Contributions imposed on the Natives by the Parliament if you grant this for truth as I presume you cannot gain-say it doubtless then the State here in being have brought the people to a very bad market since 't is manifest that what by the Monthly Contributions the rigorous exactions of the Officers of the Customs on all Merchandize together with the Excise on all we eat or drink with the free quartering of the Souldiers in most parts of the Land are far beyond all the Taxes Impositions and Subsides which the late King imposed or intended to lay on the people which gives them no great cause to rejoyce and make merry either for their safety or the cheapness of the exchange Answer me to this point and I shall as the Colonel even now said give you fair leave to carry away the bucklers and henceforth acknowledge you for an expert Fencer Thraso God amercy honest Doctor in good faith thou hast now given him a bone to pick that will stick in his teeth if he answers this to any purpose he shall not onely carry away the Bucklers but I shall willingly give him my sword into the bargain and then dam him for me that will ever fight one stroke more in the quarrel Patri Colonel you and your party have gotten such a habit of swearing and in such fearful volleys of Oaths as that had your cause been much better then it was God could not bless it or give you any good success therein but I beseech you leave your prophanation and then have patience a while for you have very good reason to leave fighting when you are so ready to depart with your weapons but lay your sword to the stake and then see what in the end will become of him for whatsoever the Doctor hath objected concerning the present impositions which are confest to be very heavie on the poor people yet when you know all it would have been much better he had said nothing since I perceive none of you all ever sounded the late Kings depth and what he intended or took the least measure of his foot for indeed he was too dark for any of your light to see into his designs and to tell you more he was too cunning for any that he employed though some there are which accounted him for little more then an Iguoramus but one of the shrewdest ones for his reaches to his own ends of any Prince of his time True it is that the Parliament though they suspected him at the first sitting down and before yet knew not a long time what he had in hand otherwise The Juncto and the Kings Letters taken at Nasby the onely means that the Parliament came to the knowledge of his Intentions then at random until the discovery of the Juncto which was the star that guided them to know somewhat more of his designs then they could clearly discern before and by degrees as God would have it more they came both to know and feel when a long time after his private Letters were taken at Nasby wherein more then enough came to light of his pernicious intents or was fitting for a King so much courted and beloved of English Nation to have attempted for their enslaving a design as I have said though long since by some of the more intelligent sort understood yet till that time never publickly known or visible the onely bar to the accomplishment was that Bellum Episcopale the Prelatical was against his Native subjects the Scots which brought it so about that the Kings game which was a fair fore-game became in the end by the Scots resistance and managety to an after and a lost game and the truth is the Scots were too subtile for all the kings Arbitrary Instruments and understood more of his reaches then happily all of us here shall ever know Now Doctor as to your Objections concerning the present Taxes Excises Customs and Free-Quarter I crave leave for a while to lay them aside to which anon I shall particularly make answer In the mean time I think fit to present you with a Preparative whereby to shew you that all changes and alterations of Government are and have evermore been accompanied with innumerable difficulties and hardships especially where the sword begets them who knows not but that the sword is a very chargeable weapon and such charges are most incident to green and new sprung up Governments and cannot be avoyded as in this case and alteration here with us you see cannot possibly be made good without a vast expence which necessarily ought to be defray'd by the people for whose sakes and conservation of the common freedom their Trustees the Parliament thought fit and best for their future indemnity to adventure on the change of the Government and then as the Adage speaks it They which reap the gains ought to indure the pains and 't is most true that although new gotten liberty be a sweet bait yet it often fals out that the enjoyment thereof brings with it a great deal of sufferance and yet must it be born with patience in hope of better times which may give way to the unburthering of the sufferers And so to your Objections which I shall answer in their ordâ—r and first to the Excise wherein I shall shew you the mistake since it seems you look onely at the present Impositions without minding their causes which as the postures of affairs now are were necessitated and insorc't on the Parliament to levie on the Nation neither do you look back to those times wherein during the late king and his Fathers raign there was no cause or a peece of a reason to be given why any Taxes should have been imprest on the people without their consents in Parliament yet for your better learning I shall assure you that the very same House in Broad-Street wherein the Office of the Excise is erected for the States use was 20 Moneths at least before the late Parliaments summons rented by Cottington and purposely for that use design'd by the King himself though protracted by reasons of the Scotch troubles As to the Customs we all know to what a height they were grown in the late Kings time to the great regret of the Marchant but that you may know what farther was much about that time in agitation there was a private * Vide That and other Commissions in the Signet Office Commission issued out under the Great Seal wherein twenty eight Lords and Gentlemen were nominated and Authorized to raise on all the Commodities of the Land what new Customs and Impositions the Commissioners should think sit which was the highest strain of Arbitrary power that ever was attempted by any of our Kings As to free-Quarter it is confest to have bin a very gâ—ievous burthen on the people not only to pay their Monthly Contributions but to be forâ—'t to give the Souldier free-quarter wheresoever he march't But to answer you in a word that
houses wherein to put their heads and that had his power been answerable to his will how much worse it would have been with the whole Nation had the Danes French Lorraâ—nres Scots and Irish came to his Assistance all which how earnestly he solicited their coming over his own Instructions to Cockrans his Letters to the Queen Montross and Ormond sufficiently declare Yet there are of you that dâ—re publickly say that you are not ashamed to own his cause and disown the Parliaments which is no good sign of your eternal being when you are known to glory in evil and stand fixed in the defence of him and a cause that was most unjust in the beginning bloody beyond example throughout the whole managery tragical in the end to himself loss of honor estate and fortunes of most that sided with him and should the Scotch Pretender come in how much worse and more oppressive and more bloody it must be I leave to your own consideration For a close I wish you all better to bethink your selves and take this into your more serious thoughts of the wisest of men He that justifieth the wicked and condemneth the just even they both are abomination to the Lord Prov. 17. 15. Then as you please read on and haply you may finde somewhat that will terrifie your consciences or rectifie your judgements in your erroneous principles and turn the torrent of your depraved affections to a hearty compliance with the present Powers as they are set over us by the hand of the Almighty which doubtless is the best and safest course you can take for your future happiness Which that you may enjoy are the hearty wishes of an unknown yet your unfained friend The principal Contents of the following Discourse 1. OF the necessity of continuing the Contributions on the people with the Reasons thereof 2. Of the hopes wherewith Royalists flatter themselves in mending their fortunes by bringing in the Scotch Pretender 3. Of the States Power and strength for upholding the present Government 4. Of the difficulties which attend the Scotch Kings coming in being to invade by Sea 5. Of the parallel between the Hollanders case and this of the States here in their first establishment 6. Of the miserable condition that of necessity must befal this Nation especially the City of London in case the Scotch King comes in by the sword with the consequences of changing the Laws and constitutions of the old Soveraignty 7. Of King James his plot for abating the power of Parliaments and improvement of the Soveraignty by disowning them furthered by the Bishops and pursued by the late King 8. Of the necessitated Reasons that induced the Parliament to cut off the late King and to exclude his Posterity 9. Whether the present establishment in the nature of a Republick accompanied with the Taxes imposed on on the people will not be more safe and less chargeable to them thâ—n tâ—e admittance of the Scotch Pretender to the Regal Government 10. Of the grand objection of Royalists that the late Parliament was not a legal Representative of the people after it was lamed lessned by want of the King the Lords Prelates and major part of the Commons excluded Answered 11. That the Parliaments after the comming of the Norman the Witengagomentâ— of the Saxons and those magna Consilia of the old Britains were not always of one form but one and the same in substance 12. Of the various alterations and changes of Governments throughout all Ages of the World and that all Powers had their original by the sword which once obtained Whether by right or wrong ought to be obeyed submitted unto as the Ordinance of God Refractoria Disputatio OR The Thawrting Conference Thraso GEntlemen you are all well met I perceive you are as good as your words but now Signiour Patriotus tell me what is become of your late piece of a Parliament have they not enacted hand somely to Act themselves out of their usurped powers by their injustice and self ends without any respect either to the publick good or any poor mans private interest hath not God in his justice dealt with them as they did with the late innocent King and all of us of his serâ—ants Tell me I beseech you what will be the issue of this inter-meddly of Government and whether in the end confusion will not necessarily follow these strange mutations and accompt taken of them for their extortions and corrupt dâ—meanors towards the whole Nation Patriotus I finde you are still in your old â—one but as in our last conference and elsewhere I have often told you so now I shal not take upon me to justifie every of their actions for they are men made up and composed of flesh and blood subject to sin and error and that the same God who gave them the power they have had would as soon divest them of it as beyond all expectation he bequeathed it unto them in case they carried not themselves with an upright heart As to those your Prophetical issues to follow in confusion and of after-reckonings may it befall them that deserve it for my hope it and I doubt not but that Almighty God iâ— his providence on this great change of affairs hath another manner of work in hand then lies within your kenning to discern and will raise us up such unbyassed Governors as shall set straight all obliquities both in the Church and State to his own glory and the comfort of all good men therefore let me advise yâ—u not to be too rash in your censure on that whereof you are not able to judge neither deâ—cant on his judgements which are inâ—crutable and past your finding out Nâ—us But Patriotus I remember at our last conâ—erence you also were pleased to vent your self in the way of predictions intimating that we must expect worse calamities then heretofore we have endured which as you then supposed would of necessity befal the universal Nation not onely in the continuation of the Contributions and Taxes imposed on the people but in other grievous afflictions which I prosess have ever since very much troubled my cogitations for God knows we have all suffered too much already and more then the ability of poor people can longer endure though I confess for any thing I can as yet discern out of the motions of the State the Contributions must of necessity be continued if not encreas'd for maintenance of their Armies both by Land and Sea and not unlikely will be long lived and continued for a Prentiship haply of seven years endurance Patri Yes Neutralis and longer then you imagine for considering the work the States at present have in hand within our in-works to suppress the malignant Party and in our out-works for defending the Dominion of our Seas against the invading and ingrateful Hollander we The necessity of the continuation of the Contributions of the people cannot in any reason expect any cessation or remission of our Taxes
bodies and in divers ways the more to distract our Armies where you ought to remember that this State hath both in Scotland and the adjacent parts a very considerable force to encounter these Invaders but admit again that the King advances so far as York though you cannot imagine but that he will be fought with twice or thrice over before he comes thither with fresh men and not unlikely rebeaten as at all places he hath been but let us again admit that he sâ—rmounts all difficulties both by Sea and Land and becomes victorious and triumphantly marches towards London and that the States Force cannot withstand him and that on the noise of such sad news the prevailing party as you are pleased to stile them being confoundâ—d with terrour betake themselves to their heels as their ultimum refugium and the best way to shist for themselves and that after this all is left to the Kings absolute disposement as all this not impossible but exceeding improbable what then on such sudden change of fortune think you may be the issnes thereof and what advantage either to your party or the generality of the people and all Countries through which his Armies shall march and Quarter accompaned with so many Nations diveâ—sly affected Prel I confess the people must neâ—essarily suffer and haply in a greater measure then hitherto they have done yet am I confident his Majesty will be very sensible of their sufferings and in prevention of their farther oppression and for settling of all things will immediately call a new Parliament and reduce it to the antient Form and Institution of the three Estates King Lords Spiritual and Temporal with the Commons and then commit all things to a sober legal and Parliamentary discussion and in what manner restitution may be made of his own Lands and goods the Churches Patrimony with the many other loosers of his own party and after all this in detestation of the foulness of the late War and bloodshed to buâ—y all discontents and heart-burnings as Judge Jenkins very jâ—diciously proposes in an Act of Oblivion with free pardon to all except some special persons that had a principal hand in his Fathers death and for all other of his Subjects to spare and cherish them in what possible his affaits will permit Patri Doctor excuse me since I utterly dissent from your opinion for it stands not with reason or with the Kings then present affaires to take a piece of that course which you suppose and should he be willing there would be so many of the old Cavalry attending his person as well Natives as Forraigners which would thrust in to be served and gratified that he should not be suffered to put in practise a title of that which is by you so vainly surmised but you may build upon 't he would take a clean contrary course and such a one as the necessity of his then urgent occasions would inforce and not tie up himself to his own disadvantage by an Act of Oblivion which necessarily must disable him either to help himself or friends when the power is in his hands to do what he pleaseth and carve as he listeth Prel Since you are so diffident of his Majesties good nature and intentions towards his Subjects tell us I beseech you what you conceive he will do for the speedy settling of peace and amity through the three Kingdoms Patri May I obtain your liceâ—ce and a favourable construction of that which I shall deliver I will tender my opinion and leave you all to make your own judgments thereon In the first place I believe that whereas then he comes in by the sword in order to his necessities he would rule by the sword and by an Army with Garrisons throughout the Land as now the States upon the point do and must do if they mean to go through stitch with their work and thenceforth begin a new Government as in like manner the States here intend to do the Laws of the Land which under the present power the people yet enjoy as they were wont to do in quiet and peaceable times would necessarily be subverted and turn'd topsie-turvie and such introduced in their room as should best sute with the will and pleasure of a Prince that comes in by Conquest and by the same power will have them to be no other then agrees with his Affairs and resolutions or as they are in France if not worse and more absolute where a single paper signed under the Kings hand hath the same efficacy as an Act of Parliament in England and in order to this you must expect that his mercenary Souldiers must and would be remembred If you demand in what I answer with the whole plunder of London as the readiest means to give them all content for their service and if this seem strange to you I pray call to minde that in the late Kings time when no occasion of wars or raising of Armies in any reason were necessary to be levied but such as our late Grandees the Earl of Strafford Canterbury and Cottington would have to be raised against the Scots that Earl spake it openly at the Councel-Table 1640 and to no other man then the Lord Mayor Sir Henry Garway and others of the Aldermen upon their refusing to lend the king 100000 l. for the Scotch War It will never do well says he till the King hangs half a dozen of you Aldermen and then put the whole City to ransome Which was proved against him at his Arraignment neither did the king forbear the seizing of the Mint for supply of that needless War so that 't is evident when Princes have power they will make no scruple to act any thing that conduceth to their designs or to take all things where they can finde it as 't is well known he did in the late barbarous War neither will it be impertinent to put you in remembrance of another instance of this kinde when at or before the beginning of the War the king took his journey towards Scotland and overtook the Scotch Army in their march homewards 1641 where he dealt with the principal Commanders to turn head on the Parliament in reward whereof they should have the plunder of London with Jewels for security an overture which some of them were not so dishonest as to conceal but gave notice thereof to the City and their own Commissioners then here residing Now if you farther demand What the present Pretender would do in the pre-supposed case I shall again answer you that in reason of State which with Kings and Conquerors hath an Of the miserable condition that will befal the Nation especially the City of London in case the Scots Pretender comes in by the sword immense latitude he would and could do no less then to take present order for the satisfaction of his Country-men the Scots as also for gratifying the proscribed and fugitive Lords Cavaleers both English Scotch and Irish which first
prejudicial to the Rights and Liberties of the people Now forasmuch as Royalists do still constantly maintain that their first engagements with the King were undertaken on just loyal honourable honest and religious grounds and that the king suffered as an innocent Martyr in his own defence under the specious pretexts of his injustice and Tyranny and that themselves are enforc'â— to live under Powers utterly unlawful usurpatious and tyrannical May they be pleased to give me leave briefly to sum up the whole Controversie intended for their own good the quieting of their distempered spirits the settlement of the universal people in the blessed harmony of peace and unanimity their onely distance and refractory humour to that of the present establishment being the onely cause that the old Rupture cannot be sodred up and cemented as it ought to be between brethren of one stock that the States after their many miraculous Atchievements Victories over so powerful enemies are inforc'c to the great charge and grievance of the Natives to keep in pay so many Armies for the prevention of such dangerous conspiracies as are daily hatcht and seen to flow from the fountain of their malitious hearts whereas their conformity with the rest of the Natives in obedience to the present powers would be the speedy remedy and abatement of those heavie and Monethly Contributions continued on the people wherein themselves would partake in the easement the State and Common-wealth in the happiness and comfort that so many Proselytes should be added to their number Now in as much as the nature of this subject by way of advice will necessarily require some short repetition of the Kings proceedings in the late prodigious War wherein the grounds of their partaking with him are briefly stated I shall intreat the Reader of what garb or party soever not to conceive that herein I take occasion to rake over the ashes of him who is at rest but onely for the better manifestation of truth never more opposed then at present and to let the universal Nation see and understand on what sandy foundations not onely the King but the Royalists themselves built the whole fabrick of his designs how and by whom they were promoted to his own ruine his posterity and most of the Royal party to the irreparable loss of three flourishing Kingdoms Briefly then that the King at his first access to the Crown had it in design as an unhappy legacy left him by his Father King Iames to advance the Regal power to absoluteness conformable to the French Model is a truth so perspicuous as that divers persons of honour then in Court both perceived it and feared the sad issues that would follow the Kings ambitious affectations True it is the design a long time was carried on in the dark and mystical traverses of Court and State but 1638 and 39 the King by his active * Strafford Canterbury Cottington Agents haing prepared all things in readiness for the accomplishment both in England and Ireland the onely rub that then lay in his way of compleating an universal invassaladge over the three Nations and conforming the Church Government of Scotland sutable to the Episcopal Discipline of England was the refractory Presbyterian Scot whom he first tempted with the bait of a new Liturgy and whether they should perceive the meaning thereof or not was amongst the first Projectors of this Innovation here in Court not much reckoned of for that in case of the Scots refusal they very well understood the King was resolved to compel them to submit by force of Arms but the Scots utterly rejecting the Liturgy as an Innovation and Invasion on their National Laws and Liberties the King raised his first Army against them and then the second after a Pacification given them passages so commonly known to both Nations that there needs no farther manifestation of their contrivances But most certain it is that then the Kings grand design began more openly to appear and that those two Northern Expeditions having exhausted his Treasure with all that he could shift for and the extremity of his want of money succeeding produced the first and the late Parliament Where we may not omit to shew how the King at his first entry to the Crown was after misled and most grosly betray'd and by persons of his own choyce from the very beginning of his raign to the last of his power who had chiefest influence on his Councels which principally were the Bishops and his Court Chaplaines which more studied his inclinations then Divinty and then to comply with whatsoever they found most agreeable to his natural appetite which was the usual ladder wherewith they climbed to preferment these sycophants well perceiving the bent and promptitude of his ambition to absolute Soveraingty had learn'â— the faculty of wresting of Scripture answerable to Arbitrary power and made it their ordinary Pulpit-stuff to instill into his apprehensions that the Subject had no other propriety in any thing he enjoyed but at the Kings good pleasure And to these there were another sort of * Lawyers Gown-men that could stretch Law and Statutes to the tenter of the Kings designs neither were there wanting many about his person even from the first to the last of his Power that to gain his favour had learn't the art of compliance so that I am confident to affirm as being often conversant in the Court that no Prince of his time and of his abilities was ever so nurst up what between those Clergy Laquies and his jugling Judges in the principles of Tyranny leaving out those forragn Pedagogues as well masculine as femine always in Court and most near his person insomuch as at last he knew not or would not know the nature and constitution of the English Soveraignty neither what the nature of those Royal Prerogatives he claimed were how intrusted and invested in him but took them for no other then his own proper inheritance to be used as his he should think most conducible to the advance of his absolute power But to return to the late Parliaments first sitting down and to relate what in the first place they fell upon as of highest concernment to be redrest most certain it is that they finding the many grievances of the people with the various innovations disorders and distempers of the State and Church all concentring in the Kings indigence they took it into their serions consultations first of all to call to an accompt such Participants of the Kings Councels as were well known to have been the principal Instruments for promoting of Arbitrary power and then to apply themselves to the redress of the Publick disorders and rectifying of the obliquities both in the Church and Commonwealth crept in through the long dis-use of Parliaments We shall onely touch on the most eminent passages during their first fifteen Months sitting viz. The Attaching and Arraignment of the Earl of Strafford the Archbishop the flight of the Lord
that power of God and then without farther scruple thou must yield thy obedience to him and heartily obey him And 't is manifest that when Christ and Iohn Baptist preach't the Gospel it was at that very time that the Romans by plain Conquest and Usurpation had gotten the possession of all the Territory of Iudea neither of them did then teach or disswade the people from their obedience to them or that they should not yield submission to those that had Tyrannically obtained their power by the sword for 't is plain Mat. 22. that Christ did teach that Tribute was due unto Caesar and he himself paid it Again Pet. 2. Be ye subject either to the King as Suprem or unto Governors as those which are sent of him It would be superfluous longer to insist on this subject on which so much hath been exposed to the publick view it may therefore suffice without other Arguments then such as our blessed Saviour and his Apostels taught and practised to perswade obedience to powers in â—eing Onely I shall close up this hearty adâ—ress to all Royalists with a piece of a Speech delivered by a Learned Gentleman * Mr Thomas Warmistry in the Convocation 1640. viz. The Law of God in Scripture and Reason is the main and general root and trunk and all good Laws are banches that grow from thence and whatsoever humane Constitutions cannot either in a direct line or collateral derive themselvs from them are bastard Issues and shameful to their Parents and the Law-makers sins in framing of them yet the difficulty of Government is to be considered and many things to be born with for though they have no ground in Gods Law for the injunction but are meerly frivolous and perhaps burthensome yet if their Authority disables them to make it and enjoyns me to no Act contrary to my allegeance to God it is their sin but my affliction and must be born as other calamities for though that law hath no good end yet my obedience hath Obedience it self is a good and laudable thing and I may have the end of maintaining order or preserving peace and avoyding disturbance in the Church and Commonwealth of preventing scandal and the like which are ends prescribed by Gods Law to regulate and frame our actions by All things are not to be turned upside down upon every inconvenience that may be apprehended in a Law whether it be Ecclesiacal or civil for besides that there are few that are fit Judges of a Law that may be unlawful for Governours to command which yet is not unlawful but expedient for me to obey being commanded as it was unlawful for Pharoah to command the children of Israel to make Brick without Straw as being tyrannons and so sinful in him as it was unlawful but rather commendable in them to obey it as far as they could and S. Paul will have servants to be obedient unto their Masters though they be froward and perverse Indeed if they enjoyn me to do any thing wherein I should offend against Gods Laws in the least degree no pretence of any though never so many or so great good ends must make me withdraw my allegeance from him and pay it to humane powers The authority of all men is limited and so must our obedience to them be also The Supream power of God is the foundation of all Authority and therefore our duty unto that must be preferr'd in the first place and without all leave or exception whatsoever peace must be maintain'd with the rules of piety and trust and any scandal to my brother must rather be admitted then I should prevent it without Gods leave The rule of Mr. Calvin is good here Sicut libertas charitati ita charitas fidei subjicienda est yet in this case I am to disobey as modestly and as inoffensively and with as much shew of reverence to the Magistrate as may stand with our duty unto God yet resolutely too not faintly or fearfully as the three children unto Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 3. 17 c. And where we cannot yield obedience we must yield the third duty of subjection especially where the Authority is absolute and supream under God which may be variously stated according to the Laws and Customs of several Countries and Dominions then in case we cannot obey we ought not to resist but suffer and yield a passive obedience where we may not yield an active one according to the rule of Gods Word They that resist shall receive unto themselves damnation Thus Royalists and all may see the judgement of a Gentleman of temper and learning concerning obedience to be given to powers and Magistrates in being I come now to the necessity of Royalists obedience to the present Government with the profit and security that of course will acrew to themselves and the whole Nation by their cordial conjuncture and compliance with the present powers As to the necessity thereof I shall say no more but that if they continue obstinate and fix'd to their erroneous principles and look back with Lots Wife to him that claims as heir to the late unfortunate king the consequences and sad effects whereof are particularly layd down in the former discourse if they be not hardned and past understanding they will make the best of them to tremble to think upon the issues whensoever he comes in by their assistance though surely very improbable and their posterity will doubtless curse the time that ever they had such Fathers as were the unhappy Authors of their invassaladge and the betrayers of the common freedoms of the English Nation which of necessity must follow whensover the Scotch Pretender comes in by the sword so that the necessity of their compliance depends on this hinge onely their present conjuncture with the present establishment since this state cannot be secure so long as such a numerous party of rotten hearts remaines lurking in all corners of the Land and lying at catch on all opportunities to disturb the present settlement for prevention whereof it hath been the advice of none of the worst heads on their next disturbance or insurrection to proscribe not onely all such as shall be suspected but to take the course of Justice with those that shall be known actors in any such attempt neither let any of them think this course strange since there is no reason to be given to cherish the Viper too long in the bosom of the Nation least in the end he eats through the bowels thereof and as a wise man says What wisdom or providence can it be for this State to suffer such to live amongst them that will not co-operate act and joyn with the present powers And what sense is there that after so bloody and rapacious a war ended and peace resettled that if Royalists will they may live quietly and peaceably yet cannot forebear to spit their venome against those which have rescued them from invassalage why then should others be seen in unlawful things for their benefit which refuse to do right to others and themselves Gentlemen Royalists I have now done and more I would be willing to do for you may it be to your advantage but I know not a more ready way thereunto then at least to advise you to sit quiet or cordially to employ your selves in the publick service To conclude I wish you all to call to minde the late banishment of the Moors out of the Kingdom of Granado into Africa for no other cause but that the * Philip the Second King could not convert them from their Mahometan to the Roman Catholick Religion a punishment that at best will befall you whensoever you shall be found contriving of any new disturbance On this consideration I leave it to your selves to make judgement whether there be not a necessity of your timely compliance and conjuncture with the rest of the Nation that stands firm and faithful to the present Authority under which we are all bound to give God the glory and praise that since the sheathing of that raging and bloody sword of the late kings we may if we list live quietly enjoy the benefit of our old Laws if not better and the peace of our own houses in security blessings which of late years we had not neither can we ever have them by the way you perserve to walk in and wish for by re-introducing Regal Tyranny inseparably united to the Scepters of most Kings but undoubtedly to all those which are brought in by the power of the sword from such that our good God will deliver us shall be the hearty prayers of Yours most devoted to serve you in all honest and just Endeavors T. L. W. FINIS