from the Protestant Exchequer which like their Thames is at full Tide in the City when 't is Low Water at White-Hall 3. Whether the Council of the one or the Jurors of the other were the beter paid And what is the difference between taking up a Prejudice against the Kings Cause and a fee for the Prisoners These Quaeries being civilly proposed we 'll now make some reply to their puzzling Interrogatories about a Parliament which I look upon as a sort of riddling Sphinx and like that Monster with many forms and faces which if not unriddled they 'll be sure to make it murder the credit of the Kings Evidence But then if it chance to meet with its Oedipus and be well expounded why should not these Gentlemen and their Cause to carry on the fable break their necks too we know as well as any of these Good Honest men that there was a Bill proposed in the House of Commons and that about Association too they having owned it and published it in their Printed Votes and so not only the close fly insinuations of their subtil Interrogatories But what then does it follow this discovered paper was read there too and every Paragraph of it amongst which one is plain Treason sure that honourable House is but little beholden to those Gentlemen for such squinting reflections But it seems such men may make bolder with their Representatives and take as much liberty with their Petty Gods as a canting Nonconformist does with his God Almighty Then secondly were it read there verbatim as these bold Insinuators would have the World believe sure the bare debating or reading it could not pass it into an Act too and make it as statutable as if the King 's Le Roy vult had passed it into Law if so it had then been pertinently urged as an Argument for the Prisoner when all the Old Acts that make it Treason to raise Forces without the King would have been abrogated by this New one for tolerating Insurrection In the mean time give me leave to think that this Suggestion excused them no more from bringing the Prisoner to his Trial then a Vote of the House could have warranted them to pull him out of the Tower And by their leave how do all these insinuations prove the Parliament concerned in it the most that can be gathered from the Circumstances of Affairs is that it must be only understood of the House of Commons and now all is out and what none of them will own when pinch't with it blabs forth unawares in Confession Unhappy Tongues thus to betray their Masters So now we know what they mean by a Parliament it seems the House of Commons is the Parliament and they will have this Parliament to exclude the Duke by themselves their Votes to be Law and they sit again as long as they please and whether the King will or no 't is they must go down into their several Burroughs and according to this Association raise the Militia and make the people swear to obey them If this be the right constitution of a Parliament the Lord have mercy upon us and God save the King and no wonder then if the House of Lords were in the late Rebellion Voted useless and now declared Obstructors of Justice and Violators of the constitution of Parliaments and no need will there be for Repealing an Act of Scandalum Magnatum if they can be so much traduced made so scandalous without it And give me leave to tell these Gentlemen too that make the name of Parliament a Justification for all their own Factiousness and a Terrour to all other peoples Loyalty that this complementing that honourable Assembly as their Patrons and but other mens Bugbears is no such great piece of civility If you now adays reprimand a fellow for talking irreverently of the King or Council you are gagg'd presently with the sense of Parliament tell them the Duke 's still the next Successor you are muzzl'd with the Bill of Exclusion forbear veiling your Bonnet to Dr. Oats's Gippo and he flaps you in the teeth with a Parliament condemn the Treason of this Association and you are stunn'd with such an Interrogatory Now 't is certain that none of these things ever were the Judgment of Parliament Because neither the King nor the House of Lords are ever like to be of these Opinions and as for this Scheam of Association I am perswaded the Commons themselves never thought on such strange Resolutions as are there intended For as 't is acknowledged by all that the murder of Justice Godfrey which was as imprudent as barbarous made the fam'd subtilty of the Jesuit much suspected and with a preposterous piece of Policy helped the further detection of that Plot they thought to smother in the stream of his Blood so 't is as bad Politicks in our Commonwealths-men to make the Parliament Abettors of their proceedings whilst it gratifies the Papist and their Cause much more than that cruel and inconsiderate murder helps to put off the thorow Examination of that Hellish Conspiracy which they themselves think will never be sufficiently sisted so that 't is no such Paradox to say the Jesuit had an hand in this Association as well as the Republicans and that both cabal in their Clubs for the subverting the State as well as in their Assemblies for the ruining of the Church the Consults for the one being carried on at their Coffee-Houses and for the other at their Conventicles Thus the boldness and presumption that the factious party take of making their house of Commons espouse and warrant all their Licentiousness is not only an abuse put upon the whole Gentry of the Nation but directly destructive of those foolish Designs they think to promote by it I know that which makes them so Impudent to slur this Association on that honourable Assembly are those Votes that were passed the 15 th and 16 th and 21 th of Dec. 1680. The 15 th Ordered that a Bill be brought in for an Association of all his Majesties Protestant Subjects The 16. A Bill for uniting his Majesties Protestant Subjects to the Church of England was read a first time and on the 21 they address That his Majesty would graciously be pleased to assent to an Act for enabling his Protestant Subjects to associate themselves for the defence of his Person Now 't is evident by these Bills that their intent was to make his Majesties Protestant Subjects unite themselves to the Church of England and in order to that to associate themselves for the Preservation of the Defender of their Faith how far these Purposes agree with the Subverting the State and ruining the Church the clear intent of this discovered Association I submit to the determination of this grand Inquest who perhaps may be able to reconcile the Contradiction Then such an Association as this would not only be derogatory from the Honour of that Assembly but from the profest Loyalty of it
expence of Blood and Moneys If he means the Guards which is very probable because he says still kept up in and about the City of London then I deny that they are to the Terrour and Amazement of all good People for none but the bad are concerned for it and 't is strange that those which are so much for the preservation of his Majesty's Person won't allow of a competent Guard to preserve him from the Bullet of a Pickering or the Blunderbuss of Mr. Colledge And yet these Gentlemen that are so mightily apprehensive of an unaccountable Danger of Arbitrary Power and its being set up by the King's Guards are the very same persons that grin at his Majesty's thanks for his Declaration to govern by Law blazoning that gracious act to consist party per pale of weakness and impertinencie and this they do with these their two bandied argumentations First That such a Submissive Declaration argues too great condescention in a Monarch and weakly makes him Appeal to his Subjects And secondly That the declaring his intention to rule by Law was as impertinent as the thanks for it unnecessary because that by those Laws and his Coronation Oath his Majesty is obliged to do it I think I have express'd their meaning in as civil terms as they usually complement his Majesty withal And now they may fairly give me leave to tell my own sense and judgment of these their sentiments and opinions In my poor Apprehension this gracious Declaration seems 〈…〉 all their froward Petitions And will these bawling Bratts not so much as be pleased with the very Rattles they cry for They still bawl'd for frequent Parliaments and here the King promises they shall have them Popery must be kept out and Property secured And in this he declares to preserve the Protestant Religion and protect them in their Rights and Priviledges The dread of A bitrary Power was the Burden in all those Papers and Parchments they presented And there they are assured that he will govern according to Laws and take them for his sole Measures And now must the same factious Scriblers that writ such smooth Panegyrick on all their Petitions be hired to make such Satyrical Animadversions on his Majesties Declaring to gratify them And shall the King be urg'd and vex'd into Compliance with all their petulant Requests and then have his good Nature traduc'd for Easiness and Folly And shall both Meekness and Tyranny by turns abuse the Government secure an Odium upon it by making both Extreams serve for the purpose If so for God's sake let them shew me the Possibility of keeping up a Monarchy amongst such perverse and implacable Republicans and as for the Condescention they talk of his Majesty is somewhat beholden to these Gentlemen for being so jealous of his Honour But I would ask them what other way could be taken to bring his Majesties Subjects into right understanding of his good Inclinations towards them These Arguers are Conscious to themselves with what black Representations they have blemish'd his Government and to whom shall the King appeal for his Justification but to his poor Subjects that are scared out of their Loyalty by their false and scandalous Suggestions Won't they allow the King what is granted to the most profligate Wretch and Criminal at a Bar not so much as to make his Defence not to have the benefit of every common English Man And what they themselves would expect if they had their Deserts and were arraigned for Treason Sure they show themselves most inveterate Traytors that after they have represented their Prince as a Tyrant would put him out of a possibility of shewing himself Gracious and Merciful they know they have a great advantage with the Rabble against their King upon even Terms why then must he be Libell'd and not suffered to venture a Reply And why shall his Majesty be denied what their Hamburg Sheriff did attempt to vindicate himself in Print All the Answer they can make to it is That then the People will be brought into their Wits again and they will lose the benefit they make of their Distraction The other Whirlbat which they flourish about mightily and put into the Hands of every young Combatant that has a mind to skirmish for the Cause is briefly this That both the King and the Thanks were needless because the King could not do otherwise by Law and his Oath But this is like all the rest of their Arguments against the Government full of Cavil and Spite We will grant them the King can't bring in Arbitrary Power by Law but if they tell the People that it will be brought in without it is the King bound by Law to tell them he intends no such thing These factious Gentlemen are as much bound by the Law and their Oaths of Allegiance to live like dutiful Subjects and to love their Soveraign and should they declare thus much to their King under their Hands as they would do did they really love him I fancy they would be very much netled should not his Majesty return them so much as Thanks for such a Testimony and perhaps grumble too if they were not prefer'd for such a work of Superarrogation Though all this while they are as much obliged by their Oaths to obey as he is to protect but yet these reciprocal Assurances on both sides may be meerly voluntary Suppose some of these Arguers met with a suspected Band of licentious Libertines whom they thought neither the Law of God or Man could deterr from committing any Villany would not they thank this Banditi for assuring them of a safe Passage without Plundering or Murder I appeal to the whole Kingdom whether some of our suspitious Wretches do not daily represent the King and his Council as dangerous altogether as any such parcel of Russians such as would be for enslaving the Nation and cutting of Throats with our Associators mercenary Forces And must not the King be permitted to wipe off such black Scandals expel such Panick Fears and be thank'd by his Loyal Subjects for such comfortable Promises In short if they are satisfied that the King cannot Rule but by the Law why do they dread so much an Arbitrary Power If they are afraid he will Rule without it why won't they thank him for his Assurance to the contrary This Digression is so fur a pertinent Comment on the last Paragraph we handled in the Association as it clears his Majesty from designing an Arbitrary Sway which the bold Associator would insinuate And now we will proceed to compare the rest of his excellent Stuff Associat Moreover J. D. of Y. having publickly own'd the Popish Religion c. I will never consent that the said J. D. of Y. or any other who hath any way adhered to him and the Papists c. shall be admitted to the Succession of the Crown of England But by all lawful Means and by force of Arms will oppose him and indeavour to
subdue and destroy him and all his Adherents that intend to set up his pretended Title Holy League June 6. That I will according to my Power and Vocation assist the Forces raised by both Houses of Parliament against the Forces raised by the King without their Consent Solemn Leag Negat Oath I. A. B. Do swear from my Heart that I will neither directly nor indirectly adhere unto or willingly assist the King in this Cause c. And that my coming and submitting to this Parliament is without any Design whatsoever Now I would have any one tell me what will be the difference between assisting the Forces of the Parliament against those of the King swearing neither directly or indirectly to adhere to his Majesty and this Clause of Fighting Subduing Expelling Destroying the Duke and all his Adherents when as much a King as ever his father was which is supposed and implyed in this Clause of the Association And that all this shall be done when he comes to the Crown and seeks to set up his pretended Title But why must his Title only be pretended when he will have as much right to wear the Crown as the Head upon which it is now so miraculously placed What can be the result of this but that those men who will think his Title then but pretended have but little better Opinion of his present Majestie 's Certainly upon the same Ground that they will not admit him to the Throne they may pull the present King out of it for it is but rejecting the Duke for giving Life and Birth to the Plot and the King for conniving at the Conspiracy that horrid accusation wherewith some Traytors have already traduced his Majesty and then farewel Government of old England good Night to the best tempered Monarchy in the World But then for the Clause of all Adherents to be destroyed too 'T is such an unlimited piece of Massacre that for ought I see half the Nation must be forc'd to swim in their own Blood by these tender Lovers of their Country and these Patriots put in for a more barbarous cutting of Throats than that of the Danes in the same Kingdom that of Paris in France or Piedmont in Italy This word Adherent must include the extirpating the whole Line of Succession notwithstanding it is pretended only in opposition to the next Heir For it does the Prince of Orange his business whom they all acknowledg a Protestant Prince as much as if he were the greatest Bigot of Rome it is but saying he adheres to his own Father-in-Law one from whose Blood he must derive some of his Pretensions and then the Protestant Prince must be destroyed too according to the word of the Association as an Enemy to Laws Religion and Country But now at last comes a Paragraph not to be parallel'd by the old Covenants only because fuller of Treason and Rebellion The obeying of the Parliament in Forty two and Forty three without a King was pretended somewhat warrantable because his Majesty had unhappily passed an Act for Triennial Parliaments and then another afterwards for their perpetual sitting But this Gentleman without any more Ceremonies without expecting such an unreasonable Grant from the King resolves that Affairs shall be carried on with such a resolute piece of Treason that none but desperate Men and mad such as had bid Defiance to the Laws of God and Man would ever ingage in which read Verbatim if it be possible for any Loyal Heart that loves his King and Country to have so much Patience Associat And lest this just and pious Work should by any means be obstructed or hindred for want of Discipline and Conduct or anâ— evil minded Persons under pretence of raising Forces for the service of this Association should attempt or commit Disorders we will follow such Orders as we shall from time to time receive from this present Parliament whilst it shall be sitting or the major part of the Members of both Houses subscribing this Association when it shall be prorogued or dissolved and obey such Officers as shall by them be set over us in the several Countries Cities and Burroughs until the next meeting of this and another Parliament and will then shew the same Submission and Obedience unto it and those who shall be of it I don't doubt but had this Associator been known to both Houses of Parliament their professed Loyalty is such they would have voted his head to be preferred to that honourable place among the Traitors on the Bridge A just requital for paying such a Treasonable deference to that honourable Assembly and so boldly complementing them without their leave into Rebellion A Pious Work indeed and such as I don't doubt without a seasonable repentance and an insinite Mercy will damn the Contriver And lest any evil minded Persons should commit Disorders A very careful Patriot certainly one who will not suffer so much as a little disorder to be committed But it would be a little hard for the poor Mouse that picks a little hole in the Bread to be caught by the neck by the Thief that stole the whole Loaf Strickt discipline indeed that makes the least disorder in raising of Forces so criminal and obnoxious and yet the mustering them up to rebel a work Pious and meritorious Sure the Contriver of this work is not so well acquainted with the House of Commons and their Priviledges as he would be thought to be or else is resolved to act and forge in spight of all equity and truth For none that have stretch't the Power of that Assembly to its utmost extent ever allowed it a right of sitting like so many petty Kings in Representative To issue out Proclamations raise Forces and command obedience from their fellow Subjects I confess we had a Parliament that did all this raised an Army made their Generals fought their King but sure this Associator can't be such a Villain to think the late Representatives of the Nation would all have commenced Traitors and after a most inconsistant rate imitated that Parliament in 41. Which some of they themselves by particular Act since have declared guilty of Rebellion nay to outdo and transcend them in their Treason to sit in opposition to his Majesties Command whereas those did by his unhappy Permission But this bold Associator can go further yet resolves the sitting House shall not only be obeyed as the Supream and Legislative power of the Nation but that the Major Part of those Members whom he civilly supposes ready to subscribe after Prorogation after Dissolution shall be submitted to as invested with an higher Supremacy then any would be willing to allow his present Majesty and that this select Committee in their Respective Countries Cities and Burroughs like so many Stadt-holders in their several Provinces shall create Officers muster their Armies fall a plundering again of Delinquents and hanging up every Malignant Dog that dares but shew his teeth or wagg his
THE PARALLEL OR The New Specious Association AN Old Rebellious Covenant Closing with a Disparity between A TRUE PATRIOT AND A Factious Associator LONDON Printed for B. Tooke at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-Yard and T. Sawbridge at the Three Flower-de-luces in Little Brittain MDCLXXXII The Parallel NEver did a piece of Villany deserve sharper Animadversion or the Contriver of it more severity and both I fancy might have had their deserts already did not the grossness of the Treason almost supersede reflection and the greatness of the Traytor exempt him from Punishment so that there is even a sort of necessity severely to reflect on such a horrid Contrivance as onely by the boldness of its being undertaken seems to dare and provoke it and presume upon an Impunity from the very greatness of its guilt and this enormity of the Subject may serve to make this Paper a palatable sort of scribble though the superfluity of so many Pamphlets is enough to make it nauseous But the Author of it desires as little to be known as that of the Association and therefore comes into the World as some late Criminals out of Prison with an Ignoramus But with this advantage That if the one were detected no Law would make him lose so much as one of his Ears whilst it would adjudge the other to forfeit his Head I mean those Laws that are still the same though the Justice of them be perverted That Justice which our kind Prince diffuses indeed like a mighty Stream but is still swallowed up in the Gulph of that unfathomable thing call'd a Conscience That arrogant conceit of doing well of doing God good service and the King though it be in committing Sacriledge and commencing Rebel That prodigious Paradox that unintelligible Lump of Contradiction which now can huddle together a guilty piece of Innocence make Teason a species of Loyalty Saint and Rebel Terms Aequivocal or even Homonymous and with the most unreasonable part of Logick unite the most opposite Shapes patch up a Centaure in imagination make a fantastick Monster leap up with a thought and with an extravagant conceit jumble together that hotch-potch Animal that Heterogeneous Composition of an Honest Knave Certainly these Dictates of Conscience can now no longer be call'd Inspiration or the suggestions even of common sense much less he impulses of a reasonable soul for as some rapt Zealots would have them thought the Spiritual Infusions of Enthusiasm and Revelation when they shall preposterously suggest the greatest Criminals innocent and acquit by the Sentiments of a few Men those whom almost Mankind condemns To reflect here a little on the proceedings of our late Juries is so far pertinent to this discourse as they themselves seem a band of covenanting Associators such as would have acquitted the Factious Inditer of this Association had they found him musing on it at his Desk with an imperfect draught of the bloody Scheme in his hand and blowing up the Government with his dangerous Ammunition of Pen Ink and Paper such as would have cleard a Protestant Joyner had they seized him with his hands on his Majesty and would rather reason themselves out of Sense then such a Villain out of his Life and what is the greatest Paradox still conceit themselves Honest-men and True whatever all the World thinks to the contrary I fancy such disaffected creatures will think me but an improper Animadverter on the Subject in hand who am so easie and credulous a fool as to believe the ridiculous design of seizing his Majesty and the strange Paradox of a Presbyterian-Plot As for the first I will tell these merry Gentlemen they onely make it ridiculous by laughing at it and though it is not probable that they would have served his Majesty like a little diminutive King at Chess huddl'd him up into a Bag and so march't off with the Prize yet Mr. Colledge had provided I think a Sack for him in his emblematical representations of the Monarchy and trussed him upon shoulders too in his Pictures But to speak seriously I can't see the ridiculousness of keeping a King Prisoner till those Bills are extorted into Laws by his Confinement which were never like to meet with his Royal Assent without such a Constraint And instead of thinking such designs but the deliriums of a crack't Scull I should rather imagine them the politicks of their hot Brains especially when the proceedings of their very Fore-fathers makes them so good Statesmen and tickles the young Heirs with the pleasant thoughts how bravely their Grandsires domineer'd with their Proposals o're the poor Prince at Holmby Then my thoughts of the Presbyterian-Plot are briefly thus That though we cannot detect any private Commissions to raise Forces yet we have as much ground to believe it as the Popish one in which there has not one Commission been found amongst all the seiz'd Papers notwithstanding so many sworn to be delivered and this I urge not as detracting from the certainty of the latter the Generals of which I believe as much as my Creed but onely to shew that such Gentlemen ought not to be so partial to their own Cause as to make that an argument in their own defence which by no means they can allow in another's And there may be a complicated Conspiracy though not proved with an actual Rebellion and which I am apt to believe has been carrying on ever since the death of the Protector as well as the other ever since the decease of Queen Mary but however if I mistake not we have of late met with many detections of their overt-acts to subvert the Government besides those by-tricks of Libelling and defaming it witness only this Association at present because 't is to be the subject of this Discourse And now I believe they understand of what kind of Principles I am compos'd of what Sentiments I have of their Plots which whether rational or no they must not Judge because Party and then what wonder is it if the detection of their Conspiracies and the Punishment of the Delinquents be so difficult to be compass'd when both must lye in the breast of such as seem to espouse the Prisoner's Cause and with a resolved sort of incredulity to believe neither Evidence on Oath matter of Fact or their own Sences What wonder is it if His Majesty cannot have the Common Justice they distribute to their private selves to every Tyler or Jack Straw that has but a Property to a Stall a Shop a Tool or a green Apron when these Gentlemen of the Yard and Tool themselves must decide the Controversie who I warrant you will be sure to take more care of their own Propertie than of his Prerogative But are these all the thankful Acknowledgments His Majesty must expect for His Gracious Charter Must the King's Enemies be spar'd because the Cities Friends Must he by giving pass himself into a Donative By his own Grant seclude himself from the benefit of the very
Tayl but all this while we must not imagine this to be a design to set up a Republick The Contriver of all this horrid Treason and Rebellion was only some bold impudent Scribler some little factious fellow of a Ribband Club. I wish such a Design were only in the single heart of some poor ordinary rascally Traitor I fancy then we should quickly have his heart out with his bowels I fancy the Rogue would hardly lie so long incognitò or meet with a Stickling Ignoramus But if ever the Design take in the Kingdom we shall see some of our lostiest Cedars will aspire to the Reputation of having brought it about and not suffer every factious Mushroom that just railed against the Government assume the glory of having subverted it too If there be such a brave party ready to subscribe this excellent design as he seems to insinuate that drew it up his Majesty certainly has more need to double his Guards for his own preservation then to dismiss them to please such dangerous Associators and none that have read the common Apologue of the Sheeps being worried by the Wolves assoon as perswaded to dismiss their Dogs but from the Fable can deduce so good a Moral as to see through the shallowness of their disguis'd Intentions and keep themselves from being circumvented with such another cheat I wonder what should make this Politician think such a Major Part of Members so great a Part of the Government too as singly to require obedience would it not be as much Treason to swear fealty to them as if it were done to persons that were nothing of that Politick Body Perhaps with this Associator and men of his Principles the Swearing only to obey Members of that honourable Assembly much extenuates the guilt of disobeying their Prince but yet he is for submitting to the Orders of those that have no Relation to it Disbanded Members that have no more share in the Government then a petulant Officer in the Company from which he is cashiered I know these Idolatrous Adorers of their own created Gods have such strange Opinions of their deisied Creatures that they can't imagine them to be reduced by the breath of a King into their primitive Stations from which by that very mouth they were called can't imagine that such a dignified thing after having once represented the sense of his whole Corporation to be able to commence again a common Subject and to have no more understanding than his Electors Be it so still there is no reason why this Gentleman must be supposed to retain somewhat of Soveraignty too only because it has been and look'd upon a King do more than they will allow his Majesty carry his Power with him wherever he goes and in his little Burrough make Orders and Laws only because he hath voted in the place where they are legally made These are such Extravagancies in Opinion that not a discreet Person that ever served his Country in that Capacity but will detest to be thought guilty of nothing but the wild Conceits of some City Mechanicks or Country Clodpates that send them thither or the treasonable Insinuations of such an Associator to subvert the Government The close of all these Solemn Leagues are still the same very pious indeed and unanimous Association Neither will we for any respect of Persons or Causes or for fear of Reward separate our selves from this Association or fail in prosecution thereof during our Lives upon Pain of being by the rest of us prosecuted as perjured Persons and publick Enemies to God the King and our Native Country to which Pains and Punishment we do voluntarily submit our selves c. Scotch solemn League That we shall assist and defend all that enter into this League and Covenant Nor suffer our selves Directly nor indirectly by whatsoever Combination Perswasion or Terror to be divided or withdrawn from this blessed Vnion and Conjunction all which we shall do as in the sight of God in the presence of the Almighty the searcher of all Hearts as I shall answer it at the great Day when the Secrets of all Hearts shall be disclosed Holy League 6. of June I will likewise assist all other Persons that shall take this Oath in what they shall do in pursuance hereof and this Vow and Covenant I make in the presence of Almighty God the searcher of all Hearts with a true Intention to perform the same as I shall answer it at the great Day when the secrets of all Hearts shall be disclosed If these Instruments of Hell were to be compared with any thing besides themselves I should assimulate them to the Serpent I have read of in Pliny's natural History which he calls Amphisbaena describing it with a smooth delicate Head at both ends and in those two fine Extremities all the Cunning of the crafty subtil Animal seems to be lodged while all the other parts besides are nothing but Venom and Viper All these subtile Engines you may observe to begin with abundance of cunning Insinuations as if all were done for the real Advance of Religion and Piety with a having before our Eyes the Glory of God c. See Scotch Coven With a finding to the Grief of our Hearts that the Popish Priests and Jesuits vid. Pref. to the Assoc And then all conclude in calling it a blessed Vnion for the Glory of God vid. Solem. Leag A righteous End and pious Work See Assoc All with the Name of God at both Ends whil'st all the Bowels and Entrails of these Monsters are full of the Devil full of Venom against the Government Treason against the King And Lies to the very Face of that God they so solemnly Invoke Well then it seems by the resolute Close of this Association that no respect of Persons or Causes Fear or Reward shall make them desert their Fellows and Associates Stout Champions indeed and so true to the Cause as to make it a sort of Treason to Conspire the giving it up With a kind of Martial Law to punish the Delinquents as a Council of War does those that fly from their Colours or yield up a Garrison And yet all this while think it not so much as a Peccadillo to Plot against the State and Rebel against their Soveraign For certainly if no Persons or Causes must make them desert so wicked a Conspiracy or permit any single Conspirator to turn an honest Renegado Then all his Majesties Proclamations like those of his Father's for laying down their Arms must be answered with a Remonstrance They may get some young Spawn of old Oliver for their General and in spight of King and Laws march with their Colours flying and Drums beating throughout all the Kingdom from Barwick to the Mount and all this must be done if enjoyned by the Major Party of Members Not only upon those common Obligations most Laws bind Vassals to Obedience viz. by being Penal or Capital not only such light Punishment and
the Wing although there be no Guns in the Field or Nots in the way Sure they may thank themselves too for their own Disturbance And 't is evident to the most discontented Wretch though his froward Soul force him to lye even in despight of Grace and the Suggestions of Conscience to the contrary That since the King's Restoration the Libertie not so much as of the meanest Subject has ever been Infringed or Violated unless merited by his own Guilt and warranted by the Law nor so much as one Tittle of Property denyed to the Proprietor besides what hath been forfeited by Rebelling against his Majesty or the Laws of the Kingdom What there was before those best know that suffered by the Tyranny of that Usurpation So that all that can be meant by these Associators when they cry out Propertie is but supposing themselves to have a Right where they have none at all and then cry out they are denyed their Share in this and that when all the while they have no right to the Dividend So that I think the reserv'd Gentleman that drew it up might have been more free and open and in plain terms bespoke the People as a certain Ignoramus Criminal is said to have done Look you my Friends there is a black Man at Whitehall keeps a great deal of Room and Land of which we were once in quiet Possession And I don't see why we should for go those Properties that were held vi armis by our Grandfathers 't is but knocking the Guards on the Head and in with our Blunderbusses make those Red-coated Lobsters swim a little in their own Blood Seize the Heir and the Inheritance is our own again Then for its black Lyes and Contradictions They are like the Darkness of Hell it self so gross that they may be felt what an impudent piece of Falshood is it to perswade a Nation that it is guilty of a thing of which to its very self it is no way Conscious and make it swear that the Guards are kept up to the Terror and Amazement of all good People when all the while they believe no such thing Strange that this Amazing sit should on the sudden surprise us of which we have had not so much as a Symptom this twenty Years I suppose it would puzzle this quacking Statesman to give the true cause of this sudden shivering Distemper in the Body Politick as much as it doth most Physicians truly to define the matter of Agues in the Natural But the Associator presumes much upon the Ignorance of the People or his own Wit and Parts And that they are as ready to swallow a gross Lye as he is to ram it down with an Oath Or else sure he would not be so bold as to perswade them that one or two thousand Men in Arms would cut the Throats of so many Millions this is establishing Paradoxes on the Credulity of Fools and Idiots 'T is the Happiness these man have to make the wildest Extreams subservient to their Cause The Infidelity of a prejudiced Ignoramus keeps it up on the one side and the Credulousness of those that are truly Ignorant must be the Butteress on the other I have heard of a Fellow that was often drunk and Lunatick and in either of those sits had such dreadfull Appearances of Fiery Dragons and strange Visions and the Delusion of his fancy so violent that he could never be satisfied till he had imposed the same belief on all those that were about him who to avoid the troublesomeness of the Impostor were forced to seign themselves Spectators too I think this will be all the Terror and Amazement the Wise People and the Good will lie under and as for the Fools and Knaves we care not how much they are frightned by such Sir Eglamores the Champions of the State and their Dâ—agons and then what a pretty piece of Contradiction is it for them to swear to defend his Royal Majesties Person and Estate and then in the next line to talk of opposing Arbitrary Power which seems to me somewhat like the proceedings of that Traitor Judas come on with a Hail Master and then delivering him to be crucified Declaring both offensive and defensive War at the same time and against the same Person For who can be thought to set up Arbitrary Power and who can be meant in that expression but his Majesty a Prince that has ruled them this twenty years with a Clemency almost to a Crime and made himself the Object of their discontent only by his Gracious Indulgence Lastly that there are Treasonable Positions in it is pretty plain from the last Clause of obeying their fellow Subjects some little Regiment of a disbanded Committee when there is an Act of Parliament that makes it high Treason on any Pretence whatsoever to enter into Combination or take up Arms against the King 't is true this Monster of a Vnion seems with it's Head to defend the Crown and Scepter but with it's Tail lashes the one from his Majesties Head and the other out of his Hand destroys the Monarchy erects a Common-wealth enslaves the People with the Bait of Freedom and to save the silly wretches from Popery damns them to the punishment of Treason and the torments of Hell And now I hope the charge I laid down above is proved in its several particulars and from the agreeableness of it to such Projectors from its Treason will be thought the contrivance of a Republican from its Aequivocation of a Jesuit from its Lying of the Devil And now we shall consider the poor Arguments that are used by the party to defend it and the first Champion that enters the List seems armed with all the authority the Supream power of the Nation can invest it withall said by the Factions Abettors of it to have been the discourse and Design of the Parliament which is the plain insinuation of the Fore-man when my Lord S. was to be put on his Triall vid. Proceedings at the Old Baily where these glancing Interrogatories are still put to Mr. Secretary Don't you know there was a discourse in Parliament Did not you know of such a debate in Parliament Han't you heard there was a talk of Association in Parliament Prety Questions indeed and is this one of them they took so much time for this all the egg that is laid after so much cackling and laying their heads together I thought a Grand Jury such Good men and true were sworn to fift things impartially without being Counsel for the Prisoner in opposition to the King If so let any man judge how pertinent this Question was to the detecting the truth and since they are so tickled with Interogatories Quaere whether these two or three Quaeries may not as well be put 1. Whether if all the Council assigned to Fitz Harris could have pleaded more for his Lordship than these Gentlemen of the Grand Inquest 2. Whether Ignoramus Juries ought not to be considered
weigh'd and sifted made use of as presages and fore-bodings of good Success whereas we only see it had a very bad one I confess they have an Argument now for altering the Succession which they wanted then viz. the different persuasion in Religion whereas they Depos'd Richard the Second only for a pretended unworthiness unprofitableness and insufficiency But yet I think the contingent danger of parting with our Reform'd Religion can never warrant a certain involving the Nation in the Miseries of a Civil War I conceive if we are Christians 't is no such absurd thing to rely upon Providence too And though this Associator makes Queen Marys Case such an absolute Argument of Popery being introduc'd I must beg leave to observe to him his preposterous Logick and Reasoning to be but proving an absolute and universal Position from a single and particular instance And those Laws then Enacted had never so many Proviso's against the introducing that Religion as perhaps His Majesty would have yielded to had they but accepted of those Gracious Tenders for Limiting the Successor I know the plausible Argument is carried on very smoothly and slips in with a whole heap of Syllogisms If a Popish Prince then a Popish Council If a Popish Council then sure Popish Bishops If Popish Bishops then the Popish Mass too But I can tell them of a more Experienc'd sort of Sorites a sadder heap of Argumentation And already prov'd by frequent Induction If we find a Factious City then a Factious Sheriff If a Factious Sheriff then a Factious Jury If a Factious Jury then all the Factious Fellows are acquitted I confess they have made the Argument pretty strong by showing themselves the Butteress to support it But what if I should barr the necessity of these Conclusions from the Premises I think I should be very Civil to Them and Just to the Case of the Successor Suppose if from this Factious City the King should take his Gracious Charter The City may be Factious still without a Sheriff without a Jury without the fearful Lirry of many such unhappy Consequences And then with Reasonable men there is always the same reason for Contraries Suppose if from a Popish Prince there is so much of Prerogative taken away as when parted with will put him out of a capacity of imposing his Religion on his Subjects He may still be the same Popish Prince without Popish Council without Popish Bishops and without their Popish Mass and Religion being obtruded on the Nation And these sort of Expedients have been as Graciously tender'd as strangely rejected And our careful Patriots not being able thoroughly as they call it to secure us and the Nation by a Total Exclusion in Kindness and order to its Preservation will accept of no Mediums at all If this be the best Politicks of this Age I fancy the ador'd Matchiavil and the Writings of the best Statesmen are unhappily lost or little consulted But as for the deep Design and Hellish Contrivance of this Associator no doubt they are Politick Measures and Zealous Endeavours for his Countreys good The putting it all in a Flame no doubt will purge off all the Dross of Superstition and Idolatry and leave nothing behind it of Arbitrary Power besides the Tyranny of the refined holy Common-wealth And this is the Drift of this disguised Associator and pretended Patriot This Religious State-Bully That can cheat the Nation with the Masque of Holyness and meer Vizard of Piety and make Three Zealous Kingdoms devoutly perish even in working out their own Salvation If it be objected I have made too wide Inferences And that such an Association may not have all those bad Consequences we seem to dread from its being carried on I desire such Gentlemen to consider That there is no Villany but may be comprehended Lawful under such a Specious Pretence And when the old Covenants were sworn to some of the very Subscribers never imagin'd they would have prov'd such Flood-Gates of Hell and let in such a deluge of Impiety Treason and Sacriledge And what less can be expected from such a Combination at this time Than the Subversion of Church and State when they are come to * In the Answer to the Kings Declaration fancy Statute Laws insignificant unless the very Rabble set up for the sole Magistrates and Legislators And all Ecclesiastical Canons Rites and Ceremonies The meer Fopperies of Rome◠and as a sort of superfluous Excrescencies †Mr. A. in his mischief of Impositions of hair and beard And what other way is there left for the stopping these Sluces of Rebellion and Schism But by guarding the Churches Vine from the Wild Boar of the Forrest And defending our Royal Oak from being again cut down with an Ax This alone can supersede the sad Completion of the Parable of Trees Keep the Fire from coming out of the Brambles and devouring the Cedars of Lebanon FINIS
Laws he gives Life too And must those Immunities and Priviledges he gives them for their Liberty be used by those ungrateful Wretches as Spoils and Trophies of his Prerogative Certainly from such Proceedings as these what other deduction can be made by sober thoughts but that they declare an open defiance to the Government that they will stand to their City Charter and their Arms together and seal it just as the Great one was by the Barons in Blood From those partial interpretations of Guilt and Innocence what can an indifferent person think but that the abused name of Conscience is applied only now to the Capriciousness of Fancy subjects only Patriots and Rebels according to the diversity of thought The King a Nursing Father as long as his politick Sons will think him so transform'd into a Tyraâ—… as soon as they please to conceit otherwise the naked Hulk of the Staâ—…â—…l'd by Popish Pyrates when every froward Fool does not sit at the Heâ—…â—…nd the Convocation of the Church a Conclave of Cardinals when each dissenting Ass can't commence a Prolocutor I have observ'd the Seat and Empire of the Soul or at least the several Faculties of it by the grave Sages in Philosophy to have been confin'd to such Apartments in the Body as were most adapted for the Faculty that was to be exerted in it and accordingly Reason is circumscribed within the Compass of the Meditullium and Sphere of the Brain the Appetitive Soul placed in the Breast the Sensitive in the Nerves and all Passion in the Heart If these are warrantable conjectures I don't see but I may with as much Reason and Philosophy place some Mens Consciences in their Stomachs because it is disposed by the help of its Fibres to contract or dilate it self according as the more scrupulous or bolder Animal shall direct his intentions oft straining at a Gnat as if it were to take a Potion whilst Camels and Elephants are swallowed without a Grimace and go down like their Sack-posset This helps them to slip down Oaths with a more than Jesuitical dexterity to make an Explanation of a Test after it is in their Bellies or if it will not digest with that preposterous piece of Cookery 't is but playing a Jugler's trick and bringing it up like their pieces of Inkle sometimes imitating the squeamish Maw of a Cormorant taught to throw up all sometimes that of another sort of Fowl which is said to concoct Iron and Stones And all this irreconcilable proceeding carried on without the least Dispensation of Reason or Religion and consequently less warrantable than the damn'd Equivocations of Priests and Jesuits their blind opinion of some Supream Powers Absolution and Indulgence somewhat extenuates the guilt of those perjur'd Villains whilst every Man 's prejudiced Opinion pretends here to be its own absolver the sole Measures of all Guilt and Innocence and the Lawful Standard both to good and bad actions And then what wonder is it if the Proceedings of the King and the Advice of his Council are exposed as light and empty when they must be weighed in the pois'd Ballance of every prejudiced Noddle that has but one grain of Sence more of Loyalty less than his list'ning Rabble the result of whose judgment is Reverenc'd as an Oracle by the silly Rout each Seditious expression treasur'd up as a politick Aphorism and the bold Dictator like a pleasant piece of Pageantry riding Cock-horse on the Shoulders of the Mobile in a confus'd noise of Shouts and Acclamations and all the wild Representations of a distracted People I hope by this Preliminary discourse to have prevented the farther perusal of the rest by any that find themselves gall'd or prick't with the consciousness of their meriting any of the past reflexions for such persons though partial enough to themselves hard to be perswaded especially of any thing that looks like Guilty are commonly a little troubled to be thought so and for such disaffected Readers 't is a kindness both to them and the Author to be civilly nettled in the beginning lest by a gentler stile they should be decoy'd to the end and then rail at him with as much rage and indignation as they use against the Government Christen him for a Popish Dog and Irish Bogg-Trotter when otherwise perhaps he may escape with the gentler Animadversions of a Malicious Ass and Scribling Fool. But the harshest of such peoples Judgment and Censure will be superseded by their own ignorance or prejudice and this Paper allow'd to speak Truth though it don't carry in its Front an impudent Lye or a Vox Veritatis thought to have somewhat of Judgment and Reason in it though not subscrib'd by a Theophilus Rationalis Those Juggling tricks of putting off Lies and Nonsense and making the first Page a Confutation of all the rest And now to begin with this complicated piece of Rebellion smoothly carried on under the specious name of an Association the Method I shall observe shall as much as possible make the Contents correspond with the Title Page and not like some let the first Leaf quarrel with the whole Pamphlet And I. We shall shew the most undeniable agreeableness of this Association with all the old Leagues and Covenants in circumstances of Time and Affairs II. Their affinity in Matter Form and Words and draw the Parallel even to Demonstration with a little Comment on each Paragraph And answering Objections they use to defend it And lastly Shew the disparity between a True Patriot and a Factious Associator and that his expelling the Duke is no such Evidence of his loving his Countrey That this Paper was penn'd at a time when the unhappy Differences between the King and his Commons were in their highest ferment won't be question'd by the very Bigots of the Cause unless they intend to doubt of the Author's Prudence too who without doubt is a person of as politick a Head as ever brooded on the Elements of Treason or hatch't a Rebellion And if not at present restrain'd more by some State-maxims than Loyal Principles could raise a more formidable one than the late Covenanting Banditi dispersed at Bosworth-Bridge So that in the very seasonable Contrivance of it it Parallels the ingenuity of the old Rebellious Scot who drew up theirs in as convenient a Season when the Nation seem'd Unanimous enough to Rebel without drawing up of a formal League of Gueranty of cheating poor deluded Souls into the miserable necessity of fighting against their Prince or being perjur'd for him But this mutual Agreement was thought then most effectual to secure their Designs as if they had distrusted of not being Traytors enough unless their Treasons were divulg'd with a publick Manifesto and a sort of Noverint Vniversi or that the Conspiracy would have look'd more Black and Hellish by being acted under-board and in the dark Whoever was the bold Contriver of this Association certainly had no intent to let it lie long in a Closet only to keep