THE Knot Unty'd OR THE ASSOCIATION DISBANDED PROV XI 21. Though hand joyn in hand the wicked shall not be unpunished ISAI VIII 9. Associate your selves O ye people and ye shall be broken in pieces gird your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces Take counsel together and it shall come to naught for God is with us LONDON Printed for Walter Davis 1682. The Paper which was Seized in the E. of Shaftsbury's Closet by Fran. Gwin Esq one of the Clerks of His Majesties Most Honourable Privy Council and Read Novemb. 24. 1681. at the Old Baily before His Majesties Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer WE the Knights c. Finding to the grief of our Hearts the Popish Priests and Iesuits with the Papists and their Adherents and Abbetrors have for several years last past pursued a most pernicious and hellish Plot to root out the true Protestant Religion as a pestilent Heresie to take away the Life of our Gracious King to subvert our Laws and Liberties and to set up Arbitrary power and Popery And it being Notorious that they have béen highly encouraged by the Countenance and Protection given and procured for them by J. D. of Y. and by their Expectations of his succéeding to the Crown and that through crafty Popish Councils his Designs have so far prevailed that he hath created many and great Dependents upon him by his bestowing Offices and Preferments both in Church and State It appearing also to us That by his Influence Mercenary Forces have béen levied and kept on Foot for his secret Designs contrary to our Laws the Officers thereof having béen named and appointed by him to the appparent hazard of His Majesties Person our Religion and Government if the danger had not béen timely foreséen by several Parliaments and part of those Forces with great difficulty caused by them to be Disbanded at the Kingdoms great Expence And it being evident that notwithstanding all the continual endeavours of the Parliament to deliver His Majesty from the Councils and out of the power of the said D. yet his Interest in the Ministry of State and others have béen so prevalent that Parliaments have béen unreasonably Prorogued and Dissolved when they have béen in hot pursuit of the Popish Conspiracies and ill Ministers of State their Assistants And that the said D. in order to reduce all into his own power hath procured the Garrisons the Army and Ammunition and all the power of the Seas and Souldiery and Lands belonging to these thrée Kingdoms to be put into the hands of his party and their Adherents even in opposition to the Advice and Order of the last Parliament And as we considering with heavy Hearts how greatly the Strength Reputation and Treasure of the Kingdom both at Sea and Land is Wasted and Consumed and lost by the intricate expensive management of these wicked destructive Designs and finding the same Councils after exemplary Iustice upon some of the Conspirators to be still pursued with the utmost devilish malice and desire of Revenge whereby his Majesty is in continual hazard of being Murdered to make way for the said D's Advancement to the Crown and the whole Kingdom in such case is destitute of all security of their Religion Laws Estates and Liberty sad experience in the Case Quéen Mary having proved the wisest Laws to be of little force to kéep out Popery and Tyranny under a Popish Prince We have therefore endeavoured in a Parliamentary way by a Bill for the purpose to Bar and Exclude the said Duke from the Succession to the Crown and to Banish him for ever out of these Kingdoms of England and Ireland But the first Means of the King and Kingdoms Safety being utterly rejected and we left almost in Despair of obtaining any real and effectual security and knowing our selves to be intrusted to Advise and Act for the preservation of His Majesty and the Kingdom and being perswaded in our Consciences that the dangers aforesaid are so eminent and pressing that there ought to be no delay of the best means that are in our power to secure the Kingdom against them We have thought fit to propose to all true Protestants an Union amongst themselves by solemn and sacred promise of mutual Defence and Assistance in the preservation of the true Protestant Religion His Majesties Person and Royal State and our Laws Liberties and Properties and we hold it our bounden Duty to joyn our selves for the same intent in a Declaration of our United Affections and Resolutions in the Form insuing I A. B. Do in the presence of God Solemnly Promise Uow and Protest to maintain and defend to the utmost of my Power with my Person and Estate the true Protestant Religion against Popery and all Popish superstition Idolatry or Innovasion and all those who do or shall endeavour to spread or advance it within this Kingdom I will also as far as in me lies maintain and defend His Majesties Royal Person and Estate as also the power and priviledge of Parliaments the lawful Rights and Liberties of the Subject against all Incroachments and Usurpation of Arbitrary power whatsoever and endeavour intirely to Disband all such mercenary Forces as we have reason to believe were raised to Advance it and are still kept up in and about the City of London to the great Amazement and Terrour of all the good people of the Land Moreover J D. of Y. having publickly professed and owned the Popish Religion and notoriously given Life and Birth to the Damnable and Hellish Plots of the Papists against His Majesties Person the Protestant Religion and the Government of this Kingdom I will never consent that the said J. D. of Y. or any other who is or hath béen a Papist or any ways adher'd to the Papists in their wicked Designs be admitted to the Succession of the Crown of England But by all lawful means and by forte of Arms it néed so require according to my Abilities will oppose him and endeavour to Subdue Expel and Destroy him if he come into England or the Dominions thereof and séek by force to set up his pretended Title and all such as shall Adhere unto him or raise any War Tumult or Sedition for him or by his Command as publick Enemies of our Laws Religion and Country To this end we and every one of us whose hands are here under-written do most willingly bind our selves and every one of us unto the other joyntly and severally in the bond of one firm and loyal Society or Association and do promise and vow before God That with our joynt and particular Forces we will oppose and pursue unto Destruction all such as upon any Title whatsoever shall oppose the Iust and Righteous ends of this Association and Maintain Protect and Defend all such as shall enter into it and the just performance of the true intent and meaning of it And lest this just and pious work should be any ways obstructed or hindered for want of Discipline
and Conduct or any 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 whilest 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 méeting of this or another Parliament and will then shew the same Obedience and Submission unto it and those who shall be of it Neither will we for any respect of Persons or Causes or for Fear or Reward separate our selves from this Association or fail in the Prosecution thereof during our Lives upon pain of being by the rest of us prosecuted and suppressed as perjur'd persons and publick Enemies to God the King and our Native Countrey To which pains and punishments we do voluntarily submit our selves and every one of us without benefit of any Colour or Pretence to excuse us In Witnesses of all which Premisses to be inviolably kept we do to this present Writing put our Hands and Seals and shall be most ready to accept and admit any others hereafter into this Society and Association SIR YOU have turned me to a hard Chapter for so it is to give you my opinion of the Association that lyes under so great debate I must tell you 't is a Riddle not easie to be deciphered The Assertors of it call themselves a Society * The Bond of one Firm and Loyal Society after the Protest And This Society at the end and twice for falling This Sir is the Distinctive Character of the Jesuites and you must imagine an Instrument of such a Make is full of Mental Reserves and Equivocations for seeing they have so auspiciously assumed their Title and Appellative 't will be hard if you will not allow them to imitate something of their Practice The Body of this Monster has already been most accurately dissected by skilful hands and ingenious Lectures read upon every Member Vein and Muscle of it If you think there may be something yet in the Belly of this Trojan Horse that is worthy of your notice at your command I shall venture in to search it We the Knights They were influenced it seems by one of the other House in whose Custody this Instrument was found if he were not rather the crafty Contriver of it A person so well known there 's no need of any new Character to describe him How he has play'd fast and loose both with King and Subject needs no other instance to demonstrate than the shutting up of the Exchequer Having been at the head of so many Seditious Juncto's Trayterous Cabals Councils of State usurped and Tyrannical Jurisdictions you may very well conclude though he hath learn'd the Art of shifting sides he is not over-stockt with Loyalty If any insolency in his carriage has made him jealous that he is obnoxious to a high displeasure no wonder the discontents arising from such Reflections should prompt him to the courses he has taken 'T is natural for the wounded Deer to run into the common Herd for shelter And such is the Spirit of our little Heroe whatever stands in the way of his Ambition he 'll leave nothing unattempted to remove it Let Religion sink or swim among the States General Delenda Carthago is his Motto But let 's proceed We the Knights c. This c. is a fatal Character if we can remember that Et caetera-Oath which made such a hideous noise in the year 40. Thou art the curled lock of Antichrist Rubbish of Babel for who will not say Tongues are confounded in Et caetera Who views it well with the same eye beholds The old false Serpent in his numerous folds The Banes are ask'd and now the times give way Betwixt Smectymnus and Et caetera Cleaveland Something certainly is involved in the subtile twirl of this Dragons Tayl If they be True Protestants in the sense of these Associates they must be such as Protest against the present Church of England the Succession of the Crown and the Brittish Monarchy Here we have the very Spawn of the Presbyterian fruitfulness Independents Ranters Quakers with the rest of the Fanaticks which proceed from the Presbyterian by an equivocal Generation and without all doubt are comprehended within the bowels of this prodigious Character all Schismaticks Rebels Traytors Regicides Tyrants and Usurpers who by their own proper Names and Titles were by no means fit to be dignified or distinguished in such a Pious and Politick Association were cunningly and closely tyed up together with those Knights in the Gordian Knot of this c. And they say Finding to the grief of our Hearts the Popish Priests and Iesuites with the Papists and their Adberents and Abettors have for several years last past pursued a most pernitious and Hellish Plot to root out the True Protestant Religion as a pestilent Heresie to take away the life of our Gracious King to subvert our Laws and Liberties and to set up Arbitrary Power and Popery Here we have a Mask of zeal made up of a double pretence Pro and Con 1. For The Protestant Religion with the preservation of the Kings Life our Laws and Liberties 2. Against The Popish party and their Abettors But that we may not be perpetually bewitcht with these delusions it has been made apparent by a person of unquestionable knowledge and integrity * A short view of the Troubles ◠44. p. 588. That these great pretended Champions for the Protestant Religion the Laws of the Land the liberty of the Subject and priviledges of Parliament for these are taken in too in this Association made use of those specious precences for no other end than to captivate the People and by that means get the power of the Sword into their own merciless hands And as that Worthy Author expostulates were not there certain Propositions read in their House of Commons where this Association P. 590. was first spawn'd which were found in Mr. Saltmarsh his Trunk near Hull First That all means should be used to keep the King and his People from a sudden Union Secondly To cherish the War under the notion of Popery as the surest means to engage the People Thirdly If the King would not grant their demands then to root him out of the Royal line and collate the Crown upon some body else So that they served themselves of Popery for a pretence and made the Priests and Jesuites but their stalking Horse while they aim'd at other Game If the Popish Priests and Jesuites have a Design to retrieve what has been taken from the Pope and that Church that depends upon him are not these Associators equally intent and zealous to make a spoyl and booty of those Church Revenues which are left Is not their
this Generous and Manly Nation is not grown too stupid to be taught by Proverbs nor yet become so infatuated as to forget so fresh and chargeable an experiment But they take it for granted 'T is notorious that the Popish Priests and Jesuits with the Papists and their Adherents have been highly encouraged by the Countenance and Protection given and procured for them by J. D. of Y. and that He has publickly profess'd and own'd the Popish Religion This they peremptorily averr but it can hardly be imagined that Any free Prince at this time of day should be so fast asleep or ill advised as to make himself the Pope's Vassal to admit a Supremacy into his Realm paramount to his own To have his own Royal Authority confronted by the Check of foreign Bulls from Rome or the Treasure of his Kingdoms exhausted by such Engines of Extortion as can serve him to no other end but to endanger impoverish and inthrall him Consider but the Sense of the Greek Church who will not brook that pretended Supremacy in the lowest state of their Declination or the present Posture and Resentments of the French who seem so weary of the Pope's Inchroachments and Usurpation that they kick and wince as if they were in pain and Travel to throw his Holiness out of the Saddle in those Dominions As for his Royal Highness perhaps he may disdain to have his Integrity questioned by a common Test many times Great Spirits are irritated by such Attempts which are therefore for the most part better let alone than put in practice they will not be forced by such Screwed Engines to gratifie their Adversaries with an open profession of that which notwithstanding in their Hearts they may most stedfastly believe Yet we cannot take it for a wonder if his Royal Magnanimity and the deep Resentments he has for his Blessed Father's Sufferings under the bloody hands of seditious Schismaticks will not suffer him to be hector'd by them into an Approbation of their Fanatical Delusions But his Royal Highness is so well satisfied with the Church of England as by Law established that he professeth a great Kindness and Veneration for it for the very Loyalty remarkable in her Religion above all others and for that Reason upon all occasions he declares his Readiness to preserve and support it Nor have we only his Highness's bare Word or Resolution to relye upon his eminent Deeds are such a signal Exemplification hereof in Scotland that the Bishops of that Kingdom have made their Profession to my Lords Grace of Canterbury in these Words We should prove very defective in Duty and Gratitude if upon this occasion we should forget to acknowledge Edenburgh March 9. 1682. to your Grace how much this poor Church and our Order do owe to his Princely Care and Goodness that his Majesty and the worthy Bishops of England may from you receive the just Accounts thereof Since his Royal Highness's coming to this Kingdom we find our Case much chang'd to the better and our Church and Order which through the cunning and power of their Adversaries were exposed to extream hazard and contempt sensibly relieved and rescued which next to the watchful Providence of God that mercifully superintends his Church we can ascribe to nothing so much as to his Royal Highness's gracious owning and vigilant protection of us Upon all occasions he gives fresh Instances of his eminent Zeal against the most unreasonable Schism which by renting threatens the Subversion of our Church and Religion and concerns himself as a Patron to us in all our publick and even personal Interests so that all men take notice of his signal Kindness to us and observe that he looks upon the Enemies of the Church as Adversaries to the Monarchy it self nor did we ever propose or offer to his Royal Highness any Rational Expedient which might conduce for the Relief or Security of the Church which he did not readily embrace and effectuate If Officers have been named and appointed by his Royal Highness none can blame it but such as have an Ambition to get that Power into their own hands And if it were lodged in the hands of these Associates would the hazard of the King's Person or of our Religion and Government be any whit less or less apparent Nay we have learn'd by sad Experience that the danger would be greater if their Ruine would not be inevitable But they say his Highness has created many and great Dependents upon him by his bestowing Offices and Preferments both in Church and State A great Crime doubtless in a Person that stands in that Relation the D. has to his Majesty The Church and State would be well served if all Offices and Preferments were at their Disposal which is that their Avarice and Ambition thirst and aim at But we hope his Highness has created no Dependents that is neither made choice of any Servants for himself nor recommended any Officers to the King but such as are according to the Standard of his Wise and Renowned Grandfather who adviseth his Son thus Choose such as come of a true and honest Race and have not had the house whereof they are descended Basilicon Doron p. 47. to 49. infected with Falshood such as come of a good and vertuous kind For 't is most certain that Vertue or Vice will oftentimes with the Heretage be transferred from the Parents to the Posterity and run on a Blood as the Proverb is the Sickness of the Mind becoming as kindly to some Races as these Sicknesses of the body that infect in the Seed The King advises further See they be of a good Fame and without Blemish and endued with such honest Qualities as are meet for such Offices as ye ordain them to serve in that your Judgment may be known in employing every Man according to his Gifts But here I must not forget to remember and according to my Fatherly Authority to charge you to prefer specially to your Service so many as have truly served me and are able for it trusting and advancing those farthest whom I found faithfullest So shall ye not only be best served but ye shall kyth your thankful Memory of your Father and procure the Blessing of these old Servants in not missing their old Master in you And as I wish you to kyth your constant Love towards them that I loved so to kyth in the same measure your constant Hatred to them that I hated I mean bring not home nor restore not such as ye find standing banished or fore-faulted by me for how can they be true to the Son that were false to the Father I hope that both his Majesty and his Royal Highness may follow this grave and sage Advice in the Choice of their Officers and Dependents whether design'd to serve in Church or State and then I am well assured that few of these Associators will hereafter be Candidates for Court-Preferments We shall see the Duke's great Fault
he may and ought declares it a Design to subvert both his Prerogative and Government For to be plain with you in this detestable Contrivance which is here recommended under the specious Title of an Association every man of Sense may observe with half an Eye what the Hypocrisie and Subtilty of those ill men have projected to set up themselves upon the Ruins of the Royal Family the English Protestant Church and Nation For 1. To secure his Majesty's Sacred Person they 'll disband his Guards and remove his Faithful Ministers 2. To preserve his Royal State and Dignity they 'll cut off the Succession and banish his dear and only Brother out of his Dominions 3. To support his Crown they 'll usurp the Government into their own hands and turn it into a Military State of Safety 4. For the Honour of their Country they 'll subvert that which to all Loyal Subjects and in the Estimation of all wise and sober persons is the happiest Monarchy under Heaven 5. That out Properties Laws and Liberties may be kept inviolable they 'll set up an Arbitrary Power and some Regiments of Janizaries to rule over us and make us Slaves to our Fellow-Subjects 6. To defend Religion they 'll not consult a Legal and Learned Convocation but they 'll lay aside the decent and distinctive Garment of the Minister they 'll take away the Cross in Baptism that ancient Badge of Cathollck and Primitive Christianity they 'll abandon kneeling at the Sacrament with all external Adoration they 'll turn the Reverend Bishops out of the House of Lords and repeal those Acts by which Uniformity in the Worship and Service of God stands established and so destroy the Bulwark of the Reformation the best Protestant Church in Christendom All which Particulars here enumerated are the visible and avowed Designs of this Society and their Association To effect all this they 'll wrest the Sword out of the King's hands and appoint Officers of their own to levy discipline and conduct Forces how far they 'll be Mercenary we desire not to make experiment without his Majesty's Consent and to pursue to Destruction all such as shall oppose them And for all this we have not only their Lives and Fortunes engaged under their Hands and Seals but their solemn Promise Vow and Protestation in the Presence of Almighty God So that here is a Design and Train laid to act over again the same Scene of Treason and Rebellion which has once already and within our Memory turn'd this our flourishing Kingdom into an Aceldama and smothered the Glory of it in Confusion An Association this is so hypocritical in the Disguise so devilish in the Design and so destructive in the Tendency of it That what Knights or Et Caetera's soever they be that pretend to give it Countenance in the Front of it we are sure it could no more be subscrib'd or tendered to Subscription by Subjects that have any Sense or Conscience of their Duty than assented to by any Prince that has Regard to his own Prerogative or the Welfare of his People and the Church of God In a sad Resentment whereof we find that all Loyal Subjects do humbly protest their utter Abhorrence of the said Association with all other Plots Designs and Practices of the like Nature and we see also they resolve not only to deprecate them in their Litany wherein we beg Deliverance from all Sedition Privy Conspiracy and Rebellion but also to engage their Lives and Fortunes under his Majesty and his Lawful Successors to suppress them 'T is true as you observe the pretences of Zeal and Piety for Religion King and Country are too apt to gratifie the good meaning of some and to impose upon the weakness of others And I am not ignorant that such Insinuations have prevailed so far with many as to make them ready to submit their Necks to the same Yoke which gall'd us formerly and to become Slaves a second time to the Designs of Faction and the Lusts of their Fellow-Subjects But when a stupid Insatuation has prevailed with such easie men to put on the like Chains with their own hands we esteem it not the least of our happiness that 't is still in his Majesty's Power to knock them off and reprieve us from that Thraldom I tell you not my own single Sense but the Sense of all Loyal and Sober men that being taught by so late Experience that such as snatch at the Jewels of the Crown can never think themselves secure of that Booty till our Property becomes their Prey too as it was in the late Rebellion which began with an Association we are highly obliged to his Majesties Fatherly Care and Tenderness that he will not more suffer an Arbitrary Power to insult over his Subjects Liberty than to invade his own Prerogative And the Sense his Majesty is pleased to express of our sad Affliction or Bondage under the late Tyranny of Hypocritical Reformers gives us an assured Confidence that so Divine a Clemency as shines in him can never delight to hear us groan under the like oppressions And His Royal Word to secure us against the Attempts of it in others as well as against the practice of it in his own Dispensations is a Supersedeas to all our Doubts and Scruples upon that account And having the same Security for the full Fruition of our Religion in this Church established the most steady and inflexible Prop and Bulwark of the Throne which therefore makes it no less his Majesties Interest than his Obligation and Piety to support it we cannot conceive it in any Danger unless betray'd by a Latitudinarian Neutrality or our own froward Schisms and Dissentions And we should be secure enough in this point too if we could be timely awakened to consult our own Safety and unanimously agree to make the known Laws the Standard of our Duty as his Majesty has graciously resolved to make them the Rule of his own Government After such Agonies as we have conflicted with through the neglect hereof the concurrent Practise of this Rule would be the best Atonement of our Differences and the Ensurance of our Concord This would extinguish all our present Plots and prevent the Emergency of the like Projects for the future then the Kingdom would be setled in Peace the Church in Order and all sorts of men become conformable in a due Obedience Succession would be no more disputed the Government no more libell'd Loyalty no more defam'd nor the Dutiful persecuted by the Tongues or Pens of the Malicious the Pillow of the Crown would be no longer stuff'd with Thorns His Majesties Throne would become safe and easie his Sword victorious and his Royal Scepter had in Veneration And seeing His Majesty has even prevented our most early Addresses Peruse His Majesties Gracious Declaration in professing that to be his Royal Will and Resolution which should have been our Prayer and Option and having his Sacred Word published in the face of all Congregations before the Presence of the Almighty to secure All we can account dear to us there remains nothing for us to Act but the part of Loyal and Obedient Subjects to inable His Majesty to triumph in a serene Felicity maugre the petulant frowardness and treachery of all undermining Factions To this end our Gratitude and bounden Duty puts us under these several Obligations 1. To abandon those Fears and Jealousies which crafty and Designing-men whether out of Avarice or Ambition are wont to suggest and raise to poyson us with Discontents and bewitch us into Tumults 2. To reley upon His Majesties Royal Word His Princely Wisdom and Watchful Conduct to protect us in our Persons in our Laws in our Religion and Liberties 3. To assist His Majesty with due Supplies and the utmost Endeavours that the highest Loyalty and Affection can contribute to make his Reign Glorious 4. To exalt His Majesties Esteem and Grandeur that He may still be courted to hold the Balance and to establish the General Peace of Christendom 5. To make our Acknowledgments legible in our Practice by a Regular and Uniform Obedience and a hearty Compliance with all emergent Advantages that may promote his Ease and Royal Satisfaction 6. To supplicate on His Majesties behalf a long Life and a vigorous Health and a Divine Assistance that for the good of these Nations the thred of his precious Life upon which our Happiness so much depends may be twisted with all the Blessings of Heaven and Earth and drawn out in an even line of Contentment to the utmost extent and period Amen ISA. 8. 12 13 14. Say ye not A Confederacy to all them to whom this People shall say A Confederacy neither fear ye their Fear nor be afraid Sanctisie the Lord of Hosts Himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread And he shall be for a Sanctuary FINIS