Water coming near his Cloaths he struck the Chaplain with his Fist Page the 40th saying It would not cleanse but defile him Now all I can discover out of this first part of the Story is that Valentinian may be was a very spruce Collonel and did not love to have his Embroider'd Coat used too familiarly For example suppose even at home here in our little England nay at Whitehall an Officer newly having bought his Place going upon his Duty with a fine Beaver Hat and a dainty unfully'd white Feather in it this Hat cockt too à la Francois and under it a Perruque essenced and Curled in defiance to the smell of Match behind him under his Chin an exquisite Crevat made up as dext'rously as if he had done it himself by his own great Rules of Fortification adorned moreover with a strutting String that shews the exact Diameter of the Hero's Physiognomy Upon his Martial Body a more Martial Coat Round his fine Wast a heavy Scarff that loads his feeble bending Loins and by his doughty jetting strutting Side a little pretty short Sword that would not hurt a Worm Suppose him thus with all his fierte about him Marching in Querpo for the defence of the Court and the terrour of its slovenly Enemies and grant some Brewer's Dray just rumbling by the frothy matter working from the Bungholes of the Barrels and at every jolt squirting as wonderfully as Sir S's Engine grant too that some of it by accident might Contaminate the outside and better part of this Noble Commander ought not a well-drest Centurion upon this occasion to exert himself shew his Indignation of new Ale and Value for new Clothes Oh but our Author will tell me there is difference between the sprinklings of holy Water and spoutings of Yeast If he does I confess he will be in the right and Valentinian was but an impudent unmannerly fellow to offer such an act of Violence in the presence of his Emperour and against the Sacred Person for so the Government then esteemed them of a Priest in the Performance of his Office But to proceed what said Julian to all this Why Julian seeing what passed sent him away to a Garrison lying by a Desart or as our Author quotes St. Austin for the purpose turn'd him out of the Guards Now all I can discover out of this second Part of the Story is that when this sawcy Companion had flown in his Master's face Page the 41st he turn'd him fairly out of his place but gave him no leave to sell So that making Money of ill Manners was not in fashion at Julian's Court. Nor can Valentinian's being a Christian and Zealous against the Idolatry of the Pagans in any manner excuse him for if his Conscience was too squeamish for his Employment he ought honestly to have quitted his Command and so have avoided the occasion of either consenting to those Superstitious Idolatrous Ceremonies or committing a rude Irreverent act in the Presence and against the Dignity of his Prince his known Pleasure and his Lawes For it is false which our Author in several places of his Book endeavours to insinuate That Christianity at that time was the Established Religion of the Empire For the Empire at that time being Universal and of all the World it cannot be imagined that Christianity then but in it's Infancy could already have prevailed so far as to be confirmed by the general Law of the World when even in these our times so many Ages since it has much ado to keep the little ground it has gotten within the narrow bounds of Europe the least fourth Part of that Empire which he sayes it was Established in Nay if we look but backward to the 8th page in the first Chapter we shall find our Author himself Acknowledging and still Quoting Gregory for it too that of all this Established Religion there was indeed above 7000 left that did not bow the Knee to Baal A Mighty Number to Establish the Religion of the World withal No I am afraid the Religion according to Law at that time was the Religion of the Emperour and when Valentinian Broke the Laws by affronting of it Julian according to our observation in the beginning of this Chapter did like a Just Prince to punish him Yet like a Merciful Prince to punish him so mildly Like a Prudent Prince never farther to Employ or Trust him Yet like a Temperate Ruler too to Qualify the Passions that probably so great a provocation might raise in him with knowing well how to apply the Vertue and Authority of his Laws And this Praise I think our Author has taken a great deal of pains to give him by telling the World the Story of Valentinian The next Instance is how old Gregory of Nazianzum our Author's Friend Gregory's Father deny'd Entrance to a Captain of Archers sent by Page the 41st the Emperour to take possession of a Church upon which the Officer withdrew I suppose according to his Orders too Now all I can gather from hence is The old Bishop being refractory the Emperour in pity proceeded with no farther Violence against him for it cannot be supposed that Julian could want force had he pleased to have taken the Fortress Oh but sayes our Author Examine Gregory 's Funeral Speech upon his Father's Death and you shall find that had not Julian got out of the Old Gentleman's way he might have gone away Kickt Tho this if truly Quoted sounds to me rather like a Braggadochio of Gregory for the honour of his Father then any thing else For I cannot believe that an Emperour would go himself in person to storm a poor old doating decrepit Bishop out of a little Parish Church yet our Author is very positive in the point and sayes He had much a do to refrain making Soloecisms in the Greek to avoid the greater Soloecism of An Emperour of the World awed and terrify'd with the fear of a Kicking This we are to understand is a merry Page the 43d Conceit But our Author who loves to be sure gives us a Comment of a certain Metropolitan of Crete upon the place which being too long to recite here the Reader at his leisure may peruse where he will find mention of the Captain of those Archers indeed but if
he Page the 71st calls it to summ up all in a word he tells us that the first Christians suffered indeed according to the Laws of their Country whereas those under Julian were persecuted contrary to Law who did not fairly enact sanguinary Laws against them but put them to death upon Shams and pretended Crimcs Now how this agrees with what our Author told us before in Page the 66th let the Reader look back and he will soon be satisfied for there he tells us Julian's persecution was but a Flea-biting to what the Christians formerly felt That he good man wrought upon mens covetousness more then their fear yet here Page the 71st he was a Cruel Murderer and putter to death Nay upon pretended Crimes too what credit ought to be given to so impudent a Fellow as this who will rather give himself the Lye then use the memory of an Enemy to God and a reviler of his Blessed Son as it deserves yet this is he whom a true Protestant party as they call themselves cry up for a Libel written against their Christianity and a most Religious Zealous Pious Lord has chosen for his Chaplain And these indeed are the reflections of our Author upon the behaviour of the Christians against Julian with this Title had he charged his dreadful Murdering piece of all the Ninth Chapter But finding that it would not go off so has primed it with a new one of passive obedience which may more properly be called an Appendix to his Preface for it is a solution of the case how far we ought to be obedient to a Popish Prince Now though it be palpable enough at what head he Aims his odious Title And though I own my self a naturally devoted Servant to that Illustrious Heroick Virtuous Sufferer whom I never could be convinced by any proof or the strickest enquiry I could yet make barring publick suspicion deserved that denomination yet here Abstracting the case from the Person I am contented for once to take the frivolous discourse in hand as this trifling Author has stated it and see what dammage according to his Arguments are likely to accrue from a Popish Prince granting there could be such a thing to the Established Religion of these Kingdomes After which allowing the esteem our Authors party have for the service he has done them if it appear from his own Arguments to the contrary that our Religion according to its Establishment in its inward perfect purity of doctrine and it 's outward defence and bulwark of the Law be so confirmed that if it forsake not its own strength nothing at home can shake or disturb it much less persecute it I think it were but Reason if Peace and Truth according to their pretensions be the things they so much labour for that they henceforth return into the Arms of the Church the obedience to the Law renounce their Pharisaical pride of separation and let the People of England be once more fellow Christians and fellow Subjects If then as our Author says Page 73d We have our Religion settled by Page the 73d such Laws as cannot be altered without our own Consent what need he in the next page have asked the foolish Question Whether or no we are to go to Mass to Morrow or have our Throats out If as he says there can be no Page the 75th need of passive obedience for our Religion but by our own Treachery to it in parting with those good Laws which protect it and in agreeing to such as shall destroy it why all these noises and clamors why these alarums among us why these outcries of approaching Persecution and imminent Popery If the Laws of the Kingdom absolutely and entirely tend as certainly they do to the maintenance of the established Church and the rooting out the Superstitious Religion of Rome and if there be no power in England Civil or Military but what meerly depends upon the Authority of those Laws and cannot move without it where are those dangers we so foolishly affright our selves withall or whence can they arise From within our selves I am sure they cannot except Popery be to grow upon us out of the Earth like Mushrooms in a Night or gather over our heads like a thick Cloud in the Air and rain down a shower of Armed Papists in ready Rank and File to over-run and destroy us er'e we can think of our defence Popish black bills 't is true have been sent to a Rendezvous by the Post but never more heard of An Army of Pilgrims too were Landed but to no purpose neither Yet these things were in a time when we had a dangerous Plot ready to discharge it self among us but now the Pay-Master of the Imaginary Army to be raised for the use of that Plot is gone into another World the rest of the Principal Officers under a close Imprisonment and like to lie there Nay all their Commissions lost too and not somuch as one Cypher of Father Oliva's to shew for the bus'ness What grounds are there for our Fears now Are not all the Popish Nobility in the Kingdom excluded from their Votes in the House of Lords Or can any Man be a Member of the Lower House who does not take the Oaths of Allegiance Supremacy Test and Sacrament according to the Church of England And are not these Two Houses the great Council of the Kingdom who are to prepare by Votes all manner of Instruments for the preservation of our Safety and Religion and Confirmation of our Rights to be passed into Laws by the Royal Assent And can there in a Government and Church thus Established thus Fortified be fears of Popery or Persecution from it self No were there but another Test to pass through the Kingdom against Separation and Schism as there is against Popery I think then even our own Treachery to our Religion were impossible to be supposed in parting with those good Lawes which should protect it I believe then the 35th of Elizabeth would no more be struck at but put in due Execution Rebels and Mutineers reduced and made obedient to the Government and Laws Mechanicks kept to their Shops and not suffered to turn their Ware-houses into Nurseries of false Doctrine Prophaneness Blasphemy and Rebellion And since as our Author says it would be Treachery to part with those good Lawes which protect our Religion They who would Abolish this Law are not 't is to be feared so true Sons of the Church as they ought to be by Leaving so wide a gap for all manner of Confusion to enter in at and rend the peaceful Bowels of their Mother No Let us banish those needless Fears that serve for nothing but to perplex the sweetest Peace that ever a happy Nation was blest withal and avoid those Enemies of our Prosperity that would promote them Let all true Sons of the Established Church resolve by Loyalty to their Prince Obedience to his Authority Mutual Love Charity and entire Union
one Parasite Sycopham or Murderer that knows any more Law for it then he does himself But Rhetorick is a fine thing and a man that has the gift of it can no more stop a Trope when its coming then a Dutchman a belch 't is a great case now and then to a writer and ought to be allowed him But now I must beg leave to be a little more serious with my worthy Author and take him to task with a severe scrutiny What have we here Page the 82d There is no Authority upon Earth above the Law Page the 82d If our Author means by this that the King is subject to the Law I know not what they may amount to and think it were but fit that he should explain himself But to take the words in their bare and unprejudiced signification I say there is an Authority in the King which is an Authority above the Law And I think too it will be easie naturally to prove it For whatsoever derives it's vertue from another Authority is Inferiour to that Authority whence it is derived and therefore the Law being the Kings Creature made and informed with that force which it bears by the Kings proper Fiat and Royal Stamp the Authority of such a Law is but derivative a Child begotten by the parent power natuâ—urally in the King and consequently inferiour and subject to that first power as much as a Child is naturally to a Father Besides the Law being as I said before no other then an Instrument in the hands of the King wherewith he is to govern and protect his people certainly the weapon is not equal to the Arm that weilds it For as a Sword is but a dead thing of its self its edge and point of no use at all but as it is enforced and directed by the hand of him that bears it so equally the Law can exercise no Authority meerly of it self at all but as it is managed and put in motion by the preeminent and superintendent power in the King so that there is certainly an orignal Fountain of Natural Authority in the King above the mechanical instrumental Authority of the Laws Nor will it be sufficient that our Author Quotes Bracton's Opinion in the case to make his Argument irrefragable at all For though Bracton Page the 83d indeed was a very good Lawyer we are not by any means to allow him infallible especially in a case which is evidently false For whereas he sayes indeed as our Author hath cited him that Rex debet esse sub lege Quia lex facit Regem I cannot by any means allow of his Proposition since the Law does not make the King but the King the Laws For if we look back to the original power of our Kings as it is derived from the Norman Conquest we shall find that Conquerour was not made King by the Law but by the Sword nay after he had Vanquished us imposed too his own Norman Laws in a great measure upon us as is sufficiently probable from the absolete French Language which they are to this day written in So that Bracton is in the wrong to say the Law makes the King for the Race of our present Monarch is derived from that very Conquerour who cut out his way to his Throne with his Sword and by that Power set up such Laws as he himself thought sitting and what Laws have passed since have been made Laws by the succeeding Kings after him and not the Kings made by the Laws For our Kings reign and hold their Crowns by the right of that Conquest still which cannot be altered till they themselves willingly resign it and take up a new Royalty upon new Conditions and then indeed as Bracton sayes The Law may make the King and the King ought to be under the Law Yet this does not hinder but that as our Author sayes Page the Page the 84th 84th a Popish Successor can have no Authority to exercise any illegal cruelty upon Protestants And if so certainly there is therefore much the less fear of him By much less therefore ought we wilfully to rend and tear the present happiness we now may live in and be blest withal by seperating our selves into unreasonable Factions for fear of a danger which is but wildly possible and in all consideration of our present condition as we are fenced and defended by the best constituted Laws in the World except our own Treachery or folly destroy them utterly improbable for if as our Author sayes after that bad Princes are hardly ever known to stoop so low as to be Executioners themselves of their own cruelty if we are out of our pain as he sayes as to that difficulty I cannot by Page the 85th any means admit of his second scruple that under a Popish Successor the lives of all Protestants shall lye at the mercy of every Justice of Peace Constable or Tything-man who shall have Catholick Zeal enough to destroy them For this my dear Poll is filthy prevaricating let us still keep our ground and be true to our Laws this of all absurdities is impossible to happen For the Law has provided that no man shall henceforth bear any of those offices but approved and known Protestants such as must take the Sacrament Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Test to enable them for their employments and till those good preserving Laws are abrogated by our own Treachery it is in our own choice to be as happy as we would be even under the very reign of a Popish Successor And whereas our Author to shew what a Couragious Author he is rouses himself and setting his Arms a Cymbo cryes Page the 87th That though we cannot hinder Papists from being Idolaters we will endeavour to keep them from being our Murderers I must beg leave to tell him as a friend he might have spared his Breath to cool his Pottage for the Page the 88th Laws will do that business well enough without his help Nor can there be any petty Popish Officers as he does his weak endeavour malitiously to insinuate under a Popish Successor to be absolute Emperors and have the power of life and death for as I observed before the Law has taken care that no Papist shall henceforth bear Office in this Kingdom And this Scribler before he had entangled himself in this Argument should have found out a flaw where our Laws were lyable to be invaded and broken if he intended to have perswaded us we were not safe under their shelter In short I am weary of moyling in the heavy road of his Nonsence long to get rid of him and shake my self clean least by farther endeavouring to answer a Fool according to his folly I become like unto him For he pretends to write History which he is able to bring to no definite Conclusion and strains at a discourse yet lays us down no principles Sometimes indeed he has a great disposition to a jest
done Oh but a Peace being Concluded at Nimeguen this Army that was got together by one Sessions of Parliament was hardly got dissolv'd by two And all things rightly examined was not that One Sessions too soon for presently after the Disbanding of that Army 't is very memorable and observable what Rebellion broke out in Scotland and how it was tim'd and as for the many Papists which he would insinuate were thrust into that Army it is a most notorious Lye for those Papists that were in it were only some few Officers that came home upon the King's Proclamation with the Duke of Monmouth's Regiment out of France and they too were cashier'd their Commands long before the Peace made or the Disbanding of the Army was thought of and how this Army as he suggests was probably to be made use of in carrying on of the Popish Plot may be gather'd if I mistake not from an Information Oates once gave in That the Officers of it were all to be Murdered in a Night by the Popish Party to render the Army useless for any Service against them Then besides this Open Force sayes he there was Listed under-hand a greater of which Oates 's Narrative acquaints us with the chief Officers So the Noble Dr. did with Commissions too but the Devil a one was ever yet produced for us to see nor as I have been told did the Dr. himself know one of these principal Officers he has made bold to mention viz. My Lord Arundel of Warder when he very lately did see him but that worthy Divine is something apt to be troubled with dimness of sight when over-strain'd with swearing as some Privy Councellors in being can bear him witness In the next place to his Malicious and Impudent Suggestion That the succeeding Parliament after the Long Parliament were by their sudden Dissolution prevented from bringing those to their Tryals which the Former had committed I answer and the whole Kingdom must testify with me It is most scandalously false For had they so intended they sate time enough to have brought six times the Number to their Tryal No the face of things began to look then another way The Popish Plott seem'd like a Card turn'd up Trumps only to be play'd upon a hard Push when any Trick they aim'd at was like to be lost As for Example When the King would not give up the E. of D. to be torn in pieces trump with the Popish Plot that will fetch it or nothing immediately New Dangers of Popery are Apprehended and there is a Young Plot in the Belly of the Old One But at last when that Lord had rendered up himself and desired a speedy Tryal difficulties and perplexities were started about Joyning Issue then immediately there arises a squobble about Priviledges An Endless confus'd Riddle which no body e're yet could tell the meaning of but not a grain of Justice weigh'd out all this while but the course of it stopt and the Nation kept in suspence terror and perplexity with almost every man's hand at his Neighbours Throat and all for a punctilio Justice I doubt was not what the prevailing Faction at that time Aim'd at For as I promised before I will speak Truth A prevailing and a dangerous Faction were in that Parliament and will be in every Parliament 't is to be feared so long as Schismaticks and Make-bates are tolerated in their Insolencies by Wilful blindness or scarfulness of Magistrates that should suppress them and enabled to carry so great a sway in Elections as to return frequently so many Old Rebels against the last King to sit in the House of Commons only to raile and bandy Factions for the Ruin of this No the Popish Lords in the Tower were to be well husbanded and that Parliament was Dissolv'd not that they should not bring those Lords to Tryal but because they would not Having shot this Bolt Now he runs on his Story to several Worthy Peers Petitioning for the Sitting of a Third Parliament whereof by the way let us take notice the E. of Hunt was One who having since discover'd the foulness of the main design at the bottom has avoided the Infection return'd home into the Favour and Service of his King and Safety of his Honour And as that Petition was followed by Others of a more tumultuous nature so the reflections our Author makes upon 'em are to deal plainly as Impertinent as they were for he sayes That his Majesty was possest by some about him that such Petitioning was tumultuous and that at the same time little Emissaries were ordered to discourage it amongst the rest Sir George Jeoffries here in the City Prithee Brother Pamphletteer why little Emissaries Sir George Jeoffries is a Gentleman and was at that time Recorder of London and as I conceive under that character not so very unproper to advise the City how far in Loyalty Obedience to the Law and good Manners they ought to preserve their Duty Respect and Deference to their Sovereign and his Commands and for all that quoted scrap of the Parliaments Address against him wherein they accuse him for Informing the City of London that such manner of Proceedings might hazard the Forfeiture of their Charter I suppose it had been never the Worse for that Wise City to have taken his Counsel and have sav'd perhaps the trouble which a small Instrument Entituled Quo Warranto lately got amongst them may put them to But it is the way of hireling Scriblers for that Party now-a-dayes to Quote Votes Resolves and Addresses of the House of Commons for Lawes forsooth as if we were no longer to respect the Statutes of the Realm for our Guide but buy a pennyworth of Votes every day and consult out of them how far we are to yield Obedience to Edicts of so great an Authority as a Kings who is over us in all Causes next under God the Supreme Head and Governour For he is at the same rate again as to the Anti-Petitions as he calls emor Abhorrencies that were by many of the Loyal part of the Kingdom presented to his Majesty in a just resentment and detestation of the former Undutiful and Irreverent Proceedings of their fellow Subjects which as it was at that time the most seasonable and honestest course that good Subjects could take to clear and signalize their Respect and Fidelity to a Prince nos'd and affronted by the Insolent and Vile behaviour of a dangerous and unruly Faction So I cannot but with Horrour remember the Tyrannical and Oppressive Authority which the House of Commons durst usurp afterwards over their fellow-Subjects how many of us were persecuted by their Ban-dogs and Pursuivants how many that knew not so well the Charter of their Liberty were forced to yield obedience to their Unwarrantable and Peremptory Votes Led in Captivity shamefully several Miles through their Native Countries up to London committed to Illegal and Chargeable Prisons harrass'd with Arbitrary Fines or Censures brought on
amongst and towards one another to maintain and defend it resolve to stand by and preserve the Laws that support it from the annoyance both of its right and left-hand Enemies let us resolve this and be Quiet and if we do so we shall be Quiet to the Confusion of our Author and those mischievous creeping Caterpillars his Party Nay since there are good Laws for the protecting of our Religion against its Enemies the Schismatical Phanaticks as well as Papists and Others the best way certainly of protecting it is by putting those good Lawes in Execution nay to the utmost Extent and improvement of them if possible and for this too to give our Author one Quotation for his whole Book-ful let Bracton be my security Nay the very place too where Mr. Deacon is pleased to Quote him himself upon this occasion viz. Libro 1. Cap. 2. in these words Leges cum fuerint approbatae consensu utentium et Sacramento Regum Confirmatae Mutari non possunt nec destrui sine communi consensu consilio eorum omnia Quorum Consilio consensu fuerunt promulgatae That is to say that since the Laws have been approved by the consent of those for whose use and benefit they were made and Confirmed by our Kings They cannot be changed nor destroyed without the Common consent and advice of all those by whose Advice and Consent they were first set forth So far our Author But had he pleased to have carried his Eye a line farther he might have found this added Quod in meliùs tamen converti possunt etiam sine eorum Consensu Quia non destruitur quod in melius Commutatur i. e. That for all this nevertheless they may be improved at the discretion of the Prince even without such Consent since nothing can be said to be destroyed which is changed for the better Which all makes good my aforementioned Assertion That for the preservation of our Religion the Laws ought to be put in Execution with the utmost Rigor and when the King shall think fitting in so good a Cause they ought if possible to be stretched and improved too For Laws being the Instruments put into the hands and power of aâ—…ing wherewith to Govern and Protect his People those Instruments are to be used at his own discretion certainly And a good Father of his Country cannot but think himself obliged to give them their utmost and severest reach for the suppressing and reducing of Contumacious stubborn impudent Mutineers and Rebels as well as sometimes in Goodness to abate their Rigor when he finds an object that may deserve his Mercy Our Author might have found out this as well as I now But I suppose he may be one of those that are for clipping the King's Prerogative and for that end would serve all those Authors so too that defend and assert it And indeed I observe in all their Writings that it is much the practice of the Advocates for that Party whenever they have an Occasion to shew their Reading Quote a poor Author that never intended them any Kindness to snip pare and shave him down just to their purpose so clap him upon the Margent of their Pamphlet in hopes to Cobble up their false Arguments with defaced and mangled truth and make them pass for Veritable Doctrine And indeed I cannot tell all along what to make of this giddy-headed Author I am to handle He turns and shifts and dodges and never keeps one Course He pretends to treat of passive Obedience but never tells us what passive Obedience is discourses from no principle in the world nor gives us any definition of his Theam and indeed upon due consideration it were unreasonable to expect it of him for had he ever read Ethicks he would have learned more honesty then to have published such a Book He first tells us in a word That we are secured so well by our Page the 75th Laws that passive Obedience must except by our own treachery be for ever unpracticable amongst us yet wasts Twenty or Thirty Pages more to scare us with the dangers of its doctrine which he sayes 'T is true can never Page the 78th discover its malignity under his Majesties gracious Reign which God prolong and prosper who has been pleased to give the Nation the security of his Coronation Oath c. But in case we should fall under a Popish Successor then this Bloody Doctrine will have the Opportunity to shew its self in its own Colours and we may then see and it may be feel the sting of it Now here really it is very hard to forbear laughing most outragiously at this Fellow and his Canting but that I correct and keep my spleen under in a pure principle of charity for fear lest I mistake his frenzy for his folly The King has been pleased to give us the security of his Coronation Oath Quotha but in case we should fall under a Popish Successor Well what then Must not he give us the Security of his Coronation Oath too Yes my dear Author that he must and I believe Thou mayst be satisfied it will be his Interest to keep it too except thou canst think him so blind to his own good as to hazard the involving of his Nation in blood shaking and endangering of his Throne for ever and all for the great advantage he may propose to himself of bringing in the Power of a Tyrannical Clergy to Impoverish his People lessen his Revenues and weaken his Authority Oh but says our Author I suppose that a Popish Successor being in possession and so a lawful Magistrate will persecute Protestants Page the 79th To which I answer I desire to know which way he will persecute Protestants will he persecute them with the Laws No. They are of the Protestant side If he will raise a Popish Army and bring in Popery with Drum and Trumpet I humbly desire to know where he will beat up his Drums for them and how the Popish Officers will make their Interests in the Countrey when they are to raise them or what Popish Towns will give 'em Quarters till they come to their Rendezvous Or which way this Popish Successor will get a Popish Parliament to give him Protestant Money to pay this Popish Army all these things will be necessary For let the Romish Religion be never so much in the matter your Musqueteers and Pikemen will have a certain Protestant principle of point d' Argent point de Swisse Though after all it would be a damnable surprise at last if our Author should have a Project at the end of all this to conceal his Politicks till this Popish Successor Comes and so prefer himself to his Privy Council by a trick he has in the bottom of his Budget for the bringing in Popery in a peaceable way and enslaving the Nation without a farthings Cost or a moments trouble that I must confess would be something new and not unpretty Marry but
out of it and I hope Hang'd too and all I humbly conceive no breach of Privilege neither But our Noble Author to shew how fit an Advocate he is for his Party will needs be at it and Juggle in his very Preface which should be his Apology None shall be questioned out of Parliament for any thing spoken or transacted in it That is None shall be liable to the Law for what he says in Parliament provided he keep the bounds of Privilege which I humbly conceive is limited notwithstanding the late new started Doctrines That they are the only Judges of it themselves why else do they desire the Continuation of their Privileges every new Sessions by their Speaker The King is the Judge of those Provileges then for how can any Man grant what is fitting that is not suppos'd the Judge what is so Though therefore none be liable to the Law for what he says in Parliament provided he keep the bounds of Priviledge yet I hope any Corporation that sends up a Member to Serve for them in Parliament being sensible that that Member has abus'd or not discharg'd his Trust by proceeding unwarrantably in his Station running into a faction to do nothing the King desires of them to vex him with Bills for Dis-inheriting a dearest Brother with a thousand other Contrivances to perplex the good of the Kingdom and Embroil rather than Settle it I hope such a Corporation in an honest sence how they have been misrepresented by the Servant that they have sent to the King may have liberty to censure the Proceedings of such an unfaithful Servant and to Vindicate themselves too by any humble Address to His Majesty to assert their constant and loyal Adherence to his Government and if need be Abhorrence of any Transactions either of their own Servant or any else that would grow their Master tending to the Disturbance or Dissolution of it Oh But have a care says the Preface a little farther when His Majesty shall say to those dry Bones Live and they shall stand upon their feet they will be the fittest to declare their resentments c. Now do but mark this facetious Gentleman rather than lose his Jest what will he not do Just now he was Pleading the reverence and deference due to the Memory of the Parliament and here he scurrilously calls â—â—m a Company of dry Bones can there be any thing more Prophane than that the dry Bones of a dead Carcass commonly stink in the Nostrils of the living a very civil Metaphor and a great Complement to the Representatives of a Nation truly Oh but look to it they will be fittest to declare their resentments I hope it will never come to that that we of the Country who send up Members to Serve for us in the great Convocation of the Kingdom shall stand in awe of the Power we trust 'em withal I hope they are to sit there for our good and our peace not for our terror But more of this hereafter And now To the first part of his Pamphlet let us see how far he has proved the rise growth and discovery of a Popish Plot Have at it He sayes If the declaration of the common or publick Judgment be not a competent ground for us to settle our belief upon he knowes not what can be suppos'd to be for if ever the King be infallible he would the readiliest expect him to be so when he has the concurrent Advice and Consent of the whole Nation Nay he sayes there is infinitely greater cause for conforming our belief to the Opinion of the King Lords and Commons in a matter of fact throughly examin'd then to obey the Lawes they make To this I answer That King Lords and Commons are not nor can be infallible As they are Men they are liable to errors and may be deceived in matters of Opinion by the imperfections of their humane Nature in matters of fact by the false Informations of Perjur'd and profligate Villains who are to swear for bread and have no longer hopes to eat then their Evidence is useful For could any Government or Authority upon Earth be Infallible one might as well as another and Consequently our Author would make a good Argument for the Church of Rome and the Pope in Cathedrà may with as much reason pretend to be Infallible as any Prince in Christendom in his Senate I hope our Pamphleteer is a better Protestant then this Argument amounts to Granting then that King Lords and Commons are not Infallible he has not yet by his argument prov'd the rise growth and discovery of a Popish Plott But now he comes to supposing well let us see what he supposes Supposing sayes he that the aforesaid Resolves and Proclamations were not made nor issued without the maturest deliberation and fullest assurance of the truth of those Testimonies and Evidence that occasioned them it cannot be reputed too great credulity to believe that Popery was to be introduced by those Means and Methods that the Discoverers of the Plott attested very good Here he supposes that the aforesaid Resolves and Proclamations were not without the fullest assurance of the truth of the Evidence and yet not three lines farther he tells us that as to Scotland and Ireland in which the Design was laid as well as in England Affairs have been so managed that it is still as to us kept in a great manner secret Was then that Vote of the House of Commons that there was a Popish Plott in Ireland as well as here made upon the maturest deliberation and fullest assurance when affairs have been so managed that it is yet a Secret why was this Fellow trusted with Pen and Ink Well but now look too 't now let us look about us He has been but tuning his Instrument all this while now he 's resolv'd to tickle it away indeed as for Example Old sturdy England being as he sayes a Nation alwayes Jealous of their Rights and Liberties it was despaired that she would be wheedled to put on the Roman Yoke and therefore there was no hopes of bringing that about but by force The Author of this Book must be some Jesuited bewhiggify'd and privy to all their Councels he could never give so round an account what they thought else And now sayes he there wanted a plausible pretence to get up an Army Politick Worm and therefore that we may Epitomize his long-winded Impertinent story he tells us there was a Sham War propos'd with the French and the Parliament induc't to comply with the design he makes a very Worthy Parliament of it the mean while For if a Sham-War were to be impos'd upon the Nation he makes the Parliaments as guilty of the Imposture as any Minister of State he would pretend to blacken Then he goes on how An Army of 30000 men was appointed to be raised and a Tax levied for their Pay Well and they were pay'd as far as the Tax would go and what harm
is no better than perjur'd But now all the Question is says our Scribler whether such a particular man has so unalterable right to such a ones Heir that no crime Can forfeit that Right nor no Power annul it To which I answer as he himself hath taught me Force and Violence and the longest Sword may annul any thing but the Business he would bring in here is the forfeiting Crime which what it is in our present case we should better have known He says If the hasty Dissolution of so many Parliaments and a Noli Prosequi had not hindered and so he proceeds to make a Fiction of Case and indeed it is a Substantial Fiction by his old way of supposing Now let us once more see what he supposes for by this suppose he pretends to resolve the Query what the forfeiting Crime is in our present Case Very good Suppose says he him that expects to be Heir perverted from the Protestant to the Popish Religion Now out of this Suppose we are if we think fit to suppose agen that he means the Duke of York and then we are to let him know 't is but a malicious at best and no charitable Supposition and till there are better grounds than any the Publick have been inform'd of yet to six it upon I shall grant no such Supposition at all In the next place says he Suppose his Principal Servant and greatest Confident bragging of the apparent likelihood of rooting out this â—estilent Northern Heresie and of the Zeal of his Master in the Cause c. Now we are sure and need not suppose that by this Servant and Confident is signify'd Coleman and therefore I must tell he is pleased to suppose what I believe himself and almost every body else knows to be a false thing for Coleman was none of his Principal Servant or Confident but Cashier'd the Service of his Highness's Family many years since and I have been told the reason why he was discharged the Office of Secretary to the Dutchess was for that he stood suspected even then of being too busie with Matters of an ill kind though they were not particulariz'd or prov'd against him and if so good Mr. Pamphletteer what becomes of your Suppose But to proceed Supposing all this says he We can hardly imagine a Crime to be blacker Then what Then a suspition of designing the Subversion of the Established Religion and in it of the Government A very pretty point our Author has brought his Bus'ness to He has proved the Lawfulness of the Bill of Exclusion because he is pleased to suppose and suspect that the Duke may design the Subversion of the Religion and Government is any man to suffer by the Law of England for Suspition Surely no Then certainly the Excluding the Duke from his Inheritance upon bare Suspition is not altogether so legal as our Author would have the World think it is But the man is a little reasonable for all that for about four Lines afterwards says he Now let us consider introth and I think it is time of all Conscience well but what shall we consider Let us consider says he whether a Parliament have not Power to inflict such a Punishment on such Offences with all my heart It is says he from the Laws Enacted by Parliament that such an Act has such a Punishment awarded to it This as he has express'd it is Nonsense and as he means it is false for no Laws are Enacted by Parliament all Laws are Enacted by the King in Parliament and though he go on to tell us that Felonies are by the Law Punished by Death as well as Murder yet till he show us a Law that any man shall be Hanged for Suspition of Felony or Murder he seems to have considered to very little purpose and his Suppose is in as bad a condition as e'r it was 'T is very well worth any man's observation how the Champions for this Cause manage Matters they write incessantly but such crude and indigested stuff comes daily from as visibly discovers what an unhealthful condition it is in Now is our Author vomiting up a lump of confus'd Notions for the Mobile to lap at and that is forsooth what a Parliament can do and first indeed he is a little civil and will vouchsafe to joyn the King with them and pray let us see to what purpose They says he can Attaint any man or take off the Attainder as they see good I hope though good Mr. Author it must be for sufficient cause shown that they shall proceed to Attaint any Man or else by your leave they violate the Great Charter of England and whatsoever does so is Destructive of the Being of the Government Destructive of Publick Safety Destructive of the general Liberty either let the great Charter be the Rule and Standard our Parliaments are to govern their Votes Acts by or let us burn and cancel it for ever Our Law says It is unalterable and whoever Votes or Consents to any thing against the tenure and holding of that Charter I may presume to say is little better than a betrayer of the Publick Good and an Enemy to the Kingdom The People of England hold their Liberties and Properties by virtue of Magna Charta nothing can alter it and whatsoever does so call it an Act of Parliament or what you please may be impos'd upon our Obedience by Power but it is Void of it self Tyrannical and against the great and Sacred Right delivered us down through so many Ages by our Fathers from one Generation to another It would argue as much impertinence as he is guilty of himself to recount the many absurdities he has urged on this occasion as the instances of Legitimation and Illegitimation of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth both which were made in their turns Illegitimate and yet both were Legitimate when they came to succeed and would not any Body that reads this judge our Author deserved a blew Coat and a Muckinder for urging their Cases as Instances what the Parliament can do in such Cases when neither of the Acts pass'd against those Princesses stood good But what he says afterwards deserves Sugar Plumbs or nothing now we are beholden to him or never for he comes to the Point and says in a word That the two Houses have an absolute Dominion over the Lives Liberties and Estates of any Subject in the Kingdom why now we see what the Gentleman would be at here he speaks home The two Houses abstractedly have an Absolute Dominion c. Tush no matter for the King he is no body God knows when our Author would shew his Law We have had instances sayes he of Queens being Beheaded and who is nearlier related to the King than she that is one with him Oh brave Boys who nearer allied to the Privileges of the Crown than she that has had it set upon her head Why this is hearty now And if such a one says he