A Letter To A MEMBER Of The CONVENTION of STATES In SCOTLAND  
By a Lover of His Religion and Country.  
Printed in the Year MDCLXXXIX.   

A LETTER to a Member of the Convention of States In SCOTLAND  
SIR,  
I Had fully Determined not to increase the number of these Scribblers, who now a days fill the Press, with every little Product of their Empty Brain: And loved better to please myself with Reading other men's Opinions; than hazard my own to the Censure of the World. But when I consider the great Heats and Animosities, among all sorts of People, and the Vast Pains that some Violent Men are at, to throw us back into a Thousand worse miseries, than these from which GOD has most Graciously delivered us: The Duty I owe to my Religion, to my Country, and the particular Friendship I bear to you, will not suffer me any more to be silent.  
You are now called together, Sir, by his Highness the Prince of Orange, to Consult and Deliberate, what Methods will be most proper to secure Our Religion, Laws and Liberties; in order to which, the first thing that will fall under your consideration, is the settling the Sovereign power.  
I take for granted, that you are fully convinced, that K: james the 7th: by his many Violations of the Fundamental Laws, by his endeavouring to establish a Despotic and Arbitrary power, and introduce Popery, (though he himself had confirmed all the Laws that were enacted in Favours of the Protestant Religion,) has thereby subverted the Constitution, and that our Miseries might have no Redress from him, has left us in a time when we needed his Protection most. The Eyes of all Europe are upon you, and it is in your Power to make your Selves and your Posterity either Happy or Miserable; by making a choice either to call back the same King james, and hazard once more all that Men account Dear, To his Mercy, or to settle the Government on some other, under whom you may live Quiet and Peaceable Lives, without the perpetual Terror of being swallowed up by Popery and Arbitrary Government, which all good men hoped were now quite banished, and yet behold a new Off spring is sprung up, which plead Eagerly for both, tho' under the mistaken Names of Duty and Allegiance; It's strange that any Man can so far Degenerate, as to prefer Slavery to Liberty, and that they should be so much in Love with Chains, that when they were Fairly shaken off, they should run Furiously to be Fettered again; as if the Ottoman and French Government were so charming in our Country that we cannot not live without it, tho' we have so lately groaned under the Dismal Burden of it: And it might have been supposed that even these who had been Instrumental in Enslaving their Fellow-brethrens, and were grown Fat with sucking in the Nation's Blood; would have taken another Method to Reconcile themselves, than by persuading us to purchase their Safety, at so vast an expense as the Ruin of more than three parts of the Nation will necessarily Amount to.  
Do but a little Reflect Sir, on the Motives which these Men (blinded by self Interest) make use of, to Delude the Nation into a security, that wanted very little of proving Fatal to it, and compare them with the Strong Reasons, we have to dissuade us from being so imposed on, and they will be found so Weak, and Impertinent, that you must Judge it next to Impossibility, to suffer ourselves to be Twice Deceived. But if the Experience of our former Miseries, so lately hanging over our Heads, (the very thoughts of renewing which make all good Men to tremble) has not made us Wiser, and be not of Efficacy enough, to deter us from venturing another Shipwreck, and exposing all again to the Discretion of a Roman Catholic; It's more than probable that GOD has abandoned us, and given us up to believe strong Delusions.  
First, Sir, they will endeavour to persuade You, that Kings are Eximed from Punishments here on Earth, and nothing they do can be Quarrelled by their Subjects; which indeed might with some Reason be urged among the Turks, who reserve nothing from the Power of their Sultan's and where its Death to Dispute his Commands, tho' never so Arbitrary and Tyrranical: But with what Impudence can such Stuff be imposed on us, who never admit our Kings to the Government, till they swear to Rule us according to Law and no otherways? The Laws are the only Security we have for our Lives and Properties, which if our Sovereign subvert, Subjects cannot be blamed, for making use of the Ordinary Means to preserve them, and since that cannot be done without withdrawing Obedience from such a Magistrate as goes about to destroy them, such an Act cannot properly be said to punish him, (because we take nothing from him to which he has a just Claim) but do only shun the occasion of making ourselves Miserable. The Speculative Doctrine of passive Obedience, has done too much Mischief among us, and what has befallen the King may be justly imputed to it, for the believing that without Opposition he might do what he pleased, encouraged him to take such Measures as have drawn all these Misfortunes on him.  
Secondly, Others are so Fond as to believe, that we may be secure in calling the King back, providing they so Limit him, that it will not be in his Power to hurt us: These Men do not Consider, how small a Compliment this is to a Man of the King's Temper, from an Absolute Prince as he was pleased to Fancy himself, to Content himself with the bare Title of a King, and how insupportable the Change must be, if from being Master of all, he must force himself to comply with a Thousand Masters and see his Throne become his prison. But how Airy is it to fancy, that any Restrictions of our Contrivance can bind the King. For 1st. It's most certain they can never be Voluntary, and what is constrained and done by Force, is by Law declared to be Void and Null; to whose Assistance the pope's Dispensing Power being joined, would quickly blow off these Samson-Cords, and the Royal Power would again revive with all its Vigour and Lustre.  
Secondly, The King is of a Religion that has in a Famous Council decreed, that no Faith is to be kept with Heretics, much less with Subjects whom he looks upon as so many Rebels, and will not miss to treat them as such, when ever they give him the Opportunity of doing it, for his greatest Admirers do not run to that height of Idolatry, to imagine him so much Angel, as not to take all Methods to Revenge so great an Affront, and secure himself at our Cost from such a Treatment for the future, the Apprehension of which Resentment, will strike such Terror in men's minds, that nothing will be capable to divert them, from offering up all for an Atonement, and popery and Slavery will be thought a good Bargain, if they can but save their Lives: Then We may Lament Our Miseries, But it will not be in our power to help them, for a Prince of Orange is not always ready to rescue us, with such vast expense and so great hazard to his person, and if our madness hurry us so far, we deserve rather his pity than his resentment.  
Thirdly, What Argument has the King given since he left us, to persuade us he will be more faithful in observing his Words and Oaths, than hitherto he has been? Does he not in a Letter lately Printed here, expressly say he has ruled so, as to give no occasion of Complaint to any of his Subjects? Is not the same Letter signed by one, who Sacrificed both Conscience and Honour to Interest, whose Pernicious and Headstrong Councils has Posted him to his ruin, though all that has been done cannot make Him sensible of it? Sure the reducing Heretics to the See of Rome, is not less Meretorious than before, nor King james the 7 th'. by breathing the French Air a little become less Bigot, It were a Dream to fancy it; For so long as the Vatican Thunders Excommunications, against all such as do not use their outmost Endeavour to Extirpate Heresy; a Roman Catholic must have no Religion at all if they be not Terrible to him.  
The Third Argument they make use of to persuade such as are, and shall be chosen Members of the Convention, that it's their Interest to call back the King, Is that the Peace and Happiness of the Nation, cannot be otherways secured, nor Factions or Divisions extinguished; But what Factions Sir do you Observe, but such as they themselves do Foment on Purpose, to disturb our Harmony? All which would Immediately die, If the Government were once settled on these who deserved it best, for than if these fops continued still fond of Popery and Tyranny, they would be Chastised, as Disturbers of the Public Peace. The Argument may very justly be retorted, for if the King return we will burst out into a Flame, and England which has already declared, will quickly be on our Top, an Enemy too Potent and too Numerous for us, though we were all united, besides the Danger to which such a Procedure will expose us, we cut off all Hopes of an Union with that Nation, and thereby Deprive ourselves of an unspeakable Advantage, which would redound to all sorts of People, and would be the only means to support an Impoverished and sinking Nation. Neither is this the only Inconveniency, though it be a very Great one, for if we state ourselves in Opposition to England, by Restoring the King whom they Rejected, it is not to be doubted but he will use his outmost endeavour to Recover that Kingdom the loss of which is so considerable. Now seeing it were vain to suppose that the Scots alone were able to second his Desires, he must needs have recourse to the French and Irish, whose Religion will procure a more entire Confidence, than his Majesty can repose in any Others. These therefore must be received into our Bosom, and because Scotland is the most proper place, for Invading England, it must be the Scene of all the Blood and Confusion that this Melancholy thought gives us a Prospect of.  
The happy Success the PRINCE his Enterprise has met with, has made a considerable Alteration in the Affairs of Europe, for that great Enemy of the protestants and even of Christianity itself, who had proposed nothing less to himself than an Universal Monarchy, whom the Strictest Leagues and Contracts cannot bind, but without regard to GOD or Man, threatens all his Neighbours with utter Desolation; By the Scens being changed among us, is so far humbled that from a Proud and Insulting Enemy, he is become a Supplicant for Peace, well foreseeing that if Britain Join with those other Princes, whom his Insolence, Cruelty, and Avarice, has so justly Armed against him, his Ruin is Inevitable; So that if we have not Soul enough to enjoy this great Blessing, and can easily part with the Glory of being once more the Arbiters of Europe, let us at least have so much Christian Love and Charity, for the Neighbouring Nations of our own Persuasion, as not to expose them to a necessary Participation of these Plagues, which our Common Enemies are prepraing for us, and which will certainly Terminat in all our Destructions.  
Lastly, Sir, I beseech you to consider what Persons they are who would Instill this Poison in You, and you will find them of three kinds, First those who Postponeing the Common Good of the Nation, are wholly Acted by Self Interest, considering that in a Government where justice and Mercy equally Flourish, virtue and merit, not Villainy will be rewarded. 2dly. They who are Ignorant of the Nature of Government, and were never at the pains to Inform themselves what measures the Law of Nature, and Nations, have set to men's Obedience, but are Angry at every thing that thwarts their wild Notions, and will admit of nothing though never so reasonable and convincing, if their dull Capacities cannot reach it. The 3 d. Sort are such as have been Instrumental in Enslaving their Country, and are afraid if they be called to an Account, they may be brought to suffer Condign Punishment, if such cannot Succeed in their Design they at least hope to be overlookt in a General Confusion, so they leave nothing unessayed that may tend to their own safety; and if Heaven fail them, they Summoned Hell to their Aid, not that Love to their Prince but mere Ambition and Interest, drives these Criminals to such Attempts, neither are they much to blame, if they are at such pains to sow Divisions among us: But no Person of your Wit and judgement nor any Good Man that is truly Protestant and Minds the good of his Country, Will suffer himself to be so grossly Imposed on by such Firebrands, who would Build their Future Imaginary Greatness, on the Ruin of Our Religion, Laws and Country.  
Sir, Your Humble Servant.