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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A49824 Honesty is the best policy Lawton, Charlwood, 1660-1721. 1689 (1689) Wing L739A; ESTC R43362 10,685 6

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can very well comply with the Equal and Hereditary Monarchy of England I never was an Enemy to the word Monarchy nor design'd to interrupt the Succession of the Crown nor do I think it the Interest of any Man that loves Peace and these Nations to do it On the contrary I at this day affirm tho we ought always to have expected Terms from King James or have sent them to him We ought not tho I would have good Ones even now to make such as would make him justly Uneasy so unreasonable Ones as would be unfit for him to grant We must deal impartially if we would ever compose Things We ought to shew our Claim or at least our Necessity and we ought to couch Things in such Words as tho they speak plainly our Sense may have a due Regard to his Dignity Forgiveness and Righteousness have been preached to him as the certain Establishment of his Throne He has been humbled by Afflictions He has heard of his Mistakes and has hearkned to free Advice He has Reason to have it and he has Temper and perhaps both he and we may be the better for our Tribulations if we once accommodate our Disputes I never flattered the King I have spoken plainer to him than I write now and I believe I am not the less acceptable to him for my Plainness And as to any Objection and Scruple that may be raised by a Declaration that is Published in his Name I must say I know no more than he that Reflects upon it whether it be King Jame's Declaration or no For about three Years since there was a Declaration Published in his Name and for the Spreading of which several People were Imprisoned That I was afterwards told by the Author King James knew nothing of And I must say further That that Declaration that has been lately Published does not answer to the Spirit I left him in many Months ago for as I said he told me he sent me to make a * The Word BARGAIN is a term of condiscending Language BARGAIN to know what it was his People would have I can't answer for what Accounts other People sent him but I am sure he will so far justify me as to say I have been ever against excepting Mens Lives or Fortunes I have been ever for being very Explanative about the Liberties of my Country and if any body with him or any here have led him into Measures that are disgustful to the People I think I may boldly aver It is Misinformation and not Malice that makes him ●vable to Misconstruction Those that wish for the best Things are the shyest have ever been too shy towards him and it is not impossible that this Government may bribe Some body to give too plausible Names and Reasons for those Things that may turn to the King's Prejudice as some did here before the Prince of Orange came But the day that he really refuses from any sort of Men that can shew a probability of bringing him home any Proposals that have tendency to Universal Good he gives leave to his Subjects to have recourse to the Laws of Self-preservation Then and not till then he Abdicates his Crown This is speaking plain English you see I speak plainly concerning what the King must do Therefore let me also speak some plain Truths and rehearse some Matters of Fact to my Countrymen And here I will begin with asserting That if the People would be true to themselves at the Restauration and careful i● the Elections of Members to Parliament we need no other Treaty but what the King will be forc'd to make good in the first Sessions We need not fear French o● Papists We are too large and too brave a Country t● be a Plantation France cannot spare from off the Continent Men enough to govern us contrary to our Inclinations And tho our Histories talk of our being Conquered any Man of Sense sees it was by Composition It was from Parties within and not from Force without us As for the Roman Catholicks their Numbers are inconsiderable and tho they have good Estates and some Men of great Natural Sagacity amongst them yet their having been out of Business keeps them from understanding the Knack and Turns of it And whatever weak People think a King of that Perswasion in a Protestant Country is more properly than any other Laws can make him a de bene pla●cito King. Sir Will. Temple's Observations upon the Netherlands and his Essay upon Governments can never be too often read by Prince or People The one may be taught by it how to Govern and the other cured of unreasonable Fears Standing Armies are the justest dread to Civil Liberties but they are many ways as dangerous to Kings as they can be to their People A beloved General may turn their Competitor and every Mutiny shakes their Thrones And the King that will make his Subjects Slaves by their hands must be as much and more a Slave to them If the Troops are Foreign he must be the Tributary and Vassal of that Prince who lends them and if they are home-bred Forces the Dispositions of the Populace will infect the Army But besides all this no Country tho they may maintain Forces enough to suppress a sudden Insurrection can possibly maintain enough to govern contrary to the general Genius of the Nation The People of Turky hold all their Lands of the Crown and like their Government and as for the Peasante of France they talk daily of their grand Monarch An ill concerted Conspiracy may miscarry Hot-headed Men may expect too soon to fire their Country-men but general Dissatisfactions are no more to be withstood than general Conflagrations When Necessity and Self-preservation arm Men let their Weapons be what they will they will cur their way through all Opposition Indeed if a People are divided as we are the Danger must be common or very notorious before they make use of their Intrinsick Power But if some Laws were enacted to keep Ecclesiastick Controversies out of the Pulpit and the People were not taught to believe what in cases of Extremity humane Nature will never practise If Divines are not suffered to dispose of the Kingdoms of this World Civil Crimes and Rights will be soon called by their proper Names and we shall recover our Liberties in a Parliamentary way before Things grow desperate It is dangerous and ought to be criminal for them to pretend to set out the Boundaries of Government They may preach in general submission to Authority but they are not to bring Texts of Scripture and much less Aristotle's Ideas or Zenophon's Cyrus to overthrow our statute-Statute-books and depretiate the Laws of England By an Act of Parliament in the time of King James the First no Man that was not Batchellor in Divinity was to preach about Predestination or Free-will because that Controversy then troubled the Church and sure I am That the Clergy of no Degree ought to preach about