such Danger they upon the opening of every Parliament or Session of Parliament would have put the several Members of the House of Commons as well as the Lords upon a right Course of preventing the Mischiefs they seemed to fear and delivering us from the Grievances they pretended the Kingdom suffered under but as if they had not believed what they reported they took the contrary Course and instead of perswading the Parliament to moderate sober Councils and Proceedings studied to put them into Heats and Passions and upon Exclaiming against particular Persons to whom they owed prejudice as being His Majesties Servants and Ministers These upon common Fame before heard or Witnesses examined against them must be Removed from the Kings Presence and Councils for Ever on Addresses from the House of Commons no Body knew for what save I ancies and Immaginations But some of them being too Great and their Integrities and Abilities for His Majesties Service better known to him then them His Majesty not thinking fit to Remove them Thereupon some of these worthy Patriots of their Countrey for several Sessions of Parliament made it their business to doe nothing save to contrive Differences between the Two Houses of Parliament for which purpose they questioned the Lords Jurisdiction in matters of Appeals particularly in the Cases of Sherly and Fag and others which Controvercy they carried so high that Sir John Fag and several Lawyers were Committed by the House of Commons to the Tower for only appearing before the Lords at their Bar and owning their Judicature in Cases of Appeals from Courts of Equity this single Point caused several Prorogations and rendred several Sessions Fruitless though the same was never before called in question since His Majesties Restauration Now if those Gentlemen who so highly concerned themselves in these matters had been of such publick Spirits as to spend their time in laying open the Dangers they apprehended we were in and the Grievances we suffered under with Design to have prevented those Dangers and redressed those Grievances They would certainly then have applied to the several Members of Parliament prest for Moderation desired them to avoid all Heats and Passions and to look into the Plot search it to the bottom Try the Lords in the Tower and examine the Truth of the several Grievances complained of and find means to prevent the Danger of the former and secure us for the Future against the latter in doing whereof they must necessarily have found who had occasioned both and after securing the Subjects then to have fallen on the Persons Guilty would have been more proper for if then these Persons had been too great for the Parliament and procured Prorogations and Dissolutions yet had the Parliament discharged their Consciences done their Duty preserved their Countrey and deserv'd Thanks and Honour from those they Represented But to fall upon particular Persons first and to doe nothing for our Security because they could not have their Ends against those Persons they had prejudice too give me leave to say for them to be perswaded to this method of Proceedings in my apprehension did not argue that either they themselves or those persons that informed them of the Grievances and Dangers the Nation was said to lie under believed the truth of either and if so then was it a Barbarous Act to amuse alarm and frighten the People from their Duty to their Prince with groundless Noise and Clamor If really there were at those times such Grievances and Dangers as Represented how could the Parliament have answered it to God and their Countrey if through their private Heats and Animosities the Mischiefs threatned and which the Nation seared had fallen upon us if they had then believed our Danger so great as they discoursed it to be and had not known that more Noise and Clamor was made then there was just occasion for I am of opinion they would for their own Honour as well as the publick Good have first endeavoured to have secured our future Happiness rather than hazarded the same out of some private Peak they had to particular Persons Again If these Gentlemen by the Endeavors they used to have obtained an Act for Secluding his Royal Highness from the Imperial Crown of England had designed to secure the Protestant Religion against a Popish Successor had that I say been their single Intention certainly they would have made the Act general to bar for the future all Persons of the Popish Religion from Inheriting or wearing the Imperial Crown of England but to bring in a Bill against James Duke of York alone by name and that whether he be Papist or Protestant at the time of the Kings Death provided he should happen to survive him this kind of procedure seems rather to be the effect of the Malice and Revenge of some particular persons against the Dukes Person who have gone so far as that they judg they cannot be safe if ever he Reigns than a Design to secure the Protestant Religion against a Popish Successor For First If such Bill was past and his Royal Highness should die before the King that Act dies with him Secondly If the Duke survive the King he being near as Old it cannot be expected he should live long after him so it would do little good nor will it be any great Security to the Kingdom to have him bar'd and no Body else Besides the offering of such Bill was unmannerly and put a hardship upon the King to Exclude by a Law his only Brother from Inheriting the Crown of England though he should be a Protestant and at the same time out of Zeal to the promotion and preservation of the Protestant Religion leave room for the King of Spain or any other Popish Successor except the Duke of York to Succeed our present King and bring in the Spanish Inquisition with him What savors this of or looks it like but a malicious Design of particular persons against the Duke of York I am sure I can find nothing of a real Design in it to Secure the Protestant Religion and Interest Whereas if the Bill had been made general to have barred all Popish Successors it would have been more excusable and might perhaps have been judged the effect of the Parliaments Care of the Protestant Interest and it may be would not have appeared so difficult for the King to have past if he had found reason to believe it for his Subjects Good and with tendency to the Security and Happiness of his Kingdoms Because in such Case His Majesty had done his Royal Brother no wrong only by advice of Parliament had past a general Law for the publick Good and Security of his Kingdoms That could neither hurt the Duke or bar him the Succession without his own consent by Declaring himself a Papist Besides if this Bill had past into an Act what would it have signified has not many of the like nature been past against several former Princes who
Plain Dealing IS A JEWEL AND HONESTY THE BEST POLICY Both set forth In an Answer to a Letter received by a Gentleman in London from his Friend in the Countrey Wherein is plainly demonstrated the Grounds and Reasons of our present Distractions And Methods proposed for preventing the same for the Future By a Lover of Truth and a hearty well-wisher to the Prosperity of the King and his Three Kingdoms LONDON Printed for the Author 1682. Plain Dealing IS A JEWEL AND HONESTY the best POLICY SInce the Arguments I have used for obtaining your excuse have been so far from prevailing that on the contrary you are pleased by your last positively to Command my sentiments of the Present Conjuncture of Affairs and Thoughts concerning those scandalous reports industruously spread throughout the Kingdom of His Majesties having had for many years past a design carrying on and which is still kept on foot for the Introducing Arbitrary Power setting up Popery Invading Liberty and Property and extirpating if possible the Protestant Religion Establisht by Law I shall with sincerity account to you my oJudgment and offer such Reasons as I hope will convince all sober and unbyassed Readers to be of opinion that these reports are as false as malitious having nothing of truth in them 〈◊〉 occasioned as followeth There are a sort of Malecontents amongst us most of them men of mean Fortunes turbulent and restless Spirits who design Troubles and Commotions in the Kingdome in hopes thereby to gain advantage to themselves by the miseries and sufferings of others These make it their whole business to create in the minds of the Kings Subjects Fear and Jealousies of His Majesties designing to Govern Arbitrarily Introduce Popery Extirpate the Protestant Religion and Invade Property by setting up Abbyes and Monasteries and restoring to them their Anciant Lands and Revenues now disperst into the hands of most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom In process of time by these and such like evil Practices the Ignorant and unthinking mens minds whose Capacities will neither give them leave to examine whether these Reports be true or false reasonable or unreasonable to be believed possible or impossible to be accomplished are become greatly disturbed and such jealousies are risen in them concerning the King as hath abated the fervency of their former affection to his Royal Person and their Zeal for his Service and Government occasioned such Divisions Animosities and Contentions between Subject and Subject put their Spirits upon such firmentations divided and subdivided them into so many several Parties Factions and Interests each Diamatrical opposite to the other that unless Almighty God in his Infinite mercy goodness and wisdom please to direct a speedy way for the Uniting them in Love together I fear the consequence may in a short time prove pernicious if not fatal both to King and People which it is dreadful to consider should be the Effect and Consequence of some mens Credulity on the one hand and others Impudent falsity on the other Pardon me Sir I beseech you if I happen to differ from you in Opinion when I possitively affirm that by all my own observations and the Scrutiny I have made by inquiring of and conversing with others I never yet found the least ground to believe His Majesty had ever really any design as is falsly suggested to set up Arbitrary Power or Introduce Popery nor is there any shadow or coulor for the Fears and Jealousies of this Nature with which mens minds are so â—trangly possest If His Majesty had ever designed so to Govern sure it would have been showâ— at his first â—â—turn into England to take Possession of his Royal Crown 〈◊〉 Government for having lived most part of the time of his horrid Sufferings under an Illegal and Unjust Banishment in those Countries where the Government was absolute or nearest to absolute their Laws being Enervated and deprest by their Princes it might have been reasonably expected he would then have brought over considering how barbarously his Royal Father had been murdered and himself and the whole Royal Family been dealt with in their Exile a Scheme of such Government with him the which if he had done no Prince in Christendome ever had such an opportunity to have accomplisht the same as our King then had Was he not upon his return to his Kingdoms absolute Lord and Master of all his Subjects Lives and Estates by the Law of the Land occasioned by their own forfeiture either by open Actings or silent acquiessing under the late Rebellion Services done for or Taxes paid to the late Userpors whereby they were all guilty of high Treason and stood in need of His Majesties Royal Pardon Might not His Majesty after his Restauration when all his Subjects either adored or feared him being brought in with the Hearts and most Zealous Affections of his People have had at that time any thing from his Parliament that he could have demanded If therefore he had then had a Design ever to Govern Arbitrarily there never was such an opportunity for accomplishing thereof as when he first came over when he could not have askt that Sum of Mony for his present supply or annual Revenue for the future Support of his Royal Prerogative and such his intended Government but it would have been granted by his Friends in hopes of Reward and durst not have been opposed by his Enemies tho never so unreasonoble for fear of being called to account for their Treasons no Act of Oblivion being then past of which the meanest Subject stood in need and could not have been long safe without So that if His Majesty had any Intention ever tho not at that time to set up for Arbitrary Government he lost it for want of asking for His Majesty well knew that the Interest he then had in his People was such that he need but to have demanded and it would certainly have been given to him Notwithstanding all which to show his Subjects that he valued Reigning in their Hearts and Affections much more than to be Master of their Lives and Fortunes forfeited to him as aforesaid he was graciously pleased himself to press his two first Parliaments to pass a general Act of Indemnity which they did with great regret and threw himself upon his Parliaments for such supplies as they then thought necessary for the present support of the Government without making any Bargain or entring into any Capitulation with them as he might have done for a constant and certain Revenue for the future Nor did His Majesty if he had any such design deny himself in his respect only but in many other that were in his power whereby he might have Inricht himself and brought Immence Sums of Mony into his Coffers to have been kept in readiness when ever he had been pleased to set up for such a Government wherewith to have defrayd the necessary Charges thereof as for Instance His Majesty might have taken all the
of Wards and Liveries which was of twice that yearly value besides the Interest he had thereby in almost all his Subjects Estates If then His Majesty hath hitherto done nothing tending to the setting up the Government pretended to be feared for it can be but a pretence tho he hath sometimes had two Millions and never till of late less than about 150000 l. per annum certainly having now not much above a Million per annum and no power to raise any but by Act of Parliament and his Parliament of late years been so unkind as to give him nothing its nonsence and malitious for any man to talke and as great folly to believe that there should now be a design on foot to set up or Introduce a new method of Government In my opinion it is so far from it that the aforesaid Acts have taken away all possibility thereof turned things to another Extream and so limited the Civil Magistrates Power that in many cases they will find it dificult to mentain the Government in so headstrong and stubborn an Age as ours now is This that hath been said being seriously Considered I hope will leave room in no Man for so much as a Suspicion or jealosy of any Design in the King to Introduce Arbitrary Government without which it is Impossible to set up Popery or Invade Liberty and Property Not but that I must acknowledge and confess there hath since His Majesties happy Restauration been some things done which seemed to have a tendency to all these mischeifs These I shall breifly give Account of show how they came about the evil Effect they have had what Inconveniencies they have occasioned who advised those Councils and since have Endeavoured to bring His Majesty his Ministers and Government in Contempt with his people for the mischiefs that have happened as the Events and ill Consequenses of such their own pernicious Machinations And when I have done with this point I shall Endeavour to show how little Danger there is of Poperies coming into England tho a Popish successor should happen and that all the noise made about that is only a design set on foot by the French King and managed by his Pentioners in secret Conjunction with our Male-contents and men of Common-wealth Principles on purpose to create Jealosies fears and troubles amongst us and hinder our King and his people from Uniting till the French King hath made his Game sure finisht his Conquests destroyed the Protestants and their Religion abroad that with the more Ease he may destroy us and it together in England and I will endeavour to demonstrate that nothing else can be or is designed by most of the hot headed Gentlemen whatever pretence they make to the contrary who spend their whole time keeping several Companies purposely to exclaim against His Majesty his Ministers and Government but to promote Popery which they so cry out against and advance the Popish Interest which they so much pretend to fear and show that they are ruining the Protestants and their Religion even when they so highly enveigh against Popery and Papists therefore by true Protestants ought to be avoided as Wolves and Bears designing to devour them The most remarkable passages that have happened and which first occasioned these Jealousies and fears of Introducing Arbitrary Power and Popery were transacted about 10 Years since I le mention them briefly and leave the reader to recollect who steerd then at Helme in whose Cabals those Resolutions were not only taken but by whom also they afterwards were put in Execution First His Majesties gratious Declaration for suspending all penal Laws and granting Indulgence to Dissenters the only thing to my remembrance done since the Kings Restauration that had the least tendency to the setting up Arbitrary Power or Popery and this I must confess prima facie seemed to aime at both tho neither of them was as I believe designed by the King who granted the same on no other account than for the Ease of Protestant Dissenters and upon their solicitation therefore ought rather to have been with all humility and thankfulness accepted and acknowledged as His Majesties great Grace and Favour than with such high Ingratitude turned upon the King to his prejudice and the disadvantage and dishonor of his Government It is undoubtedly in the power of the King by His Royal Prerogative to despence with the penalty of any Statute whatsoever pro hac vice upon any Emergency of State where the matter dispensed with is not malum in se but only malum quia prohibitum by granting Liscences with a non obstante of the several Statutes in force against the matter Dispensed with and so he might have granted Licences to Dissenters to meete for the Exercise of their Religion and appointed places of meeting and Parsons to Preach amongst them which the Law and former practices of his Royal Ancestors would have warranted and could never have been Questioned But to Suspend a Law is in the Nature of an Obrogation and he that can obrogate may as well assume the power of making Laws and that Prince who hath power to make one may make any Law if any Law a Law to raise Mony and Forces and that Prince that hath such Authority shall never need call a Parliament he himself having Power to raise what Mony and Force he shall think sit ergo may govern his Subjects Arbitrarily at his Royal Pleasure This was the chief Reason why the next succeeding Parliament after this Declaration was Issued tho they were willing Dissenting Protestants should have had Ease Addrest His Majesty for the Cancelling that Declaration to which Address His Majesty most gratiously was pleased to give his Royal Concession but a second ground of such Address appeared to be The Consideration the Parliament had that the said Declaration suspended all Sanguinary and Pecuniary Laws against Priests Jesuits and Papists which if continued long might silently and by degrees have Introduced Popery and caused its growth amongst us this they had great reason to suspect might be designed by some of those who advised the King thereto who now endeavour to throw the odium due to themselves for such pernicious Councils upon the King who our Law says can do no wrong Again who was it that about the same time advised the shutting up the Exchequer when so many thousands of His Majesties Loyal Subjects whole Estates and Fortunes were lodged therein for security than which no Security in England was better till this stop of Payments was prevailed for Who was it that when they had given this advice and the same was agreed unto stopt the Declaring thereof for several days till they had drawn their own Mony out of the Bankers hands well knowing such stop must ruine them and resolving they would not lose any thing themselves by what they had advised the King to doe to the utter ruine of so many of their fellow Subjects Was there ever so high a violation
against future Mischiefs These Pentioners are so subtle and seem by their Carriage so real fierce and violent against Arbitrary Power and Popery and Zealous for securing our Liberties and Properties that to our Misery they have gained too much Credit amongst the Gentry and down right honest Country-Protestants because what they perswade them unto at first sight seems greatly their Interest But by the little Conversation I have had with them and the best Observation I can make of their Proceedings they appear to be Jesuits or Papists in Masquerade like Watermen rowing one way and looking another French Pentionors or at least Act as such carrying on the Popish Plot apace which they so violently Decry do the French King's Drudgery promote his Designs and instead of preventing Arbitrary Power and Popery Endeavor what in them lies to Introduce and Establish both and Extirpate the Protestant Religion were it not so which I pray God every sober Protestant may see through and prevent they would never Fndeavor as they do to divide between the King and his Subjects whose Interests are so inseperable as that to separate between them is to destroy both nor create Distrust in the King of his People or in the People of their Prince the Consequence whereof will inevitably if continued be the Destruction of both Did not these Gentlemen thus design certainly they would not at this time of the Day Endeavor as they doe to widen Breaches heighten Differences and increase Animosities between Protestant and Protestant divide and subdevide them into so many several Factions and Parties but rather study how to close and make up the Breaches heal the Divisions and compose the Differences amongst them by Uniting them in Love though of different perswasions thereby to strengthen their hands against their Common Enemy the Papists Now I will Endeavor to show that these men act quite contrary and that what they are doing tends to the Interest of France the advantage of Popery and is destructive to the Protestant Interest For this purpose I lay down as my Foundation That the King of France his Grand Design is to make himself Universal Monarch of the World this he knows he can never do if the King of England and his Subjects were heartily United and did Love and durst Trust each other for that People that Love and Trust their Prince will never deny him any Supply necessary for his own Support and their Defence therefore if all those Jealousies and Fears which these sort of Caterpillars have fixed in the minds of the Subjects were removed and it were possible to undeceive them and show how they have been Imposed upon to their prejudice and that all Reports of His Majestie 's design to Invade Liberty and Property and Introduce Popery and Arbitrary Power were false then would the King have their Hearts entire to himself consequently their Purses and could never fail of sufficient Subsidies for support of his Prerogative and the Government and securing Us against all Attempts from abroad as well as at home This the King of France well knows and therefore Endeavors to prevent foreseeing that such an Union would be fatal to him for then would our King be able to stop all his Proceedings hinder not only his making farther but oblige him to vomit up all or the most part of his new made Conquests therefore his Design by these his Emissaries and Pentionors is to keep up Jealousies and Fears and to prevent all means used for Reconciliations amongst us by crying out still of the Danger of Popery how that Religion increaseth in England though they know there is not one Papist in the Kingdom for One Hundred Protestants this is done with design to oblige His Majesty for avoiding of Clamor upon himself to proceed against Jesuits and Papists at Law to Convict them of Recusancy and Seise Two Thirds of their Estates the which is prosecuted by a few covetous Persons only with design to get Devidents of their Estates to themselves By which Proceedings here the French King does his works abroad goes on to finish his Conquests takes advantage of the Prosecution of a few Papists here to make that his Example to Persecute with all Imaginable Cruelty innumerable multitudes of Protestants in France with Resolution to Extirpate that Religion out of his Dominions and if other Catholick Princes should follow his Example which God forbid it will not be long er'e his Most Christian Majesty will have finished his work made himself Universal Monarch have totally destroyed the Protestant Religion abroad which done I appeal to all good and wise men who Love England and the Protestant Religion and desire its Growth and Preservation how soon and with what Ease that King may over-run us and Extirpate that Religion from amongst us which we seem so Zealous to promote but by the wilful mistake of many I fear are Destroying Now that I may convince all honest plain hearted and well meaning Protestants that there are a sort of Persons amongst them who make it their business to Inveagle their heads with false and scandalous Stories thereby to possess their minds with prejudice to His Majesty and Government and that those so Employed are either all or most part of them Pentioners of France who betake themselves to this work with design to destroy the Protestant Religion rather then to preserve it and Inslave Us and the Kingdom instead of preventing Arbitrary Government from being set up over us and that all the World may see that their Actions when laid open have no tendency to the advancement of the Protestant Interest or securing us against the Growth of Popery nor to deliver us from the Grievances they pretend the Kingdom Groans so much under give me leave to offer to your serious Considerations these few following Particulars First If they designed to promote the Protestant Religion and did heartily desire its flourishing in England certainly they would then consider the miserable Condition of the poor Protestants in France what Cruelties they Endure and that would beget such Pity and Compassion towards those as would put them upon Petitioning His Majesty for Mercy to the few Papists in England and to stop their Convictions upon their present Prosecutions for some time rather then to suffer multitudes of Protestants and that Religion to be Destroyed abroad meerly to Inrich themselves by receiving shares of the Estates of Papilts Convicted here such Pity would be more acceptable to God more agreeable to the Spirit of a true Protestant more for the Honour of that Religion and in the End prove as advantagious to their private Interests in this World Did these busie Gentlemen I speak of design good to England desire its Prosperity or to promote the Protestant Interest and had believed the Kingdom in such danger of Popery and Arbitrary Power or that the Subjects had suffered under such Grievances as they Endeavor to represent to the People Then certainly ever since their apprehension of