Lord Balmerino a Pardon'd Traytor and the Son of One. His Father had been a Favourite and principal Secretary to King Iames and rais'd by him out of Nothing to his Estate and Dignity Yet was this Thankless Wretch Arraign'd for and Attainted of High-Treason and after Sentence to be Drawn Hang'd and Quarter'd he was by the Kings Mercy pardon'd and restor'd Another eminent Covenanter was the Earl of Arguile of whom Walker gives this Accompt He brought his Father to a pension outed his Brother of his Estate Kintyre ruin'd his Sisters by cheating them of their portions and so enforcing them into Cloysters It must needs be a Conscientious Design with such Saints as These in the Head of it This Covenant was effectually no other then a Rebellious Vow to oppose the Kings Authority and Iustifie Themselves in the exercise of the Soveraign power which they assum'd to a degree even beyond the claim of Majesty it self pleading the Obligation of the Covenant to all their Vsurpations They Levyed Men and Moneys Seiz'd the Kings Magazines and strong Holds Rais'd Forts Begirt his Castles Affronted his Majesties Proclamations Summon'd Assemblies Proclaim'd Fasts Deprived and Excommunicated Bishops Abolish'd Episcopacy Issued out Warrants to choose Parliament-Commissioners Renounced the Kings Supream Authority Trampled upon Acts of Parliament pressing their Covenant upon the Privy-Council They gave the last Appeal to the generality of the People discharging Counsellors and Iudges of their Allegiance and threatning them with Excommunication in case they disobeyed the Assembly All this they did according to the Covenant and whether This was Religion or Ambition let the World judge These Affronts drew the King down with an Army to the Borders and within two Miles of Barwick the two Bodies had an Enterview March 28 1639. But the Scots craving a Treaty his Majesty most graciously accorded it Commissioners were appointed Articles agreed upon and a Pacification concluded Iune 17. Not one Article of this Agreement was observ'd on the Covenanters part but immediately upon the Discharge of his Majesties Forces the Scots brake forth into fresh Insolencies and the Incroachments upon the Prerogative addressing to the French King for Assistance against their Native Soveraign And yet the Quarrel was as they pretended for the Protestant Religion and against Popery In August 1640 they entred England and upon a Treaty at Rippon soon after a Cessation is agreed upon referring the Decision of all Differences to a more General Treaty at London In November began the Long Parliament and now the Scene is London Where with great License and Security Parties are made and Insolencies against the Government committed and authorized under protection of the Scotch Army and the City-Tumults By degrees Matters being prepar'd and ripened they found it opportune soon after to make something a more direct Attempt upon the Soveraignty but by Request first and resolving if that way fail to try to force it In Ianuary they Petition for the Militia In February they secure the Tower and in March Petition again for 't But so that they Protest If his Majesty persist to deny it they are resolv'd to take it And the next day it is Resolved upon the Question That the Kingdom be forthwith put into a posture of Defence by Authority of both Houses of Parliament In April 1642 the Earl of Warwick seizes the Navy and Sir Iohn Hotham Hull Refusing the King Entrance which was justified by an ensuing Vote and his Majesty proclaiming him Traytor for it was Voted a Breach of Priviledge In May they pretended Governour of Hull sends out Warrants to raise the Trained Bands and the King then at York forbids them moving the County for a Regiment of the Trained Foot and a Troop of Horse for the Guard of his Royal Person Whereupon it was Voted That the King seduced by wicked Counsel intended to make a War against his Parliament and that whosoever shall assist him were Traytors They proceeded then to corrupt and displace divers of his Servants forbidding others to go to him They stop and seise his Majesties Revenue and declare That whatsoever they should Vote is not by Law to be questioned either by the King or Subjects No Precedent can limit or bound their Proceedings A Parliament may dispose of any thing wherein the King or People have any Right The Soveraign Power resides in Both Houses of Parliament The King hath no Negative Voice The levying of War against the Personal commands of the King though accompanied with his Presence is not a levying of War against the King but a levying War against his Laws and Authority which they have power to declare is levying War against the King Treason cannot be committed against his Person otherwise then as he was Intrusted They have Power to judge whether he discharge his Trust or not that if they should follow the highest Precedents of other Parliaments Patterns there would be no cause to complain of want of Modesty or Duty in them and that it belonged only to them to judge of the Law Having stated and extended their Power by an absurd illegal and impious severing of the King's Person from his Office their next work is to put Those Powers in execution and to subject the Sacred Authority of a lawful Monarch to the Ridiculous and Monstrous Pageantry of a Headless Parliament And That 's the Business of the 19 Propositions demanding That the great Affairs of the Kingdom and Militia may be managed by Consent and Approbation of Parliament all the great Affairs of State Privy-Council Ambassadors and Ministers of State and Judges be chosen by Teem that the Goverment Education and Marriage of the King's Children be by Their Consent and Approbation and all the Forts and Castles of the Kingdom put under the Command and Custody of such as They should approve of and that no Peers to be made hereafter should Sit and Vote in Parliament They desire further That his Majesty would discharge his Guards Eject the Popish Lords out of the House of Peers and put the Penal Laws against them strictly in Execution and finally That the Nation may be govern'd either by the Major part of the Two Houses or in the Intervals of Parliament by the Major part of the Councel and that no Act of State may be esteemed of any validity as proceeding from the Royal Authority without Them Upon these Tearms they insisted and Rais'd a War to Extort them So that 't is clear they both design'd and fought to Dethrone his Majesty and exercise the Soveraign Power themselves which was to Suit their Liberty of Acting to that of Sitting and to make themselves an Almighty as well as an Everlasting Parliament CAP. IV. The Instruments and Means which the Conspirators imployed to make a Party THat their Design was to usurp the Government is manifest Now to the Instruments and Sleights they use to compass it The
Faction of the Two Houses Publish'd a Protestation which was but a Gentle slip into the Prerogative Royal to try their Interest and by degrees to inure the People to their intended and succeeding Usurpations Some four or five days after were signed those Two Fatal Bills for the Death of the Earl of Strafford and the Perpetuity of the Parliament And having now gain'd leave to sit as long as they please they have little futther to ask but that they may likewise do what they list Where Loyalty was made a Crime 't was fit Rebellion should pass for a Vertue Upon which suitable equity the Scots were Justified and Voted our Dear Brethren 300000 l. in Iune 1641 and Six-score thousand more in August following and so we Parted In this Perplexity of Affairs the King takes a Journey into Scotland it possible to secure an Interest there but the Conspiracy was gone too far to be composed by Gentleness Upon his Majesties Departure the Houses Adjourn and during the Recess appoint a standing Committee and They forsooth must have a Guard for fear of their own Shadows In which Interval of the King's Absence the Usurpers lost no time as appear'd by their readiness to Entertain him at his Return When the first Present they made his Majesty was the Petition and Remonstrance of December 15 which I cannot think upon but that Text comes into my mind of Mark 15.18 Hail King of the Iews and they smote him on the head with a Reed and spate upon him and bowed the head and did him reverence This Impious Libel was seconded with an Audacious Tumult even at the Gates of the King's Palace and it was now high time for his Majesty to enquire into the Contrivers and Abettors of these and other the like Indignities and Proclamation was accordingly made for the Apprehending of them which very Proclamation was declared to be a Paper False scandalous and Illegal After this Language what had they more to do but by Armed Violence to invade the Soveraignty and to improve a loose and popular Sedition into a Regular Rebellion Which was a little hastned to even beside the Terms of Ordinary Prudence to implunge their Complices beyond Retreat before they should discern that hideous Gulf into which their Sin and Folly was about to lead them To keep their Zeal and Fury waking the Faction had a singular Faculty at Inventing of Plots Counterfeiting Letters Intercepting Messages Over-hearing Conspiracies Which Artificial Delusions especially asserted by the pretended Authority of a Parliament and a Pulpit could not but work strong Effects of Scruple and Iealousie upon a pre-judging and distemper'd People These were the means and steps by which they gain'd that Power which afterward they Employed in Opposition to those very ends for which they sware they Rais'd it leaving us neither Church nor King nor Law nor Parliaments nor Properties nor Freedoms Behold the Blessed Reformation Wee 'l slip the War and see in the next place what Government they Gave us in Exchange for That they had Subverted CAP. V. A short View of the Breaches and Confusions betwixt the Two Factions from 1648 to 1654. IT cannot be expected that a Power acquir'd by Blood and Treason maintain'd by Tyranny the Object of a General Curse and Horrour both of God and Nature only Vnited against Iustice and at perpetual Variance with it self I say it cannot be expected that such a Power as this should be Immortal Yet is it not enough barely to argue the Fatality of Wickedness from the Certainty of Divine Vengeance and There to stop Vsurpers are not rais'd by Miracle nor cast down by Thunder but by our Crimes or Follies they are Exalted and Then by the Fatuity of their own Counsels down they Tumble Wherefore let us enquire into the Springs and Reasons of their Fortunes and Falls as well as Gaze upon the Issues of them A timely search into the Grounds of one Rebellion may prevent another How the Religious Opposers of the late King advanced themselves against his Sacred Authority we have already shew'd be it our business here to Observe their workings one upon the other To begin with Them that began with Vs The Presbyterians having first asserted the Peoples Cause against the Prerogative and attempting afterwards to Establish Themselves by using Pregogative-Arguments against the People found it a harder matter to Erect an Aristocracy upon a Popular Foundation than to subvert a Monarchy upon a Popular Pretence or to dispose the Multitude whom they themselves had Declar'd to be the Supream Power to lay down their Authority at the Feet of their Servants In fine they had great Difficulties to struggle with and more than they could overcome I mean great Difficulties in point of Interest and Conduct for those of Honour and Conscience they had subdu'd long since They strove however till opprest by a general hatred and the Rebound of their own Reasonings they Quitted to the Independent Thus departed the Formal Bauble Presbytery succeeded for the next Four years by the Phanaticism of a Free-State The better half of which time being successfully Employ'd in the subjecting of Scotland and Ireland to their power and Model and to compleat their Tyranny over the Kings Best Subjects and their Vsurpations over his Royal Dominions Their next Work was to make themselves Considerable Abroad and 't was the Fortune of the Dutch to feel the First proof of That Resolution Betwixt these Rival States pass'd Six Encounters in 1652. most of them Fierce and Bloody the Last especially a Tearing one Upon the whole the Dutch lost more but the English got little beside the Honour of the Victory in which particular the Kingdom pay'd dear for the Reputation of the Common-Wealth This success rais'd the pride and vanity of the English so that at next Bout nothing less would serve them than an absolute Conquest But while they are providing for it and in the huff of all their Glory behold the Dissolution of the Long-Parliament which whether it began or ended more to the satisfaction of the People is a point not yet decided Dissolved however it is and Rebuk'd for Corruptions and Delays by Cromwell who with his Officers a while after Summon a new Representative and Constitute a new Counsel of State compos'd of Persons entirely disaffected to the Common-wealth This Little Ridiculous Convention thought to have done mighty Matters but the Plot Vented and Vanish'd Some of their Memorable Fopperies are These The Famous Act concerning Marriages was Theirs they pass'd likewise an Act for an Assessment of 120000 l. per Mensem they Voted down the Chancery and Tythes they Voted also a total Alteration of the Laws All of a mind they were not and for Distinction sake the company was divided into the Honest party and the Godly party Of the former were Cromwell's Creatures and of the Other Barebones or rather Harrisons the Person they had design'd for
A MEMENTO TREATING OF THE Rise Progress and Remedies of SEDITIONS WITH SOME Historical Reflections UPON THE SERIES of Our late Troubles By Roger L'Estrange THE SECOND EDITION Printed in the Year 1642 and now Reprinted for Ioanna Brome at the GVN at the West-end of St. Pauls MDCLXXXII A MEMENTO CAP. I. THE Matter and Causes OF SEDITIONS THE Matter of Seditions according to Sir Francis Bacon whose words and Authority I shall often make use of in this little Treatise is of two kinds much Poverty and much Discontentment The Causes and Motives of Seditions he reckons to be these Innovation in Religion Taxes Alteration of Laws and Customs Breaking of Priviledges General Oppression Advancement of unworthy Persons Strangers Dearths Disbanded Souldiers Factions grown desperate And whatsoever in offending People joyneth and knitteth them in a Common Cause These Inconveniences either seasonably discover'd colourably pretended or secretly promoted are sufficient to the foundation of a Civil War In which Negative and dividing Politicks none better understood themselves than the Contrivers of our late Troubles not only improving and fomenting Discontentments where they found them and creating violent Iealousies where there was but any place to imagine them but they themselves were the greatest Gainers even by those Grievances against which they complained Reaping a double Benefit first from the Occasion of the Difference and then from the Issue of it When a seditious Humour is once mov'd the best Remedy is to cut off the Spring that feeds it by pleasing all sorts of People so far as possible and by disobliging none but upon Necessity Which publick tenderness must be so managed that the Majesty of the Prince be not lost in the Goodness of the Person for nothing can be more Dangerous to a Monarch than so to over-court the Love of his People as to lose their Respect or to suffer them to impute that to his Easiness which ought to be ascrib'd purely to his Generosity Offences of that daring and unthankful quality can scarce be pardon'd without some hazard to the Authority that remits them Secret Contempts being much more fatal to Kings than publick and audacious Malice the latter commonly spending it self in a particular and fruitless Malignity toward the Person and that with Terrour too as being secur'd under a thousand Guards of Majesty and Power whereas the Other privily taints the whole Mass of the People with a Mutinous Leaven giving Boldness to contrive Courage to execute and if the Plot miscarries there 's the Hope of Mercy to ballance the peril of the Vndertaking For a Conclusion of this Point He that but thinks Irreverently of his Prince Deposes him Concerning the Materials of Sedition viz. Poverty and Discontentment it would be endless to dissolve these General Hâ—oâ—s into Particular Rules the best Advise in this Case must be General too that is to endeavour to remove whatever Causes them referring the Particulars to Counsel and Occasion 'T is very well observ'd by the Lord St. Albans touching Poverty So many overthrown Estates so many Votes for Troubles and if this Poverty and broken Estate in the better sort be joyn'd with a Want and Necessity in the mean people the Danger is Great and Imminent Which to prevent Above all things says the same Author good Policy is to be used that the Treasure and Moneys in a State be not gathered into few hands for otherwise a State may have a great Stock and yet starve And Money is like Muck not good except it be spread And again A numerous Nobility causeth Poverty and Inconvenience in a State for it is a Surcharge of Expence As to the Seeds of Discontentments they are as various as the Humours they encounter dependent many times upon Opinion and inconsiderable in themselves however Notorious in their Effects Touching the Discontentments themselves it is the Advice of the Lord Verulam That no Prince measure the Danger of them by this Whether they be Iust or Vnjust for that were to imagine people to be too reasonable Nor yet by this whether the Griefs whereupon they rise be in Fact great or small for they are the most dangerous where the Fear is greater than the Feeling Such were those furious and implacable Iealousies that started the late War which doubtless may more properly be accounted among the Dotages of a Disease or the Illusions of a dark Melancholy than the deliberate Operations of a sober Reason Proceed we now from the Matter and more remote Causes of Seditions to the Approaches and Prognosticks of them CAP. II. The Tokens and Prognosticks of Sedition IT is in many Cases with Bodies Politick as it is with Natural Bodies both perish by delaying till the Distemper be grown too strong for the Medicine Whereas by watching over and applying to the first Indispositions of the Patient how easie is the Remedy of a Disease which in one day more perhaps becomes Incurable Some take it for a point of Bravery not to own any Danger at a distance lest they should seem to fear it Others are too short-sighted to discern it So that betwixt the Rash and the Stupid a large proportion in 〈…〉 of the World we are past the help of Physick 〈…〉 can perswade our selves we need it Dangers says the Incomparable Bacon are no more light if they once seem light and more dangers have deceived Men than 〈◊〉 them Nay it were better to meet some Dangers half-way though they come nothing near than to keep too long a Watch upon their Approaches for if a man watch too long it is odds he will fall asleep Neither let any man measure the Quality of the Danger by that of the Offender For again 't is the Matter not the Person that is to be consider'd Treason is contagious and a Rascal may bring the Plague into the City as well as a great Man I do the rather press this Caution because Security was the Fault of those to whom I direct it But what avails it to be wary of Dangers without the skill and providence to fore-see and prevent them Or what hinders us from the fore-knowledge of those Effects to which we are led by a most evident and certain train of Causes States have their Maladies as well as Persons and those ill habits have their peculiar Accidents and Affections their proper Issues and Prognosticks upon the true judgment of which Circumstances depends the Life and Safety of the Publick Not to play the fool with an Allegory Be it our care to observe the Gathering of the Clouds before they are wrought into a Storm Among the Presages of foul Weather the Lord St. Albans reckons Libels and licentious Discourses against the Government when they are frequent and open and in like sort false news often running up and down and hastily imbraced to the disadvantage of the State We need not run beyond our Memories to agree this Point it being within the Ken of our
Capable to do Mischief and the Exchange Welcome to all that Lov'd his Majesty By the Court-Interest as they call'd it Addresses thick and threefold were brought in to Condole and Gratulate but Those Complements had no Sap in them The Dutch the Swede and the French sent their Embassadours on the same Errand And now the Funerals come on A Solemn and Expensive Pageantry yet in my Conscience the Chief-Mourners were his Highness Drapers These Ceremonies over to keep the Wheel in Motion a Supply was Resolv'd upon for the King of Swede and little further of Moment before Ian. 27. When in the Language of the Time met Richards Parliament The First and Last of his Reign It cost These people some time to agree the Powers of the Chief-Magistrate and the New Peerage which came to this result that Richard should be Recognized but with limitations consistent with the Rights of Parliament and People and that for quiet sake they would transact with the Persons then sitting in the Other House as an House of Parliament during that Session The House proceeded by Degrees to make dangerous Inspections into the Militia the Revenue to look into the Exorbitances of Major Generals to threaten the Excise and finally by all Popular pretenses to engage the Multitude Effectually against both Protector and Army enduring the Government neither of the One nor of the Other Whereupon the Officers set up a Counsel at Wallingford-House the Protector advises at White-hall and Aprill 6. 1659. comes a Paper to Richard from the Generall Counsell of Officers Entituled A Representation and Petition c. importing the great danger the Good Old Cause is in from Enemies of all sorts the Poverty of the Souldiery the Persecution of Tender consciences c. which Particulars they Petition his Hignesse to represent to the Parliament with their Desire of Speedy Supply and Certainty of Pay for the future Declaring likewise their Resolution with their Lives and Fortunes to stand-by and assist his Highness and Parliament in the plucking the Wicked out of their places wheresoever they may be discovered c. The Paper boded a Purge at least Sign'd it was by 230 Officers presented by Fleet-wood Publish'd throughout the Army and followed soon after with a Day of Humiliation the never-failing Sign of Mischief at hand In this Juncture Each of the Three Parties was Enemy to the Other Two saving where Either Two were united to Maintein themselves against the Third and All Three of Them Enemies to the Good of the Nation The House being Biass'd for a Common-wealth and not yet enabled to go Through with it Dreaded the Army on the one hand and Hated the Single-Person on the Other Richard finding his Power limited by the Members and Envy'd by the Officers willing to please Both and Resolv'd to Hazzard nothing becomes a Common Property to the House and Army a Friend to Both by Turns Theirs to day T'others to Morrow and in all Tryals Meekly submitting to the Dispensation The Army on the other side had their Protector 's Measure to a Hair and behind him they Stalk'd to Ruffle That Faction in the House that was now grown so Bold with the Military Interest and it behov'd them to be quick with as the Case stood Then so Popular an Enemy The Members kept their Ground and April 18. pass'd These following Votes First That during the sitting of the Parliament there should be no General Counsell or meeting of the Officers of the Army without Direction Leave and Authority of his Highnesse the Lord Protector and Both Houses of Parliament Secondly That no Person shall Have and Continue any Command or Trust in any of the Armies or Navies of England Scotland or Ireland or any of the Dominions and Territories thereto belonging who shall refuse to Subscribe That he will not disturb or interrupt the free meeting in Parliament of any the Members of either House of Parliament or their freedom in their Debates and Counsels Upon these Peremtory Votes Richard Faces about joyning his small Authority to forbid their Meetings and great Assurances are Enterchang'd to stand the Shock of any Opposition Two or three days they stood upon their Guards continuing in that snarling Posture till April 22. when Richard at the suit or rather menace of Disborough and his Fellows signs a Commission to Dissolve his Parliament which to prevent the Members Adjourn for Three days and to avoid the shame of falling by an Enemy the Catoe's kill themselves For at the Three days end they find the Dore shut and a Guard upon the Passage to tell them They must Sit no more Their Dissolution being also Published by Proclamation His Highness steps aside next and now the Army undertakes the Government They Modell Cast about Contrive and after some Ten Days fooling with the Politiques they found it was much a harder matter to Compose a Government than to Disorder it and at This Plunge besought the Lord after their Wandrings and Back-slidings to shew them where they turned out of the Way and where the Good Spirit left the Good Old Cause that through Mercy they might Return and give the Lord the Glory At last they call to mind that the Long Parliament sitting from 1648. to 1653. were eminent Assertours of that Cause and had a Special Presence of God with them Wherefore they Earnestly desire Those Members to Return to the Exercise of their Trust c. This is the Tenor of that Canting Declaration which the Army-Officers presented Lenthall the Good-Old-Speaker with at the Rolls May 6. in the Evening where a Resolve was taken by several of the Members to meet next morning in the Painted Chamber and There to advise about their Sitting They met accordingly and made a shift by Raking of Goals to get together a Quorum and so they sneak'd into the House of Commons and There Declar'd for a Common-wealth passing a Vote expresly against the Admission of the Members Secluded in 1648. This Device was fa-fetch'd and not long-liv'd but these were Old Stagers and no ill Menagers of their Time To make short they Erect a Counsel of State Place and Displace mould their Faction settle the Godly appoint their Committees and so soon as ever they are Warm in their Gears begin where they left in 1653 Fleecing the Nation and Flaying the Cavaliers as briskly as if 't were but the Good-morrow to a Six-Years Nap. But the sad Wretches were filthily mistaken to think Themselves brought in again to do their own Business for the Army makes bold to Cut them out their work in a Petition of May 12. containing 15. Proposals desiring First a Free-state 2. Regulation of Law and Courts 3. An Act of Oblivion since April 19. 1653. 4. All Lawes c. since 1653. to stand good until particularly Repleal'd 5. Publique Debts since 1653. to be Paid 6. Liberty of Worship c. not extending to Popery or Prelacy 7. A
stands Affected first to the Religion of the Place he Lives in 'T is possible the Conscience of a Catholick Good may over-rule him to the Hazard of a Good which he conceives less Vniversal and some Light may be taken toward this Discovery from the Observation of his Familiars but much more from his Natural Temper and from the Tenor of his Life i. e. if he be Naturally Melancholick and Scrupulous he may be suspected to be Conscientiously Seditious Is it Ambition moves him Ye shall then find him scattering his Donatives among the Souldiers The Town has not Poor enow for him to Relieve nor Rich enow for him to Oblige He carries his Hat in One Hand and his Heart in the Other Here he Lends a Smile There he Drops a Nod with These Popular Incantations bewitching the Multitude Is the Good of the Subject the Question Who but He to Ease the People in Publick of the Grievances which himself had Procured in Private and in fine no man so fit to be made a Iudge in Israel To All This he must be Daring in his Person Close in his Purpose Firm to his Dependencies and rather stooping to the Ordinary People than mixing with them he 'l do no good on 't else To Proceed let him be Watch'd how he Employs his Power and Faveur whether with Machiavel more to the Advantage of his Master or to his own particular Benefit and Then whether according to the Lord St. Albans He applies himself more to his Masters Business or to his Nature And rather to Advise him than to feed his Humour If he be found to study his Masters Passions more than his Honour and to Prefer his Private Interest to his Duty 't is an Ill sign And 't is no good one if the Favourite grows Rich and the Prince Poor especially if the Former be the Cause of the Latter but it is much a worse if he Presume to grasp Authority as well as Treasure It looks as if the suppos'd Equality of Friendship had Drown'd the Order of Subjection Take Notice next of the Proportion betwixt the means he uses and his suspected ends Does he Engross the Disposition of all Charges and Preferments See in what Hands he Places Them Does he endeavour to obstruct all Grants of Grace and Benefit that pass not through his own Fingers That 's Dangerous For says Sir Francis Bacon When the Authority of Princes is made but an Accessary to a Cause and that there be other Bands that Tye faster than the Band of Soveraignty Kings begin to be put almost out of Possession Mark then again what Kind of Persons he Promotes and for what likely Reasons whether for Money or Merit Honesty or Faction Observe likewise the Temper and Quality of his Complicates and Creatures and whether his Favours be Bounties or Purchases If the Former Judge of his Design by his Choice If the Latter 't is but a Money-business which Avarice meeting with an over-weening vanity of mind is many times mistaken for Ambition In fine what Ambition does at Hand Corruption does at Length nor is the Power of the One more dangerous than the Consequence of the Other Sub-section II. The Combination of divers Counsellors PRoceed we now from the Greatness of One Counsellor to the Combination of Divers which to vary the Phrase is no other than a form'd Confederacy in the Councel against the Monarch Wherein we shall briefly lay down first The Advantages of the Faction the Method next And lastly The Marks of it Their Advantages are great and many in Regard both of their Priviledges exempting them from Question of their Power to offend their Enemies and Protect their Friends and in Consideration of their Opportunities to look into both hands and play their Cards accordingly In their Method of proceeding This is their Master-piece not only to do all the hurt they can under a colour of Good but to Engage Persons of more Honesty than Vnderstanding in Offices seemingly Serviceable but Effectually Pernicious to the Publick By which Artifice those that are Friends to the Government do unwarily serve the Crafty Enemies of it secretly undermining the Honour of the Prince under Pretext of advancing his Profit lessening his Power at Home under the Disguise of making him more formidable Abroad and where they cannot persuade an Interest if it be considerable they will not stick to purchase it As to the rest the Method is rather tacitly to Invite and Countenance a Sedition than openly to Head it and to Engage rather for it then with it till the hazard of the first onset be over In truth the first Essay of a Tumult is but a Tryal how the Ice will bear and the Popular Faction in the Councel is more concern'd in case of a Disaster how to bring their Friends Off than to venture the leading them On for fear of One. Whence it comes to pass That by the Obligation of Encouraging and Preserving their Party they are Cast upon a Scurvy Necessity of Discovering Themselves Their Marks are many for they are known by their Haunts by their Cabales by their Debates by their Domesticks by their Favorites and by their manner of Conversation and Behaviour If there be any Schismatical Teacher that 's Craftier and Slyer then the Rest you may be sure of my Lord's Coach at His Preachment It gives a Reputation to the Conventicle besides the Gracious Looks at Parting that pass betwixt his Honour and the Brethren which Enterchange is but a secret way of Sealing and Delivering a Conspiracy Look into their Cabales and ye shall find them all of a Tribe and Leaven Close Sedulous and Vnited Their dayly Meetings relishing of a Design as being Compos'd rather for Councel than Entertainment In their Debates you 'l know them by their Pleas Shiftings Delayes Extenuations Distinctions their Frequent and Industrious Obstructions of Dispach in favour of Faction By their Zealous Intercessions for the Enemies of the Prince and their Coldness for his Friends by their watchfullness to Seize all Opportunities of helping the Guilty and of Surprizing the Innocent by their injecting of Snares and Scruples to Amuse and Distract those that are for the Government in Order to the Benefit of such as are against it wherein it is worth a Note that they all Vote the same way and without Question to the same Purpose for they shall sooner destroy a Loyal Subject upon a Calumny than punish a Traytor Convict and prosecute one man for Writing or Saying that it is possible for a Prince to have a Judas in his Counsell when another shall scape unquestion'd or perhaps be justifi'd that calls his Soveraign a Tyrant and defends the Murther of Kings They may be guess'd at likewise in some measure by their Domesticks Especially by those of near Relation to Trust Privacy and Business as Chaplains Secretaries c. Nor is it enough to have it