I Perceive by yours of March 4th. that the Fermentation which the Nation is put into, must be cherished by the same ways and methods that it was first occasioned and caused: For should the heats and animosities among Protestants be once suffered to as­swage and abate, the Romish Designs against the Protestant Religion and the Liberties of England, would not only miscarry and prove abortive; but they who have been wheedled to betray God and their Country, by contributing ignorantly to the promotion and service of [...]heir Ends, would be the first to express their Indignation against the Papists, both as an effect of their resentment, for ha­ving been through their influence, thrown into a Lunacy and Delirium, and as an Evi­dence to the Kingdom that they are at last cured of their Distraction. And therefore the Operation and Efficacy of the Declara­tion against the two last Parliaments being wholly spent, I am not surprised to find an advantage taken from a pretended Paper, importing an Unlawful Association against the Government; for the perpetuating ran­cours amongst His Majesties Leige People, and the casting those back again into a Fea­ver, who were recovering their senses, and coming to a sedate mind: And as all men are worse upon Relapses than they were of their first Diseases; so we are not to think it strange, that people are more extravagant in their late Addresses, than they were in the former. But there being so many things to be said in return to your Letter, and being by Command confined to represent my Thoughts in one Sheet, I shall Preface no farther, but apply my self to obey you in the most compendious manner I can.

Nor shall I pronounce that of the late Ad­dresses, which a Celebrated and Court-Au­thor doth, concerning those made to Oliver Cromwell; namely, That they were no other than Leagues Offensive and Defensive between him and the Faction; [...]emento 2d Edit. p. 29. and that while his Care was for engaging one Party, it was for destroying another. For though some little Folk, who officiously manage this af­fair, may have such a Project, yet it is im­possible that His Majesty should either pro­pose or countenance so base and destructive a Design.

Nor will I say, That it had been but reaso­nable, That they who do embark in new Addresses, should have first seen the fruits and effect of their former: For whereas they seek to justifie themselves in what they did, by the Assurances which they suppose His Majesty gave them of having frequent Par­liaments, though he had Dissolved Two or Three, without giving them time to perfect those Important Matters which the whole Nation apprehended they were called for; so it would have been some Argument of the Candor and Sincerity of their intentions in what they did before, if they had for­born their late Applications, till they had found that they were not mistaken in the [Page 2]grounds upon which they think to vindicate themselves for what they then did.

Neither will I insist upon this, That it had become them to be well assured that there was such a Paper stiled an Association found in my Lord Shaftsbury's Closet, before they took upon them to talk so loudly of it, and vent themselves in so strange and unaccountable expressions upon Mr Gwyns bare suggestion of such a thing. For as it is most certain, that it was not the founda­tion of my Lords Apprehension and Com­mitment, seeing the Bag into which it was put, when said to be seised in his Lordships Study, was not opened till after his Con­finement in the Tower for High Treason; so it is not impossible but that they who had the confidence to impose other things upon this Noble Peer in the printed Rela­tion of the proceedings at the Old-Bayly, than were deposed by the Witnesses in Court, might with the same liberty and for the same end, forge and invent this Pa­per, and ascribe it to his Lordship. For whereas Smith upon giving his Evidence at the Bar said, that the Earl of Shafts­bury told him he was sorry that the King saw not his danger, &c. They who un­dertook the communicating those proceed­i [...]gs to the World, make Smith declare up­on Oath that the said Earl told him, he was glad the King saw not his danger.

Nor shall I insist upon this, That it had been but congruous, and what became Eng­lish men, to have testified their detestation of the many late Sham Plots whereby our Enemies have been endeavouring to de­stroy Loyal and innocent Protestants, as well as their declaring an Abhorrency of a pretended Association against the Monarchy; and the rather, because the forging crimes for involving guiltless persons in dan­ger, hath been real; whereas such an As­sociation as the late Clamour is raised up­on, was, for what yet appears, only feigned and imaginary. We have seen some of the best persons in the Kingdom cast into Pri­sons and arraigned in Courts upon malici­ous subornations, and Popish Sham conspi­racies; but no man can produce so much as a Name subscribed to any Paper, where­by to perswade himself or others of a com­bination against His Majesty and the Go­vernment. Nor can they be thought to bear any great Loyalty to the King, who have not some regard for the safety of his Protestant Subjects, and the preservation of the Protestant Religion. And there­fore while some are so busie here and there to gather hands to Addresses of another Nature, it were but a seasonable piece of service to the King, and a duty which all Law both Divine and Humane will justi­fie, for others to make an Address to His Majesty, that we may have the benefit and protection of his Government, and that our Lives and Estates may be defended from the malice of those, who by hiring and suborn­ing mercinary Villians to swear forged Crimes against us, have been unweariedly designing our ruin. And as it is not to be supposed that an application of this nature would be unacceptable to the King, the end and aim of his Reign being not only to look after our obedience to his Law, but to see that we are kept safe from the wrath and rage of our Enemies; so it would tend to the honour of London to lead the way to others in so use­ful, and at this time so necessary a duty.

Nor shall I do more but barely intimate, that it looks ill, and seems calculated for no good design, to find Addresses for dissol­ving Parliaments, and abhorring all Asso­ciations, countenanced and promoted, while Petitions for a Parliament were for­bidden by Proclamation, and the Petitioners publickly reprimanded. For supposing that some one Paper bearing the Name of an As­sociation, was unduly fram'd and worded; is this a justifiable ground to ridicule and Abhor every Association, tho' never so well adapted for the preservation of His Majesties Person and Dignity, and promo­ted in a Parliamentary way, and not to take till it receive the Royal stamp? How strangely does it look in a well-governed State, to find such a one as the Mayor of Gl. who was admitted into the freedom of that City, for the good sevice which he did in fighting against Charles Steward at Wor­cester, (as the words inserted in their Town-Book bear) to be hugg'd and embraced for advancing Addresses of one complection, while in the mean time many Loyal Gentle­men who shed their Blood, lost their Estates and underwent Imprisonment and Exile for the King are frown'd upon for offering to appear in applications of another figure. Men of Principles act always uniformly; whereas such as are sway'd by interest, are ready to engage with the same heat in every thing that lyes in subserviency to their gain. Some people think it not enough to attone for their former actions by their future Loyalty, but they seek to expiate their Crimes on one side, by running into illegal, rigorous, and mad excesses on the other. And I heartily wish, that an eminent Magistrate in the City of London, may not hope to make a compensation for having been a Clerk to a Regiment in the War against the late King, by complying with and pursuing whatsoever some men about the Court, or such who are influenced by those that are, put him upon. But what is this age degenerated into, that they [Page 3]who have served themselves of Dissenters in order to their getting into places of Trust, by proclaiming what blessed opportunities they have enjoyed with that sort of men under this and that Nonconfor­mist Minister, should instead of expressing a concern for the Protestant Religion answer­able to the are of it and the stations they are in, not only abandon, but from weakness, fear, or worse Principles, submit to be Tools to accelerate its ruine.

However I am sure the Government hath no cause of apprehending danger either from Phanatick Preachers or Poeple, seeing some of the most fam'd amongst them, af­ter having been a hundred times deceived and imposed upon, are still ready to be brib'd by a dinner or a smile, or wheedled by a fair word to co-operate with their e­nemies, and become instrumental of their own destruction. And therefore it is to be desired, that some of the dissenting Ecclesi­asticks would be contented with Grace, which is the Talent that God hath given them, and not pretend to Civil Wisdom, seeing it is evident to all the world, that the Great Dispenser hath withheld it from them.

These thing being briefly intimated, it is now time to advance those Reflexions and Observations which we judg proper to be offered upon the occasion of the late Ab­horring Addresses. Nor will it be amiss in the first place, to take notice how some mens opinions concerning these kind of Applications, do alter and vary according to, and in correspondence with the design and interests which men serve. For the very person that is not only principally employ'd in framing the draughts which are remitted into the Countrey, where Lieutennants, Justi­ces and Curates, are commissioned to pro­cure subscriptions to them, but whose Province it is to publish their usefulness to the Go­vernment, and to make the world believe what security the State receiveth from them in order to its support in the pursuance of present Councels: I say, this very Gentle­man had different thoughts concerning Ad­dresses some years ago when they came in sholes to Oliver Cromwell, and with great multitudes of hands subjoined to them, from what he now hath.

For says he, Those numerous and pretend­ed Applications, as they were but an Ar­tifice to piece up the Protectors broken Power as far as well it could be, See Mr. L'E­stranges Me­mento p. 30. so they were but false Glosses upon his Power, and Crom­wel was too wise to think them other. For being gain­ed by contrivement and force, or at least by im­portunity; half a score pitiful wretches stiled themselves the people of such or such a County, and there was the Total of the reckoning.

But we may the less wonder at this change of Judgment in some men, as to the signifi­cancy or insignificancy of Addresses, if we consider how the opinion of the Papists is much altered from what it was 90 years ago, as to the Right which the next in the Royal Line hath to inherit the Crown after the Ruling Prince. For whereas we have no­thing from them now, but that it is an un­pardonable Sin to exclude the Presumptive Heir, be his Principles what they will, and our danger from him in case he succeed, ne­ver so visible; they spake another kind of Language towards the end of Queen Eliza­beths Reign, when they foresaw that a Pro­testant was likely after her to ascend the Throne; namely, That Successi­on to Government is neither esta­blished by the Law of Nature, See Dole­man. nor the Law of Revelation, but only by Humane Sanctions, which men may cancel and alter as their interest determines them. For though they tell us now of the indis­pensable Obligations we are under, of sub­mitting quietly, in case His Majesty should Die, to the D. of Y. albeit we cannot but think the subversion of our Religion and the extirpation of our selves ready to ensue thereupon; yet they were pleased to tell our Ancestors, that no Free people were un­der Ties to the next of the Royal Line, but that they ought to put the Scepter into such a ones hand, under whom they might pro­mise themselves to live with Safety and Ho­nour.

But we may the more easily pardon the Papists for shifting Principles according to the posture which their affairs stand in, if we will observe how the Protestants of this Age differ from those of the former, in re­ference to the duty of submitting to, or de­barring a Popish Successor: For whereas heretofore not only the whole Clergy, but the Nobility and Gentry, Courtiers as well as others, derived their main Arguments against Mary Queen of Scots, from the dan­ger that the Protestant Religion would be in, if being in their power, she were suffered to survive Queen Elizabeth: It is now come to pass, that many of all Orders and Ranks, who pretend themselves Protestants, are not only contented that a Popish Prince may be dispensed with as to his Religion himself, and live quietly amongst them, but they seem uneasie in having a Protestant King, and long to have one of Popish Principles to Rule over them. See Bowes Journals. How disagreeable as to a Po­pish Successor, are the late Ad­dresses, from the Petitions, Votes and Acts of Parliament, and the carriage of the whole Kingdom in the 14 27, 28 and 29 years of [Page 4]Queen Elizabeth? Then an Association to Revenge the Death of the Queen upon the Papists, in case she came to an untimely end, was esteemed a piece of Loyalty, and pro­moted by the Chief Ministers of State; but now the Abhorring not only an ill-fram'd Paper bearing that Title, but all kinds of Associations of this nature and tendency, if His Majesty should fall by Popish hands, is accounted the Character both of a good Sub­ject, and a true Church-of- England man. Do we live in the same Clime that our Ance­stors did? or doth the like generous Blood run in our Veins, which did in theirs? Alas, by running counter to the wisdom of our Forefathers, we proclaim our selves a de­generate Issue, and are a reproach to the Memory of them who begot us, and who transmitted the Protestant Religion and English Liberties down to us!

And as all Addresses of this Nature tend to render the King, who ought to Reign in the hearts of all his People, the Head meerly of one part, and that a very incon­siderable one if compared with the bulk of the Nation; so they only serve to pub­lish to all the world the distractions of the Kingdom, and to proclaim in the face of the Sun the weakness of the Government. What do the foreigners say upon the perusal of our Gazets, but that either things are not managed in England according to the [...]ws of the Constitution, or that his Ma­jesty of great Britain Reigos precariously, seeing his Ministers seek to support the Transactions of State, by courting the ap­plause of a few little folk here and there through the Kingdom? Nor can any sort of men do the King a greater disservice, than to administer grounds to our neigh­bours abroad, to entertain such sentiments of us and our affairs. I tremble to think what the wisest amongst our selves say of these proceedings; for tho' all men acquit his Majesty from any intentions but what are gracious as well as just; yet they cannot but judg that some ill men are by these Addresses endeavouring to number the People, and to enroll Partisans for some hidden design.

But the most fatal effect and consequence of these Addresses, is the depriving the King of that security which the wisdom of the Parliament had provided for his Per­son against the Papists. For as nothing is so dear to a true English Parliament, as the Life of their Sovereign; so the best expedient which our late Parliaments could think of to preserve his Majesty from the dangers which he was exposed unto from the conspiracies of the Romish Crew, was the proposing an Association amongst Pro­testants to revenge his Death. And as they could entertain no friendship for the King, who advised him to dissolve the Parliament before that Bill was prepared and past; so it is apparent, that whosoever countenanceth the abhorrence of all Associations, does what in him lyes to leave the King open and naked to the hellish designs of the Romish Faction.

Nor is it unworthy the serious considera­tion of all Loyal persons, how they have both provided against the revenge of the Nation, and for their own establishment in Power, in case His Majesty should be taken off; for as they have excluded all endeavours of reven­ging his Death, by getting every thing ridi­cul'd and abhorred, that lies in subservien­cy thereunto; so they have taken care for their own safety after the perpetration of such a Villany, by obtaining all places Civil and Military to be filled with such in whom they may intirely confide; and as it is not long since the King of Portugal was laid a­side and confined to the Tarcera's; so it is remarkable, That it was effected without a Blow, and by this more than any thing else, That there was none in publick employ, but who were Zealots for his Brother that sup­planted him, and stept into his Throne.

But are such as Subscribe these Addresses, sensible whereabout we are, and how much the Popish interest is advanced within these two years? for hath not the D. of Y. intru­ded himself into the administration of affairs in Scotland, without taking the Oaths which the Laws of that Kingdom do require? Hath he not at the same time that he caused Pro­testant Dissenters to be disturbed and appre­hended, permitted Mass to be said under the same Roof, or at the next Door? Hath he given any security to Protestants there, for their safety in the Profession of the Prote­stant Religion, tho' he hath gotten himself excepted from all Tests that relate to the preservation or Liberty of it? Are not the Papists in Lancashire arrived to that boldness, as to Murder His Majesties Officers in the discharge of their Duty, and to rescue Re­cusants out of the hands of those that had ta­ken them in Execution? Hath not the High Sheriff of Northumberland carried Esq Riddel and Esq Claverine, and divers other Papists who were Prisoners for the Popish Plot, to Edenburgh, to Kiss the Dukes hand, and this both in defiance of all Law, and a­gainst his Trust? But it would require a Vo­lume to recount all I know of this nature; and therefore shall only add, That they must be prepared to worship the Host, and wear Chains, who either promote or subscribe the Addresses which are now carrying on.