Plymouth's Regiment I cannot but commend this Noblemans Ingenuitie in owning the true Cause and not pretending as others Conscience and publick good for his motives But I am sorry he should forget not only the obligations of gratitude which he is under for his Bread and for his Honour but also who says Appear not wise before the King and give not Counsel unask'd He has learning enough to understand the meaning of in consilium non vocatus ne accesseris 'T is to be hop'd he may repent and with more years his wit may be turn'd into wisdom As for the D. of M. I believe him perfectly drawn in by designing Politicians for ends of their own who never intended him more than as an useful Tool afterwards to be laid aside 'T is no wonder that one of his Youth and Spirit shou'd be tempted with the Baits and Allurements of a Crown the splendor and gaity of Power has blinded many Elder men's understandings But that they never had him in their thoughts for K. appears from the Author Plato Redivivus and indeed if they had they went the wrong way to work They shou'd not have engag'd him so far as to deserve his being turn'd out of his Command as General a Post that wou'd have best enabl'd him to seize upon and make good any pretence to the Crown after the death of his Majesty I am not apt to believe his Grace is sorry for what is past I am certain it were his Interest to throw himself at the Kings Feet and quite the Counsels of those men who intriguing for themselves puff him up with false hopes yet sufficiently discover that nothing is farther from their hearts than his Exaltation or what is so much in their mouths publick service to the King and Country 'T is much better for him to be content with the second place in the Kingdom than by pretending to the first against all manner of Reason and the obligations of gratitude forfeit all his Fame and Honour Life and Fortune The Petition being already answer'd I will only observe that His Majesty intending to turn them out sent Mr. Secretary to the E. of E. for a List of the Papist he mention'd in the Guards But the Noble Peer had none to give but may be suppos'd to have taken the story upon hearsay from some that had the malice to invent it And now must the Nation suffer themselves to be rid by any Faction because designing particular advantages they guild all with the specious pretences of Religion and Loyalty particular respect for the Church of England by opening her Doors to all Dissenters and for the Monarchy by clipping the Kings power to prevent the Papists Contrivances against his Person Examine whether the zealous sticklers for the Protestant Religion have any at all or if they have whether it be not as far from that Establish'd by Law as Popery Whether if the King wou'd grant all their desires receive them into Offices and Power they wou'd not stand up in justification of the Court as fiercely as now they do the contrary What has been before may well be expected again He that considers this and that malice never spoke well of any will give the Factious little credit especially when against reason and sense they wou'd impose upon us that the King himself is in the Plot or as one of the Members in a printed Speech tells the House The Plot is not so much in the Tower as in White-Hall there 't is to be search'd for and there to be found And all this because he will not unking himself and put his Crown into their hands and against Law his Coronation Oath and brotherly affection pass the Bill of Exclusion to the prejudice of himself and the whole Kingdom This is not a single or private man's opinion but the judgement of the Supreme Tribunal of England the House of Lords where upon the first reading it was thrown out with the odds of 63 against 31 for which reason their Lordships are call'd Masquerading-Protestants Tories Papists or their adherents as if the Lords must not be allow'd the priviledge the Commons take with any of their Bills without censure and affront But why for their Act must His Majesty be loyally libell'd and aspers'd It had been time enough one wou'd have thought to have call'd him Papist c. had he rejected the Bill after it had pass'd both Houses Oh! then who cou'd have doubted but his doing more aginst the Papists than any of his Predecessors had been promoting their Interest that this pardoning noman condemn'd nor stopping the execution of any Law against Recusants was making it no Plot and that passing the Test was letting in Popery by whole-sale He that can believe these things is prepar'd for any thing to say a Lobster is a Wale or a Whale a Lobster that the Moon is a Green-Cheese and the Sun a round Plate of red hot Iron and then I presume it may not be decided whether we are Fools or Madmen Let us not thus idly and unjustly bely our Consciences and publish to the Nation and all the World that nothing can secure us against Popery but the shaking and alteration of the Monarchy by the Bill of Exclusion an Act in it self unjust and impolitick both for the King and People No man is to be punish'd ex post-facto by the Laws of this and all other Countries Besides why shou'd the Duke more then any Fanatick of England be outed his Birth-right The Scripture says You must not do evil that good may come of it And prudence will tell us That this is an evil that must be attended with greater For the minute that it passes the Duke is at liberty to recover his Right by secret or open Violence Force Foreign or Domestick He is declar'd an Enemy and Traitor condemn'd without Tryal or Conviction This piece of injustice must be defended by an Association of an Army this Army must be entrusted in the hands of the King or a General either may make himself Absolute and Arbitary and therefore if people are now afraid of slavery from the Government what may then be their apprehensions And if they are jealous of the King what General will they find to entrust Those meanly skill'd in story know that Commanders of Armies have at pleasure subverted Commonwealths and Kingdoms Agathocles from being General became Tyrant of Syracusa Pisistratus of Athens Sforza of Millain the Medici of Florence the Casars of Rome and not to go so far off Cromwel of the Three Kingdoms Most of the Roman Emperors were dethron'd by their Generals and therefore this cannot but make the King as unwilling as the People to entrust this great Power in any person And yet without such trust the Act of Exclusion is not worth a straw nor with it can we be secur'd against Slavery whether the Duke conquer or be overcome The Duke will still find a party at least if he out-lives the
alter'd their Principles and consequently cannot but wonder why the Papists shou'd be persecuted and the other countenanc'd even against Law and former Statutes 'T is surely very imprudent to expect your House will be warm by shutting a Window and setting open the Doors And therefore in this I can freely agree with Plato Redivivus that the fear of Popery is not the cause of our present disturbances I shall without regard to Religion consider the Papists and Presbyterians as two Factions in the State like the Arminians and Lâ—vasteâ—â— party in Holland and as such prorounce that both are to be suppress'd or neither because by empâ—â—ing only one of the Scales the Ballance is broken and the Court or Monarchical party is first weakn'd and destroy'd and after the whole form of Government alter'd into that of a Commonwealth and I am fully convinc'd if that had not been that Authors Designs as to an ordinary Reader is past doubt he he wou'd have set down this as one of the Remedies of our present Evils But the contrary was his purpose and in order to it he cunningly to preserve the Monarchy wou'd set up a plain Democracy and for an English King obtrude upon us a Dâ—eg of Venice for he tells you at large that the ancient Power of the King is fallen into the hands of the Commons and therefore to keep up the former illustrious splendor of the Crown he wou'd have all its Jewels taken out and set about the Speakers Chair the King made a Cypher and divested of all Power but the Name to keep up the three several and distinct shares of the Government King Lords and Commons 'T is an Ingenious way of arguing but we are not yet I hope such fools to have it passe to venture at play and not know how to distinguish false Dice Oh! but says a Factious Petitioner that takes the House of Commons sufficiently prov'd by the learned Answer to Petyt's Book to have had no share in the Legislative power to be the Parliament all their Votes how wild and unreasonable soever as we have lately as well as formerly seen in print to be the sence of the Nation and have the force of Laws and yet deny any Authority to the Kings Proclamation This Scribler says he is Popishly affected a French designer a meer Tory not considering that there is not less hazard in splitting upon a Rock than upon a Sand-bank that if I must be a slave and forfeitt my liberty 't were at least as good to do so under a single person as more the tyranny of many is much more intolerable than that of one 'T is equally destructive of my liberty whether the King or the House of Commons takes away Magna Charta I am still against arbitrary Government ruling according to pleasure not the Laws and known Constitutions of the Land whether assum'd by King or Commons if there be any choice the odds are against the latter and to speak truth by what has pass'd since the Plot any one in his wits wou'd believe the King is invaded not an invader that his frequent Prorogations and Dissolutions have been his legal defensive weapons us'd as much for his Subjects securitie as his own honour that arbitrary power is a delicious thing and therefore aim'd at by our Demagogues and tribunes of the people bad and to be decry'd only while in the Soveraign 'T is very convenient to cry Whore first Solomon tells us He that appeareth first in his own cause seemeth just but his neighbour cometh after and proveth him If the people in an Island are alarm'd that an Invasion is design'd and that only at one Port and they become so foolish as for the guard of that to neglect and expose all other they do but make the easier way for their enemies to land and overcome Those who are the Watchmen the Sentinels of our Safety ought with Janus to have two faces one behind and the other before and many eyes like Argus there being otherwise no security against surprize I remember in Thucydide's that the Grecians besieging a strong City found no means but Stratagem to become Masters which they thus contriv'd After they had purchas'd within some Pensioners they kept the besieged awake and put them into great distress by continual false alarms and as design'd prepar'd to believe nothing more was intended than amusement and distraction The false Citizens within taking this advantage affirm'd they ought for the future to make it death to any Watchman to give the Alarm This decreed notice was given to the enemie and without the least resistance the besieg'd were taken and undone when and where they least suspected whereupon this Proverb was taken up Amyclas perdidit silentium I wish we may never run the same fate the application is too easie and natural to be dwelt upon And yet I cannot but take notice how the late House of Commons have assum'd to themselves a power extraordinary and by a Vote without proof or conviction made eminent men and known Protestants guilty of Popery and French designs made them Advisers and Counsellors according to their own fancies imprison'd several DURING PLEASURE seiz'd Closets and Writings without information and contrary to Magna Charta voted Acts of Parliament made for the preservation of the establish'd Religion useless and their execution grievious to the Subject against the Protestant interest and an incouragement to Popery c. and among these which is most wonderful a Law made by the darling Queen Eliz. who cannot well be suppos'd to have been a friend to Popery If these be not odd and arbitrary proceedings I know not what they are nor why that shou'd be tolerable or lawful for them which is not for any no not for our Soveraign Considering men are afraid the a betters of such practices are not friends to peace and quiet but rather factious and dangerous willing to enslave us to foreign Invasions or Domestick Encroachments Whatever may be said to the contrary these actings are but too good grounds for such apprehensions The cunningest Whores seem most devout and inveigh very bitterly against the lewdness they daily study and commit Your rooking Gamesters abhor if you believe their shams and oaths the use of false Dice and the un-Gentleman-like trick of cheating However none but Cullies who want wit or years to make observation can be wheedl'd and drawn in by such pretences Before the discovery of the Plot our Ministers were reflected on as designing Popery and arbitrary Government by many scandalous Pamphlets and one in particular call'd An Account of the growth of Popery c. as if the people were to be prepar'd to believe the whole Court were Popish that while they were alarm'd against that party they might be unprovided to defend themselves against the other The Presbyterian true blue who like Aesop's Cat tho' transform'd into the beautiful shapes of our Court-Imployments and Honours will still be hankering after the old
be against his Person and Government and contriv'd by Papists and among them as Bedlow has sworn none in England but have receiv'd the Sacrament upon 't and he be of the number he must joyn with others to cut his own throat stab shoot or poyson himself But here 's some mystery in this pretty Invention Charles Stewart conspires against the King this imitating the Long Parliament in his Fathers time who fought for the King for his politick capacitie against himself his Natural his Person But if he were a Papist wou'd he have pass'd into Laws every Bill tender'd him by both Houses as well before as since this Plot in their disfavour And yet we know one of the godly party was lately fin'd 500 l. for saying The Duke of York was a Papist and the King little better a saying no longer minc'd nor whisper'd but now loudly and plainly spoken every day Cou'd he have been wrought to change of Religion in time of his banishment he had not withstood the offers of forraign Princes and the solicitations of a fond Mother to reinstate him in his own Dominions with absolute arbitrary power But he was too much a Christian and too good a King not to prefer continuance in exile to the designs of enslaving his Subjects either in their souls or in their bodies Must he now in an Age desirous of rest and quiet be upbraided with such purposes that had resolv'd against them in the heat of his youth the great spur of ambition Now when to compasse this wicked and ridiculous project is as impossible as before it was the contrary when after his restoration besides foreign assistance offer'd at any rate and to any purpose he had an obsequious General a victorious Fleet and Army and a Parliament whose zeal and devotion seem'd in nothing to be bounded but by the limits of his own pleasure when to the immense treasure he was possest of bestow'd among his people with equal bounty as it was given he might have added vastly by the confiscations of more than half the Estates and Wealth of the Three Kingdoms But instead of this he often press'd his Parliament to expedit the Act of Oblivion disbanded his Army and enlarg'd the Fleet by making one Squadron of more value than all three in the time of Queen Eliz. disabl'd in all his Dominions without exception all Papists from bearing any office Civil or Military Has he not pass'd the Bill excluding for ever all Popish Lords out of the House to which his Father cou'd never be perswaded Has he not likewise curtayl'd the Royal power by two other Acts that of the Habeas Corpus and against Quartering of Souldiers Three Statutes for which he might have had as many Millions had he insisted on a bargain or known how to distinguish between his own private Interest and that of the Subject or the truckling way of Bartring when the good of his people was concern'd Why did he but for the sake of the Protestant Religion Refuse the Elder Daughter of the Crown to the Dauphin of France and marry her to the Prince of Orange And this without putting his Parliament to the charge of a Portion or a much greater Sum which they would have gladly given had he made the proposition And no other cou'd be the motives of recalling his Troups from France raising an Army for the defence of the Netherlands at the expence of above 200000 l. more than was given his prohibiting Trade with that Crown These things put a stop to the progress of that victorious King's Arms occasion'd his quitting Messina clapping up a general peace when he was just at the point of his propos'd Conquests If our Prince intended an arbitrary Government why besides his former neglecting the opportunity wou'd he disable himself for the future by parting with one of the greatest instruments for that purpose the Court of Wards Liveries Tenures in Capute and Knight-Service Purveyance c. And what did he receive for this excess of bounty for the chiefest and most useful flower of the Crown but a trifle a feather half the Excise not above a fourth of the others yearly value And after all this Knaves invent and Fools believe he is now setting up for Tyrrany and Popery when his years are past the heat of ambition his Coffers empty France disoblig'd and his own people alarm'd and bent against it with all imaginable resolutions of oppositions Can any man imagine that a person who disarms himself intends to fight Besides What one Illegal Arbitrary Act has he done in his twenty years Reign Whom has he desrauded of an Ox or an Ass of Lease or Possession where has he in any one instance invaded Magna Charta our Rights Properties or Liberties What Bill tender'd by Parliament for the security of our Lives or Fortunes has he rejected He pass'd all without exception As for the Bill for intrusting the Parliament with the Militia for a limited time reason then and experience since has prov'd it was a needless encroachment on the Royal prerogative without the least prospect of publick good and to have parted with that power but for a moment was for so long to unking and divest himself of a power he cou'd not be certain would be ever restor'd As he has freely pass'd all Laws has he not as chearfully offer'd to enact any thing that was agreeable to Justice and Reason for our further security in Religion Liberty and property From these considerations nothing will appear more vain and idle than our Fears and Jealousies our Factious and Seditious reflections on the Government I will not say without great caution but we may run into those very things we so much dread and wou'd avoid Popery and French Government or which is equally destructive of our Birth-rights and Happiness Presbytery and a Commonwealth This will be no groundless surmise if we look back and observe that the Leav'n against the establish'd Constitution both in Church and State has sowr'd almost the whole lump the poyson of Presbytery formerly known by the name of Puritanism hatch'd at Frankford and Geneva grown to a head in Scotland with the Reformation has infected the generality of the Kingdom the common Traders Dwellers in Cities and Corporation the unthinking and illiterate part of the Gentry with hatred against Monarchy and the Church of England This was certainly the invention of Rome to overthrow us by thus sowing Divisions they wel foresaw our Kingdom and Church in it self divided cou'd not long stand All the Antimonarchical Principles are the same in both the one as well as the other deny Supremacy in the King the Jesuit will have the Pope and the Presbyter Jesus his Head King-killing and Deposing Doctrine is disown'd by all honest Papists as the Author even of Plato Redivivus does confess tho two or three Jesuits have privately asserted the opinion as problematical for which themselves and writings were censur'd and condemn'd
not heard before that Sir Samuel Morlans Speaking Trumpet cou'd convey a voice a hundred Miles distance But this is nothing with our True Protestant Intelligencer B. H. who printed an Address from the City of Colchester that never was seen nor presented by any of the Inhabitants as by an Instrument under the Town Clarks hand does plainly appear But though Swearing be Lying is not against the interest or practice of the Godly the presbyterian true off-spring of the Ignatian Fathers who out do them in the Doctrine of piae Fraâ—des as well as in all other their immoral and Antimonarhick principles And now considering that none that have any thing to loose can ever get by a Rebellion and that there is no just pretence for one our Liberties and Properties not being broken or invaded the Rich unless they are mad will never begin and yet with or without their assistance a Rising of Jack Cade or Wat Tyler instigated by greater persons will but inlarge the Regal power and enrich the Crown And for these and many more reasons I look upon the Threats or Fears of Rebellion as idle and vain as our Jealousies and Apprehensions of Popery never possible in England but by a Civil War since their numbers here are but as one to 230. and by an exact calculation in the three Kingdoms the whole number of Papists is but as one to 205. non-Papists and their wealth and possessions is not one to 300. If their power had been so terrible they wanted not since the Plot provocations to mak us feel as well as hear on 't But these noises are like Armies in disguise at Knights-bridge and Regiments of Horse hid in Cellars under ground and blowing up the Thames to drown London artifices formerly us'd to draw in the easie and the credulous But 't is to be presum'd the same trick will not pass twice upon us in one and the same Age while the bleeding wounds of the last are still so fresh in our memories To remedy and compose our present madness and distractions and prevent future evils must without doubt be the hearty endeavour of all honest men who expect this will be a healing Parliament that will make up all our breaches and unite our divisions by the methods of prudence and discretion weighing the true causes and applying fit remedles without regard to faction or interest heat or passion reflecting how unreasonable it is to suspect in the King or his Ministers any design of introducing Popery and arbitrary Government a malicious and idle invention set on foot with purpose to enflame the Kingdom by men who were outed or desirous of Court-Imployments disoblig'd persons or French Pensioners That the Bill of Exclusion is not like to pass either the Lords House or the King because in it self unjust impolitick and dangerous not only to the Prince but to the Subject That all other legal ways for preventing Popery and Presbytery are to be taken by those who design the preservation of the establish'd Monarchy and Religion That this is already or may with ease be secur'd against the attempts or power of any Popish Successor That our fears in this point are groundless and best founded upon accidents that may never happen That 't is the highest imprudence to run into real present to avoid possible future evils That innovations of this sort wou'd be against the Princes interest who having not a 4th part of the Revenue necessary for the support of the Crown must be under a necessity of complying with his people in Parliament and that his temper practice and Declarations secure us against impositions of this nature That it be consider'd whether the unquiet apprehensions from the Plot may not be laid by a speedy and impartial tryal and execution of all the accus'd and convicted and the Kings after granting a general pardon with such exceptions as have been usual The doing this will beget a right understanding between the King and his people defeat the contrivances of our adversaries restore us to peace and quiet at home and rescue us from contempt and danger abroad and make the Name of Parliament as famous and renown'd as some Libellers endeavour to make it base and odious How this is to be compass'd you your selves are deservedly made the Judges and therefore I will not like the foolish Orator teach Hannibal the Art of War Fiat Justitia ruat Coelum FINIS EDINBVRGH Re-printed Anno DOM. 1681.