Ferguson's Remonstrance TO THE Council of SIX, Upon the First DISCOVERY Of the late Horrid Conspiracy.  
A satire.  
Had Cain been Scot, God would have changed his Doom,  
Not forced him Wander, but consigned him home.  Cleauland. 
LONDON, Printed for Charles Corbet at the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane, 1684.   

To his ever Honoured Friend WILLIAM BRIGGS, Esq  
SIR,  
I Beg leave to present you with this short unpolished satire, not only for the Advantage of your benign Patronage, but to gain an opportunity of acknowledging the many Favours you have been pleased to heap upon me; and partly too as a kind of Bribe to beget your good Opinion of it, knowing that what you but barely say you like, is sufficient Reason to make the rest of Mankind admire, believing it has passed the Test of your never failing Judgement. This I can assure you of it, 'twas writ with a Loyal Heart, caused by an utter Abhorrence and Detestation of the Villainous Practices (brought to light by the discovery of the late Horrid Conspiracy) of the ungovernable Faction, who have lately and long Hectored it in this our Nation, and lived (and I fear still do) in opposition to the Commands of the best Monarch and best Government in the Universe. And now according to the method of our modern Scribblers, I should give you a kind of an Essay upon satire, and Rail at the most considerable part of Mankind; but I hope you will Excuse me, wanting Learning for the one, and the Discontents of Old Age for the other, scraps of Greek and the Fag end of an Old Latin Author will be wanting too; nor will I give you one word of French to show my Breeding, no nor so much as find any fault with the Poetasters of the time, to show my Judgement; (though the World has been sufficiently of late Bantered by things of this Nature,) and all that I can say for this, is, that 'tis new and all my own, and if you are pleased to Judge favourably of it (and no Loyal Man offended) I have both my Wish and my Design,  
Who am Your most Faithful Obedient Servant, W. R.   

Ferguson's Remonstrance TO THE Council of SIX, Upon the First DISCOVERY Of the late Horrid Conspiracy.  
A satire.  
Ferguson speaking to the Council of SIX.  

I.  
ROUSE up, Great Men! what makes ye Droop?  
Tho our Designs be Crossed,  
Why will ye thus despair? we are not wholly lost:  
Nor must we stoop  
To any thing our Angry Fates can do,  
'Tis great to think like you!  
And can such men submit to slavish fear?  
Who dare Resolve to do, what others dare not hear.   

II.  
Ten thousand Curses on that Timorous Sot,  
That Bankrupt Idiot!  
Who had not Sonl enough, to Act his part o'th' Plot;  
Had he not been of all that's good Bereft,  
Had he but had one thought of Glory left:  
His Coward heart, could ne'er have stooped so low,  
As basely to Betray! and swear for Bread,  
Who might have ruled i'th' head  
Of thousands fight against our common Foe,  
Base Treacherous Foolish 〈◊〉  
Millions of furies seize thy Guilty Soul.   

III.  
So Godlike Catiline was too undone,  
Who durst design (almost alone,  
He was so wondrous brave)  
T'ave given all the Rulers of the World, at once one Grave:  
Had I been Curius, when I had had my will,  
And ta'en of Lust my fill;  
Fulvia should have owned, she'ad lied,  
And all she had said, upon her Knees denied,  
And at that Instant by my Peinard died:  
So should our Villain too have fared,  
Had my advice been heard,  
And of his Blood, like noble Catiline,  
I would have made our Sacramental Wine.   

IV.  
Mischief begun must be pursued,  
In Ills no middle state can be,  
Th' Extreme is only good,  
Stop at no Cruelty;  
But still drive on through Rapine, Fire and Blood,  
Fathers and friends, all that Oppose must die,  
Not Sex, not Age, must pity find  
To what they say, and feel be deaf and blind;  
Let Ruin overwhelm 'em like a Sea,  
And to the height, practice all Villainy,  
For th' end must be a Crown or everlasting Infanty.   

V.  
Had we obeyed our Noble Peer,  
We had not now been here:  
Consulting what to do,  
And when, and how, to give the Mighty Blow,  
Our Foes had all been Dead,  
And we Triumphing too:  
And he our Matchless Patriot, Marching at our Head;  
Success had Crowned our cause,  
And made the Action good;  
While we had with our Swords, prescribed new Laws,  
And writ them too in Characters of Blood.   

VI  
What is 't I have not done?  
To carry on  
Our Pious Cheat, our holy Cause?  
Have I not laboured how to set ye free,  
And proved our very Laws,  
Plain Tyranny!  
And by my Preaching too, I'ave showed ye all;  
Who 'tis ye must obey.  
No King but Jesus, must our Empire sway;  
And under him each Saints a General,  
All do Usurp whom Heaven does not call,  
And we the Saints are only free, the rest are Aliens all.   

VII.  
Thus, thus you know, I have often talked aloud,  
To Gull th' unthinking, and unlettered Crowd:  
For them we must deceive,  
And make them all our holy Trumpery believe;  
They are the Tools we work with still, and we  
To make 'em last,  
And bind 'em fast  
Tell 'em fine stories of Eternity.  
Tell 'em, our Governors are Arbitrary,  
And their Religion  
Is all Idolatry;  
And Superstition:  
Then cry down Hierarchy,  
And prove by Gospel Text each Bishop is a Pope,  
When all we do design or hope,  
Is how to get again into our hands,  
The Government, the Nobles, Crown, and Bishops Lands.   

VIII.  
How bravely till of late, has our great Cause went on,  
How near our Foes have been to be undone:  
That was a happy time when we could do  
And safely too,  
What 'ere our Spleen, or Inst'rest lead us to;  
Treason commit to make us Popular,  
By Villainy grow Famous;  
And against Common sense, and all the Laws make War.  
Visit the Tower for our Ease,  
And when we please▪  
Be freed again by Jury-Ignoramns,  
Then spite of all, Glory in what we do,  
While all the Town, with Bells and Bonfires, add to th' Triumph too.   

IX.  
The mighty Theme was Liberty,  
And that stale Bugbear Property:  
Our Libels like a furious stream  
O'er run the Town,  
Sedition might be heard in every Place  
And seen in every face:  
Nor would we spare things Sacred, Church, or Crown,  
And all (as we did still Allege)  
Was by our Liberty and Privilege;  
Privilege! that mighty Atlas of our Cause,  
That knew no bounds, nor would submit to any Laws.  
By the Privilege of our Infallible House,  
We could make any thing a Man, or Man, a Mouse:  
Profligate Villains, Men of Fashion  
With any thing Dispense,  
Make Idiots too speak sense,  
And teach 'em how to save a sinking Nation.   

X.  
Oh happy time! Oh blessed security!  
What is't we might not then have done?  
Then, than we shook the Crown,  
And might have thrown  
That Ancient well built Fabric down;  
So Universal was the Nation's Lethargy,  
A Popish Plot was the Falatious Shame▪  
That Plot in Name!  
That was the cunning Charm  
Against which we all did Arm;  
That was the word!  
That, that alone,  
Which whetted up the Old True-Prot'stant Sword  
Of Forty One;  
By which the second Charles must fall,  
And we the Actors In'cent be  
For whomsoever we Papists pleased to call,  
Must bear the Villainy:  
While we, to Scour the Nation,  
And make a thorough Reformation;  
Leave not a Loyal Man alive,  
But so Revenge that fatal Stroke upon 'em all.   

XI.  
What ever we were pleased to say, or do,  
No man durst be so bold as disbelieve,  
Or think we could deceive:  
'Twas true as Gospel, or we'd have it so,  
And who but doubted or at least so said,  
We strait delivered over to be buffeted;  
Then Satan like seeking whom to Devour,  
Our Topping Sergeant walked the Nation o'er:  
Thus we, when e'er we pleased,  
The Loyal Subject teaz'd:  
Especially those who came too nigh,  
And would too far into our Actions pry:  
They must Submit,  
(While you like Petty Gods did sit)  
And own their No-faults on their Knees,  
And so their fellow slaves adore,  
And glad they were  
T' Implore.  
(For to be clear)  
To pay their Arbitrary fees,  
Tho Indian like, they did it out of fear:  
This was a Glorious Act, I still admire,  
The Devil himself when on the Temple spire  
To be Obeyed and Worshipped only did Desire.   

XII.  
Hypocrisy had ne'er so fair a face as then,  
Mischief and you were truly Great,  
And would you now Retreat?  
You that were so Admired as mighty Men;  
You that so boldly durst withstand▪  
A Monarches great Command,  
And tell him (almost to his Face)  
You ' keep him very Poor,  
And never give him penny more:  
Without he ' Disinherit all his Race,  
After all this d'ye start! no more,  
Ye shall not, must not, cannot now give o'er,  
Would ye lie Lirking in some Loathsome Cell?  
And be content,  
T' endure perpetual Banishment,  
Or more Contemned Imprisonment:  
For want of Resolution to car'on,  
What you so bravely have begun?  
Sureed must be Terrible  
To think how very much you'll be undone,  
Besides your Coward souls must Doubly merit Hell.   

XIII.  
The Treason's still the same,  
If you were in the right when you begun,  
Sure you must be to blame:  
If to the utmost now, you do not push it on,  
For to Refuse must be  
To own the Villainy,  
And ruin both your selves and your Posterity.  
Think what great things you've brought about,  
How you have made th' unthinking Rabble Rout  
Burn in mock Effigy  
The best of Loyal Men,  
And round the Mimic Pageant bawled aloud,  
No Y— no Y— no Papist neither,  
Burn, Burn them all together,  
While every Mouth Echoed it round the Crowd.   

XIV.  
Think, think again, how you to serve your ends,  
And private hate,  
Have voted from the State:  
The Nation's Bulwark and most able Friends,  
And when you found that would not do  
(I must be plain with you,)  
Such Perjured villains you had got,  
That Swore them all into a Popish Plot.  
They Swore that they designed to be  
The Bringers in of Popery;  
And that they did Incuorage too,  
Those who designed to Assassinate Majesty.  
And those that did (such was your Skill  
Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey kill;  
Then ye were Valiant too,  
And any thing would do:  
To make yourselves and your designs seem Famous,  
One Traitors Oath against a Foe  
Would make ye find a Bill,  
But against a Friend Ten should not do;  
All sorts of Treason there, must still be Ignoramus.   

XV.  
Nay more than this ye durst; ye voted down  
All that secured the Crown:  
And did design of Power to deprive  
Each branch of its Prerogative:  
Upon the King's Revenue ye did Vote,  
No Man should land a Groat,  
And from a Popish Knife to keep his Throat;  
His Guards by you  
Indicted were,  
As grievous to the Subject too,  
Thus the Old Cause ye did Pursue:  
And bravely like yourselves appear:  
Then, than ye could Resolve great things to do,  
And vowed our Common Foe should fall by none but you;  
And for to Crown this work, though't proved in Vain.  
You my L— D— were voted great Again.   

XVI.  
The Church and Bishops too, must suffer all,  
Beneath your Rage did fall:  
The Thirty fifth of that famed Heroine,  
Elizabeth great Britain's Queen;  
I thank ye all by my Persuasion,  
Ye voted Prejudicial  
To the Nation;  
A Persecuting Law, and too severe,  
More than a well tuned Conscienee e'er could bear:  
While Popery was the formal stale.  
To keep that Serpent out, it was no sin  
To break the Churches Pale;  
Although you let at the same time, ten thousand Monsters In.   

XVII.  
But that which pleased me most,  
After our other great designs were Crossed,  
Was that Goliath of our Plot! th' Association!  
Which would alone,  
Have all our Enemies o'erthrown;  
And made us Rulers all, of our so Ruined Nation.  
For ever live that great Man ' s Fame,  
The Godlike Shaftsbury,  
That Phineas of our Cause!  
Whose very name  
Sufficient was, to give what e'er we did applause;  
Who in the Gap so firmly stood,  
He stemmed the growing Flood:  
Of thin Jawed Honour, and lean Loyalty,  
And had the Devil played us fair,  
So Universal was the thing,  
So cunning was the Snare,  
He ' add stabbed at once the very Laws, as well as Church and K—   

XVIII.  
After all this can ye such Cowards be?  
As once to shrink at any Villainy?  
You that in Ills have still so Practised been,  
What would to others be a Crime to do,  
Must be in you:  
If you Refuse (such is your case) a deadly sin  
Now, Now's the time, be not deceived,  
For 'tis Impossible  
Our Horrid Treason's too Conceal,  
For at that time our Villain is believed,  
We're all undone:  
Therefore Resolve to push; this Instant, now!  
The Mighty Busness on.   

XIX.  
Thus spoke the Damned Impostor; when,  
A Sudden hasty Noise of Men:  
Surprised their Listening Ears,  
And struck them all into a Panic Fear;  
Keelling was all Believed, he had cleared each doubt,  
Officers were abroad, and Warrants Issued out;  
Then like Belshazar, trembling and afraid,  
They stammered, stared and Gaped, and knew not what they said:  
So all dispersed Murmuring against the State,  
And as they went Cursed their unhappy Fate.   
FINIS.