THE HEAD of NILE OR THE Turnings and Windings OF THE FACTIOUS Since SIXTY IN A DIALOGUE BETWEEN Whigg and Barnaby Nil haheo quod agam non sum piger Horat. Satyra Serm. 9. Lib. 1. LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Walter Davis in Amen-Corner 1681. THE HEAD of NILE OR The Turnings and Windings OF THE Factious since LX In a DIALOGUE between WHIGG and BARNABY Whigg HOW do all our Friends at that gud Family whose Master wants nothing but a Commission answerable to his heat to make him match his Father-in-laws Courage and Conduct and that other too the Jack-call to that Lyon who has espous'd too our Cause and Right by both sides but there is no surer or better holding than by the Tail he is a notable Young man and a great help though he don't shew much he can do as he is bid and hold his tongue too but I hope by this time you know one another better I am sorry we were there so severe upon you I profess I have seen some in a Pillory bear rotten Eggs with greater Stoicism Barnaby And with greater reason than your stinking breath that has had your rotten Cause so oft in your mouths Whigg But how do they all doe and the People of the Lord in and near about Shaking him hard by the hands Barnaby They all do as much mischief as they can though not the tithe of what they would do the times praised be God for it are alter'd since you had me at the stake baiting me there I expected by the discourses the Trumpet every moment for Battel I was thinking which way to get a Commission I did not care for taking one from my Playfellows and giving them another Whigg I find you are still the same man onely not quite so fierce Barnaby The Times don't require it there is not half the danger I love the Seaman though not his swearing that is most sollicitous and lays about him most when the black Clouds hang like a Kittesol or Umbrella o're his head and in the midst of a Storm blusters alike with it when that is weather'd out who but would imitate and enjoy the Calm W. You are of Principles different from mankind they love to be most quiet then to swim with the current they think it madness or folly to try to stemm it and some that are Pilots too sworn Pilots to a Port let me tell you but I am perswaded had I oâ— the Times kept where we once were we had converted you I profess we had so much business I had then scarce time for riding to this place posting to that to open my mouth even to eat much less to talk and spend those precious minutes in the conversion of a single Sinner but now we have leisure and how willing would I be to bring over a Saul to make a Paul of him B. If the flanting tail'd Comet at Christ-tide did not foretell this change yet sure the Isle of Purbeck business was no rais'd story by but a perfect Vision of one of your party that exactly represented these Times an Army rais'd from the very Clots of Earth and all of a sudden return'd to their Mould or popp'd under ground 't is a good hearing you are at leisure though I find 't is to doe mischief if you can the State-Physician may find as by a Pulse the condition of the Nation when the Cane big with Tuck of use and omen both walks the streets as if its Master was one of the Penny Posts when the Hat is pinch'd over the Eyes when the Saints are tenderly sought for in every corner and the Sisters are refresh'd only with the hasty and holy kiss and a Paper of Recipes are left not to cure but promote the twang of the Nose then is the Critical Minute but now you are playing the Moles W. If you could afford patience or leisure I could shew you which way we are and have been playing the Moles undermining Church and State but not so blindly as some may imagine but while we make others to think we can't see we soon alter the scene and find they can't or at least their blind-sides B. Your extraordinary freedom puts me upon my guard I am afraid you have entertain'd a design of converting me W. Faith you know comes by hearing God may afford you his Grace to fathom our depths if you will promise to lay aside all prejudice while we discourse I 'll be free with you and then you will see that it stands to reason to side with us when you find there can be no danger can reach you if you be with us if against us with what do your very dreams affright you with Plunderings Sequestrations Decimations Deprivations Axes and Halters B. And can you fansie if I lay aside all prejudice i. e. hearken to the dictates of naked reason unmixt with fears and interest your Cause will get the day W. We care not for such a Philosophical lump no more than for a man of Clouts give us one in a Political guise we should have nothing but old Plato against Plato Redivivus what a pother would you make in rooting your passions out before you could clear the eyes of your reason you would take a great deal of pains to make your self as useless to any body of Men as your Eunuchs are to Women if you design to be serviceable to a party you must bring your Tools with you you will else be accounted a meer Cypher you must use all the means you can to make your self as considerable as may be you are gone else into whatever party you list your self they make baits of better morsels than you would make your self come 't is better siding with us than be set by and abus'd to gratifie your enemies onely in hopes to bring them over or but to stop their full career your Principles will be forc'd to strike sail to their interest and you will at last find your self a sacrifice to their malice When you understand us better you will blame your self for holding out so long your knowledge of us is like Philosophy a little enclines a man to Atheism but a thorough knowledge in us is a perfect cure I 'll be free and because I have time I 'll be the Palavicino in our Cause give you such an History of our selves that you must needs be begg'd for a Fool or cloystred for a Madman if you stand out any longer B. Curiosity though it was the Mother of the first sin in Mankind yet I hope it will not be so fatal to me I will force nature for once to see what you so much boast of W. If you then consider first either our number our methods to gain or the secrecy in our Intreagues you may find them next to miracles and as good arguments for us as for our Religion in general and though we list above three parts of the Nation on our side as first some that
as much mischief as we expected good from it I hope our swift runners will bethink themselves in time and not pursue the Game so hotly we shall be undone else T. C. Had it not been for this Plot he had spent his life in the Wheel in running round in the Controversies betwixt the Papist and Reformers but he has serv'd us as Captain Drake serv'd the Spaniard run from West to East and come home by us when we were gaping after him elsewhere one would not have thought he could have so easily shot that little streight that parts us J. O. He has perfectly plaid the Tumbler with us run round us plaid with us at first at length he has given us the deadly bite who could have suspected Irenicon could have prov'd Threnicon to us or Ben Ammi Ben Oni and all this from a City Preacher the glories of those that are gone before us in the Faith are well known to the Saints upon the earth how they heretofore made the City Preachers bend the knee and make boast of the word preached and to make them by their often preaching lay the greatest reverence upon it and in a word to act this way unwittingly all the while for us and shall we so far degenerate from our Forefathers that aw'd the City Preachers more than their Bishop as to be baffled by one of them I am asham'd to think it more were we not among our selves to speak it T. C. 'T is a strange thing to be thus baffled and from a hand we so little expected it makes me begin to believe what we were often forc'd because it made for us to tell the people upon Afflictions impending That there is one that brings all Counsels to naught when he pleases How glibly all things ran even to our hearts content and now what a rubb our Bowls have met with when we thought we could not possibly be short it has put us out of all way too what shall we doe R. G. Doe Copy out a little more Jesuitism divide the Book and write an answer as speedily as may be R. B. Haste will do us a great kindness in order thereto if this venerable Assembly shall think fit I have some old and hasty remarks of mine made a long while ago against the Church of England in Vindication of our selves whom they style Schismaticks if you shall think fit we will Christian them with the title of an Answer to St. and we all know they will pass with those we desire they should our very writing again is argument enough 't is no matter what we write buz it abroad Richard has answer'd it shew them the Book and the work is done the heads of our Party are not Logical enough to weigh truth reason or matter of fact J. O. You had best to communicate your Notes Brother let us have the superinspection send for them R. B. I came arm'd with them praemonitus praemunitus J. O. Why do you think this will do this is hunting on the File here is nothing but what has been in print over and over again the Letters of our Press will set themselves if they are not as much worn as the Subject but our cause will break even a back of steel R. B. Well ne'er fear if my former Observations hold not I know not the art of deluding and besides we shall have this happiness to boot that there will be little or nothing said to it so that our side must look upon it as unanswerable and what will win upon them 't is pretty well swell'd for ye all know they look upon the bulk not the weight of reason H. I have an humble request to this venerable Assembly that a Book of mine wrote for the good of the Cause but not vending at all and there being danger of breaking two at once the Authour and Bookseller may have leave given it to have the Title-page reprinted and styl'd An Answer to S R. B. This way they will both sell mine had it not been for that had ne'er lain by me so long T. C. Let them both pass if we don't give the last blow though it is so faintly and weakly that it hurts not the Adversary the hearts of our people will not be kept up R. B. Since you have accorded in this great and weighty affair like Brethren let us e'en remember one another and hang together and fear not the enemy from without I leave you my peace and dismiss this Assembly Exeunt Omnes W. How do you like our proceedings they were short to day and they had some intelligence their meeting was smoak'd B. I wondred at their Conciseness in this affair considering their usual notorious Prolixity but is this All W. There was a sign made by the last that came in who by quality is half Spye half Coyner and has double pay of some notice taken but perhaps the Rogue gave us a cast of his last Office and did it onely to get credit like some Secretaries of State that make more Intelligence-mony be paid by thousands than it cost them he has lost you the best part of the Scene by much you would have seen one come in his Chair without as much as Livery-man to attend him B. Have you any such person that comes in a Chair to you W. I One that is very infirm that can't stir without hugging his man as much as the Cause one that has shewn himself true to us this forty and odd years though now and then for ours and his own interest he pretended to be otherwise but of these late years he has been strangely much our Friend we do nothing without his advice he receives all our Proposals Intelligences and manages all things returns back his Commands and they are executed there is no one comes into the Assembly without his Approbation and he is strangely suspicious whom he trusts much did you see him but walk you would swear he durst scarce trust himself he does not let one leg leave the other an inch for fear the other should be left in the Lunch after this you would have seen a pleasant Scene a sort of men set the discourse of your Coyners and Improvers as if they were to Act in the Duke's Theatre they reade to them on their own Subjects and limit them how far they may proceed without incurring the danger of the Law 't is their business to noise abroad several little boldnesses as that I wear my Hat by the same title and as good as the King wears his Crown by the Laws of the Land by the first we gain a disesteem to the King's Crown and Dignity and reverence to our own Coxcombs this way we teach men to depreciate Majesty and to exalt their own horns B. And what is the worst of all they think what they say they as little know time beyond their Year-books and Magna Charta as a rude Indian does Geography beyond his Feet and Eyes 't is true
was I in authority enough and your whole Party dare you own such Treason should be made like to the Ten Tribes were it not that ten hundred to one are as signally Fools as the other Knaves that know no more than what is just put into their mouths W. Hold Counsellor of Rehoboam you are too high a flyer you will have less thanks than you expect for your pains did you but know the necessary use that is made of us you would not be so hot for destroying poor Carthage how many have got preferment in the days of our selves and our Fathers by writing against us how many have thought to doe it in these days how many have thought and think to get Heaven onely by pure cursing of us and how many have wash'd as they think the Leopard's Skin by turning head against us how many fine hot headed discourses would be little worth were it not for the Leachery some have to hear us handsomely Billingsgated do you think the Licenser of the Press when time was by keeping it this way open does not make it as beneficial to him as his formerly keeping it shut onely when open'd with his own Key he is ready to offer mony had he any to any of us to write against him nay he is fain to write now on both sides and what would he doe if we were gone would we a little while lay our selves fallow we should ruin him and the Bishops would be found as an useless order of men now they get the good will of some purely because we bear them such ill-will did we serve them as Hannibal serv'd Fabius and as they think to serve us use no acts of hostility against us thereby thinking with their weak policy to get us out of favour with our own we should certainly do their work the very distinction of Protestant Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made those belov'd by the Episcopal Party but from the Teeth outwards B. These are such uses as Esq Dunn made of your Forefathers by Accident had it not been for them 't is odds if he had touch'd grill'd meat or boyl'd that day had strutted the Streets in the Colonels Plush-Jacket had W. Hold good words you don't know whose turn may be next the Multitude gives force force gives power power enacts Laws and the Laws set forth Treason B. True blue still you won't flinch an ace from your Priciples not all the growth and manufacture of Hemp in England or Norway will make you recede but methinks you might have enlarg'd your self much upon your Panegyrick of the Good Old Cause W. So I had had you not interrupted me but now I could find in my heart to let it alone had I not left the best behind and you would imagin I could say no more for it but I 'll tell you something from whence you may guess the bulk we are like to grow to we have copied out the old Roman policy which bred them up even from nothing we make a proclaim'd Asylum where not onely men come but plenty of Women we need not play their after-game they are both game and stale too for others and we have some that come to us let me tell you of none of the meanest quality how it does ones heart good to see the discontented Statesman come reeking in revenge over to our Party caress the Good Old Cause an old cast off Whore for a fresh Miss this presents her with all the jilting tricks and trapans set for her the other makes Legs and bows to her followers if they be but Apprentices out at heels a third carouses her and so each in his way B. But this as they say won't maintain her W. Oh for that besides all our own poor endeavours we have some in your Party that drudge night and day onely at last to serve us that after all their arts arrive at the art of discontent who though they don't run downright to our Conventicles nor associate with the Brethren yet their fermented melancholy has broach'd such Tenents as are highly usefull to us and one Renegado you know is of more worth than a Regiment of our own and were you not of the same opinion you would never prefer such ignorant Mumpsimus's as come from Rome to you and let your own of ten times the worth be ready to starve at home except you do it in policy lest we should cover our Cause with them and to credit your selves and could we get but one point we should not despair of as good Pillars to our Cause as stout as Janizaries as learned and after we have quick-silver'd 'em as able as Jesuits B. What doubty point is that you so much long for W. There are you know now and then in the two Universities some feuds about Privileges decided commonly by the Visitors who are most or all Bishops could we so contrive it to make them ride the Colleges hard hold their Noses in a Cap-stone we should have them wince and kick and be for throwing their Riders B. Should the Proceedings be disrelish'd by 'em and they feel too much of the Old Man they would not upon a Pique run o're hedge and ditch to you and ruine themselves put themselves past all hopes of preferment they have waited so long for had they no fix'd principles of honesty in them W. Preferment indeed a six score or eight score pound per annum Parsonage is the Grave of most of them there they bury themselves alive their own clots of Clay pelt them continually they can never lay them till they overwhelm them with their own Mould would they espouse our Cause they need not fear two or three hundred pounds per annum besides respect and other things we had been with 'em else and play'd Mr. Scruple I faith you like Fools divest your selves of that honour due to you to cloath the Bishops with it we strip them and cloath our selves come come the Outliers fare better than the Herd and though after a year more the Pale in part will be broken down the Act against the Covenant will be out of doors yet how few will that bring in we may at first like those that arose just after our Saviour walk about and appear to many Congregations and that way as it were preach up what we were sent for but few of us will be fix'd we shall like them find our habitations taken up â—nd no room for us that will be as good an excuse for us as an Act against us we were shut out when the Park had Food enough now 't is devour'd and o're stock'd we may graze and starve in it but we may oblige some Parishes and Patrons that desire us and considering our great interest I know no better way were I to counsel a Friend than to Apprentice himself for this remnant of time to our Party for to be sure we shall have more to dispose of than we shall know well to turn our
we had more wit than to think that Act would be like our late Claret Act no sooner made but broken by the Legislators themselves and which was worst of all we were made jealous one of another for to ingratiate reconcile and scar over the old wounds some among our selves that were leading men that were Nurses as it were to the Good Old Cause that cherish'd it and as we hop'd would have left it their Heir were chosen out to wear the raggs of the Whore of Babylon and we were afraid they would have fell down and ador'd the Image but God left but few to follow these Delusions B. What powerfull charms did you use to prevent such temptations W. We caught them as they caught others heretofore we tickled them into too great an opinion of themselves we set the whole Party to Coakes those few that were pick'd out of the Brotherhood B. But you did not stop all W. No nor did not desire it but we made a plea from their departure the more powerfull to stay the rest For when by their arguing how instrumental they might be in shadowing the tender branches that might spring by watering the Plants that might thirst by doing sundry good Offices to the Brotherhood we return'd that such and such at our instigation had already undertook it upon that design that to desire more would render it suspicious and therefore useless we laid before them the whole scene of their lives their zeal in the Cause tho utter ruine of it if they left it and even they that at first upon principles of Advantage took to this way by their following of it so long were wedded to so fond an opinion of it that they stuck to it to the loss of honour and lucre B. You made them trusty Diogenes's give them their Tubbs and their Sun-shine and a figg for our Princes Bounty and Grace W. I they ev'n turn'd their Tubbs to the Sun and had God's blessing too with it they kept their Livings and Purses full too we counter-plotted their policy which was good in it self but 't was too narrow had we All been preferr'd the work had been done B. As the case then went on my word if you had not bestirr'd your stumps well the best mouth'd pack and acuâ—st nose-breed in England had been in greater danger to be lost then the race of Jennets in Charles the fifth's Reign was on the Coast of Africk Well thus I see you fixt your Party how canie you so vastly to multiply W. That is God's blessing upon our poor endeavours 't is he that gives the encrease B. I wish he had given a greater out of the Act of Indempnity W. You are Violent again but I 'll tell you 't is evident 't is a sign of God's taking delight in us that he so multiplies us at the Creation he spake to man to the beasts and fishes and gave them that blessing and after his scourging the World by a Deluge and satisfying his wrath he returns this blessing in his love Genesis the 9th and the 1st and the 7th and accordingly they did Now we find when this Land was scourg'd and God return'd in his love we have since mightily nay marvellously encreas'd B. Have a care you are now running to China Japan and the West Indies to the Papist Argument The Most Universal W. No no pray mistake me not I do not mean as that Babylonish Crew do they brand their Whore in the forehead with it that the world may know her by it we onely take it as a pledge of God's Love to the Godly B. For once I won't though I justly might be severe upon your meaning but do you use no means don't you set your shoulders to the Cart-wheel W. In Gud troth we have not been wanting to our selves to work us out a Party and that by sundry means B. As how W. The first step was accidental and even beyond our hopes much more our expectations for you must know in our days we had so anew modell'd the face of All things that had an old Elizabeth Reformer arose from the dead he would have star'd as much about him as Father Adam would at our Buildings Clothes and manner of Living we had coin'd words before and at our coining of mony that were known to none but the Saints and they had quite in sacred matters through disuse unlearnt all others besides and moreover they were to be spoken in the true Accent else as unintelligible too as the Notes of Birds and Beasts to these we superadded some artificial faces and the inarticulate language of sighs the female 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with some tenets of Divinity of the same date so that we seem'd if not as we told them a New-Ierusalem yet I 'm sure at the least a New-England having season'd them thus for many years when those came back from beyond the Seas with the King or that lay fishing here in Coverts with the old English Dialect began to appear upon the sacred Stage all that they said or could say seem'd to be as strange as themselves they and their Congregations seem'd to be Barbarians to each other and the latter not being able to wean themselves from the prejudice of Education Ebb'd to us thus we found our hands in a short time full enough we took then sweet counsel together how to evade the Act for Renouncing the Covenant that seem'd to be as fevere as the Ordinance of God that was made against the Children of Israel's going into the Land of Canaan for it was to continue three Lives in Law we therefore Resolv'd not to continue Jews wander without a Government but effected one according to the old Form got Imperium in Imperio we borrow'd a little piece of Policy God wot of those that since have copied out a great deal from us We follow'd the example of the outed Bishops in the late times who fearing the whole Set might be worn out they design'd to Blow more over the Nation well knowing their neighbours the Romish Church would never let them have a Breed again But it had been well for the Church and State if it had so Luckily hapned B. But you were not in probability driven to those straits thanks be to your neighbours you might have had them have swarm'd round about our Coasts like shoals of Herrings from almost all the four Quarters from New-England Holland France Savoy Germany Poland Switzerland Denmark Swethland at least from your Sister Scot-land and some fine dainty breeders from your old Damm Geneva W. Do you think should the Spaniard be so impolitickly kind as upon a general rot of Sheep here in England which God forbid for then I fear we should want our clothing to return our imprudent kindness with a breed from Spain they would till some considerable time relish our turf No no 't is best securing some of our own if we can and that we thought the truest policy B. But
the shock of a Trial which Country have found you guilty what can you say why Judgment should not pass upon you why the Laws of the Land should not be put in execution against you and every one of you W. I when a Jury of the Country is lawfully call'd not when they thrust themselves upon such an Office that is when the Parliament is call'd then we will Safely stand to a Trial you will not I hope call a few the Representatives of the Nation a few Grand Jury-men pickt and cull'd by the Sheriff who you know is chose by the Court then a parcel of Inland Stuff Merchants that throw their words as lavishly as their hands and legs and think to make us the Shuttle-cock but we will remember their Stuff wee 'l tooth and nail if we have ever any more Parliaments in England again the next Session put in a Bill for wearing Cloth half the year we will build up our little Sisters Taunton-Dean Worcester and the Stroud Water-men they shall be able to o're-top your Stuff-Merchants and then we shall make them as humble as their Address but notwithstanding these Hogen-Mogen doings of Grand Juries Corporations c. a small parcel of men that have too much cowardise and covetousness to make good either Article of their new Faith and we have still the main Body of the Nation thousands and ten thousands that nee'r have nor will submit themselves and bend their knee to Authority manag'd by Popish Counsels B. This is very mysterious now and then when you please a Westminster Grand Jury shall be the voice of the Nation but no heed given to any other and the majority of a Corporation shall then speak the sense of the whole Town but at other times shall scarce have leave given them to speak even for themselves W. ' Ill give you the Test how you shall know whether they speak for themselves alone or for their places their purses not their heads give them the preeminence in B. How W. If the same number of God's and the King's people walk in the ways and frequent the places of worship which the profane call the Conventicles as did heretofore then 't is an evident sign that these nor none of these are included in the Addresses or come over but the same number c. walk in the same ways you know what follows B. And what follows if the same number doe the Nation is or may be as safe as long as they keep the power of the sword in their own hands 't is not onely the Papists houses may be search'd for Arms but any others and all taken away except what necessary for the train'd Bands your stock of Arms bought in at Fairs at the beginning of the Plot for pretended fear of the Papists should the State look to it would not be such scare-crows or if taken away no such oppression when the time was once known that a Malignant could not carry a Knife in his Pocket to cut his meat if he had any for fear he should be up in Arms with it W. How sease our Arms our last and onely hopes whilest the enemy is in the three Nations whilest there is a Plot this is to unbutton our Collars hold our hands and let the Papist or the Spaniard do execution to our throats I dread the death of a Spanish Grandee methinks hanging drawing and quartering in a good Cause is dying on a Feather-bed to that B. Since you seem to like that sort of death better than living in quiet why did you not choose it twenty and odd years ago you were ripe enough for it then why did you desire to leave your Leaders so basely in the lurch and at once the Hangman too but I find by your wincing where you are gall'd and where your hopes were when you gave out so many challenges to the Government let that begin to suppress Conventicles if it dares by the Lord they knew who would make an end but we find you are now match'd and his Majesty has a greater Life-guard than onely broken Citizens men that will stand by him with their Fortunes too W. I when I see that once when the 40 or 100 thousand pounds come then I shall think them in earnest and not look upon them as manag'd by your great Noble-men and little Clergy-men but now they are filthily manag'd and have words put into their mouths contrary to their own interest and then any one may safely swear contrary to their sense as if the City of Oxon could speak any more their minds in their paper Address than they could in the Presence-chamber when they went to give the King thanks for the Dissolution of the last Parliament such shameless Hypocrites Credat Judaeus Apella Non Ego they were made to do it in a politick sense of having him there again Come come things are not so much off the hooks as some may imagin and though now we don't talk much because 't would prejudice our Cause there was and is a time for that and all things we act the more B. Dare you further diselose your Secrets you must before you Proselyte me What are your methods W. Several according as occasions and circumstances vary and because the greatest Argument the Papists us'd was their certainty of a Revolution of times and the incertainty of acceptance should they refuse the Scepter held out I 'll be as kind to you and shew you such a Scene as shall satisfie you which way the wind is like to blow I can bring you incognito to our Smects of Policy where you shall see a Scene far better than our Discourse towards the building you up in the Faith and Fear of the Godly B. If you have got any Curtains to cover or hide me in or a peeping hole no danger but if I must pass under the sanctified name of an Obedias Tobias or so forth my face will want choak and I shall look too plump a month with a Sister will sanctifie my looks into the Brotherhood W. Come take no thought for that we have your whispering places as well as those of old Glocester is not the onely hole in England follow me but be sure to stand close B. I beg your pardon I shall hear some Treason and be kept by you so long from disclosing till I am made guilty of misprision I begin to suspect your extraordinary kindness thrown on one that can no way not desires any to merit it pray how have I deserv'd so ill at your hands as to be thought so well of by you as to be trusted W. I 'll tell you the truth for once which is rare with us you are in those unhappy circumstances that have caught many you have made some observations on us enough to undoe you there remains nothing more now but to proceed and know our utmost and side with us if not down-right in a perfect activeness yet in a sly under-hand covert acting or at least
Concessions That the sole power of the King can dispose of the Crown at his pleasure how would you doe it W. Easily B. How W. As thus The Crown may be dispos'd of by some Authority but the King with the necessary concurrence of the three Estates must not because that might do us perhaps more injury therefore the King alone may B. This is an Argument onely to convince those that long to be convinc'd with never so small a one this is made for your selves how would you convince the next Heir put by as to the right of it W. We would convince him by dint of Sword B. But how would you convince the other part of the world that might look upon this as a piece of injustice and perhaps right him in his Cause we are making again a Cock-pit of Europe W. If it come but once to that we have those that shall draw Declarations as well nay much better than their Swords B. But would not the Elder Brothers of the Nation 't is they that constitute the two Houses of Parliament have taken it ill to have had the next Heir have put their Noses out of joint by the importunities of their Fathers pretended Friends because they fancy'd the Eldest would have prov'd the hardest Masters W. How sillily you talk now that could not be done the Laws of the Land were their security they lay not at the pure will of their Predecessours their Estates are most of them entail'd upon them and you know in an entail'd Estate a superiour power is requisite towards the cutting them off either the Courts of Judicature a special Act of Parliament or the King's consent together with the Parents as in descent of Honours B. I profess I highly admire the Law as being the effects of great Reasoning nay so great a friend it is to it that it disowns it self if it comes otherwise or any ways contradicts what we hold reasonable to be believ'd our Religion in the whole or in its parts Now that Law thinks that in an entail'd Estate which I presume modestly the Crown may be thought to be the best holding in England sure the next Heir cannot be put by without an Authority supream to the Paternal or that deriv'd from it Now in private Estates there is a supreme to the immediate Paternal power such as Courts of Judicature and special Acts of Parliament by vertue of which they hold those and keep them from other people but in the case of the Crown there is no power supreme to the Possessour but the power of the Donor which is God himself so that we must have in reason we see a Revelation first before a Disinherison and if any thing is done contrary to Reason the Law says 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 in it 〈◊〉 and the parity of Reason no one endued with it can deny between an entall'd Estate of private persons and the Crown and the denying a descent in an entail'd Estate not cut off by a superiour power to the next Heir would for the present Gavelkind the best Estates in England and make better for the younger Brothers than Burrough-English or a War W. Here are two or three things in which I fear you have over-shot your self in as first what is all this to the purpose if in private Estates the Laws require a supreme power we can make a Law that shall wipe off all that and enact quite contrary B. If you can make Acts of Parliament against the Common Law of the Land which was in being before the Parliament I hope you can't make them against Reason too this Law was thought ever reasonable and the contrary may look suspicious W. We can make a Law that that Law it self that invalidates all other Laws if not reasonable shall be kick'd out of doors but another thing you say there is no supreme power to the Possessour's but the Donor's which is God c. how then can yone King By his powerfull inherit as I have heard a great many that would be thought most Loyal and most Orthodox maintain but I believe they were men that fear'd the consequences of a Popish Successour as bad as they hated the growth of Parliamentary power B. Great fears great preferments and great sins may so enslave a Soul as to make him sordidly flatter the Prince to the detriment of his Crown and Dignity W. But I highly dislike one thing more that Monarchy should come from God these Church-buildings of yours will one day ruin the Nation but what if it should come from the People what say you then I think I spoil your Mag-pies nest for you B. Though that is gratis dictum yet this will bring us to Scotland again and hunt over the old Game I thought you had quitted that hold before come 't is much the best and truest way to throw all upon the Almighty no single Monarch then like King John can make overtures of his Kingdom to an African Mahomentan shall we be less afraid of parting with the three Kingdoms at the Princes pleasure than with the single Town of Tangier if we give the Level to the People the Crown and they will draw one one way and the other another so that our Whimsies would but fever our Body Politick and cause a restless motion in it thus we find that axiome as true in that Body as in the Natural all things are in a restless motion till they come to their proper Centre W. If you puzzle the Cause thus with Objections 〈◊〉 body yet haâ— taught us to make answer to and Consequences of Conclusions our Politicians have not or will not see I must though I know your manner of Education and living get you view'd see if you can't be found to have some lines or lineaments in your face or body that will verily perswade some to fancy they have seen you saying Mass a strong fancy brings a strong belief and belief 's above knowledge so that any one may safely swear you Priest Regular or Secular of what Order soever Dominican or Jesuit if he can but strongly fancy you so B. This is Plot-saving Doctrine as good as Scissars and Sieve or Key and Bible to make the Patron go halfs to detect his â—â—n Some by Peter and some by Paul will find out whether the suspected be a Roman Catholick then if of any Order if so of which that once found 't is but opening the Catalogue of their names and there 's the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as quick a way and almost as sure as the High Court of Justice where the breath of the Lord became the breath of the People and mens Heads were poll'd off your Women can sit at home and play the Destinies spin the thread of Men's Lives but who can lay any thing to the Saints charge W. I begin to suspect you think lightly of the Plot and the King's Evidence you are a Heretick I fear if not a down-right Atheist in our modern policy what I warrant you you would make little of the Plot. B. I shall not make so much of it as some others I fear have and will I shall never build upon it either Wealth or Revenge list unrais'd Armies the Rabble instill fears into 'em and so far proceed till there remains nought to secure the Authours and followers but to put Weapons into their hands and then commit the horridest outrages against Church and State that your paper Ammunition your Declarations and Pardons might not make them disband I can tell you the end as you have told me the beginning and so fare you well FINIS