of his People and as my Lord Herbert judiciously observes therein was willing to restrain his own Authority in some sort that he might enlarge the Peoples Confidence and Affection This that King did in the celebrated part to wit in the beginning of his Reign tho' he had at the same time his Exchequer what was equivalent to Seven Millions Sterling now and was in peaceable Possession of his Throne and had no particular pressing Occasion to please his People How much more necessary is this measure to regain the Peoples Confidence and Affection towards an Exil'd Prince The Author of this History my Lord Herbert of Cherbury professes in his Epistle Dedicatory great Deserence to Kings and that the King to whom he dedicates his History had lustrated by his Gracious Eye and consummated by his Judicious Animadversions all the parts of that History as fast as he finished them And therefore this Instance ought to be of great weight with every body even with those Jacobites you talk of It is a Royal as well as my Lord Herbert's History of Henry VIII I am not ignorant that this King Henry VIII is brought as an Instance of a King that could pull up Foundations and do what he pleased but there was a strange Concurrence in his Time to help him in the business he was doing and he did it by Parliaments and often used Palliations and perhaps if a Man looks observingly upon his Life he was but the Head of the Rabble-rout and that neither He nor the People knew what he would be at It was an Age big with Changes and his greatest Exorbitances fell upon a sort of People who were wearing into disesteem or were of a more private Nature Besides he began his Reign with a wondrous good Grace and he sacrific'd now and then a Minister and what he took from the Church he divided amongst the Gentry and Nobility But after all I will own there are some Periods of his Reign wherein the Prince went farther and faster than the Peeple and he had the good luck to do strange things by in comprehensible ways For my Lord Herbert of Cherbury as judicious and sharp-sighted an Author as he is seems to wonder and not to understand all the Occurrences of his Reign His beginning it so condescendingly makes it less a wonder that the People were a great while apt to put good Constructions upon what he did afterwards He gave up Empson and Dudley meerly to their Rage and Woolsey's Fall was pleasing and as I just now intimated he was more Sacrilegious towards the Church which was then going down with the People than he was otherwise Oppressive The next Person I will introduce shall be Qu. Elizabeth whose Speech in the 43d year of her Reign occasioned by Complaints against Monopolies is so excellent that I think fit to transcribe it at length tho' I will not commend the Sanguinary Laws she made in matters of Religion as well against Brownists c. as Papists no more than I will many other parts of her Reign I have often wondred why meer Church of England-men cried out against or Whigs so much extoll'd her ten or twelve years ago for she was a meer Church of England-Queen but I protest I know not how enough to commend this Speech which she made to her Parliament I wish every body would peruse the Context of it in Camden but the words of it are these We owe unto you special Thanks and Commendations for your singular Good will towards us not in silent Thought but in plain Declaration expressed whereby ye have called us back from an Error proceeding from ignorance not willingness These things had undeservedly turned to our disgrace to whom nothing is more dear than the Safety and Love of our People had not such Harpies and Horse-leeches as these been made known unto us by you I had rather be maimed in Hand to give allowance of such Privileges of Monopolies as may be prejudicial to my People The Brightness of Regal Majesty hath not so blinded mine Eyes that licentious Power should prevail more with me than Justice The Glory of the Name of a King may deceive unskilful Princes as guilded Pills may deceive a sick Patient but I am none of those Princes for I know that the Commonwealth is to be governed for the benefit of those who are committed not of those to whom it is committed and that an Account is one day to be given before another Judgment-Seat I think my self most happy that by God's assistance I have hitherto so governed the whole Commonwealth and have such Subjects as for their Good I would willingly leave both Kingdom and Life also I beseech you that what Faults others have committed by false Suggestions may not be imputed to me Let the Testimony of a clear Conscience be my absolute Excuse Ye are not ignorant that Princes Servants are now and then too attentive to their own benefit that the Truth is often concealed from Princes and they cannot themselves look precisely into all things upon whose Shoulders lieth continually the Weight of the greatest Business I cannot but observe before I go any farther that this Queen was not willing to take upon her self the faults of her Servants but on the contrary gave them very hard Names I must observe likewise that Commonwealth was no odious Word then for she twice in this Speech and in her time Secretary Smith wrote a Book of our Government to which he gave that Title This was an Age wherein Majesty could court and Ministers affect to be Patriots of the People and yet Prerogative did not lose much ground altho' it sometimes yielded But I will come nearer to our Times as far as the Union of this Island Sir Francis Bacon advised King James the First as you may find in his Resuscitatio to amend by consent of Parliament some of our Laws and to expunge others especially Penal Ones He quotes a Learned Civilian tho' he does not name him that expoundeth the Curse of the Prophet Pluâ—t super eos Lâ—queos of multitude of Penal Laws which continues he are worse than Showrs of Hail or Tempests upon Cattel for they fall upon Men. He goes on There are some Penal Laws fit to be retained but the Penalty too great And it is ever a Rule That any over-great Penalty beside the acerbity of it deads the Execution of the Law He says also There is a farthâ—r Inconvenience of Penal Laws obsolete and out of use for it brings a gangrene neglect and habit disobedience upon other wholsom Laws that are fit to be continued in practice and execution So that our Laws endure the Torment of Mâ—zentius The Living die in the Arms of the Dead I chose to express my Lord Bacâ—n's Mind in his own Words But I will add to what he has said a farther inconvenience that I my self have observed in the reading of Histories 〈…〉 Powers and obâ—olete Penal Laws have not only proved a
forbear mentioning it There was not an ill thing done in King James's Reign that I did not call so then and all that know me know that I have taken it as my Province to represent Truths be they never so bold or bitter whilst they are for Instruction I I am no Advocate for any Man's Faults nor for any Faults tho' I would be charitable and good-natured forgiving and forgetting towards all Mens Persons Methinks the State of things require this measure I scarce believe there ever was a Period of Time wherein an Universal Amnesty was so requisite a forgetfulness as well as forgiveness of all past Crimes Methinks all sides stand in need of this Temper If the Ministers of King James exceeded in their Management of our Affairs as doubtless they did we have doubtless exceeded too in our Revenge upon the King's Person and besides those that have fallen in with the Usurpation have not proceeded against any one Man that has been in their hands for any thing that was done amiss in the two late Reigns and therefore methinks it is very hard if we cannot forgive those that have undergone Banishment which in all Countries has been reckoned some sort of Punishment or such as have hazarded Prisons or the Gallows every day Why should we not forgive all those that serve him amongst us or that are with the King tho' they may have had Faults when we desire or I am sure ought to desire that the whole Land should be forgiven All Parties and almost all Men have some way or other been to blame and therefore there seems to me to be a little too much Passion and Self-interest in keeping up old Grudges I avoid saying there is any infatuation in keeping them up tho' I cannot think that it is the likeliest way to prepare the King to close with Wise Councils to revive or continue our Piques For the King can scarce be supposed to be without some Kindness for those who have either followed His Fortunes or venturâ—d their Necks for Him and cons quently it is not perhâ—ps advisable to make those that transact in his Affairs tho' they have been peccant believe they can have no Quarter no Share in him unless he return with a High Hand They will have some Opportunities to put ill Constructions upon good Advices I have read of but few of those Heroic Spirits in any Age who have so divested themselves of all Regard for their own Persons and Posterity as to be willing to become a Sacrifice to their Country I think this Age affords fewest Instances of those Great Minds and therefore I think it the likeliest way to mâ—ke Men instrumental towards the Good of their Country to shew them that they shall find their own Account in being so I hope I have expressed my self in as modest and inoffensive words as any in which I could conceive my Thoughts and I hope I shall not be so mis-understood as if I would justifie any thing that was by any body done amiss for I will not justifie a false step even in the King but I would have us lay aside all the Byasses of Factions and Friendships and much more all Enmities that we may unanimously offer to the King Right Notions and thereby Restore Him to His Hereditary Kingdoms After all I would not have less than such a Repentance as gives evidence of Amendment entitle to Absolution but I would leave Room and Rewards for such Repentance I fear this Moderation and forgiving of Enemies will be thought a hard Lesson but I bless God I have practised it and I think it not only the noblest Precept in Christian Morality but an admirable Rule in Civil Prudence especially in our Case for it is as difficult for a Party that is subdivided within it self to pull down an Usurpation as it can be for a divided Kingdom to stand But I am sensible I have made too long a Digression and therefore must omit many other particulars upon which I would explain my self and the Sense of many other Jacobites and I can assure you I am sorry that any Jacobites say any thing that offends well-meaning Men but I wish for their own sakes my Country-men would not take a Standard either of the King's Inclinations or the rest of his Friends from their indiscreet Tattle There are in His Interest those that know that to talk too loftily and dogmatically to dispute as they do in the Schools concerning Prerogative and the Nature of Monarchy to stand nicely upon Punctilio's to consult Aristotle's and Xenophon's Kings is as unlikely a way to come to a mutual Accommodation as to peruse and and or am of Plato's Commonwealth Sir Thomas More 's Utop a Harrington's Oceana c. There are Men of his sid that think as the great Lawgiver Solon did that a Government must be framed according to the Nature of the Governed and that he is the best Subject as well as Politician that adapts all his Notions to our Tempers that considers Men as well as peruses Books when he is to draw a Scheme and I believe as you say that the high flights of some Jacobites hinder many honest Men from coming into his Interest and farther that they sometimes mislead the King Nevertheless there are in his Interest Men that I assure you are not frighted at Words nor startled at Nicknames that know the King of England makes the greatest Figure in Europe when he is best with his People and that is when he governs by the Measures of Commonweal These Men know a good Commonwealths-man was not a Character of Reproach in our Legislation and Politicks till all our Glory dwindled and the Absoluteness of Ministers was more consulted than the true Interest of King or Kingdom till a pack of Knaves forged a separate Interest between the King of England and his People and till they began to call a Mix'd Monarchy an errant Bull and would Reform our State by Metaphysical and Court Distinctions whereas if our Histories and Statute-Books were consulted they are every where full of Explanations Are these Gentlemen you complain of weary of Magna Charta which was but a Revival and Recitation of the Saxon Liberties and ancient British Laws I will prove them farther That Laws and Lawful Prerogatives may be so abused that it may be fit to take away the One and to desire that the Other may never be again so used and that our former Kings have thought so But I will go no farther back than the Conjunction of the Two Roses and they may find that in Henry the Seventh's Time Empson and Dudley harassed the People by obsolete unrepealed Laws nay it has never been thought mean by our greatest Kings to make Condescentions to their People And as haughty as King Henry VIII was my Lord Herbert in his History of his Reign tells you That in his first Parliament he Repealed Explained or Limited those Statutes by which his Father had taken Advantage
THE Jacobite Principles VINDICATED In Answer to a LETTER sent to the AUTHOR DEDICATED TO THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND Re-printed at London in the year 1693. To the QUEEN MADAM I Beseech Your Majesty's Pardon that without first consulting You I lay at the Royal Feet of a most Injur'd Queen the Vindication of a most Injur'd Party and I hope this Dedication will have so much Effect upon the Publick as to satisfie the World of my Candor in representing the Measures of Your Majesties and the Notions of those that are in Your Interest for it cannot be supposed I dare inscribe that to Your Name that is contrary to the Royal Intentions of His Majesty and Your Self I must confess I think I have reason rather to beg Pardon that I have not sufficiently explained the good Incâ—iâ—â—tions You both have to make us Happy I choose to put Your Majesties Name before these Sheets rather than the King 's though I suddenly design to dedicate a short Discourse to Him because if possible the World has been more maliciously Unjust and Inveterate towards YOU than ever against HIM nay some have presum'd to censure Your Majesty for those Errors and Mistakes of His Reign for which I don't pretend to apologize which were entirely the Work of His False and Corrupted Ministers and yet I have heard from those who had Opportunity to know and who are not much Your Friends that Publick Affairs were not Your Concern whilst His Majestly was here which is the more to be admired and applauded in Your Majesty since all that had the Honour to wait upon You about Business when His Majesty's absence in Ireland made it absolutely necessary for You to apply Your Self to it found in Your Majesty a Genius fitted to all Great Affairs And Madam tho' You retired as soon as the King return'd to St Germains purely to the exercise of Your own private Virtues yet I am so assur'd that the Reflections You then made whilst You was perfectly forced to look into the British Affairs and since You have entirely quitted them to His Majesty's Care have fully convinc'd You that these are the proper Measures of Accommodation that I don't doubt but Your Majesty will graciously forgive my Presumption I know few Men approach Crown'd Heads without making Panegyricks but I shall not enter upon a Theme upon which Posterity will better bear Just Things to be said than the present Age will yet nor is a Courtly Stile my Talent tho' it is from a sense of Your Goodness as well as Greatness that I am devoted to Your Commands and Interest I have heard of but sew Faults that any Party has found with the First Edition of this Paper which I hope is a good sign that all Men are at last inclined to moderate Things I am sure it was written with all the good meaning imaginable towards my King and Country Your Majesty and Posterity and all the several divided Parties of Your Subjects And that YOU may be Glorious and They Happy is the constant Prayer and shall be the Endeavour of May it please Your MAJESTY Your Majesties most Obedient Subject and Faithful Servant THE Jacobite Principles Vindicated SIR AS much as English-men have been famed for their Hearts they have been always reproached for their Heads They have always lost their Wits by National Inâ—oxications They have been always a tempestuous a heady and a divided People But they never were more apparently so than they have been in this last Change They have not only out-run their Own but the Pretences of their Deliverer He came not for a Crown but to redress our Grievances but we would give the Crown yet neglect our Grievances and all Amendment of our Constitution And we will still maintain our Injustice in the one and Folly in the other Those that resolve to do so may see Maestricht taken after Mons and Namur Flandeâ— submitted to France the Confederacy broken and we divided as we are and shall be amongst our selves left to grapple with all that Power which has now for four Years employed such united Forces Nor can we hope God will work a Miracle to support so unjust a Quarrel They may see all this War brought into our own Bowels into this divided Kingdom may see it make Havock and Desolation upon this Island in a word may see Friends and Kindred killing and destroving one another embruing their Hands in each others Blood and then our pretended Fears may become true those Miseries overtake us with the pretended Suspicions of which we have coloured over and countenanced our unrighteous Doings But you think it is too late to or â—w back and you can see no security in the Restoration you can't see our Lives and our Religion our Liberty and our Property will be safe I averr you impose upon your self and one Man imposes upon another But you say you are frighted at the Discourses of some both Protestant and Catholick Jacobites You say they talk for Slavery and that when we are Slaves we may be made Papists Yet if you would consider you have been invited by published Pamphlets to reflect who among the Jacobites are likely to give you satisfaction Would you have Men set their Names to what they write There are Men that you believe are in King James's Interest that you have no reason to believe would sacrifice their Country or their Religion and that I assure you have as true a love for those good things you mention as you can have your self and that would joyn with you and any English-men to ask in a respectful manner for every honest thing that is necessary to secure us from Arbitrary Power and the Violence of all sorts of Priests and that are themselves satisfied and can authentically satisfie you that the King has been a long time willing to make all those necessary Concessions that will secure the Church of England as the Established Worship make an Impartial Toleration safe and for the future put our Liberties and Property out of the Power as much as good and wholsom Laws can do it of Male-administration nay that are satisfied he must be willing to do so if ever he will come home There are Jacobites that believe what Gourville is related to have once said concerning our Kings Qu'n Roy d'Angleterre qui veut estre l'Homme de son Peuple est le plus Grand Roy du Monde mais s'il veut estre quelque chose d'avantage par Dieu il n'est plus Rien There are Jacobites that are for Reformations though they believe them more lasting under uncontested Titles than where Title is too great a part of the Dispute that think it Lawful for Kings and their Parliaments to limit and explain the Nature of Prerogatives though they think it safer to the Constitution to leave it to the three Estates so to do than for one or two of them to innovate too rudely without the Consent of the other that own a
Snare to the People but given Kings too often an Handle to fall into such Measures as have proved destructive to themselves Powers in a Crown that are wholly unfit to be exercised are only Temptations to Oppression and Misunderstanding Knight Service was once a very Politick Tenure It was once fit before the several People of this Kingdom were mixed and civilised that whoever was born upon a Lord's Land should be brought up under his Care and that no Woman that held Land of any Lord should carry her Estate to any Man that was an Enemy to that Lord yet in King James the First 's days the same Sir Francis Bacon tho' then Sollicitor-General to him in a Conference with the Lords by Commission from the Commons made a Speech to persuade the Lords to joyn with the Commons in a Petition to the King to obtain Liberty to treat of a Composition with his Majesty for Wards and Tenures This was in the seventh year of K. James's Reign in Halcyon-days The Speech is in the 34th page of my Lord Bacon's Resuscitatio and worth any Man's reading He therein proposeth in Recompence of the Revenue of Tenures a more ample a more certain and a more Loving Dowry Loving Dowry expresseth admirably well that Kings should be willing to change any part of their Revenue for what may suit better with the Peoples inclinations But I won't make Remarks upon this Speech The next Paragraph speaks of the Nature of those things and how it is changed with the times Vocaâ—â—â—â— manent Res fugiunt are his words And the next Paragraph to that says a great deal in these two Axioms Naturae vis maxima suus cuique discretus sanguis for restoring Children to the care of their most affectionate Relatives I come to the Reign of K. Charles I and must say that the strained use of some Powers and Prerogatives for which the flattering Lawyers had some dark semblance of Authority in our Law-Books gave the fatal Rise to the late Civil Wars which ended in the horrid Murther of that King and when K. Charles II. was Restored tho' the first Parliament he called will be allowed by every body to be sufficiently devoted to him yet he therein when they were under the greatest Transports and Raptures of Loyalty passed many Acts that plainly own the great Inexpediency if not Illegality of several things done in his Father's Days and secured us against the like Abuses hereafter and had he lived he must have owned that he himself had carried the Quo Warrantoes too far or he would have sate uneasie and those very Men that were instrumental in Quo-Warrantoing Corporations did every where declare that Regulations which however illegal I take them to be in themselves how much soever I think them a Fanatick Rowland for the Church of England Oliver yet I think they were agreeable to the Powers the Crown reserved to its self in the New Charters I say That those very Men that were instrumental to the Quo Warrantoing Corporations did every where declare that the Regulations in the succeeding 〈…〉 Power insecure and resolved all our Government into an Absolute and Despotick Rule Questionless there should be some way to punish the Abuses in Corporations but the Penal Laws that are against Corporations have perhaps annexed to them too great a Penalty perhaps it would be better to punish the Persons that offend than to fall upon the poor innocent Charter I would have the Body Corporate be able to do no wrong tho' the Members may But it is not my business in this place to propound the Remedies but to shew that it is lawful to make and that there used to be made and that there ought to be Reformations now as well as there have been formerly And I hope I have made it plain both from our Histories and Statute-Books That Civil Infallibility was not formerly an Article in our Politicks nor has it the Universality on its side nor will any Party abide by it unless for Personal Ends or when it serves their own Party The Papists did not believe it in their days the Church of England did not believe it when His Majesty was amongst us and the Fanaticks never pretended to believe it Thus you see my thoughts and as different as they may be from the Williamites that have deluded or from the Jacobites that have afrighted you I defie any of the One to be readier to hazard themselves for their Country or the Other to venture farther for the Service of King James All that I desire is That the King may have for his Motto what the sincere Historian says of the two best Emperors of Rome Tacitus his words are DIVUS NERVA ET DIVUS TRAâ—â—◠〈…〉 MISCUERUNT IMPERIUM ET LIBERTATEM And may the remainder of King James the Second's days give yet leave after He has lived long here to write upon his Tomb Divus JACOBUS Secundus c. Res olim insociabiles miscuit Imperium Libertatem I would have the King consult his own Honour but I think he does it best when he considers well and throughly of the Liberties of the People I allow that Maxim to be true Principum actiones proecipue sunt ad famam componendoe But no English King will preserve his Memory grateful in the Records of Time or his Name dreadful in Foreign Courts who is not beloved by his People and none will be so that does not carefully Fence and inviolably preserve our Rights We have been a People always jealous of our Rights Tenacissimi libertatis The Word Conquest is often met with in our common Histories and misleads our common Readers but though our Nation has been often stormed our Essential Laws and Customs were never carried The Romans governed us in great part by our own Laws and the wisest of their Lieutenants found we were more easily governed by Gentleness and Justice than by Force The Danes made no alteration in our Constitution and the Saxon and Norman Invasions ended in Treaty and the Saxon Government was homogeneous to our Temperament and when William called the Conqueror would have introduced the Customs of Norway the People neither would nor did receive them If a Man reads Histories to understand Government he 〈…〉 Tale of them and whoever looks into our Antiquities will find the footsteps of our Liberties are as ancient as of our Being But to return to what I was saying some time since I would not injure my Country for K. James nor would I injure K. James for my Country I think your Party wicked and I fear too many Jacobites are weak They are weak by fantastick Notions and violent Aversions and Personal Party and Church-Quarrels But I would rather lament than expostulate too freely and I desire no body to serve King James but on the Principles of making him the Father of his Country I once again assure you I neither do nor will upon any other and were he reinstated in
his Throne if he pursued partial Notions and ungrateful Measures I would rather make a Vow of Voluntary Exile than accept the best Employment that a King of England has in his Power to give I have many times told Him so And farther I would always advise him to take into his Business Popular Men and to let them serve him by the Methods that made them Popular But at the same time I say I would advise him to forget as well as forgive all our Miscarriages I would have a perfect Act of Oblivion from Him and I would have the People pass on their part so entire an Act of Oblivion that they should not gall any one Man for what they did amiss in his Reign or under this Usurpation on condition they testifie their Repentance by their Amendment of Life Tho' Henry 4. of France so justly called the Great was in his absence arraigned and condemned to 〈…〉 Harquebusses and this by the Votes and Order of the Parliament of Tholouse yet notwithstanding he recovered his Kingdom by force of Arms that Great and Excellent King did not in the least revenge their Trayterous and Rebellious Usage by which Generous as well as Politick Carriage he added to the Conquest of his Country the Conquest of the Hearts of all his People reconciling at once all the Animosities and Factions which had been the Product of near Forty Years Civil Wars Let a new Face of things arise likewise out of our State-Chaos May the King govern with that Equal Hand that Merit may be rewarded and nothing but Vice in disgrace that those may be thought to serve him best that most serve the General Good and let it be a Crime as well as ill Manners to revive any of our old Distinctions let there be no distinction upon the account of Ecclesiastical or Civil Faith and let Obedience and Allegiance to the Civil Power be the only Test for Preferment You know my Friend I am no Papist tho' I am for a Civil Comprehension And as falsly as your Irish Dr. King has traduc'd His Majesty for what he did in Ireland I am told one thing for which his Wisdom and Goodness can never be enough commended and that is that he required no Oath from any one Man that serv'd him but trusted to their Honour and their Interest rather than the Obligation of Oaths being sure an honest Man would do his Duty without them and being also convinced by a late and sad Experience that they never bind a Knave And thus he truly made himself the King of all Perswasions The Discipline of the Lacedemoniuns was positive That every Man should keep his Rank or Die yet they never put an Oath to their Souldiers Shame and Honour had more Power over those brave Minds made them even scorn Death which is the greatest Tryal had a more infallible effect upon them than we can pretend all Oaths have upon us Notwithstanding this short Remark about Oaths I am neither Quaker nor Sectaria therefore a hint is enough from me upon that Subject But from the several Heads of Discourse I have handled methinks I find my self under a necessity of clearing at least briefly Three things and I will do it as briefly as I can The First is That those that are both Zealous and Jealous for Liberty and Property are more in number than those that are for the Strains and Stretches of Prerogative I find there is a vast and unlucky mistake in the Computations of some People and that by reason that they do not distinguish between the State and Religious Whigg I allow the Fanatick Whigg or those that refuse to come to our Communion are not perhaps the twentieth Man in England but there are very great numbers of Men who never went formerly nor do now go even by reason of their Principle to any other Church but the Church of England There are likewise many others who are not at all Biggotted to any particular Form of Church Worship who yet mostly if not altogether go to the Church of England and yet both the one and the other of these are as much or perhaps more nicely Whiggs in Civils than are the Fanaticks though not so generally called so So that there are Church of England and Latitudinarian or as the Scotch call them Erastian as well as Fanatick Whiggs Now let us consider what Interest all these Three sort of Whiggs have in our Affairs what influence they have over them and you will find by Matter of Fact that these many years last past they all joyning upon a Civil Bottom have all along been too hard for that which is the Church of England as it is contra distinguished to the Whigg They were fatally so in King Charles the First 's Time But to bring things within all our Memories and Observation the three last Parliaments in King Charles the Second's Reign is not an improper Season to calculate their Interest and Influence For then they chose before any illegal or unwarrantable Tricks had been plaid by either side with Charters and if the Nation was inflamed by a Popish Plot I am sure the Court lean'd wholly to the High Prerogative Church of England Then you see that the Bill of Exclusion tho' it was an excessive and exotick Rant rather than a natural Effect or Production of Whiggism was carried in the House of Commons and that tho' almost all the Members were Charch goers But I will shew you yet by a later Instance that State Whiggism runs thro this Nation All those that are for this Government act upon that Principle and lay aside the Passive Obedience and Prerogative Notions of the high Church of England men notwithstanding that they keep up the Episcopal Order the Pomp Ceremony and Discipline of the Church of England And whoever will turn one a King for Mâ—le-administration of his Ministers will never receive him without a Reformation in the Constitution They will be State-Whigs tho' they do not call themselves so It is for Liberty and Property that these Men struggle tho' they do not know how to name their own Actions The second thing that seems necessary for me to clear is That it is necessary to give a Liberty of Conscience and that these Assertors of Liberty and Property will be for Liberty of Conscience and be able upon the King 's giving good Securities for our Civil Rights to give in exchange of them an Impartial Toleration I will not dispute the inconsistency of Persecution with either the Christian or Moral Law nor will I take pains to prove that where a Nation is greatly divided into Sects it is the Interest of that Nation to give every body leave to worship God in their own manner but I will shew the likelihood that the State-Whigs should and will exchange Religiâ—us Liberty for Civil Security And now I must again carry you back to the beginning of the late Civil Wars and then you will find because the
pity'd but no Man will in all probability be able to help them How Universal and Catholick soever their Religion may be in other places I am sure they are Fanaticks in England under a Civil Consideration and therefore that they have all the reason in the World to be State-Whigs and as such only will ever be impartially used by us I think nothing that I have said has depretiated the Doctrine of Passive-Obedience I do not pretend to determine who is in the Right in that Controversie much less to handle it as a Religious One But give me leave to tell an admirable Story concerning Dr. Colvil a great Man in the Kingdom of Scotland but one that was thought not to understand clearly the Principle of Non-Resistance The late Earl of Middleton having him once at Dinner asked him Whether there could be no Case in which Defensive Arms were Lawful The Doctor replied It was fit for the People to believe them unlawful and for Kings to believe them lawful It was an admitable Repartee upon a sudden Question But perhaps had he thought of it he would have said likewise That it is fit for the Ministers of Kings to believe them lawful too and I presume the present Earl of Middleton set down that additional Instruction to the Apothegm For tho' to the eternal shame of the Judges who now sit upon the King's Bench they violated our Laws in the continuance of his Imprisonment it must be allowed for his everlasting Honour that that Noble Lord was as cautious of making the Law the Limits of his Ministry as if it were lawful to rise up in Arms whenever the Laws were broken But I must Answer your Postscript wherein you tell me that you neither know how the King can be restored now the Prince of Orange is in possession nor what will become of the Prince of Orange if we should restore the King nor what Security we could have from any Conditions the King could make with us I Answer that if the Prince of Orange is not kept in possession by English men he may soon be brought to Reason and I do assure you that there are many Jacobites that desire rather to see the Prince of Orange return to his Station of Stadtholder again in Holland than wish him any personal Injury And as for the Security you require for any promised Conditions you must forgive me if I think you a little insincere if not trifling when you place so much Weight upon the Pope's giving King James an Absolution for any Promises he should make You might have said this artfully to the Mobb but you cannot suppose that I would believe you were in earnest though you make such a clutter with it I allow as you say that our Histories tell us of some Kings that were absolved by Popes but you know that Bulls Absolutions and the Pope's Excommunications were like to go farther with the Nation in Popish Times than they are like to do now And yet by your very instance of King Henry the Third you might be convinced that the People of England never would even then let a King be at rest till he had performed his Promises I will not write a long Confutation of a thing that I know cannot stick with you or any wise considering Man And besides I do not go about to perswade you to take up with a Constitution that will depend either upon a King's Temper or Religion Honour or Veracity Make a Government that is easie to all and it will be the Interest of all to preserve it But if you would do so you must bring the Right Line into it you must nicely preserve the Church of England as the National Church and yet you must remember that the Kngdom of Heaven is not of this World You must take care in your Civil Compacts that Priestcraft does not spoyl all at last You must take care even of a Protestant in Ordine ad Spiritualia and let the Tares and the Wheat grow up together But farther although you have such wild accounts concerning the Jacobites there are amongst those that serve King James Men that know what you are a doing that know you are looking far and near for a Deliverance that know how impotent you think the Prince of Orange is to Rule how that you depise him as much as the Nation misliked Richard Cremwel before the Restauration that know your extravagant Projects and more temperate Thoughts and yet have accounred for all things and will as things ripen find ways to give you satisfaction if any thing will We know that Maud the Empress even when King Stephen was a Prisoner and though her Title was indisputable and though the Nation was all Catholicks lost the Crown because she was refractory and haughty and denied to the Londoners Edward the Confessor's Laws And I assure you there will be Men that will lay before the King the Necessity and Wisdom of giving Satisfaction to all your Reasonable Demands If you do not ask too much Counter-security things unfit for an English King to grant there are Jacobites that will not only deliver but second your Petitions A Good and Settled Monarchy you may have and a Common-wealth is scarce practicable will be hazardous at present and cannot be lasting I know there are some amongst the Jacobites who are otherwise Men of great Honour and Worth and yet suspect every thing such as you promote is to make the King a Doge of Venice But there are others who have compared and taken in pieces and viewed in parts all the Models of Government who if you would rectifie and not change either the Name or Nature of ours will receive very kindly any thing you offer will instruct you how to make it palatable to the King and shew him how consistent it is both with his Honour and his Interest Let the manner be decent and your Propositions allow King James to have the Ballance that an English King should have and must necessarily have in our Constitution And I assure you many of the Jacobites know no other but such an English King to be our Supreme Head and Governour But after all if King James is called home by the Nation we need no other Security than a well-chosen Parliament The present Parliament may call him home when they please without any other Force but their own denial of Money And the King 's being of another Religion will in some measure check the effects of a Revolutionary Joy and prevent our Excesses And if sober and honest Men would in all Corporations instead of all other Projects instruct all the Populace That all those that drink upon their Members Cost hazard being Slaves for that Draught and that it is time seriously to take Care of Themselves and their Posterity by choosing Men of Virtue rather than the Favourites or the Factions of any Opinion whether they are Jure Divino or Original Contract men Men that are as well Loyal
to their Country as their King and to their King as their Country Men that have good Nature Estates Honesty Sense and moderate Minds Such a Parliament would be an healing Parliament might not only end but take away all occasions for Strife and Changes And Establishment Virtue and Liberty are a Nobler Happiness than excessive Riches pompous Buildings and all the other Glories that a People can possess How is the Excellency of the Spartan Institution every where and every day applauded tho' all their Pleasures seem to be nothing else but Hardships and Self-denial But we may add Plenty to our Peace increase our Trade and our Strength and by our Naval Force and a perfect Union amongst our selves be again considered as the Arbiters of Europe But I am unawares launching into a spacious Subject It is time to conclude I wish all English-men would consider how to do it and I wish there could suddenly before we are undone a method be found out to reconcile the King and his Nephew and all his Children both Natural and National a method found out to adjust all our Interests and bring us all to our respective Duties I beseech God so to order things that all Sects and sorts of English-men may think it a National Good to restore our King I have read our Annals I wish every body had Could I here delineate the Scars and Woulds the Bloodsheds and Distresses that the Violation of the Hereditary Title which will hover over all Usurpations and all Forms of a Commonwealth have 〈…〉 could I paint out the Executions and Extinctions of Noble Families that the Wars between the Two Houses have occasioned they would represent but an horrid Prospect a doleful Scene Oh Blessed God! Visit not this Land for its Iniquities with Destruction but in Judgment remember Mercy Let Righteousness and Mercy Restore Him to it and on them establish the Throne of thy Servant JAMES Teach Him to go in and out before this great People which by our Laws and Oaths and His Inheritance thou hast committed to His Charge Let His Children Honour His Subjects Obey and His Nephew be Just to Him and GOD be Glorified be still Glorified in His and Our wonderful Deliverance that Wickedness may no longer prosper but Peace return to us and our Childrens Children to all Generations Amen Amen And God put it into the Hearts of all His Subjects to say likewise Amen to this National and Honest Prayer I find that my Letter has grown under my hands but if it tires you you must thank your self that you started so much Game a great deal has risen before me in writing that I have not followed tho' I hope I have writ enough to let you know that whatever Spirit you find some Jacobites in yet there are others that cannot disgust a reasonable Man and also that I am the same English-man you ever knew me as well as SIR Your affectionate Friend and faithful Servant POSTSCRIPT THE Letter I sent you last August being shewn to some that are yours as well as my old Friends and more so to England than to either of us it was at their importunity sent to the Press soon enough to have been published long before the Parliament met but when part of it was Printed the rest was stopped by some Accidents that are not so proper to mention and therefore some sew Expressions of it may not be altogether so seasonable as they were when I wrote it to you since the Money is now given however I hope in the main it may be of some use And now we have begun this Scribling Conflict I desire that in your next you will let me know when you can reasonably suppose this War and consequently Taxes will end And whether if the Confâ—deracy should break before you have thought fit to restore your Rightful and Lawful King or the French are more humbled as you call it than they are hitherto we should not indeed run a greater risk of our Liberties for the present after such a continued Provocation of the King than either you or I or any good English man could wish to see Tell me likewise whether those that are not of our Army or Fleet cannot if they have a Mind to restore the King upon a National Foot influence those Natives that are in both to restore King James as the Old Army did his Brother You have read History and know that an Army of Natives follows the inclinations of the Inhabitants you know the real Power your Party has in the Nation and that it is not the Tories who have broke in upon their own Consciences but you who have forsaken your Vnderstandings that keep the Prince of Orange as much as you every day ridicule him from being sent for good and all to Holland and though you do not know how to make him either value your Persons or see his own Interest yet you can soon find ways notwithstanding your own Latitude to make an English Army reflect upon their Oaths and Obligations to King James and their Usage under this Man nay you cannot but know they begin themselves to have these Reflections and therefore with very little pains you may prepare them Nationally to Restore the King which if they do with all due regard to him be it spoken he is as it were in our Power and he must grant those Concessions we really want and where a King whose Title is indispured frankly hears Advice from a duly-elected Parliament the genuine and united Sense of the Nation may be gathered up and a Natural Cure given to all our Troubles and only from thence can come an impartial Settlement Think of these things seriously and let not the Discourses of such Jacobites as you complain of who have as little Interest with the Kinâ— as you say they have with England either give you disturbance or make you any longâ—r willing to undergo worse things under this Vsurpation than you can have any just reason to fear if the King returns especiaâ—ly if you your selves Restore him Besides I must tell you I have good reason to believe the King of France himself with whom you fright the Mob is not politically an Enemy to a limited Monarchy in England and that he will agree to a reasonable Peace in Europe if the Restauration of King James is made one of the Conditions of it and that he will not be brought to any Peace unless we Restore him how much soever the Prince of Orange has flatter'd you that instead of the Vineyards and Spoils of Paris that he seemed to promise he will bring him to an honourable Peace I will only 〈◊〉 That whereas some of your Party do now as you did formerly raise malicious and unjust Calumnies upon the Queen I am fully satisfied that she is as desirous the King should comply with his People as the Noblest and nicest Patriots could be were King James upon the Throne She has a mind that the Struggles between the Crown and the People should be adjusted that so the Succession of her Son may be secured Think of all this seriously write me your mind freely and act as becomes a true Lover of England Be not over fond of your own Creation as a Williamite Meddle not with those who world yet farther change the Name and Nature of our Government and then fiercely as you are so now be Anti-Jacobite as long as you can Once again Adieu FINIS ERRATA DEdication line 12. for ever r. even Pag. 6. col 1. l. 40. r. Incroachments Pag. 9. col 2. l. 9. after this add part Pag. 11. col 2. l. 6. after prove add to l. 33. after time add in