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
sport of Mousing they will ever be lovers of a Commonwealth and enemies to Monarchy This is plain from former as well as later proceedings since the discovery of the Popish Plot when they began to shew themselves in their proper colours when they cry'd not only the Court but the Church was Popish and all that are for the establish'd Government You cannot now be loyal unless you be factious nor a Protestant if no Presbyterian But pray observe none tell you this but the spawn of those seduc'd or concern'd in the late Rebellion men turn'd out or that wou'd get into Court-Imployments that account themselves slighted or disoblig'd men of great Ambition or of desperate Fortunes who make all this noise and clutter to be taken off To what purpose else did the late House of Commons make the Vote against the bargain or hopes of Court-preferment but that such a design was driving between some leading Members and Courtiers Can they after such a discovery pretend zeal for Religion and the good of their Countrey For shame let not Faction and private Interest make men forgetful of the publick of the peace and quiet of the Nation Let them secure our Constitutions against the encroachments or invasions of any whether Presbyter or Papist and remember that the most forward in the Long Parliament were soon turn'd out by others and because what is Sawce for a Goose is Sawce for a Gander this of course will be the fate of those who now glory in being Ringleaders of Faction to thwart and oppose their Sovereign Nay it may possibly be worse the Gentlemen the Knights of the Shires may be kick'd out by Mechanicks by Citizens and Burgesses for he that practiseth Disobedience to his Superiours teacheth it to his Inferiours Sir W. I. Sir F. W. Collonel T. c. all know were disoblidg'd and if taken into favour the Employments and Honours they covet wou'd stand up for the Court as much as now they do against it Whether the Petitioning Lords be not of the same temper will best appear from the story of every single person One of them has the humour convey'd with 's Bloud His Father was a Gentleman that appear'd zealous in the long Parliament for the good of his Countrey the first that brought in the complaint of Ship-money But soon after when he was made a Lord and a Courtier he chang'd notes and sung another song no man more for the Monarchy in its defence he lost his life and at his death publickly repented his actings against the Earl of Strafford His Son was made an Earl upon the Kings return sent Ambassador Abroad and Lord Lieutenant into Ireland to get this Command be dispis'd not the Courtship and assistance of Coll. T. though a R. C. and a Creature of his R. H. to whom he made no slender professions not being satisfied with gaining vastly in that Station five years he grew peevish in hopes of being sent the second time nay rather than fail he is content to be Commissioner of the Treasury in hopes that by the Courtship and Interest of some Women no matter what Religion they are of he may come to be Lord Treasurer But not like to gain the White Staffe and perhaps not caring to govern an empty Exchequer he bent his thoughts again towards Ireland slighting the Treasury he is outed and grows more discontented and at last turn'd out of Council the next day he repeats a Speech of E. of S. his making and unask'd presents a piece of Councel and Advice to his Soveraign pretending as a Peer it was his duty I am sorry his zeal made him forget that Peers have no right of advising the King but when he makes them of his Council or by Writ Summons 'em to Parliament And what 's very odd he advises just the contrary to what he and the other Noble E. had done the year before when Courtiers This Noblemans Life wou'd make a Comical History he knows how to put on all shapes and in the late times was not ignorant how to make an Apple-tree supply the place of a Pulpit he knew how to serve himself in all turns and changes and he has not fail'd since 1640. to have been often out and in with the several Higher Powers To give him his due he is a man of extraodinary parts but if one of these Lords said true when he was a Courtier and the other newly remov'd they are all fitted and turn'd for confounding and amusing but not for extricating out of difficulties He wants not Wit to hold forth in the House or in the open Air upon occasion nor is he meanly Skill'd in the Methods of Court-Pleasures as well as Business He must have an ill memory that forgets who advis'd the breaking of the Triple-League and making an Alliance with France and a War with Holland pronouncing in the Language of the Beast Delenda est Carthago that a Dutch Commonwealth was too near a Neighbour to an English Monarch the shutting up the Exchequer the granting Injunctions in the case of the Bankers and lastly the sourse of all of our present misfortunes the general Indulgence These things being found of ill consequence and the Ministers remov'd as designers of Popery Presbytrie Atheism or Irreligion Arbitrary or French Govermnent must any of such Principles assoon as turn'd out of Court be receiv'd into the Countrey as if these two had different Interests Whoever say there is more than one Common-weal in both are Deluders and Incendiaries and Betrayers of the Nation Those that strive to divide the King and his people are to be look'd upon as pensioners of France and to be most severely punish'd There are that can tell Tales what Great man since the Plot offer'd a Reconciliation with the D. and for a Restoration to his former Power and Greatnesse wou'd be his servant to all intents and purposes But the D. cou'd not be perswaded one that had as often chang'd Parties as Proteus his shapes and the Chamaelion his Colours cou'd be true to any Interest but his own and therefore rejected his many Messages on this subject Another Peer whose Son is in the Lower House is the great Tribune of the people wou'd have had a Dukedom added to the Garter to make both Sing to another Tune A fourth wou'd fain be a Privy Councellor in Reversion A fifth not long since at any rate of purchase wou'd have been Master of the House to the Duke Strange that a Protestant Lord shou'd think of serving a suppos'd Popish Prince and after hope though thus mounted on Horseback to get to Heaven It wou'd be tedious to give particular accounts of all only by the way observe that a Young Lord newly come to Age own'd himself to his Majestie Disoblig'd because after a Voyage to Tangier his great Valour there shown And spending his youth in his Princes Service these were his own words to the King another was preferr'd to the Command of the Lord
King in the Three Kingdoms to fight his Quarrel and if he comes in by force he may well use us as a conquer'd Nation break our old and give us what Laws and Religion he pleases Whereas if we attempt no such thing we shall not run the hazard of a CIVIL WAR the King being as likely to out-live as to be out-lived by His Brother If he shou'd chance to succeed peaceably he cannot be presum'd to offer any alteration in Religion so much against his Interest and who never forwarded any in his own Family suffers his Children to continue in the Church of England knowing that Christianity forbids compulsion for its propagation To say he wou'd be priest-ridden is ridiculous why he more than the French King who openly opposes the Popes Usurpation and assumes to himself the cognizance even of Church-affairs This is but a pretence to impose upon the ignorant and the credulous if there be not Laws enough already new ones may be made to prevent any such intention When all Offices and power are in the hands of Anti-papists I cannot see where can be our danger But this if granted wou'd not be all the Monarchy is hereby made elective and the possessor may as well be remov'd as the successor debarr'd In order to this is there not a History of the Succession publish'd shewing that the Monarchy is rather elective than hereditary Of which here I will only say that the Writer is a notorious Plagiary and steals all out of a seditious Book writ on the same Subject by Parsons the Jesuite under the Name of Doleman in Queen Elizabeths time with design of distracting the people and making way for a Spanish Conquest and Inquisition the Presbyterian Transcriber proves himself of the same Jesuitical principles and with equal honesty pursues the same ends Usurpation and Slavery 'T is not to be doubted but that there has been frequent interruptions of the Succession of the Crown but no title but that of the Sword was ever put in ballance with proximity of bloud and he that will oppose Fact to Right is very unjust and argues not upon the principles of Morality nor the Laws of Nations Much such another good Christian is the Writer of The appeal to the City who tels us if we set up a King with none or a crack'd title we shall have the better Laws and instances that Richard the 3d. an Usurper a Murderer and a Tyrant made excellent Statutes But he might had he been just have found the Laws of that King outdone by those of our present Soveraign whose title none can question And yet it is not unreasonable to suspect a design on foot of subverting the Monarchy if it be consider'd that the passing the Bill against the Duke will not alone satisfie his adversaries who further expect that all those now firm to the King be remov'd and their trust put into considing hands and thus when they had him in their own power it wou'd be no hard matter to act their pleasure The Speech disown'd by the protestant Lord and burnt by the Hangman a fate the Author does certainly deserve tells us in plain English We must have a Change and a King we may trust and well affected Counsellors with much more treasonable and seditious stuff These things and the frequent mentioning the fates of Edw. 2. Rich. 2. and Hen. 6. cannot but alarm his Majesty and restrain him from ever complying with such persons against his only Brother He has so often affirm'd the Bill shou'd never pass that he cannot now without diminution of his own honour as well as safety alter his well-grounded resolution taken upon the sense of conscience and duty the present and future good of himself and people An act that wou'd be the highest violation of Magna Charta that ordains none shou'd be put by his birthright and inheritance but by the Law of the Land and legal process And therefore I hope what cannot be suppos'd will be granted will no longer be insisted on lest the consequences prove fatal One thing I cannot but admire that the Duke shou'd be absolutely excluded on supposition of being a papist for otherwise he is allow'd by all a Prince of incomparable vertues and endowments leaving no room for enjoying his right in case he become Protestant Do they suppose an alteration of opinion impossible that 's false and foolish There are instances of men that have changed often and to mention no more the Dukes Grandfather Hen. 4. twice alter'd his opinion Besides it is unjust and contrary to their own practice for L. Br. was an imprison'd Plotter but as soon as he became a Convert without further process or tryal he was innocent and acquitted We do in this exceed the Papists in France and condemn our Protestant Ancestors and all others abroad who accus'd them as Antichristian and Rebellious for opposing their lawful King Hen. 4 on the score of Religion for the Parisians lov'd his person and stood upon no other condition than his turning Papist to receive him for their Soveraign as all the other R. C's of that Kingdom had done before And therefore I very much suspect we are grown weary of Monarchy and with an inconstancy natural to Islanders affect a Change tho' for the worse To this I am induc'd by many Reasons and not a little from a Protestant Lords Speech the last Sessions That the people of Athens were so fond of good King Codrus that they resolv'd to have none after him But to attempt this piece of folly and wickedness will inevitably embroyl us in a Civil War And of that the event is so uncertain that we ought to dread the loss of all by striving to enlarge our present liberties This madness ordinary prudence will carefully avoid because in all probability the King must get the better his condition is not like his Fathers He has standing Troops which the other wanted to Guard his Person he has the Militia in his own hands he has no Scotch nor Irish Rebellion to divide or distract his Forces and above all he has the Parliament in his own power to let them Sit or no Sit at his pleasure and their good behaviour And 't is happy he has this power to secure himself from popular jury at this time especially when whatever the Papists have done we daily see others run into Clubs and Cabals distinguishing themselves by Green Ribbans by general Committees and Sub-committees where all Transactions of Parliament are first design'd and hammer'd Collections made a Common Pursue manag'd and Agents employ'd in every County to prepare and influence the people write and disperse false News Libels against the Government Addresses made and sent into every Shire and Burrough and if the Members do not go down to their Elections they can Print for them such Speeches as serve their purpose Witness one my Lord Vaughan spoke at his election though his Lordship was not out of London I have