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
550000 l. per Annum It is in my poor Judgment only altogether impossible Object I allow the Duke with such a Revenue cannot hurt us but the French King having at least Two Hundred Thousand men in Arms and a Revenue sufficient to pay them and being obliged to keep those Armies Imployed abroad to prevent their Rebelling at home he is so Zealous for Establishing Popery thoughout Christendom and Rooting out Heresie that for premoting so Meritorious a Work he will Supply our King if a Papist with Arms and Mony sufficient to carry on that Design with Success here Answ It is great folly to Imagine that the French King who knows his own Interest though it be true he neither wants Men or Mony to carry on any Design he undertakes should assist our King with either for the Uniting him and his Subjects under Arbitrary Power or any one Religion whatsoever tho Popery it self both being Destructive to his Interests and a putting Power in the hand of our King to break all that Kings Measures and prevent his making himself Universal Monark than which nothing is more by him desired and endeavoured For if once the King of England and his People were United under either the French King knows he will be able to give check to all his further prosecution of that design therefore tho he may and I believe does spend a hundred thousand pounds per annum in paying Pentioners Imployed by him or his Ministers to devide between the King and his Subjects which being his Interest to have done he will spare no charge that may Contribute to the doing thereof yet would he not give 20000 l. to make our King absolute or Unite him and his People under any one Religion whatsoever tho Popery it self For he is a wise Prince studies his Interest knows how he parts from his Mony and will dispose of none to carry on any design that may turne to his prejudice than which nothing in the World can be a greater than to have the King and his Subjects United What hurt then can his Royal Highness do his Subjects if he Succeed his Brother since there will not be left when the King dies Revenue sufficient to support the necessary Expence of his Royal Family and Government without Supplies from abroad or at home and if no Forrain Prince but the French King can and that King will not Supply him must he not then immediately call a Parliament must not the People chuse that Parliament will the People of England awakened as they now are and then will be with Fears and Jealousies of the Danger of Popery coming in upon them and loosing their Estates consisting of Abby and Monastery Lands chuse any Members to serve in those Parliaments but such as they can trust and depend upon to provide for the Security of their Livers Liberties Religion and Properties or will those Parliaments when met being equally concerned in Interest with their Electors ever give such Popish Successor any Revenue to hurt or destroy their own Interest It is Nonsence to believe they will give him a Groat till they have provided for their own and the Kingdoms security in all these particulars and they know not his Royal Highness that have so ill an opinion of him as to believe him so Irroligious so weak of Judgment or void of understanding his own Interest as to accept the Crown take the Coronation Oath if he resolve not to keep and observe the same by Governing according to Law and securing his Subjects in Peace by preserving to them their Religion as well as their Liberties and Properties His Royal Highness cannot be Ignorant of the Jealousies the Subjects of England have already of him and well knows those Jealousies will certainly increase when he comes to the Crown therefore must expect when he calls a Parliament that that Parliament when it meets will certainly tell him That having left our Church and Declared himself thereby a Papist he cannot be Trusted with the Disposing any Ecclesiastical Promotions or with any Sum of Mony that may Endanger the Kingdom by assisting the Papists nor will they suffer Persons of that Religion to come near him or his Court to Influence his Councils as we vainly Imagine So that in my poor Opinion The Kingdom under such a Prince may obtain such Laws and other Conditions for securing their Religion Liberties and Properties before they give any Mony as they would never dare to propose to or could ever hope for or expect from a King of our own Religion Besides no man that hath common sence whatsoever he says to the contrary can believe that ever his Royal Highness if he be of another Religion then that professed in this Kingdom can if he should live to wear the smperial Crown of his Realm ever hurt us though he should Design so to doe For being of a Religion to which the Generality of his Subjects have a great Aversion and Antipathy and having but a small Revenue an Inconsiderable Party and that Party Fettered with Laws and the whole Kingdom Alarmed and for their own Security Armed and in a posture to defend themselves it will be impossible for him to subdue such a Nation in such a Condition and under such Jealousies and Circumstances Nor will he be able to break through the Laws made for the Defence of our Religion more then he will to Violate those made for Security of our Liberties and Properties If after all this we shall persist in our folly and close with nothing offered except an Act for Excluding his Royal Highness go along with it then of all Nations on the face of the Earth is ours in my Opinion like to be the most Miserable For such alteration of the Succession as it is said before must be maintained by a Force and standing Army a Crown being always esteemed worth Fighting for which Force we transmit to Posterity with a desputable Title for a new Tryal of Skill like that Anciently between the Houses of York and Lancaster which every good mand must certainly Dread the thoughts of when he seriously considers that War lasted about Sixty Years cost the Kingdom its whole Treasure besides the Devastation and Destruction made throughout the same especially in the North and the many Hundred Thousands men's Lives were lost therein and yet that War was occasioned only by varying the Hand from the Children of the Duke of Clarance Third Son to the Issue of John a Gant the Fourth Legitimate Son of Henry the Fourth and no Bastardy in the Case I do not find in all my Reading that any Government throughout the World since the Reformation from Rome ever made a Law to prohibit a Successor of that Religion from Reigning over them Henry the Third of France though earnestly Impottuned by the Holy League to Exclude the King of Navar refused so to doe though that King was a Hugenot In Edward the Sixth time no Statute was made to bar a
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
having Resolved to depart from the aforesaid Councils cancel his Declaration Issue out Writs for new Elections withdraw his Arms from the French Kings assistance and send them in Ayde to the States Genreral of the United provinces for preventing the further Growth of the power of France whether those Persons who ever since have made it their business to devide between the King and his Subjects and prevent the Parliaments giving him when he desired 600000 l. to have Enabled him in time to have Joined his forces with those of the States Generall and their Allyes for the End before mentioned may not as reasonably and with as litle breach of Charity as the former be suspected to be French Pentioners The first Designing only to advance France by bringing Holland Low and these Contriving how to keep Holland under by hindring His Majesty from Assisting them for the pulling down the power of France If the latter may be Equally suspected with the former I am sure all who have taken any kind of notice of the Transactions of Affairs amongst us for this Eight or Nine Years past must needs know who they are that have been guilty of both But to Proceed Whilst these Noble Lords were in Power and one of them either as Chancellor of the Exchequor or one of the Lords Commissionors of his Majesty's Treasury had the almost sole manadgery and dispose of every Branch of His Majesties Revenue No Sum of Mony could be granted the King by his Parliament that by them was Esteemed sufficient a Million and half Two Millions and half at a time signified little But no sooner were they Dischardged from their Ministration then the Cry every where set about by them was You Free-holders of England you Gentlemen of the House of Commons have a care what you do keep close your Purses if you give Mony you are undone Prerogative will be advanced too high Arbitrary Power and Popery will certainly be set up and the Subjects thereby Enslaved like those of France as if Prerogative Power though Vested in the King's Person were not to be Exercis'd by himself but by his Premier Ministers and as if there were no persons in England fit to be made such Ministers or to be Intrusted with the Exercise of that Power save only they who for the Reasons aforesaid His Majesty had thought fit to remove from their Trust and out of His Concils This amongst simple Honest people gained belief was lookt upon as wholsom Council the which they Imbraced with thankfulness and diligently persued every where agreeing to instruct their Representatives in Parliament to this purpose and upon the choice of the three last Parliaments chose sew or none to Represent them but such as they were assured would pursue this their Direction which accordingly hitherto hath been done Now give me leave in short to account the Sad Consequences that have Insued upon these Evil Practices His Majesty for want of Supplies necessary which these false and subtle Insinuations put into the Ignorant Peoples Heads kept from him hath hitherto been rendered uncapable of carrying on the War against France which the Parliament still prest for and His Majesty promised to have begun and would have vigorously pursued if they would have given him 600000 l. when he desired it the which they refused to doe neither have they since given him any Mony but what by the Act that gave it was appropriated to particular Services The Consideration of this gave Courage to the French and so disheartned the Dutch that they for their own preservation were obliged to agree a Peace without the consent of their Confiderates who since have been necessitated to enter into the same though to the unspeakable Dammage of Christendom For hereby was the Confideracy broken between the Emperor Spaniard Dane Hollander and all the Princes of the Rhine By this the Duke of Brandenburgh was obliged to deliver up all his Conquests in Pomerania and Bremen which had cost him so dear By this means the Confiderates Army for want of Mony hath since been most of it Disbanded whilst the French Army with his Immence Revenue is still kept on foot and daily Increased to the Terror of all Europe The Incursions he hath since made upon Flanders Alsace Strasburg and Cazal the Keys into Germany and Italy hath Alarmed all parts of the World none knowing where he will design next nor what places he will Demand as Dependences belonging to his new Conquests I know this is all Charged upon our present Ministers as the effect of their Male Administrations and the People are laboured hard to believe the same But in my Oppinion all these Mischiefs proceed from and are the ill Effects of the afore-mentioned Evil Councils which the King so long since had given him and were put in practice as aforesaid and proceed chiefly from the Male-contentedness of some of the Persons that gave those Councils who being used to Govern and now removed from all places of Trust know not how to Obey and sit quiet therefore endeavor to Confound all His Majesties Councils break all his Measures and obstruct all Proceedings for Publick Good in hopes to oblige His Majesty to a necessity of Restoring them to His Favor and their former Trust as not being able to Mannage the Government without them I cannot say these are the sole occasions of our present Mischiefs for there are a sort of men about the City and all over England in every County of Turbulent Spirits Active Minds Subtle Wits little Fortunes and less Consciences Credit or Reputation sufficiently Debauch'd and Vitious in their Principles and Conversations these are found out and made use of by the French are Pentionors to that King and Imployed to fall in with our own Male-contents and seemingly to take their parts these run from place to place tell the Danger the Kingdom is in of Popery and Arbitrary Power and of the Plot on foot to destroy the King and Protestant Religion and what Danger the Protestants are in of being Massacred these Improve their Interest with the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in every Parliament to hinder giving any Mony least they Inslave the Kingdom thereby these Roar about Streets and at every Coffee-House and in all Companies they come into what Danger the Protestant Religion is already in and that it will certainly be Destroyed if ever a Popish Successor should happen in England flock like Bees to the Court of Request when our â—arliament sits bussing in the Ears of our Representatives That there is no way to be secured but by passing an Act for Secluding His Royal Highness the Duke of York from ever Inheriting let him now or hereafter be of what Religion he will the Imperial Crown of this Realm which for the Three last Parliaments hath been vigorously Endeavored and with success to their Designs by having hindred all other Affairs and prevented all Remedies for settling and composing our present Differences and securing us
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
Popish Successor then in prospect though the Reformation was in its Infancy and most Subjects were Papists so that after his Decease Queen Mary was admitted to the Crown from whom the Kingdom had little reason to expect any great Happiness rather then the Lady Jane Gray who was a Protestant and this done because they would not bring a desputable Title of the Crown upon themselves and Posterity In Queen Elizabeth's Reign which was after the severe Persecution of Queen Mary a Persecution sufficient to have begot an Eternal Hatred in the Nation of any future Popish Successor and to have Justified that Queen in passing a Law for preventing the same yet was there no positive Law made in her Reign to bar Mary Queen of Scots then alive who was a Papist and Her Majesties Lawful Successor all that then was done was by the Act of 13th of her Reign which made it Treason to say the Queen and Parliament could not dispose the Crown but they never actually disposed thereof And give me leave to say That such a President would most certainly be as dangerous to our King now as that wise Queen thought it might have been to her then for that Prince that shows his People a Method of disposing the Succession at the same time shakes the Title of his own Possession All the Instances of former Parliaments setling the Crown upon Henry the Fourth Edward the Fourth Henry the Seventh and their Issues comes not to our point at all not being done upon account of Religion but before the Reformation when all were of the Religion of the Church of Rome Those Acts therefore was made to quiet the Succession which Force had unsettled not to discompose a Rightful Succession undisturbed and to prevent that War and Blood-shed that was rational enough to believe would have followed and been the consequence of disturbing the Lawful Succession not to break in peices an acknowledged and peaceful Succession and Involve the Nation in Blood for many Generations to come they were so far from doing that that rather then the Kingdom should be Distracted with uncertain Titles an Act was past in Henry the Seventh's Reign to command Obedience from the Subject to the King De facto afterwards the Kingdom though secure was never satisfied till Henry the Seventh Married the Princess Elizabeth Daughter of King Edward the Fourth Again If matter of Opinion in Points of Religion shall be esteemed a reason of State sufficient to Exclude a Lawful Successor from his Crown then has a Prince harder measure than the meanest of his Subjects by any Law yet made and the Peace and Happiness of these Kingdoms hangs upon a very slender Thred for then if the People should design Rebellion they need only pretend a dislike of their Princes Religion to bar him from his Crown and Government I hope the Wisdom of our Parliaments will give no such advantage against Protestants to their Adversaries of Rome as that Rome shall ever have occasion to say with Truth We Protestants in England have by a Law made our Prince uncapable of Reigning because a Heretick from the Protestant Religion whilst we our selves are striving to make Rome look black and odious for that most Damnable Doctrine of theirs that Princes may be Excommunicated as hereticks afterwards deposed by the Pope so detestable a Doctrine that we make all persons that take the Oath of Allegiance Renounce and Forswear it let us therefore have a care we do not Imitate them in that Doctrine we so much Condemn Consider seriously whither such a Course will lead us and then Judg whether fit to be taken especially upon such a Contingency as this of the Dukes Surviving his Brother which perhaps may never happen but if it should he is of too great an Age now to begin such Change of Government and Religion as is suspected with any hopes of accomplishing the same in his own time if so and it be also true as it is that he is without hopes of a Successor of his own Religion to carry on such attempt by him begun the Prince of Orange and Princess and the Lady Ann being all Protestants why then should any man believe his Royal Highness so weak a Prince as to attempt such Change with so small a number of men as his Religion shall have left him which will appear so very small as not to be feared by English men when Rome shall assault their Religion and Properties and oblige them to Fight for the same That Prince be he who he will that shall at any time come into England with Popery will come in with Weakness and Inability to hurt his Subjects by any Force of his own nor will any Neigbouring Prince unless he and all his Subjects be Luniticks help to make him Absolute that being to Endanger themselves What Prince will be at Charges Exhaust his Treasure Weeken himself to Strengthen his Neighbour nor is that Prince much less then Mad that should in such a Case relye on or trust to such Neighbouring Prince for Assistance And for his own Subjects they will be more dangerous and uneasie to him then he can be to them for such Prince being without Reputation Trust and Mony at home will be without Assistance from abroad and his own Subjects will never assist him to break their own Laws well knowing no Prince ever attempted the same but the hazarded his Crown by making the Essay nor did ever any Prince Actually break through the Laws but he was Ruined and lost his Crown thereby Nor is it in the Power of the Duke of York if he Succeed his Brother to break our Laws in either of the respects feared but if ever they be broken it must be with the mutual Assent of both Prince and People assembled in Parliament for as our Law now stands no Magistrate can do any Legal or Judicial Act in any Inferior Court of Justice nor bear any publick Office Civil or Military nor accept of or be admitted into any Ecclesiastical Promotion or meet to Vote in either House of Parliament till they shall have first Renounced Popery by taking the Oaths and Test and making the Subscriptions by Law required If therefore a Popish Successor should hereafter happen to Reign over us he will find it very difficult to Repeal those Laws that Establish our Religion the Codsideration that the Subjects will always have being fresh in their Memories of the Fire and Faggot Queen Mary exercised in her Reign for the Rescueing the Popish Religion will oblige them to a stedfast Resolution never to depart from that of their own I mean the true Protestant Religion and until those Laws be Abrogated by Parliament it will be absolutely impossible for any Popish Successor to Establish Popery here If then what I have offered to Consideration be true and it shall appear impossible to Settle a Government in this Kingdom out of the Royal Family that shall continue as the late Rebellion hath
demonstrated or to hinder the Crown from descending in its due Course without Endangering all our Ruins and the Destruction of the Three Kingdoms then am I sure every true Protestant that either loves God or the King and Government or wishes Happiness to himself and Posterity and the true Protestant Religion must surcease all further attemps for altering the same Since nothing Imaginable can have a greater tendency to the Intailing Confusion and Misery upon us and the Generations to come after us And the better to perswade to this Method of precedure Consider that the King cannot but have the Resentments of Humane Nature as he is a man though returning to his Kingdom after the Horrid and Barbarous Murder of his Royal Father and the illegal Banishment and long and miserable Exile of his own with divers Proclamations after him setting Prises on his Head to have betrayed him he hath shown and exercised the mercy of a most Excellent Christian and Gracious Sovereign for who can say with truth that his Life Liberty or Property hath been taken away or Invaded by him contrary to Law or without Legal Tryals by their Peers since his Restauration Blame not therefore His Hajesty the Impressions of these former Usages being fresh in his mind if he taking notice of the late violent and unwarrantable Proceedings against him and apprehending from thence the same Mischiefs now designed as heretofore seem tenacious in some Points of his Royal Prerogative least the Government by the wicked Practiees and restless Endeavors of some aspiring Subjects uneasie in obeying any Government in which they have not a share and accounting it Userpation to be deprived of that part thereof which they heretofore too long enjoyed should once more revert and start back This will appear at last if I be not greatly mistaken the chief occasion of all our present unhappy and highly to be lamented Devisions and of the Distrust created betwen the King and his People each fearing to be bound both striving to be Free those who contrive to bind the King faster believe he designs himself to be loose Juding of the Kings Actions by the measures of their own Wicked and Fallacious Intentions and thereupon strive to break all his Measures and disappoint him in all his Undertakings And if these be the occasions of our present Misery every Loyal Subject and true Protestant in England that loves the King his Country and Religion ought to make it his business to prevent these misundestandings for the future which if they would seriously and with Sincerity and Truth endeavor I am of Opinion the work would not be so difficult as our Jesuitical Incendaries and French Pentionors represents it to be and perswade those amongst whom they convers it is That Almighty God of his Infinite Goodness and Mercy may be prevailed with graciously to bestow so great a Blessing as this upon these poor Distracted Kingdoms give me leave to propose to every man's Consideration the Practice of these following Directions First Be truly Humbled for and unfeignedly Repent of all your former Sins by which you have provoked God to Anger and turn from all your Iniquities for the time to come that his Wrath may be Apeased and he may Repent him of the Evil intended against us Love God with all your Heart Serve him with all your Strength make his Holy Word the Rule of your Life and the Measure of all your future Actions dare to doe nothing Contrary thereunto or Derigatory to his Holy Commands Live by Faith not by Sight walk with God and be Upright doe your Duty in your Place To God the King your Country your Neighbour your Family and to your own Soul Make it your Business to be Holy and Humble value the Love and Favor of God and an Interest in the Merits of his Dear Son your Redeemer above all things whatsoever and endeavor to obtain to your self a well grounded assurance thereof Die to Sin Self the World and all things therein Daily and Live to that God by whom you Live giving him the Glory of all his Goodness and Mercy extended towards you Set not your Affection Inordinately upon things below which are all Vain Momentary and uncertain but on things above that are External Be contented in every Condition thankful and fruitful under every various Dispensation of God's Providence submit to his Will acquiese in his Pleasure Bless him for what you have and Murmer nor Repine not because you have no more Envy not those who are above you and possess more of the Riches and Honour of this Life then you enjoy but behold with Pity and Christian Compassion how many there are better and more deserving perhaps then you who yet want what you enjoy and it may be sinfully wast Help and Relieve such with a part of what you have Trust God with the Government of the World and submit to the Powers that are over you as being of him believe he is a Jealous God will take care of his Glory vindicate his Honour advance his Kingdom and the Interest of Christ and propogate his Gospel maugre all the opposition of Men and Devils and that this he will do in his own way and at his own time without any direction or assistance from you therein remember that he knows best what is good for you and has promised that all things shall work together for good to those that Love and Fear him and keep his Commandments and that he will keep them in perfect Peace whose Minds are staid on him because they trust in him be not therefore wise in your own Conceit and think that you can direct God Soloman saith Seest thou a Man wise in his own Conceit there is more hopes of a Fool then of such a Man Judg your self and not another meddle with your own and no other man's Business search your own Heart and try your own Spirit whether it be of God look into your own Deformities and mend what is amiss in your self before you undertake or go about to find fault with or reform others every one mending one is the only way to mend all and when by such Reformation and Amendment we are fit for Mercy God will give it if we seek it in a right way Think and Esteem of every man better then your self the lower a man in his own Conceit the higher he is in the Esteem of God and good men the Proud God sends away Empty and causes to stand afar off but to the Humble he will draw near and him will he fill with good things Live in Love and as much as in you lies follow Peace with all men Doe as you would be done unto love your Neighbour as your self forget and forgive Injuries recompence good for evil pray for those that hate you do good to those that dispightfully use you yea pray for your Enemies and doe them good if in your power but not hurt Lay aside all Malice Prejudice and