AS much as English-men have been famed for their Hearts, they have been always re­proached for their Heads. They have always lost their Wits by Na­tional In [...]oxications. They have been always a tempestuous, a heady, and a divided People: But they never were more apparently so, than they have been in this last Change. They have not only out-run their Own, but the Pretences of their Deliverer. He came not for a Crown, but to re­dress our Grievances; but we would give the Crown, yet neglect our Grie­vances, and all Amendment of our Constitution: And we will still main­tain our Injustice in the one, and Folly in the other. Those that resolve to do so, may see Maestricht taken after Mons and Namur, Flande [...] submitted to France, the Confederacy broken, and we (divided as we are, and shall be, amongst our selves) left to grapple with all that Power, which has now for four Years employed such united Forces. Nor can we hope God will work a Miracle to support so unjust a Quarrel. They may see all this War brought into our own Bowels, into this divided Kingdom; may see it make Havock and Desolation upon this Island; in a word, may see Friends and Kindred killing and destroving one another, embruing their Hands in each others Blood; and then our pretended Fears may become true, those Miseries overtake us, with the pretended Suspicions of which we have coloured over and countenanced our unrighteous Doings. But you think it is too late to or [...]w back, and you can see no security in the Restoration; you can't see our Lives, and our Re­ligion, our Liberty, and our Property will be safe. I averr you impose upon your self, and one Man imposes upon another. But you say you are frighted at the Discourses of some, both Pro­testant and Catholick, Jacobites. You say they talk for Slavery, and that when we are Slaves, we may be made Papists. Yet if you would consider, you have been invited by published Pamphlets to reflect who among the Jacobites are likely to give you satis­faction. Would you have Men set their Names to what they write? There are Men that you believe are in King James's Interest, that you have no reason to believe would sa­crifice their Country or their Religion, and that I assure you have as true a love for those good things you men­tion as you can have your self, and that would joyn with you and any English-men, to ask in a respectful manner for every honest thing that is necessary to secure us from Arbitrary Power, and the Violence of all sorts of Priests, and that are themselves satis­fied, and can authentically satisfie [Page 5]you that the King has been a long time willing to make all those neces­sary Concessions that will secure the Church of England, as the Established Worship, make an Impartial Toleration safe, and for the future put our Li­berties and Property out of the Power (as much as good and wholsom Laws can do it) of Male-administration; nay, that are satisfied he must be willing to do so if ever he will come home. There are Jacobites that be­lieve what Gourville is related to have once said concerning our Kings; Qu'n Roy d'Angleterre qui veut estre l'Homme de son Peuple, est le plus Grand Roy du Monde, mais s'il veut estre quel­que chose d'avantage par Dieu, il n'est plus Rien. There are Jacobites that are for Reformations, though they believe them more lasting under un­contested Titles than where Title is too great a part of the Dispute; that think it Lawful for Kings, and their Parliaments, to limit and explain the Nature of Prerogatives, though they think it safer to the Constitution to leave it to the three Estates so to do, than for one or two of them to inno­vate too rudely without the Consent of the other; that own a great Dif­ference between the Changing or Abolition of some particular Laws, and altering Fundamentals. And the greatest Assertors of Liberty must ac­knowledge, that Prerogatives in Kings, suitable to the Respective Constitu­tion, are necessary to maintain those Constitutions, and to protect their Subjects, and consequently that in all Pacts and Compositions their People make with them, due care should be taken even by the People, not to take from their Kings any essential Powers. Prerogative, like a River, sometimes gains, and sometimes de­creases in its Banks; but the Balk of the Community sails safest when it keeps its own Natural Channel, ac­cording to the respective Constituti­ons. Bacon, that writes the Unifor­mity of the Government of England, is certainly no over Monarchical Au­thor; yet he has this Expression in relation to King Stephen: Too much Counter-security from the King to the People, is like too many Covenants in Marriage, that make room for Jealousy, and are but Seeds of an unquiet Life. After all, it is certainly the Nature of English-men to delight in, and they have been used to a Limited, Explained, and Hereditary Monarchy; and Natu­ram licet expellas furca tamen ipsa recur­rat, will be found true in a Politick, as well as a Natural Sense, by all those who would change our Government into an Absolute Monarchy or Downright Democracy, or that will interrupt the Succession. The Lancastrian Usurpa­tions, and the Late Times, witness this. But perhaps some of these Ja­cobites you complain of, may think to disgrace what I have said, by cal­ling these Notions Republican. To these Gentlement I will first Answer, That since we are so Elemented for a Com­mon-wealth, there is no keeping it out but by a Reformation of the Monar­chy, that may as apparently Answer all the Reasons why Government was first deposited in the Magistrates hands, either by God, or the People. I will not dispute the Original of Go­vernment at this time, but I will offer one thing to these Speculators to consi­der of, which is, That whilst they too much cajole Kings, they lose their [Page 6]Interest with the People, and mislead an English Monarch, and make way for that Government both in Church and State, which they would (if they understood how) oppose. They help the Real Common-wealths men to Arguments, and give the Presbyte­rians opportunity to insinuate, and gain the Hearts of the People. Per­haps were the People of England a Prima Materia, I would be very well content that the Draughts of these superfine Projectors should be debated, but I think Machiavel was as good a Politician as most of Them; and yet he says, If the Variations of Times are not observed, and Laws and Customs al­tered accordingly, much Mischief must follow. And in another Place, he af­firms it a very had Thing to keep them in Servitude, who are disposed to be Free. And whoever has reflected upon the extravagant Courses we have taken to be so, ever since the Beginning of the late Civil Wars, cannot sure doubt of our Disposition: For tho we have been mistaken in our Cures, no body can be mistaken in our Pro­pensity. I am no Lord, nor ever de­sire or hope for any Title. I had ra­ther serve my Country in the Lower than the Ʋpper-House; and if my Country never thinks fit to send me to that neither, I shall never Court, much less Bribe, for that Imployment from my Country: for I would not be Bribed in it. Yet considering how much the Power of the Lords has in some Reigns been a check to the Incroachment of Kings, and in others to the hot-headedness of the People, I should be willing to screw up the Ari­stocratical part of our Government, though not to the heighth it some­times has had in our Policy: but the present Ferments of England make it impracticable. And tho some Men are, I am not for driving Nails that will not go; when we may without breach of Conscience let that Work alone to a more cl [...]a [...]sighted Age. Though I think our Oaths, and the Original Contract of our Law Books, bind us to restore the King; yet I know no Obligation we lie under to restore Power to the Lords, but as there shall appear both great Feasibi­lity and Expediency: I am not for hazarding much for bringing things exactly and minutely to my Platform. It will be always enough for me, if the Fundamentals of our Govern­ment are preserved. A Trimmer in Politicks, if it means one that would avoid Extremities, and compose Things, and not one that serves himself by all Times and Changes, is a Name and Character that I shall al­ways revere. But to give these Gen­tlemen a farther Answer, I must tell them, that it is plain, by undeniable Matter of Fact, that to those Persons that ingaged in the Scotch Plot, tho he had not tried his Fortune in Ire­land, nor could the Persons ingaged assure his Return, even upon such Condescensions; yet the King granted under the Broad Seal of that King­dom, a full Redress for all Grievances, and that at the Request of People that had opposed him; so that talking of Terms will be no harsh Language to him now; he can want no farther Illumination, by a longer Series of Misfortunes, to let him see, that Compliance with his People is his true and only Interest. In a private Pamphlet, and in a private Capacity, [Page 7]it is not proper to state the Manner and Bounds of our Redresses: But did ever People re-admit a King they had ejected upon the Male-admini­strations of his Ministers (if they could any ways help it) without ma­king good Provisions? Can any body imagine we expect the People of England should? The Men of S [...]nse, and Quality, and Estates, amongst the Jacobites, be they Protestants or Papists, don't wish they should do it. Would you have Tryals secured? It is the Interest of all Parties, care should be taken about them, or all Parties will suffer in their turns. Plunket, and Sidney, and Ashton, were doubtless all Murdered, tho they were never so guilty of the Crimes wherewith they were charged: The one Tryed twice, the other found guilty upon one Evi­dence, and the last upon nothing but presumptive Proof. Either let Pri­soners have Counsel, or the Judges be forced to be more impartially so than they were in any of these Cases; and let Juries understand that only Allegata and Probata are to direct their Ver­dict, and not Deadly Feuds, Foreign Belief, or State Necessity. In Scotland, at all Tryals, the whole is taken down in Writing, Word for Word, as well all Probations, as what is said, both by the King's Advocate, and the Pannel or Criminal, and is all made a Record; that After-times (when the heat of the Prosecution is over) may examine whether the Judge dealt im­partially; and if he did not, and is a­live at the review of those Proceedings, if the Prisoner suffered Death by his warping the Law, the Judge is to un­dergo the same Punishment; and if he is dead, the Heirs of the injur'd Person is to recover equal Damages to what they sustained in their Fortune, by his illegal Sentence, from the Heirs of the Ʋnjust Judge. The Saxons punished false Judges by giving Satisfaction to the Party wrong'd by them; and as the Case required, by Forfeiture of the Residue to the King, and by his disabling them for ever for Places of Judicature, and by leaving their Lives to the King's Mercy. Who can have the Face to oppose the Revival of some­thing equivalent to that Law? But I will not discuss too particularly the Particulars I shall mention. The granting of that Bill for Judges, that the Prince of Orange refused, and Whitlock's for Tryals, will be the Glory of King James's Reign, whenever he is Restored.

As to the Armed Force of England, I think there may be ways found out to make our Militia as serviceable as any Mercenary Bands, to employ all our Officers that have had Military Experience, to raise from time to time such Numbers of Officers, and such Nurseries of Private Centinels, as may make both the King and King­dom safe, add to the Glory and Ma­jesty of our Monarch, and yet not leave the least Umbrage for Jealousie in the Minds of the People. But this is not a time of day for me to lay be­fore the World such Plans. I will not hold forth such Doctrines under any Government I think Unjust, and that I think too have not the Honesty to embrace them if I would. But if ever I see an English Parliament under a Rightful Prince, I will not be want­ing in offering my Mite, in this and all other things that may contribute to the Good of my Country: And sure [Page 8]no body can be so unreasonable as to be unwilling to hear from One that has given Testimony of his Loyalty to his King and Nation too, any thing that such an One will propose, to esta­blish the Throne, and quiet the Minds of his Fellow-Subjects. Praetorian Bands in Rome Butchered as well as Guarded their Emperors. It is but ve­ry lately that the Janisaries Deposed the Grand Seignior, and King James's own Army Deserted from Him in these Kingdoms; and I am confident I can shew, that the Love of his Subjects is the best Standing Army for an English King as well as how he shall have it, and be able to look all his Foreign Enemies in the face to boot: But, I say, it is not time for the Publication of these things by my hand, nor will I be too prolix upon any one thing; therefore to come to Parliaments.

Is there any Man of Sense and For­tune, that does not know them to be the Conservators of all that we hold dear? Can there be an unjuster thing, any thing more fatal, than a partial Representation of the Minds and In­terests of Men in that House? Tho' this Reign has taught them to do ve­ry little else but give Money, or Sanc­tion to, or Pardons for the Irregularities of Ministers; yet the Design of their Institution is as well to provide Reme­dies for the Complaints of the King­dom, as Cash for the Prince's Coffers. I will not debate what is necessary to make them Free, but I am sure they should be so. I will not say how often they must sit, but I am sure they should frequently. Both these Conside­rations are [...]test for their own House, and I am not willing to make narrow Spirits peevish: But sure no Man of Interest, or that hopes to keep any Reputation with the World, will de­ny they should be free and frequent, and that they should not be too much Officer'd, that they may be Faithful.

I shall not enter into a Detail of what is the Work of Parliaments; but there is One Thing I am sure is very properly Theirs; and that is, to make an exact Scrutiny into the Publick Administration, and to bring Mini­sters (who are above the reach of Common Courts of Judicature, and can stem all other Prosecutions;) I say, It is the Work of Parliaments to bring such Ministers to condign Pu­nishment, if they deserve it.

I know not any thing wherein Princes, and some of their Subjects, have been more unfortunately mis­taken, than in their Wishes that Mi­nisters should be Impunible: whereas Favourites that are not a Cement be­tween Prince and People, that don't consult in all their Actions the Laws of the Constitution, and Inclinations of the Inhabitants, become Rocks of Offence, and bring Ruin, sometimes upon Al [...], too often upon their Princes, and, God be praised for it, more generally upon Them­selves. What is the Reason of that admirable Maxim, That the King of England can do wrong? Why do the People of England make him an Epi­curean God so happy in the enjoy­ment of His own Majesty? Why do we say, That He neither can nor does disturb the Peace of our World, but because His Eyes and His Ears, His Omnisciency and His Omnipresency, are comprehended in his Ministers; but because, if those Ministers are Troublers of our State, they are to be punished, even for Inadvertencies, and [Page 9]much more for Sins of Malice? Tho' this Revolution has blotted out all our Ori­ginal Contract, razed all our Statutes and Law-Books, turned our Monar­chy topsie-turvey, and scandalously prevaricated from all our Civil Com­pacts, by employing the Men that persuaded King James to, and acted in what we imputed to him as false steps; yet it was his Ministers should have been punished, and not he him­self dethroned; and sure King James, after he has found so many Ministers were false, others flattering and foolish, cannot be unwilling to leave it an everlasting Law to his and our Poste­rity, that Ministers shall be accountable. It is our Law, tho' both weak and profligate Men have, the one fancied, and the other pretended the contra­ry; and for that Reason, and that Reason only, it ought to be written more legibly in our Statute-Books: Is it not the Interest of Kings, that Mi­nisters should not Male-administer a­way all the Affection of their good and loving Subjects? Is it not the In­terest of Kings, that the Representative Body should plainly shew them by whom and how they are betray'd? Yet, after all, those that will read that excellent Chapter in Machiavel, which shews how necessary it is for the Conservation of the State, that any Citi­zen be securely accused, p. 277. of his Works, ought to read the two next pages, which shew, that unjust Ca­lumnies are no less pernicious to a Com­monwealth than legal Accusations are profitable and good; and there you will find a great difference betwixt Accusation and Calumny. Ministers ought to be punished; I am satisfied the King is willing they should be so, for the future: Sunderland's Ministry suggests that Advice to Him very ef­fectually and strongly; but Beaute­feaux also are to be suppressed in all well ordered States.

One thing seems naturally here to fall in my way, which I beg leave to handle in the most inoffensive manner that I can. I foresee this will less please some Men, for whom no Man living can have a greater Honour than I have; yet I think it of so much Necessity and Importance, that I can­not forbear mentioning it. There was not an ill thing done in King James's Reign, that I did not call so then; and all that know me, know that I have taken it as my Province to represent Truths, be they never so bold or bit­ter, whilst they are for Instruction. I I am no Advocate for any Man's Faults, nor for any Faults, tho' I would be charitable and good-natu­red, forgiving and forgetting, towards all Mens Persons. Methinks the State of things require this measure. I scarce believe there ever was a Peri­od of Time, wherein an Universal Amnesty was so requisite; a forget­fulness, as well as forgiveness of all past Crimes. Methinks all sides stand in need of this Temper. If the Mini­sters of King James exceeded in their Management of our Affairs, as doubt­less they did, we have doubtless ex­ceeded too in our Revenge upon the King's Person; and besides, those that have fallen in with the Usurpation have not proceeded against any one Man that has been in their hands, for any thing that was done amiss in the two late Reigns; and therefore me­thinks it is very hard, if we cannot forgive those that have undergone [Page 10] Banishment, (which in all Countries has been reckoned some sort of Pu­nishment) or such as have hazarded Prisons, or the Gallows, every day. Why should we not forgive all those that serve him amongst us, or that are with the King (tho' they may have had Faults) when we desire, or I am sure ought to desire, that the whole Land should be forgiven? All Parties, and almost all Men, have some way or other been to blame; and there­fore there seems to me to be a little too much Passion and Self-interest in keeping up old Grudges. I avoid say­ing there is any infatuation in keep­ing them up, tho' I cannot think that it is the likeliest way to prepare the King to close with Wise Councils, to revive or continue our Piques: For the King can scarce be supposed to be without some Kindness for those who have either followed His Fortunes, or ventur [...]d their Necks for Him; and cons quently, it is not perh [...]ps ad­visable to make those that transact in his Affairs (tho' they have been pec­cant) believe they can have no Quar­ter, no Share in him, unless he return with a High Hand. They will have some Opportunities to put ill Con­structions upon good Advices. I have read of but few of those Heroic Spi­rits in any Age, who have so divested themselves of all Regard for their own Persons and Posterity, as to be willing to become a Sacrifice to their Coun­try. I think this Age affords fewest Instances of those Great Minds; and therefore I think it the likeliest way to m [...]ke Men instrumental towards the Good of their Country, to shew them that they shall find their own Account in being so. I hope I have expressed my self in as modest and in­offensive words as any, in which I could conceive my Thoughts; and I hope I shall not be so mis-understood, as if I would justifie any thing that was by any body done amiss; for I will not justifie a false step, even in the King; but I would have us lay aside all the Byasses of Factions and Friendships, and much more all Enmi­ties, that we may unanimously offer to the King Right Notions, and thereby Restore Him to His Hereditary Kingdoms. After all, I would not have less than such a Repentance as gives evidence of Amendment entitle to Absolution, but I would leave Room and Rewards for such Repentance.

I fear this Moderation, and forgi­ving of Enemies, will be thought a hard Lesson; but, I bless God, I have practised it, and I think it not only the noblest Precept in Christian Morality, but an admirable Rule in Civil Pru­dence, especially in our Case; for it is as difficult for a Party that is subdivi­ded within it self to pull down an Usurpation, as it can be for a divided Kingdom to stand.

But I am sensible I have made too long a Digression, and therefore must omit many other particulars, upon which I would explain my self, and the Sense of many other Jacobites; and I can assure you, I am sorry that any Jacobites say any thing that of­fends well-meaning Men: but I wish, for their own sakes, my Country-men would not take a Standard, either of the King's Inclinations, or the rest of his Friends, from their indiscreet Tattle. There are in His Interest those that know, that to talk too loftily and dogmatically, to dispute, as they do [Page 11]in the Schools, concerning Prerogative and the Nature of Monarchy, to stand nicely upon Punctilio's, to consult Aristotle's and Xenophon's Kings, is as unlikely a way to come to a mutual Accommodation, as to peruse and and or am of Plato's Commonwealth, Sir Thomas More's Utop a, Harrington's Oceana, &c. There are Men of his sid, that think (as the great Lawgiver Solon did) that a Government must be framed according to the Nature of the Governed, and that he is the best Subject, as well as Politician, that a­dapts all his Notions to our Tempers; that considers Men, as well as peruses Books, when he is to draw a Scheme; and I believe, as you say, that the high flights of some Jacobites hinder many honest Men from coming into his Interest; and farther, that they sometimes mislead the King. Never­theless, there are in his Interest Men that I assure you are not frighted at Words, nor startled at Nicknames, that know the King of England makes the greatest Figure in Europe when he is best with his People, and that is when he governs by the Measures of Com­monweal. These Men know, a good Commonwealths-man was not a Cha­racter of Reproach in our Legislation and Politicks, till all our Glory dwin­dled, and the Absoluteness of Ministers was more consulted than the true In­terest of King or Kingdom; till a pack of Knaves forged a separate Interest between the King of England and his People, and till they began to call a Mix'd Monarchy an errant Bull, and would Reform our State by Meta­physical and Court Distinctions: whereas, if our Histories and Statute-Books were consulted, they are every where full of Explanations. Are these Gentlemen you complain of weary of Magna Charta, (which was but a Revival and Recitation of the Saxon Liberties, and ancient British Laws?) I will prove them farther, That Laws and Lawful Prerogatives may be so a­bused, that it may be fit to take away the One, and to desire that the Other may never be again so used; and that our former Kings have thought so. But I will go no farther back than the Conjunction of the Two Roses, and they may find that in Henry the Se­venth's Time Empson and Dudley ha­rassed the People by obsolete unre­pealed Laws; nay, it has never been thought mean by our greatest Kings to make Condescentions to their People: And, as haughty as King Henry VIII. was, my Lord Herbert in his History of his Reign, tells you, That in his first Parliament he Repealed, Explained, or Limited those Statutes, by which his Father had taken Advantage of his People; and (as my Lord Herbert judiciously observes therein) was wil­ling to restrain his own Authority, in some sort, that he might enlarge the Peoples Confidence and Affection. This that King did in the celebrated part, to wit, in the beginning of his Reign, tho' he had at the same time his Exchequer what was equivalent to Seven Millions Sterling now, and was in peaceable Possession of his Throne, and had no particular pressing Occasion to please his People. How much more necessa­ry is this measure to regain the Peo­ples Confidence and Affection towards an Exil'd Prince? The Author of this History (my Lord Herbert of Cherbury) professes in his Epistle Dedicatory great Deserence to Kings; and that [Page 12]the King (to whom he dedicates his History) had lustrated by his Gracious Eye, and consummated by his Judicious Animadversions, all the parts of that History, as fast as he finished them. And therefore this Instance ought to be of great weight with every body, even with those Jacobites you talk of. It is a Royal, as well as my Lord Herbert's History of Henry VIII.

I am not ignorant, that this King Henry VIII. is brought as an Instance of a King that could pull up Foun­dations, and do what he pleased; but there was a strange Concurrence in his Time to help him in the business he was doing, and he did it by Parliaments, and often used Palliations; and per­haps if a Man looks observingly upon his Life, he was but the Head of the Rabble-rout; and that neither He nor the People knew what he would be at. It was an Age big with Changes; and his greatest Exorbitances fell up­on a sort of People who were wear­ing into disesteem, or were of a more private Nature. Besides, he began his Reign with a wondrous good Grace, and he sacrific'd now and then a Mi­nister; and what he took from the Church, he divided amongst the Gentry and Nobility. But, after all, I will own there are some Periods of his Reign, wherein the Prince went farther and faster than the Peeple, and he had the good luck to do strange things by in comprehensible ways: For my Lord Herbert of Cherbury (as judicious and sharp-sighted an Author as he is) seems to wonder, and not to under­stand all the Occurrences of his Reign. His beginning it so condescendingly, makes it less a wonder, that the People were a great while apt to put good Constructions upon what he did after­wards. He gave up Empson and Dudley meerly to their Rage; and Woolsey's Fall was pleasing; and, as I just now intimated, he was more Sacrilegious towards the Church, which was then going down with the People, than he was otherwise Oppressive.

The next Person I will introduce shall be Qu. Elizabeth, whose Speech in the 43d year of her Reign, occasi­oned by Complaints against Monopo­lies, is so excellent, that I think fit to transcribe it at length; tho' I will not commend the Sanguinary Laws she made in matters of Religion, as well against Brownists, &c. as Papists, no more than I will many other parts of her Reign. I have often wondred why meer Church of England-men cried out against, or Whigs so much extoll'd her, ten or twelve years ago; for she was a meer Church of England-Queen: but I protest I know not how enough to commend this Speech which she made to her Parliament; I wish eve­ry body would peruse the Context of it in Camden, but the words of it are these:

‘We owe unto you special Thanks and Commendations for your singu­lar Good will towards us, not in si­lent Thought, but in plain Declara­tion expressed; whereby ye have called us back from an Error, pro­ceeding from ignorance, not wil­lingness. These things had undeser­vedly turned to our disgrace (to whom nothing is more dear than the Safety and Love of our People) had not such Harpies and Horse-leeches as these been made known unto us by you. I had rather be maimed in [Page]Hand to give allowance of such Pri­vileges of Monopolies as may be prejudicial to my People. The Brightness of Regal Majesty hath not so blinded mine Eyes, that licen­tious Power should prevail more with me, than Justice. The Glory of the Name of a King may deceive unskilful Princes, as guilded Pills may deceive a sick Patient, but I am none of those Princes; for I know that the Commonwealth is to be go­verned for the benefit of those who are committed, not of those to whom it is committed; and that an Account is one day to be given before another Judgment-Seat. I think my self most happy, that by God's assistance I have hitherto so governed the whole Commonwealth, and have such Sub­jects, as for their Good I would wil­lingly leave both Kingdom and Life also. I beseech you that what Faults others have committed by false Sug­gestions, may not be imputed to me. Let the Testimony of a clear Con­science be my absolute Excuse. Ye are not ignorant that Princes Ser­vants are now and then too attentive to their own benefit, that the Truth is often concealed from Princes; and they cannot themselves look precise­ly into all things, upon whose Shoul­ders lieth continually the Weight of the greatest Business.’

I cannot but observe, before I go any farther, that this Queen was not willing to take upon her self the faults of her Servants; but, on the contrary, gave them very hard Names. I must observe likewise, that Commonwealth was no odious Word then; for she twice in this Speech; and in her time Secretary Smith wrote a Book of our Government, to which he gave that Title. This was an Age wherein Ma­jesty could court, and Ministers affect to be Patriots of the People; and yet Prerogative did not lose much ground, altho' it sometimes yielded.

But I will come nearer to our Times, as far as the Union of this Island. Sir Francis Bacon advised King James the First (as you may find in his Resuscitatio) to amend by consent of Parliament some of our Laws, and to expunge others, especially Penal Ones.

He quotes a Learned Civilian (tho' he does not name him) that expoundeth the Curse of the Prophet, Plu [...]t super eos L [...]queos, of multitude of Penal Laws; which (continues he) are worse than Showrs of Hail, or Tempests upon Cattel; for they fall upon Men.

He goes on, There are some Penal Laws fit to be retained, but the Penalty too great. And it is ever a Rule, That any over-great Penalty (beside the acer­bity of it) deads the Execution of the Law.

He says also, There is a farth [...]r In­convenience of Penal Laws obsolete and out of use; for it brings a gangrene neg­lect, and habit disobedience upon other wholsom Laws, that are fit to be conti­nued in practice and execution. So that our Laws endure the Torment of M [...]zen­tius, The Living die in the Arms of the Dead.

I chose to express my Lord Bac [...]n's Mind in his own Words: But I will add to what he has said a farther in­convenience that I my self have ob­served in the reading of Histories; [Page] [...] Powers, and ob [...]olete Penal Laws, have not only proved a Snare to the Peo­ple, but given Kings too often an Handle to fall into such Measures as have proved destructive to themselves. Powers in a Crown, that are wholly unfit to be exercised, are only Temptations to Oppression and Misunderstanding. Knight Service was once a very Poli­tick Tenure: It was once fit, before the several People of this Kingdom were mixed and civilised, that who­ever was born upon a Lord's Land, should be brought up under his Care; and that no Woman that held Land of any Lord should carry her Estate to any Man that was an Enemy to that Lord: yet in King James the First's days, the same Sir Francis Bacon, tho' then Sollicitor-General to him, in a Conference with the Lords, by Commission from the Commons, made a Speech to persuade the Lords to joyn with the Commons in a Peti­tion to the King, to obtain Liberty to treat of a Composition with his Majesty for Wards and Tenures This was in the seventh year of K. James's Reign, in Halcyon-days. The Speech is in the 34th page of my Lord Ba­con's Resuscitatio, and worth any Man's reading. He therein proposeth, in Recompence of the Revenue of Te­nures, a more ample, a more cer­tain, and a more Loving Dowry; Lo­ving Dowry expresseth admirably well, that Kings should be willing to change any part of their Revenue, for what may suit better with the Peoples inclinations. But I won't make Re­marks upon this Speech.

The next Paragraph speaks of the Nature of those things, and how it is changed with the times. Voca [...] manent, Res fugiunt, are his words.

And the next Paragraph to that says a great deal in these two Axioms, Naturae vis maxima, & suus cuique discretus sanguis: for restoring Chil­dren to the care of their most affecti­onate Relatives.

I come to the Reign of K. Charles I▪ and must say, that the strained use of some Powers and Prerogatives, for which the flattering Lawyers had some dark semblance of Authority in our Law-Books, gave the fatal Rise to the late Civil Wars, which ended in the horrid Murther of that King; and when K. Charles II. was Restored, tho' the first Parliament he called will be allowed by every body to be suffici­ently devoted to him, yet he therein, when they were under the greatest Transports and Raptures of Loyalty, passed many Acts that plainly own the great Inexpediency, if not Illegality of several things done in his Father's Days, and secured us against the like Abuses hereafter; and had he lived, he must have owned that he himself had carried the Quo Warrantoes too far, or he would have sate uneasie; and those very Men that were instru­mental in Quo-Warrantoing Corporati­ons, did every where declare, that Regulations, which (however illegal I take them to be in themselves, how much soever I think them a Fanatick Rowland for the Church of England Oliver, yet I think they were agree­able to the Powers the Crown reser­ved to its self in the New Charters;) I say, That those very Men that were instrumental to the Quo Warrantoing Corporations, did every where declare, that the Regulations in the succeeding [Page] [...] Power insecure, and resolved all our Government into an Absolute and De­spotick Rule. Questionless there should be some way to punish the Abuses in Corporations, but the Penal Laws that are against Corporations have perhaps annexed to them too great a Penalty; perhaps it would be better to punish the Persons that offend, than to fall up­on the poor innocent Charter. I would have the Body Corporate be able to do no wrong, tho' the Members may.

But it is not my business in this place to propound the Remedies, but to shew that it is lawful to make, and that there used to be made, and that there ought to be Reformations now, as well as there have been formerly. And I hope I have made it plain, both from our Histories and Statute-Books, That Civil Infallibility was not former­ly an Article in our Politicks, nor has it the Universality on its side; nor will any Party abide by it, unless for Per­sonal Ends, or when it serves their own Party. The Papists did not be­lieve it in their days; the Church of England did not believe it when His Majesty was amongst us; and the Fa­naticks never pretended to believe it. Thus you see my thoughts; and, as different as they may be from the Williamites that have deluded, or from the Jacobites that have afrighted you, I defie any of the One to be readier to hazard themselves for their Coun­try, or the Other to venture farther for the Service of King James. All that I desire is, That the King may have for his Motto what the sincere Historian says of the two best Empe­rors of Rome. Tacitus his words are, DIVUS NERVA, ET DIVUS TRA­ [...] [...] MISCUERUNT, IMPERIUM ET LIBERTATEM. And may the re­mainder of King James the Second's days give yet leave, after He has lived long here, to write upon his Tomb, Divus JACOBUS Secundus, &c. Res olim insociabiles miscuit Imperium & Libertatem. I would have the King consult his own Honour; but I think he does it best, when he considers well and throughly of the Liberties of the People. I allow that Maxim to be true, Principum actiones proecipue sunt ad famam componendoe. But no Eng­lish King will preserve his Memory grateful, in the Records of Time, or his Name dreadful in Foreign Courts, who is not beloved by his People; and none will be so, that does not care­fully Fence, and inviolably preserve our Rights. We have been a People always jealous of our Rights, Tena­cissimi libertatis. The Word Conquest is often met with in our common Histories, and misleads our common Readers; but though our Nation has been often stormed, our Essential Laws and Customs were never carried. The Romans governed us, in great part, by our own Laws, and the wisest of their Lieutenants found we were more easily governed by Gentle­ness and Justice, than by Force. The Danes made no alteration in our Con­stitution; and the Saxon and Norman Invasions ended in Treaty; and the Saxon Government was homogeneous to our Temperament; and when Wil­liam (called the Conqueror) would have introduced the Customs of Nor­way, the People neither would, nor did receive them. If a Man reads Hi­stories to understand Government, he [Page] [...] Tale of them; and whoever looks in­to our Antiquities, will find the foot­steps of our Liberties are as ancient as of our Being. But to return to what I was saying some time since, I would not injure my Country for K. James, nor would I injure K. James for my Country. I think your Party wicked, and I fear too many Jaco­bites are weak: They are weak by fantastick Notions, and violent Aver­sions, and Personal, Party, and Church-Quarrels. But I would rather lament, than expostulate too freely, and I de­sire no body to serve King James, but on the Principles of making him the Father of his Country: I once a­gain assure you, I neither do, nor will upon any other; and were he rein­stated in his Throne, if he pursued partial Notions, and ungrateful Mea­sures, I would rather make a Vow of Voluntary Exile, than accept the best Employment that a King of England has in his Power to give: I have many times told Him so. And farther, I would always advise him to take into his Business Popular Men, and to let them serve him by the Methods that made them Popular: But at the same time, I say, I would advise him to forget as well as forgive all our Mis­carriages. I would have a perfect Act of Oblivion from Him; and I would have the People pass on their part so entire an Act of Oblivion, that they should not gall any one Man for what they did amiss in his Reign, or under this Usurpation, on condition they te­stifie their Repentance by their Amend­ment of Life. Tho' Henry 4. of France (so justly called the Great) was in his absence arraigned and condemned to [...] Harquebusses; and this by the Votes and Order of the Parliament of Tho­louse; yet, notwithstanding he reco­vered his Kingdom by force of Arms, that Great and Excellent King did not in the least revenge their Trayterous and Rebellious Usage; by which Ge­nerous as well as Politick Carriage, he added to the Conquest of his Country the Conquest of the Hearts of all his People, reconciling at once all the Animosities and Factions which had been the Product of near Forty Years Civil Wars. Let a new Face of things arise likewise out of our State-Chaos. May the King govern with that Equal Hand, that Merit may be rewarded, and nothing but Vice in disgrace; that those may be thought to serve him best, that most serve the General Good; and let it be a Crime, as well as ill Manners, to revive any of our old Distinctions; let there be no distinction upon the account of Ecclesiastical or Civil Faith; and let Obedience and Allegiance to the Civil Power be the only Test for Preferment. You know, my Friend! I am no Papist, tho' I am for a Civil Comprehension: And as falsly as your Irish Dr. King has traduc'd His Majesty for what he did in Ireland, I am told one thing for which his Wisdom and Goodness can never be enough commended; and that is, that he required no Oath from any one Man that serv'd him, but trusted to their Honour and their Inte­rest, rather than the Obligation of Oaths, being sure an honest Man would do his Duty without them; and being also convinced by a late and sad Expe­rience, that they never bind a Knave. And thus he truly made himself the King of all Perswasions.

The Discipline of the Lacedemo­niuns was positive, That every Man should keep his Rank or Die; yet they never put an Oath to their Souldiers: Shame and Honour had more Power over those brave Minds, made them even scorn Death (which is the greatest Tryal) had a more infallible effect upon them, than we can pre­tend all Oaths have upon us.

Notwithstanding this short Re­mark about Oaths, I am neither Qua­ker nor Sectaria; therefore a hint is enough from me upon that Subject: But from the several Heads of Dis­course I have handled, methinks I find my self under a necessity of clear­ing, at least, briefly Three things, and I will do it as briefly as I can.

The First is, That those that are both Zealous and Jealous for Liberty and Property are more in number, than those that are for the Strains and Stretches of Prerogative.

I find there is a vast and unlucky mistake in the Computations of some People, and that by reason that they do not distinguish between the State and Religious Whigg. I allow the Fa­natick Whigg, or those that refuse to come to our Communion, are not perhaps the twentieth Man in England; but there are very great numbers of Men, who never went formerly, nor do now go, even by reason of their Principle, to any other Church but the Church of England. There are likewise many others, who are not at all Biggotted to any particular Form of Church Worship, who yet mostly, if not altogether, go to the Church of England; and yet both the one and the other of these are as much, or perhaps more nicely Whiggs in Ci­vils, than are the Fanaticks, though not so generally called so: So that there are Church of England and La­titudinarian, or (as the Scotch call them) Erastian as well as Fanatick Whiggs. Now let us consider what Interest all these Three sort of Whiggs have in our Affairs; what influence they have over them; and you will find by Matter of Fact, that these ma­ny years last past, they all joyning up­on a Civil Bottom, have all along been too hard for that which is the Church of England, as it is contra distinguished to the Whigg. They were fatally so in King Charles the First's Time. But to bring things within all our Memories and Observation, the three last Par­liaments in King Charles the Second's Reign, is not an improper Season to calculate their Interest and Influence: For then they chose before any illegal or unwarrantable Tricks had been plaid by either side with Charters, and if the Nation was inflamed by a Po­pish Plot, I am sure the Court lean'd wholly to the High Prerogative Church of England. Then you see that the Bill of Exclusion (tho' it was an excessive and exotick Rant, rather than a natural Effect or Production of Whiggism) was carried in the House of Commons, and that tho' almost all the Members were Charch goers But I will shew you yet by a later Instance, that State Whiggism runs thro this Na­tion. All those that are for this Go­vernment act upon that Principle, and lay aside the Passive Obedience and Pre­rogative Notions of the high Church of England men; notwithstanding that they keep up the Episcopal Order, the Pomp, Ceremony, and Discipline of the Church of England. And whoever [Page 18]will turn one a King for M [...]le-admi­nistration of his Ministers, will never receive him without a Reformation in the Constitution: They will be State-Whigs, tho' they do not call them­selves so. It is for Liberty and Pro­perty that these Men struggle, tho' they do not know how to name their own Actions.

The second thing that seems neces­sary for me to clear, is, That it is ne­cessary to give a Liberty of Conscience; and that these Assertors of Liberty and Property will be for Liberty of Con­science, and be able, upon the King's giving good Securities for our Civil Rights, to give in exchange of them an Impartial Toleration. I will not dispute the inconsistency of Persecuti­on with either the Christian or Moral Law; nor will I take pains to prove that where a Nation is greatly divi­ded into Sects, it is the Interest of that Nation to give every body leave to worship God in their own manner: but I will shew the likelihood that the State-Whigs should and will ex­change Religi [...]us Liberty for Civil Se­curity. And now I must again carry you back to the beginning of the late Civil Wars, and then you will find, because the Church of England would not give Liberty of Conscience, the State-Whigs set up Presbytery. The next Consultation, I must make you acquainted with, are the Debates of the above-mentioned three last Par­liaments of King Charles the Second, and you may easily recollect they were for Liberty of Conscience to all Pro­testant Dissenters; nay, they made some Votes that were thought extra­vagant in their favour, some suspend­ing dispensing Votes; for they resolved it as the Opinion of that House, that it was contrary to the Interest of the Nation, to put the Laws (which were then in being) in execution against them: But you will say they did not Vote as much for the Papists. You must consider the Season. Besides that, the Papists have been esteemed errant Courtiers ever since the Refor­mation. The Pacliament then thought they had a Popish Plot on foot; they thought that Plot was not a Plot for Liberty to worship in the Popish Way, but to introduce Popery, by the Destruction of all our Civil and Religious Liberties. You know at the beginning of my Letter I charged my Country with National Intoxications: We can at some times believe Invi­sible Pilgrims, Black Bills, St. Jones's Gridirons, and that three thousand Irish can Massacre all England. And when that Popish Plot was prosecuted so violently, the generality of Men looked upon the Papists as Banditti and Misanthropi, in relation to the Protestants; they looked upon them as the Partizans or Janizaries of the Court, Propagators of Civil as well as Religious Superstition and Idola­try. And if these Men had a mind to ruin the Papists at that day, it was not because of their Prayers and Beads, but because they thought them Ene­mies to our Constitution; not only from their dependance upon the Ro­man See; but for a mischief that was nigher at hand, their excessive flatte­ry of the Court and Crown; whereas the Dissenters being avowedly tender of Liberty and Property, were not on­ly favoured by all those Parliaments, but influenced great numbers of those who were not of their own Commu­nion, [Page 19]at the respective Elections of each of those Parliaments: So that the Principle of Liberty of Conscience was perfectly prevalent, though they held a strict hand over the Papists, out of the Principle of Self-preser­vation; and consequently, a truly­chosen Parliament will make the Pa­pists English-men where they find them so. In farther proof of this last As­sertion, I must beg you to remember how King James's Declaration of In­dulgence was at first entertained. I know the Universal Joy with which it was first received lasted but a little while; but I know that tho' the Whigs misliked that it should be put out upon a Dispensing Power; yet be­lieving it a Preface to Comprehensive Measures and Latitudinarian Poli­ticks, they forgave that blemish in its Birth; and every where so unani­mously embraced it, that those nar­row Spirits of the Church of England who had a mind, were ashamed, if not afraid to oppose it. Liberty of Conscience would have made K. James the Second Memorable and Glorious in our Histories, had not Sunderland's Artifices, such Speeches as Mr. Alsop's, and such Pampalets as Can there come any Good out of Galilee? spoil'd the Noblest Project any English Monarch ever set on foot, which was, A sepa­ration of Religious from Civil Interests.

I confess we can make Popery a Ball-begger when we please, and that ought to teach the Papists Moderati­on; bue the Liberty and Property-men can also call off the Mob when they please: For you see at this time the Nation finds no fault with the Empe­ror's and the Duke of Bavaria's Ido­latry and Persecution; no nor with the Spanish Inquisition, whilst they fancy (tho' wildly and falsly) they are by their help supporting their own Civil Rights. They fall not upon the Papists here, that they may not dis­please the Confederates abroad; so that Popery is not so dreadful, as Property and Privileges are dear and charming.

And now since I have been proving that Interest governs the World, how­ever Men may mistake what is their own Interest, I think my self obliged in the third place to shew that it is the Interest of the King, and every sort of Men, that he should be Resto­red upon Civil Securities; and that it is not the Interest of the King, or any sort of Men, to endeavour that the Restauration should be put upon any other Foot.

Whilst I shew that it is the King's Interest, I shall answer the Objection of those who say the Whigs won't think their Properties and Privileges sufficiently secured, unless the King part with some of his Prerogative. I am sure whilst he is dispossessed he has no Prerogative, or at least no exercise of, and benefit by it; and the Chance of War is too doubtful to know whe­ther he shall have any, unless the Peo­ple please. He is outed of his Estate, and can in all probability only have it upon Composition; which if he will not make with us, the Nation will try to the last to keep the Possession; and it has those eleven points of the Law. Nor are all things Prerogatives that flattering Lawyers have called so in Westminster Hall, and some well-meaning, and other self-designing, Ciergy-men, have believed so in their Closets, or preached for as such in [Page 20]their Pulpits. They can see farther than I, that expect to do any thing without an Accommodation. I think it impossible he should be Restored, or were he, that he should keep his Throne, without it. I think it impossible for One Man to govern the People of England, unless they have a mind he should; and they will never have such a mind, unless he sometimes gives way to their Impetuosities. But farther, His Age, and the Minority of his Son, are the highest Inducements imaginable for him to endeavour to leave a settled Government, to quiet the Minds, as well as suppress the In­surrections of the People. There is like­wise another Reason, why as a Man of Conscience he must be yielding; for be cannot but be willing that his Son should be educated in his own Religion; and if he will let the King­dom be secure of their own Religion, and of their own Laws, notwithstan­ding that the Crown should be of one Religion, and the People of another, I am satisfied that the People of Eng­land will be little sollicitous which way our Kings think the best to Hea­ven. This has Argument, as he is a Religious Man. But I must again in­force Condescentions, as the Interest of the King under a Natural Conside­ration. Good Securities will make the Nation own the Legitimacy of his Son more than all other Proofs; and with­out out good Securities, there will be pre­tences that his Birth is disputable; (though I affirm it impossible for any thinking Man to question in his own Mind the Prince of Wales's being born of the Queen's Body.) Compliance with the People made Queen Eli­zabeth's Title unquestioned; so that those that flatter the King with His Right, and seem to despise our Rights, take the most infallible Course to de­stroy both the King and his Poste­rity.

I need not have said one Word of this matter to inform the King's Judg­ment; for he is in that Temper in which his Subjects wish him, and that would satisfie a Parliament-House, were he to receive their Petitions and Addresses, to stamp their Votes, and to end our Disputes. I do not speak this by guess, but am convinced of it by many Discourses I have had the Honour personally to have with him, since his Misfortunes; and the Letters I have had from several of the best hands since I left his Court, confirm me he remains in the same Opinion. But I thought it was necessary to say something of this sort, to set before those Jacobites you complain of, the Interest of the King in the truest light.

As for the Whiggs of all sorts, eve­ry Body knows that they will find their Account in a Restauration upon Civil Securities, and that no other Restauration will please them: So that I will not labour that matter at all; but hasten to shew that it is the Interest both of the Church of Eng­land and Catholicks to promote such a Restauration.

The Church of England is not se­cure that she shall be continued the National Church, so long as there is unlimmited and unexplained Dispen­sing Power; and she saw Quo War­ranto's could produce Regulations, and so I might go through other [Page 21]things. And the Ministers of a Ca­tholick King may again mistake in the Exercise of his Power, if the Boundaries of the Administration are not plainly chalk'd out; and whilst the Church of England appear Ene­mies to Liberty and Property, they will lose their Interest with the Peo­ple; and the next Revolution will conclude in Presbytery and a Common­wealth: For Popery wants Num­bers to establish its self; though some of the Members of that Com­munion may have Vanity enough to hope to establish it; and if the Church of England do not joyn in Civil Seourities; nay, if there should be a Restauration without them, those Catholicks (though it will be to their certain Ruine) may be able to do enough towards it, to make the Church of England fall, and the Pres­byterians get all in the Scramble. And tho' the Presbyterians have an odd han­kering after a King; yet, after they have been bit once more, they will become tuneable to a Democracy. No­thing can destroy the Church of England, but their Opposition to the Liberties of their Country, or to Liberty of Con­science, or their closing with Compre­hension.

It is a little light, but however I will set down what I have often heard said concerning it by Men of very large Minds. They have said, That if the Members of the Church of England were as good-natur'd as the Constitu­tion, it is the best-bred, civilest National Church in Christendom. I set it down as a light expression to be used con­cerning Church-Affairs, and yet there may be Instruction in it: For I believe its Civility, if it does not make too extravagant Compliments of our Liber­ties, will for ever make it stand; but if our Liberties are not well guarded, that may be pulled down, and Presby­tery will be set up.

As for the Roman Catholicks, I think it is in the highest degree improbable that the King should ever be able to come home by Conquest, and yet more improbable he should be able to stay here upon that Title, (if in­deed it is One in a Natural King:) and if the Catholicks would in all places declare for Civil Securities, I think this is the properest Opportu­nity for their Incorporation Our having been in Confederacy with Princes of that Perswasion, has made us capable of allowing fair Quarter to those Catholicks that are here. We can follow our Interest, notwithstanding our old Grudges, and if the Catholicks will come to a Temper, we are enough in one to embody them: Whereas, should not the Restauration be in the Life of the King, the Prince of Wales would be fetched home upon a meer Church of England Plot, and the Proofs of his Birth will be Authentick, and without dispute, during his Non-age, and till he has disobliged us; and the Church of England men will, in point of Reli­gion, carry all things before them, as far as is in Opposition to Popery; he will be bred up a Protestant, and must, in Proof of his being so, con­sent to any farther Laws that the Church of England will think neces­sary to secure their Church against Popery: So far will it then be from repealing the Test, or even the Penal [Page 22]Laws, in relation to Catholicks. And the Church of England, whilst they may have their Church secured, will, during the Minority of the Prince, (before Flattery will advance to Pre­ferment) agree with the Liberty and Property men for any good and whol­som Laws; and the Protectors of young Princes must give way to the Impor­tunities of the People. Now the Catholicks will not have an Opportu­nity to bribe us by Civil Securities; the Church of England will remember all those Male administrations of his Ministers, for which they turn'd out King James; and will say it was the Papists hindred us from being redres­sed against them. And the Whigs will throw it in their Dish, that they offer'd them Friendship upon Legal Establish­ments, and that they did not cry out upon the Declaration for Indulgence, tho' founded upon a Dispensing Power, till the Roman Catholicks flew, or made at least an appearance to fly, at seve­ral of our most invaluable Rights and Privileges. The Whigs will say the Papists doted upon French Power, ra­ther than National Restauration; nay, that they slighted the last, and have every where declared against the King's coming home upon Terms, Concessions, Reformations, and amend­ment of our Constitution; tho' unless they had intended to exercise a Danish Lordliness over us, their own Welfare must have been concluded in every thing that made England Happy. It matters not how unjust these Accusa­tions will be: it is a true, tho' a course Proverb, It is easie to find a stick, when one has a mind to beat a Dog. Is it the first time that we have against you believed Lies? I neither am, nor I hope to God ever shall be a Roman Catholick; but I have such Bowels to­wards all Mankind, that I seriously protest I have such melancholly Bodings far the Romans Catholick Party, I fore­see such a Period of Calamity (accor­ding to Human reckoning) falling up­on them, if the King is not restored by Great Compliances with his People, and in his own Person, that it has gi­ven me many a painful Though: and I must confess I am infinitely con­cerned for many excellent Persons of that Communion, who deserve bet­ter than to be made a Sacrifice to our Rage and Madness, who deserve all the Benefits of Fellow-Subjects. The Whigs and Church of England-men will come to a Compromise at that day; but in all Human appearance it will be a dreadful one to the Catholicks. Now they have an Opportunity to be incorporated with the Protestants; but if they don't make use of it, they may be pity'd, but no Man will▪ in all probability, be able to help them. How Universal and Catholick soever their Religion may be in other places, I am sure they are Fanaticks in England under a Civil Consideration; and therefore that they have all the rea­son in the World to be State-Whigs, and as such only will ever be impar­tially used by us.

I think nothing that I have said has depretiated the Doctrine of Passive-Obedience. I do not pretend to deter­mine who is in the Right in that Con­troversie, much less to handle it as a Religious One: But give me leave to tell an admirable Story concerning Dr. Colvil, a great Man in the King­dom [Page 23]of Scotland, but one that was thought not to understand clearly the Principle of Non-Resistance. The late Earl of Middleton having him once at Dinner, asked him, Whether there could be no Case in which Defensive Arms were Lawful? The Doctor replied, It was fit for the People to believe them unlawful, and for Kings to believe them lawful. It was an admitable Repar­tee upon a sudden Question: But perhaps, had he thought of it, he would have said likewise, That it is fit for the Ministers of Kings to believe them lawful too; and I presume the present Earl of Middleton set down that addi­tional Instruction to the Apothegm. For tho', to the eternal shame of the Judges who now sit upon the King's Bench, they violated our Laws in the continuance of his Imprisonment it must be allowed, for his everlasting Honour, that that Noble Lord was as cautious of making the Law the Li­mits of his Ministry, as if it were law­ful to rise up in Arms whenever the Laws were broken.

But I must Answer your Postscript, wherein you tell me, that you nei­ther know how the King can be re­stored now the Prince of Orange is in possession; nor what will become of the Prince of Orange if we should re­store the King; nor what Security we could have from any Conditions the King could make with us. I An­swer, that if the Prince of Orange is not kept in possession by English men, he may soon be brought to Reason; and I do assure you, that there are many Jacobites that desire rather to see the Prince of Orange return to his Station of Stadtholder again in Hol­land, than wish him any personal In­jury: And as for the Security you require for any promised Conditions, you must forgive me if I think you a little insincere, if not trifling, when you place so much Weight upon the Pope's giving King James an Absolu­tion for any Promises he should make. You might have said this artfully to the Mobb; but you cannot suppose that I would believe you were in earnest, though you make such a clutter with it. I allow, as you say, that our Histories tell us of some Kings that were absolved by Popes; but you know that Bulls, Absolutions, and the Pope's Excommunications were like to go farther with the Nation in Popish Times, than they are like to do now: And yet by your very in­stance of King Henry the Third, you might be convinced, that the People of England never would, even then, let a King be at rest, till he had per­formed his Promises. I will not write a long Confutation of a thing that I know cannot stick with you, or any wise considering Man. And besides, I do not go about to perswade you to take up with a Constitution, that will depend either upon a King's Temper or Religion, Honour or Veracity. Make a Government that is easie to all, and it will be the Interest of all to preserve it: But if you would do so, you must bring the Right Line into it; you must nicely preserve the Church of England, as the National Church; and yet you must remem­ber that the Kngdom of Heaven is not of this World: You must take care in your Civil Compacts, that [Page 24] Priestcraft does not spoyl all at last: You must take care even of a Prote­stant, in Ordine ad Spiritualia; and let the Tares and the Wheat grow up to­gether. But farther, although you have such wild accounts concerning the Jacobites; there are amongst those that serve King James, Men that know what you are a doing; that know you are looking far and near for a Deliverance; that know how impotent you think the Prince of O­range is to Rule; how that you de­pise him, as much as the Nation mis­liked Richard Cremwel before the Re­stauration; that know your extra­vagant Projects, and more tempe­rate Thoughts, and yet have accoun­red for all things; and will, as things ripen, find ways to give you satis­faction, if any thing will. We know that Maud the Empress, even when King Stephen was a Prisoner; and though her Title was indisputable, and though the Nation was all Ca­tholicks, lost the Crown, because she was refractory and haughty, and de­nied to the Londoners, Edward the Confessor's Laws. And I assure you there will be Men that will lay be­fore the King the Necessity and Wis­dom of giving Satisfaction to all your Reasonable Demands. If you do not ask too much Counter-security, things unfit for an English King to grant, there are Jacobites that will not only deliver, but second your Petitions. A Good and Settled Mo­narchy you may have; and a Common­wealth is scarce practicable, will be hazardous at present, and cannot be lasting.

I know there are some amongst the Jacobites, who are otherwise Men of great Honour and Worth; and yet suspect every thing, such as you pro­mote is to make the King a Doge of Venice: But there are others who have compared, and taken in pieces, and viewed in parts, all the Models of Government; who, if you would rectifie, and not change, either the Name or Nature of ours, will receive very kindly any thing you offer, will instruct you how to make it palatable to the King, and shew him how con­sistent it is both with his Honour and his Interest. Let the manner be de­cent, and your Propositions allow King James to have the Ballance that an English King should have, and must necessarily have in our Constitution. And I assure you many of the Jaco­bites know no other but such an Eng­lish King to be our Supreme Head and Governour.

But, after all, if King James is cal­led home by the Nation, we need no other Security than a well-chosen Par­liament. The present Parliament may call him home when they please, without any other Force, but their own denial of Money. And the King's being of another Religion, will in some measure check the effects of a Revolutionary Joy, and prevent our Excesses. And if sober and honest Men would in all Corporations (in­stead of all other Projects) instruct all the Populace, That all those that drink upon their Members Cost, hazard being Slaves for that Draught; and that it is time seriously to take Care of Themselves and their Posterity, by choosing Men of Virtue, rather than the Favourites or the Factions of any [Page]Opinion, whether they are Jure Di­vino or Original Contract men; Men that are as well Loyal to their Country as their King, and to their King as their Country; Men that have good Nature, Estates, Ho­nesty, Sense, and moderate Minds: Such a Parliament would be an heal­ing Parliament; might not only end, but take away all occasions for Strife and Changes. And Establishment, Vir­tue and Liberty, are a Nobler Happiness than excessive Riches, pompous Buildings, and all the other Glories that a People can possess. How is the Excellency of the Spartan Institution every where and every day applauded, tho' all their Pleasures seem to be nothing else but Hardships and Self-denial? But we may add Plenty to our Peace, increase our Trade and our Strength, and by our Naval Force, and a perfect Union amongst our selves, be again conside­red as the Arbiters of Europe.

But I am unawares launching into a spacious Subject. It is time to con­clude. I wish all English-men would consider how to do it; and I wish there could suddenly, before we are undone, a method be found out to recon­cile the King and his Nephew, and all his Children, both Natural and Natio­nal; a method found out to adjust all our Interests, and bring us all to our respective Duties. I beseech God so to order things, that all Sects and sorts of English-men may think it a National Good to restore our King. I have read our Annals; I wish every body had. Could I here delineate the Scars and Woulds, the Bloodsheds and Distresses, that the Violation of the Hereditary Title (which will hover over all Usurpations, and all Forms of a Commonwealth) have [...] could I paint out the Executions, and Extinctions of Noble Families, that the Wars between the Two Houses have occasioned, they would represent but an horrid Prospect, a doleful Scene.

‘Oh, Blessed God! Visit not this Land for its Iniquities with Destru­ction; but in Judgment remember Mercy. Let Righteousness and Mer­cy Restore Him to it, and on them establish the Throne of thy Servant JAMES; Teach Him to go in and out before this great People, which (by our Laws and Oaths, and His In­heritance) thou hast committed to His Charge: Let His Children Ho­nour, His Subjects Obey, and His Nephew be Just to Him, and GOD be Glorified, be still Glorified, in His and Our wonderful Deliverance; that Wickedness may no longer pro­sper, but Peace return to us, and our Childrens Children, to all Gene­rations. Amen, Amen.’ And God put it into the Hearts of all His Subjects to say likewise Amen to this National and Honest Prayer.

I find that my Letter has grown under my hands; but if it tires you, you must thank your self that you started so much Game; a great deal has risen before me in writing that I have not followed, tho' I hope I have writ enough to let you know, that whatever Spirit you find some Jaco­bites in, yet there are others that can­not disgust a reasonable Man; and also that I am the same English-man you ever knew me, as well as,