subdue and destroy him and all his Adherents that intend to set up his pretended Title Holy League June 6. That I will according to my Power and Vocation assist the Forces raised by both Houses of Parliament against the Forces raised by the King without their Consent Solemn Leag Negat Oath I. A. B. Do swear from my Heart that I will neither directly nor indirectly adhere unto or willingly assist the King in this Cause c. And that my coming and submitting to this Parliament is without any Design whatsoever Now I would have any one tell me what will be the difference between assisting the Forces of the Parliament against those of the King swearing neither directly or indirectly to adhere to his Majesty and this Clause of Fighting Subduing Expelling Destroying the Duke and all his Adherents when as much a King as ever his father was which is supposed and implyed in this Clause of the Association And that all this shall be done when he comes to the Crown and seeks to set up his pretended Title But why must his Title only be pretended when he will have as much right to wear the Crown as the Head upon which it is now so miraculously placed What can be the result of this but that those men who will think his Title then but pretended have but little better Opinion of his present Majestie 's Certainly upon the same Ground that they will not admit him to the Throne they may pull the present King out of it for it is but rejecting the Duke for giving Life and Birth to the Plot and the King for conniving at the Conspiracy that horrid accusation wherewith some Traytors have already traduced his Majesty and then farewel Government of old England good Night to the best tempered Monarchy in the World But then for the Clause of all Adherents to be destroyed too 'T is such an unlimited piece of Massacre that for ought I see half the Nation must be forc'd to swim in their own Blood by these tender Lovers of their Country and these Patriots put in for a more barbarous cutting of Throats than that of the Danes in the same Kingdom that of Paris in France or Piedmont in Italy This word Adherent must include the extirpating the whole Line of Succession notwithstanding it is pretended only in opposition to the next Heir For it does the Prince of Orange his business whom they all acknowledg a Protestant Prince as much as if he were the greatest Bigot of Rome it is but saying he adheres to his own Father-in-Law one from whose Blood he must derive some of his Pretensions and then the Protestant Prince must be destroyed too according to the word of the Association as an Enemy to Laws Religion and Country But now at last comes a Paragraph not to be parallel'd by the old Covenants only because fuller of Treason and Rebellion The obeying of the Parliament in Forty two and Forty three without a King was pretended somewhat warrantable because his Majesty had unhappily passed an Act for Triennial Parliaments and then another afterwards for their perpetual sitting But this Gentleman without any more Ceremonies without expecting such an unreasonable Grant from the King resolves that Affairs shall be carried on with such a resolute piece of Treason that none but desperate Men and mad such as had bid Defiance to the Laws of God and Man would ever ingage in which read Verbatim if it be possible for any Loyal Heart that loves his King and Country to have so much Patience Associat And lest this just and pious Work should by any means be obstructed or hindred for want of Discipline and Conduct or anâ— evil minded Persons under pretence of raising Forces for the service of this Association should attempt or commit Disorders we will follow such Orders as we shall from time to time receive from this present Parliament whilst it shall be sitting or the major part of the Members of both Houses subscribing this Association when it shall be prorogued or dissolved and obey such Officers as shall by them be set over us in the several Countries Cities and Burroughs until the next meeting of this and another Parliament and will then shew the same Submission and Obedience unto it and those who shall be of it I don't doubt but had this Associator been known to both Houses of Parliament their professed Loyalty is such they would have voted his head to be preferred to that honourable place among the Traitors on the Bridge A just requital for paying such a Treasonable deference to that honourable Assembly and so boldly complementing them without their leave into Rebellion A Pious Work indeed and such as I don't doubt without a seasonable repentance and an insinite Mercy will damn the Contriver And lest any evil minded Persons should commit Disorders A very careful Patriot certainly one who will not suffer so much as a little disorder to be committed But it would be a little hard for the poor Mouse that picks a little hole in the Bread to be caught by the neck by the Thief that stole the whole Loaf Strickt discipline indeed that makes the least disorder in raising of Forces so criminal and obnoxious and yet the mustering them up to rebel a work Pious and meritorious Sure the Contriver of this work is not so well acquainted with the House of Commons and their Priviledges as he would be thought to be or else is resolved to act and forge in spight of all equity and truth For none that have stretch't the Power of that Assembly to its utmost extent ever allowed it a right of sitting like so many petty Kings in Representative To issue out Proclamations raise Forces and command obedience from their fellow Subjects I confess we had a Parliament that did all this raised an Army made their Generals fought their King but sure this Associator can't be such a Villain to think the late Representatives of the Nation would all have commenced Traitors and after a most inconsistant rate imitated that Parliament in 41. Which some of they themselves by particular Act since have declared guilty of Rebellion nay to outdo and transcend them in their Treason to sit in opposition to his Majesties Command whereas those did by his unhappy Permission But this bold Associator can go further yet resolves the sitting House shall not only be obeyed as the Supream and Legislative power of the Nation but that the Major Part of those Members whom he civilly supposes ready to subscribe after Prorogation after Dissolution shall be submitted to as invested with an higher Supremacy then any would be willing to allow his present Majesty and that this select Committee in their Respective Countries Cities and Burroughs like so many Stadt-holders in their several Provinces shall create Officers muster their Armies fall a plundering again of Delinquents and hanging up every Malignant Dog that dares but shew his teeth or wagg his
Lawful Authority was that in the year 1638 when the young Embryo of a Covenant was first hatch't in Scotland about Glascow and which serv'd for a Type and Copy to those several that have since follow'd This Primitive one was agreed to in opposition to the King's Proclamation for the dispersing of the dangerous Rabble but his Majesties Security was then dreaded even by those that declar'd so much for his Preservation and straight in defiance of the King's Commands they read their own Protestations made by the Lord Hume and Lord Lindsey and others of several degrees and quality which they publish'd straight at Lithgow and other places as Edenburgh and to shew how much they dar'd Authority they made the Heralds that came to see the Commands of their King Obeyed stay to see them very formally contradicted and exposed And it was high time then to Vnite for the Justification of those Villanies which nought but Impudence and a Combination could defend And I have still observ'd that they all along drew up these Instruments according as they grew more and more Rebellious making them perfect Leagues of Guaranty to defend themselves like Out-laws and a sort of English Banditi from the punishments that the Statutes of Treason would have inflicted And I am sorry to find that our Associators already fly to these Extremities to which none of the late Rebels came till they had made a further progress and this bold leap shrouldly insinuates that they have proceeded further then the Nation is aware of and that they are conscious of more Treason than is yet discover'd These were the occasions of drawing up their first Covenant in Scotland which was preach't up at Glascow to be Christ's Contract and the people desir'd to be hand-fasted to him by shaking hands with it by one Cant a zealous ignorant Bigot that pretended himself an Ambassador from Heaven though indeed onely that of Sir Henry Wottons sent abroad to lye for the Publique And thus we see such Zealots are forc'd to make one sin subservient to another and Blasphemy a Pander to Rebellion The correspondency that there is between this Old Combination and our late new One is observable in this that the one was to justifie a Protestation against the King's Pleasure for dispersing the Rabble and dangerous Multitude the other to contradict his Will in the legal Succession of his Brother And thus in some sense it agrees with the very Primitive Vnion my endeavours shall be to show its agreement with all the rest and of which in truth our Association seems a choice sort of Epitome And I don't doubt but its Author had a collection of them on his Desk for his better information and thought his Subject very justisiable because example for it but that he has of the deposing the King and murdering of him too if he has a mind to plead Prescription and make Treasonable Practices like the legal Proceedings in Parliament warrantable by Presidents An English Oath and Covenant comes out on the 6 th of June 43. and seem'd the effect of the Cities importunity His Majesties Loyal City yet I think seldome call'd so but in some Appeal from the Countrey or in the head of their own Petitions The Citizens promise the Loan of Forty Thousand Pound demanded by the Parliament upon condition an Holy League and Covenant be impos'd on the whole Kingdom A great summ for the purchase of their own Slavery but a small price for the Head of a King To please this City that Bedlam of deluded Fools and Mad-men gull'd always with the specious names of Liberty and Religion and as yet not wise enough to see even through a transparent Fallacy and experienc'd Cheat to please these peevish Ideots they have their humor an the Parliament the money out comes an Oath subscribed by a great number of the Worthy Members and the scandalous Roll to be fill'd up by the Gentlemen of the Shop and Yard many of which afterward serv'd a longer Apprentiship in the bloody Rebellion than e're they did in their own Profession and Employment About the 24 th of August 43. The Scots being â—ickl'd with the promises of our English Committee that was sent thither with an unlimitted Commission and ordered to close with them upon any Conditions first put out a Declaration to publish their intentions of assisting their Friends the Parliament in England and so the bargain is struck for rooting out Monarchy and Episcopacy and the King sold before he came to their hands and strait all that were not incapacitated either by Youth or Old Age all from Sixteen to Sixty that could but lift an hand against their Soveraign are muster'd up for the march And then to secure to themselves the promises of their Chapmen which were no less then a share in all the Revenues of the Church the cunning Merchants instead of Bond and Obligation the common ties in ordinary Traffick invent a new sort of security by solemn League and Covenant which was presently sent over to their State-jobbers at Westminster on the 31 of the same Month and on the 25 th of September following was by them subscrib'd in St. Margarets Church a most improper place for ratifying such a bloody Covenant a Contract which Heaven it self could never sanctifie and which for its lying and hypocrisie seem'd the very draught of Hell Now the method I shall take shall be to Parallel our discover'd Association both with this Holy League that was drawn up by the English and the solemn One that was afterward sent them by the Scots and upon the comparing of the several Paragraphs digress a little into some needful Animadversion but for a little while still continue some general Observations These Treasonable Bonds and Obligations our old Rebels bound themselves in that so they might both be secure of one another and Rebel with a sort of Publique Manifesto and no person question the notoriousness of that Fact which by being so publiquely divulg'd and impudently own'd was made a little famous and this no doubt made Mr. Nye to give it such an Elogy but not content to impose on the frailty onely of a few credulous Mortals they endeavour to abuse even Omniscience it self entitle Heaven to those Villanies which nought but the depth of Hell could contrive call that their Rebellious Association an Holy League make their own abominable Cause that of the Almightie's certainly these Men that declar'd so much for Religion could hardly be suppos'd to know their Bibles where they might soon have found God's dislike of such proceedings where Rebellion is made worse then the sin of Witchcraft and altogether as much an Imp of Hell and the Devil but the profane madness of Zealots is such that they can imagine even the Deity concern'd above for the Seditious Murmurings of the Rabble below and that when ever their Vicegerents are complain'd of by the Faction they are strait by the King of Kings for their
Tyranny as Mr. Baxter represents it to punish Dissenters with a Prison when some of them have been willing to croud thither only to make up a Conventicle perverting the very Penalties of the Law to a further opportunity of breaking it and making that subservient to the Crime which was intended to correct it This Animadversion on our Dissenters and their Advocates is both pertinent to this Discourse and favourable to those it reflects on The one because 't is certain their Faction is concern'd in this Association The other because such offenders deserve to be more severely handled And now you shall see the Disparity between a True Patriot and a Factious Associator the difference there is betwixt one that truly Loves his Countrey and him that only pretends it A True Patriot will endeavor the Peace and Quietness of the Kingdom wherein he Lives and if he sits at Helm will so steer the Bark that it may fail securely in the midst of the greatest danger neither split on the Rocks that threaten it on one side Or running into the Quick-sand that would cast her away on the other will endeavour to preserve the Nation from the Popery we fear and from the Fanaticism we have felt One that has helpt to make it flourish in Peace and Plenty this Twenty Years And will endeavour to keep it in the same Prosperity still One that will with Equal Courage resist an English Rebellion that he would a Spanish Invasion That won't endeavour to satisfie every discontended grumbler but remove all real motives to complaint and murmuring That will keep to the Rules of Law and Justice as the best means to keep the Peace too Free from all Passion and Interest and so can neither trouble the Kingdom by the Turbulency of the one or defraud it by the Temptations of the other A Factious Associator makes it his business to disturb the Countrey wherein he Lives with as much Fear and Jealousie as Thought can suggest or Malice invent for 't is Quietness and Peace that makes him idle and without Employ 'T is a sort of Sea-Monster that shows himself most before a Storm And endeavors to overset that Ship which he is not Capacitated to Steer His Eyes are set on the Publique Ministers of State not to pry into their Actions but murder their Reputations Not to search them like an Eagle but to sacrifice them like a Basilisk 'T is a State Cannibal that delights in blood and triumphs in the Miseries of a Civil War One that makes Religion a pretence for Rebellion Though as empty of the one as brim full of the other One that would flush himself in the Spoils of a New War though glutted almost with the blood that was shed in the Old 'T is the rarified Chamaeleon That out-does the natural one feeds not so much as upon Air But only Popular breath Sets the Nation all in Combustion and then like a secure Salamander lives in the flame One that seems Hells Purveyor and like the Devil makes his Covenanting Imps subscribe their Contracts in their own blood That Sails securely by tacking about with Wind and Tide and exposes the Government to be shatter'd in the Tempest That talks of nothing but the Consumption of the Body Politick only because his Natural one pines with discontent The one will with an earnest even anxious sollicitation of mind seek to reconcile the jarring hearts of Subjects to their Lawful Prince Let them understand the goodness and equity of the merciful King that governs will help his gracious Monarch to make all manner of good impression on his Subjects and give his people all imaginable satisfaction will perswade them to acquiesce with his Majesty's reasons for dissolving an old Parliament and his Gracious promises for calling a new one that will thank him for such kind Assurances and Declaration and not extenuate so gracious an action with a talk of Oath and Obligation will open the blind eyes of the deluded Rabble and take away the Veil of Popularity that blinds the discontented great The other pursues with the greatest aggravation the least slip in the Government stirs up Jealousies and Animosities between King and People to prevent the Reconciliation that would otherwise ensue for then the little Artifices he uses to foment Sedition would be illuded and his Engines of Rebellion Libels Associations Remonstrances would grow rusty and useless He is bound in prudence to make the Peoples Cause his Own and for his security to be guarded by his Whifflers the Rabble is grieved and afflicted when the King comforts his People perverts the best things to the worst sense daubs and disfigures all with his Colours which is like to wipe off the pretence and Varnish of his Cause cavils at the Declaration of his Prince because intended to satisfie the People proves the Parliament unreasonably dissolved because the King gives good reason for it makes the Nation believe it shall never see another when the he Declaration promises the contrary but yet thinks sit to extort it from the King by Petition for fear it should pass otherwise for his Gratious action deludes the silly Mobile with expectations of being great and perswades the Nobility they are not truly so without a Popular greatness The one is for the uniting the people in affection and charity if he can't obtain it in Perswasion and Religion won't multiply foes by Suspition or create dangers out of a Panick fear one that will never hugg a Popish Plot as tenderly as the Nursing-Father of it a Jesuit No such Ambidexter as to make a Bugbear and Darling of the same thing and both equally subservient to his purpose No such mimical Ape as with distorting squinting looks ridicules every thing in his countenance that does not suit with his froward Genius He is a perfect piece of sincerity and never makes a Juglers-box of his Conscience swallowing down Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and bringing up nothing but Treasonable Covenants and Associations like those Impostors that are seen to let down but harmless Tape and Ribband yet disgorge Knives and Daggers He will submit to the Lawful Authority of the State and conform to the constant Discipline of the Church will with an awful respect look upon the Crown and pay his due reverence to the Mitre will oppose the Toleration of all Religion as the ready way to have none He will truly stand up for the Liberty of the Subject and not make it a pretence to enslave them One that will trust his Prince with Money for the support of his Crown and Dignity and allow him a competent Guard for the preservation of his Person One that will swear Allegiance to none but his King And lastly never out of fear of a contingent danger will raise a present War for altering Succession The other is so far from reconciling differences in Religion that he can hardly admit of a good opinion of any not of his own sentiments transubstantiates
weigh'd and sifted made use of as presages and fore-bodings of good Success whereas we only see it had a very bad one I confess they have an Argument now for altering the Succession which they wanted then viz. the different persuasion in Religion whereas they Depos'd Richard the Second only for a pretended unworthiness unprofitableness and insufficiency But yet I think the contingent danger of parting with our Reform'd Religion can never warrant a certain involving the Nation in the Miseries of a Civil War I conceive if we are Christians 't is no such absurd thing to rely upon Providence too And though this Associator makes Queen Marys Case such an absolute Argument of Popery being introduc'd I must beg leave to observe to him his preposterous Logick and Reasoning to be but proving an absolute and universal Position from a single and particular instance And those Laws then Enacted had never so many Proviso's against the introducing that Religion as perhaps His Majesty would have yielded to had they but accepted of those Gracious Tenders for Limiting the Successor I know the plausible Argument is carried on very smoothly and slips in with a whole heap of Syllogisms If a Popish Prince then a Popish Council If a Popish Council then sure Popish Bishops If Popish Bishops then the Popish Mass too But I can tell them of a more Experienc'd sort of Sorites a sadder heap of Argumentation And already prov'd by frequent Induction If we find a Factious City then a Factious Sheriff If a Factious Sheriff then a Factious Jury If a Factious Jury then all the Factious Fellows are acquitted I confess they have made the Argument pretty strong by showing themselves the Butteress to support it But what if I should barr the necessity of these Conclusions from the Premises I think I should be very Civil to Them and Just to the Case of the Successor Suppose if from this Factious City the King should take his Gracious Charter The City may be Factious still without a Sheriff without a Jury without the fearful Lirry of many such unhappy Consequences And then with Reasonable men there is always the same reason for Contraries Suppose if from a Popish Prince there is so much of Prerogative taken away as when parted with will put him out of a capacity of imposing his Religion on his Subjects He may still be the same Popish Prince without Popish Council without Popish Bishops and without their Popish Mass and Religion being obtruded on the Nation And these sort of Expedients have been as Graciously tender'd as strangely rejected And our careful Patriots not being able thoroughly as they call it to secure us and the Nation by a Total Exclusion in Kindness and order to its Preservation will accept of no Mediums at all If this be the best Politicks of this Age I fancy the ador'd Matchiavil and the Writings of the best Statesmen are unhappily lost or little consulted But as for the deep Design and Hellish Contrivance of this Associator no doubt they are Politick Measures and Zealous Endeavours for his Countreys good The putting it all in a Flame no doubt will purge off all the Dross of Superstition and Idolatry and leave nothing behind it of Arbitrary Power besides the Tyranny of the refined holy Common-wealth And this is the Drift of this disguised Associator and pretended Patriot This Religious State-Bully That can cheat the Nation with the Masque of Holyness and meer Vizard of Piety and make Three Zealous Kingdoms devoutly perish even in working out their own Salvation If it be objected I have made too wide Inferences And that such an Association may not have all those bad Consequences we seem to dread from its being carried on I desire such Gentlemen to consider That there is no Villany but may be comprehended Lawful under such a Specious Pretence And when the old Covenants were sworn to some of the very Subscribers never imagin'd they would have prov'd such Flood-Gates of Hell and let in such a deluge of Impiety Treason and Sacriledge And what less can be expected from such a Combination at this time Than the Subversion of Church and State when they are come to * In the Answer to the Kings Declaration fancy Statute Laws insignificant unless the very Rabble set up for the sole Magistrates and Legislators And all Ecclesiastical Canons Rites and Ceremonies The meer Fopperies of Rome◠and as a sort of superfluous Excrescencies †Mr. A. in his mischief of Impositions of hair and beard And what other way is there left for the stopping these Sluces of Rebellion and Schism But by guarding the Churches Vine from the Wild Boar of the Forrest And defending our Royal Oak from being again cut down with an Ax This alone can supersede the sad Completion of the Parable of Trees Keep the Fire from coming out of the Brambles and devouring the Cedars of Lebanon FINIS