which of the two he is most indebted and render him matchless in the present and rarely exceeded by any in former Ages He is not only of innate Courage fearless and intrepid as a Lion but a Commander of great Experience both at Land and Sea preferring the last more for his Countries safety and honour than his own ease or pleasure In all things temperate and sober in his Actions between Man and Man nicely just in his Word and Promises strictly faithful and religiously punctual sincere in his Friendships and Professions a kind Brother and a dutiful Subject an obliging Husband and an excellent Master a great lover of Business sedulous and diligent and indefatigable in Labours affable and easy of access patient in hearing and dispatching the meanest of quick Apprehension and sound Judgement and tho in this traduc'd by Envy Malice and Design yet I defy the worst of his Enemies to instance wherein he ever spake impertinently on any Subject He is what the French call un bonest homme too comprehensive to be English'd by one Word signifying A Person composed of all the good Qualities that make Men truly valuable He was born to retrieve the sinking Glory of the English Nation a Truth once readily acknowledged by all and would be so at this day if the contrary were not imposed by the cunning of the Ambitious under the disguise and pretence of Zeal for Religion in which whatever his private Opinions are he desires not a liberty he would not grant He is not of a narrow persecuting Spirit so much in love with his own as to despise the Opinions of all others He would have every Man enjoy the right of Nature Liberty of Conscience without disturbance of the publick peace In a Word he is brave and generous liberal but not profuse resolute but not stubborn great but not proud humble but not abject in all his Actions he shews himself a Gentleman but in none forgets that he is a Prince He is not an Angel but a Man and therefore not free from some Passions and human Fraitlties but in the World there cannot be found a Prince with fewer He needs not boast the Statues of his Ancestors he has a stock of fame and vertue of his own large enough to make him great He is doubly related to the Title of his Grand Father Henry the 4th by Birth and by his Sufferings Without flattery he may be accounted the most illustrious of modern Hero's and very little if at all out-done by Caesar or by Alexander by Hannibal or by Scipio The English Scots and Irish have been Witnesses of this Truth to their Honour and Renown The French the Spaniards and Flemmings and the Dutch the German Sweed and Dane have seen and felt his Actions to their cost to thir Envy And what has this great Min done to have felt his Vertues and his Lawrels wither'd and forgot Is it for exposing his person like a common Sea man for the Glory of the English Nation or is the change of the peoples Affections owing to the alteration of his Opinions about the Modes and Circumstances of Religion for in reality 't is no more Oh! no it proceeds from the subtilty of some Fellow-Subjects who under pretence of Love for the publick and Zeal for Religion design for themselves a Tyranny and therefore endeavour by all the arts of Malice to remove out of the way of their Ambition this great Person the only Obstacle imposing upon the World that all themselves aim at are intended by the D. when nothing is further from his thoughts than a purpose of governing England otherwise than by the establish'd Laws A Lye may for a while sully and eclipse the brightest Innocence but at length it must break through those Clouds with a greater increase of Lustre and of Glory 'T is good Machiavilian policy calumniare fortiter aliquid adherebit Throw Dirt enough some of it will stick There was a time when only Vice was safe and honourable and nothing fatal but to be brave and vertuous and the best Citizens were therefore proscribed and why should it be wondred that in England as well as in Rome or Athens no Aristides should be banished for being too good Now considering that Laws may bind a King which to deny is folly and madness and that there are already enough more may be added to prevent a Popish Successors mischieving Protestant Subjects if there were no Laws to this purpose yet prudence and right reason would continue to us the enjoyment of Liberty Property and Religion let never so bigotted a Papist ascend the Throne much less is any alteration to be apprehended from the Duke who besides all those Obligations does further secure us by his innate Goodness and temper 't is no wonder his Majesty should so often forbid the intermedling with Succession since he could not but conclude from so unreasonable a procedure something else might be designed besides the security of the protestant Religion under the sairest Tufts of Grass we know Snakes are likeliest to be hid For first there was no cause to conclude the D. should certainly out-live his Royal Brother or if he did that he would or could alter the Government nor secondly that he should always continue of his present Opinion in Religion since he that once changed might do so again upon the alteration of his temper never at a stand or the same in any person or upon his fuller consideration of the Controversie But if in this he should remain unalterable and chance to out-live him his consenting to such an Act would never prevent great Effusion of Bloud civil War and unaccountable Miseries and Calamities for let Men Fancie what they please the D. would still have no small party in England all or most of Scotland and Ireland would be entirely for him he is accounted by both a Prince of their Bloud and by their Laws who no more than those of England allow their Kings mortal to be their Soveraign upon the Death of his predecessor without the Formalities of Proclamation or Coronation and who knows not that the united force of these two Kingdoms with the power within the third would counter ballance all the rest of the Might of England Besides Scotland and Ireland being distinct Kingdoms and governed by Laws of their own Parliaments no Act made by that of England can be binding in any instance much less in excluding their Sovereign Now over and above those advantages all the popish Princes of Europe and they if united are too strong for the Protestant would be on his side if Religion have that power some Men apprehend But if it have not yet France would account it their interest to reinstate the D. in his possessions for then they two joining to which nothing else could invite the King of England all rubs in the way of the Universal Monarchy would be certainly removed And what would the Consequence of this be but a
of Nations forbid nay make it inconsistent with Society to hang a Man first and convict him after or to punish any one 〈◊〉 post facto My Lord Strafford's Case was never to be brought into president and if that were not sufficient the whole proceedings by Act of Parliament since his Majesties Restauration were condemn'd as illegal and contrary to all Morality And would not the D's Case have been just the same Do you but make it your own and you will be of that Opinion Whence I conclude that the Reasons on which the late House of Commons proceeded against the D. were insufficient because not only not warranted but contrary to the Laws in being as well as to those of Nature and all Societies under Heaven And now I come to your third Question what dangers the Nation may be under in case the Crown descends upon a Popish Successor or more particularly upon his R. H For answer to which we must consider that dangers to any Country are Forraign or Domestick Invasions from abroad or Encroachments a home Against the former every Kingdom is in danger be the Prince of any or no Religion and therefore the People are obliged to be always on their Guard Against the latter the hazard lies in the Princes neglect or breaking of the bounds of his Subjects Liberty Property and Religion and since the safety of all Princes depends upon the contrary why a Popish one should offer it more then another I cannot comprehend and more particularly why his R. H. should design it is not at all likely if we examine either the influence Popery can have over the Government or consider impartially the D's Character Government was first framed for the good of Mankind in this Life without any regard to another and depended upon a due and equal administration of justice in the Governour and Obedience in the governed This was long observed in the World before Religion entered especially Christianity which all allow neither did nor could alter the Laws of the City or Common-wealth Evangelium non abolet politias is every where an allowed Maxim drawn from our Saviour's own Words Friend who made me a Ruler or judge among you The Law is open and by that the controversies between you and your Brother are to be decided He came not to disturb but to enlarge and confirm the peace of the City and his Laws considered a-part are as consistent with those of a Kingdom as the by-Laws of any Corporation within a greater State He declared his Kingdom was not of this World and therefore could not design to alter the grounds of Government and Obedience which are one and the same in all Countries whether Christian or Pagan founded upon self-interest and preservation and continued by mutual Relation of Love and Duty Protection and Obedience things that truly considered can never be altered by the super-induction or change of any new or old Religion If then Christianity make no alteration 't is impossible the sub-divisions or particular Sects should So that whatever Opinion either King or Subject be in point of Religion Popish or Protestant Lutheran or Calvinist Presbyterian or Episcopal the ends of Government peace and quiet Liberty and Property may be secured and enjoy'd and the end of Religion too eternal Salvation this depending on moral Duties and Conformity to the Laws of the Land our Saviour having threatned Damnation to those who resist the higher Powers the greatest of punishments being appointed both by the Jewish and Christian Law to Rebellion called by the first the Sin of Witchraft and in the last a fighting against God himself Now all Laws that concern our temporal estate being made in the times of Popery I cannot find why they should be changed by a Popish Monarch nor how without a change or violation the Subjects can suffer As for the Laws that established the Protestant and abolished the Popish Religion they cannot be otherwise altered but by an equal power with that from whence they had their Being King and Parliament who agreeing can by a change no more prejudice the publick in order to Heaven than they did before that being only accidental and extrinsecal to the Substance of Religion by which alone and not by Forms or Ceremonies Men are to be saved every Country making differences in such things according to the several interest of States or humours of the people as in England the Common-wealth is tempered by the King 's holding the Ballance between the power of Lords and Commons and that upon the taking away of either the Government must be destroyed so the Religion of England or indeed of any Kingdom where there are several Sects seem only to be preserved by fixing a Ballance which taken away must be the ruine of the whole and therefore undeniable policy will tell us that the Episcopal legal Government is no otherwise to be preserved but by equally indulging the Non-Conformists and the Papists for to suppress both is now impracticable and to suppresse one alone will be found impolitick A Truth grounded upon the present State of Europe where while England kept the Ballance between France and Spain the universal Monarchy was a Dream or groundlesse Fancie but that being removed 't is impossible if two or three Martial and prudent Princes happen successively to govern France but that before imaginary Empire will really fall to the Lot of that Nation unlesse all the other States joyn against it and give our Country the power it enjoyed when Spain was an equal Match in the Contention For my own part I see nothing to be dreaded in case of a Popish Successor because he alone cannot alter the Laws nor the Religion nor can he the execution since that is out of his and in the hands of such as are not only sworn to it but upon failure lyable to great Penalties and Forfeiture not only to the Prince who possibly might but to the Informer who cannot be supposed to remit his proportion And considering that the Laws in being have entrusted the executive power of the Militia by Sea and Land and of distributive Justice in Courts and all Offices of Trust as well in the Country as about the Princes Person and the power of making and altering Laws in the Hands of Men of Anti-popish Principles I cannot apprehend why we should conceive any danger from a Princes enjoying to himself any Heterodox Opinion whatever For to think he would impose them upon his Subjects is to conclude him not only imprudent but distracted since it would be to create himself disturbance without the least prospect of advantage for what does he get or loose by their being of this or that Perswasion His Good his Wealth his Glory his Honour and Security consists in their conformity to the established Government and for their future Happinesse he cannot as a Prince be solitcious 't is out of his Province and now out of Fashion for Kings to be Priests and
to subvert the Government and the Religion of the Nation I perfectly agree with the Writer of The growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government But I wish the Gentleman had nam'd as he easily might the Conspirators If you will believe against all Truth and Reason the before mentioned Answerer to the Declaration they are center'd in his R. H. and He alone has been the Author of the Ministers miscarriages or the Chances of ill Fortune that have hapned since the Kings Restauration One might have though Popery alone had been Crime enough to render him odious without loading him with the Burden of others Must they make him not onely presumptive Heir but presumptive Criminal But I confesse he that so much defames and so irreverently treats the King may with lesse hazard belie his Brother The end is visible That what Justice cannot popular Fury and the Rabble should take away the Beeing of that much injur'd Prince Hence it is he is said to have been the Author of the Fire of London His never to be forgotten pains and Diligence to suppress those Flames are ill requited He was then known to be a zealous Protestant and could he joyn with the Papists who are now call'd the Authors in a mean so destructive of Religion And if that were the Design what hinders its being effected If the Papists must be acquitted surely the Duke ought in that the Phanatick Plotters executed in April before confess'd at Tyburn they had so contriv'd that fatal Scene that it could not miscarry And indeed the Event verified their Prediction to aday as to the Fire though not to the rest of their intended Tragedie When Nero set Rome on fire he commanded Christianos ad Leones an ill President for Christian Commonwealths No man can make himself innocent by throwing his Crimes upon others But thus it fares with his R. H. as well in this as in many more Instances He is said to be the Author of the Popish Plots though not only Oates and Bedloe the last confirming it at his Death have acquitted him but likewise my Lord Danby tells you in his Printed Case The King was so far from believing it that it had never been brought upon the Stage but for the D's Importunity This alone if there were not many more is a sufficient Argument of his Innocence and abhorrence of the Fact and yet now forsooth he must have revealed it after the King had given him the intimation that the Conspirators might convey away their Papers If so I pray why were Colman's or any others found But it will appear on examination that Beddingfield no sooner receiv'd the Packet of which how Doctor Tongue could inform the Earl of Danby then in Oxfordshire 27 mils beyond Windsor so as to be with the King on that account within few hours after is a Riddle than he brought it to the Duke telling him there was mischief design'd to his R. H. in particular or to himself or the Papists in general for that the inclosed Letters were forged and one of them from Dr. Fogorthy to whose Person as well as Name he was till then a perfect Stranger This Packet the D. gave to the R. that very day about the last of August who looking on one of the Letters said he had â—…en the hand before Some eight days after Sir Edmundbury Godfrey sent by Coleman the whole Discovery with which the second time the D. acquainted his Majesty who yet spoke not to the D. of the matter The rest of that Libel is as false as these two Particulars which therefore for brevity I passe over no man in his Wits being able to think it needs any other Confutation than the Fire But before I conclude give me leave to tell you That the D. has not exposed his Person on all occasions for the honour of the English Nation but whereever he appeared carried Victory along with him which in his absence was not found In the first war he beat the Dutch in the second he got the better but in both the change of Admirals alter'd our Success And whatever false steps our Ministers have made whose Bastards are not to be laid at his doors he is no otherwise accountable for them then you or I who had no power to resist Every one knows who have been the publick and lose Managers of Affairs and these can witness the D. could never be reckon'd in their number He had no hand in dividing the Fleet in the first War nor in halling it up at Chatham before a Peace concluded He was not privy to the Advice of breaking the Triple League nor making an Alliance with France which he no sooner heard than he oppos'd foretelling with Cassandra's Fate the Issue He influenc'd not a War with Holland nor setting upon their Smyrna-Fleet before a Breach declared Delenda est Carthago was not his Sentence nor his Act the Shutting up the Exchequer nor was he the Author of Injunctions against the Bankers nor of usurping the Commons Right of filling their own Vacancies nor consequently of the other Part or Link of this Chain and Contrivance the Project of Indulgence though to give him his due he was for pursuing steddily Resolutions when once taken the contrary would be a lessning our power and a making us ridiculous at home and abroad Afterwards when these Measures were broken and new ones embraced he was for pursuing the Interest of England in defence of the Spanish Netherlands and did as verily believe and was as much impos'd upon as the most credulous in England that a War against France was then really purposed when desired by both Houses in 1678 7. His preparations to hazard his Person in that Expedition are notorious Evidences of this Truth Yet such is his misfortune that after all his Endeavours for the good of his Country he is reputed a Lover of the French Interest though none be more hated by that Crown an undenied proof of the maliâ—… of the Imputation whose unwearied diligence has been formerly employ'd and may now be well suspected to foment and keep up divisions between the King and his Subjects the only way to prevent our opposing his long designed Dominion An Observation that alone ought to invite us to an Union and a mutual Confidence and to study in the Spirit of Moderation the healing of our Breaches remembring That no Reason of State can be useful to the Publick or justifie any Actions contrary to the Laws both of God and Nations That it is a shame and a reproach upon us abroad and an Inconvenience at home to have a Plot kept so long on foot wherein all who should be found guilty upon unquestionable Evidence might have been made long since Exemplary A speedy and impartial proceeding in this Case without heat or passion or consideration of Parties or of Interest will remove all our Jealousies and Fears settle us upon the immovable Rocks of Truth and Honour and acquit and vindicate to the World That an English Parliament is not influenc'd by men whose Ambition leads them to study their own private more than the Publick Good That they serve their King and Country for Glory and for Conscience not for Gain or Preferment That they design nothing but the preservation of their Rights Libertis and Religion by the Methods of peace and prudence which without doubt may be for ever secured by the Laws already in force or other new Additions notwithstanding a Popish Soveraign The Kings of England have bound and may again limite their Power with their own Consent in Parliament But if this Truth be denied because of that Maxim in our Laws The King can do no wrong it cannot That their Ministers and Officers who must be and are accountable for all and punishable for Illegal Actions may be so confin'd as may make our Fears unreasonable of any Encroachments or Innovations let never so many Popish Princes much lesse any one succeed Whoever suggests the contrary is imposed upon by Ignorance Interest or the Malice of crafty and designing Achithophels who prefer their particular Advantage to Religion and Liberty no other way really to be endangered but by debarring the D. his Right of Succession which once past into an Act will in case he survive most certainly-bring upon the Three Kingdoms Horrour and Confusion Desolation and Misery and all the sad Effects of a Civil War Evils so far from your Temper and Inclination that I need not caution you against so much madnesse and Folly as inevitably attends the not regarding the Wisemans Advice My son fâ—ar God and Honour the King and meddle not with those that are given to change What I have written I have written in obedience to your Commands the love of Truth and zeal for the Publick being as you know neither Courtier nor Pensioner never was or like to be addicted to Popery not obliged by King nor Duke in any particular Grace or Favor but being wholly Independent and having something to lose and sensible no others can suffer by War and Rebellion I have used the same freedom without as I hope you will within doors for preventing those Calamities which seem to do more than threaten the Nation from which nothing but Gods Providence in the Wisdom and Moderation Courage and Prudence of our King and Parliament can defend this unhappie and distracted Kingdom FINIS
conduct of their own Reason for every mans Reason is Reason to himself but the Reason of the Communitie is the Reason of State not the Reason of the man And therefore the Supreme is always entrusted with this Reason and in the Exercise of it ought to be secured by a transcendent Power to give Check to the pretentions of the Enemies of Society This must be done two ways I. By assuring a strength competent against any Attempts of retrieving their original Right of Nature 2. By an equal Administration of Justice and good Government for Res nolunt male administrari The end of Government is That men may live together unanimously in the equal use of Civil Laws The end of Religion is to be happy in the next World and therefore ought not to interfere with Civil Laws or those by which the good this Life is regulated But because the Motives to Obedience to those Laws do very much depend upon the Rewards and Expectations of a Future State they are therefore necessarily conjoyned so that whatever Religion is established by Law becomes Law and ought not in prudence to be chang'd and disturb'd Whoever hath a private Religion or Opinion seing it is not more in our power to have mentem sanam than corpus sanum yet if the man be not mad or injurious he may and ought to enjoy it freely without punishment provided he do not violate the peace of the City If he do 't is nor Sincerity but Hypocrisie and seeing there may be bona mens in malo articulo all liberty ought to be afforded that can reasonably modestly be claimed by any of those who pretend a tender Conscience Now if you consider throwly these Positions you will find not onely the Reasons of entring into Society but the Causes of its Continuance and Decay fully asserted The Rules of Government are as demonstrable as any Mathematical Problems and where the Supreme is wise there can be no Rebellion or not dangerous and wherever there is the Government is infirm and foolish In order then to your Question you must observe That Power is an equivocal Word and is sometime taken for the Right and Force of Nature sometimes for the Right and Force of Laws In the first sense 't is called vis or potestas in the latter jus or dominium The first sort of Power men in society have renounced and cannot use without returning to the State of War where every man has as equal Right or Power over another as another has over him The second sort of Power is that which the Laws of the Society warrant and by which 't is said Illud tantum possumus quod de jure possumus Now if we consider the Power of Parliaments bounded by Laws in the letter sense 't is plain they can have none to bar the Duke from Succession because the Laws Common and Statute leave them no such Power and in Nature and Reason after entring into Society they can exercise no more than is left them by the Agreements of the Society In the first sense 't is true they have power to do what they please as two is stronger then one But then it must be remembred that the using that Power loosens the bond of the Commonwealth the whole having no more Right over Peter and Paul while they break not the Laws of the Country than Peter and Paul had over all the rest If it were not so there would be no Right nor Wrong in the World neither subsequent nor antecedent to Humane Constitutions Virtue and Viec would be but empty Names Scar-crows for the Fools and the Weak For every thing would be lawful that a man had force or strength enough to justifie A Principle destructive of Government and Society of Peace and Happinesse Everle Thief and Murderer Robber and Traytor if successful being honest persons guilty of no Mischiefs Thus indeed Vice becomes Virtue Prosperum scelus virtus vocatur This therefore not being to be allowed among men much lesse Christians the Parliament cannot justifie a Power of putting by the next Heir by the Constitutions of the Kingdom nor by those of nature which allows not the major part to have recourse to natural Force or Liberty without leaving all the rest of the Members to their choice of entring either into none or a new Form or continuing under the old And those that assert the Parliament may do what they please know not what they say if they deny others the same freedom and if they do 't is bidding all men Draw try who has the strongest Arm and the longest Sword making Might or Power the onely Rule of Justice and Measure of Humane Actions But this so dangerous mistake is grounded upon not considering that what was lawful before I became a Member of the Society ceases to be so after When a Bargain is once concluded between one man and a thousand the thousand cannot without injustice break the Agreement nor without folly expect the single man will not take the first opportunity to be reveng'd and obliege them to their first Contract And whether he prove successful or no it will occasion such Mischiefs Calamities that they will too late repent their Follies and find no other comfort than the sad one which this scrap of Latin affords Supplicium stultorum stultitia But further if you rightly examine things you will find that the Lords onely act for themselves and that the Commons of England do no otherwise represent the People than as Attorneys who therefore are presum'd limited to the first Constitutions and Fundamentals that is the Common Law or Magna Charta whose Bounds if they exceed they forfeit the Patent or Commission by which they act This is agreeable to Reason and the practice of Former Ages when the Commons being ask'd their Consents to new Matters went home and consulted their Principles and according to their directions gave in their Answers as you may find at large in the Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores and as in the present as well as ancient usage in the Dyets of Germany and States of Holland And thus it was in the Senate of Rome who though they had the Supreme power as a Parliament in England yet in the making of any new Law there was a Rogatio Legis an exposing of it in Tables to the view of all for a certain limited time wherein if the meanest shewed Arguments why it should it was wholly laid aside And so dangerous a thing have Innovations in this sort been accounted by the Ancients that among the Locrenses and other Commonwealths of Greece new Laws were propounded with Ropes about the proposers Necks submitting themselves to the loss of their Lives if the proposition were not approved by every single person And in Poland no King can be elected without the consent of every individual Elector And indeed in so material an Instance as the designation of a Supreme Governour upon whom depends thâ— Fates of