Ferguson's Remonstrance TO THE Council of SIX, Upon the First DISCOVERY Of the late Horrid Conspiracy.
A SATYR.
Had
Cain been
Scot, God wou'd have chang'd his Doom,
Not forc't him Wander, but consin'd him home.
Cleavland.
LONDON, Printed for Charles Corbet at the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane, 1684.
To his ever Honoured Friend WILLIAM BRIGGS, Esq
SIR,
I Beg leave to present you with this short unpolish'd Satyr, not only for the Advantage of your benign Patronage, but to gain an opportunity of acknowledging the many Favors you have been pleased to heap upon me; and partly too as a kind of Bribe to beget your good Opinion of it, knowing that what you but barely say you like, is sufficient Reason to make the rest of Mankind admire, believing it has past the Test of your never failing Judgment. This I can assure you of it, 'twas writ with a Loyal Heart, caused by an utter Abhorrence and Detestation of the Villanous Practises (brought to light by the discovery of the late Horrid Conspiracy) of the ungovernable Faction, who have lately and long Hector'd it in this our Nation, and liv'd (and I fear still do) in opposition to the Commands of the best Monarch and best Government in the Universe. And now according to the method of our modern Scriblers, I shou'd give you a kind of an Essay upon Satyr, and Rail at the most considerable part of Mankind; but I hope you will Excuse me, wanting Learning for [Page] the one, and the Discontents of Old Age for the other, scraps of Greek and the Fagg end of an Old Latin Author will be wanting too; nor will I give you one word of French to shew my Breeding, no nor so much as find any fault with the Poetasters of the time, to shew my Judgment; (though the World has bin sufficiently of late Banter'd by things of this Nature,) and all that I can say for this, is, that 'tis new and all my own, and if you are pleas'd to Judg favourably of it (and no Loyal Man offended) I have both my Wish and my Design,
Who am Your most Faithful Obedient Servant,
W. R.
Ferguson's Remonstrance TO THE Council of SIX, Upon the First DISCOVERY Of the late Horrid Conspiracy.
A SATYR.
Ferguson speaking to the Council of SIX.
I.
ROUZE up,
Great Men! what makes ye Droop?
Tho our
Designs be Crost,
Why will ye thus
dispair? we are not wholly lost:
Nor must we stoop
To any thing our
Angry Fates can do,
'Tis great to
think like you!
And can such men
submit to
slavish fear?
Who dare
Resolve to do, what others dare not
hear.
II.
Ten thousand
Curses on that
Tim'rous Sot,
That Bankrupt
Ideot!
Who had not
Sonl enough, to Act his
part o'th'
Plot;
Had he not been of all that's good Bereft,
Had he but had one thought of
Glory left:
His
Coward heart, cou'd ne're have stoopt so low,
As basely to
Betray! and swear for
Bread,
Who might have
rul'd i'th' head
Of thousands
fighting 'gainst our common Foe,
Base
Treacherous Foolis
[...]
[...]
Millions of
furys seize thy Guilty Soul.
III.
So God-like
Cataline was too undone,
Who durst
design (almost alone,
He was so wond'rous brave)
T'ave given all the
Rulers of the World, at once one
Grave:
Had I been
Curius, when I had had my will,
And ta'ne of Lust my fill;
Fulvia shou'd have own'd, she'ad ly'd,
And all she had said, upon her
Knees deny'd,
And at that Instant by my
Peinard dy'd:
So shou'd our
Villain too have far'd,
Had my advice bin heard,
And of his
Blood, like noble
Cataline,
I wou'd have made our
Sacramental Wine.
IV.
Mischief begun must be pursu'd,
In
Ills no middle state can be,
Th' Extream is only good,
Stop at no
Cruelty;
But still drive on through
Rapine, Fire and
Blood,
Fathers and friends, all that
Oppose must die,
[Page 3] Not Sex, not Age, must
pity find
To what they say, and feel be deaf and blind;
Let Ruin overwhelm 'em like a Sea,
And to the
height, practice all
Villany,
For th' end must be a
Crown or everlasting
Infanty.
V.
Had we obey'd our
Noble Peer,
We had not now been here:
Consulting what to do,
And when, and how, to give the Mighty
Blow,
Our
Foes had all been
Dead,
And we
Triumphing too:
And he our Matchless
Patriot, Marching at our
Head;
Success had
Crown'd our cause,
And made the
Action good;
While we had with our
Swords, prescrib'd new
Laws,
And writ them too in
Characters of
Blood.
VI.
What is 't I have not done?
To carry on
Our
Pious Cheat, our
holy Cause?
Have I not labour'd how to set ye free,
And prov'd our very
Laws,
Plain
Tyranny!
And by my
Preaching too, I'ave shew'd ye all;
Who 'tis ye must obey.
No
King but
Jesus, must our Empire sway;
And under him each
Saint's a General,
All do
Vsurp whom
Heaven does not call,
And we the
Saints are only
free, the rest are
Aliens all.
VII.
Thus, thus you know, I 've often talkt aloud,
To
Gull th' unthinking, and unletter'd
Croud:
[Page 4] For them we must
deceive,
And make them all our
holy Trumpery believe;
They are the
Tools we work with still, and we
To make 'em last,
And
bind 'em fast
Tell 'em
fine stories of
Eternity.
Tell 'em, our
Governours are
Arbitrary,
And their
Religion
Is all
Idolatry;
And
Superstition:
Then cry down
Hierarchy,
And prove by
Gospel Text each
Bishop is a
Pope,
When all we do
design or hope,
Is how to get
again into our hands,
The
Goverment, the
Nobles, Crown, and
Bishops Lands.
VIII.
How bravely 'till of late, has our great
Cause went on,
How near our
Foes have been to be undone:
That was a happy time when we cou'd do
And safely too,
What 'ere our
Spleen, or
Inst'rest lead us to;
Treason commit to make us
Popular,
By
Villany grow
Famous;
And against Common sense, and all the
Laws make
War.
Visit the
Tower for our Ease,
And when we please▪
Be freed again by
Jury-Ignoramns,
Then spight of all,
Glory in what we do,
While all the
Town, with
Bells and
Bonefires, add to th'
Triumph too.
IX.
The mighty
Theame was
Liberty,
And that stale
Bugbear Property:
Our
Libells like a furious stream
O're run the Town,
[Page 5]
Sedition might be heard in ev'ry Place
And seen in ev'ry face:
Nor wou'd we spare things
Sacred, Church, or
Crown,
And all (as we did still Alledge)
Was by our
Liberty and
Priviledge;
Priviledge! that mighty
Atlas of our
Cause,
That knew no
bounds, nor wou'd
submit to any
Laws.
By the
Priviledge of our
Infallible House,
We cou'd make any thing a Man, or Man, a
Mouse:
Profligate
Villains, Men of Fashion
With any thing Dispense,
Make
Ideots too speak sense,
And
teach 'em how to save a sinking Nation.
X.
Oh happy time! Oh bless'd security!
What is't we might not then have done?
Then, then we shook the
Crown,
And might have thrown
That Ancient well built
Fabrick down;
So
Vniversal was the Nations
Lethargy,
A Popish Plot was the Falatious
Sham▪
That
Plot in
Name!
That was the cunning
Charm
'Gainst which we all did
Arm;
That was the
word!
That, that alone,
Which whetted up the Old
True-Prot'stant Sword
Of
Fourty One;
By which the second
Charles must fall,
And we the
Actors In'cent be
For whomsoe're we
Papists pleas'd to call,
Must
bear the
Villany:
While we, to
Scower the
Nation,
And make a thorough
Reformation;
Leave not a
Loyal Man alive,
But so
Revenge that fatal
Stroak upon 'em all.
XI.
What ever we were pleas'd to say, or do,
No man
durst be so bold as disbelieve,
Or
think we cou'd
deceive:
'Twas true as
Gospel, or we'd have it so,
And who but doubted or at least so said,
We straight deliver'd
over to be
Buffetted;
Then
Satan like seeking whom to
Devour,
Our Topping Serjeant walkt the Nation o're:
Thus we, when e're we pleas'd,
The
Loyal Subject teaz'd:
Especially those who came too
nigh,
And wou'd too
far into our Actions pry:
They must
Submit,
(While you like Petty
Gods did sit)
And own their
No-faults on their
Knees,
And so their fellow slaves
adore,
And glad they were
T' Emplore.
(For to be clear)
To pay their
Arbitrary fees,
Tho
Indian like, they did it out of fear:
This was a
Glorious Act, I still admire,
The
Devil himself when on the
Temple spire
To be
Obey'd and
Worshipt onely did
Desire.
XII.
Hypocrisy had ne'er so fair a face as then,
Mischief and you were truly
Great,
And wou'd you now Retreat?
You that were so
Admir'd as
mighty Men;
You that so
boldly durst withstand▪
A
Monarchs great
Command,
And tell him (almost to his
Face)
You' keep him very
Poor,
[Page 7] And never give him
penny more:
Without he'
Disinherit all his
Race,
After all this d'you
start! no more,
Ye shall not, must not, cannot now give o're,
Wou'd ye lie
Lirking in some
Loathsome Cell?
And be content,
T' endure perpetual
Banishment,
Or more Contemn'd
Imprisonment:
For want of
Resolution to car'on,
What you so
bravely have begun?
Sure't must be
Terrible
To think how very much you'l be
undone,
Besides your
Coward souls must
Doubly merit
Hell.
XIII.
The
Treason's still the same,
If you were in the right when you begun,
Sure you must be to
blame:
If to the utmost now, you do not
push it on,
For to
Refuse must be
To own the
Villany,
And
ruin both your
selves and your
Posterity.
Think what great things you've brought about,
How you have made th' unthinking
Rabble Rout
Burn in mock
Effigie
The best of
Loyal Men,
And round the
Mimick Pageant bawl'd aloud,
No
Y— no
Y— no
Papist neither,
Burn,
Burn them all together,
While ev'ry
Mouth Eccho'd it round the
Crowd.
XIV.
Think, think agen, how you to serve your ends,
And private
hate,
Have
voted from the
State:
And when you found that wou'd not do
(I must be plain with you,)
Such
Perjur'd Villians you had got,
That
Swore them all into a
Popish Plot.
They
Swore that they design'd to be
The Bringers in of
Popery;
And that they did
Incuorage too,
Those who design'd to
Assassinate Majesty.
And those that did (such was your Skill
Sir
Edmund Bury Godfrey kill;
Then ye were
Valiant too,
And any thing wou'd do:
To make your selves and your designs seem
Famous,
One
Traytors Oath against a
Foe
Wou'd make ye find a
Bill,
But 'gainst a
Friend Ten shou'd not do;
All sorts of
Treason there, must still be
Ignoramus.
XV.
Nay more then this ye durst; ye
voted down
All that
secur'd the
Crown:
And did design of
Power to deprive
Each branch of its
Prerogative:
Upon the
Kings Revenue ye did
Vote,
No Man shou'd
lond a
Groat,
And from a
Popish Knife to keep his
Throat;
His
Guards by you
Indicted were,
As
grievous to the
Subject too,
Thus the
Old Cause ye did
Pursue:
And
bravely like your selves appear:
Then, then ye cou'd
Resolve great things to do,
And
vow'd our Common
Foe shou'd
fall by none but you;
And for to
Crown this work, tho't prov'd in Vain.
You my L— D— were
voted great Again.
XVI.
The
Church and
Bishops too, must suffer all,
Beneath your
Rage did fall:
The
Thirty fifth of that fam'd
Heroin,
Elizabeth great Brittains Queen;
I thank ye all by my
Perswasion,
Ye voted
Prejudicial
To the Nation;
A
Persecuting Law, and too severe,
More than a well
tun'd Conscienee e're cou'd bear:
While
Popery was the formal
stale.
To keep that
Serpent out, it was no sin
To break the
Churches Pale;
Altho you let at the same time, ten thousand
Monsters In.
XVII.
But that which pleas'd me most,
After our other great
designs were Crost,
Was that
Goliah of our
Plot! th'
Association!
Which wou'd alone,
Have all our
Enemies o'erthrown;
And made us
Rulers all, of our so
Ruin'd Nation.
For ever live that great Man'
s Fame,
The
God-like Shaftsbury,
That
Phineas of our Cause!
Whose very name
Sufficient was, to give what e're we did
applause;
Who in the
Gap so firmly stood,
He stem'd the growing Flood:
Of thin Jaw'd
Honour, and lean
Loyalty,
And had the
Devil play'd us fair,
So
Vniversal was the thing,
So cunning was the
Snare,
He' ad
stab'd at once the very
Laws, as well as
Church and K—
XVIII.
After all this can ye such
Cowards be?
As once to
shrink at any
Villany?
You that in
Ills have still so
Practis'd been,
What wou'd to others be a
Crime to do,
Must be in you:
If you
Refuse (such is your case) a
deadly sin
Now, Now's the
time, be not deceiv'd,
For tis
Impossible
Our
Horrid Treason's to
Conceal,
For at that time our
Villain is believ'd,
We're all undone:
Therefore
Resolve to
push; this Instant, now!
The
Mighty Busness on.
XIX.
Thus spoke the
Damn'd Impostor; when,
A Sudden hasty Noise of Men:
Surpriz'd their List'ning Ears,
And struck them all into a
Panick Fear;
Keelling was all
Believ'd, he had clear'd each
doubt,
Officers were abroad, and
Warrants Issued out;
Then like
Belshazar, trembling and afraid,
They
stammer'd, star'd and Gap'd, and knew not what they said:
So all disperst
Murmuring 'gainst the
State,
And as they went
Curst their unhappy
Fate.
FINIS.