which of the two he is most indebted and render him matchless in the present and rarely exceeded by any in former Ages He is not only of innate Courage fearless and intrepid as a Lion but a Commander of great Experience both at Land and Sea preferring the last more for his Countries safety and honour than his own ease or pleasure In all things temperate and sober in his Actions between Man and Man nicely just in his Word and Promises strictly faithful and religiously punctual sincere in his Friendships and Professions a kind Brother and a dutiful Subject an obliging Husband and an excellent Master a great lover of Business sedulous and diligent and indefatigable in Labours affable and easy of access patient in hearing and dispatching the meanest of quick Apprehension and sound Judgement and tho in this traduc'd by Envy Malice and Design yet I defy the worst of his Enemies to instance wherein he ever spake impertinently on any Subject He is what the French call un bonest homme too comprehensive to be English'd by one Word signifying A Person composed of all the good Qualities that make Men truly valuable He was born to retrieve the sinking Glory of the English Nation a Truth once readily acknowledged by all and would be so at this day if the contrary were not imposed by the cunning of the Ambitious under the disguise and pretence of Zeal for Religion in which whatever his private Opinions are he desires not a liberty he would not grant He is not of a narrow persecuting Spirit so much in love with his own as to despise the Opinions of all others He would have every Man enjoy the right of Nature Liberty of Conscience without disturbance of the publick peace In a Word he is brave and generous liberal but not profuse resolute but not stubborn great but not proud humble but not abject in all his Actions he shews himself a Gentleman but in none forgets that he is a Prince He is not an Angel but a Man and therefore not free from some Passions and human Fraitlties but in the World there cannot be found a Prince with fewer He needs not boast the Statues of his Ancestors he has a stock of fame and vertue of his own large enough to make him great He is doubly related to the Title of his Grand Father Henry the 4th by Birth and by his Sufferings Without flattery he may be accounted the most illustrious of modern Hero's and very little if at all out-done by Caesar or by Alexander by Hannibal or by Scipio The English Scots and Irish have been Witnesses of this Truth to their Honour and Renown The French the Spaniards and Flemmings and the Dutch the German Sweed and Dane have seen and felt his Actions to their cost to thir Envy And what has this great Min done to have felt his Vertues and his Lawrels wither'd and forgot Is it for exposing his person like a common Sea man for the Glory of the English Nation or is the change of the peoples Affections owing to the alteration of his Opinions about the Modes and Circumstances of Religion for in reality 't is no more Oh! no it proceeds from the subtilty of some fellow-Fellow-Subjects who under pretence of Love for the publick and Zeal for Religion design for themselves a Tyranny and therefore endeavour by all the arts of Malice to remove out of the way of their Ambition this great Person the only Obstacle imposing upon the World that all themselves aim at are intended by the D. when nothing is further from his thoughts than a purpose of governing England otherwise than by the establish'd Laws A Lye may for a while sully and eclipse the brightest Innocence but at length it must break through those Clouds with a greater increase of Lustre and of Glory 'T is good Machiavilian policy calumniare fortiter aliquid adherebit Throw Dirt enough some of it will stick There was a time when only Vice was safe and honourable and nothing fatal but to be brave and vertuous and the best Citizens were therefore proscribed and why should it be wondred that in England as well as in Rome or Athens no Aristides should be banished for being too good Now considering that Laws may bind a King which to deny is folly and madness and that there are already enough more may be added to prevent a Popish Successors mischieving Protestant Subjects if there were no Laws to this purpose yet prudence and right reason would continue to us the enjoyment of Liberty Property and Religion let never so bigotted a Papist ascend the Throne much less is any alteration to be apprehended from the Duke who besides all those Obligations does further secure us by his innate Goodness and temper 't is no wonder his Majesty should so often forbid the intermedling with Succession since he could not but conclude from so unreasonable a procedure something else might be designed besides the security of the protestant Religion under the sairest Tufts of Grass we know Snakes are likeliest to be hid For first there was no cause to conclude the D. should certainly out-live his Royal Brother or if he did that he would or could alter the Government nor secondly that he should always continue of his present Opinion in Religion since he that once changed might do so again upon the alteration of his temper never at a stand or the same in any person or upon his fuller consideration of the Controversie But if in this he should remain unalterable and chance to out-live him his consenting to such an Act would never prevent great Effusion of Bloud civil War and unaccountable Miseries and Calamities for let Men Fancie what they please the D. would still have no small party in England all or most of Scotland and Ireland would be entirely for him he is accounted by both a Prince of their Bloud and by their Laws who no more than those of England allow their Kings mortal to be their Soveraign upon the Death of his predecessor without the Formalities of Proclamation or Coronation and who knows not that the united force of these two Kingdoms with the power within the third would counter ballance all the rest of the Might of England Besides Scotland and Ireland being distinct Kingdoms and governed by Laws of their own Parliaments no Act made by that of England can be binding in any instance much less in excluding their Sovereign Now over and above those advantages all the popish Princes of Europe and they if united are too strong for the Protestant would be on his side if Religion have that power some Men apprehend But if it have not yet France would account it their interest to reinstate the D. in his possessions for then they two joining to which nothing else could invite the King of England all rubs in the way of the Universal Monarchy would be certainly removed And what would the Consequence of this be but a
of Nations forbid nay make it inconsistent with Society to hang a Man first and convict him after or to punish any one 〈◊〉 post facto My Lord Strafford's Case was never to be brought into president and if that were not sufficient the whole proceedings by Act of Parliament since his Majesties Restauration were condemn'd as illegal and contrary to all Morality And would not the D's Case have been just the same Do you but make it your own and you will be of that Opinion Whence I conclude that the Reasons on which the late House of Commons proceeded against the D. were insufficient because not only not warranted but contrary to the Laws in being as well as to those of Nature and all Societies under Heaven And now I come to your third Question what dangers the Nation may be under in case the Crown descends upon a Popish Successor or more particularly upon his R. H For answer to which we must consider that dangers to any Country are Forraign or Domestick Invasions from abroad or Encroachments a home Against the former every Kingdom is in danger be the Prince of any or no Religion and therefore the People are obliged to be always on their Guard Against the latter the hazard lies in the Princes neglect or breaking of the bounds of his Subjects Liberty Property and Religion and since the safety of all Princes depends upon the contrary why a Popish one should offer it more then another I cannot comprehend and more particularly why his R. H. should design it is not at all likely if we examine either the influence Popery can have over the Government or consider impartially the D's Character Government was first framed for the good of Mankind in this Life without any regard to another and depended upon a due and equal administration of justice in the Governour and Obedience in the governed This was long observed in the World before Religion entered especially Christianity which all allow neither did nor could alter the Laws of the City or Common-wealth Evangelium non abolet politias is every where an allowed Maxim drawn from our Saviour's own Words Friend who made me a Ruler or judge among you The Law is open and by that the controversies between you and your Brother are to be decided He came not to disturb but to enlarge and confirm the peace of the City and his Laws considered a-part are as consistent with those of a Kingdom as the by-Laws of any Corporation within a greater State He declared his Kingdom was not of this World and therefore could not design to alter the grounds of Government and Obedience which are one and the same in all Countries whether Christian or Pagan founded upon self-interest and preservation and continued by mutual Relation of Love and Duty Protection and Obedience things that truly considered can never be altered by the super-induction or change of any new or old Religion If then Christianity make no alteration 't is impossible the sub-divisions or particular Sects should So that whatever Opinion either King or Subject be in point of Religion Popish or Protestant Lutheran or Calvinist Presbyterian or Episcopal the ends of Government peace and quiet Liberty and Property may be secured and enjoy'd and the end of Religion too eternal Salvation this depending on moral Duties and Conformity to the Laws of the Land our Saviour having threatned Damnation to those who resist the higher Powers the greatest of punishments being appointed both by the Jewish and Christian Law to Rebellion called by the first the Sin of Witchraft and in the last a fighting against God himself Now all Laws that concern our temporal estate being made in the times of Popery I cannot find why they should be changed by a Popish Monarch nor how without a change or violation the Subjects can suffer As for the Laws that established the Protestant and abolished the Popish Religion they cannot be otherwise altered but by an equal power with that from whence they had their Being King and Parliament who agreeing can by a change no more prejudice the publick in order to Heaven than they did before that being only accidental and extrinsecal to the Substance of Religion by which alone and not by Forms or Ceremonies Men are to be saved every Country making differences in such things according to the several interest of States or humours of the people as in England the Common-wealth is tempered by the King 's holding the Ballance between the power of Lords and Commons and that upon the taking away of either the Government must be destroyed so the Religion of England or indeed of any Kingdom where there are several Sects seem only to be preserved by fixing a Ballance which taken away must be the ruine of the whole and therefore undeniable policy will tell us that the Episcopal legal Government is no otherwise to be preserved but by equally indulging the Non-Conformists and the Papists for to suppress both is now impracticable and to suppresse one alone will be found impolitick A Truth grounded upon the present State of Europe where while England kept the Ballance between France and Spain the universal Monarchy was a Dream or groundlesse Fancie but that being removed 't is impossible if two or three Martial and prudent Princes happen successively to govern France but that before imaginary Empire will really fall to the Lot of that Nation unlesse all the other States joyn against it and give our Country the power it enjoyed when Spain was an equal Match in the Contention For my own part I see nothing to be dreaded in case of a Popish Successor because he alone cannot alter the Laws nor the Religion nor can he the execution since that is out of his and in the hands of such as are not only sworn to it but upon failure lyable to great Penalties and Forfeiture not only to the Prince who possibly might but to the Informer who cannot be supposed to remit his proportion And considering that the Laws in being have entrusted the executive power of the Militia by Sea and Land and of distributive Justice in Courts and all Offices of Trust as well in the Country as about the Princes Person and the power of making and altering Laws in the Hands of Men of Anti-popish Principles I cannot apprehend why we should conceive any danger from a Princes enjoying to himself any Heterodox Opinion whatever For to think he would impose them upon his Subjects is to conclude him not only imprudent but distracted since it would be to create himself disturbance without the least prospect of advantage for what does he get or loose by their being of this or that Perswasion His Good his Wealth his Glory his Honour and Security consists in their conformity to the established Government and for their future Happinesse he cannot as a Prince be solitcious 't is out of his Province and now out of Fashion for Kings to be Priests and
Prophets This then would be folly and to pursue it would be madness because it would be to oppose his single strength for in this case he would stand alone to the united force of Lords and Commons and the whole Body of the People And who knows not that in this Sense Dominium fundatur in voluntatibus hominum For without an Army and a very great one he could not compasse his impertinent project this Army he could not raise without a vast Treasure this Treasure he cannot have but from his own people in Parliament who will not give it to their prejudice For out of Parliament he cannot have enough even for his ordinary Expence much lesse for the defence of the Kingdom against forraign Attempts because upon the death of the present the following Successor will find so much fallen off that there will not be left one third of the present insufficient Revenue for all necessary Uses of the Crown An Argument that alone may convince the sober and unbyass'd that be he of what perswasion soever he must of necessity comply with his Parliament who can't be suppos'd neglectful of the great Concern of Religion And to think that the Papists at home or abroad will give it is Folly or Inconsideration Those at home could not by the sale of all their Fortunes make the Fond that can never be supposed by men in their wits nor indeed can I see why they should contribute at all since their gain by offices of which they are now incapable would be but advantagious to some and why shall the whole be at a losse for the profit of a few that uncertain Besides that party is now more a Gainer by freedom from offices of Charge and Trouble than they could then be by the partial Advantage of Employments The Papists abroad will less find their Accompt for Princes of all Religions and the only present rich and powerful one of That expends his Money for Earthly Glory leaving as he ought the Heavenly to the Spiritual Princes These all are ever were and will be such Lovers of Wealth Pomp and Grandour as not to bestow it in the purchase of Heaven which they know is not to be bought for Silver or for Gold The Pope regaining Peter-pence could not invite him if he had the Sum for if you compute that you will find it a Trifle 6666 reckoning it after the way of the present Chimney-money set for 160 odd thousand pounds at two shillings a Chimney whereas that was only a peny a House not a peny a Chimney as in this Caluclation is allow'd when Houses are much more than in those days And for the First-fruits and Tenths they are no lesse inconsiderable For Indulgences Appeals and the consequent Charges they are trivial and accidental and go not into the Pop's but into particular Officers pockets Besides no one Pope can hope to see such a Design effected and the Nephews and Nieces will prevent their converting their Riches to the advantage of the Successors And as for the Church or Abby-Lands they could not on this accompt be of any moment since if restor'd to the Church which would be uncertain as the effect of War they would fall into the hands of Clergy-men who have nothing before hand to contribute Now considering that the late rais'd Army under 30000 men put the King to the charge of more than a Million how many Millions think you must be requisite for a much greater Army necessary for so great a Design when the Opposition will be strong and lasting the very Lifted Millitia being above 160000 And supposing that all the Papists in the three Kingdoms would become Voluntiers in this extravagant Expedition the whole would be still as disproportionat and as unliklely to prevail as an Army of Pigmies with Spears of Bulrushes mounted on Crans against an Army of Gyants riding on Elephants and every way well appointed for War In the year 1672. and they cannot since be much encreas'd the Papists upon a Survey of them Conformists and Nonconformists severally were found throughout England to be under 27000. Men Women and Children In Scotland the disproportion is greater on the protestant side in Ireland on the Papists Yet by a Medium of all three there would be 203. Protestants to one Papist What then can be dreaded from them though assisted with an Army of profligat Hirelings for none else would fight to destroy Religion and enslave their Country and a Prince of their own Perswasion whose Example could win but on the mean and base the flattering and mercenary Courtiers to hold with him as with other Kings their Necks awry So inconsiderable a Number could not shock the main Body of the People sighting not as the others for Opinion or for Pay but further for Liberty Property Religion and Estate of which being possest though the others were equal in Numbers theirs would be the advantage according to that Rule Milior est conditio possidentis And indeed considering the Athelstical bent and humour of the Nation whose Religion is generally in their Mouths only and not in their Hearts I am apt to conclude the great Heat and Contention is founded upon the apprehension of the loss of Church and Abby-Lands not of protestantism and the rather because it is urged Nullum tempus occurrit Ecolesiae The Maxim is Regi and yet we find though most of the Lordships of England belonged formerly to the King they are now possest by others without danger of reassumption and yet even that has been practised in former Kings Reigns and advised by parliaments who al ways reputed them unalienable And yet why we should now be more sollicitous for fear of the Church than of the King I cannot understand since either prescription or their own Consent lies against both and that even in the infancy of the protestant Religion upon the return of Popery by parliament the Pope did in Q. Mary's Reign by his Legat Cardinal Poole confirm to the Laity the Temporal possessions of the Clergy And can any one imagine that how when a contrary Religion is of so long standing and the professors as far exceeding the Papists in number as they did then the Protestants a parliament would be kinder Earthly Interest will ever weigh more than Heavenly the World being now so much enlightned with Knowledge and Letters beyond its former Experience when not only Salvation but Wisdom hung upon the Lips of the priests it be will be impossible for men to be perswaded even upon their Death-beds to bestow all for the gaining of Heaven The Statute of Mortmain was made in the height of Popery and none but Fools can suffer themselves to be imposed upon that a Statute of Restitution could be possible in the Meridian of a contrary Religion This is well known to the leading and considering men who having Designs upon great Offices and preferments in the State make the Care of the Church a pretence only to their
worse and more dangerous Jesuits as their Doctrines are in English openly maintained whilst the other publickly disavow what they are accus'd of Those all with one voice say Dominion is jure divino the others say 't is founded in Grace and deriv'd from the People in trust who upon male administration may resume their first Grant dethrone and murder their Sovereign in spite of all the obligations of Oaths and Promises of Faith and Allegiance Now though it 's possible both Parties may be mistaken yet I am sure the Papists Errour is on the safest side for Princes Consider Sir seriously and tell me if you find not of the two the Jesuits of Glascow and Geneva more pernicious to Peace and Government than those of Rome or St. Omers Compare their Practâ—…es and their Principles and try whether the Paris Massacre of 40000 by D'avila and as is plain in Story a politick Stratagem be not seventy times exceeded by the Warr of that Country and Germany to name no more upon the score of Reformation Whether the much-nois'd Numbers slain in Ireland computed by the Ingenious and Learned Sir William Petry on both sides during the whole Rebellion not above 36000 in a conquer'd Country set on foot for their Liberty and Estates not for Religion be not far outdone by the late Rebellion of England contriv'd and carried on by the Godly party This was not Christ's Method of planting the Gospel 't is the Sword of the Spirit and not that of the flesh that must propagate Religion yet excepting our own Country where it came not in dry-shod have not the Reformers every where waded deep in Blood in opposition to popery I need not instance the Countries are obvious and 't is an undeniable Truth that there has been ten times more War and Bloud shed on the score of Religion since Luther and Calvin's time then was in all the parts of Europ before while popery was at the highest But besides all this the Vote of the late House of Commons has most certainly secured on that side all danger to the King 's Sacred Person Whom God long preserve for if now any should be so mad as to be Authors of so great an Impiety considering the vast inequalities of their Numbers they could not expect less then the loss of their own Lives and of the whole party therefore by that Vote they are not only charmed into Loyalty if otherwise disposed but qualified to guard the King's Person if admitted from the attempts of any other Conspirators so that their mutual safeties depend upon each other And therefore it were adviseable since other acts forbid their access to Court for all the Papists to quit their Country or their Religion lest they might hereafter smart for the Act of Nature or the wickedness of any other Faction if not likely at least not impossible Sacred and profane story furnishes us with many instances of plots made by one and father'd on another party And the beast in the Apologue with a Lump of Flesh on his Fore-head was not imprudent in quitting the Forrest upon the Lyons proclamation That all horned Beasts should at their peril depart for when he was asked why he ran away he answered If the Lyon said the Lump was a Horn it would be in vain for him to contend or after hope an escape And really I see no security in the change of Religon since people are so imposed upon to swallow Gudgeons in believing if that indeed they do what they so loudly speak that after all Oaths Tests and Sacraments they are still Papists in Masquerade and have Bulls and Dispensations for dissembling and perjury a Supposition not only idiculous but reflective upon the Wisdom of the Parliament for if no mark of discrimination nor scent can be found to discover the blown Deer and separate them from the rest of the Herd 't is in vain to hunt and the Parliament have taken great pains to find out papists but to no purpose a censure no less severe upon them than 't would be folly in the Pope to expect Obedience from those he absolved from all Obligations For the Oaths do not only allow them to swear Fealty and Homage to one Prince but bind them to renounce all others and being so taken in the plain literal Sence and Acceptation of the Words there can be no reserve For however the Jesuits are accused to allow Equivocation and mental Reservation they are not yet arrived to that impudence of owning to the World so monstrous an Impiety And therefore I hope the new Sheriffs of London re abused by their Friend who publishes their having taken the Oathes and Abjurations in their own meanings and tell us that how contrary soever that may be to the plain Words yet 't is conformable to the Sense and Intention of the Imposers the Parliament A new Doctrine I confess and very expressive of a tender Conscience For if you examine it aright you will find it turns the design of Oaths into Folly leaving them no force nor Men under any Obligation For it is all one to swear and not to swear at all if the taker of the Oath may do it in his own and not in the Imposers Sense it reconciles extreams makes a narrow half-pynt City Conscience and one as large and wide as the great Tun of Heidelberg the same Here will be no longer stumbling at straws nor leaping over Blocks straining at a Gnat and swallowing a Camel will be a Jest all will go down with equal ease and all tyes between King and Subjects will cease the Oaths of Coronation and Allegiance are Fopperies Chaff to cath the credulous neither will be perjured if the one prove a Tyrant or the other a Rebel So monstrous a Tenet ought not to scape publick Animadversion And I do as verily believe a Jesuit sham'd that Pamphlet upon the Sheriffs as that the Papists made Venner's plot and the two following of 1662 and 1666. altho in their stead the poor innocent Fifth Monarchy men and Phanaticks paid the reckoning at Tyburn But if indeed there were Dispensations to he had is it supposable by Men Fools may take a Wind-Mill for an inchanted Castle and Don Quixor like fight against the wind that any would forfet Liberty Fortune or Country much more Life it self as is notorious many have done rather than take these Oaths There is then no cause to fear the Papists will be undiscoverable or that they can be terrible considering the smallness of their Number tho the D. of Y. should come to govern For besides that it would not be in his Power nor for his Interest as is already shewn to innovate the Constitutions of Church and State nothing like it can be dreaded from his Character which all knowing and disinterested Persons will thus give you That he is a Prince of so many admirable Endowments and excellent Qualifications both by Nature by Art as make it a question to
running into the inconveniency we would now avoid Popery and Arbitrary Government otherwise not only an uncertain but an imaginary Fear Though this should not happen in the person of the D. yet his exclusion may otherwise occasion it For let it be considered that to keep him out an Army must be maintained which will encrease our Charge another great evil and that Army must have a General and who can be assured that either the then King or the General or both shall not hereafter turn Papists and changing with their Religion their Tempers by the assistance of that Army settle an absolute and Despotick power enslave us and exercise an uncontroulable Tyranny over our Minds our Bodies and Estates Remember what our late revolution did produce and forget not the Rump noâ— Oliver whose publick Taxes were Mountains compared with those Mole-Hills under which we now seem so much to suffer and be buried If the Rider gives his Horse the Reins he knows not whither an unbridled Fury may at last carry him 'T is not impossible but the putting by the D. may end in a deposing the present possessor For if the late King was not only reputed a papist but executed for designing the Introduction of popery though all the World knows he was a stiff asserter of and a Martyr for the protestant Religion and if now a presumed papist be declared unfit to succeed how much more unfit must a papist be declared to Govern And how can we be assured that Caracter shall not hereafter be fixt upon our King when we know one of the Brethren was not long since Indicted for saying The D. was a Papist and the K. little better and that already every Member of the Church of England the very Bishops all but Two not excepted are called papists in Masquerade Success makes men bold against God and Man and we arrive not at the heighth of Insolence but by degrees nemo repente fit turpissimus Read the Pamphlets and observe not the Whispers but the loud Discourses and then tell me whether you can call this a groundless Surmise If the King cannot pardon the Earl of Danby or any Criminal which that Noble-man no more is upon the account of his pardon than all his predecessors who have shewn him the way then indeed he is no longer the Supreme and may well enough be concluded already depos'd more than in Effigie And yet this Doctrine is maintain'd by the Loyal Considerer of the great and wighty Considerations touching the Succession and publickly sold in the Court of Requests and another position no less pernicious held by him and many of the same principles That there can be Treason against the State against the people against the Government excluding the Kings person for whose security alone the Satutes have provided against Treasons not finding it agreeable to Reason or our own Positive Laws to exalt above the King 's the Majesty of the People If such Doctrines be openly avow'd witness that Pamphlet and the Modest Answerer of the King's Declaration about his Marriage 't is no wonder the King should depend upon other Guards for his Safety than the Affections of at least such loyal Subjects King Charles the First had many Promises of being made great and glorious provided he would part with his most faithful Friends and Counsellors then stiled disaffected and evil Ministers and by granting some such small Requests he gave encouragement for asking and left himself no room for denying greater And indeed he was made great and extraordinarily exalted from an Earthly to a Heavenly Throne from a King to be a Martyr Who can be ignorant that however to demolish a strong Fort or a Tower well built it be necessary to labour long about the Out-works and the Walls with Cannon and with Pick-ax yet one only puff though but weak of a Princes Folly or a Private mans Ambition who has good store of Followers Money and Wit is able to make the strongest Empire totter and fall before the Ruine be expected Athelstan the great Saxon King out of jealousie of State was perswaded to expose to the mercy of the Seas his Brother Elwyn and thereby endanger'd the loss of his Dominion of which when he was put in mind by his Cup-bearer's saying upon recovering with one Foot the slip of the other See how one Brother helps another he cryed out Ah Traytor livest thou to upbraid me of that Folly of which your self was the Author and thereupon caused him to be immediatly executed Henry the Sixth had scap'd Deposition and Murder had he not consented to his Uncle the Good Duke of Glocester's destruction who living kept him safe and dying threw him down After the same method did the Earl of Northumberland bring about the Ruine of the Protector in Edward the Sixth's time perswading him to remove his Brother the Admiral his only Bulwark and Support of which Contrivance though too late be died not insensible leaving to Posterity a Caution to avoid the Rock on which he split The extraordinary Caresses of a reconcil'd Enemy are ever to be distrusted and always to be accounted dangerous and he may well apprehend a Design that finds such or any man more than himself sollicitous for his Safety The Wolves pretending kindness to the Sheep offer'd to make a League with them but not till they first had banish'd away their Dogs this they no sooner did than they paid with the forseiture of their Necks the price of their credulity and their folly Nor is the Fathers Legacy to his Sons of a Bundle of Twigs less instructive these which single may with ease cannot with difficulty whilst united he bent or broken Divide Impera is more useful for the Aspirers to than the Possessors of a Crown and he that suffers himself to be impos'd upon in one lays himself open to all Instances and will quickly perceive the more he grants the less he is able to refuse When a Prince finds his Subjects insist upon things unreasonable or unnecessary much more proceed contrary to his positive Commands as in the Case of Succession 't is time to look about him and suspect they intend somewhat more than yet they discover The surest way to compasse ones purpose is to pretend the contrary and if you will be with success a Sinner and exquisitly wicked you must pretend to be a Saint and extraordinarily devout You may with more safety eat your Chestnuts if Monkey-like you make use of the Cats Claws to pull them out of the Fire You cannot hope to enslave your Country but under the specious Names of Reformation and Liberty The people may be gull'd and drawn to bite if the Hook be baited with a fitting Fly If you will set up Presbytery you must pretend at first only to run down Popery when the Popish Lords are outed it will be easie after to exclude the Bishops That here has been a long time and still is a carrying on a design
to subvert the Government and the Religion of the Nation I perfectly agree with the Writer of The growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government But I wish the Gentleman had nam'd as he easily might the Conspirators If you will believe against all Truth and Reason the before mentioned Answerer to the Declaration they are center'd in his R. H. and He alone has been the Author of the Ministers miscarriages or the Chances of ill Fortune that have hapned since the Kings Restauration One might have though Popery alone had been Crime enough to render him odious without loading him with the Burden of others Must they make him not onely presumptive Heir but presumptive Criminal But I confesse he that so much defames and so irreverently treats the King may with lesse hazard belie his Brother The end is visible That what Justice cannot popular Fury and the Rabble should take away the Beeing of that much injur'd Prince Hence it is he is said to have been the Author of the Fire of London His never to be forgotten pains and Diligence to suppress those Flames are ill requited He was then known to be a zealous Protestant and could he joyn with the Papists who are now call'd the Authors in a mean so destructive of Religion And if that were the Design what hinders its being effected If the Papists must be acquitted surely the Duke ought in that the Phanatick Plotters executed in April before confess'd at Tyburn they had so contriv'd that fatal Scene that it could not miscarry And indeed the Event verified their Prediction to aday as to the Fire though not to the rest of their intended Tragedie When Nero set Rome on fire he commanded Christianos ad Leones an ill President for Christian Commonwealths No man can make himself innocent by throwing his Crimes upon others But thus it fares with his R. H. as well in this as in many more Instances He is said to be the Author of the Popish Plots though not only Oates and Bedloe the last confirming it at his Death have acquitted him but likewise my Lord Danby tells you in his Printed Case The King was so far from believing it that it had never been brought upon the Stage but for the D's Importunity This alone if there were not many more is a sufficient Argument of his Innocence and abhorrence of the Fact and yet now forsooth he must have revealed it after the King had given him the intimation that the Conspirators might convey away their Papers If so I pray why were Colman's or any others found But it will appear on examination that Beddingfield no sooner receiv'd the Packet of which how Doctor Tongue could inform the Earl of Danby then in Oxfordshire 27 mils beyond Windsor so as to be with the King on that account within few hours after is a Riddle than he brought it to the Duke telling him there was mischief design'd to his R. H. in particular or to himself or the Papists in general for that the inclosed Letters were forged and one of them from Dr. Fogorthy to whose Person as well as Name he was till then a perfect Stranger This Packet the D. gave to the R. that very day about the last of August who looking on one of the Letters said he had â—…en the hand before Some eight days after Sir Edmundbury Godfrey sent by Coleman the whole Discovery with which the second time the D. acquainted his Majesty who yet spoke not to the D. of the matter The rest of that Libel is as false as these two Particulars which therefore for brevity I passe over no man in his Wits being able to think it needs any other Confutation than the Fire But before I conclude give me leave to tell you That the D. has not exposed his Person on all occasions for the honour of the English Nation but whereever he appeared carried Victory along with him which in his absence was not found In the first war he beat the Dutch in the second he got the better but in both the change of Admirals alter'd our Success And whatever false steps our Ministers have made whose Bastards are not to be laid at his doors he is no otherwise accountable for them then you or I who had no power to resist Every one knows who have been the publick and lose Managers of Affairs and these can witness the D. could never be reckon'd in their number He had no hand in dividing the Fleet in the first War nor in halling it up at Chatham before a Peace concluded He was not privy to the Advice of breaking the Triple League nor making an Alliance with France which he no sooner heard than he oppos'd foretelling with Cassandra's Fate the Issue He influenc'd not a War with Holland nor setting upon their Smyrna-Fleet before a Breach declared Delenda est Carthago was not his Sentence nor his Act the Shutting up the Exchequer nor was he the Author of Injunctions against the Bankers nor of usurping the Commons Right of filling their own Vacancies nor consequently of the other Part or Link of this Chain and Contrivance the Project of Indulgence though to give him his due he was for pursuing steddily Resolutions when once taken the contrary would be a lessning our power and a making us ridiculous at home and abroad Afterwards when these Measures were broken and new ones embraced he was for pursuing the Interest of England in defence of the Spanish Netherlands and did as verily believe and was as much impos'd upon as the most credulous in England that a War against France was then really purposed when desired by both Houses in 1678 7. His preparations to hazard his Person in that Expedition are notorious Evidences of this Truth Yet such is his misfortune that after all his Endeavours for the good of his Country he is reputed a Lover of the French Interest though none be more hated by that Crown an undenied proof of the maliâ—… of the Imputation whose unwearied diligence has been formerly employ'd and may now be well suspected to foment and keep up divisions between the King and his Subjects the only way to prevent our opposing his long designed Dominion An Observation that alone ought to invite us to an Union and a mutual Confidence and to study in the Spirit of Moderation the healing of our Breaches remembring That no Reason of State can be useful to the Publick or justifie any Actions contrary to the Laws both of God and Nations That it is a shame and a reproach upon us abroad and an Inconvenience at home to have a Plot kept so long on foot wherein all who should be found guilty upon unquestionable Evidence might have been made long since Exemplary A speedy and impartial proceeding in this Case without heat or passion or consideration of Parties or of Interest will remove all our Jealousies and Fears settle us upon the immovable Rocks of Truth and Honour and acquit and vindicate to the World That an English Parliament is not influenc'd by men whose Ambition leads them to study their own private more than the Publick Good That they serve their King and Country for Glory and for Conscience not for Gain or Preferment That they design nothing but the preservation of their Rights Libertis and Religion by the Methods of peace and prudence which without doubt may be for ever secured by the Laws already in force or other new Additions notwithstanding a Popish Soveraign The Kings of England have bound and may again limite their Power with their own Consent in Parliament But if this Truth be denied because of that Maxim in our Laws The King can do no wrong it cannot That their Ministers and Officers who must be and are accountable for all and punishable for Illegal Actions may be so confin'd as may make our Fears unreasonable of any Encroachments or Innovations let never so many Popish Princes much lesse any one succeed Whoever suggests the contrary is imposed upon by Ignorance Interest or the Malice of crafty and designing Achithophels who prefer their particular Advantage to Religion and Liberty no other way really to be endangered but by debarring the D. his Right of Succession which once past into an Act will in case he survive most certainly-bring upon the Three Kingdoms Horrour and Confusion Desolation and Misery and all the sad Effects of a Civil War Evils so far from your Temper and Inclination that I need not caution you against so much madnesse and Folly as inevitably attends the not regarding the Wisemans Advice My son fâ—ar God and Honour the King and meddle not with those that are given to change What I have written I have written in obedience to your Commands the love of Truth and zeal for the Publick being as you know neither Courtier nor Pensioner never was or like to be addicted to Popery not obliged by King nor Duke in any particular Grace or Favor but being wholly Independent and having something to lose and sensible no others can suffer by War and Rebellion I have used the same freedom without as I hope you will within doors for preventing those Calamities which seem to do more than threaten the Nation from which nothing but Gods Providence in the Wisdom and Moderation Courage and Prudence of our King and Parliament can defend this unhappie and distracted Kingdom FINIS