the Kings Authority and person as those that stand indebted to the King for their Lives and Estates who yet act as confidently as if one Rebellion might be placed in Justification of another For they do now afresh and in publick avow the methods and practices of the late Times while the true sons and servants both of the English Church and State lie in the dust waiting for the righteous Judgment of the Lord in want and patience Now if according to the Appellants Rule those are the most dangerous to whom the King has been most kinde that Danger must be understood of the Fanatiques for otherwise the Appealer runs the Hazzard of a Premunire upon the Act for the safety of the Kings Person in scandalizing his Majesty for a Favourer of Popery It is not yet that the general Rule fails because of this Exception For the greater the Obligation the greater in reason ought to be the confidence though the Appellaâ—…t seems to be of another opinion Who betrays you in your Beds says he your Friend for your Enemy is not admitted to your House Who betrays you in your Estate your Friend for your Enemy is not made your Trustee So that nothing is more dangerous then a blinde friendship This is an admirable fetch of his to prove his Royal Highness dangerous to his Majesty because he is both a Friend and a Brother and still the Nearer the more dangerous as if the King were safer in the hands of his Enemies then of his Friends But he expounds himself that they are more dangerous in respect of greater Confidence and fairer Opportunities There is no sence against that danger but utterly to cast off and renounce all the Bonds and Dictates of Society and Good Nature We must contract no Friendships and trust no Relations for fear they should cut our Throats How much more wretched then the very Beasts has our Appealler at this rate made Mankinde by poysoning the very Fountain of Human Comforts Nor is it a Friend that betrays us but an Enemy under that appearance By which Rule an Episcopal a Fanatical a Popish Friend are all equally dangerous For a Man has no more security of a Friend under one denomination then under another But the Appellant in this place speaks of the danger of a blinde Friendship that is to say a kindness that is taken up without any consideration or Choice and runs on without fear or wit which in this application must either be very little respectfull or altogether Impertinent He produces instances of perfidious Favourits and Relations as if there were no other to be found in Nature By his Argument because One Woman poyson'd her Husband all men should destroy their Wives Because One Son supplanted his Father all Parents should drown their Children like Kitlins Because One Younger Brother offer'd violence to his Elder there should be no longer any Confidence or Faith maintain'd among Brethren If little petty Interests says he make one Brother wish the others Death how much more prevalent will the Interest of a Crown be Nay of two Crowns viz. One here and another hereafter in Heaven promis'd him by an Old fellow with a bald pate and a spade-beard As to the Argument this is only the Second Part to the same tune and a Particular Instance emprov'd into an Universal Exception There are Wicked Husbands Wives Children Let there be no more Marrying Men have been poyson'd in the Sacrament in their Cups and Dishes shall we therefore never receive the Communion nor Drink nor Eat There have been Tyrants in all forms of Governments shall we therefore have no Government at all And moreover as this way of Reasoning Lessensall the Bonds of Human Trust and Concord and runs us back again into Mr. Hobb's Original State of War so does it as little serve the Appellants purpose even if it were admitted First the Temptation of a Crown does not work upon any Man either as a Brother or as a stranger but equally upon Both and more or less as the man is more or less Consciencious or Ambitious So that the danger arises from the Humour of the Person not from the Relation Nay Secondly The Danger is Greater from a Popular Faction that has no Right at all to a Crown then from a Legal Pretendent to it upon a Claim of Descent For the One only waits his Time according to the course of Nature whereas the Other presses his end by the ways of Bloud and Violence having no other way to compass it He makes it yet a stronger argument where there is but One Life betwixt a Successor and Three Kingdoms But does not this Argument hold as strong on the other side There was only the Kings Life betwixt the Faction of 1641 and the Three Kingdoms which Life they took away and so possest themselves of his Dominions Their pretence was only a Reformation of Abuses with Horrid and Multiply'd Oaths that they designed Only the Glory of God the Honour of the King the Preservation of the Protestant Religion His Majesty they said was misled by Popish Counsells and their Business was no more then to rescue him out of the hands of Papists and bring him home to his Parliament And what was the Event of all A Gracious Prince was Murther'd and 500. Tyrants set up in his stead Our Religion and Our Laws were Trampled upon and the Free-born English-men subjected to a Bondage below that of Gally-slaves The whole Nation becoming a Scandall a Hissing and a Scorn to all our Neighbours round about us But what were these â—…eople all this while If we may credit the Appellant they were Priests and Iesuits Or at least Papists But the King tells us they were Brownists Anabaptists and Other Sectaries Preaching Coachmen Felt makers c. The Act for Indempnity gives us a List of the Regicides The Act of Uniformity stiles them Schâ—…smatiques and throughout the whole History of their Acts and Ordinances there appear none but Dissenting Protestants The Church of England being the Only Sufferer betwixt the Two Extreams And these People had the Interest of the Two Crowns in prospect too which the Appellant descants so Jollily upon Almost every Pulpit promising Salvation to the Fighters of the Lords Battels against the Lords Anointed with a Cursed be He at the End on 't that doth the work of the Lord Negligently Upon the Third Head he says that most Princes Believe or Disbelieve the Information which is given them of a Plot according to the Nature of the Evidence and Credit of the Informants There is no more in This then that most Princes Believe upon the Common Inducements that move all men of Reason whatsoever to Believe Viz. the Probability of the matter in Question and the Credit of the Witnesses Now as to the Popish Plot we shall give him these Two Points for Granted but without discharging a Plot likewise on the Other hand upon the
and nothing to be heard there but Heresie and Sedition to the dishonour of Christ and scandal of Religion The Ministers of Gods Holy Word cast out of their Livings by hundreds and their Children expos'd to the wide World to beg their Bread and not a Friend that dares open his mouth for them Women running with their Hair about their ears Men cover'd with Blood and Children sprawling under Horses feet and only the Walls of Houses left standing Your Women running with their Hair about their ears one half to the Works like Pioniers the other dancing Attendance at some Merciless Committee to put in Bail perhaps for some Malignant Friend or Husband Men cover'd with Blood lost Limbs and mangled Bodies from Edg-hill Branford c. and with horror of Conscience over and above Altars Robb'd Churches Demolish'd and only the Walls left standing In Fine What the Devil himself would do were he here upon Earth will in his absence infallibly be acted by his Agents the Papists Those who had so much Ingratitude and Baseness to attempt the Life of a Prince so Indulgent to them will hardly be less cruel to any of his Protestant Subjects In Fine What the Devil himself would do were he here upon Earth will in his absence infallibly be acted if they may have their will by his Agents the Perjurious and Hypocritical Regicides that Betray'd their Prince and their Country by the Solemnity of a Covenant and Poyson'd the unwary People in that very Sacrament Those who had so much Ingratitude and Baseness not only to attempt but take away the Life of a Prince so Indulgent to them as the late King was who deny'd them nothing but his Crown and his Blood which afterward they took These I say again that are so ungrateful to our present Soveraign as after so much Mercy and Bounty to the Murtherers of his Father and of his Friends have now enter'd into fresh attempts upon his Life his Crown and Dignity will hardly be less Cruel to any of his Majesties obedient Subjects Now to shew you that this way of Incentive to the Multitude is only the Old story new furbish'd and not our Appellants Mother-wit and Contrivance as he would have the world imagine See his Majesties Declaration of Aug. 12. 1642. Husbands Collections pag. 540. One day the Tower of London is in danger to be taken and Information given that Great Multitudes at least a Hundred had that day resorted to visit a Priest then a Prisoner there by Order of the Lords and that about the time of the Information about fifty or sixty were then there and a Warder dispatcht of purpose to give that notice Upon Inquiry but four persons were then found to be There and but eight all that day who had visited the Priest Another day a Taylor in a Ditch over-hears two passengers to Plot the Death of Mr. Pym and of many other Members of Both Houses Then Libellous Letters found in the Streets without Names probably contrived by themselves and by Their Power Published Printed and Enter'd in their Iournals and Intimations given of the Papists Training under ground and of notable Provision of Ammunition in Houses where upon Examination a Single Sword and a Bow and Arrows are found A Design of the Inhabitants of Covent-Garden to Murther the City of London News from France Italy Spain Denmark of Armies ready to come for England And again Pag. 536. they cause Discourses to be Published and Infusions to be made of Incredible Dangers to the City and Kingdom by that our coming to the House in the case of the five Members An Alarum was given to the City in the Dead time of the Night that we were coming with Hâ—…rse and Foâ—…t thither and thereupon the whâ—…le City put in Arms And howsoever the Envy seem'd to be cast upon the Designs of the Papists mention was only made of Actions of our own Upon a fair understanding of the whole this supposition of his is no more than the Counterpart of the old Story and the Declamatory dangers that he foresees in Vision were outdone by those sensible Cruelties and Oppressions that this poor Kingdom suffered in very deed If it be true that these and forty times more Cruelties were committed And that the People were frighted into these Precipices only by shadows If it be true again that those Glorious Pretenders when they had the King and his Papists as they call'd his most Orthodox Friends under foot that these People I say never lookt further after Religion but fell presently to the sharing of the Church and Crown Revenues among themselves It will concern every sober man to look well about him and to make use of his Reason as well as of his Faith for these Fore-boders seldom Croak but before a Storm We in the Country says he have done our parts in chusing for the generality Good Members to serve in Parliament But if as our two last Parliaments were they must be Dissolv'd or Prorogâ—…ed when over they come to redress the Grievances of the Subject we may be Pitied but not Blam'd If the Plot takes effect as in all probability it will our Parliaments are not then to be Condemn'd for that their not being suffer'd to sit occasion'd it Fol. 1. There are just as many Affronts put upon the Government in these two Periods as in the Printed Folio there are Lines in 't First Upon the House of Commons for a Representative constituted for the generality of such men as our Appealer calls Good Members would lâ—…y the Kingdom in Blood which is manifestly the deist of the Libel from the one end of it to the other Secondly The Appellant Usurps upon the Kings Authority as if his Majesty were bound to give an Account to every Libeller why he Prorogues or Dissolves his Parliaments which is a Priviledge inseparable from the Supreme Power in all forms of Government Thirdly It is a Tacit Charge of Tyranny upon the King for it is done he says when ever they come to redress the Grievances of the Subject And lastly He makes the King a Promoter of the Plot but whether with more Indignity or Folly it is hard to determine either in the Intimation oâ—… in the Supposal of his Majesty to be Felo de se and a Party to the Conspiracy against his own Liâ—… The Plot he says will in all Probability take 〈◊〉 and he is the occasion of it that would not suffer these Parliaments to sit The Plot is now 〈◊〉 so far out of our Enemies reach that no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Triâ—…k can ever hope to extinguish it Wherefore they must either suffer all to come oâ—…t or begin by force to justifie it which we see they are going to do by their endeavouring to get those Worthy and Brave Commanders Banished who as they think are the most likely Persons to conduct and lead us up against any Popish Army Fol. 1. The Appellants
us in mind of the Rebellion of Forty-one and the Regiâ—…idal Principles of Seventy-nine mind us of the Regicide it self of Forty-eight For these Principles and Practices are nothing in the World but the Venom of the Old Cause swallow'd and Spew'd up again and all the Treasons of the Consistory are cast upon the Conclave As if the Murther of Charles the First by the Treachery of Mock-Protestants were ever the less Detestable because the Two Harries of France were Assassinated by Profest Papistss These are the Puritan Iesuits that turn the Bible into a Nose of Wax that make God the Author of Sin that Depose and Murther Kings by a Text and Intitle their Sacrilege and Treason to the Inspirations of the Holy Ghost These are the Straight-lac'd Christians that make less scruple of Robbing the Altar than of Kneeling at the Communion They can swallow the Blood of Widdows and Orphans and yet Puke at a Surplice Let me ask the worthy Gentlemen of the City now which of the two carry'd them the easier the Schismatical and Sacrilegious or the Episcopal Tantivy Or which they take for the more dangerous Enemies our Appellants young Beggarly Officers or their Old Acquaintances Pen Fulks and their Fellows who violently thrust out the gravest and most substantial of their Citizens as the late King has it and took in Persons of desperate Fortunes and Opinions in their places Let them compare the Appellants Courtiers too with the Old Sequestring Plundring and Decimating Committees with their Court Marshalls and Major-Generals when London was made little better then a shambles and their Merchants only Cash-keepers to the Tyrants at Westminster and then against his Over-hot Church-men we 'l set the Mechanique Pulpâ—…teers and Tub preachers that not only divided the people from their Sovereign but Wives from their Husbands Children from their Parents and Preacht away Apprentices by Droves into Rebellion Carrying the Schism through Church and State into private Families This is the Blessed change that is now propounded and laid before us Lastly says he the chief and most dangerous of your Enemies are Papists who to make sure of their own Game allure all the three forementioned Parties to their side by the arguments aforesaid Their design is to bring in Popery which they can no ways effect but either by a Popish Successour or by the French Arms. There is no doubt of the danger of the Papists but still while the Government has One Enemy in Front it is good to secure the Flank and Rear from another So that the Ciâ—…yes only safety lies in the mean betwixt the two Extremes of Popery on the One hand and Libâ—…inism on the Other The Former he says can never be effected but by a Popish Successour or the French Arms. See now how this hangs together the same Faction clamour'd against the late King just at this rate and yet there was no prospect at that time of a Popish Successour but yet Popery was charg'd most injuriously as all the World can Witnesse upon the King himself And then for the French Arms so far was his Majesty from calling them in to his assistance that upon the Scottish Rebellion they were Sollicited and Implor'd into a Confederacy against him And yet we remember to our griefs that those very Rumours and Apprehensions of Popery even when there was not any Danger of it east us all into Confusion And now our Appellant to shew how good an English-man he is as well as a Subject enters his Protestation a little lower in the same Paragraph that he would rather of the Two Live under a French Conquerour then the Duke as Successour I must acknowledge says he in the next clause that there is some Coherence between the Beginning of the Late Civill Wars and this our present Age. For as well then as now the Ambitious Papists and French Faction were the chief nay the only Incendiaries which set us all in flame That the French Cardinal did Artificially improve the Turbulent Humour of the English and Scottish Schismaticks to the advancing of the Interest of France and to the Embroyling of these Kingdoms I make no question But to call them the Only Incendiaries is to give the Lye to the constant current of History and the known Certainty of Fact even within our own remembrance How were the Papists and French Factions concern'd in the Scottish Uproar of 1637 and a hundred Sacrilegious Tumults after that in the course of the Rebellion and to set him right now in his Calculation of his Majesties French-friends we shall enform him that the Kings Principall supplies of Men Arms Money and Ammunition were furnished from Holland He tells us further that the Catholique Cause like the Chesnut in the Fable hath ever since Q. Marys days been in the Fire and that both then and now the Papists make use of the Episcopall and Court-parties â—…law to take it out the First of these they allure to their assistance by the Fright of Presbytery the Latter by the apprehension of a Republique tho' nothing is lesse Designed or more Improbable 'T is a hard case to have to do with an Adversary that has neither Candor in his Reports nor any force of Argument in his Reasonings and yet it is the more tolerable here because it is all that either the Story or the Cause will bear He makes the Episcopal and Court-Party to be the Passive Instruments of the Church of Rome for the advance of Popery ever since the Reign of Queen Mary which is so notorious a mistake that Queen Elizabeth and the Hierarchy in Her Reign oppos'd the Errours and the power of that Church with all possible constancy and Resolution King Iames made himself famous by his Pen as well as by his Practices upon the same Subject The Late King lost his Life in the defence of the Reformed Religion and his Majesty that now is hath manifested his affection to the Church of England as by Law Establisht in despight of all Calumnyes and through extream difficulties with the highest Acts of Solemnity Imaginable And now on the other side let but any man trace the History of the Schismatiques from Queen Mary to this Instant and the restlessness of that Faction will appear through every step of his way and that whensoever the Papists prest upon the Government on the One hand the Separatists never fail'd of pinching it on the Other And yet again whereas he talks of the fright of Presbytery and the apprehension of a Republique as neither designed nor probable there 's no man of Thirty years of Age but knows the contrary and that this Nation was actually enslav'd to that Double Tyranny under pretence of delivering us from the danger of Arbitrary Power and Popery Nay and but two lines further he charges the Late King for countenancing Papists no less then This which to every honest man is constructively a Vindication of them
should put the bare thought of the Second part of it out of Countenance And he seems as much out in the pretended Cause of our Calamities as he was in the Calamities themselves There were no Princes Educated abroad in the Late Kings time and yet the same clamour to a Tittle But if the Appellaâ—…t had been so minded he might have given us a much more Rational account of our misfortunes then he has done He might have charg'd them upon those people who in truth first sent the young Princes into Exile and then kâ—…pt them there and have at present a design upon the Exercise of he same Arbitrary power again which they would be thought to fear They began with a cry against Popery but they concluded in the Murther of the King the dissolution of the Monarchy and the perpetual Exclusion of the Royal Family as may be seen in their Proclamation of Ian. 30. 48. for Inhibiting any person to be King Whereas Charles Stuart King of England say they being for the Notorious Treasons Tyrannies and Murthers committed by Him in the Late Unnatural and cruel Wars condemned to Death c. It is remarkable that though they possest the people against His Majesty as a Papist there is not one word of Religion in the Reasons of their putting him to death The Appellant comes now to shew his Reading in two passages out of Philip de Comines with an application of his Observations upon them The former concerning certain English Pensioners which Lewis the Eleventh of France kept in Pay Now though I cannot agree the hundreth part of those persons to be Pensioners which out of an envy to the Government the Common people are instructed to call so yet I shall never differ with him upon this point that the Money of Lewis the Fourteenth may perhaps have been current in England as well as that of Lewis the Eleventh was The other story is that of Lewis the Eleventh to Charles Duke of Burgundy in the Case of Campobache The French King advertizes the Duke of Burgandy they being then in hostility that the Count Campobache was a Traytor to him But the Duke would not believe it And there was one Cifron also who was of the Plot with Campobache This same Cifron being taken prisoner by the Duke before Nancy and condemned to dye gave the Duke to understand that he had a most Important secret to communicate to him But the Duke neither giving admittance to Cifron nor credit to the King lost his Life afterward and his Dominions by being too incredulous The Appellant applies this to his Majesties Case in Language so course and scandalous that there is no repeating of it And what does all this amount to but that a Prince may be as well undone by believing too much as too little If he had Trusted either less to Campobache or more to the King it had come all to a purpose He will have his Majesty in danger for not believing enough of the Popish Plot But his Royall Father was Ruin'd on the other side by not believing enough of the Presbyterian Plot. And God grant that his present Majesty may only believe so much of that Plot over again as may stand with his honour and safety But it appears in this place by the coursness of the Appellants Expressions and by the byasse of the whole Libell throughout that he is not so much concern'd for the Kings believing or not believing as to fasten a scandall upon his Majesty by perswading the People that the King does not believe it and consequently to possess them that his Majesty is a favourer of Popery tho' never any Prince in Christendom gave more Convincing and Irrefragable Proofs of the contrary This passage of the Duke of Burgundy he says Fol. 4. may be very much to our purpose to shew you that when God designs the destruction of a King or People he makes them deaf to all discoveries be they never so obvious And having Levelled the Application in particular he speculates in general terms toward the bottom of the leaf upon the whole matter There are four several Arguments he says which many times prevail with Princes to be incredulous of all pretended Conspiracies against themselves The First is drawn from their being in or made privy themselves to Part of the Plot but not to the whole The Second from their own good nature and Clemency The Third from the nature of the Evidence And the Fourth from the nature and Interest of the pretended Conspirators To begin then with the First when the Prince hath been made acquainted with a Design of Introducing a New Government or a New Religion but not with the Design of taking away his own Life this sometimes hath prevailed with him not to believe that the same party with whom he himself is in a Conspiracy should have any such other Plot against his Life But this I hope is not Our Case For c. And then he Reasons that his Majesty could get nothing by it Fol. 3. We shall put him together now and make English of him First he makes the Duke of Burgundies Case in his Deafnesse to Discoveries to be the Kings Secondly He infers from that Deafness that God has design'd his Majesty to Destruction Thirdly he takes upon him to Philosophize upon the Reasons of Princes Incredulity in such Cases and very fairly represents his Majesty as a Party in the Conspiracy and consenting to the Introduction of a New Government and a New Religion though not privy to the Plot of taking away his Own Life Only he concludes with a But this I hope is not Our Case in such away of Doubting as implys Believing And so much for the first point The Second Motive he says Fol. 5. which may incline a Prince to disbelieve the report of a Plot is from his Own Good Nature and Clemency which makes him not believe any ill of those to whom he has been so kinde But this is a fallacious way of arguing Now by his Favour This is not so much an Argument from Good Nature on the One side as from the Tye of Gratitude on the Other but whether way soever it be taken the Late King found it indeed a very fallacious way of arguing for almost all his Acts of Grace and bounty turn'd to his mischief as appears in his Majesties Declaration of Aug. 12. 1642. when after delivering up his Ministers to Impeachments his Concessions in the business of the Star-Chamber High Commission Court Ship-Mony Forest-Laws Stannery-Courts Tonnage and Poundage Continuance of the Parliament c. they improv'd all these Trusts and Condescensions even to the formal taking away his Authority Revenue and Life And those particularly whom his Late Majesty Oblig'd to the highest degree laid the foundation of his Ruine Nor is the ingratitude of the same party to the Son less notorious then the other was to the Father None flying so fiercely in the face of
imagine they would desire to get rid of it if they could tho' by the Kings Death On the other side for the Parliament to supply him with mony that they know cannot be done but by taking off the Heads of their Faction excluding their Succession and consenting to such Laws as must of Necessity ruin them Besides his Majesty hath allready permitted the Executing so many of their Party as they never can or will forgive it It falls out Happily that the force of his Argument does not come up to the Drift of it But the Weakness of the One takes off the Edge of the Other He tells the whole world that the Papists have no way in the Farth to save themselves but by the Murther of the King The One half of this spoken in a Corner to a Knot of Priests and Jesuits and fairly prov'd upon a man would be as much as his Head 's worth And is the Crime ever the Lesse for doing the same thing in Publique where the Provocation is stronger These Discourses are not to pass for Simple Declarations of a mans Opinion but Artificiall Encouragements rather and Advises toward the doing of the thing especially coming from the Pen of a Person that calls himself Iunius Brutus and recommends himself to the City by the Borrow'd name of a King-killer Tho' I cannot inform my self of any of that Family that lives near Richmond His First Argument runs thus The King wants mony and there 's none to be got but either of the Papists of the Parliament The Parliament he says will give his Majesty none and therefore the Papists will Murther him to save Charges This is a Policy far fetch'd The Fathers Head we know was set at a Price but we hope better of the Sons Now in his prejudging the Parliament upon an Assumption that the King gets not a penny of Mony of them but upon such and such Terms he does not so much speak his thought as vent his Proposition rather Desiring then Foreseeing that the House of Commons will hold the King to such unhappy Conditions And then he finishes his Contemplation with this Conclusion that the Papists will never forgive his Majesty for what he has done allready Wherein First he Contradicts himself in supposing the King an Enemy to the Papists whom he has hitherto insinuated to be their Friend And Secondly instead of proving the Papists Design against the King in this Particular he advances One of his Own Now if he would have come roundly up to the Point of the Papists Interest he should have told us of the Ecclesiastical Dignities and Preferments that the Church of Rome has confer'd upon their Emissaries into his Majesties Dominions And he should have expounded it to the people what pains they take and what Hazzards they run only in the playing of their Own Game and making way to their advantages in Reversion This is so great a truth that most of the serious Catholiques themselves reflect familiarly upon these Busie People as the common troublers of the Peace of Christendome But then I should have oppos'd an interest also on the Fanatiques side to Ballance this For they have their Reversionall prospects too their sequester'd Livings and Estates their plunder'd goods their profitable Offices and Commissions Crown and Church Lands c. And they wait for their day again as impatiently as the Iews do for their Messias Nay to keep their title still a foot they stand fast to their Old Covenant still as the Fanatiques Magna Charta by which they pretend to make out a Religious claim to all the advantages they got by sacriledge and oppression So that their principles and interests lying indifferently against the Establisht Order both of Church and State there will be no need of casting eithers faults upon the other After a worse then Astrological Determination upon the Kings Fate he bestows another Cast of his Cunning upon the City and Citizens of London which he says is in danger to be consum'd by Fire It is a lewd and a seditious Hint in both these Cases the putting of it into the head as it is much in the power of any profligate and desperate villain to verify his calculation Besides that in telling the Citizens what they are to expect he does at the same time Counsell the Papists what to do They will burn London he says First as the only United force able to withstand Arbitrary Government and without that Popery can never prevail If â—…opery cannot come in without Arbitrary Government 〈◊〉 the Iesuits design the burning of London as the only Unâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…hat can withstand that power either there is no fear of Popery and Arbitrary Government and consequently of such a design taking place in this Kings â—…ign or the whole calumny falls directly upon his Majesty himself or otherwise if the Appellants prospect looks forward into the future what s the meaning of all these Alarms so unseasonably to trouble our present peace with the sickly Visions of things to come And he should have done well also to have expounded himself a little upon the United Force that should withstand and the Arbitrary Government to be withstood For otherwise it may be taken for the sounding of a Trumpet to a Rebellion For the Arbitrary Government which he phansies to himself must be exercised either by a Lawful Prince or by an Usurper If by the Former his Tyranny is no Warrant for our opposition if the Latter there 's no appearance of any other Usurpation then as we shall see presently of his own setting up Secondly he says that London is the only place where by reason of their Excellent Preaching and dayly instruction in the Protestant Religion the people have a lively sense thereof and douhtless will not part with it to pleasure a Prince but perhaps rather lose their Lives by the Sword in the Wars than by Faggots in Smithfield The passage now is plain English and as many indignities upon the Government crouded into one sentence as could well be brought together Here is First an Exhortation to a Rebellion For the Prince here in question against whom the sword is to be drawn can be no other upon his supposition then actually the King And let him take his choice now whether it shall be intended of his present Majesty or of his Successour It is a Rebellion against the King that now is in the one Case and against the Next King in the other And Secondly It is not only a simple Rebellion but to the scandal of the Reformation and particularly of the Church of England a Rebellion founded upon the Doctrine of the Protestant Religion Thirdly It is no other then as he himself has worded it the Hellish Tenet of Murthering Kings in a disguise only a Iesuitical Principle in Masquerade It is Fourthly a Condemnation of the practices and submissions of the Primitive Christians and the whole story of our Protestant