Tyranny as Mr. Baxter represents it to punish Dissenters with a Prison when some of them have been willing to croud thither only to make up a Conventicle perverting the very Penalties of the Law to a further opportunity of breaking it and making that subservient to the Crime which was intended to correct it This Animadversion on our Dissenters and their Advocates is both pertinent to this Discourse and favourable to those it reflects on The one because 't is certain their Faction is concern'd in this Association The other because such offenders deserve to be more severely handled And now you shall see the Disparity between a True Patriot and a Factious Associator the difference there is betwixt one that truly Loves his Countrey and him that only pretends it A True Patriot will endeavor the Peace and Quietness of the Kingdom wherein he Lives and if he sits at Helm will so steer the Bark that it may fail securely in the midst of the greatest danger neither split on the Rocks that threaten it on one side Or running into the Quick-sand that would cast her away on the other will endeavour to preserve the Nation from the Popery we fear and from the Fanaticism we have felt One that has helpt to make it flourish in Peace and Plenty this Twenty Years And will endeavour to keep it in the same Prosperity still One that will with Equal Courage resist an English Rebellion that he would a Spanish Invasion That won't endeavour to satisfie every discontended grumbler but remove all real motives to complaint and murmuring That will keep to the Rules of Law and Justice as the best means to keep the Peace too Free from all Passion and Interest and so can neither trouble the Kingdom by the Turbulency of the one or defraud it by the Temptations of the other A Factious Associator makes it his business to disturb the Countrey wherein he Lives with as much Fear and Jealousie as Thought can suggest or Malice invent for 't is Quietness and Peace that makes him idle and without Employ 'T is a sort of Sea-Monster that shows himself most before a Storm And endeavors to overset that Ship which he is not Capacitated to Steer His Eyes are set on the Publique Ministers of State not to pry into their Actions but murder their Reputations Not to search them like an Eagle but to sacrifice them like a Basilisk 'T is a State Cannibal that delights in blood and triumphs in the Miseries of a Civil War One that makes Religion a pretence for Rebellion Though as empty of the one as brim full of the other One that would flush himself in the Spoils of a New War though glutted almost with the blood that was shed in the Old 'T is the rarified Chamaeleon That out-does the natural one feeds not so much as upon Air But only Popular breath Sets the Nation all in Combustion and then like a secure Salamander lives in the flame One that seems Hells Purveyor and like the Devil makes his Covenanting Imps subscribe their Contracts in their own blood That Sails securely by tacking about with Wind and Tide and exposes the Government to be shatter'd in the Tempest That talks of nothing but the Consumption of the Body Politick only because his Natural one pines with discontent The one will with an earnest even anxious sollicitation of mind seek to reconcile the jarring hearts of Subjects to their Lawful Prince Let them understand the goodness and equity of the merciful King that governs will help his gracious Monarch to make all manner of good impression on his Subjects and give his people all imaginable satisfaction will perswade them to acquiesce with his Majesty's reasons for dissolving an old Parliament and his Gracious promises for calling a new one that will thank him for such kind Assurances and Declaration and not extenuate so gracious an action with a talk of Oath and Obligation will open the blind eyes of the deluded Rabble and take away the Veil of Popularity that blinds the discontented great The other pursues with the greatest aggravation the least slip in the Government stirs up Jealousies and Animosities between King and People to prevent the Reconciliation that would otherwise ensue for then the little Artifices he uses to foment Sedition would be illuded and his Engines of Rebellion Libels Associations Remonstrances would grow rusty and useless He is bound in prudence to make the Peoples Cause his Own and for his security to be guarded by his Whifflers the Rabble is grieved and afflicted when the King comforts his People perverts the best things to the worst sense daubs and disfigures all with his Colours which is like to wipe off the pretence and Varnish of his Cause cavils at the Declaration of his Prince because intended to satisfie the People proves the Parliament unreasonably dissolved because the King gives good reason for it makes the Nation believe it shall never see another when the he Declaration promises the contrary but yet thinks sit to extort it from the King by Petition for fear it should pass otherwise for his Gratious action deludes the silly Mobile with expectations of being great and perswades the Nobility they are not truly so without a Popular greatness The one is for the uniting the people in affection and charity if he can't obtain it in Perswasion and Religion won't multiply foes by Suspition or create dangers out of a Panick fear one that will never hugg a Popish Plot as tenderly as the Nursing-Father of it a Jesuit No such Ambidexter as to make a Bugbear and Darling of the same thing and both equally subservient to his purpose No such mimical Ape as with distorting squinting looks ridicules every thing in his countenance that does not suit with his froward Genius He is a perfect piece of sincerity and never makes a Juglers-box of his Conscience swallowing down Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and bringing up nothing but Treasonable Covenants and Associations like those Impostors that are seen to let down but harmless Tape and Ribband yet disgorge Knives and Daggers He will submit to the Lawful Authority of the State and conform to the constant Discipline of the Church will with an awful respect look upon the Crown and pay his due reverence to the Mitre will oppose the Toleration of all Religion as the ready way to have none He will truly stand up for the Liberty of the Subject and not make it a pretence to enslave them One that will trust his Prince with Money for the support of his Crown and Dignity and allow him a competent Guard for the preservation of his Person One that will swear Allegiance to none but his King And lastly never out of fear of a contingent danger will raise a present War for altering Succession The other is so far from reconciling differences in Religion that he can hardly admit of a good opinion of any not of his own sentiments transubstantiates
subdue and destroy him and all his Adherents that intend to set up his pretended Title Holy League June 6. That I will according to my Power and Vocation assist the Forces raised by both Houses of Parliament against the Forces raised by the King without their Consent Solemn Leag Negat Oath I. A. B. Do swear from my Heart that I will neither directly nor indirectly adhere unto or willingly assist the King in this Cause c. And that my coming and submitting to this Parliament is without any Design whatsoever Now I would have any one tell me what will be the difference between assisting the Forces of the Parliament against those of the King swearing neither directly or indirectly to adhere to his Majesty and this Clause of Fighting Subduing Expelling Destroying the Duke and all his Adherents when as much a King as ever his father was which is supposed and implyed in this Clause of the Association And that all this shall be done when he comes to the Crown and seeks to set up his pretended Title But why must his Title only be pretended when he will have as much right to wear the Crown as the Head upon which it is now so miraculously placed What can be the result of this but that those men who will think his Title then but pretended have but little better Opinion of his present Majestie 's Certainly upon the same Ground that they will not admit him to the Throne they may pull the present King out of it for it is but rejecting the Duke for giving Life and Birth to the Plot and the King for conniving at the Conspiracy that horrid accusation wherewith some Traytors have already traduced his Majesty and then farewel Government of old England good Night to the best tempered Monarchy in the World But then for the Clause of all Adherents to be destroyed too 'T is such an unlimited piece of Massacre that for ought I see half the Nation must be forc'd to swim in their own Blood by these tender Lovers of their Country and these Patriots put in for a more barbarous cutting of Throats than that of the Danes in the same Kingdom that of Paris in France or Piedmont in Italy This word Adherent must include the extirpating the whole Line of Succession notwithstanding it is pretended only in opposition to the next Heir For it does the Prince of Orange his business whom they all acknowledg a Protestant Prince as much as if he were the greatest Bigot of Rome it is but saying he adheres to his own Father-in-Law one from whose Blood he must derive some of his Pretensions and then the Protestant Prince must be destroyed too according to the word of the Association as an Enemy to Laws Religion and Country But now at last comes a Paragraph not to be parallel'd by the old Covenants only because fuller of Treason and Rebellion The obeying of the Parliament in Forty two and Forty three without a King was pretended somewhat warrantable because his Majesty had unhappily passed an Act for Triennial Parliaments and then another afterwards for their perpetual sitting But this Gentleman without any more Ceremonies without expecting such an unreasonable Grant from the King resolves that Affairs shall be carried on with such a resolute piece of Treason that none but desperate Men and mad such as had bid Defiance to the Laws of God and Man would ever ingage in which read Verbatim if it be possible for any Loyal Heart that loves his King and Country to have so much Patience Associat And lest this just and pious Work should by any means be obstructed or hindred for want of Discipline and Conduct or anâ— evil minded Persons under pretence of raising Forces for the service of this Association should attempt or commit Disorders we will follow such Orders as we shall from time to time receive from this present Parliament whilst it shall be sitting or the major part of the Members of both Houses subscribing this Association when it shall be prorogued or dissolved and obey such Officers as shall by them be set over us in the several Countries Cities and Burroughs until the next meeting of this and another Parliament and will then shew the same Submission and Obedience unto it and those who shall be of it I don't doubt but had this Associator been known to both Houses of Parliament their professed Loyalty is such they would have voted his head to be preferred to that honourable place among the Traitors on the Bridge A just requital for paying such a Treasonable deference to that honourable Assembly and so boldly complementing them without their leave into Rebellion A Pious Work indeed and such as I don't doubt without a seasonable repentance and an insinite Mercy will damn the Contriver And lest any evil minded Persons should commit Disorders A very careful Patriot certainly one who will not suffer so much as a little disorder to be committed But it would be a little hard for the poor Mouse that picks a little hole in the Bread to be caught by the neck by the Thief that stole the whole Loaf Strickt discipline indeed that makes the least disorder in raising of Forces so criminal and obnoxious and yet the mustering them up to rebel a work Pious and meritorious Sure the Contriver of this work is not so well acquainted with the House of Commons and their Priviledges as he would be thought to be or else is resolved to act and forge in spight of all equity and truth For none that have stretch't the Power of that Assembly to its utmost extent ever allowed it a right of sitting like so many petty Kings in Representative To issue out Proclamations raise Forces and command obedience from their fellow Subjects I confess we had a Parliament that did all this raised an Army made their Generals fought their King but sure this Associator can't be such a Villain to think the late Representatives of the Nation would all have commenced Traitors and after a most inconsistant rate imitated that Parliament in 41. Which some of they themselves by particular Act since have declared guilty of Rebellion nay to outdo and transcend them in their Treason to sit in opposition to his Majesties Command whereas those did by his unhappy Permission But this bold Associator can go further yet resolves the sitting House shall not only be obeyed as the Supream and Legislative power of the Nation but that the Major Part of those Members whom he civilly supposes ready to subscribe after Prorogation after Dissolution shall be submitted to as invested with an higher Supremacy then any would be willing to allow his present Majesty and that this select Committee in their Respective Countries Cities and Burroughs like so many Stadt-holders in their several Provinces shall create Officers muster their Armies fall a plundering again of Delinquents and hanging up every Malignant Dog that dares but shew his teeth or wagg his
Laws he gives Life too And must those Immunities and Priviledges he gives them for their Liberty be used by those ungrateful Wretches as Spoils and Trophies of his Prerogative Certainly from such Proceedings as these what other deduction can be made by sober thoughts but that they declare an open defiance to the Government that they will stand to their City Charter and their Arms together and seal it just as the Great one was by the Barons in Blood From those partial interpretations of Guilt and Innocence what can an indifferent person think but that the abused name of Conscience is applied only now to the Capriciousness of Fancy subjects only Patriots and Rebels according to the diversity of thought The King a Nursing Father as long as his politick Sons will think him so transform'd into a Tyraâ—… as soon as they please to conceit otherwise the naked Hulk of the Staâ—…â—…l'd by Popish Pyrates when every froward Fool does not sit at the Heâ—…â—…nd the Convocation of the Church a Conclave of Cardinals when each dissenting Ass can't commence a Prolocutor I have observ'd the Seat and Empire of the Soul or at least the several Faculties of it by the grave Sages in Philosophy to have been confin'd to such Apartments in the Body as were most adapted for the Faculty that was to be exerted in it and accordingly Reason is circumscribed within the Compass of the Meditullium and Sphere of the Brain the Appetitive Soul placed in the Breast the Sensitive in the Nerves and all Passion in the Heart If these are warrantable conjectures I don't see but I may with as much Reason and Philosophy place some Mens Consciences in their Stomachs because it is disposed by the help of its Fibres to contract or dilate it self according as the more scrupulous or bolder Animal shall direct his intentions oft straining at a Gnat as if it were to take a Potion whilst Camels and Elephants are swallowed without a Grimace and go down like their Sack-posset This helps them to slip down Oaths with a more than Jesuitical dexterity to make an Explanation of a Test after it is in their Bellies or if it will not digest with that preposterous piece of Cookery 't is but playing a Jugler's trick and bringing it up like their pieces of Inkle sometimes imitating the squeamish Maw of a Cormorant taught to throw up all sometimes that of another sort of Fowl which is said to concoct Iron and Stones And all this irreconcilable proceeding carried on without the least Dispensation of Reason or Religion and consequently less warrantable than the damn'd Equivocations of Priests and Jesuits their blind opinion of some Supream Powers Absolution and Indulgence somewhat extenuates the guilt of those perjur'd Villains whilst every Man 's prejudiced Opinion pretends here to be its own absolver the sole Measures of all Guilt and Innocence and the Lawful Standard both to good and bad actions And then what wonder is it if the Proceedings of the King and the Advice of his Council are exposed as light and empty when they must be weighed in the pois'd Ballance of every prejudiced Noddle that has but one grain of Sence more of Loyalty less than his list'ning Rabble the result of whose judgment is Reverenc'd as an Oracle by the silly Rout each Seditious expression treasur'd up as a politick Aphorism and the bold Dictator like a pleasant piece of Pageantry riding Cock-horse on the Shoulders of the Mobile in a confus'd noise of Shouts and Acclamations and all the wild Representations of a distracted People I hope by this Preliminary discourse to have prevented the farther perusal of the rest by any that find themselves gall'd or prick't with the consciousness of their meriting any of the past reflexions for such persons though partial enough to themselves hard to be perswaded especially of any thing that looks like Guilty are commonly a little troubled to be thought so and for such disaffected Readers 't is a kindness both to them and the Author to be civilly nettled in the beginning lest by a gentler stile they should be decoy'd to the end and then rail at him with as much rage and indignation as they use against the Government Christen him for a Popish Dog and Irish Bogg-Trotter when otherwise perhaps he may escape with the gentler Animadversions of a Malicious Ass and Scribling Fool. But the harshest of such peoples Judgment and Censure will be superseded by their own ignorance or prejudice and this Paper allow'd to speak Truth though it don't carry in its Front an impudent Lye or a Vox Veritatis thought to have somewhat of Judgment and Reason in it though not subscrib'd by a Theophilus Rationalis Those Juggling tricks of putting off Lies and Nonsense and making the first Page a Confutation of all the rest And now to begin with this complicated piece of Rebellion smoothly carried on under the specious name of an Association the Method I shall observe shall as much as possible make the Contents correspond with the Title Page and not like some let the first Leaf quarrel with the whole Pamphlet And I. We shall shew the most undeniable agreeableness of this Association with all the old Leagues and Covenants in circumstances of Time and Affairs II. Their affinity in Matter Form and Words and draw the Parallel even to Demonstration with a little Comment on each Paragraph And answering Objections they use to defend it And lastly Shew the disparity between a True Patriot and a Factious Associator and that his expelling the Duke is no such Evidence of his loving his Countrey That this Paper was penn'd at a time when the unhappy Differences between the King and his Commons were in their highest ferment won't be question'd by the very Bigots of the Cause unless they intend to doubt of the Author's Prudence too who without doubt is a person of as politick a Head as ever brooded on the Elements of Treason or hatch't a Rebellion And if not at present restrain'd more by some State-maxims than Loyal Principles could raise a more formidable one than the late Covenanting Banditi dispersed at Bosworth-Bridge So that in the very seasonable Contrivance of it it Parallels the ingenuity of the old Rebellious Scot who drew up theirs in as convenient a Season when the Nation seem'd Unanimous enough to Rebel without drawing up of a formal League of Gueranty of cheating poor deluded Souls into the miserable necessity of fighting against their Prince or being perjur'd for him But this mutual Agreement was thought then most effectual to secure their Designs as if they had distrusted of not being Traytors enough unless their Treasons were divulg'd with a publick Manifesto and a sort of Noverint Vniversi or that the Conspiracy would have look'd more Black and Hellish by being acted under-board and in the dark Whoever was the bold Contriver of this Association certainly had no intent to let it lie long in a Closet only to keep
Tayl but all this while we must not imagine this to be a design to set up a Republick The Contriver of all this horrid Treason and Rebellion was only some bold impudent Scribler some little factious fellow of a Ribband Club. I wish such a Design were only in the single heart of some poor ordinary rascally Traitor I fancy then we should quickly have his heart out with his bowels I fancy the Rogue would hardly lie so long incognitò or meet with a Stickling Ignoramus But if ever the Design take in the Kingdom we shall see some of our lostiest Cedars will aspire to the Reputation of having brought it about and not suffer every factious Mushroom that just railed against the Government assume the glory of having subverted it too If there be such a brave party ready to subscribe this excellent design as he seems to insinuate that drew it up his Majesty certainly has more need to double his Guards for his own preservation then to dismiss them to please such dangerous Associators and none that have read the common Apologue of the Sheeps being worried by the Wolves assoon as perswaded to dismiss their Dogs but from the Fable can deduce so good a Moral as to see through the shallowness of their disguis'd Intentions and keep themselves from being circumvented with such another cheat I wonder what should make this Politician think such a Major Part of Members so great a Part of the Government too as singly to require obedience would it not be as much Treason to swear fealty to them as if it were done to persons that were nothing of that Politick Body Perhaps with this Associator and men of his Principles the Swearing only to obey Members of that honourable Assembly much extenuates the guilt of disobeying their Prince but yet he is for submitting to the Orders of those that have no Relation to it Disbanded Members that have no more share in the Government then a petulant Officer in the Company from which he is cashiered I know these Idolatrous Adorers of their own created Gods have such strange Opinions of their deisied Creatures that they can't imagine them to be reduced by the breath of a King into their primitive Stations from which by that very mouth they were called can't imagine that such a dignified thing after having once represented the sense of his whole Corporation to be able to commence again a common Subject and to have no more understanding than his Electors Be it so still there is no reason why this Gentleman must be supposed to retain somewhat of Soveraignty too only because it has been and look'd upon a King do more than they will allow his Majesty carry his Power with him wherever he goes and in his little Burrough make Orders and Laws only because he hath voted in the place where they are legally made These are such Extravagancies in Opinion that not a discreet Person that ever served his Country in that Capacity but will detest to be thought guilty of nothing but the wild Conceits of some City Mechanicks or Country Clodpates that send them thither or the treasonable Insinuations of such an Associator to subvert the Government The close of all these Solemn Leagues are still the same very pious indeed and unanimous Association Neither will we for any respect of Persons or Causes or for fear of Reward separate our selves from this Association or fail in prosecution thereof during our Lives upon Pain of being by the rest of us prosecuted as perjured Persons and publick Enemies to God the King and our Native Country to which Pains and Punishment we do voluntarily submit our selves c. Scotch solemn League That we shall assist and defend all that enter into this League and Covenant Nor suffer our selves Directly nor indirectly by whatsoever Combination Perswasion or Terror to be divided or withdrawn from this blessed Vnion and Conjunction all which we shall do as in the sight of God in the presence of the Almighty the searcher of all Hearts as I shall answer it at the great Day when the Secrets of all Hearts shall be disclosed Holy League 6. of June I will likewise assist all other Persons that shall take this Oath in what they shall do in pursuance hereof and this Vow and Covenant I make in the presence of Almighty God the searcher of all Hearts with a true Intention to perform the same as I shall answer it at the great Day when the secrets of all Hearts shall be disclosed If these Instruments of Hell were to be compared with any thing besides themselves I should assimulate them to the Serpent I have read of in Pliny's natural History which he calls Amphisbaena describing it with a smooth delicate Head at both ends and in those two fine Extremities all the Cunning of the crafty subtil Animal seems to be lodged while all the other parts besides are nothing but Venom and Viper All these subtile Engines you may observe to begin with abundance of cunning Insinuations as if all were done for the real Advance of Religion and Piety with a having before our Eyes the Glory of God c. See Scotch Coven With a finding to the Grief of our Hearts that the Popish Priests and Jesuits vid. Pref. to the Assoc And then all conclude in calling it a blessed Vnion for the Glory of God vid. Solem. Leag A righteous End and pious Work See Assoc All with the Name of God at both Ends whil'st all the Bowels and Entrails of these Monsters are full of the Devil full of Venom against the Government Treason against the King And Lies to the very Face of that God they so solemnly Invoke Well then it seems by the resolute Close of this Association that no respect of Persons or Causes Fear or Reward shall make them desert their Fellows and Associates Stout Champions indeed and so true to the Cause as to make it a sort of Treason to Conspire the giving it up With a kind of Martial Law to punish the Delinquents as a Council of War does those that fly from their Colours or yield up a Garrison And yet all this while think it not so much as a Peccadillo to Plot against the State and Rebel against their Soveraign For certainly if no Persons or Causes must make them desert so wicked a Conspiracy or permit any single Conspirator to turn an honest Renegado Then all his Majesties Proclamations like those of his Father's for laying down their Arms must be answered with a Remonstrance They may get some young Spawn of old Oliver for their General and in spight of King and Laws march with their Colours flying and Drums beating throughout all the Kingdom from Barwick to the Mount and all this must be done if enjoyned by the Major Party of Members Not only upon those common Obligations most Laws bind Vassals to Obedience viz. by being Penal or Capital not only such light Punishment and
from the Protestant Exchequer which like their Thames is at full Tide in the City when 't is Low Water at White-Hall 3. Whether the Council of the one or the Jurors of the other were the beter paid And what is the difference between taking up a Prejudice against the Kings Cause and a fee for the Prisoners These Quaeries being civilly proposed we 'll now make some reply to their puzzling Interrogatories about a Parliament which I look upon as a sort of riddling Sphinx and like that Monster with many forms and faces which if not unriddled they 'll be sure to make it murder the credit of the Kings Evidence But then if it chance to meet with its Oedipus and be well expounded why should not these Gentlemen and their Cause to carry on the fable break their necks too we know as well as any of these Good Honest men that there was a Bill proposed in the House of Commons and that about Association too they having owned it and published it in their Printed Votes and so not only the close fly insinuations of their subtil Interrogatories But what then does it follow this discovered paper was read there too and every Paragraph of it amongst which one is plain Treason sure that honourable House is but little beholden to those Gentlemen for such squinting reflections But it seems such men may make bolder with their Representatives and take as much liberty with their Petty Gods as a canting Nonconformist does with his God Almighty Then secondly were it read there verbatim as these bold Insinuators would have the World believe sure the bare debating or reading it could not pass it into an Act too and make it as statutable as if the King 's Le Roy vult had passed it into Law if so it had then been pertinently urged as an Argument for the Prisoner when all the Old Acts that make it Treason to raise Forces without the King would have been abrogated by this New one for tolerating Insurrection In the mean time give me leave to think that this Suggestion excused them no more from bringing the Prisoner to his Trial then a Vote of the House could have warranted them to pull him out of the Tower And by their leave how do all these insinuations prove the Parliament concerned in it the most that can be gathered from the Circumstances of Affairs is that it must be only understood of the House of Commons and now all is out and what none of them will own when pinch't with it blabs forth unawares in Confession Unhappy Tongues thus to betray their Masters So now we know what they mean by a Parliament it seems the House of Commons is the Parliament and they will have this Parliament to exclude the Duke by themselves their Votes to be Law and they sit again as long as they please and whether the King will or no 't is they must go down into their several Burroughs and according to this Association raise the Militia and make the people swear to obey them If this be the right constitution of a Parliament the Lord have mercy upon us and God save the King and no wonder then if the House of Lords were in the late Rebellion Voted useless and now declared Obstructors of Justice and Violators of the constitution of Parliaments and no need will there be for Repealing an Act of Scandalum Magnatum if they can be so much traduced made so scandalous without it And give me leave to tell these Gentlemen too that make the name of Parliament a Justification for all their own Factiousness and a Terrour to all other peoples Loyalty that this complementing that honourable Assembly as their Patrons and but other mens Bugbears is no such great piece of civility If you now adays reprimand a fellow for talking irreverently of the King or Council you are gagg'd presently with the sense of Parliament tell them the Duke 's still the next Successor you are muzzl'd with the Bill of Exclusion forbear veiling your Bonnet to Dr. Oats's Gippo and he flaps you in the teeth with a Parliament condemn the Treason of this Association and you are stunn'd with such an Interrogatory Now 't is certain that none of these things ever were the Judgment of Parliament Because neither the King nor the House of Lords are ever like to be of these Opinions and as for this Scheam of Association I am perswaded the Commons themselves never thought on such strange Resolutions as are there intended For as 't is acknowledged by all that the murder of Justice Godfrey which was as imprudent as barbarous made the fam'd subtilty of the Jesuit much suspected and with a preposterous piece of Policy helped the further detection of that Plot they thought to smother in the stream of his Blood so 't is as bad Politicks in our Commonwealths-men to make the Parliament Abettors of their proceedings whilst it gratifies the Papist and their Cause much more than that cruel and inconsiderate murder helps to put off the thorow Examination of that Hellish Conspiracy which they themselves think will never be sufficiently sisted so that 't is no such Paradox to say the Jesuit had an hand in this Association as well as the Republicans and that both cabal in their Clubs for the subverting the State as well as in their Assemblies for the ruining of the Church the Consults for the one being carried on at their Coffee-Houses and for the other at their Conventicles Thus the boldness and presumption that the factious party take of making their house of Commons espouse and warrant all their Licentiousness is not only an abuse put upon the whole Gentry of the Nation but directly destructive of those foolish Designs they think to promote by it I know that which makes them so Impudent to slur this Association on that honourable Assembly are those Votes that were passed the 15 th and 16 th and 21 th of Dec. 1680. The 15 th Ordered that a Bill be brought in for an Association of all his Majesties Protestant Subjects The 16. A Bill for uniting his Majesties Protestant Subjects to the Church of England was read a first time and on the 21 they address That his Majesty would graciously be pleased to assent to an Act for enabling his Protestant Subjects to associate themselves for the defence of his Person Now 't is evident by these Bills that their intent was to make his Majesties Protestant Subjects unite themselves to the Church of England and in order to that to associate themselves for the Preservation of the Defender of their Faith how far these Purposes agree with the Subverting the State and ruining the Church the clear intent of this discovered Association I submit to the determination of this grand Inquest who perhaps may be able to reconcile the Contradiction Then such an Association as this would not only be derogatory from the Honour of that Assembly but from the profest Loyalty of it