THis Defence is grounded upon three fundamental principles; I. The Right of Petitioning. II. The Necessity. III. The Duty.

• I. It is the undoubted Right of the Subjects to Petition, being founded upon an Act of Parliament, and the highest reason in the world; for that is a very monstrous government, where the People must not approach their King, and acquaint him with their grievances. The people have the greatest property in the Land, and therefore the most concern'd when a Foreign Enemy is upon it; their welfare is the supream Law; and yet they must not desire to meet in order to consult their own preservation. The Jesuits (the sworn enemies to the English Nation) will take care of us, and our posterity; therefore why should we trouble our selves at this juncture? They can levy mony with a Proclamation, they can dispense with all Laws, and what should we do with a Parliament, when the whole Statute-Book serves for no other end but to wipe the Tayles of these Reverend Satyres; who fly into their Dens and Thickets, at the very sound of a House of Commons.
• II. The necessity, and that an indispensable one: The Government turn'd Topsie Turvy, no Law, no Rule, all in a state of War; all Treaties broken, all Obligations ceas'd; and yet the People must not come together to know why or wherefore they fight, or how they may avoid de­stroying one another; they must hack and cut one another to pieces blind­fold, and to no other end, but to save the Jesuits, and the Knaves, and to ruin themselves: But the most Reverend Bishops are told, that they shall have a Free Parliament as soon as ever the Prince of Orange has quitted this Realm; that is, such a Free Parliament as they were like to have had be­fore the Prince came hither, shuffl'd, cut, and pack't by Mr. Brent and his Missionaries, or perhaps ten times worse, or rather none at all; for the Church of Rome is grown such an infamous Bankrupt, that no body will trust her further than they can command her: She may be compar'd to the Tyger, which fawns, sneaks, and lurks as long as the Hunter is arm'd with his Spear and his Gun, but when once the Weapons are laid down, the Beast flies upon the unwary Forester, tears, and devours him.
• III. The Duty: For what better Office could those pious Prelats and Patriots of their Country do for the publick Good, than to make all Peo­ple Friends, to save the lives of many Thousands, and to heal all our Wounds and Sores, which they of the Roman Faith have inflicted upon a People too kind and good natur'd for such ravenous Monsters, who go about seeking whom they may devour. France, Hungary, and the Valleys of Pied­mont are still reeking with the blood of their poor innocent Preys, and ec­choing with the lamentations of a People ruin'd, by trusting these Crocodiles too much; and if God in his infinite mercy had not watch'd over these Kingdoms, and sent a Gabriel to guard them, they had certainly fallen a Vi­ctim to the intollerable Pride, the lawless Fury, and untractable Barbarity of a sort of Animals, call'd Catholicks, subtle, and treacherous by custom and discipline, not to be chain'd by any Law either of God or Man; and there­fore every body knows how far we may rely upon them, when the Arch-Angel leaves us.
  The Devil was sick, the Devil a Monk would be;

  The Devil was well, the Devil a Monk Was he.

Exeter, Nov. 21. 88.