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A41189
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A second dialogue between the Pope and a phanatick, concerning affairs in England by the author of the first, who is a hearty lover of his prince and country.
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Hearty lover of his prince and country.; Ferguson, Robert, d. 1714.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing F758; ESTC R17988
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8,027
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18
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A SECOND DIALOGUE Between the POPE AND A PHANATICK Concerning AFFAIRS in ENGLAND By the Author of the First who is a Hearty Lover of his Prince and Country LONDON Printed for H. Jones 1681. A SECOND DIALOGUE Between the POPE AND A PHANATICK Pope BRother You are welcome to the Belveder we are now in a Committee of Secresie and may discourse our thoughts with Freedom without suspicion of a surprize How stand our Affairs in England Phan. Ah Sir Matters have not succeeded according to my Wishes and Expectations I thought I had been secure of my Designs and this made me act with Confidence but ah Pope What Are all our Plots and Intrigues sham'd into a Sigh Is your Tripos himself deceiv'd I thought he had been so unerringly skill'd in the Arts of undermining that no Government could have escap'd his Trains Phan. You know his Antient Predecessor at Delphos was sometimes mistaken and if our Oracle be at present doubtful 't is according to former Precedent and far from Wonder in Demonology I had great hopes that my terrible Comet-Parliament whose Rod did far out-stretch the Regal Scepter would have mounted to a higher Elevation than Charles his Wain and fix'd upon our Horizon but on a sudden the Comet and the Parliament and our hopes dissolv'd together Pope In my opinion your Blazing Commons appear'd with too fiery a Tail and acted with too much openness and Effrontery there was more Capricio than Policy in their Proceedings Affairs were not ripe enough for their daring Adventures they drew up 19 Propositions and such bold Remonstrances as if the King had already been their Prisoner in the Isle of Wight And what a mischief was it to the Liberty-Keepers of England to send for Gentlemen into Custody by no other Warrant but from Will Will this was an unlucky Indication of the Plurality of Arbitrary Powers and was as much as to say in our Language Sic volumus sic jubemus Their Proceedings being illegal and unwarrantable was their Merit and not their Crime in my opinion their onely Guilt was the imprudence of a too early Vexation their being Arbitrary somewhat too soon For I am afraid these frequent Hurricanes should impress upon the Abhorrers of Petitions an Abhorrence of Parliaments and make the People vote that the Commons are the greatest Enemies to their own sitting and give them occasion to Resolve that if they must be Slaves they had better with St. Paul be bound with one of Caesar's Chains than loaden with 500 Irons Remember that you once govern'd the Nation by a Junto of Commons without a King or House of Lords and if by a too early violence you force the King into Extremity you may give him occasion to Govern the Realm by a King and House of Peers and at least to exclude your Members from the Commons for your continu'd Affronts will furnish him with plausible Reasons to excuse the Model and justifie such a Proceeding I grant you shew much Gallantry and met with good Success in the dayes of Charles the First but I am your elder Brother and have had longer experience in the Ruin of Empires than your Age can pretend to therefore it is my Counsel as your Friend and Brother that if you be again allow'd the Priviledge to choose your Representatives advise them to court the King with fair Pretensions and reserv'd Compliances till you can by great Complements and a little money caress him into an Act of Oblivion and when he hath forgot both himself and you then is the time to remember the Good old Cause Phan. Indeed I now wish that we had treated the King with more fineness for I know by precedent that he who is to do Execution upon a Monarch should not appear bare-fac'd but in Masquerade And I have a suspicion that our bolder Votes and Addresses have so awaken'd him that we may have lost our Advantage especially considering that he was immediate Successor to a murder'd Father Pope But how did you resent the Remove to Oxford Phan. Oh Sir I had a very painful sense of that Removal it was a kind of Dislocation in the Body Politick for methinks the Commons out of London look like Members out of joynt This Disappointment depriv'd us of the blessed Advantages of Republican Cabals and Metropolitan Tumults But yet to shew that no change of Air could alter our Nature and Resolutions we did pursue the same Votes at Oxford that we had commenc'd at Westminster My Dictator or Terrae Filius was just preparing a Speech for the Theatre but that proud Pile was founded by an Arch-bishop and so surrounded with Caesars that we could never enter the Circus but were dispers'd with a sudden Thunder-clap and this gave occasion to some prophane Tantivy-men to ridicule that Assembly and stile it the Anchovy Parliament because it dissolv'd so soon upon the first Heat Pope But I am told of a Declaration that follow'd that Dissolution and that the King hath declared He will govern by his Laws and you and I have more reason to be afraid of that than of his being Arbitrary Phan. 'T is true and I believe that Declaration was one of the Evils presag'd by that Malignant Comet for to speak plainly I was never pleas'd with that Blazing-Rod for when it first appear'd in it's Western Position the Extremity of his Radius seem'd to be just Zenith to the House of Commons and I am afraid that Comet was some Tory among the Stars that had no good meaning to the Lower House for when that Parliament dissolved it presently disappear'd as if it came on purpose to point at us and affront us Pope Some did fancy here at Rome that that Star might be the Receptacle of the Souls of Stafford and the rest of my last Martyrs in England and that the large Emanation from the Comet did remark the streaming Effusions of their Blood and signifie a Rod to revenge it Phan. I shall not dispute which Martyrs were the greater Saints your Regicides or mine but I must tell you that I was resolv'd for the Blood of Stafford not so much upon the account of his Crimes but in regard to his name it sounded so like the Earl of Strafford that I fancyed his Blood might be happily ominous and be royally and canonically attended according to our former Precedent But I assure you of late we are become very tender of Catholick blood and if the Popish Lords and my Bosom-Friend Fitz-Harris were to remain untry'd till we vote them to the Bar they should be reserv'd till Doomsday Pope But Brother the Comet hath so amus'd you that you have forgotten the Declaration Phan. I confess it did a little divert me but I can as soon forget the Covenant as the Declaration The King indeed did once pass an Act of Oblivion for us but it is against our Method of Grace to grant an Oblivion for the King except it be to forget his Mercy To declare
against the Collective Wisdom of a Nation to term the Actions of an Heroick House of Commons Irregularities Miscarriages illegal and unwarrantable Proceeding this is too high an Affront to be forgotten For tho we printed our Votes and discover'd our Secrets on purpose to inflame the little Sisters yet for the King to expose the Pudenda or Nakedness of the Peoples Members in Churches and Markets to be observ'd and scoff'd at by Crowds of Tories this was uncivil and immodest nay about two years ago I would have call'd it Impudence But that which added to my Vexation was the Prelatical order for reading of it in the Pulpit if it had been denounc'd below the Mount in the despis'd Service-Desk it would have had no Impression or Solemnity but being publish'd from the Sanctum Sanctorum of the Pulpit that most Sacred Seat of Oracles this made it pass for Jure Divino and because the Voice came from the Pulpit some silly People were apt to think that the Declaration was made in Heaven This was a Metropolitan Stratagem and shall be recorded for the first Article against William the Second Pope But I am inform'd that there was an Use of Consolation in the conclusion of that Declaration wherein the King promis'd the People the Favour of frequent Parliaments Phan. In my opinion that is not so great a Favour except we can sit again next door to Hell where we may correspond with our old Familiars But however Frequent Parliaments suppose frequent Dissolutions and one Good old fashion'd Long Parliament were worth 500 frequent ones Pope But I hope you do not despond and give up the common Cause as desperate Phan. I will never despair as long as you have a Being in the World for I yet find there is an infallibility in your Name the crying Pope and Popery is still the surest stratagem and there could be no successful Plot without that infallible Noise But that which most supports my hopes is the King's want of Money The Fort Royal is defended by so many Cannons and Regular Fortifications that there is no way to take it but starving And to this end we have by a Solemn Vote made it Treason against the Parliament for the King or his Friends to supply his need without the consent of his Enemies For if it be in the power of Zeal Money or Perjury we will send him such Commons as shall never grant him a penny except he stake his Crown or some of the Jewels of it Pope I would have you declare in all the High Courts of Shops and Coffee-houses that a Parliament is as necessary to raise Money in England as a Purgatory at Rome But I am afraid your Church of England Tories have no more regard to Votes than you have for Proclamations And you have so alarm'd them by your late Arbitrary Proceedings that I am jealous that they should rather think it their Interest to make an honourable and timely Composition with the Crown by some considerable Benevolence than run the Adventure to be plunder'd by your Troops and sequester'd by your Committees I do allow your indisputable Maxim that the Poverty of the King is the interest of a Presbyterian House of Commons And you have wisely ordain'd that though the King should be reduc'd to the straitest Exigencies yet he must not so much as ask an Alms and if Necessity should teach him the common impudence to be a Beggar yet you have politicly resolved that it shall be a Crime to be charitable to the Crown without the leave of the Commons those High Almoners of England But Brother the Mischief is that you did once contribute your Money and Plate to carry on the War against the King without a Statute of Parliament Now this may become an unlucky Precedent and if ever the Cavaliers come to be considering Animals they may chance to conclude That they may as freely give their Gold to support the hands of Moses as you did to make the Golden Calf of a Commonwealth And that it were more Religion and Loyalty in their Prince's Extremity to contribute their money without a Parliament to preserve the King and Monarchy than it was for you to destroy them both by an Arbitrary Contribution Now this being the fatal Crisis of our Cause be sure you maintain with all possible confidence That for any one to cast in his Free-will-offerings into the Treasury or Corban of the Crown is Will-worship and Popery and as Antichristian a Superstition as Alms and Charity I wonder you have so long allow'd the King that Imperial Prerogative to be the sole Lord of the Mint it would have been a mighty Policy and Advantage if you could have shared in that Authority and Enacted that the Coin of England should have had the Image of the King stamp'd on one side and the Superscription of the Common-wealth on the other This would have been a Demonstration that he could never have had any Money without you There is an Apocryphal passage in the Gospel that would make us believe that Christ and St. Peter should pay Tribute to Caesar without the consent of the Sanhedrim and should tell the Jews they were oblig'd to do so too because the Money had the Image and Superscription of Caesar which did suppose their subjection to him and his intire Authority over them And I observe that Charles the Second in his English Coin is stamp'd more Romano and his Image looks like the Ancient Figure of Caesar Augustus I wish this be not ominous Phan. Peter's calling the King Supreme and his Example and Paul's Command of paying Tribute to Emperours because they are God's Ministers and upon the account of their care in Government does no way concern you or me for you know there were no Popes nor Parliaments in those dayes of Primitive Christianity Pope You have answer'd like an Oracle But suppose the Cavaliers should be such Fools as to shut their Purses till you cut them open and keep their Money till they lose their Lands though they should not present their Oblations yet the unwilling Sacrifices of our Estates which will be drawn from us by the Cords of Penal Laws will help to inrich the Crown and which is worst of all will give the King the Advantage to answer our Clamors of Arbitrary Power by destroying of us both according to Law Phan. I hope to prevent all these Mischiefs in the next Session of Parliament Pope But I am afraid that your Elect Members have been so often Reprobated by Prorogations and Dissolutions that they should be weary of appearing And if ever the King by any crafty Stratagem procure a Cavaliering Parliament who are Bigots for the Monarchy and Hierarchy of England both you and I are ruin'd and we are sure not to have one Friend in the three Estates Such a pack of Tories would restore the Use of Convocations and damn the Lay Committee for Religion they would contrive such Persian Laws that should