The Addresses Importing an ABHORRENCE OF An Association, Pretended to have been seized in the E. of Shaftsbury's Closet, Laid open and Detected.  
In a Letter to a Friend.  
SIR,  
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 assuage 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 Majesty's Liege People, and the casting those back again into a Fever, 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 myself 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 justify 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 Candour 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 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 styled 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 Lord's Apprehension and Commitment, seeing the Bag into which it was put, when said to be seized in his Lordship's 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 proceed 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, etc. 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 Shame 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 Shame conspiracies; but no man can produce so much as a Name subscribed to any Paper, whereby to persuade 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 busy 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 justify, 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 mercenary villains 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 publicly reprimanded. For supposing that some one Paper bearing the Name of an Association, was unduly framed and worded; is this a justifiable ground to ridicule and Abhor every Association, tho' never so well adapted for the preservation of His Majesty's 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 fight against Charles Steward at Worcester, (as the words inserted in their Town-Book bear) to be hugged and embraced for advancing Addresses of one complexion, while in the mean time many Loyal Gentlemen who shed their Blood, lost their Estates and underwent Imprisonment and Exile for the King are frowned upon for offering to appear in applications of another figure. Men of Principles act always uniformly; whereas such as are swayed by interest, are ready to engage with the same heat in every thing that lies in subserviency to their gain. Some people think it not enough to atone 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 hearty 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 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 ruin.  
However I am sure the Government hath no cause of apprehending danger either from Fanatic Preachers or people, seeing some of the most famed amongst them, after having been a hundred times deceived and imposed upon, are still ready to be bribed by a dinner or a smile, or wheedled by a fair word to cooperate with their enemies, and become instrumental of their own destruction. And therefore it is to be desired, that some of the dissenting ecclesiastics would be contented with Grace, which is the Talon 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 Reflections and Observations which we judge 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 men's 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 employed in framing the draughts which are remitted into the Country, 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 Counsels: I say, this very Gentleman had different thoughts concerning Addresses some years ago when they came in shoals 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 Cromwell was too wise to think them other. For being gained by contrivement and force, or at least by importunity; half a score pitiful wretches styled 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 Judgement 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 spoke another kind of Language towards the end of Queen Elizabeth's 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 ourselves 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 Sceptre 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 Protestant's, 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 uneasy 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 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-framed 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 ourselves 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 merely 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 Gazettes, 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 ourselves say of these proceed; for tho' all men acquit his Majesty from any intentions but what are gracious as well as just; yet they cannot but judge that some ill men are by these Addresses endeavouring to number the People, and to enrol 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 passed; so it is apparent, that whosoever countenanceth the abhorrence of all Associations, does what in him lies 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 ridiculed and abhorred, that lies in subserviency thereunto; so they have taken care for their own safety after the perpetration of such a Villainy, by obtaining all places Civil and Military to be filled with such in whom they may entirely confide; and as it is not long since the King of Portugal was laid aside and confined to the Tarceras; so it is remarkable, That it was effected without a Blow, and by this more than any thing else, That there was none in public employ, but who were Zealots for his Brother that supplanted him, and stepped 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 Majesty's 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 Edinburgh, to Kiss the Duke's 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.  
I am Sir, entirely yours.   

LONDON, Printed for R. Baldwyn, 1682.