his Throne if he pursued partial Notions and ungrateful Measures I would rather make a Vow of Voluntary Exile than accept the best Employment that a King of England has in his Power to give I have many times told Him so And farther I would always advise him to take into his Business Popular Men and to let them serve him by the Methods that made them Popular But at the same time I say I would advise him to forget as well as forgive all our Miscarriages I would have a perfect Act of Oblivion from Him and I would have the People pass on their part so entire an Act of Oblivion that they should not gall any one Man for what they did amiss in his Reign or under this Usurpation on condition they testifie their Repentance by their Amendment of Life Tho' Henry 4. of France so justly called the Great was in his absence arraigned and condemned to 〈…〉 Harquebusses and this by the Votes and Order of the Parliament of Tholouse yet notwithstanding he recovered his Kingdom by force of Arms that Great and Excellent King did not in the least revenge their Trayterous and Rebellious Usage by which Generous as well as Politick Carriage he added to the Conquest of his Country the Conquest of the Hearts of all his People reconciling at once all the Animosities and Factions which had been the Product of near Forty Years Civil Wars Let a new Face of things arise likewise out of our State-Chaos May the King govern with that Equal Hand that Merit may be rewarded and nothing but Vice in disgrace that those may be thought to serve him best that most serve the General Good and let it be a Crime as well as ill Manners to revive any of our old Distinctions let there be no distinction upon the account of Ecclesiastical or Civil Faith and let Obedience and Allegiance to the Civil Power be the only Test for Preferment You know my Friend I am no Papist tho' I am for a Civil Comprehension And as falsly as your Irish Dr. King has traduc'd His Majesty for what he did in Ireland I am told one thing for which his Wisdom and Goodness can never be enough commended and that is that he required no Oath from any one Man that serv'd him but trusted to their Honour and their Interest rather than the Obligation of Oaths being sure an honest Man would do his Duty without them and being also convinced by a late and sad Experience that they never bind a Knave And thus he truly made himself the King of all Perswasions The Discipline of the Lacedemoniuns was positive That every Man should keep his Rank or Die yet they never put an Oath to their Souldiers Shame and Honour had more Power over those brave Minds made them even scorn Death which is the greatest Tryal had a more infallible effect upon them than we can pretend all Oaths have upon us Notwithstanding this short Remark about Oaths I am neither Quaker nor Sectaria therefore a hint is enough from me upon that Subject But from the several Heads of Discourse I have handled methinks I find my self under a necessity of clearing at least briefly Three things and I will do it as briefly as I can The First is That those that are both Zealous and Jealous for Liberty and Property are more in number than those that are for the Strains and Stretches of Prerogative I find there is a vast and unlucky mistake in the Computations of some People and that by reason that they do not distinguish between the State and Religious Whigg I allow the Fanatick Whigg or those that refuse to come to our Communion are not perhaps the twentieth Man in England but there are very great numbers of Men who never went formerly nor do now go even by reason of their Principle to any other Church but the Church of England There are likewise many others who are not at all Biggotted to any particular Form of Church Worship who yet mostly if not altogether go to the Church of England and yet both the one and the other of these are as much or perhaps more nicely Whiggs in Civils than are the Fanaticks though not so generally called so So that there are Church of England and Latitudinarian or as the Scotch call them Erastian as well as Fanatick Whiggs Now let us consider what Interest all these Three sort of Whiggs have in our Affairs what influence they have over them and you will find by Matter of Fact that these many years last past they all joyning upon a Civil Bottom have all along been too hard for that which is the Church of England as it is contra distinguished to the Whigg They were fatally so in King Charles the First 's Time But to bring things within all our Memories and Observation the three last Parliaments in King Charles the Second's Reign is not an improper Season to calculate their Interest and Influence For then they chose before any illegal or unwarrantable Tricks had been plaid by either side with Charters and if the Nation was inflamed by a Popish Plot I am sure the Court lean'd wholly to the High Prerogative Church of England Then you see that the Bill of Exclusion tho' it was an excessive and exotick Rant rather than a natural Effect or Production of Whiggism was carried in the House of Commons and that tho' almost all the Members were Charch goers But I will shew you yet by a later Instance that State Whiggism runs thro this Nation All those that are for this Government act upon that Principle and lay aside the Passive Obedience and Prerogative Notions of the high Church of England men notwithstanding that they keep up the Episcopal Order the Pomp Ceremony and Discipline of the Church of England And whoever will turn one a King for Mâ—le-administration of his Ministers will never receive him without a Reformation in the Constitution They will be State-Whigs tho' they do not call themselves so It is for Liberty and Property that these Men struggle tho' they do not know how to name their own Actions The second thing that seems necessary for me to clear is That it is necessary to give a Liberty of Conscience and that these Assertors of Liberty and Property will be for Liberty of Conscience and be able upon the King 's giving good Securities for our Civil Rights to give in exchange of them an Impartial Toleration I will not dispute the inconsistency of Persecution with either the Christian or Moral Law nor will I take pains to prove that where a Nation is greatly divided into Sects it is the Interest of that Nation to give every body leave to worship God in their own manner but I will shew the likelihood that the State-Whigs should and will exchange Religiâ—us Liberty for Civil Security And now I must again carry you back to the beginning of the late Civil Wars and then you will find because the
King and his Posterity I need not have said one Word of this matter to inform the King's Judgment for he is in that Temper in which his Subjects wish him and that would satisfie a Parliament-House were he to receive their Petitions and Addresses to stamp their Votes and to end our Disputes I do not speak this by guess but am convinced of it by many Discourses I have had the Honour personally to have with him since his Misfortunes and the Letters I have had from several of the best hands since I left his Court confirm me he remains in the same Opinion But I thought it was necessary to say something of this sort to set before those Jacobites you complain of the Interest of the King in the truest light As for the Whiggs of all sorts every Body knows that they will find their Account in a Restauration upon Civil Securities and that no other Restauration will please them So that I will not labour that matter at all but hasten to shew that it is the Interest both of the Church of England and Catholicks to promote such a Restauration The Church of England is not secure that she shall be continued the National Church so long as there is unlimmited and unexplained Dispensing Power and she saw Quo Warranto's could produce Regulations and so I might go through other things And the Ministers of a Catholick King may again mistake in the Exercise of his Power if the Boundaries of the Administration are not plainly chalk'd out and whilst the Church of England appear Enemies to Liberty and Property they will lose their Interest with the People and the next Revolution will conclude in Presbytery and a Common-wealth For Popery wants Numbers to establish its self though some of the Members of that Communion may have Vanity enough to hope to establish it and if the Church of England do not joyn in Civil Seourities nay if there should be a Restauration without them those Catholicks though it will be to their certain Ruine may be able to do enough towards it to make the Church of England fall and the Presbyterians get all in the Scramble And tho' the Presbyterians have an odd hankering after a King yet after they have been bit once more they will become tuneable to a Democracy Nothing can destroy the Church of England but their Opposition to the Liberties of their Country or to Liberty of Conscience or their closing with Comprehension It is a little light but however I will set down what I have often heard said concerning it by Men of very large Minds They have said That if the Members of the Church of England were as good-natur'd as the Constitution it is the best-bred civilest National Church in Christendom I set it down as a light expression to be used concerning Church-Affairs and yet there may be Instruction in it For I believe its Civility if it does not make too extravagant Compliments of our Liberties will for ever make it stand but if our Liberties are not well guarded that may be pulled down and Presbytery will be set up As for the Roman Catholicks I think it is in the highest degree improbable that the King should ever be able to come home by Conquest and yet more improbable he should be able to stay here upon that Title if indeed it is One in a Natural King and if the Catholicks would in all places declare for Civil Securities I think this is the properest Opportunity for their Incorporation Our having been in Confederacy with Princes of that Perswasion has made us capable of allowing fair Quarter to those Catholicks that are here We can follow our Interest notwithstanding our old Grudges and if the Catholicks will come to a Temper we are enough in one to embody them Whereas should not the Restauration be in the Life of the King the Prince of Wales would be fetched home upon a meer Church of England Plot and the Proofs of his Birth will be Authentick and without dispute during his Non-age and till he has disobliged us and the Church of England men will in point of Religion carry all things before them as far as is in Opposition to Popery he will be bred up a Protestant and must in Proof of his being so consent to any farther Laws that the Church of England will think necessary to secure their Church against Popery So far will it then be from repealing the Test or even the Penal Laws in relation to Catholicks And the Church of England whilst they may have their Church secured will during the Minority of the Prince before Flattery will advance to Preferment agree with the Liberty and Property men for any good and wholsom Laws and the Protectors of young Princes must give way to the Importunities of the People Now the Catholicks will not have an Opportunity to bribe us by Civil Securities the Church of England will remember all those Male administrations of his Ministers for which they turn'd out King James and will say it was the Papists hindred us from being redressed against them And the Whigs will throw it in their Dish that they offer'd them Friendship upon Legal Establishments and that they did not cry out upon the Declaration for Indulgence tho' founded upon a Dispensing Power till the Roman Catholicks flew or made at least an appearance to fly at several of our most invaluable Rights and Privileges The Whigs will say the Papists doted upon French Power rather than National Restauration nay that they slighted the last and have every where declared against the King's coming home upon Terms Concessions Reformations and amendment of our Constitution tho' unless they had intended to exercise a Danish Lordliness over us their own Welfare must have been concluded in every thing that made England Happy It matters not how unjust these Accusations will be it is a true tho' a course Proverb It is easie to find a stick when one has a mind to beat a Dog Is it the first time that we have against you believed Lies I neither am nor I hope to God ever shall be a Roman Catholick but I have such Bowels towards all Mankind that I seriously protest I have such melancholly Bodings far the Romans Catholick Party I foresee such a Period of Calamity according to Human reckoning falling upon them if the King is not restored by Great Compliances with his People and in his own Person that it has given me many a painful Though and I must confess I am infinitely concerned for many excellent Persons of that Communion who deserve better than to be made a Sacrifice to our Rage and Madness who deserve all the Benefits of Fellow-Subjects The Whigs and Church of England-men will come to a Compromise at that day but in all Human appearance it will be a dreadful one to the Catholicks Now they have an Opportunity to be incorporated with the Protestants but if they don't make use of it they may be
to their Country as their King and to their King as their Country Men that have good Nature Estates Honesty Sense and moderate Minds Such a Parliament would be an healing Parliament might not only end but take away all occasions for Strife and Changes And Establishment Virtue and Liberty are a Nobler Happiness than excessive Riches pompous Buildings and all the other Glories that a People can possess How is the Excellency of the Spartan Institution every where and every day applauded tho' all their Pleasures seem to be nothing else but Hardships and Self-denial But we may add Plenty to our Peace increase our Trade and our Strength and by our Naval Force and a perfect Union amongst our selves be again considered as the Arbiters of Europe But I am unawares launching into a spacious Subject It is time to conclude I wish all English-men would consider how to do it and I wish there could suddenly before we are undone a method be found out to reconcile the King and his Nephew and all his Children both Natural and National a method found out to adjust all our Interests and bring us all to our respective Duties I beseech God so to order things that all Sects and sorts of English-men may think it a National Good to restore our King I have read our Annals I wish every body had Could I here delineate the Scars and Woulds the Bloodsheds and Distresses that the Violation of the Hereditary Title which will hover over all Usurpations and all Forms of a Commonwealth have 〈…〉 could I paint out the Executions and Extinctions of Noble Families that the Wars between the Two Houses have occasioned they would represent but an horrid Prospect a doleful Scene Oh Blessed God! Visit not this Land for its Iniquities with Destruction but in Judgment remember Mercy Let Righteousness and Mercy Restore Him to it and on them establish the Throne of thy Servant JAMES Teach Him to go in and out before this great People which by our Laws and Oaths and His Inheritance thou hast committed to His Charge Let His Children Honour His Subjects Obey and His Nephew be Just to Him and GOD be Glorified be still Glorified in His and Our wonderful Deliverance that Wickedness may no longer prosper but Peace return to us and our Childrens Children to all Generations Amen Amen And God put it into the Hearts of all His Subjects to say likewise Amen to this National and Honest Prayer I find that my Letter has grown under my hands but if it tires you you must thank your self that you started so much Game a great deal has risen before me in writing that I have not followed tho' I hope I have writ enough to let you know that whatever Spirit you find some Jacobites in yet there are others that cannot disgust a reasonable Man and also that I am the same English-man you ever knew me as well as SIR Your affectionate Friend and faithful Servant POSTSCRIPT THE Letter I sent you last August being shewn to some that are yours as well as my old Friends and more so to England than to either of us it was at their importunity sent to the Press soon enough to have been published long before the Parliament met but when part of it was Printed the rest was stopped by some Accidents that are not so proper to mention and therefore some sew Expressions of it may not be altogether so seasonable as they were when I wrote it to you since the Money is now given however I hope in the main it may be of some use And now we have begun this Scribling Conflict I desire that in your next you will let me know when you can reasonably suppose this War and consequently Taxes will end And whether if the Confâ—deracy should break before you have thought fit to restore your Rightful and Lawful King or the French are more humbled as you call it than they are hitherto we should not indeed run a greater risk of our Liberties for the present after such a continued Provocation of the King than either you or I or any good English man could wish to see Tell me likewise whether those that are not of our Army or Fleet cannot if they have a Mind to restore the King upon a National Foot influence those Natives that are in both to restore King James as the Old Army did his Brother You have read History and know that an Army of Natives follows the inclinations of the Inhabitants you know the real Power your Party has in the Nation and that it is not the Tories who have broke in upon their own Consciences but you who have forsaken your Vnderstandings that keep the Prince of Orange as much as you every day ridicule him from being sent for good and all to Holland and though you do not know how to make him either value your Persons or see his own Interest yet you can soon find ways notwithstanding your own Latitude to make an English Army reflect upon their Oaths and Obligations to King James and their Usage under this Man nay you cannot but know they begin themselves to have these Reflections and therefore with very little pains you may prepare them Nationally to Restore the King which if they do with all due regard to him be it spoken he is as it were in our Power and he must grant those Concessions we really want and where a King whose Title is indispured frankly hears Advice from a duly-elected Parliament the genuine and united Sense of the Nation may be gathered up and a Natural Cure given to all our Troubles and only from thence can come an impartial Settlement Think of these things seriously and let not the Discourses of such Jacobites as you complain of who have as little Interest with the Kinâ— as you say they have with England either give you disturbance or make you any longâ—r willing to undergo worse things under this Vsurpation than you can have any just reason to fear if the King returns especiaâ—ly if you your selves Restore him Besides I must tell you I have good reason to believe the King of France himself with whom you fright the Mob is not politically an Enemy to a limited Monarchy in England and that he will agree to a reasonable Peace in Europe if the Restauration of King James is made one of the Conditions of it and that he will not be brought to any Peace unless we Restore him how much soever the Prince of Orange has flatter'd you that instead of the Vineyards and Spoils of Paris that he seemed to promise he will bring him to an honourable Peace I will only 〈◊〉 That whereas some of your Party do now as you did formerly raise malicious and unjust Calumnies upon the Queen I am fully satisfied that she is as desirous the King should comply with his People as the Noblest and nicest Patriots could be were King James upon the Throne She has a mind that the Struggles between the Crown and the People should be adjusted that so the Succession of her Son may be secured Think of all this seriously write me your mind freely and act as becomes a true Lover of England Be not over fond of your own Creation as a Williamite Meddle not with those who world yet farther change the Name and Nature of our Government and then fiercely as you are so now be Anti-Jacobite as long as you can Once again Adieu FINIS ERRATA DEdication line 12. for ever r. even Pag. 6. col 1. l. 40. r. Incroachments Pag. 9. col 2. l. 9. after this add part Pag. 11. col 2. l. 6. after prove add to l. 33. after time add in
great Difference between the Changing or Abolition of some particular Laws and altering Fundamentals And the greatest Assertors of Liberty must acknowledge that Prerogatives in Kings suitable to the Respective Constitution are necessary to maintain those Constitutions and to protect their Subjects and consequently that in all Pacts and Compositions their People make with them due care should be taken even by the People not to take from their Kings any essential Powers Prerogative like a River sometimes gains and sometimes decreases in its Banks but the Balk of the Community sails safest when it keeps its own Natural Channel according to the respective Constitutions Bacon that writes the Uniformity of the Government of England is certainly no over Monarchical Author yet he has this Expression in relation to King Stephen Too much Counter-security from the King to the People is like too many Covenants in Marriage that make room for Jealousy and are but Seeds of an unquiet Life After all it is certainly the Nature of English-men to delight in and they have been used to a Limited Explained and Hereditary Monarchy and Naturam licet expellas furca tamen ipsa recurrat will be found true in a Politick as well as a Natural Sense by all those who would change our Government into an Absolute Monarchy or Downright Democracy or that will interrupt the Succession The Lancastrian Usurpations and the Late Times witness this But perhaps some of these Jacobites you complain of may think to disgrace what I have said by calling these Notions Republican To these Gentlement I will first Answer That since we are so Elemented for a Common-wealth there is no keeping it out but by a Reformation of the Monarchy that may as apparently Answer all the Reasons why Government was first deposited in the Magistrates hands either by God or the People I will not dispute the Original of Government at this time but I will offer one thing to these Speculators to consider of which is That whilst they too much cajole Kings they lose their Interest with the People and mislead an English Monarch and make way for that Government both in Church and State which they would if they understood how oppose They help the Real Common-wealths men to Arguments and give the Presbyterians opportunity to insinuate and gain the Hearts of the People Perhaps were the People of England a Prima Materia I would be very well content that the Draughts of these superfine Projectors should be debated but I think Machiavel was as good a Politician as most of Them and yet he says If the Variations of Times are not observed and Laws and Customs altered accordingly much Mischief must follow And in another Place he affirms it a very had Thing to keep them in Servitude who are disposed to be Free And whoever has reflected upon the extravagant Courses we have taken to be so ever since the Beginning of the late Civil Wars cannot sure doubt of our Disposition For tho we have been mistaken in our Cures no body can be mistaken in our Propensity I am no Lord nor ever desire or hope for any Title I had rather serve my Country in the Lower than the Vpper-House and if my Country never thinks fit to send me to that neither I shall never Court much less Bribe for that Imployment from my Country for I would not be Bribed in it Yet considering how much the Power of the Lords has in some Reigns been a check to the Incroachment of Kings and in others to the hot-headedness of the People I should be willing to screw up the Aristocratical part of our Government though not to the heighth it sometimes has had in our Policy but the present Ferments of England make it impracticable And tho some Men are I am not for driving Nails that will not go when we may without breach of Conscience let that Work alone to a more clâ—aâ—â—sighted Age. Though I think our Oaths and the Original Contract of our Law Books bind us to restore the King yet I know no Obligation we lie under to restore Power to the Lords but as there shall appear both great Feasibility and Expediency I am not for hazarding much for bringing things exactly and minutely to my Platform It will be always enough for me if the Fundamentals of our Government are preserved A Trimmer in Politicks if it means one that would avoid Extremities and compose Things and not one that serves himself by all Times and Changes is a Name and Character that I shall always revere But to give these Gentlemen a farther Answer I must tell them that it is plain by undeniable Matter of Fact that to those Persons that ingaged in the Scotch Plot tho he had not tried his Fortune in Ireland nor could the Persons ingaged assure his Return even upon such Condescensions yet the King granted under the Broad Seal of that Kingdom a full Redress for all Grievances and that at the Request of People that had opposed him so that talking of Terms will be no harsh Language to him now he can want no farther Illumination by a longer Series of Misfortunes to let him see that Compliance with his People is his true and only Interest In a private Pamphlet and in a private Capacity it is not proper to state the Manner and Bounds of our Redresses But did ever People re-admit a King they had ejected upon the Male-administrations of his Ministers if they could any ways help it without making good Provisions Can any body imagine we expect the People of England should The Men of Sâ—nse and Quality and Estates amongst the Jacobites be they Protestants or Papists don't wish they should do it Would you have Tryals secured It is the Interest of all Parties care should be taken about them or all Parties will suffer in their turns Plunket and Sidney and Ashton were doubtless all Murdered tho they were never so guilty of the Crimes wherewith they were charged The one Tryed twice the other found guilty upon one Evidence and the last upon nothing but presumptive Proof Either let Prisoners have Counsel or the Judges be forced to be more impartially so than they were in any of these Cases and let Juries understand that only Allegata and Probata are to direct their Verdict and not Deadly Feuds Foreign Belief or State Necessity In Scotland at all Tryals the whole is taken down in Writing Word for Word as well all Probations as what is said both by the King's Advocate and the Pannel or Criminal and is all made a Record that After-times when the heat of the Prosecution is over may examine whether the Judge dealt impartially and if he did not and is alive at the review of those Proceedings if the Prisoner suffered Death by his warping the Law the Judge is to undergo the same Punishment and if he is dead the Heirs of the injur'd Person is to recover equal Damages to what they sustained in their
Fortune by his illegal Sentence from the Heirs of the Vnjust Judge The Saxons punished false Judges by giving Satisfaction to the Party wrong'd by them and as the Case required by Forfeiture of the Residue to the King and by his disabling them for ever for Places of Judicature and by leaving their Lives to the King's Mercy Who can have the Face to oppose the Revival of something equivalent to that Law But I will not discuss too particularly the Particulars I shall mention The granting of that Bill for Judges that the Prince of Orange refused and Whitlock's for Tryals will be the Glory of King James's Reign whenever he is Restored As to the Armed Force of England I think there may be ways found out to make our Militia as serviceable as any Mercenary Bands to employ all our Officers that have had Military Experience to raise from time to time such Numbers of Officers and such Nurseries of Private Centinels as may make both the King and Kingdom safe add to the Glory and Majesty of our Monarch and yet not leave the least Umbrage for Jealousie in the Minds of the People But this is not a time of day for me to lay before the World such Plans I will not hold forth such Doctrines under any Government I think Unjust and that I think too have not the Honesty to embrace them if I would But if ever I see an English Parliament under a Rightful Prince I will not be wanting in offering my Mite in this and all other things that may contribute to the Good of my Country And sure no body can be so unreasonable as to be unwilling to hear from One that has given Testimony of his Loyalty to his King and Nation too any thing that such an One will propose to establish the Throne and quiet the Minds of his Fellow-Subjects Praetorian Bands in Rome Butchered as well as Guarded their Emperors It is but very lately that the Janisaries Deposed the Grand Seignior and King James's own Army Deserted from Him in these Kingdoms and I am confident I can shew that the Love of his Subjects is the best Standing Army for an English King as well as how he shall have it and be able to look all his Foreign Enemies in the face to boot But I say it is not time for the Publication of these things by my hand nor will I be too prolix upon any one thing therefore to come to Parliaments Is there any Man of Sense and Fortune that does not know them to be the Conservators of all that we hold dear Can there be an unjuster thing any thing more fatal than a partial Representation of the Minds and Interests of Men in that House Tho' this Reign has taught them to do very little else but give Money or Sanction to or Pardons for the Irregularities of Ministers yet the Design of their Institution is as well to provide Remedies for the Complaints of the Kingdom as Cash for the Prince's Coffers I will not debate what is necessary to make them Free but I am sure they should be so I will not say how often they must sit but I am sure they should frequently Both these Considerations are â—â—test for their own House and I am not willing to make narrow Spirits peevish But sure no Man of Interest or that hopes to keep any Reputation with the World will deny they should be free and frequent and that they should not be too much Officer'd that they may be Faithful I shall not enter into a Detail of what is the Work of Parliaments but there is One Thing I am sure is very properly Theirs and that is to make an exact Scrutiny into the Publick Administration and to bring Ministers who are above the reach of Common Courts of Judicature and can stem all other Prosecutions I say It is the Work of Parliaments to bring such Ministers to condign Punishment if they deserve it I know not any thing wherein Princes and some of their Subjects have been more unfortunately mistaken than in their Wishes that Ministers should be Impunible whereas Favourites that are not a Cement between Prince and People that don't consult in all their Actions the Laws of the Constitution and Inclinations of the Inhabitants become Rocks of Offence and bring Ruin sometimes upon Alâ— too often upon their Princes and God be praised for it more generally upon Themselves What is the Reason of that admirable Maxim That the King of England can do wrong Why do the People of England make him an Epicurean God so happy in the enjoyment of His own Majesty Why do we say That He neither can nor does disturb the Peace of our World but because His Eyes and His Ears His Omnisciency and His Omnipresency are comprehended in his Ministers but because if those Ministers are Troublers of our State they are to be punished even for Inadvertencies and much more for Sins of Malice Tho' this Revolution has blotted out all our Original Contract razed all our Statutes and Law-Books turned our Monarchy topsie-turvey and scandalously prevaricated from all our Civil Compacts by employing the Men that persuaded King James to and acted in what we imputed to him as false steps yet it was his Ministers should have been punished and not he himself dethroned and sure King James after he has found so many Ministers were false others flattering and foolish cannot be unwilling to leave it an everlasting Law to his and our Posterity that Ministers shall be accountable It is our Law tho' both weak and profligate Men have the one fancied and the other pretended the contrary and for that Reason and that Reason only it ought to be written more legibly in our Statute-Books Is it not the Interest of Kings that Ministers should not Male-administer away all the Affection of their good and loving Subjects Is it not the Interest of Kings that the Representative Body should plainly shew them by whom and how they are betray'd Yet after all those that will read that excellent Chapter in Machiavel which shews how necessary it is for the Conservation of the State that any Citizen be securely accused p. 277. of his Works ought to read the two next pages which shew that unjust Calumnies are no less pernicious to a Commonwealth than legal Accusations are profitable and good and there you will find a great difference betwixt Accusation and Calumny Ministers ought to be punished I am satisfied the King is willing they should be so for the future Sunderland's Ministry suggests that Advice to Him very effectually and strongly but Beautefeaux also are to be suppressed in all well ordered States One thing seems naturally here to fall in my way which I beg leave to handle in the most inoffensive manner that I can I foresee this will less please some Men for whom no Man living can have a greater Honour than I have yet I think it of so much Necessity and Importance that I cannot
Church of England would not give Liberty of Conscience the State-Whigs set up Presbytery The next Consultation I must make you acquainted with are the Debates of the above-mentioned three last Parliaments of King Charles the Second and you may easily recollect they were for Liberty of Conscience to all Protestant Dissenters nay they made some Votes that were thought extravagant in their favour some suspending dispensing Votes for they resolved it as the Opinion of that House that it was contrary to the Interest of the Nation to put the Laws which were then in being in execution against them But you will say they did not Vote as much for the Papists You must consider the Season Besides that the Papists have been esteemed errant Courtiers ever since the Reformation The Pacliament then thought they had a Popish Plot on foot they thought that Plot was not a Plot for Liberty to worship in the Popish Way but to introduce Popery by the Destruction of all our Civil and Religious Liberties You know at the beginning of my Letter I charged my Country with National Intoxications We can at some times believe Invisible Pilgrims Black Bills St. Jones's Gridirons and that three thousand Irish can Massacre all England And when that Popish Plot was prosecuted so violently the generality of Men looked upon the Papists as Banditti and Misanthropi in relation to the Protestants they looked upon them as the Partizans or Janizaries of the Court Propagators of Civil as well as Religious Superstition and Idolatry And if these Men had a mind to ruin the Papists at that day it was not because of their Prayers and Beads but because they thought them Enemies to our Constitution not only from their dependance upon the Roman See but for a mischief that was nigher at hand their excessive flattery of the Court and Crown whereas the Dissenters being avowedly tender of Liberty and Property were not only favoured by all those Parliaments but influenced great numbers of those who were not of their own Communion at the respective Elections of each of those Parliaments So that the Principle of Liberty of Conscience was perfectly prevalent though they held a strict hand over the Papists out of the Principle of Self-preservation and consequently a trulychosen Parliament will make the Papists English-men where they find them so In farther proof of this last Assertion I must beg you to remember how King James's Declaration of Indulgence was at first entertained I know the Universal Joy with which it was first received lasted but a little while but I know that tho' the Whigs misliked that it should be put out upon a Dispensing Power yet believing it a Preface to Comprehensive Measures and Latitudinarian Politicks they forgave that blemish in its Birth and every where so unanimously embraced it that those narrow Spirits of the Church of England who had a mind were ashamed if not afraid to oppose it Liberty of Conscience would have made K. James the Second Memorable and Glorious in our Histories had not Sunderland's Artifices such Speeches as Mr. Alsop's and such Pampalets as Can there come any Good out of Galilee spoil'd the Noblest Project any English Monarch ever set on foot which was A separation of Religious from Civil Interests I confess we can make Popery a Ball-begger when we please and that ought to teach the Papists Moderation bue the Liberty and Property-men can also call off the Mob when they please For you see at this time the Nation finds no fault with the Emperor's and the Duke of Bavaria's Idolatry and Persecution no nor with the Spanish Inquisition whilst they fancy tho' wildly and falsly they are by their help supporting their own Civil Rights They fall not upon the Papists here that they may not displease the Confederates abroad so that Popery is not so dreadful as Property and Privileges are dear and charming And now since I have been proving that Interest governs the World however Men may mistake what is their own Interest I think my self obliged in the third place to shew that it is the Interest of the King and every sort of Men that he should be Restored upon Civil Securities and that it is not the Interest of the King or any sort of Men to endeavour that the Restauration should be put upon any other Foot Whilst I shew that it is the King's Interest I shall answer the Objection of those who say the Whigs won't think their Properties and Privileges sufficiently secured unless the King part with some of his Prerogative I am sure whilst he is dispossessed he has no Prerogative or at least no exercise of and benefit by it and the Chance of War is too doubtful to know whether he shall have any unless the People please He is outed of his Estate and can in all probability only have it upon Composition which if he will not make with us the Nation will try to the last to keep the Possession and it has those eleven points of the Law Nor are all things Prerogatives that flattering Lawyers have called so in Westminster Hall and some well-meaning and other self-designing Ciergy-men have believed so in their Closets or preached for as such in their Pulpits They can see farther than I that expect to do any thing without an Accommodation I think it impossible he should be Restored or were he that he should keep his Throne without it I think it impossible for One Man to govern the People of England unless they have a mind he should and they will never have such a mind unless he sometimes gives way to their Impetuosities But farther His Age and the Minority of his Son are the highest Inducements imaginable for him to endeavour to leave a settled Government to quiet the Minds as well as suppress the Insurrections of the People There is likewise another Reason why as a Man of Conscience he must be yielding for be cannot but be willing that his Son should be educated in his own Religion and if he will let the Kingdom be secure of their own Religion and of their own Laws notwithstanding that the Crown should be of one Religion and the People of another I am satisfied that the People of England will be little sollicitous which way our Kings think the best to Heaven This has Argument as he is a Religious Man But I must again inforce Condescentions as the Interest of the King under a Natural Consideration Good Securities will make the Nation own the Legitimacy of his Son more than all other Proofs and without out good Securities there will be pretences that his Birth is disputable though I affirm it impossible for any thinking Man to question in his own Mind the Prince of Wales's being born of the Queen's Body Compliance with the People made Queen Elizabeth's Title unquestioned so that those that flatter the King with His Right and seem to despise our Rights take the most infallible Course to destroy both the
pity'd but no Man will in all probability be able to help them How Universal and Catholick soever their Religion may be in other places I am sure they are Fanaticks in England under a Civil Consideration and therefore that they have all the reason in the World to be State-Whigs and as such only will ever be impartially used by us I think nothing that I have said has depretiated the Doctrine of Passive-Obedience I do not pretend to determine who is in the Right in that Controversie much less to handle it as a Religious One But give me leave to tell an admirable Story concerning Dr. Colvil a great Man in the Kingdom of Scotland but one that was thought not to understand clearly the Principle of Non-Resistance The late Earl of Middleton having him once at Dinner asked him Whether there could be no Case in which Defensive Arms were Lawful The Doctor replied It was fit for the People to believe them unlawful and for Kings to believe them lawful It was an admitable Repartee upon a sudden Question But perhaps had he thought of it he would have said likewise That it is fit for the Ministers of Kings to believe them lawful too and I presume the present Earl of Middleton set down that additional Instruction to the Apothegm For tho' to the eternal shame of the Judges who now sit upon the King's Bench they violated our Laws in the continuance of his Imprisonment it must be allowed for his everlasting Honour that that Noble Lord was as cautious of making the Law the Limits of his Ministry as if it were lawful to rise up in Arms whenever the Laws were broken But I must Answer your Postscript wherein you tell me that you neither know how the King can be restored now the Prince of Orange is in possession nor what will become of the Prince of Orange if we should restore the King nor what Security we could have from any Conditions the King could make with us I Answer that if the Prince of Orange is not kept in possession by English men he may soon be brought to Reason and I do assure you that there are many Jacobites that desire rather to see the Prince of Orange return to his Station of Stadtholder again in Holland than wish him any personal Injury And as for the Security you require for any promised Conditions you must forgive me if I think you a little insincere if not trifling when you place so much Weight upon the Pope's giving King James an Absolution for any Promises he should make You might have said this artfully to the Mobb but you cannot suppose that I would believe you were in earnest though you make such a clutter with it I allow as you say that our Histories tell us of some Kings that were absolved by Popes but you know that Bulls Absolutions and the Pope's Excommunications were like to go farther with the Nation in Popish Times than they are like to do now And yet by your very instance of King Henry the Third you might be convinced that the People of England never would even then let a King be at rest till he had performed his Promises I will not write a long Confutation of a thing that I know cannot stick with you or any wise considering Man And besides I do not go about to perswade you to take up with a Constitution that will depend either upon a King's Temper or Religion Honour or Veracity Make a Government that is easie to all and it will be the Interest of all to preserve it But if you would do so you must bring the Right Line into it you must nicely preserve the Church of England as the National Church and yet you must remember that the Kngdom of Heaven is not of this World You must take care in your Civil Compacts that Priestcraft does not spoyl all at last You must take care even of a Protestant in Ordine ad Spiritualia and let the Tares and the Wheat grow up together But farther although you have such wild accounts concerning the Jacobites there are amongst those that serve King James Men that know what you are a doing that know you are looking far and near for a Deliverance that know how impotent you think the Prince of Orange is to Rule how that you depise him as much as the Nation misliked Richard Cremwel before the Restauration that know your extravagant Projects and more temperate Thoughts and yet have accounred for all things and will as things ripen find ways to give you satisfaction if any thing will We know that Maud the Empress even when King Stephen was a Prisoner and though her Title was indisputable and though the Nation was all Catholicks lost the Crown because she was refractory and haughty and denied to the Londoners Edward the Confessor's Laws And I assure you there will be Men that will lay before the King the Necessity and Wisdom of giving Satisfaction to all your Reasonable Demands If you do not ask too much Counter-security things unfit for an English King to grant there are Jacobites that will not only deliver but second your Petitions A Good and Settled Monarchy you may have and a Common-wealth is scarce practicable will be hazardous at present and cannot be lasting I know there are some amongst the Jacobites who are otherwise Men of great Honour and Worth and yet suspect every thing such as you promote is to make the King a Doge of Venice But there are others who have compared and taken in pieces and viewed in parts all the Models of Government who if you would rectifie and not change either the Name or Nature of ours will receive very kindly any thing you offer will instruct you how to make it palatable to the King and shew him how consistent it is both with his Honour and his Interest Let the manner be decent and your Propositions allow King James to have the Ballance that an English King should have and must necessarily have in our Constitution And I assure you many of the Jacobites know no other but such an English King to be our Supreme Head and Governour But after all if King James is called home by the Nation we need no other Security than a well-chosen Parliament The present Parliament may call him home when they please without any other Force but their own denial of Money And the King 's being of another Religion will in some measure check the effects of a Revolutionary Joy and prevent our Excesses And if sober and honest Men would in all Corporations instead of all other Projects instruct all the Populace That all those that drink upon their Members Cost hazard being Slaves for that Draught and that it is time seriously to take Care of Themselves and their Posterity by choosing Men of Virtue rather than the Favourites or the Factions of any Opinion whether they are Jure Divino or Original Contract men Men that are as well Loyal