in plain English most deliberate wilful and wicked Murders being committed under Colour and Pretence of Law of most of which Judgment hath been reversed by Authority of Parliament and that I think it differs not much in the fight of God whether a Man have his Hand or his Tongue dip'd therein And I doubt not but the great and good Sir Matthew Hale would have been of the same Opinion which this Gentleman who gives him those deserved Characters will find some Reason to believe if he please to peruse but The Account of the Good Steward concerning the Gift of Elocution But to the business The Votes of 23 Jan. have enumerated thirteen Heads of Crimes for every one of which some Persons may be excepted out of the Bill of Indemnity Against all Punishments of these our Lawyer takes Exception as Punishments never declared or promulged and which by the Standing Laws and Common Justice of the Realm could not be inflicted That is to say They are neither Treason Felony nor Misdemeanours For for all those there are Punishments declared and to be inflicted by the Standing Laws and Common Justice of the Realm I must add Nor Crimes punishable by any Statute And this is the least that these Words can imply So that we must suppose that they are nothing like any of those we meet with in the Impeachments Indictment Articles c. against those Flatterers and Evil Counsellors and Instruments of Princes which my Lord Coke mentions in his Chapter of Flattery or any others to be found in our Records Books of Entries Reports or Statutes not so much as those concerning the High-Commission Court 17 Car. I. But the contrary of all this is so well known to all who have looked into the Records and Books aforesaid that it is as needless as improper for this Paper to offer to recite them But in stead of that I will shew him that which is more that is That the Parliament may declare those things to be Treason the punishment whereof is sufficiently known which never were nor can now by the Ordinary Judges though in the late Reigns they are believ'd to have exceeded their Bounds be judged such and that by the express Words of the Statute 25 E. 3. And because that many other like Cases of Treason may happen in time to come which a man cannot think or declare at this present time it is accorded That if any other Case supposed Treason which is not above specified doth happen before any Justices the Justices shall tarry without any going to Judgment of the Treason till the Cause be shewed and declared before the King and his Parliament whether it ought to be adjudged Treason or other Felony Besides for such Crimes as are of their own Nature great Crimes and not meerly by some positive Law of the State there is neither Law nor Reason why the Legislative Authority in any State should not order and inflict such Punishments as they deserve And among those may doubtless be reckoned all such as have a direct tendency to the Subversion of the Laws and Government of any Stateâ— But Treason against the Kingdom as well as against the King may be found in our Books of Law and History And now I know not what most to admire in this Gentleman his profound Skill in the Law the Modesty of his Assertions or his Honesty and Conscience I cannot but think him a very proper Person to have been one of the Servants of former Crowns one of the last Kings Ministers Officers or Instruments of Justice He was certainly well qualify'd for lit and his Zeal for their Vindication discovers that he had some concern of his own in it And so confident a Gentleman and so qualify'd one would think should get in somewhere now at least into the Parliament and no doubt but set up by the Faction and a great stickler there one of those who are recommended by our Vindicators not only for Pardon and Indemnity but for Favour and Employment to our present King And no doubt but he will be well served by them as well as he was the last Year I cannot let this pass without some further Reflection It is not at all besides the Design of my Writing and no great Digression from that particular matter I am now upon Our other Vindicator tells us that His Majesty came a Stranger to England and but darkly informed of the true Arcana of the last two Reigns and of the Practices and Principles of particular Men it being so much their interest to vail them from his View Whence it is to be suppos'd that at his coming to the Government the Representation made him of Persons and Things could not but receive a Tincture of the many different Principles and Interests of those who made them Considering which it 's no wonder that in such a Maze of Business and Mist of various Representations his Majesty's Bounty might happen to to be misplac'd in some one or other page 29. I know not any thing more truly and reasonably said by that Writer It was indeed a great Disadvantage his Majesty was under being unacquainted with the Principles and Interests of Persons And as that was just Cause both of Caution in the Choice and of Excuse of him from any ill Choice upon the recommendation of others so doth it aggravate the Fault of such recommendations and recommend the Service of such as detect them I shall therefore for the more comple at Detection of some ill Men to what I have before observed add this for Confirmation 1. That the Persons concerned in these Vindications are Men of dangerour Principles in respect of the present Government For if these Crimes be not punishable by Law then are all they who invited the Prince of Orange to come in with an Army and all that associated with him Traytors and he himself an Invader and Usurper 2. They are Men of Arbitrary Principles and so dangerous to the Nation and the true ancient Constitution of this Government For if these Crimes be not punishable by Law our English Monarchy is gone and we are already fallen into a French or Turkish Tyranny 3. They are dangerous Persons to be employed or trusted in respect of their Genius Men of smooth voluble Tongues and of Confidence to impose any thing Of which I could add divers Instances to those I have noted before But I will add only this because it may serve also for another purpose He tells us If the thirteen Heads c. had been reduced into a Law one third at least of the Nation had been involved who with their disoblig'd Relations and Dependents is not so contemptible a Flock c. Now if every one of this third part had but one Relative or Dependent they would make two thirds if two they would make the compleat number of the Nation but if many of them have 10 20 100 as many certainly have they would far exceed the number of
either an Act of impudent Imposture and a Cheat or Abuse or it may be feared we are again relapsing into the same unhappy Circumstances But I suppose I shall make it appear that there is a double Imposture in it that is That neither had the Writer that Authority for what he did which was design'd he should be thought to have had nor was it designed sincerely to serve the Publick Authority of the Nation the Present Government but to cover the Evil Practices of those Persons who were the Authors of our Disappointments the last Year that they may the better do the like again this And probably if the business be well examined he will be found to have been employed by some of them who are therefore the proper Authors of it for that end and not by that Honourable Person whom they have made so bold with by this Dedication of what 's written as he saith in Defence of others There are three Phrases by which usually the Leave of Authority for the Publication of Books is briefly expressed The most common is Licensed which signifies a written License under the Hand of some Person authorized to give it Another is with Allowance which implies a Verbal Leave but of some Person of great Place and Authority The third is what the Authors have thought fit to prefix to this Book Published by Authority And this as I take it implies more than a bare leave viz. Something of a Command and of some great Authority more than a bare Allowance or License of a Secretary of State But what that Authority should be by which this is published I believe will not be easie to find or discover Only what it is not will not be difficult to perceive even from the consideration of the Book it self and divers Passages in it Nothing can be so truly innocently honestly and plainly said but it may be contradicted or opposed by a Man of Wit and Parts with some colour and appearance of Reason of which the Oration of Carneades against Justice is a sufficient Instance and by one who hath no great store of either with Railing and Foul Language of which this Pamphlet we are now considering presents us with a pregnant Instance No less than Folly Enthusiasm Visionar Enthusiastick Illumination deluded Notion of Inspiration Indiscretion Excentrick Zeal Quakers Impulse are all at one Volly let fly at the Author of the Reflections by this mighty Champion the Vindicator of the King the Parliament and the whole State at his first Charge all in one Paragraph published by Authority if we will believe him besides divers single Shots afterwards as Silly precipitant Zeal hot Politician Lucid Intervals Extatick Sermon Revengeful Spirit c. After such a Charge it is no wonder to see such a Champion with no little Ostentation insult over his vanquished Adversary and upbraid him with his confined Sphere narrow Sphere short Line want of Knowledge of Affairs of State small Skill in Affairs abroad gross Ignorance in the Affairs of Europe little Skill in Politicks none at all in History unacquaintedness with Philosophy and such gross mistakes in the Motion of natural Bodies as to believe a moving Cart may be stayed by Witchcraft Such stuff as this is agreeable enough to the quality of a Mercenary Writer a temporizing Observator a Mountebank a Quack and might have passed with some ordinary Licencers But as it doth never advantage any Cause so it is usually a sign of either a very barren Cause or a very shallow brain where it is much used without any Proof or Reason And therefore Men in great Authority do rarely imploy such Writers or if they do do it only by some Secret Encouragement not by any Publick Authority And if this general consideration be not sufficient to render the Authors suspected of Imposture in that respect the Writer himself hath supplied us in the very next Page with special matter to help it out telling us that the King by a Prodigy of good Nature has laid aside the Resentment such a Pamphlet would have met with in any Reign but His And if this be not yet enough he immediately adds his own Sentence of Self-condemnation And where the King forgives its ill manners to stint the Royal Bounty by ill Treating the Griminal For if any one besides this Champion would be guilty of such ill manners it ought not certainly to be believed that any one near the King or of any great Authority would by Publickly Authorizing it Much less that so ill a treatment should be Authorized by that Noble Lord to whom they have presumed to Dedicate it Sure I am he had no great reason to do it if he acted any great part in the Transactions and the Vindication be written in Defence of others What is here inferred from the Modesty and Decency of the Terms and Language may likewise be inferred from the Truth and Honesty of the Suggestions Assertions and Inferences It would be too long to examine all and besides needless I will therefore for brevity sake only confront three or four of the Assertions with the words of the Reflections and leave the Reader to consider how proper and likely such Candor and Ingenuity is to be Published by Authority Pag. 9. He chargeth the Author of the Reflections speaking of the Danish Forces with Asserting plainly They will prove a greater Burthen than Advantage to us Whereas the words of the Reflections are only thus The Season of the year is now far gon that they are more like to prove a Burden this Winter than any Advantage to us And this is called a Calumny Pag. 13. but with how great reason the Reader may there see Again in the same Pag. 13. reciting the words of the Reflections concerning our Losses at Sea he concludes Speaking of the Author that He boldly adde That our Merchants Ships have been made a prey to those who should have been their Guide and Convey Whereas the Reflections insted of holdly adding what he saith cautiously premise a Parenthesis which this honest and candid Gentleman was so bold as to leave out viz. If the Complaints of our Merchants and their Mariners be true But never did our Champion behave himself more bravely and like himself than when he comes to talk of the Abdication That one Paragraph of the Reflections makes him lay about him indeed like a Man of mettle for three Paragraphs together It seems he was not a little concerned at it and where the Concern lay is not hard to be perceived But here I shall only take notice of one instance more for my present purpose leaving the rest to the Readers observation Pag. 21. he tells us Our new Politician is downright offended at the Parliament for finding King Jame's Departure an Abdication of the Government c. This certainly is no less than a piece of Jesuitical Modesty where-ever this Traveller learnt it The words of the Reflections are down right the contrary There was
have secured him and it against the Abuses put upon him and the whole Nation by evil Men under pretence of it if he durst but have truested them This is very plain from the Prevalence of that part of the Parliament which although the King had withdrawn another part to Oxford which would certainly have joyned with them were yet able to carry the Vote That the Kings Concessions were Satisfactory Nor were that part which afterward brought the King to his Tryal able to have carried any thing against him had they not first by Force which had never been raised had not the King been carried away by his criminal Favorites secluded most of the Principal men of the other part But though the King might have trusted them yet were there those about him who conscious of their own guilt having been the evil Counsellors and Promoters of those illegal Practices which occasioned the War durst not stand the Tryal and therefore having first betrayed him into those mischiefs before mentioned betrayed him now a second time by withdrawing him for their own security from the Parliament and with him divers Members of both Houses who would have been more serviceable there both to him and to the Kingdom and so at length involved him in that fatal Civil War for their own defence which brought him to that unhappy end These were the true Authors of that War and these are the Forty one Men who deserve to be remembred with no less detestation by all Posterity than those of Forty eight who only finished what the others had begun This I have related the more largely because I see the same wicked Practices carried on by the Ringleaders of those who have Forty one much in their Mouths and they who are not satisfied with may Reason may see it if they please confirmed by Authority of King and Parliament in the Preamble of the Act of Attainder 12. Car. 2. c. 30. 2. The Methods for raising and heightning the Differences in the Church were first by improving the Prejudices which King James had conceived against some Zealots in Scotland into like prejudice first against the Puritans in England then against all truly Religious and Conscientious People as Puritans and Precisians and at last against all who discovered any great warmth against Popery By this means Formality and Indifference in Religion was brought into fashion and encouraged and sincere Religion and Devotion slighted and discountenanced And for this purpose was the Book of Sports upon the Lords day set out and ordered to be Read in Churches and many good men put out of their Livings for refusing to Read it And when by these means Formality and Popery being favoured and sincere Religion not only slighted but oppressed contrary to Law discontents could not but rise these were again made use of to represent the best part of the Nation as ill affected to Monarchy and the Church because they began to be sensible of the approaches of Tyranny and Popery and of the over-speading of Formality And this is the true Original of the great outcries The Monarchy and The Church being in danger as indeed they were but the one of degenerating into Tyranny and the other into mear Formality if not Popery whereby multitudes were imposed upon to put their helping hands to overturn both one way while they were craftily made believe that others were doing it the other for these had their influence in producing the late Civil War in conjunction with those before mentioned 3. By the same means was the Foundation laid for the Corruption of the Manners of the Nation But by what Means and Methods that was promoted before the Kings Restauration and afterward rais'd to that height in his Reign is not much to my present purpose though we feel the ill effects thereof and are still like to do so if they be not reformed The Dismal Consequences of these things to the King to the Church and to the whole Nation sad Experience at length taught her careless and inconsiderate Scholars who disregarded the milder and safer Admonition of Provident Wisdom And though the Effects and Consequences were such as one would think should not easily or quickly be forgotten yet because the Practices and Causes are so little understood or considered by a great part of the Nation that they seem disposed to be as much imposed upon again and run into the like Confusions to this brief and plain Narrative I will add some few Observations to stop the Current and give some warning against the Danger And First To such as have any Sense of Religion and Acquaintance with the Works and Methods of the Divine Providence it will not be hard to perceive That the Original of all those Evils in which King James involved himself and his Family was his Deserting of that great Duty of Trust and Considence in and firm Dependance upon that Providence which had with so much case and safety brought him to the Throne of these Kingdoms beyond his expectation and given him so great an Experiment of its Protection by so amazing a Deliverance from so great and imminent a Danger and applying himself to vain worldly Wisdom in seeking Security by Compliance and Alliances with Enemies those very Enemies from whose subtile Machinations he had been so admirably delivered and prostituting his Religion to those Politicks which was somewhat of Kin to the Sin of Jeroboam which stuck so close to his House Secondly The immediate Evil which he and his Family thereby incurred was a most just and suitable Punishment viz. To be deserted by that Providence which he first deserted and be given up Rehoboam-like to the evil and pernicious Counsels of those flattering and deceitful Favourites whom they chose and adhered to This was one and a special part of the Fate of the Family out of which they never extricated themselves though they had divers fair Opportunities and very cogent Motives offered to them to have done it Thirdly That which exposed him and them the more to this Fate and intangled them the deeper therein was an insatiable Desire and Affectation of an absolute Dominion which was not so much satisfied as inlarged by the Accession of those two Crowns of England and Ireland to his former one of Scotland and a certain Degeneracy of mind the usual effect of unjustifiable Actions or insincere Designs which made them neglect the Legal Privy Council and avoid the Presence of Parliaments as People in a Fault do the sight of their best Friends till some necessity constrain them And this gave Opportunity and Encouragement to those Evil Counsellors to entangle them more and more in illegal Projects and Practices which made them so much the more afraid of Parliaments to whom it belongs to enquire and consider of such matters and adhere the faster to those Favourites till they became so united to them that they thought themselves struck at in whatever was done or proposed against them Fourthly