is no new thing as long as the Grecians and Romans were poor and weak they lived contentedly under Kings but when they grew Rich and Powerful they threw off that Government and set up Common-wealths Two things afforded them great opportunities if not Temptations to it The first was the Poverty of the Crown The Old Revenues were much impaired by the Liberality or Necessities of our Princes and no relief could be had but in Parliament and there they knew so well how to truck that no Prerogative no Money They would not freely give but sell the King Supplyes for Liberty and they took care too to increase that Necessity by engaging the King in Wars and then denying him Money to carry them on and to discontent the People at the same time at the Unprosperous Events of them Thus the Crown grew every day poorer and the People Richer Another thing was the Factions in Religion which howsoever they were Managed one Party or other were dissatisfied and thereby disposed to Wreak their Malice on the Crown by Electing such Men to serve in Parliaments as were ill disposed to it Whereas before when England was all of one Religion it was scarce possible to pretend any thing in which the whole Body of the People were Concern'd So that these Animosities in Religion ended in a Civil Faction and many Ambitious Men who cared for No Religion did yet make use of them as tools to Work their Ends upon the Crown Two other things Contributed very much to the effecting their designs First Scotland led the Dance and Rebelled upon pretence of Religion and altho the King might easily have Conquered them by a Battel or Blocking up their Harbours yet being a Tender Prince and unwilling to shed the Blood of his own Traiterous Subjects he rather chose to end the Controversy by a Treaty which gave them time to Concert their Affairs with the English of the same Faction and that furnished them with means to raise another Army and enter England which necessitated the Calling of that Fatal Parliament which had like to have ruined the Monarchy and Nation both at once Secondly the Irish Papists Rebelled at the same time and rising suddenly Massacred 100000 English which so depopulated Ireland that the King could have no Assistance from it the remaining English being hardly able to Subsist and the Parliament made another Advantage of it by perswading the English to believe the King had Procured this desolation there The City of London lent the Parliament Money furnished them with Tumults to Drive the King out of it first and then with Armies to force him back again and too many of the Gentry were Lazy and would not stir timerous and durst not discontented and willing the Crown should be reduced tho not ruined But when they came to put the Project in Execution and after the ruine of the King's Forces to erect their Common-wealth of England there were other difficulties that could not be overcome their own Army that had done their Drudgery would not be Disbanded and they could not force them They had rid their hands of one of the Three Estates that Constitute our Parliament the Spiritual Lords at first And there was a parcel of Lords Temporal who for a long time Acted with them but at Last being not able to digest the Insolence of the Commons stood off upon which they Voted them Vseless and laid them by too So that all was then in the hands of the Commons They could not or would not Dissolve themselves in the state things then were for then the whole Power would have been in the Army and Officers who might easily have prevented the Meeting of another Parliament and the whole Nation was dissatisfied to see them divide the spoil and profit amongst themselves without any hope that any but they and their Relations should partake with them in the reward as they had in the danger the Gentry were generally known to have Wished well to the King and the Rabble were to be pleased by suffering them to insult over their Old Masters and the Royal Party tho Conquered were not dejected and the Godly Party were fallen in Sunder and the Independents were persecuting their Sire Presbytery The Commons were a Body constituted of two Knights for every Shire and two Burgâ—sses for each Corporation and the Latter exceeded vastly the former in Number and tho this inequality had not been much regarded Under the Monarchy yet now the House of Commons was to be made the Standing Senate of the Nation the Counties Would not indure it if the People had suffered any Grievance under the Monarchy they Complained in Parliament and had redress But Now they had no body to complain to but the Commons and they when the Case became their own Answered them with Blows and Death So that what looked so prettily and easy to be affected at a distance when iâ— came to be tryed was found impracticable and the most insufferable Slavery in Nature and one fell to devise one Remedy and another another but none would do and the Commons were not to be dispossest of what had cost them so many Lives to purchase it so the Sword determined the Controversy here too and to the general joy of the whole Nation the General and Army-Saints sent them packing to Consider what they had done and what they deserved but the Wealth they had got by Villany did yet afford them some Consolation in this World As I said before I have been as short as possibly I could and I have purposely omitted many things which should otherwise have been spoken that I might be so and now with the Readers Patience I shall enquire whether the design of extinguishing the Monarchy be really and totally laid aside at this day to which I answer No. For first all the Principal Causes do still subsist We have the same Religions which then we had and they have the same Principles and Dispositions and follow the same Methods they then did they Educate their Children in the same Places and recommend the same sort of Men to the People they did before But there are some things that stand in their way which did not then 1. His Majesty hath a better Revenue then his Father had and this is a great Block in their way but they hope it will end with his Life and in the mean time we know what hath been done to Curb him in that particular 2. His Majesty hath a strong Guard alwayes in Pay so that Tumults are not so safe especially at White-hall Gates as heretofore they were and this is the cause the Nation have been told that they are Papists and dangerous to the Liberty and Property of the Subjects 3. The Militia of the City of London and the rest of the Nation is in Trusty hands and no Rebellion can for the present be safely begun and therefore the Chief Officers are Traduced to the People as Men of Arbitrary
Love of the People by Virtue and Extinguish these Factions by a severe and constant Execution of our Laws as I said before but however this they may be certain of the Enemies of the established Religion are their Irreconcileable and Sworn Enemies And this brings me to the third Thing necessary to be known viz. The several Factions we have amongst us and how to Govern them Which I reckon to be three the Popish the Puritan and the Common-wealth Party which is made up of Men of all Religions in pretence tho in the Bottom they may be suspected to have none Popery was once the Sole Religion of England Popery and altho they were well disposed to throw it off by the Exactions and Oppressions of the Court of Rome in the days of Henry the 2d and King John as appears by the Complaints made of them in the Reign of Richard the 2d and at other times in Parliament yet when Henry the 8th resolved to Extinguish the Pope's Supremacy by an Oath many stuck so heartily to it that they Suffered Death of whom Sir Thomas Moore was the Chief who had been Lord Chancellor of England and besides that Prince maintained the greatest part of the Popish Doctrine intire to his last breath Edward the 6th reformed the Doctrine too but he Lived not long and Queen Mary his Successor threw all things back again into their former state and reconciled her Self and the Nation to the Pope Queen Elizabeth on the other side fallowed the Example of her Brother and settled the Religion as now it stands but then these irregular Motions kept mens Minds in great Suspence so that they knew not what to think and some men had changed so often to Comply with their Princes that at last they were ashamed to change any more and so Continued Papists in Queen Elizabeths time tho they had been Protestants in the Reign of Edward the 6th Others imbraced the Protestant Religion then with a resolution to desert it again if the Times Changed but their Children became sincere and they died in that Profession when they never had any occasion to alter it with Safety And many thro Prejudice and Education and for Want of Means and Ability to Examine things Continued in the Popish Religion but yet the greatest part of the Nation took up an hearty Aversion for it out of a detestation of the Cruelty they had seen used in the Reigns of Henry the 8th and Queen Mary and of the Treacheries they had seen practised against Queen Elizabeth whom they infinitely Loved and Admired And indeed the Length and Prosperity of her Reign had in all Probability put an End to that Faction in England if two things had not kept up their hopes and revived it The first of which was their Expectation that Mary Queen of the Scots would have succeeded her in the Throne who was true to them and when this was Cut off by her death tho that was a long time after yet they still flattered themselves some other person of their Perswasion would inherit her Crown and put an end to their Sufferings And the truth is it is the Nature of Mankind to hope for Extraordinary assistances from God especially when they suffer for Religion and this is it that maketh it so difficult to Extirpate those Factions that are built upon that pretence The second thing that tended to uphold Popery in England was the Policy of Philip the 2d King of Spain who to revenge the Assistance the Queen lent his Subjects in Flanders then in a War with him built several Colledges at Doway and other places for such Priests and Jesuits as fled over to him out of England and endowed them with some small Revenues and these made it their business to draw over as many of the English Youth as they could especially of the Nobility and Gentry and there they bred them up in an invincible hatred of the Religion by Law Established and Others they sent over with Orders to preach up Popery as much as they durst and had it not been for this there had been very few Papists left at that Queens death who reigned 44 Years Tho King James were infinitely disobliged by this Faction at his first coming to the Crown by the Powder-Plot and so made Severer Laws against them than Queen Elizabeth did yet neither were they Carefully Executed in his or his Sons times yet this Faction sensibly decreased and a great part of those that remained were ruined by the War and the late Plot in this King's time hath proved very effectual to bring off many more from that Opinion so that by one means or other it is become one of the most despicable Factions in this Nation and if the Blow had been well followed might perhaps have been intirely ruined Had Queen Elizabeths Methods been well pursued by all her Successors they must in likelyhood have been Extinguished but there was an Odd sort of Policy taken up which was to Slacken the Execution of the Laws against them that they might be a Counter-ballance to the Puritan Faction which produced two great Evils First They were so far from lending us any Assistance against the Dissenters that their Priests encreased the Number of them by Preaching up their Opinions and Adding to them as appears by a small Pamphlet called Foxes and Firebrands which proved they were the Fathers of Extemporary Prayers in Publick assemblies And by several other such Stratagems which they imployed against us Secondly These Dissenters made it their great business to inculcate into the Heads of the Rabble an Opinion That all the Lenity that was used towards the Papists proceeded from a Love to Popery which both made more Puritanes than there would otherwise have been and made them better thought of by the Rabble so that instead of Diminishing or Weakning that Faction it encreased it and added reputation to it and the Papists made the same use of it and drew over some Weak and Unsteady Souls to joyn with them so that our Enemies encreased on both sides but especially the Dissenters and this was all we ever did or can get by that Extravagant piece of Policy Besides all this the People will ever entertain jealous thoughts and be discontented at all those that ever so little favour the Papists and so long as there is any Number of them amongst us besides all the disquiet they give us the Factious Dissenters will take hold of that pretence to do us a mischief as time and opportunity serve So I conclude it is the Interest and Duty of all Magistrates to put the Laws against them Constantly and Vigorously in Execution and especially those against sending their Children beyond Sea to be bred in the Seminaries and Jesuites Colledges where they learn more Malice and more Skill than they could do in England And because this is a work of time it is their Duty in the interim to shew the People two things First That
the Land stank with them And the Common-wealth-men too fared no better than the Presbyterians for when by a long Series of Hypocrisies Perjuries Treasons Bloodshed insufferable Taxes Sequestrations Plunderings and Decimations they had almost ruined and impoverished the Whole Nation their own General and Army at last turn'd them out of Doors and took possession of the spoil and left them to share the Sin and Infamy amongst them And so the Nation after a tryal of a brace of Tyrants and half a dozen Sorts of Common-wealths returned in the Year 1660 to the same state it was in before under his Majesty who now Reigns Whom God Long Preserve I have drawn this Narrative as short as ever I could and by a Necessary Consequence I have been forced to Leave out many Particulars fit for Magistrates to be acquainted with in order to the fully understanding how destructive these Mens Principles and Practices are both of the English Liberties and Government and also of the Religion Established and indeed of all Monarchies whatsoever But if the Reader desire further information he may have recourse to the Piece I cited above of Dr. Stilling fleets and to Dr. Heylin's History of Presbytery who have Learnedly treated with others of this subject at large All that I will infer from it is That be the difficulty what it will these Factions must be suppressed and Extirpated or the Government and Peace of England can never be Secured We all see how Near the brink of Ruine and Destruction they brought us once before and it is ridiculous to expect the same causes will not produce the same effects if they be not Over-ruled by the Divine Providence from which it is in vain to Expect any assistance without our Concurring endeavours as far as we can or may And this a man would think were a sufficient Reason for the putting in Execution all our Laws against them who have treated us so hardly without and against Law and by all the Crimes that ever were or can be perpetrated by men endeavoured to destroy us and he that can seriously reflect upon all this and yet believe that they mean us no harm must be left to Experience the Mistriss of Fools for better information But then the Reader may be pleased to consider it must be a constant as well as a severe Execution that must do the business it is as I said a Work of time and Factions in Religion are not to be suddenly rooted out except we would depopulate our Country as the Spaniards did by banishing the Moores all at once the ill effects of which they have since found but cannot Remedy For if we be sometimes Severe and at others Careless the one will enrage them against us and the other enable them to Execute their Malice upon us at one time or another and it may be when we least expect it tho it is at all times to be feared For they are a Faction in our Bosomes Strong and Vigilant who never did nor will slip any opportunity to advance themselves and bring us under and they will never want Monitors to incite and stirr them up against us as long as there is a Jesuite in the World that is Knave enough to dissemble with God and Man and pretends he is one of their Party And they will never want assistants as long as the Common-wealth Party is in being who can rely upon none but these for the Extirpating the Monarchy So I come to the third Faction which is the Commonwealth Party of which I have been necesfitated to say something before the Time of which Faction I may safely say that it is of no Antiquity for in Antient Times when ever any Contests happened betwixt our Kings and their Subjects tho they Deposed and Murthered several of their Kings as Edward the Second and Richard the Second and Rebelled against others yet they never went about to destroy the Monarchy but set up the right Heirs or others of the Blood in the place of the Dethroned Prince but for any Attempt to set up a Common wealth all our Histories fail us till the last Rebellion and then upon the Murther of Charles the first they declared against Kingly Government and for a Government without a King or House of Peers Some have thought this was no part of their Intention at first but that they came to it by the Event of Affairs beyond their Intentions but he that shall seriously consider by what Steps and Methods they brought things about and the Principles of the chief Men that managed their Affairs can never think that they intended less when they began tho they were forced to conceal their designs because the discovering them too soon would certainly have defeated them And I have read that one of them thanked God that he had Lived to see a Common-wealth settled in England which he had designed to introduce 30 years before And in the Close they did what they could to have had Monarchy and the Royal Family abjured tho they failed in the effecting it Vide the short View of the Late Troubles pag. 471. 1. In the next place it is fit to consider whence this hankering after a Common-wealth sprung and how it came to infect the English Nation some have ascribed this to the more frequent reading of Greek and Latin Authors and tho this might have some effect upon Tainted Minds yet it is a Cause too weak to produce such an Effect And therefore I rather ascribe it First to the Presbyterian Principles for as they are exactly Reipublican as hath been made to appear so the Men who first took up and drive on those Practises were all of that Party to a Man or of those that had ever mightily favoured them 2. In the next place I reckon the Neighbour-hood and Prosperity of the Dutch who having by War freed themselves from all Obedience to their Prince the King of Spain chiefly by the Assistance of the English those Souldiers that had lived many years amongst them took such a fancy for a Common wealth that nothing could satisfie them without it and accordingly I have observed that most of the Officers that the Parliament imployed in the beginning of the late War had been bred Souldiers in the Netherlands 3. As the Papists send their Children to St. Omers and other places to be Educated in an Aversion for our Religion so these Common-wealth Men send theirs to Holland Geneva and other such places from whence they return poysoned with Antimonarchical Principles and are always seeking opportunities to distaste the People with our Ancient Government 4. The discovery of the West-Indies brought a vast Wealth into Europe much of which falling into the hands of the English Nation they grew Proud and Ungovernable especially after King James had put an end to the War with Spain and they had enjoyed a Peace of near Thirty Years Continuance and that Trade and Peace and Wealth should make men Ungovernable