King in the Three Kingdoms to fight his Quarrel and if he comes in by force he may well use us as a conquer'd Nation break our old and give us what Laws and Religion he pleases Whereas if we attempt no such thing we shall not run the hazard of a CIVIL WAR the King being as likely to out-live as to be out-lived by His Brother If he shou'd chance to succeed peaceably he cannot be presum'd to offer any alteration in Religion so much against his Interest and who never forwarded any in his own Family suffers his Children to continue in the Church of England knowing that Christianity forbids compulsion for its propagation To say he wou'd be priest-ridden is ridiculous why he more than the French King who openly opposes the Popes Usurpation and assumes to himself the cognizance even of Church-affairs This is but a pretence to impose upon the ignorant and the credulous if there be not Laws enough already new ones may be made to prevent any such intention When all Offices and power are in the hands of Anti-papists I cannot see where can be our danger But this if granted wou'd not be all the Monarchy is hereby made elective and the possessor may as well be remov'd as the successor debarr'd In order to this is there not a History of the Succession publish'd shewing that the Monarchy is rather elective than hereditary Of which here I will only say that the Writer is a notorious Plagiary and steals all out of a seditious Book writ on the same Subject by Parsons the Jesuite under the Name of Doleman in Queen Elizabeths time with design of distracting the people and making way for a Spanish Conquest and Inquisition the Presbyterian Transcriber proves himself of the same Jesuitical principles and with equal honesty pursues the same ends Usurpation and Slavery 'T is not to be doubted but that there has been frequent interruptions of the Succession of the Crown but no title but that of the Sword was ever put in ballance with proximity of bloud and he that will oppose Fact to Right is very unjust and argues not upon the principles of Morality nor the Laws of Nations Much such another good Christian is the Writer of The appeal to the City who tels us if we set up a King with none or a crack'd title we shall have the better Laws and instances that Richard the 3d. an Usurper a Murderer and a Tyrant made excellent Statutes But he might had he been just have found the Laws of that King outdone by those of our present Soveraign whose title none can question And yet it is not unreasonable to suspect a design on foot of subverting the Monarchy if it be consider'd that the passing the Bill against the Duke will not alone satisfie his adversaries who further expect that all those now firm to the King be remov'd and their trust put into considing hands and thus when they had him in their own power it wou'd be no hard matter to act their pleasure The Speech disown'd by the protestant Lord and burnt by the Hangman a fate the Author does certainly deserve tells us in plain English We must have a Change and a King we may trust and well affected Counsellors with much more treasonable and seditious stuff These things and the frequent mentioning the fates of Edw. 2. Rich. 2. and Hen. 6. cannot but alarm his Majesty and restrain him from ever complying with such persons against his only Brother He has so often affirm'd the Bill shou'd never pass that he cannot now without diminution of his own honour as well as safety alter his well-grounded resolution taken upon the sense of conscience and duty the present and future good of himself and people An act that wou'd be the highest violation of Magna Charta that ordains none shou'd be put by his birthright and inheritance but by the Law of the Land and legal process And therefore I hope what cannot be suppos'd will be granted will no longer be insisted on lest the consequences prove fatal One thing I cannot but admire that the Duke shou'd be absolutely excluded on supposition of being a papist for otherwise he is allow'd by all a Prince of incomparable vertues and endowments leaving no room for enjoying his right in case he become Protestant Do they suppose an alteration of opinion impossible that 's false and foolish There are instances of men that have changed often and to mention no more the Dukes Grandfather Hen. 4. twice alter'd his opinion Besides it is unjust and contrary to their own practice for L. Br. was an imprison'd Plotter but as soon as he became a Convert without further process or tryal he was innocent and acquitted We do in this exceed the Papists in France and condemn our Protestant Ancestors and all others abroad who accus'd them as Antichristian and Rebellious for opposing their lawful King Hen. 4 on the score of Religion for the Parisians lov'd his person and stood upon no other condition than his turning Papist to receive him for their Soveraign as all the other R. C's of that Kingdom had done before And therefore I very much suspect we are grown weary of Monarchy and with an inconstancy natural to Islanders affect a Change tho' for the worse To this I am induc'd by many Reasons and not a little from a Protestant Lords Speech the last Sessions That the people of Athens were so fond of good King Codrus that they resolv'd to have none after him But to attempt this piece of folly and wickedness will inevitably embroyl us in a Civil War And of that the event is so uncertain that we ought to dread the loss of all by striving to enlarge our present liberties This madness ordinary prudence will carefully avoid because in all probability the King must get the better his condition is not like his Fathers He has standing Troops which the other wanted to Guard his Person he has the Militia in his own hands he has no Scotch nor Irish Rebellion to divide or distract his Forces and above all he has the Parliament in his own power to let them Sit or no Sit at his pleasure and their good behaviour And 't is happy he has this power to secure himself from popular jury at this time especially when whatever the Papists have done we daily see others run into Clubs and Cabals distinguishing themselves by Green Ribbans by general Committees and Sub-committees where all Transactions of Parliament are first design'd and hammer'd Collections made a Common Pursue manag'd and Agents employ'd in every County to prepare and influence the people write and disperse false News Libels against the Government Addresses made and sent into every Shire and Burrough and if the Members do not go down to their Elections they can Print for them such Speeches as serve their purpose Witness one my Lord Vaughan spoke at his election though his Lordship was not out of London I have
A Seasonable Addresse To both HOUSES of PARLIAMENT Concerning the Succession The fears of Popery and Arbitrary Government By a true Protestant and a hearty Lover of his Countrey IT was the Aegyptians practice before Physick was reduc'd into Art or Profession to carry forth into the Roads and High-wayes the Diseas'd and enquire of all passengers concerning the Causes and Remedies of their distempers out of whose prescriptions their Friends selected and applied what they judg'd most proper What was then done for the Natural is now as necessary for the Body politick of this Country sick almost unto death of Fears and Jealousies the plots and devices of the wicked and ambitious expos'd to all Travellers among whom good Nature and Self-preservation have at length after two years silent compassion prevail'd upon me to give my opinion of the Causes and Cures of our Evils which I will offer without fear or favour of Party or Faction of Court or City enquiring how far our apprehensions of Popery and Arbitrary Government that have so long discompos'd us at home and made us contemptible abroad are just and reasonable Tho' I confess 't is said There never was smoak without some fire yet at first sight it seems hard to believe that sober men shou'd ever attempt innovations seldom or never advantageous always hurtful because necessarily attended with the sad effects of Civil War a calamity that has so lately prov'd fatal to the Kingdom in general to the Prince and to the Subject Whence it may be reasonably presum'd when our passion is over and we have fully consider'd the rise progress and event of the Last Rebellion we shall grow calm and wise permit the King to enjoy his own Prerogatives and content our selves with our just Rights and priviledges 'T will be time enough when these are invaded if Religion even then will allow it to oppose or stand upon our defence to offer at it sooner is madness and folly Rebellion and Impiety For the better coming to our point 't is necessary we take a review of the times preceding Forty One when from the end of King James's Reign the people were as now full of murmurings repinings and distrusts against the Government At last the smother'd Embers burst forth into a Flame and after ten years Violence War and Confusion and near as many more of Usurpation and Tyranny the Commonwealth was so far from being better'd by any of the many changes and expedients that the recalling our King from his unjust Exile was found and unanimously agreed the only way to prevent its utter Ruine Our Gracious Sovereign merciful beyond example pardons his Rebellious Subjects the Murderers of his Royal Father and the Usurpers of his own Crown and Dignity loads even among them with Offices and Honour such as seem'd penitent and were capable He then proceeds first to the resettlement of the Religion of the Church of England like Vertue seated in the middle and equally endanger'd by the two extreams of Popery and Presbytery and after to that of the State in peace and quiet which we enjoy'd to the envy of our Neighbours This happiness occasion'd a War with Holland France and Denmark to their great Loss and the Renown of England ending in a League of friendship and amity for the general good of Europe Not long after the King was advised to grant a toleration for the ease of tender Consciences and the advancement of Traffique and Manufacture This was press'd with arguments That the want of it occasion'd Venner's Insurrection the Plot in 1662 for which several suffer'd at Tyburn that in 1663. begun in Ireland and carried on in England for which in 1664. divers were executed in Yorkshire as were others after in London April 1666 who confess'd at Tyburn a Design of subverting the Government seizing the Tower and firing of London the September following and withal declaring there were those behind of their party that wou'd still effect that design which as to that part was too evident This is notorious from the historical account publish'd in 8 and confirm'd by the Gazette and therefore I cannot but wonder at the Commons Vote of last January the 10th That it is the opinion of this House that the City of London was burnt in the year 1666 by the papists designing thereby to introduce arbitrary Power and Popery into this Kingdom It wou'd be a great satisfaction to the World to publish the grounds of this opinion because that otherwise that otherwise considering they did not pursue it nor any reason assign'd what should have hindred it will hardly gain more credit than the philosophers paradox that Snow was black I have read of some who never wanted opinions cou'd they but find arguments to make them probable for which their being at a loss made them ridiculous with the sober part of mankind The King consents and at the same time declares a War against Holland whose insolence and injustice in point of Trade and Honour was become insupportable Soon after the Parliament conveen'd and apprehending the Indulgence might in time prove destructive to the establish'd Religion pray'd it might be revok'd the King Contrary to the then Ministers advice answer'd their desires Hereupon they grow peevish and thenceforeward vow and study all the methods of Revenge and Confusion tho with the hazard of the publick Ever since we have been continually alarm'd with Libels against the Government at last a discovery is made of a Popish contrivance sisted as far as possible by the King in Council and after earnestly recommended to the Parliaments further consideration This is pursued but some men laying hold on this design to drive it on to further purposes and under pretence of defending the Kings Person and expelling Popery set up Presbytery and pull down the Monarchy But there being too strict a bond of mutual love and loyalty between the King and that Parliament means are now us'd upon a great Ministers being impeach'd to have it dissolv'd An Act that answer'd not his expectations A new one is call'd and exceeding the bounds of prudence and moderation quickly sent home A third is summon'd and the King having to this as to the former over and over press'd the impartial examination of the Plot the tryal of the Lords and the care of the establish'd Religion wherein by all just and lawful wayes he often declar'd he wou'd not follow but heartily go along with them But alas they intended no such thing The Plot must be kept on foot else they wou'd be defeated The King perceiving they still neglected the good of the publick breaks them and summonds a fourth at Oxford where I wish they may be inspir'd with softness and prudence answerable to the designs of the Place and the needs of the Kingdom After this short account is it possible to believe these who insinuate the King himself is in the Plot is a Papist and intends arbitrary Government Oh ridiculous nonsensical fancy If the Plot
be against his Person and Government and contriv'd by Papists and among them as Bedlow has sworn none in England but have receiv'd the Sacrament upon 't and he be of the number he must joyn with others to cut his own throat stab shoot or poyson himself But here 's some mystery in this pretty Invention Charles Stewart conspires against the King this imitating the Long Parliament in his Fathers time who fought for the King for his politick capacitie against himself his Natural his Person But if he were a Papist wou'd he have pass'd into Laws every Bill tender'd him by both Houses as well before as since this Plot in their disfavour And yet we know one of the godly party was lately fin'd 500 l. for saying The Duke of York was a Papist and the King little better a saying no longer minc'd nor whisper'd but now loudly and plainly spoken every day Cou'd he have been wrought to change of Religion in time of his banishment he had not withstood the offers of forraign Princes and the solicitations of a fond Mother to reinstate him in his own Dominions with absolute arbitrary power But he was too much a Christian and too good a King not to prefer continuance in exile to the designs of enslaving his Subjects either in their souls or in their bodies Must he now in an Age desirous of rest and quiet be upbraided with such purposes that had resolv'd against them in the heat of his youth the great spur of ambition Now when to compasse this wicked and ridiculous project is as impossible as before it was the contrary when after his restoration besides foreign assistance offer'd at any rate and to any purpose he had an obsequious General a victorious Fleet and Army and a Parliament whose zeal and devotion seem'd in nothing to be bounded but by the limits of his own pleasure when to the immense treasure he was possest of bestow'd among his people with equal bounty as it was given he might have added vastly by the confiscations of more than half the Estates and Wealth of the Three Kingdoms But instead of this he often press'd his Parliament to expedit the Act of Oblivion disbanded his Army and enlarg'd the Fleet by making one Squadron of more value than all three in the time of Queen Eliz. disabl'd in all his Dominions without exception all Papists from bearing any office Civil or Military Has he not pass'd the Bill excluding for ever all Popish Lords out of the House to which his Father cou'd never be perswaded Has he not likewise curtayl'd the Royal power by two other Acts that of the Habeas Corpus and against Quartering of Souldiers Three Statutes for which he might have had as many Millions had he insisted on a bargain or known how to distinguish between his own private Interest and that of the Subject or the truckling way of Bartring when the good of his people was concern'd Why did he but for the sake of the Protestant Religion Refuse the Elder Daughter of the Crown to the Dauphin of France and marry her to the Prince of Orange And this without putting his Parliament to the charge of a Portion or a much greater Sum which they would have gladly given had he made the proposition And no other cou'd be the motives of recalling his Troups from France raising an Army for the defence of the Netherlands at the expence of above 200000 l. more than was given his prohibiting Trade with that Crown These things put a stop to the progress of that victorious King's Arms occasion'd his quitting Messina clapping up a general peace when he was just at the point of his propos'd Conquests If our Prince intended an arbitrary Government why besides his former neglecting the opportunity wou'd he disable himself for the future by parting with one of the greatest instruments for that purpose the Court of Wards Liveries Tenures in Capute and Knight-Service Purveyance c. And what did he receive for this excess of bounty for the chiefest and most useful flower of the Crown but a trifle a feather half the Excise not above a fourth of the others yearly value And after all this Knaves invent and Fools believe he is now setting up for Tyrrany and Popery when his years are past the heat of ambition his Coffers empty France disoblig'd and his own people alarm'd and bent against it with all imaginable resolutions of oppositions Can any man imagine that a person who disarms himself intends to fight Besides What one Illegal Arbitrary Act has he done in his twenty years Reign Whom has he desrauded of an Ox or an Ass of Lease or Possession where has he in any one instance invaded Magna Charta our Rights Properties or Liberties What Bill tender'd by Parliament for the security of our Lives or Fortunes has he rejected He pass'd all without exception As for the Bill for intrusting the Parliament with the Militia for a limited time reason then and experience since has prov'd it was a needless encroachment on the Royal prerogative without the least prospect of publick good and to have parted with that power but for a moment was for so long to unking and divest himself of a power he cou'd not be certain would be ever restor'd As he has freely pass'd all Laws has he not as chearfully offer'd to enact any thing that was agreeable to Justice and Reason for our further security in Religion Liberty and property From these considerations nothing will appear more vain and idle than our Fears and Jealousies our Factious and Seditious reflections on the Government I will not say without great caution but we may run into those very things we so much dread and wou'd avoid Popery and French Government or which is equally destructive of our Birth-rights and Happiness Presbytery and a Commonwealth This will be no groundless surmise if we look back and observe that the Leav'n against the establish'd Constitution both in Church and State has sowr'd almost the whole lump the poyson of Presbytery formerly known by the name of Puritanism hatch'd at Frankford and Geneva grown to a head in Scotland with the Reformation has infected the generality of the Kingdom the common Traders Dwellers in Cities and Corporation the unthinking and illiterate part of the Gentry with hatred against Monarchy and the Church of England This was certainly the invention of Rome to overthrow us by thus sowing Divisions they wel foresaw our Kingdom and Church in it self divided cou'd not long stand All the Antimonarchical Principles are the same in both the one as well as the other deny Supremacy in the King the Jesuit will have the Pope and the Presbyter Jesus his Head King-killing and Deposing Doctrine is disown'd by all honest Papists as the Author even of Plato Redivivus does confess tho two or three Jesuits have privately asserted the opinion as problematical for which themselves and writings were censur'd and condemn'd
as false and damnable But 't is justified both by Books and Practice of the whole Presbyterian party 't is so plain and fresh in our memories I need not instance in the Authors St. Peter's Chair is not more Infallible than that of an Assembly of Presbyters in a National Classis or Synod Men of these Antichristian Principles stirr'd up the Late Rebellion and being active and diligent drew in many unwary honest men beyond the power of retreating Did not the Faction here tamper in Scotland where the promoters of the Covenant that Godly instrument apply'd to the Crown of France for protection as appears by the Letter found with the Lord Lowden therefore sent to the Tower But what was the issue of this Contrivance but Confusion and Misery through the three Kingdoms the Presbyterian party over-power'd by the Independents and these again by the Army a Commonwealth set up and soon after turn'd into a perfect Tyranny under Oliver Cromvel after more money had been illegally squeez'd from the Subjects by Ordinances and Loans Sequestrations and Decimations Excise and other Impositions than was ever known before or since The people weary call home their Prince who by an excess of mercy and clemency sparing to root up men of these Principles gave way to their infecting others with the same humour of discontent 'T is to be observ'd that the year 1535. is remarkable for the Geneva Reformation and the spawning of the Jesuits Order and that our unlucky home-bred Divisions were fomented if not first set on foot under hand by directions from the Court of France as well as from Rome the Interest of that State as well as of the Church depending on our Distractions to which end Richlieu that great Minister imploy'd many Pensioners into Scotland as did after his Successor Mazarine in England And therefore there is nothing more inconsiderate than to think we are not now acting and promoting French-Designs 't is their businesse to divide us and yet so to manage the Ballance that they let neither the King nor Parliament have the better or ever come to a Right understanding They can no otherwise obtain the Western Empire and 't is directly against their Interest ever to suffer England to be either a perfect Monarchy or an absolute Common-wealth Those that roar most against French Councils and Measures under-hand-bargains and agreements between both the Kings know they bely their own Conscience and that the French have us in the last degree of contempt This the E. of D. printed in his own vindication perhaps not ignorant that some of their Ministers did in the year 1677. and 78. before the breaking forth of the Plot declare That Monsieur L. had greater Interest and more Friends in England than the D. of Y. That the K. had need be on his Guard for he was in great danger of running the same risque with his Father when it was likewise enquir'd What Interest among the People two great Peers had who have since the Plot been the great Pillars of the Protestant Religion tho neither was ever reputed to have any were Ministers and Advisers in 1670. and 71. very good Friends to France and Popery Enemies to the Triple Alliance and to Holland c. It was also said That 300000 l. a year bestow'd in Scotland and England among the Factious and Discontented wou'd better serve the Interest of France than any Bargain they cou'd drive with the Ministers 'T is too well known that the greatest of these two Noblemen made a secret journey into France some weeks before the Plot after some private Transactions here with others among whom were Sir E. L. fam'd for Religion for Morality Major W. and H. N. as notorious for the same perfections and their love of Monarchy and hatred of a Commonwealth nor did A. S. want his Share in the Consultation a stout assessor of Prerogative witness'd by his and others living out of this Kingdom ever since the Kings Restauration untill they saw some likelyhood of a change the one returning about the time the D. of B. and the other Lords were in the Tower and the other a few months before the breaking forth of the Popish Conspiracy which no sooner came before the Parliament than some of the great Lords of the Committee for the Examination of the Plot kept their Consultations and manag'd much of that affair at Wallingford-House Major W. their Secretary where they concluded to take hold of this opportunity for the carrying on some long-hatched Designs of their own Nor is it to be forgotten that in June before a Letter was writ by an eminent person of the Faction and can be now produced That very shortly somewhat wou'd be discover'd that wou'd prevent our much longer walking in the dark and that one of the greatest Lords sent to an Astrologer to know whether he was not in a short while to be in the head of 60000 men The methods agreed upon in France and pursu'd here were to make a Court and Countrey-party to sow and disperse Jealousies between both and widen the Gap with all possible Devices which resolutions some here were the sooner induc'd to embrace upon this consideertion That they should not live to see the issue and were unconcern'd for what shou'd come after But yet I am too charitable to think if we have any French Agents at home they are impos'd upon by their own unwariness and the others cunning to act rather against than with their knowledge a part so much contrary to the Interest of England and the Duty of a Christian But however it be I am morally assur'd we are doing their work and if we are not Knaves and Pensioners we are Block-heads or Fools that are blind and besorted like men prepar'd for Destruction Quos Jupiter perdere vâ—lt hos dementat If any one talk thus he is presently call'd a Papist and a Tory every true Son of the Church of England and Loyal Subject is Branded with Nick-names and run down by Noise and Faction and he that opposes Popery if he defends not Presbytry is but a Protestant in Masquerade if he commends Monarchy and our Legal Constitutions to the discredit of a Commonwealth he is a Rascal a Villian and a dangerous person not considering that we are made Tools and Instruments for French purposes betray'd by their Cunning and Adresse to forward and act with our own hands our Slavery and Ruine Shall we be still blind and deaf to reason and demonstration Can we not reflect upon the French double-dealing in our late Civil Distractions and remember what the Lord Keeper Puckering tells the Parliament in Q Elizabeth's days That the Puritans even at the time of the Spanish preparations for Invasion were urging and pressing intestine Commotions where he largely sets forth their being as dangerous to the Crown and Mitre as the others and therefore that both were to be equally suppress'd Papists and Puritans I cannot find that either have since
sport of Mousing they will ever be lovers of a Commonwealth and enemies to Monarchy This is plain from former as well as later proceedings since the discovery of the Popish Plot when they began to shew themselves in their proper colours when they cry'd not only the Court but the Church was Popish and all that are for the establish'd Government You cannot now be loyal unless you be factious nor a Protestant if no Presbyterian But pray observe none tell you this but the spawn of those seduc'd or concern'd in the late Rebellion men turn'd out or that wou'd get into Court-Imployments that account themselves slighted or disoblig'd men of great Ambition or of desperate Fortunes who make all this noise and clutter to be taken off To what purpose else did the late House of Commons make the Vote against the bargain or hopes of Court-preferment but that such a design was driving between some leading Members and Courtiers Can they after such a discovery pretend zeal for Religion and the good of their Countrey For shame let not Faction and private Interest make men forgetful of the publick of the peace and quiet of the Nation Let them secure our Constitutions against the encroachments or invasions of any whether Presbyter or Papist and remember that the most forward in the Long Parliament were soon turn'd out by others and because what is Sawce for a Goose is Sawce for a Gander this of course will be the fate of those who now glory in being Ringleaders of Faction to thwart and oppose their Sovereign Nay it may possibly be worse the Gentlemen the Knights of the Shires may be kick'd out by Mechanicks by Citizens and Burgesses for he that practiseth Disobedience to his Superiours teacheth it to his Inferiours Sir W. I. Sir F. W. Collonel T. c. all know were disoblidg'd and if taken into favour the Employments and Honours they covet wou'd stand up for the Court as much as now they do against it Whether the Petitioning Lords be not of the same temper will best appear from the story of every single person One of them has the humour convey'd with 's Bloud His Father was a Gentleman that appear'd zealous in the long Parliament for the good of his Countrey the first that brought in the complaint of Ship-money But soon after when he was made a Lord and a Courtier he chang'd notes and sung another song no man more for the Monarchy in its defence he lost his life and at his death publickly repented his actings against the Earl of Strafford His Son was made an Earl upon the Kings return sent Ambassador Abroad and Lord Lieutenant into Ireland to get this Command be dispis'd not the Courtship and assistance of Coll. T. though a R. C. and a Creature of his R. H. to whom he made no slender professions not being satisfied with gaining vastly in that Station five years he grew peevish in hopes of being sent the second time nay rather than fail he is content to be Commissioner of the Treasury in hopes that by the Courtship and Interest of some Women no matter what Religion they are of he may come to be Lord Treasurer But not like to gain the White Staffe and perhaps not caring to govern an empty Exchequer he bent his thoughts again towards Ireland slighting the Treasury he is outed and grows more discontented and at last turn'd out of Council the next day he repeats a Speech of E. of S. his making and unask'd presents a piece of Councel and Advice to his Soveraign pretending as a Peer it was his duty I am sorry his zeal made him forget that Peers have no right of advising the King but when he makes them of his Council or by Writ Summons 'em to Parliament And what 's very odd he advises just the contrary to what he and the other Noble E. had done the year before when Courtiers This Noblemans Life wou'd make a Comical History he knows how to put on all shapes and in the late times was not ignorant how to make an Apple-tree supply the place of a Pulpit he knew how to serve himself in all turns and changes and he has not fail'd since 1640. to have been often out and in with the several Higher Powers To give him his due he is a man of extraodinary parts but if one of these Lords said true when he was a Courtier and the other newly remov'd they are all fitted and turn'd for confounding and amusing but not for extricating out of difficulties He wants not Wit to hold forth in the House or in the open Air upon occasion nor is he meanly Skill'd in the Methods of Court-Pleasures as well as Business He must have an ill memory that forgets who advis'd the breaking of the Triple-League and making an Alliance with France and a War with Holland pronouncing in the Language of the Beast Delenda est Carthago that a Dutch Commonwealth was too near a Neighbour to an English Monarch the shutting up the Exchequer the granting Injunctions in the case of the Bankers and lastly the sourse of all of our present misfortunes the general Indulgence These things being found of ill consequence and the Ministers remov'd as designers of Popery Presbytrie Atheism or Irreligion Arbitrary or French Govermnent must any of such Principles assoon as turn'd out of Court be receiv'd into the Countrey as if these two had different Interests Whoever say there is more than one Common-weal in both are Deluders and Incendiaries and Betrayers of the Nation Those that strive to divide the King and his people are to be look'd upon as pensioners of France and to be most severely punish'd There are that can tell Tales what Great man since the Plot offer'd a Reconciliation with the D. and for a Restoration to his former Power and Greatnesse wou'd be his servant to all intents and purposes But the D. cou'd not be perswaded one that had as often chang'd Parties as Proteus his shapes and the Chamaelion his Colours cou'd be true to any Interest but his own and therefore rejected his many Messages on this subject Another Peer whose Son is in the Lower House is the great Tribune of the people wou'd have had a Dukedom added to the Garter to make both Sing to another Tune A fourth wou'd fain be a Privy Councellor in Reversion A fifth not long since at any rate of purchase wou'd have been Master of the House to the Duke Strange that a Protestant Lord shou'd think of serving a suppos'd Popish Prince and after hope though thus mounted on Horseback to get to Heaven It wou'd be tedious to give particular accounts of all only by the way observe that a Young Lord newly come to Age own'd himself to his Majestie Disoblig'd because after a Voyage to Tangier his great Valour there shown And spending his youth in his Princes Service these were his own words to the King another was preferr'd to the Command of the Lord
not heard before that Sir Samuel Morlans Speaking Trumpet cou'd convey a voice a hundred Miles distance But this is nothing with our True Protestant Intelligencer B. H. who printed an Address from the City of Colchester that never was seen nor presented by any of the Inhabitants as by an Instrument under the Town Clarks hand does plainly appear But though Swearing be Lying is not against the interest or practice of the Godly the presbyterian true off-spring of the Ignatian Fathers who out do them in the Doctrine of piae Fraâ—des as well as in all other their immoral and Antimonarhick principles And now considering that none that have any thing to loose can ever get by a Rebellion and that there is no just pretence for one our Liberties and Properties not being broken or invaded the Rich unless they are mad will never begin and yet with or without their assistance a Rising of Jack Cade or Wat Tyler instigated by greater persons will but inlarge the Regal power and enrich the Crown And for these and many more reasons I look upon the Threats or Fears of Rebellion as idle and vain as our Jealousies and Apprehensions of Popery never possible in England but by a Civil War since their numbers here are but as one to 230. and by an exact calculation in the three Kingdoms the whole number of Papists is but as one to 205. non-Papists and their wealth and possessions is not one to 300. If their power had been so terrible they wanted not since the Plot provocations to mak us feel as well as hear on 't But these noises are like Armies in disguise at Knights-bridge and Regiments of Horse hid in Cellars under ground and blowing up the Thames to drown London artifices formerly us'd to draw in the easie and the credulous But 't is to be presum'd the same trick will not pass twice upon us in one and the same Age while the bleeding wounds of the last are still so fresh in our memories To remedy and compose our present madness and distractions and prevent future evils must without doubt be the hearty endeavour of all honest men who expect this will be a healing Parliament that will make up all our breaches and unite our divisions by the methods of prudence and discretion weighing the true causes and applying fit remedles without regard to faction or interest heat or passion reflecting how unreasonable it is to suspect in the King or his Ministers any design of introducing Popery and arbitrary Government a malicious and idle invention set on foot with purpose to enflame the Kingdom by men who were outed or desirous of Court-Imployments disoblig'd persons or French Pensioners That the Bill of Exclusion is not like to pass either the Lords House or the King because in it self unjust impolitick and dangerous not only to the Prince but to the Subject That all other legal ways for preventing Popery and Presbytery are to be taken by those who design the preservation of the establish'd Monarchy and Religion That this is already or may with ease be secur'd against the attempts or power of any Popish Successor That our fears in this point are groundless and best founded upon accidents that may never happen That 't is the highest imprudence to run into real present to avoid possible future evils That innovations of this sort wou'd be against the Princes interest who having not a 4th part of the Revenue necessary for the support of the Crown must be under a necessity of complying with his people in Parliament and that his temper practice and Declarations secure us against impositions of this nature That it be consider'd whether the unquiet apprehensions from the Plot may not be laid by a speedy and impartial tryal and execution of all the accus'd and convicted and the Kings after granting a general pardon with such exceptions as have been usual The doing this will beget a right understanding between the King and his people defeat the contrivances of our adversaries restore us to peace and quiet at home and rescue us from contempt and danger abroad and make the Name of Parliament as famous and renown'd as some Libellers endeavour to make it base and odious How this is to be compass'd you your selves are deservedly made the Judges and therefore I will not like the foolish Orator teach Hannibal the Art of War Fiat Justitia ruat Coelum FINIS EDINBVRGH Re-printed Anno DOM. 1681.