have stood for a Licinius against a Constantine Well if the King comes in a Conqueror we shall wish we had treated truly I shall not I had rather be forced than deceived for then I know what I shall have to trust to and I would not willingly be accessary to my own Ruine Well suppose all this unanswerable stuff is over-voted § 17. We are to bring good proof the Prince of Wales is an Imposture or else we had better let it alone Very good the Negative is to be proved we may guess by this what kind of Laws you Sir would frame Well but if this be not done the discontented Men will have a plausible pretence to quarrel what the conscientious Men will do we must guess but in all probability they will not be better qualited What if the Princess of Orange be a Lady of that eminent Virtue that she should scruple to sit upon her Fathers Throne whilst he lives Well his Majesty has deserted his Throne and Kingdom when he needed not except he had pleased and some body must sit upon his Throne though he is yet alive Now if it be her Right after his death Why not now Our Author is at his Prayers that God would give her Grace to resist the Temptation and I at mine that the Author may never be one of her Chaplains till he is better inform'd The rest of that Section is not unanswerable but not worth answering He has all along supposed the Prince of Orange Crown'd yet in the 19th Section he proves he can have no Right to it neither by Descent nor Gift and truly I am of the same mind for many Reasons and especially for the sake of the Three alledged by him § 20 21 22. and for some others too of as great weight which may be found in the Lord Virulam's History of Henry VII And yet our Cafe now before us has three Difficulties that had not 1. A King living 2. A Prince of Wales true or false 3. A Nation divided in Religion to which I might perhaps add the Excessive Power of France and the Excessive Zeal of this Generation to preserve the Descent of the Crown in the Right Line and in the Legal Steps and Degrees And this being done I am persuaded nothing can divide the English Nation or lessen their Zeal and Affection to the Prince of Orange who has deserved the Crown if it were ours to give him The Postscript which is an Huy and Cry after the French League to cut our Throats I leave to the Convention and if I durst be so bold as to ask a favour of them it should be to enquire what the Ro. Ca. meant by that Threat of theirs so frequently printed and spoken by them If fair means would not obtain the Repeal of our Penal Laws and Tests foul should Now for a Conclusion I would desire you Sir to propose your method of restoring the King and securing our Laws and Religion and it shall go hard but I will shew you it is impracticable or impossible that it will never be granted or if it be never observed and if you please to bless the World with a receipt of an Obligation that will bind the Conscience of any Ro Ca. so fast that neither Iesuit nor Pope can break or untie it I assure you I will joyn with you in a Petition to the Convention for a Treaty forthwith without any other terms to be proposed than the giving us that Security whatever it is And in the Interim I am Ian. 24. 167â—â— SIR YOURS
AN ANSWER To the AUTHOR of the LETTER TO A Member of the Convention Reverend Sir YOur Name your Quality your Religion and your Design in Publishing this Letter are wholly unknown to me but the confident Assertion pag. 3. § 16. That you are sure it can never be Answered sounds so like a Son or rather a Father of the Infallible Church that it has provoked me if not to answer yet at least to reflect upon some Passages in this Magisterial Composure § 2. Whatever becomes of other Arguments Interest is most likely to prevail You Sir suppose your Parliament Man in these words to be one who will regard no Arguments from Justice Reason Religion or the Laws of God or Man Interest is the only thing which is likely to prevail an excellent Complement to a Parliament Man but it goes higher yet and takes in the Majority of the States for no one Man shall ever determin these great things § 3. You tell him that All the threatning Dangers of Popery were not a more formidable Prospect to considering Men than the present Distractions and Divisions Now surely this is a very bold and daring stroke but that I am certain these pensive thoughtful Men are not either very numerous or very considerable otherwise the few of the Church of England that are over-thoughtful in this Point deserve much Compassion because they disquiet themselves and others out of pure tenderness of Conscience and an over-great Loyalty but then there is no danger to be apprehended from them and they will in time satisfie their own Scruples and in the interim I doubt not infinitely more Men dread the Dangers of Popery even to this day than all the Common-wealth Men Dissenters ambitious and revengeful Wretches which you have so artfully mustered up to fright the Country Esquire with can over-ballance Strange it is in the mean time that the Dangers of Popery which last October appeared so formidable should in so short a time vanish or rather dwindle into nothing But God by the Ministry of the Prince of Orange and his Friends has brought this about In the rest of that Section I agree with you and approve of it The two next Sections being only a representation of the different Parties of Men now upon the Stage I leave as I find them § 6. Tho the opinion of those who are for sending to the King and treating with him to return to his Government under such legal restraints as shall give security to the most jealous Persons for the preservation of their Laws Liberties and Religion is horribly decryed c. yet the only Reason against it is because it is vain Now Sir that Reason is so very good that it may perhaps justifie that dreadful Consequence you so shrink at for tho I do not doubt but you are a wonderful Legislator yet if Twenty wiser Men than you were joyned with you to frame these new Laws yet let but a Popish Prince have the Supreme Executive Power and the Legal Prerogatives and he will break through all your restrictions with wonderful facility as we have seen by experience But then if you leave him the Name and take away the Power of a King you set up a Common-wealth immediately which will not end with your Popish Prince but there will be stickling to keep all things in the same State in the following Reign of what Religion soever the Prince is which was the Reason why the limitations offered by Charles II. in 1679. were rejected Well but we would have thought our selves very secure if the King would have called a Free Parliament Yes Sir if he would have call'd it Freely so that it had been the production of his Will without Force but Sir it is notorious he was resolved the Parliament should either not be free or not meet and if your Memory will not serve you to re-call the virulent Reflection on the humble Petition presented by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal the 17th of November last in which the Author tells us That the summoning a Parliament now is so far from being the only way to preserve his Majesty and the Kingdom that it will be one of the principal causes of much Misery to the Kingdom c. and nothing would do then but driving the Prince of Orange out of the Kingdom with Force and Arms. Now I say Sir if you cannot remember this you shall never be trusted to frame Laws if I can help it There is another and a better reason to refuse a Treaty than the fearing the King should comply Suppose that he should grant all that you can ask bating White-hall the Revenue the Title of King and the Right of calling Parliaments and making Peace and War What security have we that he will acquiesce in this low restrained Estate Oaths Laws and Promises we had before but what did they signifie who shall be Garantee what shall we do if he break out again In short quis custodiet Custodes So that the many who desire a Treaty are desired to read the Enquiry into the present State of Affairs that they may not come into the Discipline of the severe Lady who has taught the Protestants in France and Piedmont a Lesson which England too must have gone through with if God and H. W. P. O. had not saved us But if the Convention should refuse to treat and Depose the King it would act without a legal Power § 8. Why Sir here is no occasion to talk of a Deposition the King is gone of his own accord freely and they are only to consider whether we shall perish in a State of Anarchy recall him and suffer over again all that is past and all that was intended but prevented or whether they shall recognize the next immediate Heir and enquire who that is Well but the next Heir it seems shall have small joy of it his whole Authority depending on a Convention that has no Authority In good time Will the Authority of this Prince when acknowledged depend on the Authority of the Convention Did Queen Elizabeth or King Iames I. owe all their Authority to the Parliaments which recognized their respective Rights But no Man will think himself bound in Conscience to obey this Heir Have you Sir the keeping of all Mens Consciences or the knowledg of their Thoughts I can assure you mine is not in your custody § 9. All those who think themselves bound still by their Oath of Allegiance to defend the Kings Person his Crown and Dignity c. will be greatly discontented Why Sir then they may go over into France and be admitted into his Guards and perhaps the generous Allowance given him by the French King will maintain them if their Heresie do not over-ballance their Loyalty and turn it into a Crime as it happened to the Hugonots Well but they will never own any other whilst their own King lives Assuredly this is a wonderful Man if he could but as certainly
inform us of the number as he can of the Thoughts and future Actions of these Loyalists Well but if they should happen to be Persons of known Prudence Abilities Integrity Honesty tho they were never so few and never so tame it would give a terrible stroke to this tottering Government Why Sir all or the greatest part of such Men in the Nation were a dreadful Body tho they were and ever will be few but Sir there must be a considerable Body of such Men first satisfied in the Convention a number without Doors are already satisfied and more will when the States have passed their Resolves and the remainder of the Men of this High Character who will still remain discontented if they are any thing peaceable though not over tame will never be able to shock the most tottering Government in the World by their Examples how well soever he thinks of them Yet § 10. He endeavours to shew the number will not be small because many who joyned with the Priâ—ce are ashamed of what they have done and ask God pardon for it and are ready to undo it as far as they can Well Sir how many such do you know besides your self A List of these Men were worth the having and may perhaps be easily taken if one knew how to separate them from the rest however I should not fear greatly the terrible Shock of these wonderful Men till I had better information of their Numbers than you can possibly give us They were not willing to part with the King tho they were horribly afraid of Popery Why Sir has the King changed his Religion in France or are these Gentlemen so fond of the King that they would now be contented to suffer all that Popery threatned so lately Or are they become as weary of their Delivery as they were before of Popery Or will they sacrifice their Laws Religion old Foundations and Free Parliaments to their Allegiance to their King If you say yes I have done if no then you would have what was not to be had and will not be contented with what may be had and if the Number of these Men is great farewel to the Liberties Laws Religion and Priviledges of England and its Wealth and Inhabitants too and what is left you may be pleased to divide amongst your Men of Character To all this he assures us § 10. There will be a Thousand Occasions of discontent just a Thousand neither one more nor less besides those springing from the Sense of Loyalty and Conscience Strange that these Two should be so troublesom as to equal if not exceed the whole Thousand that went before He that had been before so liberal of his Information now sets us to guess in the § 10. How many will be discontented in the new Court for want of Preferment Why Sir If you please to inform me how many days in February shall be clear and how many shall be cloudy I will fall a guessing how many in the new Court shall be pleased and how many shall be dissatisfied but when I have done it will not be worth the while because this ever happens and Courtiers have an odd way of keeping these Malecontents in hope till they fall off or gain what they desire and so if there should happen to be a Thousand of them they will not be able to shock the Government if there is no other cause of Discontent than that Well but here Duty and Discontent will mix because they are sensible of their Mistake when it is too late For as they ought not to have fought for Popery nor against the Laws and Liberties of their Country so neither ought they to have deserted the defence of the King's Person and Crown but have brought the Prince to Terms as well as the King Why Sir Nemo tenetur ad impossibilia The King was never brought to Terms nor perhaps never will So that if they had fought at all it must have been for Popery and against both our Laws and Liberties Sir shew when and where the King offered us or the Prince any Terms and I will pass my word you shall be employed to frame Laws for the Convention which is certainly a good Employ for one that is so expert at it as you pretend to be Well § 13. A heavy Tax must be laid upon the Nation to defray the Charge of this Expedition Why Sir Are you of the Privy Council to the Prince Surely he will be able to find some other cause or not make the Tax so very heavy But Men will be very sorry to lose their King and pay so dear for it too Yes doubtless a gracious King is a great Loss but if he will be gone and involve us in a War too Taxes must be paid yea heavy Taxes to support the Charge of it or Louis will in a short time teach us what the Prince's Expedition was worth whatever it cost But this is not all we must part with our Church too the crazy Title will require the giving the Church to the Dissenters § 14. The Dissenters have of late acted very well and perhaps if a wise Man has the managing of them and the Popish Emissaries be carefully looked after we may compound the Quarrel better cheap than the parting with our Church Sir I am well assured a great deal less will for the present content them and the King is not immortal and whenever he dies the Crazy Title will be sodered again if no body be to be blame for giving it another terrible Shock § 15. Should the King be deposed or any other ascend the Throne it will be necessary to keep a standing Army to quell such Discontents You may be a good Law-framer for ought I know but I will swear you are no States-Man this whole Section is meer Whimsey borrowed from the Dutch Design Anatomized who had the folly to talk of Governing England by an Army of Dutch and Germans but why God knows except it were because a few were brought over to deliver us and cannot presently be returned back to Holland The Prince is both a wise and a good Prince and knows the Consequence of keeping those Forces long here better than a Thousand such Lâ—w-framers Suppose the King should return with a Foreign Force to recover his Kingdom how ready will the Men of Conscience be and the Men of Discontent to joyn with them nay to invite him home again This looks so like a Roman Catholick Zeal that if I were not assured he is a Church of England Man I could not believe but it was a Disciple of S. Omers But will the conscientious Mea invite the King home again with all his Apostolick Vicars Jesuits Ecclesiastical Judges Dispensing Power and a round Army of French Dragoons to teach us the French Faith after the French Fashion Are these the Men of Character Prudence Ability Integrity or of Conscience either Would one of the Primitive Christians have talked thus