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
be more fully detected to prevent greater mischief for the future I shall endeavour to explain some of those Mysterious practices which are used at this day from their very Original in the days of King James the First and then return to what is necessary to be further observed upon this Vindication When that King after that horrid Plot of the Gunpowder Treason being more terrified with the Danger he had escaped than animated by so great a Deliverance to dependance upon the Providence of God who preserved him which that Deliverance in a special manner obliged him to deserting that great Duty and relying upon his own craft sought to secure himself and his own Posterity by Compliance and Alliances with his Enemies the Papists like those who have recourse to Witches and Conjurers instead of that Security he expected he involved himself and his Posterity in such Snares as were the real cause of all those Evils which afterward befel them and out of which they could never after extricate themselves During the long and happy Reign of Queen Elizabeth who generously performing that great Duty kept them at a distance all they could do was only to contrive secret Plots against her Person and Foreign Invasions and to sow Seeds of Division in secret Meetings all which that Providence of God in which she confided dissipated and turned to their own Confusion But when afterward they were favoured and admitted to a nearer Converse with our Princes Statesmen and Bishops they presently found their Advantage to put in practice other Policies of a more deep subtile and dangerous Nature and under the cover of very plausible Pretences whereby they and their Venome might insinuate the deeper These were principally Three 1. To change the Government and make it Arbitrary and Absolute in the Prince 2. To raise and heighten Divisions 3. To corrupt the Manners of the Nation 1. To endeavour a Change of the Government they saw several Reasons 1. They plainly saw it to be utterly unpracticable to deal with the other two Estates to introduce their Religion 2. They also understood very well that such endeavours might be so managed as to ingratiate them with the Prince and many of the Courtiers Ministers of State and of the aspiring Clergy 3. They also foresaw that by slighly insinuating into the Prince and his Favourites and Flatterers such matters as tended to this they should also by the same means promote their other design of raising Divisions between the Prince and the People 2. To raise and heighten Divisions they easily saw would not only weaken and dissolve the strength of the Nation but would also give them a fair opportunity to shelter themselves under one Party or other as they should see occasion These Advantages they might expect by Civil Dissentions and these and some more by Divisions also about matters of Religion and therefore they industriously promoted both 3. And to corrupt the manners of the Nation they might expect would give them these Advantages 1. It would weaken the strength of the Nation making men more inconsiderate and careless of any Publick Concern and indisposing them for either Prudent Counsel or Generous Action 2. It would make them more indifferent in matters of Religion and less apt to give them any disturbance in the prosecution of their Designs 3. And this indifference would dispose them to the more easie admission of theirs when it should be seasonably and prudently proposed to them under some plausible pretences These were the Principal of their Policies and the Grounds of them which were rational enough though it pleased God who hath the Hearts of all Men at his disposal by his over-ruling Providence in his own time to defeat them all But the Contrivances Methods and particular Practices which they used for the promotion of these Policies and Designs were too many to be here discovered nor is that my business at this time I shall therefore only take notice of such as are pertinent to the present occasion that is such as aspiring Courtiers and Clergymen joyned with them in though for different ends of their own and such as we have still reason to beware of Such as these 1. Magnifying the Regal Power upon false Principles beyond its true bounds according to the English Constitution and Vilifying our Laws in general as rude and barbarous and the Fundamentals of our Constitution which limit and restrain the Excesses of Regal Power as encroachments of the People upon Prerogative and so possessing the King and many honest welmeaning People not sufficiently acquainted with the Excellence of our Laws and Constitutions with False Dangerous and Pernicious Notions concerning our Government And having by this means prepared the way and insinuated themselves into Favour they never failed of some Project for their own ends though never so illegal to put the King upon encouraging him to despise the just complaints of the People as clamours and that which was below his Majesty to be aw'd by And because this could not but move all truly Loyal honest and understanding Men who saw the dangerous Consequences to the King as well as to the People of such Courses it was very natural and easie to them to represent all such as Persons of Antimonarchical and Republican Principles And always by how much the more notorious and illegal were their Practices by so much the greater and lowder were the clamours against the Commonwealth Principles and the noise of the Dangers threatning the Monarchy And by this means were our Kings kept in continual Jealousie and ill Opinion of many of their best most honest Loyal and most faithful Subjects But they could never have proceeded so far in these things had they not by inculcating false Notions concerning one branch of the Regal Office the Calling Proroguing and Dissolving of Parliaments and suggesting false Fears and Dangers of the consequence of their Sitting often prevailed with those Kings to abuse the Trust in that respect reposed in them contrary to the Constitution of this Government to the most ancient Laws of this Nation to the true intent and meaning of the Statutes then and still in Force and to their own true interest and safety as I shall shew hereafter By these means were our Civil Dissentions begun and by degrees continually heightened till by these Practices and the like in matters of Religion in the Year Forty one they involved the King in a Civil War to make good those illegal Practices which they before had engaged him in and by consequence in an ill Cause against as good a Parliament as perhaps this Nation ever had This will seem strange to some to come from me who was from my Youth on the Kings side and at Fifteen Years of Age ventured my life for his Service But I know what I say and will presently make it clear The King might have trusted that Parliament they would never have hurt him or diminished any thing of his true Prerogative but
This made them easie to be perswaded to believe that it was their Prerogative to Call and Prorogue and Dissolve Parliaments at their own Pleasure and accordingly to do it in effect at the pleasure that is at the perswasion of those Favourites Whereas not only the Notion is false and set up only for the Advantage of Favourites and Criminals but the Practice was doubly mischievous to the Kings themselves For 1. It was a great cause of Discontent heightned the Differences between the King and the People and made the Kings Cause so much the worse in those Differences and unjustifiable being often times a wilful and obstinate refusal of Justice and Protection of Criminals against the whole Nation 2. It deprived the King as well as the People of the proper Remedy of those Mischiefs For Parliaments are the great Security under God of Kings from Abuses as well as of the People from Oppression and the Persons were either Guilty or Not Guilty If Guilty they ought to be try'd and either suffer according to their Crimes or if there were any special reason for it be pardon'd If not Guilty yet ought they to be try'd that their Innocence might be cleared and the Nation satisfy'd Fifthly The same may be observ'd concerning the great Noise that was made of the Monarchy and the Church as if both were design'd to be presently destroyed which were nothing but false Clamours to incense People and raise a Faction by the Instigation of those evil Men for their own support and defence against Justice The just Punishment of Criminals who betrayed both King and People was the Destruction of Monarchy and Reformation of the manners of the Clergy the Subversion of the Church in their account But by these means were a great many honest well-meaning People impos'd upon and a mighty Faction rais'd Whereas it is certain that the English Monarchy being not meerly an Honorary matter but of great Use and Advantage to the whole Nation both at home and abroad if it be not abused the People and their Representatives in Parliament have always so well understood their Interest therein and do so at this day that nothing but some extraordinary matter ever could or can alienate their Affections from it This is plain in the case of King Charles I. when notwithstanding the great Provocations which are set out in the Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom 15 Dec. 1642. and some others that Parliament would neither have destroyed the Monarchy nor hurt the King though out of those Confusions a violent Party was rais'd which did both nor would the Nation after be quiet till his Son was restored And for the Church the Bishops and Ecclesiastical Courts might have been quiet had they been truly Christian as they would be called But that which moved the Indignation of most understanding and honest Men against them was to see Christianity prophan'd and Offices of Religion sought and used as Secular Employments to see Formality encouraged sincere Piety though perhaps mixt with some unnecessary Scrupulosity oppressed and the Ministers of the Righteous Kingdom of Christ turn Promoters of Arbitrariness and Tyranny And it is no wonder if such Causes produce such Effects Sixthly It was the raising and heightning of that Faction by the Favourites and Criminal Party that brought things to that Extremity of a War which otherwise might have been composed and all satisfy'd with the Removal of a few Evil Men from about the King the Punishment of a few Criminals and the Reformation of a few necessary things But while these Evil Counsellors and Favourites raised that Faction for the security of themselves under the pretence of the King and the Church they thereby laid the Foundation of the real Destruction of both for some time And I wish all honest Men may take warning by it now and not suffer themselves to be impos'd upon again after such an Example For there is Just such another Faction which hath gone very high of late especially in the business of Elections under the same Pretences of the Monarchy and the Church wherein the greatest Sticklers were those sort of Persons which the Vindicators of the last years Transactions recommend to Favour that is the Criminals of the two last Reigns the Counsellors Agents and Accomplices of King James and the Regency-men and Haesitators who refuse to act under King William with whom the Papists joyned under-hand And their greatest Opposition was for the most part against such as were most Cordial and Active for the present King and Queen I have but one thing more to observe which comes now into my mind and hath not been so well considered as it ought and that is the great and mischievous Influence which such prodigal and unadvised conferring of Honours as was begun by King James I. and has been continued fince is apt to have in the producing of such Troubles Honor and Riches are things which may be of good use for the Benefit of others when they fall to the share of Good Men who have Hearts to make use of them for that purpose But I very much doubt whether ever any Man was the better for them On the contrary it is apparent that many nay most are the worse for them if they be raised much above their own Rank And it is certain that they are no good Men who are very greedy of either but such as will comply with the Means whereby they are to be obtained be they what they will If the Prince who hath the disposing of Honors and Preferments be wise and vertuous be sparing and prudent in conferring them only upon consideration of Worth and Merit it will be an effectual means to incline the People to apply themselves to such means which will be of great advantage to the Commonwealth But if he be prodigal and inconsiderate in the disposing of them he will not fail to attract to him many ill Men of no vertue who will certainly flatter and deceive him make it their business to please him for their own advantage at any rate rather than faithfully serve him And the more Honours he confers upon such the greater Burden he thereby brings upon himself He must provide for his own Creatures and if he hath not good and lawful means to provide for them they will not fail of Projects even of indirect means by him to provide for themselves Besides the Appetite is unsatiable The Man 's no more satisfy'd when made a Lord than when but a Knight I 'm sure not more happy nor when made an Earl than when but a Baron nor when made a Marques than when but an Earl but a Baron but a Knight but a private Gentleman But he needs more his Needs are increased and must be supplied one way or other And from this Root did spring many of those Illegal Projects in the Reigns of King James I. and King Charles I. which in the end produced those bitter Fruits we have been
reason enough to declare the departure of King James under his circumstances an Abdication of the Government c. And this is not only said but so cleared and demonstrated there in few lines as hath given no little Satisfaction to some persons of no mean parts and learning but no less Disturbance it seems to this Gentleman as may be farther noted hereafter Another Assertion or two I must take notice of for the singular Charity expressed in them Those as they are groundless and cannot be deduced by any good Inference from the Reflections so may they be confronted with other Writings of the same Authors in print This Man saith he speaking of the Author of the Reflections would drench the World in Blood Sacrifice whole Hecatombs to his Revenge and once more set these Kingdoms off their Hinges by a precipitate Method of rendring Men desperate Page 21. Such another is the Suggestion page 22. Why should King James ' s Ministers and Counsellors all of them without distinction fall under the stroak And again page 23. Our Author fondly concludes c. because he hath not been glutted with the Blood of the Delinquents I need note no more of this kind Those are so foul and infamous Words that if written and published without very good grounds do of themselves sufficiently make good one part of my Charge against this Pamphlet Certain I am that no such thing was ever intended in the Reflections And from these Words in the Paragraph under his consideration Not one of those who by their wicked Counsels and Compliances betrayed not only their Country but their King himself c. hath yet been brought to condign Punishment or from any other in that Book I do not see how any such matter can be deduced But if confronted with what the same Author hath written in his Apology for Mr. Stafford page 17. and elsewhere it will all there appear as false as here it doth groundless What hath been already noted I suppose is sufficient to make good the Charge of a False and Infamous Libel The Piety of it may be discerned by the Respect therin given to the Sacred Scriptures where he saith that the Expressions Taught of God Children of Light Sensual not having the Spirit and many others of that kind smell of the late deluded Notion of Inspiration page 2. and by the regard therein expressed to the Providence of God and to the Study and Consideration of his Works and Dealings with the Sons of Men pag. 26. and by the Reproachful Terms which after the mode of the late Atheistical Times are very confidently bestowed upon sincere Piety and genuine Religion But I have no mind to cast Pearles before Swine by a full Explication of these things but leaving him and such Abderites to the Correction of some Hippocrates shall content my self with those Evangelical Promises Matth. 5.11 12. 1 Pet. 4.14 and rejoyce in them too while the Mercenary Writer may chance to feel the smart of his own Prophaneness in selling his Conscience for a Mess of Pottage And now to return to our Enquiry What Authority it should be which hath ordered the Publication of such a Libel Of the King we are secure that it was not he by what hath been recited before and of the Parliament were we not otherwise secure this Writer hath given us the like assurance telling us He knows not but he may be blameable in playing the Advocate or in daring to suppose that the great Council of the Nation needs a Vindication page 16. And the same we may conclude for the same Reason of that Noble Lord whose Patronage he thinks but reason he should allow to what 's written in defence of others It remains then that either he had none at all and then he is an Impostor upon that account or that it was from some of those others in whose Defence it was written and then is he no less an Impostor in concealing whose it was and giving occasion by this Dedication to make that Noble Person be believed by inobservant Readers to be the Man And this we have reason to believe is the Truth if the Scope and divers Passages of this Vindication be well considered It is true he pretends much Zeal and Concern for the Vindication of the King and of the Parliament but that is no more than every Knave and Cheat will do to those he intends to abuse the Officious Kisses of an Enemy and therefore whether sincere or feigned is to be determined by the concurrence of other Indications And 1. It appears by his own shewing that he is a very officious Advocate and was never retained or imployed by either of them 2. Nor was there much cause of Vindication in respect of either of them for most of the Transactions noted were reflected on as matters of Disappointments and Unhappiness rather than Faults in them 3. And these Disappointments being imputed not only by the Author of the Reflections but by the Parliament it self to the unfaithfulness and Treachery of Persons intrusted and imployed the Vindication of such Transactions could not be sincerely intended to serve the King or gratifie the Parliament but to cover those Evil Practices and Persons which not only the Author of the Reflections but the Parliament also desired and endeavoured to discover And that this was really the Design of this Mercenary Pamphlet whoever had their Hands in it and all the Complements to the King the Parliament and the Earl of Shrewsbury Principal Secretary of State a meer Disguise to cover that Design and an Abuse upon that Noble Person at least there are divers Observables in it perswade me to believe 1. The very Beginning discovers his Mind and what he was full of It is a Severe Censure against prying too narrowly into the Secrets of Government and Mysteries of State But if the Reflections be well considered there is no other occasion for it but Honest Endeavours for such a Discovery as is before mentioned that is of what his business was to cover 2. He there also discovers or to use his own term bewrays himself to be a genuine Disciple of the Mercenary Writers of the late Reigns by magnifying the Policy of a Foreign State as if our Laws were defective only he shews himself but a Novice in the Trade in that he takes his Precedent from Veuice and not from France or Turkâ—y Of his sense of the English Constitution I shall take notice hereafter 3. And he presently after discovers his Affection to the English Nation which he more than once without any just occasion that appears terms an ungrateful Nation 4. He bewrays himself indeed and discovers his rotten and unsound Notions and Sentiments concerning our presen Settlement and the Bight of King William and Queen Mary to the Gevernment of these Kingdoms And that he himself is either one of that Mungrel Temporizing Party which hath obstructed our compleat Settlement and underhand retarded the Reduction of