weigh'd and sifted made use of as presages and fore-bodings of good Success whereas we only see it had a very bad one I confess they have an Argument now for altering the Succession which they wanted then viz. the different persuasion in Religion whereas they Depos'd Richard the Second only for a pretended unworthiness unprofitableness and insufficiency But yet I think the contingent danger of parting with our Reform'd Religion can never warrant a certain involving the Nation in the Miseries of a Civil War I conceive if we are Christians 't is no such absurd thing to rely upon Providence too And though this Associator makes Queen Marys Case such an absolute Argument of Popery being introduc'd I must beg leave to observe to him his preposterous Logick and Reasoning to be but proving an absolute and universal Position from a single and particular instance And those Laws then Enacted had never so many Proviso's against the introducing that Religion as perhaps His Majesty would have yielded to had they but accepted of those Gracious Tenders for Limiting the Successor I know the plausible Argument is carried on very smoothly and slips in with a whole heap of Syllogisms If a Popish Prince then a Popish Council If a Popish Council then sure Popish Bishops If Popish Bishops then the Popish Mass too But I can tell them of a more Experienc'd sort of Sorites a sadder heap of Argumentation And already prov'd by frequent Induction If we find a Factious City then a Factious Sheriff If a Factious Sheriff then a Factious Jury If a Factious Jury then all the Factious Fellows are acquitted I confess they have made the Argument pretty strong by showing themselves the Butteress to support it But what if I should barr the necessity of these Conclusions from the Premises I think I should be very Civil to Them and Just to the Case of the Successor Suppose if from this Factious City the King should take his Gracious Charter The City may be Factious still without a Sheriff without a Jury without the fearful Lirry of many such unhappy Consequences And then with Reasonable men there is always the same reason for Contraries Suppose if from a Popish Prince there is so much of Prerogative taken away as when parted with will put him out of a capacity of imposing his Religion on his Subjects He may still be the same Popish Prince without Popish Council without Popish Bishops and without their Popish Mass and Religion being obtruded on the Nation And these sort of Expedients have been as Graciously tender'd as strangely rejected And our careful Patriots not being able thoroughly as they call it to secure us and the Nation by a Total Exclusion in Kindness and order to its Preservation will accept of no Mediums at all If this be the best Politicks of this Age I fancy the ador'd Matchiavil and the Writings of the best Statesmen are unhappily lost or little consulted But as for the deep Design and Hellish Contrivance of this Associator no doubt they are Politick Measures and Zealous Endeavours for his Countreys good The putting it all in a Flame no doubt will purge off all the Dross of Superstition and Idolatry and leave nothing behind it of Arbitrary Power besides the Tyranny of the refined holy Common-wealth And this is the Drift of this disguised Associator and pretended Patriot This Religious State-Bully That can cheat the Nation with the Masque of Holyness and meer Vizard of Piety and make Three Zealous Kingdoms devoutly perish even in working out their own Salvation If it be objected I have made too wide Inferences And that such an Association may not have all those bad Consequences we seem to dread from its being carried on I desire such Gentlemen to consider That there is no Villany but may be comprehended Lawful under such a Specious Pretence And when the old Covenants were sworn to some of the very Subscribers never imagin'd they would have prov'd such Flood-Gates of Hell and let in such a deluge of Impiety Treason and Sacriledge And what less can be expected from such a Combination at this time Than the Subversion of Church and State when they are come to * In the Answer to the Kings Declaration fancy Statute Laws insignificant unless the very Rabble set up for the sole Magistrates and Legislators And all Ecclesiastical Canons Rites and Ceremonies The meer Fopperies of Rome◠and as a sort of superfluous Excrescencies †Mr. A. in his mischief of Impositions of hair and beard And what other way is there left for the stopping these Sluces of Rebellion and Schism But by guarding the Churches Vine from the Wild Boar of the Forrest And defending our Royal Oak from being again cut down with an Ax This alone can supersede the sad Completion of the Parable of Trees Keep the Fire from coming out of the Brambles and devouring the Cedars of Lebanon FINIS
Lawful Authority was that in the year 1638 when the young Embryo of a Covenant was first hatch't in Scotland about Glascow and which serv'd for a Type and Copy to those several that have since follow'd This Primitive one was agreed to in opposition to the King's Proclamation for the dispersing of the dangerous Rabble but his Majesties Security was then dreaded even by those that declar'd so much for his Preservation and straight in defiance of the King's Commands they read their own Protestations made by the Lord Hume and Lord Lindsey and others of several degrees and quality which they publish'd straight at Lithgow and other places as Edenburgh and to shew how much they dar'd Authority they made the Heralds that came to see the Commands of their King Obeyed stay to see them very formally contradicted and exposed And it was high time then to Vnite for the Justification of those Villanies which nought but Impudence and a Combination could defend And I have still observ'd that they all along drew up these Instruments according as they grew more and more Rebellious making them perfect Leagues of Guaranty to defend themselves like Out-laws and a sort of English Banditi from the punishments that the Statutes of Treason would have inflicted And I am sorry to find that our Associators already fly to these Extremities to which none of the late Rebels came till they had made a further progress and this bold leap shrouldly insinuates that they have proceeded further then the Nation is aware of and that they are conscious of more Treason than is yet discover'd These were the occasions of drawing up their first Covenant in Scotland which was preach't up at Glascow to be Christ's Contract and the people desir'd to be hand-fasted to him by shaking hands with it by one Cant a zealous ignorant Bigot that pretended himself an Ambassador from Heaven though indeed onely that of Sir Henry Wottons sent abroad to lye for the Publique And thus we see such Zealots are forc'd to make one sin subservient to another and Blasphemy a Pander to Rebellion The correspondency that there is between this Old Combination and our late new One is observable in this that the one was to justifie a Protestation against the King's Pleasure for dispersing the Rabble and dangerous Multitude the other to contradict his Will in the legal Succession of his Brother And thus in some sense it agrees with the very Primitive Vnion my endeavours shall be to show its agreement with all the rest and of which in truth our Association seems a choice sort of Epitome And I don't doubt but its Author had a collection of them on his Desk for his better information and thought his Subject very justisiable because example for it but that he has of the deposing the King and murdering of him too if he has a mind to plead Prescription and make Treasonable Practices like the legal Proceedings in Parliament warrantable by Presidents An English Oath and Covenant comes out on the 6 th of June 43. and seem'd the effect of the Cities importunity His Majesties Loyal City yet I think seldome call'd so but in some Appeal from the Countrey or in the head of their own Petitions The Citizens promise the Loan of Forty Thousand Pound demanded by the Parliament upon condition an Holy League and Covenant be impos'd on the whole Kingdom A great summ for the purchase of their own Slavery but a small price for the Head of a King To please this City that Bedlam of deluded Fools and Mad-men gull'd always with the specious names of Liberty and Religion and as yet not wise enough to see even through a transparent Fallacy and experienc'd Cheat to please these peevish Ideots they have their humor an the Parliament the money out comes an Oath subscribed by a great number of the Worthy Members and the scandalous Roll to be fill'd up by the Gentlemen of the Shop and Yard many of which afterward serv'd a longer Apprentiship in the bloody Rebellion than e're they did in their own Profession and Employment About the 24 th of August 43. The Scots being â—ickl'd with the promises of our English Committee that was sent thither with an unlimitted Commission and ordered to close with them upon any Conditions first put out a Declaration to publish their intentions of assisting their Friends the Parliament in England and so the bargain is struck for rooting out Monarchy and Episcopacy and the King sold before he came to their hands and strait all that were not incapacitated either by Youth or Old Age all from Sixteen to Sixty that could but lift an hand against their Soveraign are muster'd up for the march And then to secure to themselves the promises of their Chapmen which were no less then a share in all the Revenues of the Church the cunning Merchants instead of Bond and Obligation the common ties in ordinary Traffick invent a new sort of security by solemn League and Covenant which was presently sent over to their State-jobbers at Westminster on the 31 of the same Month and on the 25 th of September following was by them subscrib'd in St. Margarets Church a most improper place for ratifying such a bloody Covenant a Contract which Heaven it self could never sanctifie and which for its lying and hypocrisie seem'd the very draught of Hell Now the method I shall take shall be to Parallel our discover'd Association both with this Holy League that was drawn up by the English and the solemn One that was afterward sent them by the Scots and upon the comparing of the several Paragraphs digress a little into some needful Animadversion but for a little while still continue some general Observations These Treasonable Bonds and Obligations our old Rebels bound themselves in that so they might both be secure of one another and Rebel with a sort of Publique Manifesto and no person question the notoriousness of that Fact which by being so publiquely divulg'd and impudently own'd was made a little famous and this no doubt made Mr. Nye to give it such an Elogy but not content to impose on the frailty onely of a few credulous Mortals they endeavour to abuse even Omniscience it self entitle Heaven to those Villanies which nought but the depth of Hell could contrive call that their Rebellious Association an Holy League make their own abominable Cause that of the Almightie's certainly these Men that declar'd so much for Religion could hardly be suppos'd to know their Bibles where they might soon have found God's dislike of such proceedings where Rebellion is made worse then the sin of Witchcraft and altogether as much an Imp of Hell and the Devil but the profane madness of Zealots is such that they can imagine even the Deity concern'd above for the Seditious Murmurings of the Rabble below and that when ever their Vicegerents are complain'd of by the Faction they are strait by the King of Kings for their
expence of Blood and Moneys If he means the Guards which is very probable because he says still kept up in and about the City of London then I deny that they are to the Terrour and Amazement of all good People for none but the bad are concerned for it and 't is strange that those which are so much for the preservation of his Majesty's Person won't allow of a competent Guard to preserve him from the Bullet of a Pickering or the Blunderbuss of Mr. Colledge And yet these Gentlemen that are so mightily apprehensive of an unaccountable Danger of Arbitrary Power and its being set up by the King's Guards are the very same persons that grin at his Majesty's thanks for his Declaration to govern by Law blazoning that gracious act to consist party per pale of weakness and impertinencie and this they do with these their two bandied argumentations First That such a Submissive Declaration argues too great condescention in a Monarch and weakly makes him Appeal to his Subjects And secondly That the declaring his intention to rule by Law was as impertinent as the thanks for it unnecessary because that by those Laws and his Coronation Oath his Majesty is obliged to do it I think I have express'd their meaning in as civil terms as they usually complement his Majesty withal And now they may fairly give me leave to tell my own sense and judgment of these their sentiments and opinions In my poor Apprehension this gracious Declaration seems 〈…〉 all their froward Petitions And will these bawling Bratts not so much as be pleased with the very Rattles they cry for They still bawl'd for frequent Parliaments and here the King promises they shall have them Popery must be kept out and Property secured And in this he declares to preserve the Protestant Religion and protect them in their Rights and Priviledges The dread of A bitrary Power was the Burden in all those Papers and Parchments they presented And there they are assured that he will govern according to Laws and take them for his sole Measures And now must the same factious Scriblers that writ such smooth Panegyrick on all their Petitions be hired to make such Satyrical Animadversions on his Majesties Declaring to gratify them And shall the King be urg'd and vex'd into Compliance with all their petulant Requests and then have his good Nature traduc'd for Easiness and Folly And shall both Meekness and Tyranny by turns abuse the Government secure an Odium upon it by making both Extreams serve for the purpose If so for God's sake let them shew me the Possibility of keeping up a Monarchy amongst such perverse and implacable Republicans and as for the Condescention they talk of his Majesty is somewhat beholden to these Gentlemen for being so jealous of his Honour But I would ask them what other way could be taken to bring his Majesties Subjects into right understanding of his good Inclinations towards them These Arguers are Conscious to themselves with what black Representations they have blemish'd his Government and to whom shall the King appeal for his Justification but to his poor Subjects that are scared out of their Loyalty by their false and scandalous Suggestions Won't they allow the King what is granted to the most profligate Wretch and Criminal at a Bar not so much as to make his Defence not to have the benefit of every common English Man And what they themselves would expect if they had their Deserts and were arraigned for Treason Sure they show themselves most inveterate Traytors that after they have represented their Prince as a Tyrant would put him out of a possibility of shewing himself Gracious and Merciful they know they have a great advantage with the Rabble against their King upon even Terms why then must he be Libell'd and not suffered to venture a Reply And why shall his Majesty be denied what their Hamburg Sheriff did attempt to vindicate himself in Print All the Answer they can make to it is That then the People will be brought into their Wits again and they will lose the benefit they make of their Distraction The other Whirlbat which they flourish about mightily and put into the Hands of every young Combatant that has a mind to skirmish for the Cause is briefly this That both the King and the Thanks were needless because the King could not do otherwise by Law and his Oath But this is like all the rest of their Arguments against the Government full of Cavil and Spite We will grant them the King can't bring in Arbitrary Power by Law but if they tell the People that it will be brought in without it is the King bound by Law to tell them he intends no such thing These factious Gentlemen are as much bound by the Law and their Oaths of Allegiance to live like dutiful Subjects and to love their Soveraign and should they declare thus much to their King under their Hands as they would do did they really love him I fancy they would be very much netled should not his Majesty return them so much as Thanks for such a Testimony and perhaps grumble too if they were not prefer'd for such a work of Superarrogation Though all this while they are as much obliged by their Oaths to obey as he is to protect but yet these reciprocal Assurances on both sides may be meerly voluntary Suppose some of these Arguers met with a suspected Band of licentious Libertines whom they thought neither the Law of God or Man could deterr from committing any Villany would not they thank this Banditi for assuring them of a safe Passage without Plundering or Murder I appeal to the whole Kingdom whether some of our suspitious Wretches do not daily represent the King and his Council as dangerous altogether as any such parcel of Russians such as would be for enslaving the Nation and cutting of Throats with our Associators mercenary Forces And must not the King be permitted to wipe off such black Scandals expel such Panick Fears and be thank'd by his Loyal Subjects for such comfortable Promises In short if they are satisfied that the King cannot Rule but by the Law why do they dread so much an Arbitrary Power If they are afraid he will Rule without it why won't they thank him for his Assurance to the contrary This Digression is so fur a pertinent Comment on the last Paragraph we handled in the Association as it clears his Majesty from designing an Arbitrary Sway which the bold Associator would insinuate And now we will proceed to compare the rest of his excellent Stuff Associat Moreover J. D. of Y. having publickly own'd the Popish Religion c. I will never consent that the said J. D. of Y. or any other who hath any way adhered to him and the Papists c. shall be admitted to the Succession of the Crown of England But by all lawful Means and by force of Arms will oppose him and indeavour to
Tyranny as Mr. Baxter represents it to punish Dissenters with a Prison when some of them have been willing to croud thither only to make up a Conventicle perverting the very Penalties of the Law to a further opportunity of breaking it and making that subservient to the Crime which was intended to correct it This Animadversion on our Dissenters and their Advocates is both pertinent to this Discourse and favourable to those it reflects on The one because 't is certain their Faction is concern'd in this Association The other because such offenders deserve to be more severely handled And now you shall see the Disparity between a True Patriot and a Factious Associator the difference there is betwixt one that truly Loves his Countrey and him that only pretends it A True Patriot will endeavor the Peace and Quietness of the Kingdom wherein he Lives and if he sits at Helm will so steer the Bark that it may fail securely in the midst of the greatest danger neither split on the Rocks that threaten it on one side Or running into the Quick-sand that would cast her away on the other will endeavour to preserve the Nation from the Popery we fear and from the Fanaticism we have felt One that has helpt to make it flourish in Peace and Plenty this Twenty Years And will endeavour to keep it in the same Prosperity still One that will with Equal Courage resist an English Rebellion that he would a Spanish Invasion That won't endeavour to satisfie every discontended grumbler but remove all real motives to complaint and murmuring That will keep to the Rules of Law and Justice as the best means to keep the Peace too Free from all Passion and Interest and so can neither trouble the Kingdom by the Turbulency of the one or defraud it by the Temptations of the other A Factious Associator makes it his business to disturb the Countrey wherein he Lives with as much Fear and Jealousie as Thought can suggest or Malice invent for 't is Quietness and Peace that makes him idle and without Employ 'T is a sort of Sea-Monster that shows himself most before a Storm And endeavors to overset that Ship which he is not Capacitated to Steer His Eyes are set on the Publique Ministers of State not to pry into their Actions but murder their Reputations Not to search them like an Eagle but to sacrifice them like a Basilisk 'T is a State Cannibal that delights in blood and triumphs in the Miseries of a Civil War One that makes Religion a pretence for Rebellion Though as empty of the one as brim full of the other One that would flush himself in the Spoils of a New War though glutted almost with the blood that was shed in the Old 'T is the rarified Chamaeleon That out-does the natural one feeds not so much as upon Air But only Popular breath Sets the Nation all in Combustion and then like a secure Salamander lives in the flame One that seems Hells Purveyor and like the Devil makes his Covenanting Imps subscribe their Contracts in their own blood That Sails securely by tacking about with Wind and Tide and exposes the Government to be shatter'd in the Tempest That talks of nothing but the Consumption of the Body Politick only because his Natural one pines with discontent The one will with an earnest even anxious sollicitation of mind seek to reconcile the jarring hearts of Subjects to their Lawful Prince Let them understand the goodness and equity of the merciful King that governs will help his gracious Monarch to make all manner of good impression on his Subjects and give his people all imaginable satisfaction will perswade them to acquiesce with his Majesty's reasons for dissolving an old Parliament and his Gracious promises for calling a new one that will thank him for such kind Assurances and Declaration and not extenuate so gracious an action with a talk of Oath and Obligation will open the blind eyes of the deluded Rabble and take away the Veil of Popularity that blinds the discontented great The other pursues with the greatest aggravation the least slip in the Government stirs up Jealousies and Animosities between King and People to prevent the Reconciliation that would otherwise ensue for then the little Artifices he uses to foment Sedition would be illuded and his Engines of Rebellion Libels Associations Remonstrances would grow rusty and useless He is bound in prudence to make the Peoples Cause his Own and for his security to be guarded by his Whifflers the Rabble is grieved and afflicted when the King comforts his People perverts the best things to the worst sense daubs and disfigures all with his Colours which is like to wipe off the pretence and Varnish of his Cause cavils at the Declaration of his Prince because intended to satisfie the People proves the Parliament unreasonably dissolved because the King gives good reason for it makes the Nation believe it shall never see another when the he Declaration promises the contrary but yet thinks sit to extort it from the King by Petition for fear it should pass otherwise for his Gratious action deludes the silly Mobile with expectations of being great and perswades the Nobility they are not truly so without a Popular greatness The one is for the uniting the people in affection and charity if he can't obtain it in Perswasion and Religion won't multiply foes by Suspition or create dangers out of a Panick fear one that will never hugg a Popish Plot as tenderly as the Nursing-Father of it a Jesuit No such Ambidexter as to make a Bugbear and Darling of the same thing and both equally subservient to his purpose No such mimical Ape as with distorting squinting looks ridicules every thing in his countenance that does not suit with his froward Genius He is a perfect piece of sincerity and never makes a Juglers-box of his Conscience swallowing down Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and bringing up nothing but Treasonable Covenants and Associations like those Impostors that are seen to let down but harmless Tape and Ribband yet disgorge Knives and Daggers He will submit to the Lawful Authority of the State and conform to the constant Discipline of the Church will with an awful respect look upon the Crown and pay his due reverence to the Mitre will oppose the Toleration of all Religion as the ready way to have none He will truly stand up for the Liberty of the Subject and not make it a pretence to enslave them One that will trust his Prince with Money for the support of his Crown and Dignity and allow him a competent Guard for the preservation of his Person One that will swear Allegiance to none but his King And lastly never out of fear of a contingent danger will raise a present War for altering Succession The other is so far from reconciling differences in Religion that he can hardly admit of a good opinion of any not of his own sentiments transubstantiates