or prevent future Mischief As the Bill for Habeas Corpus That against sending Men prisoners beyond Seas That against Raising of Mony without the Consent of Parliament That against Papists sitting in either House c. The Libels in fine of 77 are so exact a Counterpart of the others of 41 that two Tallies do not strike truer And undoubtedly such a Correspondence in Method cannot be without some Conformity also of Design There needs no other Argument to prove the Late Rebellion to have been originally a Conspiracy against the Government than the Proportion that appears betwixt the Means and the End and the orderly Connexion of Proper Causes and Regular Effects For it was a Perfect Train of Artifice Hypocrisie and Imposture from one end of it to the other The Confederacy was form'd in a Cabal of Scotch and English Presbyterians as appears not only from their Correspondent Practices in both Nations but from his late Majesties Charge against the Five Members and likewise from the Care that was taken upon his Majesties Restauration to date the English Act of Indemnity from the beginning of the Scotch Tumults Jan. 1. 1637. which was three Years before the Meeting of the Long Parliament in November 1640. The two Ministers that stood in the Gap betwixt the Conspiracy and the Government and who were only cut off as appear'd by the Sequel to clear the passage to the King himself were the Earl of Strafford and Archbishop Laud So that their First Attaque was upon the Earl and their next upon the Archbishop under the Notion of Evil Counsellors and upon the Common Charge of Popery and Arbitrary Proceeding their Impeachments were carry'd on by Tumults and these Brave Men were rather baited to Death by Beasts than Sentenc'd with any Colour of Law or Justice And as they liv'd so they dy'd the Resolute Assertors of the English Monarchy and Religion The Earl of Strafford in May 41 But the Archbishop was kept languishing in the Tower till Ian. 44. And their Crime was not in Truth their being Men of Arbitrary Principles Themselves but for being the Opposers of those Principles in Others As the Remonstrants in 41 for want of Papists in Practice and Profession directed their Spleen against the Kings Ministers only as Persons Popishly affected which in time came to be most Injuriously apply'd to his Majesty and his whole Party Just so does our Libeller in 1677. Were these Conspirators says he but avow'd Papists they were the more Honest the less Dangerous and their Religion were Answerable for the Errours they might commit in Order to promote it But these are Men says he in the next pag. Obliged by all the most Sacred Ties of Malice and Ambition to advance the ruine of the King and Kingdom and qualify'd much better than Others under the Name of Good Protestants to effect it As who should say Popery is to be brought in by some that pass for Good Protestants As Rebellion and Tyranny were brought in by the Remonstrants under the Prosession of Loyalty and Duty to their Country A very Compendious way of making every Man that will not be a Traytor a Papist For who can say what any Man is or what he is not in his Heart From his Majesty's Yielding in the Business of the Earl of Strafford the Faction took their Measures how to deal with him in Other Cases and never left till by gradual Encroachments and Approaches they First stript him of his Friends Secondly of his Royal Authority Thirdly of his Revenue and Lastly of his Life Whereas had but this Pious and Unfortunate King follow'd the Advice of his Royal Father to Prince Henry he might upon cheaper Terms have preserv'd himself and his Three Kingdoms Take heed says King Iames to such Puritans very Pests in the Church and Common-weal whom no Deserts can Oblige neither Oaths or Promises Bind Breathing nothing but Sedition and Calumnies and making their own Imaginations without any warrant of the Word the square of their Conscience I protest before the Great God and since I am here as upon my Testament it is no place for me to ly in that ye shall never find with any Highlands or Border-Thieves greater Ingratitude and more Lyes and vile Perjuries than with these Phanatick Spirits K. Iames his Works p. 305 and 160. Upon the Ripping up of Publick Grievances it was but matter of Course to follow their Complaints with Petitions for Redress and the Good King on the other hand to heap Coals of Fire upon their Heads deny'd them nothing But the Two First Bills that his Majesty pass'd were Fatal to him That for the Attainder of the Earl of Strafford and the other for the Continuance of the Parliament They complain'd of the Star-Chamber High-Commission Court Ship-Moneys Forrest-Laws Stannary-Courts Tonnage and Poundage c. and had every Point for the Asking Nay and as an instance of his good Faith and Meaning his Majesty took some of their Principalls even into his very Council But so soon as he had parted with so much as almost put it into their Power to Take the Rest they began then to think of Setting up for themselves see his Majesties Declaration of August 12. 1642. and nothing but a thorough Reformation they said would ever do the Work Now see the Gradation First The People must be Alarm'd with the Noise of Tyranny and Popery and the Evil Counsellors must be Remov'd that are Said not Prov'd to stand that way inclin'd His Majesty must be humbly Petition'd by Both Houses to Employ such Counsellors Ambassadours and other Ministers in managing his Business at Home and Abroad as the Parliament may have Cause to confide in c. Nay It may often fall out they say that the Commons may have just Cause to take Exceptions at some Men for being Counsellors and yet not charge those Men with Crimes for there be grounds of Dissidence which lie not in Proof there are Others which though they may be prov'd yet are not legally Criminal to be a Known Favourer of Papists or to have been very Forward in defending or Countenancing some great Offenders questioned in Parliament c. So that at first Dash all the King's Officers are but Tenants at the Will of the Faction The next Step is To fill the Places of those whom they cast out with Ministers and Officers of their Own Chusing as well Privy Counsellors as Iudges As in the 19 Propositions of Ian. 2. 42. wherein they demand The Translation of the Power of Chusing Great Officers and Ministers of State from the King to the Two Houses Secondly All matters of State in the Interval of Parliaments to be debated and concluded by a Council so chosen and in Number not above 25 nor under 15 and no Publick Act esteem'd of any validity as proceeding from the Royal Authority unless it be done by the Advice and Consent of the Major Part of that Council attested under their Hands and these also
sworn to the Sence of Both Houses Thirdly The Lords and Commons must be intrusted with the Militia Fourthly His Majesty may appoint but the Two Houses or the Council in such manner as afore-said must approve of all Governours of Forts and Castles Lastly No Peers hereafter made must sit or vote in Parliament unless admitted thereunto by the Consent of Both Houses By this time the Plot is ripe for a Rebellion they Levy War Impose Oaths Seize the Revenues of the Church and Crown Kill Plunder and Emprison their Fellow-Subjects Depose and Murther their Sovereign under a Form of Publick Iustice by these Means advancing themselves into That Arbitrary Power which they pretended to Fear Over-turning the Government under the Colour of a Zeal to Support it and instead of setting us Right in our Religious and Civil Liberties they left us neither Church nor Law nor King nor Parliament nor Properties nor Freedoms Behold the Blessed Reformation and Remember that the Outcries against Tyranny Popery and Evil Counsellors were the Foundation of it What was their Covenant but a Blind to their Designs A Popular Sacrament of Religious Disobedience and only a Mark of Discrimination who were against the King and who for him Nay in the very Contemplation of their Purpose they knew before-hand That there was no gaining of their Point but by Rapine Sacrilege Perjury Treason and Bloud After these Notorious Violations of Faith Honour Humanity and Religion to the Common destruction of Prince Government and People and All upon the same Bottom with our Late Libels what can this Vnderminer of Parliaments What can our Geneva-Faux find to say for himself Is not Mercury as good Poyson in 77 as it was in 41 Do we not strike Fire the same way Now that we did Then And may not a Spark in the Gun-Room do as much Mischief This Year as it did Thirty or Forty Years ago Are not the People as much Tinder now as they were Formerly and as apt to take Ill Impressions What if the same Method should work the same Confusion over again or in Truth what is there else to be expected For the same Cause acting at Liberty must eternally produce the same Effect There 's no Chance-medley or Misadventure in the Case but the Thing is manifestly done with Prepense Malice and on set Purpose to embroyl the State As upon Examination of the Matter will undeniably appear You cannot but take Notice That the Author of The Growth of Popery does upon the Main principally labour these Two things First To insinuate that the King is in some Cases Accomptable to his People of which hereafter And Secondly To provoke the People by suggesting that their Souls and their Liberties are at stake to make use of that Power From the former Proposition he passes into a Florid and Elaborate Declamation against Popery and when he has wrought up the Figure to a height to make it Terrible and Odious his next Business is to tell the People that This Gobling is coming in among them and to possess the Multitude with the Apprehension of a Form'd Conspiracy against our Religion and Government And this too under the Countenance of an Historical Deduction of Affairs but with the Faith of a Iesuitical Legend wherein all the Kings Ministers are in General Terms branded for Conspirators His Hand being now in he is resolv'd to go thorough-stitch and nothing scapes him that falls in his way He makes the House of Lords p. 72. to be Felon of it self and p. 82 Non Compos Arraigning their Proceedings in several Cases with Boldness and Contempt But he makes a great deal bolder yet with the House of Commons he divides them into Three Parts It is too notorious to be conceal'd says he p. 73. that near a Third part of the House have Beneficial Offices under his Majesty in the Privy Council the Army the Navy the Law the Houshold the Revenue both in England and Ireland or in Attendance upon his Majesties Person Upon this Exception he expounds himself that 'T is to be fear'd their Gratitude to their Master with their own Interest may tempt them beyond their Obligation to the Publick What can be more Audacious than this Charge upon King Lords and Commons in the Face of a Sitting Parliament He says that It is too Notorious to be conceal'd c. And where 's the Crime or the Shame I beseech you for an Officer of the Kings to be a Member of the House of Commons As if he that has an Office and he that has none had not Both of them the same Master or that a Man might not as well be a Knave without an Office as with it This was the Complaint also of 41 against Officers till the Complainants had gotten those Offices themselves and then all was quiet This is only a flyer way of declaring the King's Servants Enemies to the Kingdom and Erecting an Opposition betwixt the Common and Inseparable Interests of his Majesty and his Subjects Beside that the same Reason would reach to the Excluding of the King's Servants from any other Trust in the Goverment as well as from That of a Member in the House of Commons and his Majesties Favour should at that rate Incapacitate any Man for Publick Business If the Libeller had open'd his mouth a little wider he would have told us in Plain English that there are three or four of Oliver's Old Servants out of Office and that the King is strangely over-seen to bestow his Boons upon a Company of Fellows that never had any hand in the bringing of him to the Crown by the Murther of his Father as they did But yet he is content upon some Terms that they may be admitted provided that they do not croud into the House in numbers beyond Modesty pag. 74 which may seem to be some amends for the Rascalls he made of them the very Page before Suppose says he that the Question concerning this Prorogation were by the Custom of Parliaments to be justify'd which hath not been done hitherto yet who that desires to maintain the Reputation of an Honest Man would not have laid hold upon so plausible an Occasion to break Company when it was grown so scandalous And then he assigns the matter of Scandal For it is too notorious says he to be conceal'd that near a Third Part of the House have Beneficial Offices under his Majesty c. Here 's a great deal of Business done in one Period First He pronounces this Parliament void and consequently all their Proceedings to be Nullities Secondly He will not allow any Man to be Honest that right or wrong would not improve the Opportunity of Breaking This Parliament Thirdly He makes the House of Commons to be scandalous Company and scandalous for having Beneficial Offices under his Majesty The first time that ever I heard the King's Bounty was a Scandal to any Man But to my Point And yet says he p. 77. These Gentlemen being full
and already in Employment are more good Natur'd and less dangerous to the Publick than those that are Hungry and out of Office who may by probable Computation make another Third Part of this House of Commons And a while after They are all of them he says to be bought and sold. And when he goes on p. 78. There is a Third Part still remaining but as contrary in themselves as Light and Darkness These are either the Worst or the Best of Men The first are most prostigate Persons c. Concluding p. 79 That it is less difficult to conceive how Fire was first brought to Light in the World than how any thing Good could ever be produc'd out of a House of Commons so Constituted And p. 149. he calls them this House or BARN of Commons treating the Members accordingly They list themselves says he into some Court Faction and it is as well known among them to what Lord each of them retain as when formerly they wore Coats and Badges And he has not done with them yet neither for nothing will do his Jobb but a Final Dissolution Considering says he p. 81. how doubtful a Foot this long Parliament now stood upon by this long Prorogation there could not have been a more Legal or however no more Wife and Honest a thing done than for Both the Lords and Commons to have Separated Themselves c. I could wish that he had not appeal'd from the Legality of the thing to the Wisdom and Honesty of it But however Legal or not Legal the thing is to be done For he knows very well that so long as this House of Commons continues in Being Rebellion can never turn up Trump again But it was otherwise order'd he says and so he betakes himself to an Experiment of Tampering all the Grand Iuries in England to Petition for a New Parliament upon the Credit of his Story concerning the Corruptions of this Wherein by the Foul Reflexions he has past upon many Persons of Known and Eminent Example for Piety Integrity and Moderation he has utterly disappointed the Malice of his Scandal upon the Rest. It was well enough said me thought by a Worthy Member of the House of Commons Do not you see says he how they have Libell'd me in that damn'd List of the Parliament-men One told him that he was mistaken for his Name was not in 't Why that 's the Business says he for 't is only a Libel upon those that are left out Nay rather than fail he does as good as Advise a downright Insurrection in these Words p. 155. It is now come to the fourth Act says he and the next Scene that opens may be Rome or Paris by the Plot it should be rather Geneva or Edinburgh yet Men sit by like Idle Spectators and still give mony toward their own Tragedy And why does he blame them for Sitting by And like Idle SPECTATORS unless he would have them enter into Tumult and Action A very fair Encouragement to make Men bestir themselves and without more Ceremony lay violent Hands upon the Publick Good God! That ever such a Creature as This should propound to himself by the Dash of a Pen to move the Foundations of the English Government From the Parliament he descends to the Iudges Alas says he the Wisdom and Probity of the Law went off for the most Part with Good Sir Matthew Hales and Iustice is made a meer Property And then he raves upon The Constant Irregularities and Injustice from Term to Term of those that administer the Iudicature betwixt his Majesty and his People p. 154. This Poysonous Arrow meaning the Choice of the Judges strikes to the very Heart of Government and could come from no Quiver but that of the Conspirators What French Counsel what Standing Forces what Parliamentary Bribes what National Oaths and all the other Machinations of Wicked Men have not yet been able to effect may be more compendiously Acted by Twelve Iudges in Scarlet p. 66. And is not this directly 41 again When no Iudges would serve the Turn but those that betray'd the People to Slavery and His Sacred Majesty to the Scaffold He has another Fling at the Sheriffs If any Worthy Person says he p. 80 chance to carry the Election some Mercenary or Corrupt Sheriff makes a double Return and so the Cause is handed to the Committee of Elections c. And truly he does not give either the King or the Monarchy of England much better Quarter than he allows the rest as you shall see by and by So that nothing less than the Thorough Reformation of 41 will do the Work of 77. And the whole Frame of the Government must be unhing'd to gratify the Caprice of a Pragmatical Mal-content The Passion and Malice of the Libeller is so evident that he does half confess it himself by an Anticipation of the Charge The Relator says he pag. 155. foresees that he shall on both hands be blam'd for pursuing this Method Some on the One side will expect that the very Persons should have been Nam'd whereas he only gives Evidence to the Fact and leaves the Malefactors to those that have the Power of Enquiry If he can but acquit himself on the Other hand for Writing the Libel as well as on This for not Naming the Persons he will do well enough For first It is not his Business to Prove but to Defame Secondly The Naming of Particulars would have restrein'd the Calumny whereas his work is to wound All the Kings Ministers that Faithfully adhere to their Master in the Generality of the Scandal Thirdly He judges it safer and more expedient to amuse the Multitude with Iealousies that cannot be Disprov'd than point-blank to fasten upon Particulars an Accusation that cannot be Prov'd What does he mean by saying that he gives Evidence to the Fact It is the first Libel certainly that ever was given in Evidence But where 's the Relator himself all this while upon whose bare word Parliaments are to be Dissolv'd Ministers of State Arraign'd Judges Displac'd and the whole Government new Modell'd What if he should appear and be found at last to have been one of Oliver's Cabal Would any Man desire a more Competent Witness for Charles the Second than the Murtherer of Charles the First But he has been so us'd to call the King himself Traytor that he may be allow'd to call his Friends Conspirators On the other hand says he pag. 155. some will represent this Discourse as they do all Books that tend to detect their Conspiracy against his Majesty and Kingdom as if It too were written against the Government For now of late as soon as any Man is gotten into Publick Employment by ill Acts and by worse continues it he if it please the Fates is thenceforward the Government and by being Criminal pretends to be Sacred This is only crying Whore first to call those People Conspirators who are likely to censure him for a Libeller
which with his Learned Leave is but a Course Figure neither and runs much better in the Common Billinsgate of You are a Knave yourself to say that I 'm one Which in few words is all that 's in 't For he does not offer so much as one Syllable in his Justification but with another Lash or two at the King's Ministers winds up his Period Now of late says he he means I suppose since Oliver went out of Play as soon as any Man is gotten into Publick Employment by ill Acts c. He should do well to consider who Governs before he says That Villany is the ready way to Preferment He if it please the Fates is thenceforward the Government and by being Criminal pretends to be Sacred I answer That in the Case of a Publick and Legal Accusation the Minister is not the Government for the Charge terminates in and operates no further than his Person but in the Affront of a Nameless and Indefinite Libel the King himself is wounded in a General Reflection upon his Ministers for it is his Choice and Commission not the Officers Misdemeanour that is there in Question Nor does he pretend to be Sacred because he is Criminal but the Libeller who still writes after the Remonstrance makes every thing Criminal that is Sacred and gives the Construction of Rebellion to Loyalty and of Loyalty to Rebellion But if there be not Mischief in the very Project of this Libel there 's nothing at all in 't for I cannot frame to my self the least Colour or Possibility of any other End He says It was his Design indeed to give Information but not to turn Informer That is to say He would set the People together by the Ears and no body should know who did it Now see the End he propounds That those says the Relator to whom he has only a Publick Enmity no Private Animosity might have the Priviledge of States-men to Repent at the last hour and by one single Action to expiate all their former misdemeanours Which is e'en as Civil a way as a body would wish of Recommending a Publick Minister to his last Prayer It remains now to speak a word to the Timing of his Enterprize which in a wicked Sence is in Truth the Glory of it I shall not need to speculate upon the Power and Designs of France the deplorable State of Flanders or the Consequences that must inevitably reflect upon England in the Loss of the Spanish Neitherlands the matter being agreed upon at all hands that an Union of Affections Counsels and Interests was never more necessary to this Nation than at this Instant it is and that Delay is Death to us This being given for granted it is likewise as certain that nothing under Heaven but the Credit of this Sitting Parliament and the Blessing of a Fair Understanding betwixt his Majesty and his Two Houses can preserve this Kingdom Morally speaking from Irreparable Ruine And yet this is the Critical Juncture that the Libeller has made choice of for the blasting both of the Government and the Administration of it for the violent Dissolution even of this most necessary Parliament for the sowing of Jealousies and alienating the Peoples Hearts from their Duty to their Sovereign Let the World now judge betwixt the Libeller and the pretended Conspiratours who are more probably the Pensioners of France those that are only Calumniated in the Dark and without any Proof or the least Colour of it or the Calumniatours themselves I mean the Libeller and his Adherents who are doing all that is possible toward the Facilitating of the Work of France and the Putting of England out of Condition to defend it self What is it I beseech you that can now support us in this Exigent but the Wisdom and Reputation of a Parliament which they are at this very Instant labouring to desame and dissolve Distracting and Dividing the Nation at a Time when our best Union is little enough to preserve us and obstructing those Parliamentary supplyes without which we must unavoidably perish For it is to this Session that the Libeller directs the Mock of Still giving Mony toward their own Tragedy But sure we are not so mad yet as to take the Subverters of our Church and State for the Advocates of our Religion and Freedom I would know in the next place What any Man can say to excuse his Growth of Popery from being a Daring and a Spightful Libel against the King and his Government And I shall begin with the Liberties he takes with his Majesty sometime in direct Terms and otherwhile under the Blind of the Conspiratours Speaking of the Shutting up of the Exchequer pag. 31. The Crown says he made Prize of the Subject and broke all Faith and Contract at Home in order to the breaking of them Abroad with more Advantage The Copy has in This Point out-done the Original for the Remonstrants were in Arms before they presum'd to word it at this Audacious height Take it in the Insolent Representation of the Fact the Malicious Construction and Presumption of the Intent and to Both these add the Sordid Manner of Reflecting upon an Extraordinary thing done upon an Extraordinary Occasion and wherein the Subject has since receiv'd so Ample and Generous Satisfaction the Clamour is so foul as if an AEgyptian Plague were broken in upon us and the Frogs of Geneva crept into the King's Chambers And 't is much at the same Rate that he treats the King about his Declaration of Indulgence pag. 33. Hereby says he all the Penal Laws against Papists for which former Parliaments had given so many Supplyes and against Non-conformists for which this Parliament had pay'd more largely were at one Instant suspended in order to defraud the Nation of all that Religion which they had so dearly purchased c. Observe here how ungratefully he charges the Design of this Declaration to be The defrauding the Nation of their Religion which on the contrary was a Manifest Concession only to gratifie the restless Importunities of his own Gang. And see what Sport he makes but five or six Lines further with the very Reason of that Law which he takes here so hainously to be suspended It appears says he at the first Sight that Men ought to enjoy the same Propriety and Protection in their Consciences which they have in their Lives Liberties and Estates But that to take away there in Penalty for the other is meerly a more Legal and Gentile way of Padding upon the Road of Heaven and that it is only for want of Mony and for want of Religion that Men take these desperate Courses Now by his Favour there is a great Disparity betwixt a Pretence to Propriety and Protection in Consciences and a Pretence to them in Lives Liberties and Estates for the Latter are lyable to Violence and may be taken away but the Other cannot And now he talks of Padding upon this Road the Remonstrants as I remember were