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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50646	Some remarques upon a late popular piece of nonsence called Julian the apostate, &c. together, with a particular vindication of His Royal Highness the Duke of York, by some bold truths in answer to a great many impudent calumnies raised against him, by the foolish arguments, false reasonings and suppositions, imposed upon the publick from several scandalous and seditious pamphlets especially from one more notorious and generally virulent than the rest, sometime since published under the title of A Tory Plot, &c. / by a lover of truth, vertue, and justice.	Meredith, Edward, 1648-1689?	1682 (1682)	Wing M1784; ESTC R23540	71,436	69

amongst and towards one another to maintain and defend it resolve to stand by and preserve the Laws that support it from the annoyance both of its right and left-hand Enemies let us resolve this and be Quiet and if we do so we shall be Quiet to the Confusion of our Author and those mischievous creeping Caterpillars his Party Nay since there are good Laws for the protecting of our Religion against its Enemies the Schismatical Phanaticks as well as Papists and Others the best way certainly of protecting it is by putting those good Lawes in Execution nay to the utmost Extent and improvement of them if possible and for this too to give our Author one Quotation for his whole Book-ful let Bracton be my security Nay the very place too where Mr. Deacon is pleased to Quote him himself upon this occasion viz. Libro 1. Cap. 2. in these words Leges cum fuerint approbatae consensu utentium et Sacramento Regum Confirmatae Mutari non possunt nec destrui sine communi consensu consilio eorum omnia Quorum Consilio consensu fuerunt promulgatae That is to say that since the Laws have been approved by the consent of those for whose use and benefit they were made and Confirmed by our Kings They cannot be changed nor destroyed without the Common consent and advice of all those by whose Advice and Consent they were first set forth So far our Author But had he pleased to have carried his Eye a line farther he might have found this added Quod in meliùs tamen converti possunt etiam sine eorum Consensu Quia non destruitur quod in melius Commutatur i. e. That for all this nevertheless they may be improved at the discretion of the Prince even without such Consent since nothing can be said to be destroyed which is changed for the better Which all makes good my aforementioned Assertion That for the preservation of our Religion the Laws ought to be put in Execution with the utmost Rigor and when the King shall think fitting in so good a Cause they ought if possible to be stretched and improved too For Laws being the Instruments put into the hands and power of a●…ing wherewith to Govern and Protect his People those Instruments are to be used at his own discretion certainly And a good Father of his Country cannot but think himself obliged to give them their utmost and severest reach for the suppressing and reducing of Contumacious stubborn impudent Mutineers and Rebels as well as sometimes in Goodness to abate their Rigor when he finds an object that may deserve his Mercy Our Author might have found out this as well as I now But I suppose he may be one of those that are for clipping the King's Prerogative and for that end would serve all those Authors so too that defend and assert it And indeed I observe in all their Writings that it is much the practice of the Advocates for that Party whenever they have an Occasion to shew their Reading Quote a poor Author that never intended them any Kindness to snip pare and shave him down just to their purpose so clap him upon the Margent of their Pamphlet in hopes to Cobble up their false Arguments with defaced and mangled truth and make them pass for Veritable Doctrine And indeed I cannot tell all along what to make of this giddy-headed Author I am to handle He turns and shifts and dodges and never keeps one Course He pretends to treat of passive Obedience but never tells us what passive Obedience is discourses from no principle in the world nor gives us any definition of his Theam and indeed upon due consideration it were unreasonable to expect it of him for had he ever read Ethicks he would have learned more honesty then to have published such a Book He first tells us in a word That we are secured so well by our Page the 75th Laws that passive Obedience must except by our own treachery be for ever unpracticable amongst us yet wasts Twenty or Thirty Pages more to scare us with the dangers of its doctrine which he sayes 'T is true can never Page the 78th discover its malignity under his Majesties gracious Reign which God prolong and prosper who has been pleased to give the Nation the security of his Coronation Oath c. But in case we should fall under a Popish Successor then this Bloody Doctrine will have the Opportunity to shew its self in its own Colours and we may then see and it may be feel the sting of it Now here really it is very hard to forbear laughing most outragiously at this Fellow and his Canting but that I correct and keep my spleen under in a pure principle of charity for fear lest I mistake his frenzy for his folly The King has been pleased to give us the security of his Coronation Oath Quotha but in case we should fall under a Popish Successor Well what then Must not he give us the Security of his Coronation Oath too Yes my dear Author that he must and I believe Thou mayst be satisfied it will be his Interest to keep it too except thou canst think him so blind to his own good as to hazard the involving of his Nation in blood shaking and endangering of his Throne for ever and all for the great advantage he may propose to himself of bringing in the Power of a Tyrannical Clergy to Impoverish his People lessen his Revenues and weaken his Authority Oh but says our Author I suppose that a Popish Successor being in possession and so a lawful Magistrate will persecute Protestants Page the 79th To which I answer I desire to know which way he will persecute Protestants will he persecute them with the Laws No. They are of the Protestant side If he will raise a Popish Army and bring in Popery with Drum and Trumpet I humbly desire to know where he will beat up his Drums for them and how the Popish Officers will make their Interests in the Countrey when they are to raise them or what Popish Towns will give 'em Quarters till they come to their Rendezvous Or which way this Popish Successor will get a Popish Parliament to give him Protestant Money to pay this Popish Army all these things will be necessary For let the Romish Religion be never so much in the matter your Musqueteers and Pikemen will have a certain Protestant principle of point d' Argent point de Swisse Though after all it would be a damnable surprise at last if our Author should have a Project at the end of all this to conceal his Politicks till this Popish Successor Comes and so prefer himself to his Privy Council by a trick he has in the bottom of his Budget for the bringing in Popery in a peaceable way and enslaving the Nation without a farthings Cost or a moments trouble that I must confess would be something new and not unpretty Marry but

SOME REMARQUES Upon a late Popular Piece of Nonsence CALLED Julian the Apostate c. TOGETHER With a Particular VINDICATION OF HIS Royal Highness THE DUKE of YORK By some Bold TRUTHS in Answer to a great many Impudent Calumnies raised against HIM by the Foolish Arguments False Reasonings and Suppositions imposed upon the Publick from several Scandalous and Seditious Pamphlets Especially from one more Notorious and generally Virulent than the rest sometime since Published under the Title of A TORY PLOT c. By a Lover of Truth Vertue and Justice Si fractus Illabatur Orbis Impa●idum ferient Ruinae Horat. Lib. 3. Ode 3. LONDON Printed for T. Davies 1682. PREFACE TO THE READER THe Pamphlet called A Tory Plot coming sometime since to my Hands when I was far distant from London and at a Quiet Retirement did very much surprize me and gave me in the midst of my dear Shades and Meadows often very Melancholy wayward Thoughts When I read the Matter it contained Considered the End it aimed it and reflected on what sort of Creature might probably be the Author of it I could not forbear Condemning in my self the Vice I know not sometimes how to get rid of called Ambition for when I reflected that half a score sheets of Paper so weakly furnished as I found that Trifle to be carry'd popular force enough to shake the Affections of a People towards a Prince whom they Owe so much to as this Thankless Nation does to the Heroick Vertue Valour and Sufferings of His Royal Highness I could not but in some measure prize my own poor Condition which Fate had placed too low to be worth the Malice of Knaves and yet in a happiness too finely wrapt up and couched for the Envy of Fools to find it I waited much and expected long an Answer to a Libel which Reflected so notoriously as that did upon the Government and struck so impudently at the very being of it I thought it impossible that in so glorious a Metropolis as that of London the Center of all the Arts and Learning of this flourishing Kingdom so Good and Gracious a King as our present Just and Merciful Sovereign so Gallant a Prince so Unfailing a Friend and so Kind a Master as his Generous Brother could ever want Servants able and ready to take in hand so glorious a Cause and not suffer so lewd and bare-faced an Affront as that to the Dignity and Prerogatives of the Crown as well as the Rights of the Royal Family to go uncorrected I thought all this but I was much deceived In just Indignation then ●o the Ingratitude or Ignorance of Unprofitable Servants and in honour to the Authority and Character of that Glorious Monarch whom it is my greatest Pride that I was born to live a Subject under I thought it my Duty as an Englishman and an Honest man to exert what little Abitities I have if I have any at all to do his Cause either as he is personally or relatively concerned in that sawcy Libel the Justice it deserves I was ashamed to think that Men who live by the Service and Favour of a Prince and whose Well-being does or ought to depend entirely upon his should when their Bellies are fill'd every day with his Bread and their Purses with his Bounty lay their hands upon their Mouths or keep them in their Pockets and neither say or do any thing for his Vindication and Service but are rather apt to cringe and bend the Knee to the most insolent of his Enemies and when they falsly tell him they are his Friends whisper it in his Ear for fear some Acquaintance spy whom they know to be in the Train should hear it Of this sort are those who come and bow at his rising in the Morning and then go to some Rebel Clubb and tell the Secrets of the Bed-Chamber for a Dinner Of this sort are those who get Preferments in the best and most profitable Offices of a Court and employ the credit of their Master's Service against his Interest in the Country And of this sort are those that often divert a Princes Encouragements and Favour from his Friends and when the stream of his Goodness is running the right way turn it aside from the Merit it was aimed at to flow upon Tools like themselves whose Bribes have corrupted them unable and unfit to be Employ'd and too unfaithful to be Trusted After having therefore vainly expected some Months an Answer to the above-mentioned Pamphlet I took it in hand though late most for my own Satisfaction and in Complyance to the desires of some private Friends that often mourn with me for the Calamities of their afflicted Native Country And after having finished it and pleased them with something they found in it more than my self I lay'd it by thinking it too late to make it Publick in regard the Credit of the Paper it Corrected seemed to be blown over and the noise of it utterly forgotten Besides being in hopes by the daily Success of the King's Affairs that some lucid Intervals were coming to ease the Publick Madness I thought it would not be proper to disturb the tender Peace that was brooding over us by stirring up anew the unruly Storm that seemed at present to decline to some Calmness But in the midst of these soothing hopes I was alarum'd afresh with another gust from the Old unquiet Corner and that was the stinking blast of a Deacon that had long been grip't and in pain with the Business till out it came rattling with the Title of Julian the Apostate I read it over and lay'd it by for the use I thought it only deserved 'till being accidentally one day at Court for as little Bus ness as I believe Forty more had there who seemed nevertheless Fifty times busier than I did up comes me two meer Motions with their Politick faces on a little Worm wriggling behind them impatient of an approaching Knighthood near trim'd they were and their shooes very clean Sedate their Countenances and soft their aspect till one of them of a sudden gathering his browes over his eyes cry'd How Julian the Apostate Ay says his Companion with the same dull Grimace Julian the Apostate A shrew'd Fellow I 'll warrant him an unanswerable Piece Things as they stand will never do Measures must be altered Bless us thought I surely I am in a Trance and this is one of Don Quevedo's Visions Can this Fellow be fit to serve in the Palace of a King Administer in Office to the Mighty Ruler of Three great Kingdoms and talk at this wretched rate So I bit my Lip turn'd aside went home entered my Closet and taking Pen Ink and Paper resolved for once to convince a Politician if by chance he can read that the Author of Julian the Apostate is not so dreadful a Bugbear but that a Man of Moderate gifts may answer him without breaking his Brains or falling into a Consumption And so having made

out of it and I hope Hang'd too and all I humbly conceive no breach of Privilege neither But our Noble Author to shew how fit an Advocate he is for his Party will needs be at it and Juggle in his very Preface which should be his Apology None shall be questioned out of Parliament for any thing spoken or transacted in it That is None shall be liable to the Law for what he says in Parliament provided he keep the bounds of Privilege which I humbly conceive is limited notwithstanding the late new started Doctrines That they are the only Judges of it themselves why else do they desire the Continuation of their Privileges every new Sessions by their Speaker The King is the Judge of those Provileges then for how can any Man grant what is fitting that is not suppos'd the Judge what is so Though therefore none be liable to the Law for what he says in Parliament provided he keep the bounds of Priviledge yet I hope any Corporation that sends up a Member to Serve for them in Parliament being sensible that that Member has abus'd or not discharg'd his Trust by proceeding unwarrantably in his Station running into a faction to do nothing the King desires of them to vex him with Bills for Dis-inheriting a dearest Brother with a thousand other Contrivances to perplex the good of the Kingdom and Embroil rather than Settle it I hope such a Corporation in an honest sence how they have been misrepresented by the Servant that they have sent to the King may have liberty to censure the Proceedings of such an unfaithful Servant and to Vindicate themselves too by any humble Address to His Majesty to assert their constant and loyal Adherence to his Government and if need be Abhorrence of any Transactions either of their own Servant or any else that would grow their Master tending to the Disturbance or Dissolution of it Oh But have a care says the Preface a little farther when His Majesty shall say to those dry Bones Live and they shall stand upon their feet they will be the fittest to declare their resentments c. Now do but mark this facetious Gentleman rather than lose his Jest what will he not do Just now he was Pleading the reverence and deference due to the Memory of the Parliament and here he scurrilously calls ●●m a Company of dry Bones can there be any thing more Prophane than that the dry Bones of a dead Carcass commonly stink in the Nostrils of the living a very civil Metaphor and a great Complement to the Representatives of a Nation truly Oh but look to it they will be fittest to declare their resentments I hope it will never come to that that we of the Country who send up Members to Serve for us in the great Convocation of the Kingdom shall stand in awe of the Power we trust 'em withal I hope they are to sit there for our good and our peace not for our terror But more of this hereafter And now To the first part of his Pamphlet let us see how far he has proved the rise growth and discovery of a Popish Plot Have at it He sayes If the declaration of the common or publick Judgment be not a competent ground for us to settle our belief upon he knowes not what can be suppos'd to be for if ever the King be infallible he would the readiliest expect him to be so when he has the concurrent Advice and Consent of the whole Nation Nay he sayes there is infinitely greater cause for conforming our belief to the Opinion of the King Lords and Commons in a matter of fact throughly examin'd then to obey the Lawes they make To this I answer That King Lords and Commons are not nor can be infallible As they are Men they are liable to errors and may be deceived in matters of Opinion by the imperfections of their humane Nature in matters of fact by the false Informations of Perjur'd and profligate Villains who are to swear for bread and have no longer hopes to eat then their Evidence is useful For could any Government or Authority upon Earth be Infallible one might as well as another and Consequently our Author would make a good Argument for the Church of Rome and the Pope in Cathedrà may with as much reason pretend to be Infallible as any Prince in Christendom in his Senate I hope our Pamphleteer is a better Protestant then this Argument amounts to Granting then that King Lords and Commons are not Infallible he has not yet by his argument prov'd the rise growth and discovery of a Popish Plott But now he comes to supposing well let us see what he supposes Supposing sayes he that the aforesaid Resolves and Proclamations were not made nor issued without the maturest deliberation and fullest assurance of the truth of those Testimonies and Evidence that occasioned them it cannot be reputed too great credulity to believe that Popery was to be introduced by those Means and Methods that the Discoverers of the Plott attested very good Here he supposes that the aforesaid Resolves and Proclamations were not without the fullest assurance of the truth of the Evidence and yet not three lines farther he tells us that as to Scotland and Ireland in which the Design was laid as well as in England Affairs have been so managed that it is still as to us kept in a great manner secret Was then that Vote of the House of Commons that there was a Popish Plott in Ireland as well as here made upon the maturest deliberation and fullest assurance when affairs have been so managed that it is yet a Secret why was this Fellow trusted with Pen and Ink Well but now look too 't now let us look about us He has been but tuning his Instrument all this while now he 's resolv'd to tickle it away indeed as for Example Old sturdy England being as he sayes a Nation alwayes Jealous of their Rights and Liberties it was despaired that she would be wheedled to put on the Roman Yoke and therefore there was no hopes of bringing that about but by force The Author of this Book must be some Jesuited bewhiggify'd and privy to all their Councels he could never give so round an account what they thought else And now sayes he there wanted a plausible pretence to get up an Army Politick Worm and therefore that we may Epitomize his long-winded Impertinent story he tells us there was a Sham War propos'd with the French and the Parliament induc't to comply with the design he makes a very Worthy Parliament of it the mean while For if a Sham-War were to be impos'd upon the Nation he makes the Parliaments as guilty of the Imposture as any Minister of State he would pretend to blacken Then he goes on how An Army of 30000 men was appointed to be raised and a Tax levied for their Pay Well and they were pay'd as far as the Tax would go and what harm

done Oh but a Peace being Concluded at Nimeguen this Army that was got together by one Sessions of Parliament was hardly got dissolv'd by two And all things rightly examined was not that One Sessions too soon for presently after the Disbanding of that Army 't is very memorable and observable what Rebellion broke out in Scotland and how it was tim'd and as for the many Papists which he would insinuate were thrust into that Army it is a most notorious Lye for those Papists that were in it were only some few Officers that came home upon the King's Proclamation with the Duke of Monmouth's Regiment out of France and they too were cashier'd their Commands long before the Peace made or the Disbanding of the Army was thought of and how this Army as he suggests was probably to be made use of in carrying on of the Popish Plot may be gather'd if I mistake not from an Information Oates once gave in That the Officers of it were all to be Murdered in a Night by the Popish Party to render the Army useless for any Service against them Then besides this Open Force sayes he there was Listed under-hand a greater of which Oates 's Narrative acquaints us with the chief Officers So the Noble Dr. did with Commissions too but the Devil a one was ever yet produced for us to see nor as I have been told did the Dr. himself know one of these principal Officers he has made bold to mention viz. My Lord Arundel of Warder when he very lately did see him but that worthy Divine is something apt to be troubled with dimness of sight when over-strain'd with swearing as some Privy Councellors in being can bear him witness In the next place to his Malicious and Impudent Suggestion That the succeeding Parliament after the Long Parliament were by their sudden Dissolution prevented from bringing those to their Tryals which the Former had committed I answer and the whole Kingdom must testify with me It is most scandalously false For had they so intended they sate time enough to have brought six times the Number to their Tryal No the face of things began to look then another way The Popish Plott seem'd like a Card turn'd up Trumps only to be play'd upon a hard Push when any Trick they aim'd at was like to be lost As for Example When the King would not give up the E. of D. to be torn in pieces trump with the Popish Plot that will fetch it or nothing immediately New Dangers of Popery are Apprehended and there is a Young Plot in the Belly of the Old One But at last when that Lord had rendered up himself and desired a speedy Tryal difficulties and perplexities were started about Joyning Issue then immediately there arises a squobble about Priviledges An Endless confus'd Riddle which no body e're yet could tell the meaning of but not a grain of Justice weigh'd out all this while but the course of it stopt and the Nation kept in suspence terror and perplexity with almost every man's hand at his Neighbours Throat and all for a punctilio Justice I doubt was not what the prevailing Faction at that time Aim'd at For as I promised before I will speak Truth A prevailing and a dangerous Faction were in that Parliament and will be in every Parliament 't is to be feared so long as Schismaticks and Make-bates are tolerated in their Insolencies by Wilful blindness or scarfulness of Magistrates that should suppress them and enabled to carry so great a sway in Elections as to return frequently so many Old Rebels against the last King to sit in the House of Commons only to raile and bandy Factions for the Ruin of this No the Popish Lords in the Tower were to be well husbanded and that Parliament was Dissolv'd not that they should not bring those Lords to Tryal but because they would not Having shot this Bolt Now he runs on his Story to several Worthy Peers Petitioning for the Sitting of a Third Parliament whereof by the way let us take notice the E. of Hunt was One who having since discover'd the foulness of the main design at the bottom has avoided the Infection return'd home into the Favour and Service of his King and Safety of his Honour And as that Petition was followed by Others of a more tumultuous nature so the reflections our Author makes upon 'em are to deal plainly as Impertinent as they were for he sayes That his Majesty was possest by some about him that such Petitioning was tumultuous and that at the same time little Emissaries were ordered to discourage it amongst the rest Sir George Jeoffries here in the City Prithee Brother Pamphletteer why little Emissaries Sir George Jeoffries is a Gentleman and was at that time Recorder of London and as I conceive under that character not so very unproper to advise the City how far in Loyalty Obedience to the Law and good Manners they ought to preserve their Duty Respect and Deference to their Sovereign and his Commands and for all that quoted scrap of the Parliaments Address against him wherein they accuse him for Informing the City of London that such manner of Proceedings might hazard the Forfeiture of their Charter I suppose it had been never the Worse for that Wise City to have taken his Counsel and have sav'd perhaps the trouble which a small Instrument Entituled Quo Warranto lately got amongst them may put them to But it is the way of hireling Scriblers for that Party now-a-dayes to Quote Votes Resolves and Addresses of the House of Commons for Lawes forsooth as if we were no longer to respect the Statutes of the Realm for our Guide but buy a pennyworth of Votes every day and consult out of them how far we are to yield Obedience to Edicts of so great an Authority as a Kings who is over us in all Causes next under God the Supreme Head and Governour For he is at the same rate again as to the Anti-Petitions as he calls emor Abhorrencies that were by many of the Loyal part of the Kingdom presented to his Majesty in a just resentment and detestation of the former Undutiful and Irreverent Proceedings of their fellow Subjects which as it was at that time the most seasonable and honestest course that good Subjects could take to clear and signalize their Respect and Fidelity to a Prince nos'd and affronted by the Insolent and Vile behaviour of a dangerous and unruly Faction So I cannot but with Horrour remember the Tyrannical and Oppressive Authority which the House of Commons durst usurp afterwards over their fellow-Subjects how many of us were persecuted by their Ban-dogs and Pursuivants how many that knew not so well the Charter of their Liberty were forced to yield obedience to their Unwarrantable and Peremptory Votes Led in Captivity shamefully several Miles through their Native Countries up to London committed to Illegal and Chargeable Prisons harrass'd with Arbitrary Fines or Censures brought on

is no better than perjur'd But now all the Question is says our Scribler whether such a particular man has so unalterable right to such a ones Heir that no crime Can forfeit that Right nor no Power annul it To which I answer as he himself hath taught me Force and Violence and the longest Sword may annul any thing but the Business he would bring in here is the forfeiting Crime which what it is in our present case we should better have known He says If the hasty Dissolution of so many Parliaments and a Noli Prosequi had not hindered and so he proceeds to make a Fiction of Case and indeed it is a Substantial Fiction by his old way of supposing Now let us once more see what he supposes for by this suppose he pretends to resolve the Query what the forfeiting Crime is in our present Case Very good Suppose says he him that expects to be Heir perverted from the Protestant to the Popish Religion Now out of this Suppose we are if we think fit to suppose agen that he means the Duke of York and then we are to let him know 't is but a malicious at best and no charitable Supposition and till there are better grounds than any the Publick have been inform'd of yet to six it upon I shall grant no such Supposition at all In the next place says he Suppose his Principal Servant and greatest Confident bragging of the apparent likelihood of rooting out this ●estilent Northern Heresie and of the Zeal of his Master in the Cause c. Now we are sure and need not suppose that by this Servant and Confident is signify'd Coleman and therefore I must tell he is pleased to suppose what I believe himself and almost every body else knows to be a false thing for Coleman was none of his Principal Servant or Confident but Cashier'd the Service of his Highness's Family many years since and I have been told the reason why he was discharged the Office of Secretary to the Dutchess was for that he stood suspected even then of being too busie with Matters of an ill kind though they were not particulariz'd or prov'd against him and if so good Mr. Pamphletteer what becomes of your Suppose But to proceed Supposing all this says he We can hardly imagine a Crime to be blacker Then what Then a suspition of designing the Subversion of the Established Religion and in it of the Government A very pretty point our Author has brought his Bus'ness to He has proved the Lawfulness of the Bill of Exclusion because he is pleased to suppose and suspect that the Duke may design the Subversion of the Religion and Government is any man to suffer by the Law of England for Suspition Surely no Then certainly the Excluding the Duke from his Inheritance upon bare Suspition is not altogether so legal as our Author would have the World think it is But the man is a little reasonable for all that for about four Lines afterwards says he Now let us consider introth and I think it is time of all Conscience well but what shall we consider Let us consider says he whether a Parliament have not Power to inflict such a Punishment on such Offences with all my heart It is says he from the Laws Enacted by Parliament that such an Act has such a Punishment awarded to it This as he has express'd it is Nonsense and as he means it is false for no Laws are Enacted by Parliament all Laws are Enacted by the King in Parliament and though he go on to tell us that Felonies are by the Law Punished by Death as well as Murder yet till he show us a Law that any man shall be Hanged for Suspition of Felony or Murder he seems to have considered to very little purpose and his Suppose is in as bad a condition as e'r it was 'T is very well worth any man's observation how the Champions for this Cause manage Matters they write incessantly but such crude and indigested stuff comes daily from as visibly discovers what an unhealthful condition it is in Now is our Author vomiting up a lump of confus'd Notions for the Mobile to lap at and that is forsooth what a Parliament can do and first indeed he is a little civil and will vouchsafe to joyn the King with them and pray let us see to what purpose They says he can Attaint any man or take off the Attainder as they see good I hope though good Mr. Author it must be for sufficient cause shown that they shall proceed to Attaint any Man or else by your leave they violate the Great Charter of England and whatsoever does so is Destructive of the Being of the Government Destructive of Publick Safety Destructive of the general Liberty either let the great Charter be the Rule and Standard our Parliaments are to govern their Votes Acts by or let us burn and cancel it for ever Our Law says It is unalterable and whoever Votes or Consents to any thing against the tenure and holding of that Charter I may presume to say is little better than a betrayer of the Publick Good and an Enemy to the Kingdom The People of England hold their Liberties and Properties by virtue of Magna Charta nothing can alter it and whatsoever does so call it an Act of Parliament or what you please may be impos'd upon our Obedience by Power but it is Void of it self Tyrannical and against the great and Sacred Right delivered us down through so many Ages by our Fathers from one Generation to another It would argue as much impertinence as he is guilty of himself to recount the many absurdities he has urged on this occasion as the instances of Legitimation and Illegitimation of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth both which were made in their turns Illegitimate and yet both were Legitimate when they came to succeed and would not any Body that reads this judge our Author deserved a blew Coat and a Muckinder for urging their Cases as Instances what the Parliament can do in such Cases when neither of the Acts pass'd against those Princesses stood good But what he says afterwards deserves Sugar Plumbs or nothing now we are beholden to him or never for he comes to the Point and says in a word That the two Houses have an absolute Dominion over the Lives Liberties and Estates of any Subject in the Kingdom why now we see what the Gentleman would be at here he speaks home The two Houses abstractedly have an Absolute Dominion c. Tush no matter for the King he is no body God knows when our Author would shew his Law We have had instances sayes he of Queens being Beheaded and who is nearlier related to the King than she that is one with him Oh brave Boys who nearer allied to the Privileges of the Crown than she that has had it set upon her head Why this is hearty now And if such a one says he