Good Protestants to effect it As who shauld 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 Profession 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 King 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 Principals 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 was 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 conside 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 Diffidence 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 Sate 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 vnless it be done by the Advice and Consent of the Major Part of that Covncil 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 Bouses 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 themselvs 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 Underminer of Parliamenns 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 againg Pop̄ery 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 slyer 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 Government 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 Gentleman 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 then 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 profligate 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 pag. 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 Wise 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 Reflections 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 methought 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 then 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
Unnderstanding 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 Calumniators 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 defame and dissolve Distracting and Dividing the Nation at a Time when our best Union is little enough to preserve us and obstructing those Parliamentary supplys without which we must unavoidably perish For it is to this Session that the Libeller directs the Mock of Still giving Money 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 Conspirators 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 outdone 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 Inteut 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 defrand 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 these in Penalty for the other is meerly a more Legal and Gentile way of Padding upon the Road of Heaven and that it is onely for want of Money 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 liable 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 very good at it that drove away from their Churches 85. Ministers of 97. within the Walls of London We 'll agree in the Matter with him That want of Money and want of Religion will put Men upon desperate Courses for my Charity perswades me he would never have written these Libels else He is a little positive methinks in Averring that a Great Lord lost his Place for defending the Protestant Religion pag. 44. But he has forgotten the Statute of his own Citing pag. 15. that makes it Incapacity for saying That the King is a Papist or an Introducer of Popery and that it was the King himself that remov'd his Lordship And what do you think of his Irony pag. 43. where he says that The Parliament by the Conspirators good Leave was admitted to sit again at the day appointed He tells us of another Affair too pag. 51 which being transmitted to his Majesty was easily chang'd into a Court intrigue And pag. 63. That the Conspiratours might so represent things to his Majesty as to incense him against the Parliament and distrusting all Parliamentary Advice to take Counsel from Themselves from France and from Necessity In this Disloyal and Irreverent Licence he drops you a word or two now and then before he is aware against the King himself and other whiles Discharges his Malice to the Government upon the Heads of Publick Ministers The Subject Matter of his Complaint is a Tendency of Counfels and Actions towards Tyranny and Popery But the King says he pag. 4. can do no wrong and so goes on nor can he receive wrong What is this but a Justification of all the Violences that were acted upon the late King even to the very Murther of him under that Mortal and Treasonous Distinction betwixt his AUTHORITY and his PERSON And an Allowance that the same Course may be taken with his Royal Successors The King can receive no wrong he says What does he mean by this Is not his Majesties Breath in his Nostrils Is he not Flesh and Bloud Is not his Body lyable to Wounds Distempers Emprisonment and Death He 'll tell you Yes but This is not the KING but the Man the PERSON But the KING all this while that is to say the Authority is Sacred and Invulnerable Now for Peace and Brevity sake let us suppose that this Charge of a Popish and Arbitrary Design does neither Intend nor Reflect any Imputation upon his Majesty his Religion and his Tenderness of Nature being Unquestionable It is yet a worse Libel another way Worse I say both as to the Drift and to the Scandal of it by how much Contempt is more dangerous to a Prince than Hatred For he employs his Utmost Skill to represent his Majesty only Passive in all his Administrations and so to lessen the Indubitable Fame of his Royal