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A25572
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The Answer to the appeal expounded
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L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704. Answer to the Appeal from the country to the city.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing A3385; ESTC R16973
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34,388
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37
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about us But what were these People all this while If we may credit the Appellant they were Priests and Iesuits Or at least Papists But the King tells us they were Brownists Anabaptists and Other Sectaries Preaching Coachmen Felt-makers c. The Act for Indempnity gives us a List of the Regicides The Act of Uniformity stiles them Schismatiques and throughout the whole History of their Acts and Ordinances there appear none but Dissenting Protestants The Church of England being the Only Sufferer betwixt the Two Extreams And these People had the Interest of the Two Crowns in prospect too which the Appellant descants so Jollily upon Almost every Pulpit promising Salvation to the Fighters of the Lords Battels against the Lords Anointed with a Cursed be He at the End on 't that doth the work of the Lord Negligently Upon the Third Head he says that most Princes Believe or Disbelieve the Information which is given them of a Plot according to the Nature of the Evidence and Credit of the Informants There is no more in This than that most Princes Believe upon the Common Inducements that move all men of Reason whatsoever to Believe Viz The Probability of the matter in Question and the Credit of the Witnesses Now as to the Popish Plot we shall give him these Two Points for Granted but without discharging a Plot likewise on the Other hand upon the same Principles and no less pregnant Evidence We do not speak here of the Popish Plot which the Papists would most sillily have turn'd upon the Presbyterians the shallowest Contrivance certainly that ever was hatch'd and the most palpable Imposture But we speak of a Plot that was Bred and born in the Fanatical party whereof we have as many Witnesses almost as Readers in Forty Libels of That Leaven and Extraction Beside several Open and Violent attempts upon the Government which do unanimously bear Testimony against them The Following parts of This Paragraph are wrought into such a Complication of Zeal and Scandal one Snap at the King and another at the Plot that every period is a Bait And whoever touches upon it is sure of a Hook in his Nostrils Under Colour of Asserting and making out the Truth of the Plot which no sober man doubts of he throws Dirt upon his Majesty and his Ministers for dodging and Imposing upon the People in favour of it One while too Much comes out another while too Little The Frequent Dissolutions and Prorogations of Parliaments he says expresly were to prevent the Tryal of the Lords And so the Squib runs sputtering on from the King to his Privy Councel Thence to his Courts of Justice and in One word the whole Story comes to no more than a Political abstract out of Harris's Domestick Intelligence But why these Pamphlets to the Multitude First There 's no fear of the peoples running into Popery For 't is their Horrour and Aversion Secondly There 's no need of Convincing Them of the Truth of the Plot But rather to keep them from Extravagances upon the Jealousies and apprehensions they conceive of it already Thirdly There 's no need neither of calling Them to our assistance toward the suppressing of it For the sifting and Examining of this Conspiracy with the bringing of the Confederates to Publique Justice is a great part of the business of the Government So that these Libels cannot be reasonably understood to have any Other than these Two ends First To Teaze and Chafe the Rabble into a Rage disposing and preparing them to entertain any occasion for uproar and Tumult Secondly When their Bloud is up against This Detestable Plot with the Contrivers Promoters and abetters of it what does he but turn the Rancour of That Outragious Humour upon the King Privy Councel Courts of Justice and Briefly all his Friends by marking Them out for Parties in the Treason And so rendring his Majesty and his Government Odious by these Malicious Insinuations and endangering the Peace of the Publique to the Highest Degree The Fourth and Last Argument says he which may sometimes prevail with the Prince to disbelieve any report of a Conspiracy is taken from the Nature and Principles and from the Inâ—erest of the Pretended Conspiratours But neither of these Motives can pretend to Influence Our Prince into a Disbelief of This Popish Plot Fol. 7. The Appellants Observation and Inference is this that the Popish Plot is to be Believ'd because it squares with the Principles and Interest of the Party We are better informed in the History and Doctrine of Massacres and Regicides then to question the Malice of the Jesuitical Positions or the credibility of the Plot here in Debate and so we shall yield him in the Hellish Tenet which he insists upon of Murthering KINGS and a Hellish Tenet it is indeed and as Hellish undoubtedly in a Schismatique as in a Jesuit For his Quarrel otherwise is to the Faction not to the Maxim which is equally Dangerous and detestable in all Factions Now wheresoever we find the same Principles we have the Appellants leave honestly to suspect the same Designs Was not this the Doctrine of the Fanatiques from Forty to Sixty And did they not make good their Doctrine by their Practise Did they not declare the King Accountable to the People And did they not put him to Death upon that Foundation We have the very Journals themselves of those Times to prove what we say beside the Damned Harmony of their best received Authors to that purpose We propound say the Remonstrants that the Person of the King may be speedily brought to Justice for the Treason Bloud and Mischief he is Guilty of An Act says another agreeing with the Laws of God Consonant to the Laws of Men and the Practices of all Well-order'd States and Kingdoms Let Justice and Reason blush says another and Traytors and Murtherers Parricides and Patricides put on white Garments and Rejoyce as Innocent ones if this man speaking of the Late King should escape the hands of Justice and Punishment The Government of England says a Fourth is a Mixt Monarchy and Govern'd by the Major Part of the Three Estates assembled in Parliament Whensoever a King says a Fifth or other Superior Authority Creates an Inferior they invest it with a Legitimacy of Magistratical Power to punish themselves also in case they prove Evil Doers It is Lawful says a Sixth for any who have the Power to call to account a Tyrant or wicked King and after due Conviction to Depose and put him to Death if the Ordinary Magistrate have deny'd to do it Detrahere Indigno c. It is not for private persons to Depose a wicked Governour but that the Universality of the People may Lawfully do it I think no body questions These Seditious Positions with many more and some worse perhaps were publiquely Printed and avow'd before his Majesties Return And the very same Principles with Pestilent Additions to them have
his Own Life Only he concludes with a But this I hope is not Our Case in such a way of Doubting as implies Believing And so much for the first point The Second Motive he says Fol. 5. which may incline a Prince to disbelieve the Report of a Plot is from his Own Good Nature and Clemency which makes him not believe any ill of those to whom he has been so kind But this is a fallacious way of arguing Now by his Favour This is not so much an Argument from Good Nature on the One side as from the Tye of Gratitude on the Other but whether way soever it be taken the Late King found it indeed a very fallacious way of arguing for almost all his Acts of Grace and bounty turn'd to his mischief as appears in his Majesties Declaration of Aug. 12. 1642. when after delivering up his Ministers to Impeachments his Concessions in the business of the Star-Chamber High-Commission Court Ship-Money Forest-Laws Stannery-Courts Tonnage and Poundage Continuance of the Parliament c. they improv'd all these Trusts and Condescensions even to the formal taking away his Authority Revenue and Life And those particularly whom his Late Majesty Oblig'd to the highest degree laid the foundation of his Ruine Nor is the ingratitude of the same party to the Son less notorious then the other was to the Father None flying so fiercely in the face of the Kings Authority and person as those that stand indebted to the King for their Lives and Estates who yet act as confidently as if one Rebellion might be placed in Justification of another For they do now afresh and in publick avow the methods and practises of the late Times while the true sons and servants both of the English Church and State lie in the dust waiting for the righteous Judgment of the Lord in want and patience Now if according to the Appellants Rule those are the most dangerous to whom the King has been most kind that danger must be understood of the Fanatiques for otherwise the Appealer runs the Hazzard of a Premunire upon the Act for the safety of the Kings Person in scandalizing his Majesty for a favourer of Popery It is not yet that the general Rule fails because of this Exception For the greater the Obligation the greater in reason ought to be the confidence though the Appellant seems to be of another opinion Who betrays you in your Beds says he your Friend for your Enemy is not admitted to your House Who betrays you in your Estate your Friend for your Enemy is not made your Trustee So that nothing is more dangerous then a blind friendship This is an admirable fetch of his to prove his Royal Highness dangerous to his Majesty because he is both a Friend and a Brother and still the Nearer the more dangerous as if the King were safer in the hands of his Enemies then of his Friends But he expounds himself that they are more dangerous in respect of greater Confidence and fairer Opportunities There is no fence against that danger but utterly to cast off and renounce all the Bonds and Dictates of Society and Good Nature We must contract no Friendships and trust no Relations for fear they should cut our Throats How much more wretched then the very Beasts has our Appealer at this rate made Mankind by poysoning the very Fountain of Humane Comforts Nor is it a Friend that betrays us but an Enemy under that appearance By which Rule an Episcopal a Fanatical a Popish Friend are all equally dangerous For a Man has no more security of a Friend under one denomination then under another But the Appellant in this place speaks of the danger of a blind Friendship that is to say a kindness that is taken up without any consideration or Choice and runs on without fear or wit which in this application must either be very little respectfull or altogether Impertinent He produces instances of perfidious Favourites and Relations as if there were no other to be found in Nature By his Argument because One Woman poyson'd her Husband all men should destroy their Wives Because One Son supplanted his Father all Parents should drown their Children like Kitlins Because One Younger Brother offer'd violence to his Elder there should be no longer any Confidence or Faith maintain'd among Brethren If little petty Interests says he make one Brother-wish the others Death how much more prevalent will the Interest of a Crown be Nay of two Crowns viz. One here and another hereafter in Heaven promis'd him by an Old fellow with a bald pate and a spade-beard As to the Argument this is only the Second Part to the same Tune and a Particular Instance improv'd into an Universal Exception There are Wicked Husbands Wives Children Let there be no more Marrying Men have been poyson'd in the Sacrament in their Cups and Dishes shall we therefore never receive the Communion nor Drink nor Eat There have been Tyrants in all forms of Governments shall we therefore have no Government at all And moreover as this way of Reasoning Lessens all the Bonds of Humane Trust and Concord and runs us back again into Mr. Hobb's Original State of War so does it as little serve the Appellants purpose even if it were admitted First The Temptation of a Crown does not work upon any Man either as a Brother or as a stranger but equally upon Both and more or less as the man is more or less Consciencious or Ambitious So that the danger arises from the Humour of the Person not from the Relation Nay Secondly The Danger is Greater from a Popular Faction that has no Right at all to a Crown than from a Legal Pretendent to it upon a Claim of Descent For the One only waits his Time according to the course of Nature whereas the Other presses his end by the ways of Bloud and Violence having no other way to compass it He makes it yet a stronger argument where there is but One Life betwixt a Successor and Three Kingdoms But does not this Argument hold as strong on the other side There was only the King's Life betwixt the Faction of 1641 and the Three Kingdoms which Life they took away and so possest themselves of his Dominions Their pretence was only a Reformation of Abuses with Horrid and Multiply'd Oaths that they designed Only the Glory of God the Honour of the King the Preservation of the Protestant Religion His Majesty they said was misled by Popish Counsels and their Business was no more than to rescue him out of the hands of Papists and bring him home to his Parliament And what was the Event of all A Gracious Prince was Murther'd and 500 Tyrants set up in his stead Our Religion and Our Laws were Trampled upon and the Free-born English-men subjected to a Bondage below that of Gaily-slaves The whole Nation becoming a Scandal a Hissing and a Scorn to all our Neighbours round