ANIMADVERSION.

RIght 41. in the very Front! Thus began the STATE-MASTER-PIECE of those Days; it is the common Method of preparing for Rebellion; and so it hath been in all Ages: For when any one designed it, he first assaulted, not the Prince himself, (that would have been too gross) but began with some one principal Part or Person of his Government, and so proceeded by degrees to alter it. Thus it was in 41: For though the Designers well knew the Temper of England, that it would not be Govern'd without the Old State Ecclesiastical, yet they first found fault with the Governours the Bishops; and when they had taken off some of the Persons, then they next devised how to diminish their Power; and lastly, took away their whole Order; and so one Pillar of the Throne being gone, it was not long ere they tutor'd the People to the overturning of the other, as useless and dangerous; so that you know what became of the Throne it self. Nor were they, by the Rules of Ungodly Policy, to be blamed for this: For, when once Men are dipt in an ill beginning, they presently think they are bound to prosecute; and each Man concludes to himself, in the Langaage of Catiline,

But why the Bill of Test should be Father'd on the Bishops more than upon the other Lords of Parliament, I see not, since the major part of their Lordships were Zealous in the opinion and promotion of it, as a thing that would prove a notable means of the Crowns Stability, and the KING's Peace and Safety. But it seem'd more advisable to your Prime Engineer, after he had labour'd to render the Test as odious as he could, then to fasten it on the Bishops, that it might the better suit with that lucky Pattern of 41. But more of this Test hereafter, where I particularly consider it.

ANIMADVERSION.

LOok ye into that Book called, An exact Collection of all Remonstrances, Declarations, Votes, Orders, Ordinances, &c. which was Printed Anno 1642. and in the Fourth Page of that Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom, which your Masters presented the year before to His Majesties Father, you'l find the Old Copy of your New Calumny a­gainst the Bishops; for, they were then charged with a Design to introduce a Change; and, [Page 3] by imbroill [...]g the King and his People with Disputes about Prerogative and Liberty, to create unto themselves a distinct Party, under a Pretence of being for the King; that so having the advantage of siding with Him, and under the Notion of Men addicted to His Service, they might, in the end, gain to themselves and their Partakers, the Places of greatest Trust, Power, and Advantage in the Kingdom.

Who would have imagin'd, that Men could be thus Ungrateful to His Majesty, after so Gracious an A [...]t of Oblivion, as to be found reviving the Old Names of Distinction? What is this, but to set the Old Quarrel on foot again? and to begin it upon the same Point, of charging the Bishops as the Causers of it? Thus Nero made it his business to set Rome on fire, and then charged the Fact upon the Christians. Who are they that are most likely to be Projecting unto themselves the Power and Great Offices of the Kingdom, but you your selves, who are ready to make room with an Out-cry against the Great Officers? There is one among you, who knows how to drive a Bargain for Great Offices at the price of your heads, if any Body thought it worth the while to truck with him; and then we should know who they are that take Courses to overthrow the Act of Oblivion; and in the mean while do shoot Slanders at his Majesty, and His Ministers, through the Bi­shops sides, as if it were they that joyntly design against it; whereas His Majesty hath been so far from breaking the First, that 'tis not long since he granted a Second Act of Obli­vion: and your Friend MEPHISTOPHILES Himself had so great a share in the benefit of it, that one would even swear it was granted for His sake, or that He principally for His own sake procured it. Therefore he had best take heed He do not bring on a Popular State too fast, unless they will beforehand seal him another Oblivion, lest My Lords the People come, at length, to knock at his Door for a better Account, and set up Brook-house anew for him hereafter.

ANIMADVERSION.

THus the Blows light on the Bishops; but his Aim is at His Majesties Government▪ onely 'tis not time of day yet to let us know what he would be at. For in the mean time he writes fair after his 41 Copy; for, you may read in the Grand Remonstrance of the Commons, Anno 1641. that it was charged on the Bishops in those days, That they imposed a New Oath for maintenance of their own Power. God forbid that that Remon­strance, which then took the Frame of Government all in pieces, should be thought to be the Act of an House of Commons. Many thousands are yet living, who know it was but a Party in that House, who, by the help of Tumults continually flowing out of the City, like a mighty Inundation upon Whitehall and Westminster, did, by Threats and Vio­lence upon both Houses, animate a Presbyterian Party in that House, to be able to over­awe the rest, and carry on that Remonstrance by head and shoulders; as they did also af­terward many other strange Petitions, Declarations, Votes, and Ordinances; to the dishonour of the King, in order to the undermining of His Authority, and the an­cient Government of the Kingdom: And this way they carried matters so long, and with such heat and fury, that in tract of time, the best part of the House of Commons, perceiving they were not able to stop this Career by any prudent Coun­sels or Endeavours, resolved to sit no longer with such Company, to be made a State and Property to such Unparliamentary Proceedings; and so at length departed from them to Oxford, whither His Majesty and most of the House of Lords also had [Page 4] been forced to retire from the insolent Assaults daily made by the City Multitudes, which were under the Countenance, and at the Command of that All-commanding Par­ty of the Commons, seconded by some few of the Lords; who helpt to hold up the Form and Shadow of a Parliament so long, till the very Name of a House of Peers was at last Obliterated. A sad Instance it is, to teach their Successors what they may ex­pect in future, whensoever seduced through Discontent or Envy, to affect Popularity, they shall again (which God forbid) separate their own personal Interests, and that of their Peerage, from the Interests of the Crown, upon any (though the most specious) pretences whatsoever,

Here what the King himself said of those Tumults, in His [...]; for doubt­less He could best tell, who felt the effects of them: and, What person is there that ever loved Him, or engaged for Him, would be willin [...] to see His Son, our most Gracious King, assaulted with the like? Or that can with patience hear, that some Lords, and other persons, are turn'd Tradesmen and Exchange men in t [...] City; and become free there of the Company of Demagogues? [They were (saith he) not like a Storm at Sea (which yet wants not its terror) but like an Earthquake, shaking the very foundations of all; than which nothing in the World hath more of horror. No Declaration from the Bishops, who were first insolenced and assaulted; nor yet from other Lords and Gentlem [...]n of Honour, nor yet from my self could take place, for the due repression of those Tumults; and for the securing, not onely our freedom in Parliament, but our very persons in the Streets. When I found things thus, I hoped, by my withdrawing, to give time for the ebbing of their tumultuous fury.] Note here (ye Shafsburians) first the Bishops assaulted, then the Members of Parliament, and then the King Himself: this was the fruit then; and, this would be again the issue of your Little Leaders trading with ill-humours in the City against Bishops; but that there is a Sound and Loyal Magistracy to balance Male-contents, and observe both him and them in all their Motions; so that it will be a hard matter for that small Boutefeu, to Blow up the Government again, by undermining it on the Bishops side: for, one Trick of State is not to be shewn twice within the memory of man; so that now (I suppose) he hath lived to see the utmost of his old Trade of Jugling, having Jugled himself out of all at Court; and being past hope of Jugling himself in again (all his Fears being well understood, there—) he sets up at t'other end o'th' Town, to Jugle up a Mutiny in the City; in hope to find Combustible matter there to set Fire to in the Countrey; and, at length, inflame a Party for his purpose in this Parliament, or rather in a New One, which he supposes will be the likeliest Expedient: And truly, he did as good as tell us so in that Letter written above a Twelve moneth since out of the Coun [...]rey to the Earl of Carlisle at London, or rather imposed upon him: Which was indeed superscribed to his Lord­ship, but intended for a Fireball among the Citizens here; as appeared by the In­dustrious Spreading Copies of it in all the Coffee-houses; and the effect which it, and his other Practises since had; and which lately inspired Mr. Jenks with the wisdom of a Statesman, to instruct His Majesty, and move the matter at Guildhall in Common-Council, to be managed in the old Presbyterian way of Petitioning; a sort of Saucy Humility, much used by that Tribe in the beginning of their Re­bellion. These things should not be remember'd, but that they themselves are pleased to revive them, and give us cause to judge, that they hope one day to have a Pull for it in a New Parliament with the Bishops, and then with His Majesty. In order to which, MEPHISTOPHILES hath one Expedient more upon the Anvile; and that is, to use all manner of Tricks that may be, by LONG SPEECHES, and LONG DEBATES among the Lords, and the STARTING of CON­TROVERSIES about Priviledge, betwixt their Lordships and the Commons, to [Page 5] FRUSTRATE Dispatches of the King and Kingdome's Business; and so Ne­cessitate the Present Parliament to become Unserviceable, that he may obtain a Plausible Pretence, to draw in the People to cry out for a New One, as the onely Cure of all our Maladies. But how improbable a thing that is (if not impossible) you shall find evidently proved before the end of these Animadversions.

ANIMADVERSION.

MOre Sacks to the Mill upon the Bishops. Load them till ye sink 'em: That (it seems) must be first done; then down with Monarchy: that follows of course, as we well and wofully remember. 'Tis done then like a Workman, to tell the World, that Episcopacy is alterable, that the People may not, in any sence, own it to be of Divine Right; and so it will be easily concluded, that Monarchy also is alterable; because his Believers cannot believe it to be Jure Divino. 'Tis a great Crime indeed (Sirs) in the Bishops, that they stand thus in the way of this Alterability, and that they maintain Kings to have any Divinity about 'em. We have had of late many fine Points publickly Printed, and exposed to the De­bates of the Multitude; such as this, Whether Kings be made of Clouts, or no? but, What deserves the Man that starts such Hares as these, which no man can run down, but he must run the ready Road to Rebellion, and Alteration of Government? which its impossible to prevent, unless we hold up the Veneration that is due to the Head and Members of this Monarchy. But, had I any thoughts of Rebelling; or were I a Cashier'd or Broken Statesman, not likely in fair weather to lift aside my Rivals, and get in again with the Monarch my Master, I would (had I so little in me of a Christian, or a good Subject) take all the course I could to gather Clouds about him, and create a Storm; that I might force him to come to me for shel­ter, or take me to himself again to help him to weather it. Had I long'd, and long done any thing, for the place of Treasurer, and unluckily mist the Bag; and, by all the good Qualities of Judas, pretended as high merit to it as any man; or to the Seale; or to any Grand Office of State, that such a Gnat of Ambition as I durst venture to swallow; had I been bobb'd out of All, I would even fall to Courting the People after the same manner, and Preach up the Mortality of Kings, till I and my Myrmidons could fright him out of his Divinity, and replace me, and scare him our of the remembrance also of all my Jugglery, into a new Oblivion to secure me: Then would I remove and laugh at all my Opposites, and the Citizens too, and leave them at last to contemplate my wisdom, and their own folly. All this (Sirs) with the help of one of your Shaftsbury Consciences I could easily do.

And if this could not be done, then would I march on further, and follow the dictates of Nature for Self-preservation; and sticking close to the Multitude, drive them on to do any thing that might hamper the King, and shackle the Monarchy; or (if need require) transform it into the hands of Conservators; or else (in case that cannot be) precipitate my self and it to the very bottom of Democracy, rather [Page 6] than not be revenged on my Sovereign Master, for favouring and preferring my fellow-servants and competitors before me: The Poet saith,

Would not any Man then think it well done of the Bishops, to plead for the Di­vinity of Kingly Government, and of the Epis [...]opal, (which is a part of the Kingly) when there are some in the World that design to handle them without all Humanity? and would (had they opportunity) by a commonruine both of King and Bishops, too late convince this Nation, that by all means there ought to be a joint Interest of mutual preservation maintained betwixt them; and that the Monarchy cannot, in rea­son, be supposed maintainable without it. If this be so, (as I shall sufficiently manifest anon, when I come to consider the late clamour against the TEST) then 'tis high time for all Men that have sworn Allegiance, to apprehend that the Government of Church and State ought to be sworn to, as so Divine, as not to be alterable, till they can tell us a way how to lay aside the Right of Episcopacy at this time in England, without ruining the Monarchy.

If so be then I have a purpose to make good my Allegiance to the King, how can I scruple to swear not to alter the Church, which is a principal part of his Kingly Go­vernment? By the one Oath I have sworn to him in both his Capacities, Personal and Politick, (which are never to be separated) why then should I deny an Oath ob­liging me not to alter the Kingly Polity of the Church? which is as much the Kings Government, though stiled Ecclesitstical, as the other part is which we term Purely Civil. Consider then (ye Men of Shaftsbury) the Obligation to both parts of the Go­vernment is equal, by vertue of your Oath of Allegiance; and if his Majesty and the Bishops, and many Noble Peers, have thought of passing a New Oath, they did no more but what is very necessary, in the midst of all the present Underminings of this Mo­narchy on its Episcopal quarter: that is, they thought it wisdom to fortifie that part, with Mens swearing to it, expresly and plainly by a new Oath; which is no more than what was implicitely contained before in their old Oath of Allegiance: and which is not to be found fault with more than the old, by any but such persons as either hold it not lawful, or have no mind to swear Allegiance at all; or else are very fairly in­clined to forfeit it. And yet what a world of fine Speeches, what a stir, and what a pother, doth our Author tell his Friend in the Countrey, this, and that, and t'other Lord, made in the House of Peers against the Swearing!

And every jot as wise a business 'tis (which indeed, considering the drift of it, deserves a Capital Animadversion) that this Gentleman in Print is pleased to start such a Question as this, Whether Monarchy, as well as Episcopacy, be Jure Divino, and not to be bounded by Human Laws? What the drift is of raising such Quaeres among the Populacy, at such a time as this, let sober Men consider. A man might easily ghess, what a Monarch, not bounded by a Human Spirit, would do to such a Spright as this, who ought rather▪ to be answered with that old Motto, Ratio ultima Regum; which would be hung about his Neck, by a Prince of as little Humanity as this Man himself appears to be, after all the Graces and Bounties by him received, and thus ungratefully requited. The Kings one single Act of sparing such a Factionist, as well as all the other Acts of his Majesties Government, doth manifest, that he himself affects only a Temperate Monarchy, to govern by Law: Nor can the Bishops he justly charged with affecting any other, or ever to have had any other design about it than this, to teach the people there is so much of a Divinity in the Rights and Persons of Kings, that they ought in their High Station to be Reverenced and Obeyed by the [Page 7] Subject, for conscience sake. This Divine Right is certainly due to them, and to Bishops also who are Governours under them, not to be thought alterable, under any pretence whatsoever, till his Majesty can be fairly convinced of some better way of ordering the Affairs of a National Church, which may more effectually answer the Good Ends of Regal Government: and truly, till that be done by this Letter-man, 'tis downright Sedition, with Treason (I fear) in its Belly, for him to design the making of a Party against Bishops, to hinder the passing of any Expedient (be it an Oath, or any other) that might fortifie so Fundamental a part of the Monarchy.

ANIMADVERSION.

Court and Church! That is to say, The King and the Bishops; for, the Court is nothing without the King. They are well joyned together; for, take away either of these, and they both fall together; the Government being so ordered in England, that they stand Props to each other. Therefore, as dull a Politician as I am, if I meant to raise Sedition, or commence Rebel, I would not say a word a­gainst the King and Monarchy, (that would be too foul at first, whatever my Aim were:) but away with Bishops; and then, of course, I shall be able to talk of, and with his Majesty. But yet, in case I should so plainly discover my pur­pose to imbroil the Nation, as Some-body hath done, by baiting the Bishops both in and out of the House of Peers, I confess I should hardly believe a King would have the patience to let me go about, and discourse, and write, and print thus, to drive on my design among the Subjects in City and Countrey. It would be a wonderful Evi­dence of his Lenity, and such as might melt me, or the heart of any Man, that is not in Nature a Tygre, or of the strain of the people of Shaftsbury, into a time Repen­tance.

Especially, if it be considered, that the scope of this last Paragraph is, to suggest unto the people, as if the King with his Ministers, and the Bishops, were plotting a Destruction of the Power of Parliament, so as it shall not be able to alter any thing in Church or State; nor be able to make and alter Laws in future as their Prede­cessors have done, without incurring the crime of perjury. This is a strange Age, that no Doctrine will take but that of altering, or pulling down an ancient Govern­ment, before we are provided either of Amendments for what we are to alter in the old, or of a new and better Form, to be substituted in its room when we take it away. But a thing it is, much more strauge, that one single Sophister, having lately undergone, and deserved an alteration of his Fortune, so as to have been turn'd out of his great Offices, and the Court too, for his Tricks, should gain the Ears and Belief of so many Noble Peers; and seal up their Eyes too, that they should not see his design of revenge through all his pretences: which (alas!) had never been thought of, but Bishops and King and Court too, had continued very good Men; and we should have had neither Speech nor Protestation of his, as long as he could have enjoy­ed (nor had we so long as he did enjoy) a Courtiers share among them. Nor would he ever have vouchsafed the kindness of any Letters to his Friends in the Countrey, but the Oath of Test might have passed current, as a good Expedient, for preserving the Government from any unnecessary alteration: and he would have told you also ano­ther [Page 8] Tale, had it hapned that any Parliament-Man should have risen up then, as vile as himself, to act the same part for an Alteration (or rather Subversion) of the Go­vernment: and he could readily have maintained the Test very necessary to be taken by Parliament-Men: to secure both King and Parliament from the ruine designed. And moreover, he can tell you, that it is no news for Parliament-Men, before they enter the Parliament, to take an Oath to be true to the Government as it is Esta­blished; and yet not to reckon themselves so bound up by the Oath, as to lose their power and liberty to debate and resolve upon such Alterations afterward in the Esta­blishment as shall be found needful. What needed then all this Clamour of his? see­ing the Test would have done no more than the Oath of Allegiance doth, oblige the Parliament to maintain the present Establishment of Church and State against all Alterations, till King and Parliament shall judge them needful to be made: As shall be made eviden [...]ation, when I come to con [...]ider it in more ample manner. And yet what a Cl [...]tter h [...]e we had abo [...] i [...]!

ANIMADVERSION.

THe Cavalier and Churchman do very well remember, when it was that they were made Slave [...], and by whom. Was is not presently after the Bishops and Church been alter'd? And by what manner of persons were these things done? Even by those very Lords and Commons, who in their great [...] of the State of the Kingdom, Anno 1641. declared, That they conceived t [...]ir Pro [...]eedings to be [...] by such M [...]n as did [...] into t [...]e People, [...]hat th [...]y meant to aboli [...]h the Church-Government; or to abs [...]lve any M [...]n of that Obedien [...]e which he owes und [...]r God to His MAJESTY, wh [...]m they conf [...]ss to be intrusted with the Ecclesiastical Laws, as well as with the Temporal. And in their Declaration of the Ninth of April 1642. they de­clare, That they intended only a due and ne [...]essary Reformation of the Government and Li­turgie of the Church; And to take away nothing in the one or the other, but what shall be evil, and justly offensive. And yet 'tis not long after, that we find them Voting and throwing down the whole Church-Government; and, at length, that of the State too, notwithstanding all the Protestations by them made to the contrary, be­fore God and the World. Therefore neither Cavaliers nor Churchmen can, after so late and sad an experience of Alterability and Alteration, be such fools, as not to un­derstand what they have seen and felt, by such Alterative humors as are now asloat again; and what the Issue of them would be, if they might have way: especially, seeing the same Presbyterian Faction are brewing afresh; and so visibly, that we need not seek pretences to raise jealousie about their doings; forasmuch as they are bare-faced and busie; and our Projecting Dandeprat, whose Actions are accountable, at least within the Statute against firing of Houses, openly acting the Kindle-cole in Parliament, to create a Party there for their purpose: and because he cannot yet find a House of Commons for the turn, you have him and his Agents every where about the City, Preaching up a necessity of Calling a New One; and from London his Doctrine is spread into the Countreys, with good Counsel to dispose the People to the Old Way of Petitioning; that by a full Crie, the King may be in a manner constrained to give them opportunity once more to try their Fortunes by a New Election. This [Page 9] is more than Jealousie, as Mr. Jenks (if he please) can tell you; so that our Author might have spared this Frump, which he slings at those few Forces which His Majesty hath been, and is necessitated to keep up to secure the Government: of which Forces he and his Partisans are, by their Seditious (if not Treasonous) Speeches, Letters, and Practises, the most likely men to cause an augmentation ▪ so that if ever a necessity arise that they must be augmented, to prevent those mens purposes, the Nation may from hence understand, whom they are to thank for it, and how to excuse the hard condition of a Gracious King, who would rather rule by love, and sets more value upon a Regiment in the universal good Wills and Hearts of his Subjects, than in all the Regiments of force and violence in the World. And, how small soever this Letter insinuates His Majesties Party to be; yet, if ever God, for our manifold sins, should suffer Incendiaries to blow up a new Rebellion, by their tracing the same methods, that they used who promoted the former; it will soon appear by the many thousands that abhor it, and its Contrivers, that all the rest of the Nation will become ready Volunteers, either in Purse or Person, to defeat their Enterprises and prevent the like miseries and confusions, as those were, that the same Faction brought upon us heretofore. In the mean time 'tis but reason they should declaim against standing Forces, because these few do stand in their way, though they are no great number; and are as a Bridle in their mouthes; so that 'twill be a hard matter for them to get out the Old Tools to go to Work with, I mean Tumults out of the City; which were easily form'd in those days, when they had none to deal with but a naked King, and a Guard of Beef-eaters.

But, Why is it, that he cries out, We are like to be made Slaves? To perswade men to the belief of it, he is pleased to insist upon four following instances, viz. Four Acts of this Parliament, which are indeed as high and neces [...]ary Acts of pru­dence, as could be passed by Parliament, to preserve the Monarchy; and fence it against the Designs of any new Rebellion, that may in future be grounded upon the old humors.

ANIMADVERSION.

Upon perusal of this Act, you will find it was high reason that moved the Par­liament to pass it, as appears by this preamble, viz. That the succession in governing such Corporations may be most probably p [...]rpetuated in the hands of persons well- [...] to His Majesty, and the established Government; it being too will known, that notwith­standing all His Majesties endeavours, and unparallel'd indulgence in pardoning all that is past, nevertheless ma [...]y evil spirits are still working. Wherefore, for prevention of the like mischief for the time to c [...]me; and for preservation of the publick peace both in Church and State, Commissioners are appointed to see, that all Mayors, Recorders, Aldermen, and other persons bearing Office of Magistracy, Trust, or Employment, relating to the Government of Cities, Corporations, and Boroughs, do take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, and another Oath; That they [...] declare and b [...], that it is not lawful, upon any prete [...]ce whatsoever, to tak [...] A [...]s against the King; [Page 10] and that they do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against His Person, or against those that are Commissionated by Him.

And at the same time also, the said Commissioners are to see that such persons do subscribe a Declaration; declaring, That they do hold that there lies no Obligation upon themselves, or any other Person, from the Oath commonly called, The Solemn League and Covenant; and that the same was in it self an unlawful Oath, and imposed upon the Sub­jects of this Realm, against the known Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom.

This was an Act of the whole Parliament; and there's no reason therefore why our Letter-Man should charge it on the Bishops alone, but that the main Aim is at them first; and for what cause I have already told you. 'Tis conceived the ready way to go to work, it having been the beaten way to attaque the Government on that side: for this, the Party is a forming; the Presbyterian hath been tickled in his own way; and the other sorts of Nonconformists are to be drawn in, if they can be brought to for­get the Revenges of Presbytery, and be perswaded they shall have fairer Quarter under them than under Episcopacy: for this purpose ('tis known) our small Engineer turned City-Merchant; and having driven a fine Trade in the Winter 75. in the Great Corporation, he hath the following Summers been laying a Train in the lesser Corpora­tions, in hope to blow up this Parliament with the noise of a new one.

The Prologue to the Tragedy must be, Down with the Bishops; this is determined to be the onely necessary Preliminary. But that (thinks he, and the whole Knot) is not to be brought about while this Parliament sits: Ergo, the onely way is, to be rid of this Parliament as soon as may be, and shuffle our Pack as well as we can, to get sure Cards for a new one, to play over again the old pranks of their Brethren. This drift of theirs is so well understood by his Majesty, and by all Persons of Discretion and Loy­alty, that although the Succession of Parliaments be a thing most commendable, yet no sober Person, that is well-affected to His Majesty, and the Peace of these King­doms, can approve the bringing on a new Parliament by Seditious Projectors, and Po­pular Clamours; especially at such a time as this, when we have a Parliament in being; a Parliament which hath had the Honour to Re-settle the Crown and Kingdom, after it had, by a wonderful Hand of God, been but newly rescued out of the Ruines of a late Rebellion: A Parliament that hath done perhaps more for the Preservation of this well-temper'd Monarchy, than many other of the best Parliaments put together ever did before: and I may boldly say, because it can be proved by Instances of Fact, that they have done more towards the containing of Monarchick Power in its just Bounds, than any Parliament ever did, that may be counted to have been the most popular and publick-hearted: And besides this, the Journals of both Houses will shew, that they have now lying before them, so many excellent Resolves and purposes, that their sitting to dispatch them, is the onely necessary means to put the Nation into the enjoyment of quick Remedies for our future safety and prosperity. And whereas it hath faln out, that they have been unable to do any thing to purpose, by reason of Differences betwixt both Houses, you are to know (ye Men of Shaftsbury) that the Occasions of that Discord about points of Priviledge, and other Matters, were but Artificial Contrivances of some Broken-States-Men, and other Male-contents; made such by their own ill Humours, and Emulations against Men, whose Abilities, Inte­grity and Merits, have gotten place above them in His Majesties Favour and Prefer­ment. Those are they that would mingle Heaven and Earth, to create a party to keep those Differences on foot; and therefore the Occasions are by them made much of, and carefully laid up, that they may be readily started, when time serves, to hin­der dispatches of the publick Business of the King and Kingdom; because the design of the Consederates is thus laid:

[Page 11] First, By Tricks to reduce this Parliament, as fast as they can, into a state impractica­ble and unserviceable, thereby to introduce a seeming Necessity of a speedy calling an­other.

Secondly, To make sure Work, they have stricken in with the Old Workmen, and ado­pted the Presbyterian Party, the onely Canker that frets in the Bowels of this Nation, and which gathers all other naughty Humours to its self; in hope to aggrandise a Faction, big enough, and loud enough, to uproar a New Parliament for their Turn, if it may be: One main Plot is so to order it, that this Parliament, who apprehend a necessity of holding fast, in a Factions Time, to that part of the Government called Bishops, as the most needful Expedient to preserve the Crown, may never go off with the reputation of speaking Peace and Settlement to the Nation, by perfecting those excellent Intendments and Resolutions, which to that end, do lie before them. By this you may perceive, why your Letter-man seeks to destroy the Credit of the Bishops, as well as of the Parlia­ment. Whatever hath been done, still the Bishops must be in fault, though it be an Act of the whole Parliament, and the wisest Act that can be Enacted.

And such, without all question, was that Act about Corporations. For of what Tem­per the Corporations of England were, may be collected from the time of the late Ri­chard's short Reign, when those Notorious Addresses were by them made to him in Lofty Strains of Recognition, Obedience, and Allegiance; which was but a few Moneths before His Majesties Wonderful Restitution. And therefore, though it was miraculous, it was not to be supposed so great a Miracle, as in an instant to transform the Hearts and Spirits of such Addressers, into a firm and lasting Frame of Fidelity to the King and his Government: what then could the Parliament do less for the securing of both, than put Corporation-Men under the Test of such an Oath and Declaration, as might either satisfie His Majesty, that those Persons were become New Men; or else might, upon their re­fusal of that Test, give the King a Just occasion, for his Own and his Peoples Security and Peace, to purge them out of their places, and put in Persons Loyal and Faithful. Moreover, 'tis to be noted, that this Test upon Corporations was by that Act, to conti­nue but to the Year 1663; as short a time as could be set for the doing so great a Work, as to put things in order, to go on upon a right Wheel of Government in those places for the future; after which they were left to proceed in the ordinary ways of Electing their Magistrates and Officers as heretofore.

This is nothing but what in Prudence and Providence was absolutely necessary. And the use of it hereafter may be this to all Corporations; That in all occasions, be it of Electing Magistrates, Officers, Parliament-Men, and doing any thing of Concern to Go­vernment, they do carry themselves in such a manner (it being indeed their true Inte­rest so to do) as not to suffer Factions, or particular Factions and ill-affected Persons, to grow up and get ground among them; for the natural Consequence must be, That at length, if such considerable Corporated par [...]els of the Body Politick, shall by degrees be corrupted with Men, who by contracting particular Interests, shall march counter to the Publick Interest of Government, and imploy the Interests and Credit of their Cor­porations against it; then, of course, Princes and Parliaments are constrained, whether they will or no, to provide for a securing the Publick Interest by some extraordinary course: And when they do it, 'tis not their fault that the usual course is broken; but they properly are the Authors, who by their own Extravagancies first gave the occa­sion, and pressed a necessity upon them so to do. And truly, in such case, the best­natured Princes in the World, if you consider them as Publick Persons, cannot avoid it, unless you will suppose what is absur'd to conceive, that they will relinquish the ends of Government, and let all run into confusion.

[Page 12] So much for the Reason of the Act about Regulating Corporations. Now for the next Act about the Militia complained of.

ANIMADVERSION.

HOw the intent of this Act for ordering the Militia can be wrested to the sence of a Standing Army, is a Construction past all Understanding: but the blame of this also is laid upon the Bishops: It must be said to be their Business, though of all Men none are more remote from the Concern of it. And as little reason also there is, to per­swade Men it Establishes a Standing Army, or Military Government. [...] is indeed a con­stant Force: but in whose hands? Is it not in the hands of the Nob [...]ry and Gentry, the persons of the greatest Interest, and consequently most concerned in the Maintenance of Civil Government and Laws, Liberty and Property? Insomuch, [...] as well be­lieve the Men will cut their own Throats, as betray either: [...] in the hands of Men most interested by their own Concerns for Univers [...] [...] as contrary to the nature of a meer Mer [...]e [...]ary Army, (for, that he means by [...] as Fire is to Water; so that the one, in the very Notion, as well as nature of [...] preventive, and privative or exclusive of the other. And in the midst of all the idle [...]o [...]es, that we have had these late years, about a design of a Standing Army, nothing [...]s a [...]reater stay to sober Mens Minds than this Consideration, That as we have a Ring [...] no [...] designs and Intrigues; one that loves his People; wise, and confident of his No [...]ility [...]nd Gentry; so he knows he cannot need Forces to maintain his Government, as long as they have the Power by Law to raise them for him: nor can there be the least ground for Male-contents to sow Reports of this kind, unless wicked designs of their [...] [...]gainst the Go­vernment, shall prompt them to New Commotions; and then indeed they may have reason to fear an Army, and cry out against it, before it is in being; because they take mutinous courses to force it on us.

But another fault here found in the Militia-Act, is, that the Lords Lieutenants and Deputy-Lieutenants are obliged by Oath to declare against this Traiteroas Position of taking Arms against the King; and that Arms may be taken by His Authority against His Person, or against those that are Commissioned by Him, &c. Doubtless, this Provision in that Act, is a point grounded upon High Reason: For that Position and the Cove [...]t, were two Vipers that crawled into the World out of the bowels of Presbytery: And out of the bowels of those two, crawled all those Monstrous Treasons which afterwards were practised. As to the first of them, not Maria [...]a himself, nor all the curious Preachers of the Mystery of King-killing among the Jesuites, ever invented a more nice and ser­viceable distinction; so to split a hair, in point of Allegience, betwixt the Person of a King and His Authority, that the Subjects might be brought to understand, how to kill the Man, and not hurt the Authority; or, (which is all one) how to destroy a King, and Justifie the Fact, by His own Authority. The fine spinning of such Poli­ticks, exceeds all that ever was done by all the fine Spinners in Logick, or Metaphy­sicks; and 'tis so fine a Folly, that it would crack an honest man's brains to consider it, or puzzle a wise man how to distinguish it from gross Nonsence in Polity. And yet when it shall be told to our Posterity, what a world of People such a phantastick Noti­on, [Page 13] as this, drew in to side with a piece of a Parliament against the whole; and against their King too, under the Notion of being for Him and for His Parliament, I am perswaded it will to them be almost incredible: And therefore, it was high Wis­dom for the Parliament, to provide in this Act of Ordering the Militia; that the Arms of the Nation might never come into the hands of such High-Notional Politici­ans in time to come; who, when Arms were in their hands heretofore, sufficiently tutor'd us in the Arts and Effects of Military Government: And ye may remember (my good Friends of Shaftsbury) this Letter-Man, your own Countreyman, had a fair share in that Military Government, and knows the ready road to conduct you to a New One; onely (it seems) another Parliament is wanting for the purpose, to make this King a Glorious King too; as, not long since it was written to my Lord of Carlisle: little (I believe) to his Lordships content or approbation.

As to that Second Viper the COVENANT, Lerna Malorum! From whence sprang Hydra, infesting the Three Kingdoms, till she returned into the Lake of Fire and Brim­stone, there to stare in the Faces, or rather Consciences of its own Authors and Prose­lytes? It came on in No [...]i [...] Domini; but whether in the D [...]'is name more properly, time did try. For, this confirm'd all the miseries that were begun, and became, as it were, the Broad Seal of the Decree of God's Judgments upon these Nations. That Solemn League and Covenant came on indeed with great Solemnity of pious Pretence, of maintaining us in our former Obligations of Allegiance to the King and His Government, and the Security of Religion by Reformation: and by this fair fraud, I am perswaded it was, that abundance of men, Conscientious, but unwary, swallowed the Hook, and were caught, not dreaming what ought to be consider'd; for then they might have found under this Fine [...], there was Death in the Pot; seeing it had been formed, and impo­sed, onely by F [...]ow-Subjects, without, and against the Will of the King; for which Reason it was indirect, and illegal; and so great a stranger to the Right Reformed Pro­t [...]stant Profession, that Subjects should presume, by Covenanting, with Fire and Sword, to force on a Reformation; that we can find no example for it, but out of the Records of Presbyt [...]ry: Nor is there any thing in those of Popery to be compared with it, but onely that Holy League, which engaged France into many years of Blood and Misery, before it could be extinguished.

They might also, had they had wisdom enough and experience, have considered what was then in the heart and foresight of His Majesties Father, as we find it expressed in His Writings; than the insertion of which in this place, nothing can be more to the purpose, or more seasonable; especially in a time, wherein many of the Old Kindlers are visibly blowing this Old Coal again, to revive it; and with it, to over-heat the Brains and Con­sciences of men, into a zeal of the same Obligation, in stead of repentance that ever they took it. But hear what the King said of it; and 'tis enough to forewarn, and advise men of any Conscience, or discretion, in the future. [That (saith he) which makes such Confederations by way of Solemn Leagues and Covena [...]ts, the more to be suspected, is; That they are the common Road, used in all Factions Perturbations of State or Church: Where Forma­lities of extraordinary zeal and piety are never more studied and elaborate, than when Politicians a [...]itate most desperate designs against all that is setled, or sacred in Religion and Laws; which, by such skrues, are cunningly, yet forcibly wrested by secret st [...]ps, and less sensible degrees, from their known Rule and wonted practice, to comply with the humors of those men, who aim to subdue all to their own will and power, under the disguises of Holy Combinations.] Wisdom and Truth greater than this, or more Divine, never was uttered by any Prince since the days of Solomon: And it ought to be for ever written in the hearts of Subjects; because we can seal to it, upon the sad experience we had in our late Civil Wars, to the utter ruine of all Religious Profession, which men ought to take care by sincerity and inte­grity [Page 14] of life, to hold up in the height of Reputation, as the most sacred thing in the World.

Otherwise, what we may expect of the pretences and disguises of the most Sanctimo­nious Combinations, the same king tells us in the following words: [They are Cords and [...]ythes will hold mens Consciences no longer, than force a [...]tends and twists them: for every man soon grows his own Pope, and easily absolves himself of those Ties, which, not the command of Gods Word, or the Laws of the Land, but only the subtilty and terror of a Party casts upon him. Indeed such illegal ways, seldom or never intend the engaging of men more to Duties, but only to Parties: therefore 'tis not regarded how they keep their Covenants in point of Piety pretended, provided they adhere firmly to the Party and design intended. The Imposers of such a League will admit of any mens sences of it, though divers or contrary, with any Salvoes, Cautions, and Re­servations, so as they cross not the chief design against the Church and their King.] There are many thousands yet living, who can witness to the truth of it; that they had no sooner involved the several Parliamentary Parties in the guilt of that Covenant, but they all fasten­ed several Sences and Constructions upon it; such as might best suit with the several ends and designs of their particular Parties. They, like Samson's Foxes, had their heads looking divers ways, but were tied together by the Tails; had one common Interest, which tied them fast to each other in Agreement, for the destruction of King and Bishops. They easily absolved one another, and each man himself, from the seeming obligations of the Covenant, to Loyalty and Government, as fast as their particular occasions called them off to other Resolutions. And if we may believe Sir Henry Va [...]e, it was in the pen­ning so worded, that the Noose might not be too strict and narrow for Conscience to escape out of it, when occasion should require. For when that Gentleman came to Tower-hill to dye, he told us to this purpose, that himself had been one of the Commissioners that went out of England into Scotland, and was present there in those Councils, then on Foot betwixt both Kingdoms, which contrived that Covenant. And when it was objected by some, that if the Terms of the Covenant should run so high, for preservation of the King and His Family, as they seemed to be, the King perhaps might notwithstanding be utterly hardened against it, and frustrate all the good intents of it towards himself; And in such case, it was propounded in Council, what then should be done? At last it was concluded, an Addition should be made to it of that ominous Clause [In the preservation, and defence, of the Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms]. A Clause which was made use of afterwards, to prove that the Nation might be established in a Government, without any regard to the King or His Family.

For manifestation of this Truth, there needs no more, but to cast an eye back upon that fatal Remonstrance of the Army, dated at St. Albans, 20th November 1648. penned by Ireton, Cromwel's Son-in-law; the main scope whereof was [...]o prove, That they ought to take away the Kings Life, with a pretence and form of Justice, and extirpate His Family. And truly, I have the greater cause to remember this, having at that time read the Argu­ments contained in several Prints against it, to manifest unto the Authors of such Coun­sels, and all the world, that such a Course of proceeding against the King of England, is Irrational, Monstrous, and in consequence pernicious to the three Kingdoms. Never­theless the Argumentation of Colonel Ireton carried it: And whosoever pleases to consult the Contents of that Army Remonstrance, shall find that the best Arguments he had (ex­cept the Sword) were all fished out of several Topicks contained in the Covenant; among which, the main one fetcht from that afore cited Clause, was like the Sword of Goliah; no [...] like it, to cut asunder all Obligations both Sacred and Civil; and was improved to this point: That seeing these Nations were brought to such a pass (as the Argumentator w [...]s pleased to say) That the ends of the Covenant could not be attained by a Government with [...] King and his Family: Therefore, those ends being the Principal Considerations of Mens Co­venanting, [Page 15] ought to be made good by another Government, without any regard of Him or His, who were but of a Secondary consideration. And thus, out of the Belly of that Trojan-Horse the Covenant, sprang that Hobby-horse of a Republick, with Cromwell on the back of it; who himself at length, convinced in Judgment about forms of Government, saw and confessed, by making himself the sole single person in Authority, that no Rest is to be [...]ad by Government in this Nation, but by a Monarchy.

After this (my good Friends of Shaftsbury) I suppose you will not venture to gainsay, but that it was well done of the Parliament, (and Bishops too, since you will have them nam'd in particular) to pass two such Acts, as might keep men out of Magistracy in Cor­porations, and out of Command in the King's Militia; whose Consciences can yet re­lish, and not abhor such a Covenant; or such a Treasonous Maxim in State; That the King's Authority may be made use of, or turn'd against his Person. And yet anon, before the end of this Letter, the Author will tell you of very strong Instances and Cases Some­body cited in the House of Peers; wherein it was, and may be lawful again so to do. Which confirms the King's good fortune, and the Kingdoms too, in being rid of such [...] Squirrel out of Power, that can crack the points of Conscience, Party, and Politicks, as fast as Nuts, to satisfie his own Ambitious and hungry Inclination.

The third Act that he finds fault with is the Act of Uniformity: Of this he discourses as followeth.

ANIMADVERSION.

AS for time to peruse the Alterations and Additions then made in the Common-Prayer-Book, they had a fair space to consider, after the Printing and Publication of it, which was till Bartholomew-day. For the principal Divines of the Nonconforming Party sat in Commission with the Bishops; so that what Alterations or Additions soever were made, it is known they took such care to communicate them abroad, that it may be re­membred how all their Party talkt of every Particular in the City, and all over the King­dom; and had been carefully fixed in resolution to find fault with every thing, long before the Printing, and never to conform to it. Besides, the Reasons offer'd for Alterations or Additions, desired by those Leading Men, were so little consider [...]ble, that there were but a very small number agreed on; so that a tenth part of the time that passed betwixt its Publication and Bartholomew-day, might have served them all sufficiently to consider of it, had they been then to consider: but alas! they had been abundantly schooled by Letters before, and by Prints too, sent from their London-Tutors, to be perfect in that old Lesson, against all Reason or Moderation, Non persuadebis etiamsi persuas [...]ris. So that if our Letter-Man had pleased, he might have spared this Objection about want of time; but he had undertaken to h [...]ap what faults he could upon the Bishops, right or wrong. They must be accused, though it was the Parliament that set the time: This suits with the rest of his design, as I told you.

[Page 16] But then, a very great number of good and brave Divines were throw [...] out. Thus he phrases it, whereas indeed they threw themselves out; They were (it may be) a sort of Divines of Conscience, but whether mis-informed and erroneous, it will concern them to see, against the great Day of Account; or whether any thing of Spiritual Pride, Singula­rity, Interest, or Self-reputation with a Party, or shame of receding from former mista­ken Zeal, Doctrines, Engagements, and ways of getting a Livelihood; which of these Considerations might intervene, betwixt the Day of Publication and Bartholo [...]w-day, God alone knows, and will one Day judge; who is a God of Order, and not of Confusion, as in all the Churches.

However, it concerned the Parliament to fear the worst, knowing what Doctrines those Men had preached many Years before, and what had been their behaviour; and there­fore to bar the Church-doors against the like Humours in time to come, that they might no more climb up into the Publick Pulpits, to perplex Affairs of the Church; or by mis-leading people with shews of Zeal, cause new Infl [...]mmations in the State: In both which poin [...]s of Activity, had not our Letter-Man very great occasion to use them at pre­sent, he would not now have been so angry at their being kept out.

What those Worthy, Learned, Pious, and Orthodox Divines were, or still are, I am tied up by the Act of Oblivion from telling; which Act ought to be punctually observed as sacred, by wise Men and good Christians, that persons who have formerly erred against His Majesty, either in Matters of State or Church, may not be frighted into new Crimes for security, or from making open profession of repentance for the old. Chri [...]t saith, [...] is more joy in Heaven over one Si [...]n [...]r that repents, than over ninety and nine that never went a­stray. Therefore, it will be more proper to paint out those Divines by probable signs of what we are to expect from them in future, than by Animadverting upon their Actions past.

If any Divine will not declare his unseigned Assent and Consent to the Common-Prayer-Book, which contains the Publick Service and Worship of the Church, what reason hath the Magistrate to allow him a part of the Publick Church-Maintenance, which is by Law an­nexed to that Service? Especially, seeing his refusal of Assent and Consent doth implicite­ly signifie, that he will do all that ever he can, to instruct and perswade the people against it. Which of these two then is most sitting? either for the Magistrate to com­ply with them, or they with the Magistrate?

Moreover, If any Divine shall refuse to declare and swear, that he believes it unlawful to take Arms agai [...]st the King, or by his Authority against his Person, or against those that are Commissionated by him: And that [...]e beli [...]es there lies no O [...]ligation upon him, or any other person, from the Solemn League and Covenant, to endeavour any Alteration in Church or State, and that it was an unlawful Oath; what can be supposed of such a Divin [...], but that he is capable of Earthly designs? And that he may be ready, when oportunity serves, to take Arms, and preach up again the old Doctrine of S [...]tting the Kings Authority against his Person; and the Covenant to boo [...], to pull the Government of Church and State in pieces? Those two opposite Principles do mutuo se p [...]llere; they cannot stand together, but the one naturally and absolutely drives out the other. Is it in reason then to be imagined, that any Prince or State, should have less wisdom and fore-sight than every ordi­nary Animal, to provide for Self-preservation, by Laws that may secure the Religion and Government Established, with Church-Livings also, in the hands of a Regular Conforming Clergy? Which Laws there was high reason so to pen, that they might be as a T [...]st for discovery, and disabling of Pastors, retaining Principles inconsistent with Monarchy. Let the same Men but turn the Tables, and remember what themselves did heretofore to the Epis [...]opal Clergy, for not engaging and conforming to their wild Phantsies, upon every Re­volution of Government; and then let them and all Men consider, with what front any Man of them can condemn this Wise and Provident Act, made against the possibility of a [Page 17] Return of the like Confusions in this Kingdom hereafter, to purge out such Worthy, Pious, but not too Learned Divines, I pray you: Men (it seems) of a narrower Swallow now, for an Oath, than the Nobility and Gentry; yet at their own time they have been able, and, while they retain such Principles, can be again, when time serves, to swallow all manner of Oaths, and devour Nobles, Gentlemen too, Clergy, and All. And this our Letter-Man knows very well: who, having at this time great need of them in the Pulpit, is (you see) very angry they are under hatches. He only wants such a House of Commons as he could wish; for, he reckons himself sure of his Clergy; they are of another Kidney than the Church of England's Clergy: These he is pleased to brand as Men of little Understand­ing, and of a pitiful sort of Learning, which teaches to Obey and Justifie, not to Disoute the Commands of their Superiours. Meer Milk-Sops they: but his are the Myrmido [...]s; Men of Arguments as strong as Gun-Powder; Profound Men of Letters, who have written, and can write, RATIO [...]LTIMA REGUM round the Mouth of a Cannon.

ANIMADVERSION.

THat my Lord Wharton and Lord Ashley might oppose it, is not impossible; but of my Lord Southampton 'tis hardly probable; but if he did, it serves for some excuse to Lord A [...]hley; because his Lordships Interest, at that early time of day, was nothing in Court without him, and so he could lose nothing there then: For, it was afterwards that he crept up like Ivy upon that old Oak of Loyalty Southampon, into His Majesties favour, and ma­ny a good place; which while his Lordship enjoyed, we do not remember that ever he was angry at this Act: Nor do we know any reason why it might not have been stretc [...] (at that time) a Mile or two more, without grieving his Lordship, or stretching his Con­science: so that this Story might have been very well omitted, so far as concerns my good Lord Ashley.

If the Ministers were then so severely h [...]ndled, let it be noted, that now is the time his Lordship would be thought to have had no hand in it. But whose fault was it then? was it not their own? were they not very severe towards the King, when they refused the Oath contained in that Act, which enjoined only these particulars? viz. to declare,

That it is not lawf [...]l, upon any pretence whatsoever, to take Arms against the King.

That they do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person, or against those that are Commissionated by him, in pursuance of such Commissions.

And that they will not, at any time, endeavour any Alteration of Government, either in Church or State.

Now let us reason together; Is it rational to imagine, that any Governour will not provide for the safety and peace of his Government? Are not Protection and All [...]giance correlative? Do they not M [...]tuo se ponere, can either be understood without the other? Is not the Band of Politicks utterly broken by conceiving the contrary? If a Subject will not declare it Not lawful to take Arms against the King, Is there not a clear Impli­cation of the Affirmative, that he may, or perhaps will, when he shall have an opportu­nity? Is it imaginable then, that any King can think himself secure of such a Man? or that he could permit him to enjoy the Common Liberties of his Government, who re­fuseth [Page 18] to give the Common Caution required by Governours for the place of Govern­ment? Or if such person have formerly by any Overt Acts declared, or preached to others, that it is lawful to take Arms, can he with any colour of reason find fault with the King, when he demands onely gentle Cau [...]ion of him, by declaring that he hath al­ter'd his Opinion, and will do so no more? And in case of his refusal, can he in his Conscience condemn the Kings making a Law, to prevent him from doing the like a­gain? Come, Gentlemen, let us to the great Rule of Conscience, Whatsoever ye would that Men should do to you, do ye so to them: for, this is the Law and the Prophets. Now pray tell me, you that are Kings of those little Kingdoms called Families; If any one of your Children, or Servants, hath taught or shall teach the rest, that it is lawful to dispute and fight with you (and perhaps they do it) in your Houses, would you not think it strange, that any Man should blame you, if you, not punishing that Child or Servant, should onely demand this gentle Caution of him, that he oblige himself never to do the like again? It's much rather to be supposed, that in stead of that, you would turn him out of your little Kingdom, and no Man could find fault with you for it. Now for In­ference, If His Majesty, a Prince Gracious and Indulgent beyond all example, hath laid aside the severe part; and if you, by your refusing to give him the Security of a Promissory Oath, have in effect declared that ye will not lay aside or quit that unruly Principle of taking Arms against him, what could he do less, than to take the Viper out of his own and the Churches Bosom, and not nourish it any longer? Whereas by the Laws of God and Man, and by that Law of Nature called Self-preservation, he might have taken another kind of Course, for the Security and Quiet of Himself and His Subjects; and not onely have shut these Men out of Corporations, but out of the Kingdom. And yet so far hath His Majesty been from this severity, that the Five Miles A [...]t it self hath lan­guisht with very little Execution: insomuch that those Men and their Friends, have, at this time of day, small cause to complain of it: but rather much, for a heart-melting into grateful acknowledgments of so great Lenity.

If another Pen had been ousied in this Work of Animadverting, it might perhaps have dropt here many notable Reasons of State, justifying the Policy and Prudence of that Act, and its Execution; as to name one for an Instance, Viz. Seeing that, by the Constitution of this Kingdom, the Commons House of Parliament have an Interest in the Power of Le­gislation, that no Law can be made, or repealed without them: And, whereas the ma­jor part of their Members are chosen by Corporations, it must needs be of highest con­cern to preserve those Bodies Corporate, as free as may be, from the Infection of Preachers of such Principles, as are destructive of the Kingdoms Constitution and Go­vernment, lest in a little time the swarming Pros [...]lytes of Nonconformity come to bear a­way the Bell at Elections, and then Trump a Major Vote in the Commons House, to play a New Game again at the Old Sport. For (like bold Knaves as they be) they are Cocksure (they say) of Lords enough already. And, its said, 'tis one of you, ye Men of Shaftsbury, that took care to Print the Names of their Lordships, for the honour of the Business: particularly, the Name of the Good Earl of Shaftsbury, with special Commendations of Great Pains, Long Speeches, and Extraordinary Honest Qualities: which our Letter-man hath taken care, in the next Paragraph, more largely to set forth to the best advantage.

ANIMADVERSION.

REcollect ye the things of time past, and you may remember, it was a saying as old as the Reformation it self; That the Church of England was like Christ himself, Cruci­fied betwixt two Thieves, the Papist and the Presbyterian: and, Is it otherwise at this day? for, in stead of a Triumph after His Majesties Happy Restitution, [...]or all Her past Sufferings, Behold! how both the sorts of Adver [...]aries are plying their separate Inte­rests; agreeing onely in this, How to Plot Her Destruction; the Natural Consequent whereof must be this: That, after Her ruine, the Papist stands ready to subject the Monarch to a Single Pope: the other, to subvert the Monarchy, by Inthroning here a Many Headed Papacy. The one would Rob the KING of Half His Power: the other, of the Whole. Both will allow of a King, so He be nothing; that is, as long as He plea­seth them; If not, they have a Whip and a B [...]ll, to Correct or Depose Him: of which our Histories are full. So that if the CHURCH be not Maintain'd over them both, to Defeat their Designs of Supplanting Her, tell us then, with all your Wisdom, ye Men of Shaftsbury, What will become of us? and, What the end of these things will be?

ANIMADVERSION.

SInce the Earl of Shaftsbury is named, Oh! What an occasion is here for a Comment? Thus it goes likewise in all other Romances: the small Knight, or the Sq [...]ire, always appears an abler man than the Giant, and is sure to get the better. And, 'tis but Reason it should be so, at this time especially; because in the 9th Page of the Printed Letter are these words also: That the [...]arl of Shaftsbury is a man of great Abilities, and knowledge in Affairs; and one, that, in all the variety of Changes of this last Age, was never known to be either bought, or frighted out of his Publick Principles. It may be, the Pen-man of this Letter is some pleasant person, of little acquaintance with his Lordship; or, he Dreamt all the World to be made of Oatmeal, or to have been in a Dream these Thirty years: And, so we may, if we please, Dream on, That his Lordship is no Changeling. Would that had been true (quoth the Presbyterian) for, once he became ours. But, (said a certain Pres­byter) let me tell you a Story; and first, I say he is a Knave that thinks I mean it of his Lordship. Once upon a time (as I remember) the Old King had a Dorsetshire-Eel by the Tail; which then slipt into the hands of our Party: And when we thought our selves sure of him, whip, he was gone, and, in a Trice, Commenced a Brother-Independent: which was a wise part; and no trick of a Changeling, to shift Principles like Shirts; and quit an unluckie Side, in a fright, at the noise of a New Prevailing Party, with whom he staid, till he grew up to the size of a great Commonwealths-man, and made Hay in the Sun-shine, until the Com­monwealth and Cromwel were brought to Bed of a strange new kind of Monarchy in the House of Commons; a Three or four hundred-headed Monarchy, called, The Fifth Monarchy; and in those days it was also called, Cromwels Little Parliament; in which his little Lordship became one of the Princes among a Drove of Changelings. But there having spied out Crom­wel 's purpose of Matching to another sort of Monarchy of his own, his little Lordship then re­solved, [Page 20] like a constant steady m [...]n to his own main Point, to Trepan them, and to strike in with him; and lent him a helping hand towards the confounding of Fifth-Monarchy, to make way for a New One under the Name Protector. Then, in this Scene of Affairs, be being made a Protectorian Privy-Counsellour; and, after a while, be aspiring also to become the Pro­tector's Son-in-Law; Cromwel (who well enough understood him) either disdai [...]ing, or not daring to take him so near into his bosom, took occasion also to be quit of him out of his Council: So that now it was high time indeed, of necessity, to turn back to the OLD HONEST POINT OF THE COMPASS, and get in again, to be thought a New Man of His Majesties Party. This was no hard matter, to be done by a man of his dapper Conscience, and dexterity, that c [...]n Dance through a Hoop; or that can be a T [...]mbler through Parties; or a small Teazer of Religions; and Touzer of Factions; a Pettifogger of Politicks; the very Windmill and Wea­ther-cock of every GODLY PARTY: He, even [...]e, turned again to the Tents of the wicked. For, to go on with my Story (quoth the Presbyter) no sooner had Cromwell done his do with him, and sented him; and, like a true Intrigu [...]-Master, out-done him, and sp [...]ed him out; but being thrown o're-board out of Two New Monarchies, [...]e immediately tackt and got ashore again on the skirts of the King's old Monarchy; that is, he ran in as near it as be could at that time; and, for his own sake, resolved to be as true as he could for it, by imbarking in a new Kindred of the Royal Party, seeing he could not catch the Cromwellian. To make short my Tale, Sir, [...]e matcht himself then into a Noble Family (one of those that in the late Troubles had best des [...]r [...]ed of His Majesty) with a Lady that was Niece to a late Noble Lord; who (as he well knew) had Merit-Royal enough, to answer for all the past faults of a small wandring Politico, and make him pass for a Royalist, if Royalty came in play again. In the mean time, being out of all Publick Councils, he was at leasure to make Court to all private Male [...]tents against Oliver; and wheresoever he found a sore, there he rub'd hardest, till the end of the reign of Richard, and of the Wallingsordian Party, for, by this time the Rump was got in again; and then he got in again with the Rump; not into the House, but into the hearts of some of its principal Members and Actors, and [...]eame a busie man to de [...]y them into the reach of their own des [...]ry. And now you have him thus far on his way, you may be so charitable, if you please, as to imagine, that all this variety of changes was meant by him, on purpose to bring about His Majesties Happy Restitution. Indeed one would think so, considering the Bounties h [...] immediately after received from the hand of a most gracious King; Honors, Offices, Profits, and Preforments; and these, in tract of time, advanced to the utmost magnitude, with many private Favours; so that if he was never bought out of his publick Principles, yet he was sound­ly pa [...] for his private, though never satisfied; till at the old game of shifting Persons and Parties also at Court, he at le [...]gth play'd himself quite out of Play: and ever since, in the Summer-time, you have him a Fox- [...]ting not f [...]r from Shaftsbury; in Winter, about London-City, to strike in with the herd of all Opinions, for [...]unting out old Principles in this Forest of Chimneys. And because we Pre [...]byters are ready to start them, we pray he may have grace to pursue the chace, and never leave us in the lu [...]ch any more: And, that our Brother-Independents may be brought to forget, how he helpt to train some of them to the Gallows. May they leave off bark­ing when he comes into the City; and not do as dogs do at a Pell-monger, when he passes through a Country-Town: For, even those poor Animals are more prudent, than to be at peace with any, whose Trade it hath been to hang and [...]lea them. But let their mouths be stopt; and may be never serve us, as he served them. And may this Tale of mine never be told again to the rest of our Brethren: Nor this E [...]l be rosted as the Rump was in the streets of London: For, truly i [...] [...]ad never been told at all, if I thought any man could be so foolish and malicious, as to think my good Lord Shaftsbury is meant in any part of the Story. But, 'tis brought in here, only to show how curiously Contrari [...]s do illustrate each other; and, what Eels and Serpents some men in the World will appear to be, if their qualities and conditions be compared with the Excellencies of that noble Lord; who was never bought, nor frighted, out of his Publick Principles— [Page 21] Thus far went the Presbyter with his Tale; and desired any man to match it in Cha [...]ce [...] or Bocca [...]e. No wonder then if his Lordship went beyond my Lord Clifford. And, the Iess are we to wonder at all the great things said of my Lord Shaftsbury in this LETTER, if it were true, which was said at several Coffee-houses, when it first came out in Print; That his Lordship was no stranger to its compilement; though 'tis written in the stile of some other person.

For, in the same Paragraph we are told, that when the War was to be made with Holland, the Lord Clifford advised the King to quiet all Dissenters in Religion at home, with granting the Declaration of Indulgence: and, that the Earl of Shaftsbury, though a man of principles and interest opposite to the other, presently closed with his Advi [...]. But, he doth not tell us the Reason, why the Earl became hot for Indulgence: you are to know, it was then a time of day, that his Lordship had worn out his little Interest in Episcopacy, and all affection for it; and saw also, that many at Court began to be sick of him; so that it was high time, perceiving an uncertainty of his Court-Station, to provide him­self a Retreat into some Popular Faction. He had long done it before, for fear he might in an ill day have need of them; therefore ever and anon the sprinklings of his Court-holy-water were bestowed upon many of the Good People; and some small good Offices he did for them, that the rest of the Persecuted might know where to find a Patron: So that with the one hand he swept away as many Court-advantages out of the Publick, and was as deep in as any man; with the other hand he upheld a Stock going with the Pious Party.

God himself made the World of Discordia Semina Rerum; Why then may not men thus build their Fortunes? but he never lov'd Lins [...]y-Wols [...]y to be worn by his Loyal Subjects; nor ever liked, that men should thus reconcile Christ and [...], so as to make their Markets of them both together: yet this was the constant Trade since the Kings Re­stitution. Nor is his Lordship without Example and Precedent for it; it having been pra­ctised by the old Earl of Leicester, and other Courtiers in the days of Q. Elizabeth, King James, &c. And many times, old fashions will up again among ingenious Tailors, who alwayes take their measures in every employment. There is Gospel too for this: thus did the unj [...]st St [...]ward provide, in case he should be turned out of his Stewardship. Wise­ly then did his Lordship, to [...]eather himself among the Men of the World so long before­hand, that when the time should be over, and the Chancellorship be rendred, he might; with a sure friend, Mammon, be any where welcome, and have all deeds forgotten which were done in darkness; being next to begin the World again, by setting up anew among the Children of Light, the Old Trade of crying out Popery and Priests; Bishops, Evil Coun­cellours, and Gr [...]evances; and, Now also, No Parliament: but, a New One (as like the Old One as may be) can do the BUSINESS of his Lordship and the Nation. There is no re­medy to be thought on but one▪ and that is a very pleasant one: Call back my Lord to Court; then all will do well again, and he will save me the labour of te [...]ing the whole Intrigue of his Matters. Call back my Lord Clifford too, and his Lordship shall never more quarrel him about Indulgence, Popery, Parliament, or any thing else: Yea, and he shall ask him pardon too for so artificially contriving that fine Fiction or S [...]ne of Dis­courses, supposed to have been spoken concerning himself and Lord Clifford when alive; but framed to scandalize him after his death; not sparing reflections even upon His Ma­ [...]esty also Himself, and His affairs; that so he might, by using the Stile of a Third per­son, act an estentation of his own being the onely Statesman, that took care of Indulgen [...], Trade, Religion, Kingdom and All; as you may find at large in the 4th and 5th pages of this LETTER. But you have been already shewn, how long it was before his Lo [...]d­ships Zeal br [...]ke sorth with so bright a flame, and what the end of it may be; even [...]n [Page 22] universal Inflammation, if the New practising of the Old Delusions be not prevented.

But because here hath been mention often made of my Lord Clifford, with intent of disadvantage to his memory; therefore, ere I dismiss this part of the LETTER, it can­not be amiss to shew you a better Picture of him, as it was drawn also by the lucky hand of the good Earl of Shaftsbury, but it was in a time when his Lordship had a Being in Whitehall, and was willing to Court him that was his Rival in the Treasu [...], rather than not hold on his new Office of Chancellor. The precise time was, when his Lord­ship gave the Lord Clifford the Oath of Lord Treasurer in the Exchequer-Chamber, 5 Decem [...]. 1672, where, in his Speech, he began with my Lord Clifford's Integrity, Abi­lity, and Experience in Affairs; and that therefore the King [...]ad chosen him to be His Lord Treasurer: A Place that requires such a man, as our Gre [...] Master's Wisdom found fit for it; from whose Natural Temper we may expect Courage, Quicknes [...] and Resolution; from whose Education, Wisdom and Experience; and from whose Ex [...]ract [...], that Noble and Illustrious House of the Cliffords; an Heroick Mind, a Large Soul, and an unshaken Fidelity to the Crown. And when he comes to conclude, he adds to him these words: [I wish, or rather proph [...]sie, your exce [...]ding all your Pred [...]ssors in this Pla [...]; The Abilities and Fidelity of the Renowned Lord Burleigh; The Sagacity, Quickness, and great Dispatch of his Son the Lord Salisbury; and the Uprightn [...]ss, Integrity, and Wisdom, of that great Man that went last before you, the Earl of Southampton.

Now, Gentlemen, you that are Friends of Lord Shaftsbury, if you have any care of his Reputation, advise him to desire the Printer to blot out all the Characters of my Lord Clifford, in the Second Edition of this LETTER, and put in these: or at least, for his Lord [...]hips sake, have not so hard an opinion of Clifford: or else be pleased to do my Lord Clifford and your selves this Right, as to suspend your opinion of this Lord, till you are sure i [...] can be a good one. But if then you find no cause to believe all the Out­cries which were at the time of Clifford's Fall, hold on still, if you can, the humour of believing all the other Devices of his little Lordship; till he at length serve you, as he hath served all the rest of his Believers.

ANIMADVERSION.

ANy thing to lay load of Envy upon the Bishops: That is a main design of the LETTER. At that Corner of the Monarchy, its old Enemies are to make the new On-set: and then what follows? The Annals of the late Reign of Presbytery will tell you nothing but Violent Persecution. Not a word in those days of Indulgence; [...]y­not so much as to the Brother-Independents; whose true Interest it is as much as the Epis o­parians, to preserve the present Government by Episcopacy: For, let the Presbyter up with his Throne again, and both the other will be alike exposed to his mercy. Suppose the worst you can of one Bishop in a County, yet past experience hath told us, we had better have him there than a mean upstart Insulter over both, to play the Devil for Gods sake, in every Parish. The rest of the Dissenters are therefore to con [...]der, That as the Episcoparian's greatest Jealousie is at the Presbyter, because the Aims of them both being at a National Form, they cannot both stand together, but the one must of necessity deprive the other; so, forasmuch as all other Nonconformers lay no claim to a Church-National, but in Spiritual Matters seek only Toleration and Indulgence; They cannot, if they please to lay aside old animosities, give any Ombrage or Jealousie to the Episc [...]pa­rian; [Page 23] because in their way of Churching, they design only a private Rule over one ano­ther. Their only Concern then is, by a total quitting of all Intrigues, or correspon­dence in Counsels with that false Brother the Presbyter, the natural common Enemy of their way of Churching, as well as of the National: which being cordially done in suture, and all cause of Jealousie, on their parts, being thereby removed from the Governours, there can be no doubt but they may be induced, to allow them a fair and lasting Indulgence.

Moreover, it ought to be consider'd, though the Bishops be charged by our Letter-Man as the Undoers of the Indulgent D [...]laration; it was not They, but the Parliament that undid it; it being by both Houses judged inconvenient to be continued, by reason it was thought prejudicial to some Laws made for an Uniformity in Matters of Publick Wor­ship, and consequently an Intrenchment upon Law: so that the Parliament was therein led by Re [...]son of State, when they besought His Majesty for the cancelling of it: the Lords Spiritual were concerned in it no otherwise than the Lords Temporal; and it was, upon the Joint-Application of both Lords and Commons, recalled. The Inference then which I would offer at from these Discourses, is; That if those aforesaid Dissenters would by Overt-Acts of Behaviour in future, make it evident to the Parliament, that they are in heart alienated and departed from the Presbyter, the great common Enemy of the Crown, as well as of the Church, 'tis not impossible (yea, perhaps not improbable) but that the same Parliament may then come to see it Reason of State also, to find out some Expedient to make a difference, in execution of Law, betwixt Them and the Irreconcileable Presby­ter, notwithstanding the severity of Laws at present; especially if the Houses once see cause given them to apprehend, That such Dissenters are resolved to become as loyal and serviceable to his Majesty and the Government here, as Dissenters were heretofore in France unto King Henry the Fourth.

And truly, seeing there is this difference betwixt the ordinary Dissenters and the Pres­byters; that the latter is e directo inconsistent with all Monarchy, because Presbytery claims to be underivative from any Secular Monarch, and in ord [...]ad Spiritualiae, doth as it were usurp his Power: and seeing the former, while they seek only an Indulgence, may well enough consist with our English Monarchy; there is no question but they may, in due time, if they behave themselves wisely, obtain their desired Liberty. For, in the very following Lines of the LETTER, our Author signifies, That at the next meeting of the Parliament, the Bishops promoted the Protestant Interest so high, that an Act came up from the Commons to the House of Lords in favour of the dissenting Protestants, and had passed the Lords but for want of time. What hath been may be: so that if the ordinary Dissenters shall be so wise, as to mind their true Interest, which really lies in a hearty complaisance with the Interest of the Government, the like may soon be done in favour of them again.

Next, he tells us, There was another Act then passed the Royal Assent, for the excluding all Papists from Office; in the opposition of which the Lord Treasurer Clifford [...]ll: and yet to pre­vent his ruine, this Session had the sooner end. As for the Lord Clifford, me thinks he might before now have been left at rest in his Grave: but there is (it seems) another Lord in the World is resolved he shall not; because while his Lordship tugg'd hard, and lay gaping for the Office of Lord Treasurer, my Lord Clifford got between and carried it away; for which he will never forgive his memory, nor any of his Friends. Nothing could please after this; no not the Great Seal it self, though one would have thought that enough to fill the Swallow of any Gnat. But Oh! the Dear Bag was gone, the Bu [...]t-end of all his hopes, and so neither Seal nor Purs [...] could satisfie! Nothing now but Revenge; for then his Lordship saw plain the Mortality of his own Court-Interest drawing on▪ which had been long before forfeited by many a Juggle. Then his Piety began to work, when his Co­vetousness had nothing to work upon; and nothing after this could be thought of, but Fire [Page 24] and Flames of Zeal, to scatter about the Court and Kingdom. A loud and sudden Cry must be raised in fear of Popery, by pretence of which (the old trick) the Nation was to be forthwith intoxicated, and the Lord Clifford confounded; and all Papists also were to be put out of Office, because the Maker of this Out-cry was in fear to be so. I write not this to plead for their being in Office; but only to observe how pat the little Adversary timed all things, for his own purpose of commencing the new Game of Popularity. He foresaw his own Fa [...]e, and labour'd hard to get in elsewhere, before they had quite thrown him out at White-Hall; that so when he went off, he might in a new World turn up Trump, as the Faith's great Defender against Popery. This was the reason why he spurr'd on that Act so eagerly, to run Papists out of Office; and why he afterwards ap­peared so vigorous in putting the Act in execution: for, in all the time since the King's Happy Res [...]auration, we never heard, till this sudden sit, of his Lordships having been in any fright before about the Papists, or any other sort of Religion whatsoever. So that from the time of this first fright we are to reckon the Rise of all the Jealousies and Con­tests that have ensued lately, or which may ensue, about the Affairs of the Government; and of all the late ill Impressions, which have been craftily and most industriously made upon the minds of the people, to prepare them (if possible) for a Mutiny.

ANIMADVERSION.

'Tis a condition of Affairs much to be lamented, that so many Sessions of Parliament have of late been broken Re infecta; and we might very much wonder at it, consi­dering His Majesties great delight which he hath had in the good Advices and Affections of His Parliament, did we not know that some Envious Ones made it their Business to sow Tares, and cast Blocks [...] the way to impede all happy Proceeding; that either House might be Imbroiled in its self, and both with one another; and so be utterly incapaci­tated for any dispatch of Publick Business. The Instances are too sad to be mentioned, and I wish they were for ever in oblivion, which necessitated His Majesty, for the very Honour of Parliament it self, and of His Government, to put an end to many strange De­bates and Controversies, which could by no other means be done, but by ending the se­veral Sessions. For, even in that House, whose true Interest is inseparably and more especially annexed to that of the Crown Imperial of this Realm, and cannot stand with­out it, there was found a new Lord, this last Session, whose Speech (if we may believe a Paper called a Speech, carefully Printed under the Name of the Earl of Shaftsbury) ven­ted many strange Passages, upon the Debate of appointing a day for the hearing of Dr. Shirley's Cause by the Peers: which shew plainly enough, who it was which backt and be­fooled the Doctor to a perpetual attendance on that Business; not for any good will to him, who (poor Man!) was made a meer Stalking-horse, but to catch other ends, and create Mischief to King and Kingdom, by strangling the great Affairs and Hopes of His Majesty, in the mid'st of His many pressing Publick Occasions for Supplies; to the want of which Supplies in good time, we are to ascribe the late loss of Repute, with the o­ther Publick Inconveniences and Damages in our Naval Interests, &c. which have been complained of. Such Men there are as study first how to tye up the Hands of the King and His Ministers with Necessity, and then make the People cry out at them, for not do­ing what they were disabled to do. And therefore, that the Nation may know to what Male-content the King and People do owe those Damages, and the fruitlesness of the last Session of Parliament; and from thence g [...]ess who it was that drave the design of fru­strating [Page 25] also the several Sessions that went before it: It will not be amiss to give the World some account here of divers Passages of that Speech, Printed with the Title of the Earl of Shaftsbury: which no Man that reads but would swear it his.

This Speech confesses the Lord Chancellor, and the Lord Bishop of Salisbury had at the same time made Speeches to shew, that to set a day to enter upon a Hearing in the Lords House, of the Cause of Dr. Shirley, before the Great Concerns of the King and King­dom, in Supplies of Money, and other Bills should be dispatched, would be to induce several Grand Inconveniences: As first, That seeing both Houses had been highly engaged in Contests with each other about their respective Priviledges, occasioned by that Cause, the ap­pointing of a short day for their Lordships to hear it, would immediately bring on the like Con­tests again, and so cause a Breach betwixt the Houses: and, Secondly, That after such a Breach, made for the sake of a private Cause, no ordinary way being left for dispatch of the many Publick Bills depending in the Houses, or for raising of Moneys; the whole Business of Naval Preparations, and of other Great Affairs, and of the Reputation and Interests of the King and Kingdom, at home and abroad, would unavoidably fall to ruine. And their Lordships were told, They could not but be convinced in their Co [...]s [...]iences, that if that matter of Shirley were then prosecuted, it must cause a Breach. This was the Sence also of most other Noble Lords.

But alass! that Printed Speech makes the Earl of Shaftsbury ring another Tune, as if his Lordship had other Publick Business, or as if it had no longer been Shirley's private Bu­siness, but his Own: so that if we may believe that Print, the People need no other Evidence to shew who was the Designer of the last Sessions of Parliaments non-effect; or to enable them to ghess who it was that spoiled several foregoing Sessions, by spinning the like long Speeches, to start and cherish Controversies, instead of doing Business. And from thence they may do well to consider, if the like shall be done again, what kind of Man that is, who shall endeavour to render a Parliament of no Effect: And what a difference can be made betwixt a Subverter and a Continual Frustrater of the Par­liamentary Constitution.

In the first place, that Speech tells the Lords, that the All of their Lordships was at Stake, in that Business of Shirley; as if the House of Peers could not stand unless they resolved to hear him that Minute: and yet many Lords (if Prints belie them not) did seem to believe it. But those Lords (I suppose) cannot but by this time observe this one Passage of the Print (Page the 5th) which represents my Lord Shaftsbury be­ing in f [...]ar that a Vote might pass there, for medling with no private Business for six weeks. O my Lords, said he, if this be your Business, see where you are, if we are to Postpone our Ju­dicature, f [...]r the fear of Offending the House of Commons, for six Weeks, they in the Interim may pass the MONEY, and other acceptable Bills, which His Majesty thinks of Importance. Sure the Print hath bely [...]d so Loyal a Heart, as my Lord Shaftsbury, to make him speak thus: which in plain English amounts to this; [My Lords, take [...]eed what you do, the King longs to have the Bill about Money, and the other acceptable Bills of Importance dispatched, and brought to him; and the House of Commons would [...] have Shirley 's Business laid aside for six Weeks, that the Work may not be hindred, but the King satisfied.] As if it had been a matter of Danger to satisfie the King; which is a Reflection upon Majesty, not to be darted out by any Subject in so great an Assembly: And by it, you have the purpose of the great Design pointed out in most Legible Characters; his Lordship openly perswa­ding the Peers, if he can, to thwart the King, and render the Parliament unfit to do the Kings Business: So that if the Print be a true Copy of his Speech, then here's the Trouble-House; Ex ore tuo condemnaberis. What need we any more witness who it is that troubles the King and Kingdom?

But the Print goes on, and saith his Lordship said further: That to l [...]y sweet Shirley [Page 26] aside (Page the 6th) would be to alter the Constitution of the Government: and there is no Reason of State can be an Argument to your Lordships, to turn your selves out of that Interest you have in the Constitution of the Government. Nothing may more make us suspect this Speech than that it presents his Lordship as a Man afraid of altering the Constitution of Government. I must confess I never knew him like an alteration in any Government, as long as himself could be one in it: therefore seeing he is none now, 'tis wisely done of him to insinuate the Crime upon others; for, so the Print doth very slily upon those Noble Lords, whose Judgment and Conscience led them to lay aside Disputes about Ju­dicature, that they might do the King and Kingdoms Business before Shirley's: And for this they were told (Page 6th) that they were ready to give away their Pe [...]rage, with its Rights and Priviledges; and [...]umbling down their own House, to become Creatures as mean and low, notwithstanding they have Titles, as they are in absolute Monarchies: And, that there is no Pri [...]e that ev [...]r Govern'd without a Nobility, or an Army: if you will not have one, you must have t [...] other. And, thus he concludes, [I therefore declare, that I will serve my Prince as a Peer, but will not destroy the Pe [...]rage to serve him.] And now let us consider, what occasion or need his Lordship had of this high Bravade, unless it were craftily to possess mens Minds with a secret Opinion, as if the King and those Noble Lords, which s [...]uck close to His Majesties Concerns, and the Kingdoms, in this Debate, had an end to Overthrow the House of Peers, make the Monarchy absolute, and Rule by an Army: A thing the most impertinently, and senslesly insinuated that can be, from such Premises as have been mentioned. And it rather argues, that the Arguer hath some strange design or other upon the Government, if he cannot by hook or by crook get him­self in again to the Helm of it; But, his Reasons and the Design being well enough ap­prehended, this, and some other little Delusions, of late years practised under Publick good Pretences, cannot but be understood by the Lords and Commons, as meer Tricks to turn the Frame of Government off its Wheels again, and to shatter it into a Pres­byterian Aristocratick, or a Popular Tyranny: for, that is the inevitable consequence of unhinging this Well-order'd-Monarchy.

But, the Print saith, his Lordship went yet farther, being resolved to search the Monarchy to the bottom, page 10. and 11. and, by the way he digs down as low as the Grave of Archbishop Laud. His Lordships Friends of Presbytery tumbled him in, and, Why should not he make bold to rake him out again? The new Canons also made in that Archbishops time are brought forth and Arraigned, with the Bishops, for asserting Monarchy to be of Divine Right. It seems then the Work is going on again: they mean to bait the Bishops, and undress the Monarchy once more, and then stuff it with Presbyterian Hay or Stubble. It may amaze any man to think of his Lordships wild way of discourse; how it was possible, from so slender a Topick as the Case of Shirley, to im­prove it unto the introducing and determining of so many great and weighty Points; and how he had the Art to hale them in thus by head and shoulders: but, the itch of much Speech-making is a disease that makes men sometimes delirious. For, the Print boldly infers these following Particulars.

1. That the King is King by Law, and by the same Law that the poor man enjoys his Cottage. What need this have been said, at a time when there was no occasion for it, unless his Lordship had a mind to maintain, That the King hath no Right more Divine than a Cot­tager? For, Dolus latet in Generalibus; and these things do not portend any good mean­ing.

2. That a King Governing by an Aymy, without his Parliament, is a Government (saith he) that I own not, am not obliged to, nor was born under. 'Tis a pleasant thing to have thus entertained the House of Peers; First with setting up Men of Straw, and then to defeat them; start Chim [...]raes, and run them down again; by force of imagination to six a King, as [Page 27] Governing in the head of an imaginary Army, and then [...]out him: and, the Scene of all this must be supposed to be England, because his Lordship was not born, nor is obliged to Government any where else: Nor can the common Readers of his printed Speech ap­prehend, but that he means, and would seem to fear, all this in England; to what pur­pose else can so wise a Lord be thought to make so serious and eager a Protestation against it? or to what purpose else was it so carefully made publick in print, but that it was the ready way to get the World to understand it so? and that seems the sole drift of the zeal of these impertinent excursions. But yet he goes on.

3. That [...]e cannot find that the Jesuites, or Popish Clergy ever owned Monarchy to be of Di­vine Right; but onely some Epis [...]opal clergy of our Briti [...]h Isles. Then the Episcopal Clergy are (it seems) the better Subjects in a Monarchy. As for the two sorts of Jesuites, the Popi [...]h One, and the Presbyterian; the former will not allow it to the Monarch, because he would leave a gap open for the Popes Claim over Him : the latter also is of the same mind, because he would subject Him to his Presbytery. There needs no reasoning to e­vince these things, seeing there are few men in our age, who have not seen the truth in facto: so that 'tis the clear interest of the Crown, That if it will have a Church National to Govern by, it must be Protestant-Episcopal; otherwise its self cannot be secure from the Invasions and Insolencies of the Pope on the one side, or of the Many-headed Presbyter on the other.

4. That to say this Family are our Kings, and this particular Frame of Government is our Lawful Constitution, and obligeth us, is owing onely to the particular Laws of our Countrey. Well urged in print, my Lord, here is a fair Gap laid open for another Family, and another sort of Government. And Why? The reason is plain, because 'tis possible we may have other laws. Let but the Game go on, the Men of Shaftsbury, if they get it, will soon shew us that the Laws also may be changed; and then what may become of the Frame of Government? And what may become of the Family, if it shall not give way to the alteration of the old Laws and Government? He that makes a Crown to have no other Foundation but particular Laws, ought first, in a Monarchy, to shew me whence those particular Laws could come, but from the Crown and him that first wore it: Law and popular Consent came in afterward; not to constitute, but to confirm and cor­roborate it on his head. I find, after long Observation and Experience of these mat­ters, 'tis among all our State-Hereticks and Spurious Politicians, an Errour in Fundamen­to, which leads them to dispute with Crowned Heads, and that boldness prepares them to rebel; that they will needs suppose in the Original of Monarchy, a Priority of Laws to make it such. As to Fact, the Histories of Nations in general do consute that vain Hypothesis, upon which all their Arguments are built; and do shew, that for the most part Laws about Monarchy came in after its Institution, to second it by the peoples Con­firmative Consent: Not that this gave it any Authority, but their Assent to the Laws a­bout it, was onely a Signal of their submission and obedience to it. And as it was thus in the beginning of Monarchies, so, as to the Reason of the Point, it holds much the more strongly against them in Monarchies already Constituted; for, there, no Law can be supposed Prior to the Monarch, because they all slow from him, and cannot have being without him. Therefore that Mans Allegiance stands upon very slippery and uncertain Terms, who concludes the King and his Family, and their Rights, as meer Creatures of some particular Laws of the Countrey, and prints this Doctrine to the whole King­dom, to beget in them mean thoughts of that Royal Right to the Crown Imperial of this Realm, which is naturally inherent in his very Bloud, and Person, and Family; and cannot in a true English Political Sence be otherwise consider'd: So that if ever his Lordships Notion be started again among the Peers, 'tis like it may, in that House, meet with an Animadversion much more severe than mine.

[Page 28] 5. Nevertheless, the Print goes on very roundly in the Name of his Lordship, and saith, (Page 11.) If the Doctrine of the Divine Right of Monarchy be true, then our M [...]gna Charta is of no use, our Laws are but Rules during the Kings Pleasure. Monarchy, if of Divine Right, cannot be bounded or limited by Humane Laws; nay, what's more, cannot bind it self. All our Claims of Right, the Rights of the Peers House, and of the Commons House, and of all People, must give way to the Interest, and will and pleasure of the Crown; and the best Men must Vote to deliver up all we have, not onely when Reason of State, and the separate Interest of the Crown require it, but when 'tis known the will and pleasure of the King would have it so. For, that must be to a Man of that Principle, the only Rule and Measure of Right and Ju­stice.—Excellent State-Logick this! and were it my Aim to pervert the people, I would thus chop Allegiance into a thousand Niceties, as the School-men do Divinity, for making such like Inferences, to intoxicate the peoples minds; for, the Scripture makes Witchcraft near of kin to Rebellion; they seldom part company: and the Vilany inten­ded by such Arguments, is usually masqued and hid in ambiguous phrases. What ado is here made with the word Divine Right! It may be remembred, the same was made use of to purpose by the Presbyterians, to inflame people into the former Rebellion. We would fain forget all their past Intrigues; but it seems there is fresh use of them; or else these thin [...]s had not been thus boldly conjured up again into the House of Peers; a place too sacred for such discourses. In all Debates about the high Points of Polity, every Expression ought not only to be season'd by the Speaker, cum grano Salis; but to be un­derstood so also by the Hearers. If among Men of honest and fair intentions towards the King, it be said the King holds his Monarchy by a Divine Right, none but a Mad-man, or a Man of design; a Man whose Business 'tis to catch at words, and cramp them with Commentaries to his own purpose; a Man that can blow up Mol [...]hills to Mountains; who carries a Micros [...]ope in his Pocket upon occas [...]on, to see all in great; who, when he pl [...]a­ses, strains at G [...]ats in State, while he is out of Government; but can swallow Camels when he is in it; none but such a Man would presently conclude, that such a Divine Right was meant, as excludes all bounding or limitation by Humane Laws; such a One as leaves no Obligation from the Prince to the People. A Father hath a Divine Right to Rule his Son, and a Master his Servant; else the Scripture had never made Divine Injunctions, investing them with Rights of absolute Power over them; and yet the same Scripture also signifies, that notwithstanding those Rights are Divine, there are Obli­gations also upon the Father and Master, to the Son and Servant. Such a Paternal abso­lute Divine Right it is, that the Kings of England have claimed and exercised over their Subjects, as that in all times L [...]x cucurrit, the Laws have generally run in course, for preservation of all the Rights and Liberties of the People, as well as those of the Crown.

Now you see the Fox un [...]ased: the word Divine Right of Monarchy, is no such Bug­bear as we are told here in Print. And doubtless, the Lords and the Commons of Eng­land, all people both great and small, will well consider, that as this kind of Discourse was haled into the Lords House upon no occasion, to serve some ends; so it was most im­properly timed, to bring it forth in the Reign of such a King, whose tenderness towards the Laws and Liberties of the people hath been most remarkable in all his Actions. And if any thing that hath a Face of Power or Force extraordinary, or unusual in the times of his Predecessors, hath appeared about him, 'tis no more than what these Fifteen years past hath been continued, and never found fault with by his then Lord [...]hip, but judged absolutely necessary for his Guard and Defence against his now Lordships new Friends of Presbytery; the Irreconcileable Enemies, not only of this, but any King; because the very Constitutio [...] and Natural Temper of that Faction, renders them in­compatible with the Nature of his Crown and Dignity: Yet none shall more kiss him, [Page 29] and in kissing none more diminish him. Nor can there be imagined greater Enemies to all the rest of his people; not only because their design is spurred on with a Religious Zeal of Domination over their Fellow-subjects; but because also their Machinations be­ing restless and perpetual to grasp the Power, they necessitate the King, for defending his own Station, and his other peoples, to become the more heavy in his demands of Supply, to sustain the Government against such Domestick Adversaries. And if ever the Excellent Form of it happen to be spoiled, (which God forbid) we must owe it to that sort of Men; who have always made it their business to create Parties, and tell Noses in both Houses, and start such Hares as can never be run down; so that there might be neither time nor room to handle, or make an end of the important Affairs of the Kingdom; and what is this but to destroy the Exercise, Use, and publick End of Parliaments in England?

But the Print hath not done yet. Shirley's Cause hath drawn hither also the whole Business of France and Holland. We owe (it saith) the two last years Peace (by that it means the Peace we have with the Dutch) to the two Houses differing from the sence and o­pinion of White-Hall: And it saith his Lordship said, 'tis a thing to be prayed for; that there may be no general Peace made with France; and that he himself would advise against it.

See how consistent his Lordship is with himself! Even as he was wont to be. Time was when he was an Adviser at White-Hall, and he could be of their sence then, and took pains also to bring the Houses to it.

As for example, When it was the sence of White-Hall, that a War ought to be made with the Dutch; as glad as his Lordship now is of the Peace with them, he was at first as high as any Man against them; as appears by his Speech when he was Lord Chancellor, at the opening of the Session of Parliament, 5 Febr. 1672. wherein he said all he could to Inflame the Houses against the Dutch, he reckon'd up their Personal Indignities to the King by Pictures and Medals, and other Publick Affronts from the States themselves; their Breach of Treaties [...]oth in the Surinam and the East-India Business; their Height of Insolence in deny­ing the Honour and Right of the Flag, and disputing the Kings Title to it in all the Courts of Christendom : and that they made great Offers to the French King, if He would stand by Them against Us: but the Most Christian King too well remembred how dangerous a Neighbour they were to all Crowned Heads. That they were the Common Enemies to all Monarchies, especi­ally to Ours. And thereupon, as angry as he is now at our Kings fair carriage with the French, he then concluded it was well done to joyn Interests with the French King. And he told the House then also, That at any rate Carthago est Delenda, the Hollanders were not onely to be brought down, but destroy'd. And further, to engage the Parliament to libe­ral Supplies against them, he told the Houses thus: 'Tis your War; the King took his Measures from You, and they were Just and Right Ones. And if after this You suff [...]r them to get up, let this be remembred, The States of Holland are England's eternal Enemy, both by Interest and In­clination. You see his Lordships Opinion then was, that the Parliament ought to bow to the Scene of Whitehall; but in a little time after, the Scene was altered; for no sooner went his Lordship out of Office, but his Business was to bow the Houses as much the other way; and with the same eagerness for a Peace with the Dutch against the Sence of Whitehall.

And in like manner he hath laboured to put the People out of humour with Whitehall, and set them against our being any way concerned with the French; telling the Lords in this Print, what a mighty dangerous Neighbour that King is grown to be. But the good People of England ought withal to consider, That King did not in a Nights time [Page 30] grow up to this Magnitude. He was but little less at the time of his Lordships Greatness; yet all was well enough as long as his Lordship was great too; for then there was no cla­mour of his about it, either in or out of Parliament: therefore mistake not his present Peek and Indignation at the Court, for a zeal towards the Publick.

So I have done with that Speech to the Lords, Printed with the Name and Title of my Lord of Shaftsbury; and now ye Men of Shaftsbury, what do ye think of him? Have ye not reason to be proud of so able a Speech-Maker? He's a brave Man indeed that can blow up a Parliament with a Breath, and a Kingdom into a Flame; but what wise Men are they that do not yet understand him! And what a Knave is he that thinks I mean the Earl of Shafts­bury to be the Man!

Now though I have done with the Speech, yet I cannot have done with the rest of the Print; for I see Printed in the end of it another Business, in the Name of my good Lord Shaftsbury. It is Intituled, The Protestation, with Reasons of several Lords, for the Dis­solution of this Parliament; Entred in the Lords Journal, Novemb. 22. 1675. the day the Parliament was Prorogued. So that it seems his Lordship is not ignorant how this Protesta­tion came on; nor can the World be ignorant how far his Hand went in promoting it; care having been taken by some Body during the time his Lordship was in the Country, before the last Session of Parliament, to employ certain Emissaries and Agents, to carry up and down, not only to many Lords in and about this City, but likewise to all the most noted Coffe [...]-houses, Copies of a Letter, said in the Superscription of it to have been first written to the Earl of Carlisle, and to have been subscribed,

My Lord of Carlisle is a very noble Person, and I would not by any means mis-repre­sent him, he having seen too many Experiments of Male-contented Demagogues, and their little Tricks, to be caught by them, or to countenance them. 'Tis rather to be suppo­sed the Penner made bold with him. It was necessary to direct it to some Body, and easie to send Copies along with it, at the same time, to be communicated to every Bo­dy; for there was no fear but among the Coffee-h [...]unters there would be found Copiers enough, to furnish both City and Kingdom; the Design being laid now by this new Epi­stle, to prepare Mens Minds for a crying down the present Parliament, seeing there are too many Wise Men in it, and too Loyal to be shaken by a Shuttlecock; and for crying out for a New Parliament, while in the mean time matters are so labour'd in the Old One (as we have abundantly seen the last Session) that no Business should be done by them; and then there may thence arise (as is imagined) an unanswerable Argument for a Trial of Skill in Electing a New: for his Tool the Presbyter de­spairing to get Dominion by the way of the King, wants only opportunity to be Canvasing and Tugging for another Forty-One-Parliament; and would never be at rest, till he hath gotten both Houses over his Head again at Westminster. So that if the other Nonconformists will well apprehend the improvement of their own Interest, let them know, that as they have reason to decline them, being their worst Enemies by principle; so they have the fairest opportunity, in shewing themselves firm henceforth to the Crown, to stand most fair in the good opinion and favour of His Majesty, as a Party much more tolerable in the Constitution of the Government: And then there can be no fear of that they call Persecution, because the reason and occasion of it will be gone. No Creditor but will be kind when he hath gotten Security. Even so it is with Kings, and other Governours: they grieve no Party more than other, when they are once secured they will pay the Debt of Obedience and Loyalty; for, 'tis their Interest to cherish, and see every Party thri [...]e and flourish, if it be not dangerous.

[Page 31] Arguments in that Epistle his Lordship offers none, having long since arrived to that Noble Confidence, as to think his own word sufficient warrant for any Assertion; there­fore he boldly saith, 'tis the Interest of the King, the Lords, and the Commons, to have a New Parliament, without any more ado. But for his Reasons, we must have recourse to the Protestation it self; which are first for the Dissolution of this Parliament, and they are but these few following.

First, The Protestation saith, It is according to the ancient Laws and Statutes of this Realm, that there should be frequent and new Parliaments; and that the practise of several years hath been accordingly.

'Tis true, the Kings of this Realm have formerly had cause to delight in calling them, and our Chronicles tell us also, that till the Barons Wars came, and after the Barons Wars were ended, down to the time of King James, Parliaments were modest in their station, and easie to the King; so that the Business of the Kingdom went on current: without long Speeches and hot Disputes: But in King James his time, the Presbyter or Purita [...] (as Men then called him) (whom Queen Elizabeth in her time, not without much ado kept down) began to spread his Wings, grew numerous and headstrong, so that they were able to furnish the Commons House with a Canvasing Party, and did it constantly at every Election; and divers Members of the House of Peers, who in those days affected Preferment at Court, and wanted it, and envied others that had it, or were otherwise male-content, or intoxicated with mistaken Zeal of new Phantsies about Religion, or Church-Government, were not wanting to make a Party of Lords, to second that fiery part of the Commons; who carried matters divers times so high, that That King was necessitated, towards the latter end of his Reign, for the Honour of his Crown, and Preservation of the Government in q [...]iet, often to dissolve them: Of which the Puritan (that is, the Presbyter) always made advantage by exceeding Clamour against the Court, to gain the ignorant and unwary part of the people to his party. And so you see to what sort of Men we owe the new invention of Frustrating Parliaments.

After this comes King Charles the First to the Government, upon whom they perpe­tually practis'd it in all Parliaments that he called; and at length (you know) that working upon the Kings Necessities in the year 1641. they in a manner constra [...]ned him to perpetuate them in Power; which was the ruine of the Royal Government, and at length of all Government it self. It is to be noted also, that it was not till the begin­ning of his Reign, that they took up the other New Trick of State; which was, seeing they durst not yet be so bold, as to strike at the King himself for supposed defaults in Go­vernment, they resolved to strike as near him as they could; and so they began to make it constant work, to fall upon his Chief Ministers of State; and always, in the Intervals of Parliament, made it their Business to fill the Kingdom with Clamours against them; so preparing them thereby, as a Sacrifice to their own ends and cruelty, and to the Peo­ples folly, against every call of a Parliament. Thus it was from the time of the old Duke of Buckingham, (who by a brave Defence in Parliament made good his Station) to the time of that most brave, though most unfortunate Man, the Earl of Strafford, whom they worried to death by Popular Tumults, after he had bastled them at the Bar in defending himself most gloriously: As they did also Archbishop La [...]d, a Man of high design for the Honour of the King, and Glory of the Church; which they charged on him to be for introducing of Slavery and Popery; so that all the rest of the King's Ministers were glad to flee for safety of their Lives. Nay, they stopt not here; but being flusht, drew up Articles of High Treason against the Queens Majesty. And then, we too sadly remem­ber, how easily afterwards they passed on to a Charge against the King himself.

I write not this, as if I meant to scandalize, or cast an Odium upon that ancient Right and Liberty of Parliaments, to Inspect the Actions and Behaviour of the great Officers [Page 32] of Trust, and call them to account, if faulty; it being confessed a good advantage and security to the King and Kingdom, and necessary to be continued: but my purpose here is onely to note, when and how the Abuse of that Parliamentary Power, and by what Faction it was first made so extravagant, that no sooner could a Favourite or Mi­nister of State be warm in his Office, or in the Kings Favour, and had resolved to look strictly to a maintaining the Rights and Constitution of Government in Church and State, but immediately they fell upon the Back of him, and gave out the word for his Dis­placing, or his Destruction. No doubt but the best of Men in great place will have Er­rours and Faults, being more then other Men distracted with many Businesses, and ex­posed to many Temptations, as the Earl of Strafford said at his Tryal; but that they should by Popular Breath and Faction be blown up to the degree of high Crime or Trea­son, when they have perhaps, in the Judgment of Men moderate and wise, onely served the King with the best of their [...]kill; this is both uncharitable, and cruel; or the effect of Faction, or Envy; and it is this onely that I redargue: for, it is in a factious time, the great Interest of the Crown to see to it, and to nip this Grand Abuse whenever it shall be practised; always taking due measure between a just or conscionable, and a factious prosecution. Else these Inconveniences will follow.

As 'tis in the Nature of Man to be well-con [...]eited of himself, (otherwise most Men would even hang themselves) so generally a secret Envy arises in him at the preferment of another, because he thinks he deserves better than he; and the King presently gets his ill-will for pas­sing him by. This Man then meets with many other of his own sence and humour; and so by rubbing each others Sores till they smart, they resolve presently, that the Preferree is a Common Enemy, and as such to fall upon him: And so the Issue at last shall be this, when the course of Accusation grows customary, that the King shall never be free of his own Choice, nor secure of his Ministers, when he hath chosen them.

Moreover, [...]hen to be preferr'd shall be to be exposed, and shot at by all the Darts of Envy and Danger, what Man of Wisdom or Fortune will be willing to accept of Preferment? or be true and tight to the Kings Concern and Interest in the Government, if he do accept it? Or will he not rather be tempted through fear of that Accusatory Faction, to serve the Regal Inte­rest but by halves? or perhaps to betray his Masters Government in Church and State, (as s [...]me did in the time of the Kings Father, when they saw him forced to leave Strafford) to make a Friend of that Faction? For, thus Men will be too apt to do when they cannot be sure of their Masters. So that if Kings once quit their Constancy in this particular, nothing brings greater hazard to their own Interest of Government, and their Persons; nor greater diminution to the Kingly Dignity and Power, in the opinion of other Princes; while his Ministers and himself shall remain liable to be baited, at every turn of humour, by so busie and impetuous a Fa­ction: as if himself were not wise enough to chuse, or as if we had none but Knaves in the King­dom to be chosen.

Finally, 'Tis, and ought ever to be, an Arcanum kept, as the Jewels are, in the Royal Cabinet, to preserve all places which are nigh the Throne, so sacred as not to be easily invaded; for that draws a Reverence to the Throne it self; which should be religiously fenced about, not only as the Sacrary of Royalty, but as the Sanctuary also of other Princes; for, such are his great Men, and high Officers of State in their places: They are as the Lyons about the Throne of So­lomon, to beget a dread and sence of Majesty in all that approach to it: and those are not Beasts for Sacrifice, nor to be offer'd up as such, nor to be pull'd down without very great cause of Justice require it; because the frequency of pulling down the Fence, hardens Men; and ren­ders them by custom so hardy, as to make bold with the Throne it self.

This licentious Abuse of criminating the Kings Ministers, hath by the same Faction [Page 33] which first began it, been carried of late times to such a height, that were a Man be­fore reputed never so honest, yet no sooner doth the King make him one of his great Officers, but that if he sticks close to his Masters Interest of Government, he presently becomes a publick Enemy; and as such they brand him and teaze him, and seek to tire out his Majesty with Importunities and Addresses to be rid of him. This sort of Behavi­our was the reason which made his Majesties Grandfather and Father not so frequent in calling Parliaments; and the Protesting Lords may do well to consider, how little reason their Son, His present Majesty, is like to have, to become fond of New Parliaments, till he can have some good ground to believe, that they will return to the like temper and moderation, as they had in old time, when those ancient Laws and Statutes for frequent calling them were made: or until the people see their errour at Elections, in suffering Men of that implacable Faction, which first poyson'd the fair stream of Parliamentary Duty, still to creep into the House, to shelter themselves in acting their mischievous De­signs, under the Covert of Priviledge of Parliament, and publick good.—So I have done with their Lordships First Reason in the Protestation, and proceed to the Second, which is this.

Secondly, It seems not reasonable, that any particular number of men should, for many years, ingross so great a trust of the People, as to be their Representatives in the House of Commons, and as good men as these Members of the Counties and Corporporations, be so long excluded. This kind of reasoning I never expected from the mouths of such Noble Lords. Nay, then (methinks) I see John Lilburn putting on Robes, and uttering his old Oracles of State. What! Is there no Smith to be found in Israel, to whet Arguments for their Lordships, that they are fain to go down to him, and his Philistines the Levellers? for, thus they argu­ed nigh Thirty years ago against the then House of Commons: and good my Lords re­member, that the same Argument being but a very little altered, served also at that time against the House of Peers. Be informed, my noble Lords, you whose names I find in a Catalogue Printed at the end of this Protestation; for ye cannot (I suppose) remember, because when I read your Names, I perceive that none of you were then Sitters in the Lords House, except one, whose name I forbear; as I do the names of all the rest, beside my good Lord of Shaftsbury; who in those dayes was ubiquitarian: therefore doubtless he could have inform'd your Lordships, as well as I, of what then passed in publick, if it had been to his purpose that you should have had this informati­on, before you were thus far transported, and your names cunningly proclaimed in Print; which questionless was done, in hope that it may be a means to fasten and en­gage you deeper.

But I say again (my Lords) be informed, and consider, that it was the general Argu­ment of Lillurn, and all the Levellers, that it suited not with the freedom and Interest of the people of England, That some men should continue long in Publick Trust and Power as the Peo­ples Representatives, seeing the rest of the people had as much right to govern as they, and there­fore ought to have a turn as well as they in the Government. And for such a turn also they were in the Government of the then Army; they were for turning out all the General Officers and Colonels; and the common soldiers were taught to demand Rule by turns; and the clamor for it was so high, that Cromwell could by no means quiet them, till he gave way that they should, in every Regiment, chuse one private soldier to appear for all his Fellows, to sit and consult in the General Council of Officers. And all this was urged and extorted, by using the same Argument of an equal Right in the Commons to come into place of Government, one as well as another.

Nay, Further (my Lords) it may be remembred, this brave way of Arguing did not rest here; it did not only, at that time, trouble and shake the Commons-House, but a [Page 34] little after it was improved to a demolishing of your own. From a Clamouring against Commons continuing long in Power, they proceeded to do the like against all standing Powers whatsoever; so that of course they cast their eyes next at the House of Peers, and the like Argument served to purpose against them, as a Power of long continuance, with­out any respect at all to their Birth-right. As for the rest of their Levelling Reasons, I had rather bury than repeat them. For, it is my great grief to live to see any Lords, to when the Weapons of Discourse upon the Anvile of the Levellers.

But yet their Protesting Lordships go on thus:

Thirdly, The long Continuance of such as are intrusted for others, and who have so great a power over the Purse of the Nation, must, in our humble opinion, naturally endanger the produ­cing of Factions and Parties, and the carrying on of particular Interests and Designs, rather than the publick Good.

This their Third Reason being the last, is also an Arrow that was formerly shot out of the [...]velling Quiver against their Lordships. They abundantly argued against the Commons; that long continuance of men in power and trust, and all standing powers what­soever, were like standing waters, they naturally corrupt, and produce Factions and Parties for particular ends and designs, and mind not the Publick Good. I could here inject Quo­tations too many out of their Published Papers, to shew their Lordships, how smartly they argued also with the same kind of Sophistry for the utter subversion of the House of Peers, alledging, that they were but men as well as others, and subject to the same frail­ties, &c. and so, being continually in power, were as likely to produce Factions, and drive particular Interests and Ends to the prejudice of the Publick; and judged that they did so in those dayes, when a Party of Lords strook in with a Presbyterian party in the Commons House, against the publick Interest and good of the Independents and Levellers; who had arrogated unto themselves the name of The Publick, and The People, and The Nation. The having the Purse of the Nation long, as the Commons have; or a place of constant power over the Nation, as the Lords have by Birth-right, doth not alter the case in this way of Argumentation, because any men may be corrupt and facti­ous in the use and exercise of either. Therefore these their Lordships ('tis hoped) will be humble in Opinion hereafter, about the matter of dissolving this House of Commons, and calling a New One, and not fall on a sudden to Protesting, till they see better rea­sons than what are borrowed from their old Levelling Enemies.

Certainly, my Lord Shaftsbury, if he had pleased, might have furnished his fellow-Protesting Friends and himself before he Signed that Protestation, with reasons of another strain, and those out of his own stock too; for it appears, he hath been a much more rational person; but, it was before he lost his Places at Court; and truly, seeing a loss of so much Honor and Profit is enough to tap any man out of Tune, and put him into passion, we ought to give allowance for humane infirmity, and excuse his weak memo­ry. For, his Lordship might have remembred he was of another Opinion; and that was not long since, when he was Lord Chancellor, in his fore-cited Speech to the Lords and Commons, at the Opening of a Session of Parliament, 1672, where you had his Lordship in a Fit of Great Devotion, offering a Sacrifice of Thanks and Praise to the Almigh­ty, for such a King, and such a Parliament, and for such happy times of Peace and Plenty: which, for the Honor of his Lordship, or rather of the King and this Parlia­ment, shall here be repeated. The Words are these,

All which being spoken of this present Parliament; may well serve for an Answer to his Lordships Protestation, notwithstanding those Reasons therein contained: For sure­ly, matters cannot in so short a time be so exceedingly alter'd, as to deserve this protest­ing, or the declaimings, in that violent manner, (as throughout this whole Discourse we have seen) by reflecting upon the Bishops, and against the continuance of the Par­liament, that were, in his Lordships good opinion, so sacred about five years ago. The old saying is, —Nemo repente [...]it turpissimus—; and 'tis a true one, that no man grows as bad as bad may be on a sudden: and if there be any weight in what his Lord­ship hath said on both sides, it is more reasonable and probable for us to conclude and understand ill of himself, rather than of the Parliament, because the Transits of great Assemblies are not so quick: and another Proverb saith, Great Bodies move but slowly, so that their principles, purposes and designs, cannot vary all points of the Compass, at so brisk a rate as one nimble States-man's, whose motion is wont to be per Saltum, after the manner of Leap-Frog, from the Artick to the Antartick in a Trice; especially if he hap­pen to fall into foul weather at Court, and can ride there no longer, but must make use of any wind to set sail into some other Port. Which (we hope) will be consider'd by the rest of the Lords Protesters.

And truly, their Lordships have the fairer excuse to come off, because the thing was done in a heat, and in haste; as appears first by the printed Title of the Protestation, which saith it was on the morning that the Parliament was Prorogued, 1675; and the prin­ted words at the end of it are, That the Lords in print, were all that were in the House early enough to Sign it before the Prorogation: So that it seems his Lordship could not be at rest, [Page 36] till he had given all the World to understand, why it was that he was so warm in his Speeches upon Cross-points, which must make a Breach betwixt the Houses all along the Session, to hinder all manner of publick Business; and then, from the non-dispatch of it to in [...]er, that this Parliament is not fit for it; and then (forsooth) we are to believe what he dictates, and admit a protesting Ergo; That there is a necessity of dissolving this, and calling a new Parliament. For, his Lordship and the rest in print do close the Protestation with these three Lines; That it is in their humble opinion, become altogether unpracticable for the Two Houses, as the case stands, joyntly to pursue those great and good Ends for which they were called. That is as much as to say, it will be so, if the case shall so stand in the opening of this approching Session, as it was in the ending of the last. For, some say his Lordship hath Dr. Shirley in his pocket, and can start him again at pleasure, to make the same scuffle about priviledge betwixt the Houses. But some think he will be wiser [...], because the Trick being now thus plainly understood, it will be too ridiculous to play it over again, in an Assembly of so many noble, seeing and knowing Men, as make up the House of Peers. Nor is it probable, that the Commons House, filled with men of great wisdom, insight in Affairs, and integrity, should meet together without Expedients to prevent further Contests, and to carry on the King and Kingdoms business. Which they are the rather obliged to do for the Honour of their House, in a double respect: First, because if this House of Commons, which began and carried on things so gloriously, for the Establishment of the King, and Settlement of the Kingdom, shall be deprived of opportunity to finish what they began, What can be the end, but to go out in a Snuff? according to the Designs of a busie Rampant Faction, who mortally hate them for the good they have done; and whose Triumph it would be, to transmit the memory of them to posterity with ig [...]ominy, and this bitter Sarcasm: That they began to build, but could not make an end.—Secondly, They are exceedingly concerned in point of Ho­nour, seeing they are represented in Print to the World, as a sort of people that may be easily plaid upon, and led by the nose to do what other men please. For, in a print published at the same time with the other prints, since the last Session, and by the same hand, Entituled, The Debate or Arguments for Dissolving this present Parliament, and the calling frequent New Ones: as they were delivered in the House of Peers, Novemb. 20th. 1675. I find, page 9. it is boasted by the Designers, concerning the Commons House, that they have a party of Members in that House, whom the said print calls, Many of the ablest and most worthy Patriots among them; whose business it was to second the Protesting Lords, by carry­ing this difference betwixt the Houses to the greatest height, that by this means they might de­liver the Nation from this Parliament by Dissolution, and have a New one called. So that Here we have OPEN CONFESSION, that it was a Design carried on by a PARTY in both Houses, to bring on, and carry on their Fellow-Members to such disputes, as might Disable them to do the Publick Work; and thence to conclude, that they ought to be dissolved. Which certainly is a Conspiracy of such a Magnitude, that none ever exceed­ed it but the Powder-Treason: Especially, if we consider, what course hath been taken by this kind of Prints, spread over the Three Kingdoms, to Poison mens minds, and ren­der the Government Ridiculous, by exposing the Debates and Contestings of Parliament to the Scorn and Contempt of the Vulgar, through the Artifice and cunning of that Im­placable Party, which I have so often mentioned; and whose DESIGN is now Mani­fested, to be a BLOWING UP of the Parliament after another manner.

It cannot be amiss therefore, before I dismiss this Point, to try the strength of what they have DISCOURSED for a NEW PARLIAMENT, as it hath been Printed in the fore­cited Pamphlet, called, The Debate and Arguments used in the House of Peers, &c. There are (saith that Pamphlet▪) Two Objections that make a great Sound, which have really nothin [...] of weight in them.

[Page 37] The first Objection is, That the Crown is in danger if you call a New Parliament. This Ob­jection they pretend to answer, by saying, there's no fear of danger, because Men of Quality, of Estates, and of the best Understanding, and such as will give Money will be cho­sen. But, I reply, this Argument hath more Malice than Reason to support it, because it reflects, as if these were not such. The Generality of this House of Commons are known to be men of the best Quality, and of Estates, and of the best understanding. All their Fault is, in the Opinion of the Conspiring Party, that they too well understand them and their Design; and what the true interest of the Crown is, and that as they ever have been, so they still are tight and firm to it, and the Government; and that the great interest of the Nobles, Gentry, and Commons of the Land lies in being so. This they understand: Besides, they are men best acquainted and expert in the management of Parliamentary Affairs, and therefore more likely than men newly elected, to make dispatch of them, if the Projectors did not study all ways to impede them, for other ends than the [...]ase and supply of the Crown. And therefore a New Parliament is not now to be called for these following Reasons.

I. Because it is not for the honour of the King, to be as it were Trepann'd thus by Tricks, or worried by Clamors and Importunities, into a necessity of calling a new Par­liament, because it will, in the judgment of wise men at home, and of Princes abroad, be no other than an imposing upon him in one main point of his Prerogative; which is, to use His own discretion, and take His own time, for the summoning and dissolving of Parliaments.

II. It cannot be for his safety or advantage, because if Money be wanting, know, he must pay dear for it before the New One will give it: and, What can they give, which may not more readily be had by the present Parliament, if the just indignation of His Ma­jesty, and His two Houses shall arise against the stratagems o [...] the Prime Projectors, and defeat them? I cannot forget what mine eyes have seen in the days of His Royal Fa­ther; therefore, since years teach wis [...]om; and the experience of like matters in time past, gives instruction for the future, it cannot but be good to bring them fresh into remem­brance. Let us therefore remember how it was with King Charles the First. It was the cunning of the same Faction, having an aking Tooth at the Bishops, and consequently a de­sign to alter the Government, as now they have again; which they could not easily do without clamouring about matters of Religion; and against some Errors and Excesses, of the Court and the King's Ministers; Therefore, as they plied that point home, in hope to gain the people; so, in the beginning of His Reign, they finding the King in neces­sity of Money to satisfie His Fathers Debts, and for other great occasions at home and abroad; and knowing that a Parliament must be called for Raising Money, they laid the Plot thus: First, to work upon that necessity by high popular demands, such as must ei­ther bow the King to comply with them, and then it would be easie for them to pur­sue their wild projects of alteration in State and Church; or else it would constrain him to break them: And that they feared not, knowing it could not be long before he would have occasion to call a Second Parliament; which they, by the like demands, would bring to nothing as easily as before, unless the King would consent to them: which they presumed he would never do. And it came to pass, as they had before contrived; that the King was frustrated of the hopes he had of three or four Parliaments, by sending them away one after another, not getting one peny : but he being tired out, and having perceived that they entred upon such debates, and made such demands, as intrenched upon the Interest of His Crown, and that a condescension to them, would have brought both him and it into contempt; he was constrained to shift without Parliaments, to his great sorrow; and it proved to be the great occasion of the late War, enough to shew what it is for a King in want of Money, in these days, to call a New Parliament, of [Page 38] whose kindness he hath had no experience; especially when he hath already a Parlia­ment in being, most dutiful, wise, and able to do his and his Kingdoms business, if some few persons would please to study peace, and leave off contention. The truth of the forementioned Plot of the Commons in those days, I shall, by and by, more particularly demonstrate.

In the mean while, you may remember, I told you, this sort of Game they began in the latter end of the Reign of King James; and now you shall see how they plaid it. Before that time the Commons never medled at so high a rate; but in the Nineteenth year of that King, when he called a Parliament about the assistance of the Prince Pala­tine, his Majesty was in great want of Money to relieve the Palatinate; and great hopes were given him of a Supply. What was the Issue of this necessity of calling it? The King had a mind to Adjourn the Parliament but for a little season, and for some Reasons which he foresaw required it; whereupon the Faction presently interposed, and drew the rest of their Fellow-Members to Petition him against Adjournment: insomuch that the wise King, being Jealous of his Prerogative, and not liking that the Commons should so much as meddle with it, though in a way but Petitionary, he very much resented it, and told a Committee which they sent to him about it, That he took it very ill the Com­mons should dispute his Reasons of Adjournment, all Power being in him alone to Call, Adjourn, and Dissolve Parliaments. This made the Faction so bold and Mutinous in discourse every where, that His Maiesty was fain to put forth a Proclamation against talking of State-affairs with such inordinate liberty.

The time of the Parliaments Adjournment being expired, they came together again; and what then? The Palatine Cause requiring Supply more than before; and the Lord Treasurer having in a Speech laid open the Kings Wants, and how empty his Coffers were, the Faction thought they should now in his Necessity be able to work him like Wax; there­fore in stead of Money, they immediately salute him with a Catalogue of his Faults, the growing Mischiefs of his Government, and dictate unto him Remedies; and they called it A Petition and Remonstrance. The King then by Letter to the Speaker, sharply com­plains of this Indignity, imputes it not to the House it self, but to the boldness of some fiery and popular Spirits in the House of Commons, which were the Predecessors of our present Faction; whom he brands with Breach of his Prerogative Royal, by debating publickly Mat­ters which were above them. Nevertheless, having him at a pinch for Money, they grew the bolder; and hereupon drew up another Petition, and sent it to back their former Re­monstrance. To which his Majesty gave a smart Answer, taxing the Faction, and desiring the Commons henceforth not to give car to those Tribunitial Orators among them; advising them also to keep within their Bounds; and that the way to preserve their Priviledges, was not to pare his Prerogative, and pull the Flowers of the Crown.—Then to shew it was indeed a Fiery Faction, they blew the Flame yet higher▪ and by Speech-making got the Major Vote to come to a Protestation, that they ought to debate high Matters, and it was their Priviledge, &c. But this was done by the Faction, by surprise, the Third part of the House not present. This so moved the King, that to preserve his Prerogative, he was forced to send for the Clerk of the House of Commons, to bring his Journal-Book to Whitehall, and produce it in the Pricy Council, where his Majesty thought fit, that the Protestation should be razed out of all Memorials, and utterly to be annihilated, both in respect of the manner by which it was gained, and of the Matter therein contained: and he did in full Council, and in the presence of the Judges, declare it void and of none effect, because it was Pen­ned in such general and ambiguous words, as might serve for future Times, to invade most of the Rights and Prerogatives annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm: For, his Majesty did not deny, but that the House might Treat and Debate De Arduis Regni, which words (said the King) were cunningly mentioned in that Protestation: but they ought to have re­member'd [Page 39] also the word Quibusdam, which restraineth the generality of the other words, Arduous Affairs of the Kingdom, to such particular Cases as his Majesty pleaseth to consult with them upon. Therefore the King did further, Mann propria, take the said Protestation out of the Journal-Book of the Cemmons, and made an Act of Council thereupon. And in six days after, he was necessitated to Dissolve them, having got not one Peny of Money for his Extream Occasions. For it was the Arcanum of the Faction even in those days, to make High Demands, and raise Quarrels about Priviledges, and other Matters intrenching upon the Rights of the Crown; that as oft as they got the Parliament-House over their Heads, they took the same Method of working upon want of Money, to brave the King; and by not supplying him, to held his N [...]s [...] to the Grindstone. They clamour'd ever for Parliaments, lured the King in wit [...] Hopes of Money to call them, and then in stead of Money they fell to disputing with him; so that the Parliaments in the latter end of King James's Reign, were of no use to him, except the last, a little before he died: For, in his last appearance with them he complained, how the Faction had made him Break the Necks of Three Parliaments together: by which he meant the Three Preceding Parlia­ments.

King James being gone, now let us see more at large how they used his Son King Charles, in his first Parliament Ann [...] 1625. which, by reason of the Plague at London, was Adjourned to Oxford. The Supplies for carrying on the Palatine Cause had been pres­sed by the Lord Keeper before at westminster; and now at Oxford, the Kings Secretaries of State Report to both Houses the Kings great Occasions for Money, and the great Debts left upon him by his Father. Thereupon the Faction, having a Young King to deal with, and in Necessity for Money, began to Rant more than ever with High Debates; reflecting upon his Ministers as Evil Counsellors, and upon himself; upbraiding him, that his Ne­cessities arose from Improvidence; and a world of such like stuff they [...]witted him with, and cried out also on Popery, as if it had been just coming in: but in the mean time they neglected the Palatine Cause, (the supplying whereof ought to have been speedy) and afterwards Scandalized the King and his Ministers, in having the blune of it upon them. Next, they sell upon High Demands from the King before they would think of a Peny: The same [...] as before in King James's days. So the King perceiving they were resolved against Supplies, unless they might have their will upon himself, and tear his Ministers and some of his Counsellors in pieces, He, after three Moneths sitting, was forced to Dissolve them.

About five Moneths after that Dissolution, his Majesties great Necessities urged him to the calling of a Second Parliament: which was done, and no sooner [...], but the Faction resumed the very same Courses again; onely in one particular they alter'd: from ca­lumniating the Kings Ministers in general, they now began to fall (in stead of Money) upon the Duke of Be [...]kingham; though the King in his Speech willed them rather to re­member, it was not long since in his Fathers time, that They did so much [...] an [...] Re [...]p [...] ­him, that all the Honour [...]ferred on him w [...]s too little. Many hot and high Debates pas­sed; nevertheless, in despight of the Faction, the Loyal part of the Commons made a shift to get a Vote for Three Subsidies, and Three Fifteens for the King: but it came to nothing; for though the King after wards wrote a Letter to them, and otherwise also im­portuned them to bring him that Bill of Subsidy to pass, telling them he should look upon Longer delay as a denial; yet the Faction so disturbed the House with [...] and Debates, that nothing was done; the King got not a E [...]thing, and was constrained, after Four Moneths sitting, to Dissolve them a Second time.

The next year after, a Third Parliament was call [...]d; and though the [...] in it la­boured hard in their wonted way, yet for meer shame at length a Subsidy was Voted, and [Page 40] passed by the Industry of the Loyal Party: But on the other hand, the Faction stomaching the Matter, contrived how to shew their Malice another way, and drave on a Remon­strance to take away Tonnage and Poundage, one of the chiefest Maintenances of the Crown: Which to prevent, the King was fain to go Himself in Person to Prorogue them for Four Moneths time; and that being [...]igh expired, it was by Proclamation Pro­rogued for Three Moneths more; after which being Re-assembled, the Faction flew out into high Fits about Priests and Popery, and Grievances; and were so tumultuary, that the Speaker was leaving the Chair, but that they held him in by force, till they had passed Resolves against payment of the Kings Tonnage and Po [...]ndage: And so what Mo­ney they had given with one hand, they took away with another. So that nothing being likely but Mischief to the Crown by longer Si [...]ting, [...] King was glad to Dis­solve them by Proclamation afterwards, and to acquaint the World with their Beha­viour, by putting forth a Declaration of the Causes of their Diss [...]ion.

Thereupon his Majesty was neces [...]itated to have recourse unto extraordinary ways for Supply, to carry on the Government, without Parliaments, for almost Twelve Years after; for by the violent and unreasonable proceedings of that desperate Faction, which, at every Election, crept in among them, they were reduced into a state, not onely unpracticable and useless, but dangerous to the Crown.

During this Twelve years interval, the Faction now lay at lurch in City and Countrey, [...]retting and corroding in the bowels of the Government; and collecting matter of new accusations against the King and his Ministers, out of those extraordinary courses, which the necess [...]ty they had forced on them compelled them to take, for upholding the Go­vernment; and which their Factions providence re [...]erved in mind, on purpose to make use of, whensoever time should bring a necessity upon the King to call another Parlia­ment.—It was so at length, that they contrived this necessity; for they truck'd with the Scots, and by corresponding there, brought them into England in the Year 1639. which put the King to a great charge to raise an Army to oppose them: But the matter being composed, a Pacification was agreed on; the Scots were to be paid a sum of Money, and Money the King must provide for them. So necessity at last made him call that fatal Parliament, which began Novemb. 3. 1641. Which being met, the Fa­ction began now to work on his Majesty to purpose; told him, no Money was to be had but by borrowing, and men would not credit them, unless they could be sure the Par­liament might fit long enough to repay it. So by this means, the King being desirous to rid away the Scots out of the Kingdom, was wrought upon, for raising the Money, to pass that prodigious Act, which enabled that Parliament to fit at Westminster as long as they pleased, and so to do what they li [...]t. Then (you know) how they used the King afterward for his kindness; what strange things they did, and to what Conclusion at length they came. From whence arises this sharp Instruction for all succeeding Kings, That while this Faction reigns upon the face of the Earth, they takeheed of relying up­on them, in a time of the Crown's necessity; and of giving them opportunity, by cal­ling a new Parliament, in hope of getting Money; forasmuch as woful experience hath sh [...]wn us, they, at such a time, make it their business to ask, not to give; and never to leave asking, till they come to be disposers both of the King and Kingdom. This is it they would now be at, and have fixed their Party for it all over the Nation, to scuffle hard at new Elections. So I suppose I have sufficiently cleared my Second Reason, by ample Experiments; that it cannot be for the King's advantage or safety, in such a time as the present, to part with this Parliament, and call a new; unless it were possible that a Leopard should change his spots, or a Blackmore his skin; or that this Mercurial Faction, which is now, by its Leaders and Drivers, made more mad than ever for an opportunity, [Page 41] should change its nature, and become tame on a sudden; and be fix'd in a greater ho­nesty and kindness to this King, than they were to his Grandfather and Father; or, in truth, to the established Government and Interest of the Crown.

3. A Third Reason ariseth from the natural Temper and Constitution of the Party, in respect of the Government. He understands little that seeth not Presbytery to be the bottom of all; that Bottom wherein we have seen embarquing many years unpreferred Clergy-men, broken Factions, cashier'd Courtiers, guilty Officers, by pocritical Citizens, mista­ken Zealots of both Sexes, old Sinners, but young Saints, and their pedling Levites; whose work it is, from house to house, to blow the Bellows round the Kingdom: All which use to employ their Talents to draw in many of the honest-hearted Gentry, though not into the same opinion with them in Religious matters, yet to side and vote with them in their pretences of redressing publick Grievances, reformation of Abuses, removing, or doing justice upon evil Counsellors; and the like: And with these charms they have been wont to hold many publick-spirited Countrey-Gentleman fast to their side, till they have humbled the King, the Court, and all the Fast-friends of the Government, and brought all to their bow; they give them the slip into further proceedings, they pull off their Visors, shew their Faces, and slie higher and higher, till they top all that is above, and tumble it down: as they did of old often in Scotland, and of late in England.

To that Malign Ulcer of Presbytery it is, that most of the ill humours of the King­dom flow; because the Preshyterian is for some National Government of the Church, though in such a way as is utterly inconfident with the Monarchy. The reason of it is plain; because it derives no Power from the King, but pretends only from the King of Kings, Christ; yet would have a Secular Influence, to Govern the Kingdom in their own Spiritual way, which is by a Parity of Presbyters; a Power purely Aristocratical, directly contradistinct to the form of Monarchy, to which the single Bishop only is agreeable, because he arrogates not any influence in Government over the people, but what he derives from the King. Now then, so it is, that seeing some National Church-Government is that which must be, and the Episcopal is that which is the Kings best hold, and most firm to him; therefore the [...] and Leaders of present Quarrels, being [...]aln from all their interests in Court, common Cunning tells them, they must strike in with the men of the other Form, to build new For­tunes upon the ruine of the Court, and the Bishops, if they mean to be great, and Govern; which cannot be more readily done, than by becoming pretended Reform­ers of the old Government in the Church, and by introducing a Church-Aris [...]ocracy into the room of it: for, if one be not, the other must be: and if so be they slip into the head of it, they will never be without such a Conscience, as will engage them to maintain it, being men of a versatile principle: So that when I view the Printed Lists of them, me-thinks I already see Lords States, or at least Twenty four Conser [...]ators that would be, assisted by the Spiritual Aristocracy of a General Assembly; for, they reckon all is done, if they can but come to tug for it in another Par­liament.

This brings us to take notice of a Second Objection, against their design of break­ing off the Parliament, which the projecting Polititia [...]s seem to flight, and 'tis this, That the Church and this Parliament will fall together. 'Twere but vain to write [Page 42] much more, to shew the grand probability of it, and of the debasement, or ru­ine, of this glorious Monarchy, if the Faction can finish what they have proje­cted. But why is it that they utter'd and printed lately so m [...]ny severe Re [...]le­ctions upon his Majesty and his Government? Why hath this LETTER, upon which I have here written these ANIMADVERSIONS, made it its main scope, to cast all the Odium of the evils therein pretended, upon the Bishops? Why have divers Transactions been solely imputed to them, and they alone been represented blame-worthy, if there had been any cause of blame in things, which many times had been first moved by the Temporal Lords, if the design were not to exasperate mens minds principally against Bishops? Why are they so [...]en slandered, as if they drave an Interest, as Bishops, prejudicial to the Rights and Interest of the peo­ple? What mean all these suggestions, if they meant not to prepare them for ruine by another Parliament, seeing they can never do it while this is in being? And why so great a zeal against them among the prime drivers of the Faction, who can own nothing of Reli­gion or Reformation, save what they take up for cra [...]ty ends, but because they well know there is no way to invade the Throne, but by first removing Bishops? which seeing this Parliament, their defenders, will never suffer; that is the reason why some have been so vehement in debates to imbroil the Houses, to make it impossible for them to do any thing more for the Publick; and so by taking away their reputation, they may not be able to defend themselves against the plotted out-cries of the People, to make the Church and this Parliament fall, and sink under the fury of the Faction both together?

Thus having taken a [...]urvey of all the other holds of Reason, wherein they fortifie themselves, and infest the Government by frequent [...]allies forth in print; and having re­duced them, and planted better Reasons in their stead, 'tis time to return to the m [...]in Fort which I left; I mean the LETTER; which will now be the more easily and quickly de [...]eated.

ANIMADVERSION.

TIs rather to be supposed the Lords are here slandered. It can hardly be, that they should take up a business which was damn'd by King James long ago; when the Factions Party in the then House of Commons clamoured against the Prince's Match with Spain, and made Addresses to the King about it, who in much wrath told them, They should meddle with their own business, this being above them, &c.

This point also the Faction was so bold to insist on, among the rest of their high De­mands made to his Son in the Nineteen Propositions 1642. to which his Majesty answered, That to debar him of the free Marriage of his Children, would be to place him in a condition lower than the meanest of his Subjects. This debarring of Princes from marrying where they please, would be to hinder them from making those great Advantages which many times they might get thereby, for the general Good of the Kingdom. Therefore when it was pressed on, at the second Reading of the Bill, the Vote went in the Negative.

ANIMADVERSION.

TWo Faults, it seems, these two Lords have besides their being of a just Size to the true Interest of the Government; that is to say, Two Good Places; crime enough in this Age for Ministers of State; for which, while one man lives, they are sure never to he forgiven. I will not swear my Lord of Shaftsbury had a hand in this LETTER; but as weak a man as I am, may be apt to imagine so, because he takes such care those two Noble Lords should not be forgotten; nor the Duke of Lauderdale, because he keeps all quiet in Scotland; so that there is no possibility of beginning again the Ruine of our English Bishops by the way of Scotland; nor of getting Friends into a Scotch Parliament, to second the fine Speeches made here in England.

ANIMADVERSION.

THey were much beholden then to his Lordship, to remove their Fears, by taking a course to convert the Houses into Cock-pits, to make sport for the Nation. The Court indeed were so foolish as to expect better things; but this must be imputed to the want of his Lordships Wisdom among them. But what was the occasion that his Lord­ship laid hold on thus to transform them? His Pocket-Business of Shirley did not do all the mischief: but there was another, called The Bill of Test.

ANIMADVERSION.

BUt others are of opinion his Lordship did it, as an Act of high Loyalty, an­swerable to that most Noble Character which his Family justly bears in the o­pinion of his Majesty and the whole World; who can never forget either them, or the memory of that great Man the Father of them, [...] Earl of Lindsey; who, in the first famous Battel of Edge-Hill, being Lord General of his Majesties Army, most valiantly spilt his Blood in that Service, in hope immediately to have restored the Royal Family, and to have stopt that Issue of Blood, which [...]an so many years after about the Kingdom. Therefore it was no wonder that this Noble Lord, being his Grandson, was the Man that brought in a [...]ill of T [...]st; He and all his being a Family [Page 44] that can endure a Test, in this, and all other Concerns of the King, the Church, and [...] the Nation.

ANIMADVERSION.

CErtainly, it was well observed by those Lords: and therefore I suppose it was high time to take Pen in hand, to manifest the Truth, that the late Discourses and practises of some men, during several past Sessions of Parliament, are no other but the same very courses that were practised with the like heat and violence, and with the same method against the King, the Church, and the whole State, both in and out of Parliament, as appears through the whole Current of these Animadversions: in which I had not been so large, but that it was most necessary to present to view, the new Transactors of the Faction, now drest, and acting in the habit, principles and posture of the old Masters of the late Rebellion; which might lie for ever buried in the Act of Obli [...]ion, if these men did not rake all up again into fresh remembrance, whe­ther we will or no. God forgive them.

Was it not then wisely and nobly done of my Lord Ch [...]ncellor, and the rest of those n [...] ­ble Lords, to think of some way of Security against such Designs as we see on foot?

ANIMADVERSION.

THat Clause of his Lordships great Constancy and [...]idelity, you have had enough of before, so that you see his Lordships Friend the Letter-Man, had a large stock of Confidence to pen it; and I am apt to believe Some-body never blusht at the rea­ding it. Nor do I think a common Whore when she brags her self as honest as any of her Neighbours, was ever out of countenance. It is at this time a great question among his Friends in the City, Whether they shall take Security upon his Lordships Honour, that he will be as hot against the Test this time twelve-moneth: For Silk, or Cloth, or St [...]ffs, or the like, they are ready enough to give him Credit; but if ye talk of State-Commodities, they shrink the shoulder, and say nothing. 'Tis there­fore wisely done of him, to talk against giving Security for such matters.—But it will next be requisite to see what Form of Security it is, against which there [...]as raised so loud a Clamour: it is this following, as saith the LETTER.

[Page 45] I A. B. do declare, That it is not lawful, upon any pretence whatsoever, to take up Arms against the King: And that I do ab­hor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person, or against th [...]se that are Commissioned by him in pur­suance of such Commission. And I do swear, That I will not at any time endeavour an Alteration of the Government either in Church or State.

ANIMADVERSION.

THis certainly is a very severe Reflection upon those Noble Lords, who in this day understood the true Interest of Peerage to be, to Adhere close and firm to the Crown. And 'tis known the greatest part of them had no Engagement to the Court, but what was by Religion, the Law, their Allegiance, their Interest, and Sence of Honour; and this is the Court-Engagement, not only of all Lords, but of every Loyal Subject. In the other sort of Court-Engagements his Lordship was not long since so much concerned, that when he came to lose them, no Obligation whatsoever could hold him to [...]hitehall any lon­ger. No Peny no Pater Noster. The Devil never wonder'd at Job's great Devotion toward the Court of Heaven, as long as God held him in Pension: nor did I at his Lordships, while the King held him in Offices. A multitude followed Christ for the lo [...]ves: but far be it from us, to reckon so Noble a Peer as his Lordship among the Multitude, though we are told here, that he carried on the Debate for five days together before it was committed to a Committee of the whole House. So that by such a behaviour one would think he had never had any Court-Engagement whatsoever. For at length, it seems, the Debate en­ded in a Protestation made by him, and 23 other Lords, against that Oath, whose Names his Lordships Letter-Man s [...]ts down in a List, Printed there no doubt on purpose to en­gage them to such new Resolutions, for which he may have further occasion to use them. But knowing they are Noble Lords; and to the end that space may be left them for Se­cond Thoughts, and because of the Honour I bear them and their Families, I forbear to Re-print them. For upon a second Reading, 'tis past my Understanding how 'tis pos­sible any man can, from the Master of that Oath, have occasion to make many words of Exception, and Out-cry; or where the harm is, to take an Oath to maintain my Loy­alty, if I have right and good Intentions, though perhaps it were not customary for me, or men of my quality and condition so to do, especially in such a time as this, wherein so many Mens Hearts and Tongues have been faltering in those Respects, and the Reve­rence which they owe towards the King and His Government. Nor can I conceive, there being no other intent in those Noble Lords who were for the taking of the Oath, but to give the Crown a Security in a dangerous time, how it can be censured An In­fringement of the Freedom and Priviledges of Peerage; when as it is clear, that if the Crown be unsecure, the danger is more to the Peers than to any other part of the People? For when the Popular Storm shall fall, if Monarchy fail, then farewel to Liberties, Privi­ledges, [Page 46] Peerage and all. Nor let any part of the Lords slatter themselves that they shall fare better than others; or that if a Rebellion should begin again (which God forbid) it would be possible for them to hold any share in Authority, more than those Lords did who Sate and Acted against His Majesty after he was driven away by Tumults from westminster; they may remember themselves also were at length not only driven away by Tumults, but by Tumultuary Proceedings, the whole Order of Nobility and Monarchy it self were ut [...]erl [...] extirpated. what hath been (saith Solomon) may be, and there is n [...] ­thing new und [...]r the Sun. A sharp Precedent it is, sufficient to instruct you and your Po­sterity to judge, that no Security can be given too much to the Crown in a tottering time, when Popular Clouds and Heats do gather and melt in the Sky, and when there is (as I have made appear) a visible Storm read▪ to fall, first [...] on the Court and the Bishops, if some men may have their wills; then you know what ensues to the Govern­ment, and all the rest of the Kingdom.

What a shame then would it be to me, to trifle away time much longer, by insisting upon that unsavoury LETTER, which so industriously takes care to set f [...]rth the Good Parts, and other Qualities of the Earl of Shaftsbury, that one would think it had been written on purpose?

What need we trouble our selves, how his Lordship and his Partners Signed the next day a Second Protestation, and th [...]n a Third the day after that? I could never tell before what Religion my Lord was of: Sure, he is now a very notable Prote [...]tant. What need we tell that he got the other Lords, his Friends, to set their Names to the last as well as the two former Protestations? His Lordship took care to dip them in the In [...]-pot; he will have no [...]; over sho [...]s o [...]r boo [...]s too; then they are season'd, and can be no st [...]rters.

To what purpose should I repeat what this LETTER tells, how some Lords spun out such DIVI [...]ITY about State-Oathes, that one would even swear they had been furnish't by their own new Chaplains? or how one [...]ord argued, That no State [...] s [...] ­curity by Oathes? I think so too among s [...]e sorts of Chri [...]ians: but I remember, among the Heathens an Oath did signifie Somewhat; and that of old it was thought Wisdom, and good Policy by all the World, By Oathes to oblige men unto Obedience and Loyal [...]y. We are assured, the F [...]ther of the Faithful, Abraham, did so in his Kingdom, he being reckoned in those days a mighty Prince : And it was to oblige his servant to secure the Succession of his Principality, by such an Alliance as himself had appointed, Genesis 24. 3. and [...] Verses. I will (said he) make th [...]e swear unto me by the Lord, the God of Heav [...]n, and the God of the Earth, &c. It follows, And h [...]s Serva [...]t put his hand under the [...] of Abraham, and sware to hi [...] concerning that matter. In another place also we find King [...] making [...] to Swear, not to deal falsly with him and his Pos [...]erity. A [...]d (saith the Text) Abraham said, I will Swear. Abraham was then within the Kingdom of [...], and had protection from him, therefore took an Oath of Fidel [...]y to him. Both which Oathes had certainly never passed had not Abraham thought it lawful for him, both to exact, and to give an Oath of Fealty. Which is no more than what is contained in that Oath of the Test; about which the Protest [...]s made so great a Bustle, that the Debates (as this LETTER saith) took up [...] debate together. And in the foregoing part of th [...]se [...], you may remember I noted, that in the printed Arguments of their Lordships, it was confe [...]ed, ( [...] Conscience about an Oath soever was pr [...]t [...]nded) [...] part of the publick [...] ▪ and that ther [...]upon might follow a fair occasion to make an Out-cry, to be rid of this Parlia­ment.

[Page 47] That Oath of Test differs but little from the Oath of Allegiance; and 'tis shrewdly to be suspected, that he who contends against this, would refuse likewise the other Oath, if it were tender'd u [...] him again. Nor can I see why he should scruple the one more than the other, unl [...] it be for the sake of this one good Clause in it, that he was by the Test to have sworn, That he ab [...]ors that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by the Kings Authority against his Person: a Doctrinal distinction used (as I told you) in the beginning of the late Wars; a meer device to pull scruples out of mens Conscien­ces, that they might fool them [...]elves into an opinion, that they fought for the King, as well as the Parliament, though they shot their Bullets against his Presence and Person: so that in case they had shot him dead, they were still to understand it was no hurt to his Authority. Thus the Pope heretofore, and his party, when by sen­tence they Excommunicated Kings, and Deposed them as Hereticks, and imployed Villains to assassmate them, steel'd their Consciences, for the doing of the fatal deed, with a like distinction, That they killed the Heretick, not the King. Which comes all to one end with our new Jesuitical Position, That you may in your minds separate a Kings Authority from a Kings Person; then use it to take Arms against him; which if he resists, you are to conceive he resists the Kingly Authority; by consequence becomes an Enemy or Rebel: and so if in the resistance you kill him, you kill the Rebel, not the King. But this is not the only point of subtilty wherein our fine Spinners of Theology and Policy do agree with the Jesuites. Was it not then (think ye) high time for those Noble Lords to promote that Oath of Test, and insert in it that most necessary Clause of ab [...]orring so damnable a Doctrine? For, whosoever he be that refuses to declare his abhorrency of it, and perswades men publickly to the like refusal, doth as good as give an open alarm to the State, and threaten Rebellion; while he prepares and draws a party into the same perswasion, and opens unto them so ready a way to it. So that from a sort of people so instructed, I easily grant, there can [...]e no security by Oaths, unto any State whatsoever; as some of the Protesters did affirm.

But the LETTER proceeds further about Oaths, and tells [...]s Christ himself hath for­bidden s [...]h Oaths; and that Groti [...]s, in his Book de Jure Belli & Pa [...]is, seems to make it plain from Matth. 5. 34, 37. Swear not at all, &c. Lord! what Absurdities will not men say and do, when they are out of humour! I shew'd before how shrewdly their Protesting Lordships were put to it in point of State, to borrow Arguments from the L [...]v [...]llers; but now for Divinity about Oaths, they are fain to borrow of the Quakers, and would fain make Gr [...]ti [...]s a Quaker too: but yet they con [...]ess he doth but seem to make plain the Doctrine; therefore, since 'tis no [...] worth the while, nor have I time, to shew them at large their mistakes of the Authors meaning, I affirm what is plainly the sence of those Texts.—The Jews had among them an ill custom of mingling Oaths with their ordinary Communi [...]tion, such as these; By Heaven; By the [...]arth; By Jerusa­lem; and By my Head. These are nothing of kin to State-Oaths, or Oaths before a Magistrate; but the prohibition intended there by Chri [...] is against idle and pr [...]ane Oaths in common Conversation; as appears by these closing words, [...] l [...]t [...]our Com­munication be Yea, yea; Nay, nay: For, whatsoever is mor [...] tha [...] th [...]se, [...] of [...]il. Our S [...]viou [...] restringeth manifestly the sence and scope of his words to mens evil Com­munication, and the stress of his prohibition is laid upon common Oaths in discourse, (as is obvious to any man well in his sences) and it cannot [...]e wrest [...]d against Oaths of any other kind, without the torture of an [...]. And yet it must be under­stood of St [...]t [...]-Oaths when his little Lordship will have it so, and hath a mind to lead about, and [...] or doze a company of his [...] Believers. But it wa [...] boldly ven­tur'd, [Page 48] to preach such stuff upon those Texts as he did, in the very Temple of wisdom, I mean, that Sacred Assembly of the House of Peers, where his Majesty is supposed to be always present.

Nevertheless, we are told by the Letter, that in the same House they had every day, from his Lordship and his friends, one Sermon or other as good as that; not upon Points of Divinity, but upon Niceties, and Quillets, and Quibbles, and fine-spun Cobwebs of Policy; telling the World how to bound Monarchy, and shackle Kings with fear of Humane Resistance; and not leave them onely to the f [...] of God to restrain them. Thus the Cor [...] of Kings is measured by his Lordships little B [...]el; He [...]ses as [...]e us [...]s; implies the Fear of God to be of little force to govern Kings and Statesmen; and therefore con­cludes, that Never any Countrey, free like ours, suffered any Standing Guards to be about their Prince. The Guards (it seems) are great Blocks in the way of the Faction, that the design cannot march on so f [...]st as they would have it. His Lordship hath the wis­dom of the [...]olves in Aesop's Fables, and would give us such Advice, as if he took us all to be but Sheep, silly enough, to consent, that the King should part with His Keepers; and then the Faction knows how to HANDLE HIM without Mittens. It was the fear of Faction and New Sedition, that first set up these Guards; and then both Parliament and People rejoyced in them, as most needful for the safety of their Prince and his Government. But now, when FACTION is at the HEIGHT, and BRAVES the KING to HIS FACE in HIS HIGHEST COURT, in a MORE AUDACIOUS MAN­NER than at first THEY did HIS FATHER, it is HIS LORDSHIPS OPINION the Guards should be taken off: and then, What shall hinder the Sheep from being brought to Slaughter?

The LETTER tells also, what other strange Instances were Preached in the same House, and selected out of the times of some weak Princes, to shew, that sometimes it can be no Traiterous Position, to affirm, That Subjects may take Arms against persons Commissioned by the King, though the King be among them in Person. What is this, but to argue from particular Cases of extraordinary Contingency, to De­bauch men from Duties of ordinary Practice; contrary to all Logick and Rule of Argumentation? and from thence also to conclude, 'tis an Invasion of the Subjects Liberty, to impose upon them an Oath, to Swear for the Security and satis­faction of the King in a time of Publick danger, and the visible Approches of Re­bellion?

It tells us also, how the Earl of Shaftsbury went on next, to find fault w [...]th that Clause of the Oath of Test, which obliges not to make any Alteration in the Church, or State. It seems, not onely his Lordship, but some others also were touched to the Quick by it; and, it was a sign of some Conscience in men, to startle at an Oath to be taken against Alteration, when nothing but Alteration is intended, with an irreparable diminution of the Government both in Church and State; as hath been manifested throughout this Discourse already.—First, for the Church, Who can judge other­wise, when as the LETTER gives next an Account, how the Earl of Shaftsbury in a Speech treated the Church? some think he did it spightfully, and that he was too Co­mically bold in reflecting upon the 39 Articles, the Liturgy, the Catechism, the Homi­lies, and the Canons. All which were (as the LETTER saith) handled at large by his Lordship; and, To what end was it, if not to make way for an Alteration in the Church, and all her Concerns, from the present Establishment? His Lordship well [Page 49] knows 'tis a little too dangerous for any man, to Open his MOUTH yet a while a­gainst the King and the State: That was not ventur'd on at first, by the BOLD FEL­LOWS of 41. That comes of Course, after the Faction hath been slusht with baiting of Bishops. The Alteration of them is designed not too fierce at first; but, they will be­gin, as their Old TUTORS did formerly, by steps. They of old did declare at first, That THEY had No intent to let loose the Golden Reins of Discipline in the Church; yet, in a turn or two of the year, they were so extravagant as to destroy it, and in­troduce another; and then Hell brake loose aginst the State as well as the Church. There is so strict a Connexion and Dependence betwixt them, that if you part with the one, the other lies open to the next Assault, and you shall part with it also. Or if the least diminution befall the Epis [...]opal Dis [...]ipline and Government, so as but t [...] qualifie the Bishops Dignity, with an intermixture of Presbyters subordinate, which (I hear) is the first part of the Design; so much of an allay will, by necessary consequence, be given to the Crown, Kingly Power and Interest. For, a Single Person Governing a Diocess, is, 1. More answerable in its Form to a Monarch: and he knows nothing, that knows not what a mighty Influence meer Form hath upon the very Minds of men, and the Affairs of the World. 2. The greater the Power and Dignity of the Bishop is, the more able he will be, upon all Occasions, to Assist the Crown. 3. He must also be the more ready; because, when single, he will not be impeded by a Clog of Advices and Importunities of the cross-grain'd Brethren; who, by the Charm of well-acted Sanctimony, which ever gains upon the Ignorant Vulgar, will always be stealing away the Hearts of the People from him; and consequently from the King; because they will ever reckon themselves more obliged to follow Popular Patrons, who will always be concerned to favour them more than the Bishop, as Instruments more likely to serve Popular Ends. For these Reasons, it will be the Crowns perpetual Interest, to maintain the Episcopal Power entire and unmixt. Give the Presbyter but an Inch, and he will soon take an Ell. The natural Genius of the Faction is, in Activity beyond the Jes [...]ites, restless and proud as Lucifer, and in hypocrisie as compleat and zealous as a Pharisee. Who ever reads the Histories of Nations, where they have had any thing to do, will find this Cha­racter is true. And for Fidelity to Kings, I remember King James in his Basilicon Do­ron: Believe me, (saith he) who have tried them; that you shall find more Faith among Highland Thieves and Robbers, then in this Faction. 'Tis a true Serpent; for if he can but get in his Head among the Bishops, he will soon wind in his whole Body into the best share of Ecclesiastical Authority; and as much as the Bishops lose is lost from the King, whenever the Presbyters and their Patrons shall please to joyn Resolutions to dispute him. There is one in the World understands this so well, that he thinks it worth his while to spend whole Days and half Nights in Parliamentary Disputation against this Oath; that so a Door may be kept open for some Alteration. And if ever it comes, (which God forbid) it may be ghessed what the Crown is like to get, whenas the 29. Page of the LETTER saith, [The Lords against the Bill of Test were in no ways satisfied, but plainly spoke out, That Men had been, might, and were likely to be, in either House, too much for the King, as they call'd it.] Which certainly was an odd saying to come out of the mouth of a Lord: therefore I spare his Name.

But the LETTER is so crafty as to take another course; for to make sure of their Lordships to the Faction, it tells what this, and that, and t'other Lord said, and how Wisely, and Learnedly, and Gallantly, and Wittily every Lord of that Humour ac­quitted himself, and sets down every one of their Names to the Account [...] Though it [Page 50] be a questionable Point, whether a Twelve-moneth hence any one Lord will think him­self obliged for the Courtesie.

So I have done with that LETTER, and leave the World to judge, what he deserves who wrote it; and what he who prepared the Materials, and then supplied the Pen-Man with them. As for the Publication of them, it did put so high a Provocation upon both Houses of Parliament, that they concurred in an Order, which condemned it (as it) to be burnt by the Hangman. And it was accordingly executed. The Reviving o [...] it now at this time, we judged most necessary, to the end that a second Execution might be done upon it publickly, by force of Reason, as well as by Fire.