to the Sworn Patrons of the Cause Smectymnuus themselves what will an Act of Indempnity avail in Plea before the Great Tribunal So many Parents made Childlesse by Thy Sword so many Children Fatherlesse the Bloud of so many thousand Loyal Subjects spilt like water Common and Noble and at last the KINGS and all this in a Cause where every Thought Word Action of Agreement was a Murther Why shouldest not thou be Damn'd Lord saies he MURTHERS are Pardoned by the Act of INDEMPNITY So many Plunders Robberies Sequestrations Decimations Confiscations to the undoing of many thousand rich Families and twenty times as many of the poorer sort that depended upon them What Sorrow Acknowledgement Reparation for all these Injuries what token of Repentance why therefore should'st not thou be Damn'd Hee pleads the Indempnity too So many Grave Divines poyson'd in Winchester house so many honest men of all sorts and qualities destroy'd by all varieties of misery Smother'd Famish'd sold for Slaves because they would not fight against their Prince nor swear against their Consciences Why should not ye that did all this be Damn'd The Act of Indempnity still Go to your Rabbi Busy's now your three-pil'd goodly Levites that when ye did all This call'd you a Holy Covenanting People bid them look over their whole stock of Shifts and Popular Distinctions and shew ye the least shadow of a Comfort Which if they do they must overthrow this Assertion Without REPENTANCE there can be no SALVATION and without RESTITUTION no REPENTANCE If it be so this were a Theme much fitter for a Pulpit-Zeal then Lawn Sleeves or the Crosse in Baptism but in this point our Gospel Ministers are as mute as Fishes which manifestly shews the Core of the Faction How can these people sleep with all this weight upon their Consciences unlesse by virtue of One of these Two Causes The Former a Reprobated and unfeeling hardnesse the Other a good opinion of their first Engagement he One way they are our Enemies upon a Principle of Iudgement and the other way upon a score of boundlesse faithlesse wickednesse The use we are to make of All is onely to look to our selves and to commit nothing to Hazzard that may be secured by Prudence Which cautionary Prudence must not yet carry us beyond the line of Duty For tho' as Christians they are not absolved by the Act of Indempnity yet as Subjects Wee are Obliged by it nor shall we start an Inch from the Literal strictnesse of it It is an Act of Free and General Pardon Indempnity and Oblivion granted upon such Reasons and Conditions with such Provisoes and Limitations as are therein expressed extending from Ianuary 1. 1637. to Iune 24. 1660. As it is a Pardon we complain not Nor doe we pretend any Legal Right to what we have Lost in questioning their Consciencious Right to what they have Taken If They will do what they ought not to doe Keep it We shall however doe what we ought to do Sit down with Submission and Patience so that the Indemnity is safe too Nor do we at all entrench upon it as an Act of Oblivion which forbids the MALICIOUS Revival of past differences and directs to the burying of all Seeds of Future Discords and Remembrance of the Former c. If the same things are now done over again by the same Party where lyes the MALICE of saying Have a care of the same hand again This is a hint of Caution not of Animosity a means to Prevent Mischief not to Cause it Nor do Wee charge Particulars for beyond doubt there are True Converts divers that even in the Counsells of the Kings Enemies did his Majesty service We professe further that we have no Unkindnesse for such as have not shewd themselves against us since they received their Pardon but touching the Rest we are at Liberty to speak our Thoughts Let us not be too Credulous then and gape after empty Hopes that will deceive us VVe never Lost any thing by suspecting them we never gayned by Trusting them In short Hee that will doe his Prince and Country a good Office let him but get a List of the Instruments and Officers they have put upon us whereof the King knows nothing and present it to his Majesty There will need no other proof of their Combination Onely one word now IIII. That we divide not among our selves UNder this notion OUR SELVES we understand all persons that are well-affected to the established Government which must expect to be dealt with by the Factious Rest variously according to the Reason of the Design and the Humour of the Party to be wrought upon It will require not only Constancie but Skill so to demean our selves as to scape Oversights and yet not dash upon Distemper for we are to encounter both artificial Flatteries and sharp Provocations and so in danger to miscarry either upon Facility or Passion Some are 〈◊〉 sighted and Those they startle into Fears and Iealousies concerning Religion Privileges the Fundamental Lawes c. Matters which being little understood and much esteemed are of great effect with the Common people Not to be over-strict Some they Seduce Others they Corrupt and betwixt such as want either Braynes or Honesty they make up their Party Machiavell and Experience are two great Masters and they have learn'd from Both that to Destroy a Prince the surest way is to begin with the generality of the People whom if they can but once possess with an Opinion that the King designes upon the Freedome of their Estates and Consciences the work 's half done To which end they themselves contrive necessitate nay and Impose tho' privily those very Grievances whereof they likewise prove the first Complainers charging upon his Majesty what was done onely by their own Procurement and for Their Benefit They handle the Rabble as they do Elephants they digg the Pit Themselves and when they have entrapped them Another must be employed to strike and to enrage the Beast They forsooth out of Zeale and Pity to the poor Creature Interpose take the Elephants part and by appearing to remove the Injuryes they Caused Winn and Reclayme the Beast But in the end the Elephant serves Them not They the Elephant Let us a little observe how they have already strew'd the way to their Design With Reverence to the Authority of the Act of Indemnity and with submission to the Force and Reason of it wee 'l begin There and understand it as a mixture of Mercy and Expedience granted on their behalfe whose Lives and Fortunes were forfeited to the Law This Act makes them Masters in effect of the Booty of Three Nations bating Crown and Church-Lands and all they have gotten by a Griping Rebellion and Usurpation of allmost twenty years Continuance they may now call their Owne those People that Contested to preserve the Law being by these Penitents abandoned to the Comfort of an irreparable but an Honourable ruine To what they had gotten
Stuarts is branded for Spurious his Sacred Majesty now living stung with the most exquisite and piercing point of Rhetorique and Malice The late King handled worse than common modesty would treat his Murtherers Let a Man mention this I say and his mouth 's stopp'd with the Act of Indemnity although this very Person hath of Late publish'd a Pamphlet of near equivalence to This against our Gracious and abused Soveraign Are we obliged by the Act of Oblivion to quit our Nature and our Reason with our Passions to such a Losse of Memory as utterly defaces the very Images of things Past and robbs us of the benefit of our dear-bought experience VVe have our Private Causes of Disquiet too but Patience is your advise and without more adoe wee 'll take it especially encouraged by the President you set before us your Patient self And yet if your Composure proceed from your Compensation as the Cohaerence renders it your Instance does not reach Us. We do not envy you the Glory of your Sufferings and yet we do not need your Pattern to proceed by We have among our selves Sir divers that would more willingly Repeat the very Losses and Hazards themselves then the Story of them and for that modest Reason the Words of Some weigh down the Actions of Others You proceed and conclude Thus 7. And as we have a Gracious so have we a Glorious King the most Glorious that ever wore these three Crowns For all the eyes of Christendom are fix'd upon Him with a kind of astonishment and admiration and not only of Christendom but of all the World besides for 't is written that the Great Turk should say If he were to change his Religion he would fall to Worship the God of King Charles of England who hath done such miracles for him such miracles that no story can parallel And certainly God Almighty must needs love Him for whom he doth miracles which that his Divine Majestie may continue to do are the incessant Prayers of 20 Julii 1661. J. H. 7. We do not understand the Phrase of the Court A Gracious Prince we have no doubt as ever Liv'd but how so Glorious if so opprest as you have rendred him we do not comprehend Great as he is Good we wish him and let That suffice Love is the best Praise and the best Language of the Soul is Action Till we are call'd to That our Prayer shall be that all the ENEMIES of the last King may prove the FRIENDS of this R. L. But where 's the Cordial all this while you pretend to comfort people under Corporal necessities by telling them they have a Gracious Prince and a Good Cause you bid them not Despayr for it is possible they may receive their Reward when the Publique shall have nothing else to do with their mony that is at Last VVords will not feed the Hungry nor Speculations clothe the Naked This is no more than what we might have heard from a Good Old wife in a Chimny-Corner Have a good Heart God's all-sufficient This may Relieve the Mind but not the Body Your Fourth and Fifth Sections are spent in the Defence of what we do not Oppose and not without Mistake even in the ground of your Plea The King may give his Honours and Rewards Pardon or Punish where and as he pleases that is he may forgive such faults as God allows him to dispense with but still your Twenty to One is more oddes than the proportion will bear The learned Bishop Sanderson concerning Oathes tells us That an Errour in the substance of the thing which was the proper cause of the Oath renders the Promise Invalid and the Obligation void Lect. 4. Sect. 13. Upon which Equity it may be a question whether his Majesty be bound or not to make good all those Grants which by Deceipt about the substance of the Thing have been obtained from him the proper cause whereof was his perswasion of their Loyalty to whom he pass'd such Grants Under this Notion have been Dignified some Persons with whose Character I shall not foul my Paper further than Thus Those blessings which his Sacred Majesty meant to shed upon his Friends fell upon his Enemies The VOYCE was JACOBS but the HANDS are ESAU'S Upon the Main your Paper bears the Name of a Cordial without the Effect of it and such is our Condition that it is equally dangerous either to fasten upon false Comforts or neglect True ones VVhat the King Does or Is what Hopes of Profit or Reward is not one jote material to our businesse The Rule of Loyaltie is the same whatever may be the humour of the Prince and he that makes Profit the Reason of his Virtue will when that Reason is gone think it likewise an Excuse of his wickednesse Our best part is to behave our selves with Clearnesse and Prudence and honourably to Bear what we cannot honestly avoid without mincing or palliating the Worst or Looking into the Starrs for Better We have an Uncertainty of Events before us of Decree above us of Counsells and Design about us a Light and Guide within us and if there be no new thing under the Sun the Future is Behind us Be it our Care then to discover what Dangers threaten us from whence which we may struggle with which not how fairly to shunn all and by the square of Honesty and Reason mend a bad Game All which may be effected by procuring that his Majestie may neither mistake his Friends nor the People his Majestie together with a waryness not to rely upon our Enemies nor to Divide among our selves These Four hints duly observed secure us without a Miracle as on the Contrary we fall into Disorder and Confusion The First and grand Expedient is I. That his Majesty may rightly understand his People A Failing in this point would prove a Mischief without Remedie or Comfort one of the saddest Judgements can befall a Prince or Nation It gives Authority to a general Ruine puts Loyaltie out of countenance and it makes Faith and Honour cheap and ridiculous As the Mistake is Mortall so 't is not easie to distinguish betwixt Truths and Appearances especially for a Prince so long unwonted and so much a Stranger to his People Mens Hearts are not read in their Faces and we live in an age where commonly the Blackest Souls wear the cleerest Forheads and Confidence supplies the place of Merit Let us not wonder then at benefits misplaced but rather labour to prevent by better Information so many dangerous tho' well-meaning disappointments for his Majestie hath no other means of knowing his People then either faithfull Notice or long Observation and Delay kills us This is not yet to impose upon his Majesties Free grace or intercept the Course and Influence of his Royal Goodness We are with Reverence to beleeve that where he knowes the Person he Preferrs or Saves he knowes likewise the Reason of his Bounty or Mercy and we are not to
for One throughout the Nation Even in Covent Garden a Parish of the Geneva stamp the odds was little lesse betwixt the late Petitioners for the Common Prayer and the Opposers of it But in the Generall Declarations before the Kings Return and the Appearance afterward to receive him the Dis-proportion was yet greater and more evident What was the Reason that the Godly Legions after they were baffled by the Independents would never yet joyn frankly with the Royalists but upon all occasions left them still in the Lurch Save only This They were affraid of being Over number'd and so enforced to do his Majesties businesse when they intended but their Own In brief they 'll make a shift to croud half a Dozen Churches here about the Town and they shew All. Come to the test of Loyalty 't is more unequall Their Faith at best is but of late date doubtfull continuance and suspected credit For one essential of Repentance is Restitution But we live in an age of Miracles 'T is a strange thing that in the same instant all those that had been Twenty years against the King should become his Friends and those that had been as long for him should become his Enemies He that would take a just accompt of the Other side let him begin with the first War and see how much Noble and Loyal Blood was spilt before the devout Traytors reach'd the Kings How many Honourable and Wealthy Families were brought to Beggery How many Poyson'd and dispatch'd in Gaols and for no other Crime but that they lov'd his Majesty Look forward now and see if the Survivours of that execrable Tragedy prov'd not as faithfull afterwards to the Son as they had been to the Father Was ever any Tyranny more severe any Conquest more Absolute any Attempt more Difficult Yet Poor and Disarm'd as they were Death and almost Impossibilities before them no Friends to Second them no Reward to Encourage them Did they not still pursue the Royal Cause This Prince his Right and Title when these gay Gentlemen were quiet Lookers on that now perswade his Majesty They did the Businesse Nor was it Rashness or Despair that Prick'd them on but Duty and Honour for if they would Then have been Villeins 't is possible they might Now have pass'd for Honest men VVhen they could Act no longer they served the King by Suffering and their Blouds fill'd up the measure of their Enemies wickednesse by Dying Ripening that Vengeance which Living they could not execute These are Truths and the whole Nation can beare witnesse of them VVhat can those People mean then but Mischief to the King whose businesse 't is further to ruine those that are already undone for Serving him God grant his Majesty may not mistake his Friends However II. God forbid that we should mistake his Majesty IN this particular our Duty is short and Open. VVere all the Ills we suffer joyned with as many more as we have hitherto endured imposed upon us by the direct Will and Order of the King If he should say Hang half my Friends for their Fidelity and Sterve the rest for Gaping when they are Hungry We ought to take all This but as a sad Occasion of greater Honour a sharper Tryal of our Faith or at the worst as an unkind requital of our Love but no discharge of Duty The Authority of Princes is Divine and their Commission makes their Persons sacred If They transgresse 't is against God whose Officers and Deputies they are not against Us. If We transgresse 't is both against God and Them a double Disobedience This is not yet to say that we are bound to thrust our Necks into the Nooze and offer up our selves as willing Sacrifices to appease the Spirit of Rage and Cruelty No we may fairly shun the Mischief unlesse a greater come in Competition but not oppose the Power That Subject is guilty of his Masters Bloud that sees the Person of his Prince in danger and does not interpose to save him though he be sure to Dye himself even by the hand of him whom he Preserves Nor is it enough for Subjects to keep a Guard upon their Actions unlesse they set a VVatch likewise before the Doors of their Lipps their Tongues must be Tyed as well as their Hands Nay and the very Boylings of their Thoughts must be suppressed VVe that are thus instructed in the Grounds and Termes of Duty even toward the worst of Kings cannot mistake our selves sure toward the Contrary and become doubly Guilty First by imputing our Misfortunes to a wrong Cause and then by an undutifull and simple menage of them There is a Gulfe betwixt his Majesty and Us and as yet Darkness is upon the face of the Deep One does not clearly understand the Other His Majesty is told indeed of a Loose Beggerly Prophane Tippling sort of People that call themselves Cavaliers against whom under that appearance came forth his Majesties Proclamation by Some intended as a Stabb and Scandal to the Royal Party but in the King himself an Act of Piety and Prudence Some that in probability occasioned That should have done well to have got one Clause inserted against Those that deny the Kings Authoritie to be above that of the Two Houses On the Other side We are not lesse perplexed a-about our Soveraign all Meanes are used to Create Quicken and Foment Mis-understandings The Last was Our King the Godly Party tells us but This is Theirs and the Presbyterian must be now the White Boy which looks as if 't were so indeed if we compare Conditions and search no further then the Outside of the Differenee He that sees Cromwells Brad shaws St. Iohns his Creatures nay and the meanest of them laden with Offices and Honours may give himself a second Thought to understand the meaning of it especially considering how many thousands of Loyal Subjects are ready to Perish for want of that which in great superfluity is scattered among scarce so many single persons of the other side These Incongruities may trouble us but to impute them to the King were to commit a sin against Duty and Reason So far is his Majesty from Allowing or Directing them they are kept as much as possibly from his bare Knowledge The Plot is laid against Him and as they did before they do but now remove his Friends to make way to his Person The Reason why we are not Relieved is This we put our Businesse into wrong hands and apply to the Causes of our mischief for the Remedy of it If we look close to the matter we shall perceive that many of the Kings Favours were Extorted Some Surreptitiously obteyned Others Abus'd and Misapplyed by second hands that were entrusted to dispose of them better But Finally Those which the King himself bestowed were given by the unquestionable Prerogative of his own Freedom the Grounds whereof in Part we know and in the Whole we Reverence There are another sort also of cold
before let us adde the Debt they left in Arriere both at Sea and Land together with what they have begg'd since in Mony Land and Office Truly all this put together one would think might satisfie a Reasonable sort of People Now to look a little the other way The King cannot but have contracted great Debts his Active Friends are Begger'd and Those whose Inclinations were but suspected Loyal have smarted sufficiently for it Come to the Generality ye shall not find quick Mony enough to keep Commerce alive all wanting and complaining Now let us Rationally consider Whither does this Condition of the Publique tend and whence does it proceed The Kings Debts must be Payd his Revenue setled his Guards maintained and beyond all This in common view a Forein war inevitable The Relief of his Majesties Friends is a thing but by the By that goes for nothing All this is necessary to be done but Where How Whence without a Mine who can imagine A General Imposition will hardly furnish it the Treasure of the Nation being drawn into so few hands and They too have the wit to keep it close for divers reasons as well to conceal their prodigious and most unconscionable Gettings as to secure their After-game which they are provident enough to expect To rayse these Necessary and Large Summes if common and formal wayes will not suffice Others lesse acceptable must be thought upon So that upon the whole either his Majesty cannot be supplyed even in those Exigencies which most concern the Honour and the Safety of the Nation or else the Generality must suffer exceedingly by the Pressure to which some further trouble may possibly arise even from the manner of Imposing it When Discontents come to this Ripenesse then is the time for the Old Patriots to put in again and mourn over the Oppressed They shall shew the People what is against Magna Charta and the Petition of Right the Law of the Land and the Liberty of the Subject Then shall they with all Dutyfull Reverence humbly declare to his Sacred Majesty that it is their Antient and Undoubted RIGHT c. In short Great Payments will certainly cause Great Disquiets and there are those will take advantage of them This is the Clear and natural tendencie of Affairs and it behoves us to provide and Arm our selves against the Malice of it which may be done by a sober Enquirie into the Grounds and Causes by whose Contrivance and Design the Publique lyes reduced to this Extreme Necessity The War occasioned our Destruction but who occasioned the War wee 'll only answer for our selves that the Cavaliers Cause was as good as the Kings Title to the Crown Briefly Those that have robb'd the Publique to Enrich themselves are the Cause why the Publique is not able to Support it self Forfeited Estates would have set All clear without taking in either the Army Officers or the Converted Cavaliers into the Reckoning Nay more they might have been left yet better then they began for they have been no ill Husbands of their Pillage But so was the State of the Nation represented to his Majestie and such was his Royal Goodnesse that he thought fit to remit all and 't is our Duty not to murmur at it only let us not forget when it comes to the Question by what hand we perish To conclude their Designs are frivolous if we our selves do not assist them either by Crediting against our Reason or by Ioyning with them against our Duty These are our Open and Known Adversaries if we can see or know any thing but there 's another sort which only time must unmasque and against whom this Caution for the present shall suffice Vaenalis hominum vita est licitatores capitum nostrorum publicè regnant Euphormio FINIS ERRATUM Page the 6th read Capons for Larkes c. Temporizing Friends Evill Counsellours A Corrupted Clergy The Commonalty to be obliged The Kings Old Friends more numerous than his New More Loyal Misunderstandings fomented betwixt the King and his Party Lib. 4 de Consc. cap. 15.