SHORT REFLECTIONS UPON THE Present State of Affairs IN ENGLAND: More especially with Relation to the Taxes & Contributions Now necessary for Carrying on the Present WAR.  Ornari res ipsa negat, contenta doceri. 
LONDON, Printed for Jonathan Robinson, at the Golden Lion, in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1691.   

Short Reflections upon the present State of Affairs in England; more especially with relation to the Taxes and Contributions now necessary for carrying on the present War.  
AS Man was created Animal Sociale, capable and desirous of Society, so the constant experience of all Ages from his Creation to this day, abundantly demonstrates not only how incapable he would be of reaping the true benefits of that Society, but likewise how exposed to the worst of Inconveniences, without due Order and Government in that State. It is Government that ties the bands of Fellowship, makes the knot fast and durable; and thereby puts us into a way of Improving the good effects thereof to the best advantage, the Happiness of Mankind being altogether inconsistent with Anarchy and Insecurity. Government therefore being a thing of that absolute necessity, as all Nations have for their own convenience submitted their Necks to the Yoke, some after one manner, and some after another, and herein seem to be guided by a common and natural instinct and consent; so is there no less a general Agreement and Harmony visible amongst them, when every particular People have been very careful, tender and provident for the due and just maintenance, support and defence of that Government, under whose auspicious and benign aspects they hoped for temporal felicity, as conceiving this inseparably bound up in that, and united thereunto. And though Ambition be a very head-strong affection, and the love of Honour and pre-eminence have oft turmoiled and ruffled the Safety, Peace and Quiet, which tractable Subjects enjoy under the mildred and gentle influence of just and prudent Rulers and Governours; yet whoever has had the fortune to prove conqueror in these Quarrels, he has been likewise for Establishing the Government upon such Foundations, as whereby it might stand the firmest, and lye the least open to those inconveniences and troubles, which might otherwise distracted and incommode their People. For which purpose, as wise and just Laws have been provided for the Security of People in their Rights and Properties at Home, to protect them from the violence and encroachments of their Neighbours and Hypocritical Friends; so standing Forces and Military Preparations likewise, to defend them against Foreign Assaults, and cover them from the unjust pretensions of Professed Enemies. In the right management of which two particulars, consists the prudence and goodness of all Princes. Now because the most politic of Men cannot do this of himself, he being but a Man by nature, like the meanest of his Subjects; it hence follows, that his People must contribute to their own safety under him, no Prince being able to discharge his Office( in the just now mentioned particulars,) unless assisted and put into a capacity of doing so by them that expect Justice and Protection from him. For as his own hand is too weak and short to administer Justice to all his People; so much more is it so, should he be so vain as think to defend them from external Assaults and Violence. So that it hence follows likewise, the Assistance the Prince must have from his People, is of two sorts; either that of their Persons and Bodies, or that of their Purses and Fortunes. The former seems equitable enough; for why should we desire Protection, Safety and Quiet, if we will not move our Hands to shield off the Blows, that are aimed for our Ruin? But the latter is absolutely necessary; for as all are not able to help themselves, and assist Personally in their own Protection, whom yet the Prince is bound ex Officio, to defend and take care of; so nothing can be more reasonable, than that such as lend their Prince no Assistance that way, should yet assist in enabling him to provide such other helps and succours for them, as to his wisdom and judgement seems fit and necessary. David would have those that kept the Stuff, to be equal sharers in the dividend of the Spoils, with those that hazarded their Lives in the Battle; the reverse of which piece of Justice is this, that they who expose their Lives for the good of those that sit still, and expose them not, should not do this for nothing, but share with them in the mean while, in all those necessaries and comforts of Life, which they all by common consent desire to defend and enjoy: That thus the Prince may be enabled to secure, shelter and succour us by other hand, if he cannot, or we will not do it by our own.  
Hence, and upon these considerations, have risen the large Revenues of Kings and Princes; hence Customs, Tributes, Taxes, and other Contributions, according to the various exigencies of State; viz. for the support of their Authority at Home, and the interest and security of their Subjects abroad. A Crown is no very easy wear even for the strongest Head; the cares that attend it had need be alleviated( for I cannot say balanced) in some measure with the Honour and Plenty that is entailed upon it; which indeed( if we consider the thing well,) is but a poor, trifling, and pageant recompense. Experience has taught the World this truth even to a demonstration, that a Prince, who appears not like himself, shall be counted by others much less than what he is; whilst such as live Great and majestic, strike Reverence, terror and Awe, wherever they look; as the Grandeur of a Splendid Court at Home contributes no little to the Establishment of Obedience in Subjects, as well as Renown and Glory among Strangers; so a puissant and well appointed Army contributes no less to make both the Prince and his People formidable to all such, as perhaps would otherwise be watching Opportunities, and forming projects to molest and injure them. All are afraid of a sharp Sword, especially when they see it drawn in the Hand of one that knows how to use it.  
He that reads the ancient Histories of this Kingdom, will soon find how considerable a figure the Kings of England have made in this quarter of the World. To speak in Scripture Phrase( Ezra 4. 20.) There have been mighty Kings over us, who have ruled in several Countries beyond the River, and Toll and Tribute and Custom was paid unto them. Mighty and fierce Kings, who carried their Arms beyond Seas, and managed their Warlike Enterprises with Honour to themselves, and Advantage to their People; conquering and triumphing where and when they pleased. Nay they themselves sought out work for their Swords, and cut their way through the greatest opposition to foreign Trophies. Our Alliance was then courted by all our Neighbours; and happy were they, whom we vouchsafed to smile upon. But those days are long since past; and for those several Reigns it had been happy for us if we could have been quiet at home, and composed our intestine Differences: Our Princes of late having come so far short of the Glory of their famous Ancestors as if they had not sprung from their race. Though now and then even in the midst of our Confusions and National Quarrels the marshal Spirit has roused itself and appeared, and given some little Essays of what the English might do again, had they a Commander answerable to their Courage, and worthy to engage them in those heroic attempts, by which they formerly won so many laurels. But yet perhaps it may seem to our Neighbours no little piece of our Happiness, that we of late have lived so quiet, had so gracious an interval from those public Troubles that have exercised both their Valour and Patience. Our late Civil War indeed, let out a great deal of that Proud Blood, that might have since made us quarrelsome and Contentious with our Neighbours; though in the mean while we eternised our Infamy in the most unlucky contentions. It was without all doubt and dispute the Designs and Treachery of the Popish Party here, and their Correspondents and Abetters abroad, that drew that War upon us, and involved the Nation in Broils and Blood. Since that was ended, we have had little Fighting Work( till this last Year) but what we were put upon by such as were more our Enemies than they we fought withal. Nay we have had but too many and too visible demonstrations, that the Papists, whose interest in this Nation was intended to be weakened and crushed by the Civil War,( things having gone otherwise, than they who laid the Scene foresaw,) have in reality and truth gained considerable ground upon us thereby; as if the Story of Antaeus had been really true; however they have let us see the Moral of it verified to our Cost and Sorrow. For when we thought ourselves completely happy, even to envy, by the Restauration of the Royal Family, with our former Laws and Government, we were insensibly falling into the most dangerous unhappiness imaginable. For indeed so powerful was the Popish Party at Court; so fly, subtle and treacherous to take us at all advantages, that our Peace and outward Quiet gave them but the fairer opportunities and hopes of ensnaring us into greater difficulties, and more inextricable vexations. To them we may justly and without any breach of Charity, attribute our manifold Divisions, and mutual Jealousies. A Whisperer separateth chief Friends, as the Wise man remarks; and the worst of Whisperers and Makebates have those Men been amongst the Protestants; who had never been thus irreconcilably at variance about things of so slender Moment and Consideration, had there not great Art and Policy been used to instil the Principles of Division into all Parties, and fix them into their very Natures. But we know who use Divide & impera for a Motto.  
It is not my design to ripp up the several advances the Popish Interest made under Charles the Second; nor to unravel all the villainies of that Faction under the auspicious( but unsuccesful) Influences of the Popish Successor. It is enough for my purpose to observe, that those People were in the greatest hopes imaginable of gaining every point they desired, and thus by degrees reducing the whole Nation to a greater Slavery, than ever the Spaniards in Eighty eight dreamed of, though those have the repute of the severest Masters in the World at least had so, before Lewis XIV. became the Boutefu of Europe. By right and wrong, by fair means and foul, by Flatteries and Menaces, by every method that the Devil or his eldest( I should say his most docible) Scholars the Jesuits, could invent to work upon Men's Affections, they endeavoured to decoy us to our ruin; to decoy us( I say) and make us further our own ruin and destruction, because their strength was not to be relied on to deal with us, as the catholic French served the Protestants. How terribly the Foundations of our Government were shaken at home, and with what vigour those unjust Assaults upon our All have been seconded from abroad, since their Mines miscarried, and blew up without effecting what they intended for, we all are sensible enough: And how seasonable our deliverance was from those great and threatening dangers, that then almost dispirited us, all that have any sense of so precious a Mercy,( the more precious for not being consigned to us in blood) must needs to the glory of God, and his praise, whom God vouchafed to use as the Instrument therein, be perpetually acknowledged. I know some disaffected Spirits envy and malign his Majestie's Honour, and set themselves to depreciate all he has( under God) done for us, and will hardly allow the late Revolution the name of a Deliverance; of such I would only demand a solution of this short Question, Whether we are not now in a state and condition much preferable to that, wherein the late King left us at his Abdication? And whether the Nation be not in a fairer way for regaining it's former happiness and glory, than it ever was under the late King, considering the strange projects that were then on foot, and the illegal and arbitrary Methods, that were taken to effect them? I am sure no man can answer in the negative, unless he be conscious to himself, that he is one of those, that hinder the settlement of the Nation, and would rejoice to see us enslaved to the most barbarous of Patrouns. It is true the Nation is not yet fully settled; there are a company of disingenuous and dissatisfied Spirits amongst us, whose business it is to hinder every thing from moving as it ought to do, that moves not upon their own hinge: Men that would never be persuaded of the fatal consequences of an Irruption of Popery; nor will yet be convinced by the strongest logic, but that it is unlawful to submit to any Government, because it was the Royal Will and Pleasure of the late King to abdicate his Office, and leave us to Anarchy and Confusion. And if the Nation, be not settled, and the Government fixed as it ought to be, the blame justly falls to those People's shares. Indeed were they only those of the Romish Profession, we should the less wonder at their Folly; but experience teaches us, that a great many who are not of the Romish Profession, are yet of that Persuasion. But the greatest wonder of all seems to be this, that a great many of those very persons, who professed so great an Abhorrence of King James's Measures, were always full of fears, complaints, and dismal prospects, made it their business to insinuate an Odium of his Arbitrary Practices into all People they came near, should now be so great Admirers of him, and so averse to submit to a Prince of their own Religion, whose study it is, and indefatigable endeavour, to reduce every thing to it's just order, that was distempered in the last Reign, and who has already made considerable progress in this great Affair, and might have made a much greater by this time, had some People been as Loyal, as they should be; nay had they stood to their distinguishing Character of Passive Obedience. But it is the greatest Injustice in the World to accuse our Prince for not making us as happy as we would be, when we ourselves obstruct the Methods of our own growing Felicity. It must be confessed our Deliverance is not yet so perfected, but that there remains just cause for doubts and fears: But I have oft heard it urged by Divines as good and sound doctrine, That men must contribute to their own welfare, or else they in vain expect the Blessing of God. Were the whole Nation as unanimous and loyal, as it should be; nay were all that call themselves Protestants, so( for it is impossible to bring in the Pseudo-Catholicks) we should soon be rid of whatever now seems our greatest grievance. For what fears need England at Unity with itself be subject to? And as for those large Taxes and pecuniary Contributions, that at present lye so heavy on us, they would soon be at an end, when the cause ceases, that requires them. We are unhappily plunged into a War; but this, as a less evil, was to be chosen before the other mischiess our Enemies designed us. Upon the good success of this War depends our prosperity for many years; if we miscarry and France prevail, we are in a fair prospect of being undone; for I question not but the whole Nation would be put under Military Execution; he that was so cruel and barbarous to catholics, cannot spare heretics. But now how should we hope for good success in our foreign Attempts, unless we be ready and willing to assist his Majesty in our own defence?  
The main and principal design of those Papers( though several other things are glanced and touched at) is to reconcile the Nation to those expenses, that now seem so necessary for the management of the War. People would be happy in a free Trade, in security of their Religion, in an easy and gentle Government; but yet when they see an Enemy ready to rob us of all those, nay of all that is near and dear to us, some of us are not ashamed to grudge his Majesty a little money to protect and defend us withal: As if the ordinary Revenues of the Crown were sufficient for so extraordinary an occasion. His Majesty is none of those, that call for unnecessary Supplies: We all see how vast a charge he has been at upon our accounts; the Work has prospered pretty well under his hands hitherto, and we may therefore conceive good hopes, that the rest, which yet remains and is behind, will by his prudent and industrious management do so too: But yet as there is a great deal to be done before all the malicious Projects of our Enemies be overthrown, and our Security be established upon a durable foundation; so it seems unreasonable to think of carrying on so great a Work without great disbursements. He that wishes a Tower, should first compute the Cost and Charge of building it: And to what purpose should we wish for Peace, Security and an impregnable Safety, if we will be at no charge to procure them? We might as well have suffered and been ruined at first, as only to be respited a while, and made to taste the sweets of a Deliverance, and then destroyed.  
But because I see those Payments stick so in some People's Stomachs, I think it will be well worth the while, if we produce some particular Arguments to satisfy us in this point, and persuade those, that will listen to Reason, not only of the equitableness, but the necessity of them. And the Arguments that I shall make use of, may be drawn from such topics as these that follow.  
I. Unless we liberally contribute towards the expense of the present War, we can hope for no Peace, Happiness, nor Security; the carrying on the Work, as now begun, against our Enemies, being the only way( in all human prospect) to secure us against their attempts, and settle us upon a foundation of Quiet. France was once an underling Nation, exposed on all sides to those Inconveniences and dreadful Miseries, with which it now has gathered the Courage and Confidence to threaten others. Whilst subdivided into many little Principalities, and cantoned into little Dukedoms and Earldoms, the Kings had work enough at home to uphold their Majesty against so many Antagonists, as were ever and anon bearding them, and wrestling with them for the Sceptre. Long indeed it struggled with it's Fate, till Heaven was pleased so far to compassionate it's sufferings, as to unite the whole Nation under one head: Since which, though now and then the Throne has been shrewdly shaken by intestine Broils and Factions, yet it has never felt those horrid Convulfions of State, that before it was subject to. So that of late, what by the Policy of their Princes, the Industry of their Ministers of State, the subtlety and Insinuations of the People,( who were designedly scattered here and there all over Europe, to promote their great Master's ambitious Ends, and to be ready, when the Child was come to the Birth, to assist and help it into the World) and what by the open assistance of some of their Neighbours,( who have since been well requited for their Kindness) and the underhand Leagues and Practices of others, and the supine Negligence and stupid inadvertency of the rest; what by those Methods( I say) and some lucky hits and propitious aspects that smiled upon the Genius of that Nation, the Power of France has been reckoned( and not much amiss) the most formidable in all Europe. Whilst our Swords were sheathed in one anothers Bowels in the late Civil Wars, and have for the most part since been worn more for ornament than use, theirs were employed in cutting out a way for their Glory in Germany and Flanders: Mazarine, who laid the original Projects of the present greatness of France, was then catechizing his Pupil, and inspiring him with that Ambition, that has justly rendered him infamous and odious by those Methods he used to raise his famed and Glory. The keeping up so many standing Forces, and thus continually exercising them in the practical part of War, has made them by long experience as complete Souldiers( to say the least) as any in Christendom, not excepting even the Poles and Germans. France is a Country both populous and plenteous, affords Soldiers enough for their Kings to do what they will withal. And though it is true, the present King has much damnified his Nation,( more than ever he thought of, I believe,) by these imparallel'd Severities, or Barbarities rather, against the Protestants; yet the Country though depopulated and desolate almost in several places, and miserable enough quiter throughout, is not so exhausted, as some fancy: Witness those vast Armies on foot, and those Forces employed this last Summer both by Sea and Land against England, Ireland, Holland, Germany, Savoy and Spain; all which Countries the proud Sennacherib set at desiance, and thereby shewed how little he feared that conjunction of Arms, that from every quarter threatened him. And this his confidence proceeded mostly from the consideration of his own strength, more than the weakness of his Enemies, the meanest of which was not contemptible. Indeed his Nation is abundantly harassed by those unjust and unnecessary Quarrels, and has little satisfaction in those late and new Attempts; because to be sure they bear the burden for the present, and can never hope for any happy issue of those Injurious and Bloody enterprizes, in which the Christian Turk has now engaged all his dependents. But yet as things now stand in France, I look upon the People as so desperate under the power of this Tyrant, that they are ready for any thing he can command them to. For( 1st.) their Trade is to all intents and purposes quiter ruined, every thing of French Growth and Manifacture being absolutely prohibited both in England and Holland, the greatest( and indeed the only considerable) Trading Nations in the World. Nor do I see, how that Plenty that is now at so low an Ebb there, can ever flow again to any height under this Prince, till he has cut it out some new canal with his Sword. His Pride makes him disdain to move his Neighbours for a Peace; and should his Proud Stomach come down to do it, he would( as I guess,) only be laughed at, and not much better for his Pains. For who will ever trust him, or enter into any League and Alliance with him, that knows his Perfidious Humour, and how weak the Bond of every Covenant and Oath is with him? Lewis 14th, being really the samson, whom nothing can hold any longer than he pleases. Instances of his Treachery and Perjury are so numerous and frequent, that all Europe has long rung with his Abilities in that kind, to his Honour be it spoken; so that there is no need to mention particulars. But now his People being thus reduced to extreme Poverty and Misery, what will they not do in hopes of ease, and their former Plenty? If they Conquer, their Master becomes Lord of Europe; and if this will not give them ease, nothing will. If it be their Fortune to be overcome, they cannot be much worse than than they now are; they can but fall under the power of some Arbitrary and Merciless Huff; some Tartar or cannibal, or wild Indian, like their present Master: In a word, they can be but what they already are, Slaves and Beggars. Nor indeed can they suffer so much from any body else, as from him; there not being( thanks be to God,) any Prince on this side of the World, of so savage and inhuman a Temper. And perhaps they may fall into the Hands of some gentle and moderate Hero, who may treat them as Friends, and use them as Christians; and that would be an happy change for them. However things go, they need not fear falling out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire. So that though both the King and People of France are resolute to run the risk of bringing the Arms of all Europe about their Ears; yet it is evident it is upon different Principles; he out of Ambitious Malice and Vainglorious Madness; they out of Hopes to better their Circumstances, however squares go.( 2d.) As their Trade is sunk, decayed and ruined, so the Estates they otherways have, are sufficiently oppressed and squeezed for the maintenance of those unreasonable Quarrels; the Taxes and Impositions not only being very high, but they that have Plate being forced to bring it in for the King's Use. The Confiscation of the Protestants Goods, could not but amount to a vast Sum, and fill a great many Coffers; but what is got on the Devil's Back, will go away under his Belly; all is spent, and more must be had. There are no more Protestants of Estates that he can gripe and grinned to get a Farthing more; the Merchants have no Trade to advance his Customs; so that the burden of all lies upon the poor Country: which renders the common People, and even those of the better sort, desperate enough, as well as miserable. Nor is there any way to save one quarter of the little that remains of their Estates, after all those Extortions and Exactions, but by giving the King the other Three, that he may push forward his business at once, and get the better, if he can, and thus ease them of those Burdens they now so lamentably groan under. Though in my opinion, they have little grounds to hope for any great good from him;( let every thing fall out as he would have it,) that has ever treated his Enemies like Dogs, and his Friends like Slaves.  
All which being so, the French so resolute, their King having brought almost an inevitable necessity upon himself and his Subjects, of managing a War against all his Neighbours, it is impossible for us to be quiet, unless we be as resolute and forward as they. The French King has drawn upon us, and involved us in the same necessity of defending ourselves, as himself of assaulting us. Things are grown to that pass, that France and England cannot stand long thus; indeed the happinesses seem at present inconsistent; if Lewis make his People happy, it must be by our Ruin; nor can we, or any of our Allies be happy, however have no Assurance of our Felicity, no Security, no lasting Peace, till that Proud and Arrogant Monarch be in some measure humbled: And this all the Confederates see and find by experience, every one for their own parts. France is now at its grand Crisis, and if it prevail over one of us, it is in so much the fairer way for serving its ends of the rest; for the plain truth is, the felicity and quiet of Europe depends upon the prospect of the downfall of the French excessive Pride and Greatness. God forbid any of the Confederate Princes should desire to destroy that Nation, or should entertain the least thought of Retaliating the Misery upon it, that their King has causelessly inflicted upon such Parts of his Neighbours Rights, as Providence,( for Reasons best known to itself,) has suffered to fall into his Hands; but yet in this, I hope they are all of a mind, that it is necessary to oppose themselves to the insolent Greatness and Pride of the French, and that for their common Peace; and wrest the Sword out of the Hand of such a Furioso, as can find no better employment for it, than the effusion of Christian Blood. Lewis 14th, has justly by his Base and Unchristian Practices, brought upon himself and his Nation the Odium of all Europe, and it's Curses too; all which cannot fail of bringing down something more than ordinary Vengeance at the last: And we may justly hope, the time is near, when that Curse shall take place,( Hab. 2. 7, 8.) Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for Booties unto them? Because thou hast spoiled many Nations, all the remnant of the People shall spoil thee; because of Mens Blood, and for the violence of the Land, of the City, and of all that dwell therein. And that the work may be cut short, it behoves us to assist. Our concern lies at stake; no Peace and Safety in prospect, whilst things continue as they now do; but continual Troubles and Vexations, and Charge and Molestation. France is an Enemy strong enough to be a Plague to all its Neighbours,( as it has been of late) till we by plain force make the Monsieurs feel the sharpness of our Swords, and thus let out part of that Hot and frantic Blood, that now make them so extravagantly insolent and unpeaceable. And as the calming the Courage of his most Unchristian Majesty is the best way to secure our Nation in Peace, and deliver us from the fears of all foreign. Wars and Troubles; so it is likewise the only rational and feasible Method to establish the Government in itself; there being at present no Parties or Factions amongst us, Enemies to the Government, or sorry for the long wished for Union of Protestants, but such as depend upon the power of France. The Papists have ever by all Judicious Persons, been counted the most dangerous Faction in England, more especially because of their acknowledgement of a foreign Power and superior Authority, which it is like enough they would call in to their Assistance, if they had opportunity; which foreign Power is the Pope; or rather it was he; for of late his Unholiness has lost that Malicious knack of setting Princes together by the Ears, having now adays little power to succour any; and therefore his Interest is little regarded, nor his Alliance much courted. But the foreign Power on which the Papists now depend, and have done for these several Years, is the French; at whose Usurpations in Ireland, they hearty rejoiced; and at whose coming upon our Coasts this Summer with their Fleet, they were ready to leap out of their Skins for Joy; till for their indecent Mirth and traitorous exultations, so many of them leaped out of their Houses and Liberties into the Jails, as they well deserved. These( and their Friends in Masquerade amongst us,) are the People that obstruct the desired Union, Peace, and Concord amongst us both in Church and State. And the main confidence they have of gaining by our Animosities and Differences, is grounded upon their hopes of being considerably recompensed by the French for their Labour and secret Service; and thus by degrees bring us into a worse than egyptian Bondage and Subjection. It has been the great monsieurs way, if he found any Subjects disaffected to their Government, to encourage them to Rebel and Revolt; witness his Sicilian and Hungarian intrigues; and it were well if we had not instances of this nature nearer home. The French Gold has of late done far more mischief here, than the Popes Bulls; and( I am afraid) absolved more People from their Oath of Allegiance to their present Majesties, and animated them to Treason and Rebellion. But were the power of France once crushed, those People would have no Crutch to lean on, under the pretence of Lame Legs, and lamer Consciences; but must be forced to go upright in their Obedience to the Government, as well as we: They would leave Plotting, if they could hope for no Hands from Abroad to take their parts, and execute their Designs. Treason languishes and dies, when it wants the hopes of Power to succour and help it out. The Papists would never have plotted at Home against Q. Elizabeth, had they not been mightily encouraged from Spain; nor against K. James I, had they not hoped for aid and succour from the other side of the Water. And what was it that set them on work again so lately here, but the French Designs and Encouragements? The best way to reduce the Papists to Loyalty and good Nature, is to cut off their commerce with our Enemies; and the way to do that effectually, is to put one Enemy out of the wicked capacity of abetting and assisting another: Thus may they both perhaps in time, become our Friends; however the band of mutual dependence being once broken, they are both more easily dealt withal. Perhaps if the Papists here were once under the so much desired and admired Government of the French, they would not have much fairer Quarter, than those Germans, who are never a whit the gentler dealt withal, for being of the French King's Religion;( or perhaps the true reason why they are so inhumanly abused is, because they are of some Religion, when he is of none.) Perhaps they might be rewarded as the Messineses, or as Turin and his Protestants, who kept him in the Throne against all the attempts of the Prince of Conde and his powerful Faction. But all is lost, that is put into a riven Dish. And I hearty wish we had all the French Protestants here, in lieu of our English Papists. But this I say, the way to secure our Peace both at Home and Abroad, is to pull down the Pride of him, that threatens us Abroad, and undermines us at Home.  
And thus we see the necessity of the present War, in order to our future Peace, Quiet and Security. Now because so great a War cannot be managed to any purpose, without a great power of Men; nor those maintained without proportionable aids of money; it hence follows, that if we desire Peace and Safety afterwards, we must subscribe and contribute for it now; and the more liberally and generously we do that now, the less shall we have to do afterwards.  
II. Why should not we be at least as ready to contribute for the carrying on so necessary a War for our own Peace and Happiness, as our Enemies( who are harassed even to ruin almost by continual Levies and Contributions) for our Destruction? If we would have Peace, we must pay for it; and how great soever the Price of it be, we may afford to give as much for our Liberties and Properties, as the French to take them from us. The French indeed have as little reason to brag of, or pride themselves in their Master's greatness, as ever any People had, seeing it is raised upon the Ruins of his own Country. He has indeed ever( till of late) acted upon the offensive part, but surely has been the most unlucky warrior that ever pretended to draw Sword; his Wars having been so far from bearing their own Charge, that the whole Nation is undone with contributing to their Maintenance. He never had better▪ Armies than now, nor less to maintain them with: The Charge of continually Paying Two Hundred Thousand Soldiers and Seamen is vast, and will unbowel the biggest bellied Bags, though his Pay be not extraordinary. The Trade is sunk there; for the English and Dutch who fetched away the greatest part of their Commodities, and were the best Chapmen, by a seasonable piece of prudence have prohibited those Goods, by which he got the greatest part of his Revenues, and his People the main of their ordinary Maintenance; this was well cut off, or otherwise he might have in a great measure maintained the War against us with our own Money. And consequently, the Nation being far less Populous and Wealthy( since the expulsion of the Protestants) the load of maintaining the War must lye heavy and grievous upon those of his own Subjects that are still able to Contribute. Continual Levies, Contributions and Taxes, are no mean Grievances; yet all these are submitted to in hopes of finding their Accounts afterwards in those disbursements. Now unless we oppose their Fury and Violence, and endeavour to repress their Insolence, what Nation in the World can we imagine will become more miserable than England? Can we fancy we can ever enjoy even the shadow of Felicity, if the French be suffered to brave us every Year, as they have done this last? And if this Braggadocio humour of theirs have put us into so many Frights, and occasioned so much disturbance amongst us, what an Hell must it be to lye at their Mercy? And yet almost the whole Country is in Arms to elevate it's Master's inglorious Name above the Clouds; no Industry is omitted, no Stratagem unattempted, no ston left unturned to undo us, no Labour spared, nor Charge neither; open Force, and private promises most diligently used; nay, the Devil himself is Conjured up, and sent amongst us, the Devil of Mammon, one that is always more successful, and can enumerate more Victories, than Mars or Pallas, having often conquered where the greatest Heroes have been soundly beaten. Inclusam Danaen turris ahenea. &c. We are( under the Providence of God,) as safe by the Wall of the Sea, that begirds us, as if the friar had immured us in Brazen Citadels; but yet this French Gold finds a way, or makes one, and flows in upon us, and subdues us; though it is probable, they that have to do with Lewis, and receive his Gifts, will gain as little at the long run, as they that deal with the Devil: both fawn and flatter for a while, but Destruction is the design and end. It is by some Historians observed, that Philip of Macedon got more by Bribery and Presents, than he could ever have hoped from his Sword; and in this he gave the hint, and set the Copy for Lewis 14, whose Pistols make no report, but yet do us more harm, than ever he can have the vanity to think all the Thunder of his heaviest Canon can do us. So that what with the expense of keeping so many Thousands of Men in Arms and continual Pay, and what with the expense of Bribing the Servants of his Enemies, and maintaining Factions and Heats amongst them, the account must needs arise to a prodigious Total. He has long( as it is supposed) been prepared for this English and Dutch War; has trained up Seamen, and kept them in Pay for this purpose several Years; for this was the way to be served to purpose, and be really strong upon occasion: but we know he has no Fund answerable to such vast outgoings. The Spirits of Building and Missing have had large power over him; His Presents to the Grand Seignor and his viziers and bassas have been many and costly; Teckley too has had his share of French Money; all this for advancing the interest of his sworn Brother at the Port, and keeping the Germans low and busy. Cardinal Furstemburg's business cost a good round Sum, though to no purpose; and no little Treasure was spent at the last Election of the Pope, in Bribing the Conclave( though unsuccessfully) to espouse his Interest, and further his ends. I wish he had never angled in England with his Golden Hooks; but it is sure enough we have had plenty of them. But that which has been the greatest charge of all to him, is yet behind: The severity of his Government has occasioned so many malcontents in his own Kingdom, and so full of suspicions and jealousies has he ever been, lest his People should struggle for Liberty from his Iron Yoke, and vindicate themselves from his Tyranny, that he has been necessitated all along to keep upstanding Forces in times of his greatest Peace;( if he may be said to have ever enjoyed any Peace, whose Reign has been a continued Scene of Turmoils and Quarrels, and Rapine and Blood;) nay, more by three parts than his Ancestors, who did the greatest exploits, ever had in their Muster Rolls in times of War. This was charge no question; but it had been less, had he only kept them for his own security: but the Charge was unmeasurably enhanced, when he employed them abroad. No cost was spared to make his Attempts successful, nor any charge too great to secure what he had thus unjustly rifled from his Neighbours. Incredible Sums have gone to the Fortifying his new Conquests, and making his Cities and Castles impregnable; though when he had done all he could, he was forced to abandon most of them, and throw away good Money after bad, in demolishing what he had been at so vast expense to secure. All his Treasure and Incomes being wasted in those vain and accursed Projects, in doing and undoing so much unnecessary work, he fell long ago to prey upon the Estates of his Subjects; and rather than not be maintained in his wicked Extravagances, he flies, Vulture like, to spoil the Church. Strange ways of Spending, must have strange ways of Repairs and Supplies. So that the vast load of the maintenance of the present Wars, that environ him on all sides,( he being a Second Ishmael, whose hand was against every Man, and every Mans hand against him,) must now lye upon the Country, and be supplied by way of Taxes and new Contributions. And with those the People are abundantly oppressed, being forced to gratify an Ambitious and Blood-thirsty Tyrant in his most unreasonable and extravagant Demands for the injuring and destroying his quiet and loving harmless Neighbours. If they therefore be forced to contribute so lavishly, to enable their Master to undo us; well may we comply with the just and equitable desires of a kind and indulgent Father of his Country, when he demands those Supplies of us only for enabling him to defend and protect and cover us from the worst of all Enemies, except that Apostate Spirit of Darkness, who prompted this Monster of Mankind to such unpractised and inconceivable villainies. If the French bestow almost their whole Estates upon their Master, in hopes to be repaid out of ours,( at New-Nevermass,) I have better hopes, we may well part with a fourth or fi●th part of ours, to secure the whole, had we neither Liberty, nor Lives, nor Religion( which to a good Christian is dearer than all besides,) to put into the Scale to make our concerns more weighty, and balance our expenses.  
III. The Country has not been burdened with any Contributions of this nature this several Years, till just of late; and therefore may the more contentedly submit to them. We all know very well, that for Ten Years together, there was not one penny laid by the Parliament upon Land by way of Assessment; the ordinary Impositions upon Goods, with the Excise upon liquours, and the Hearth-Mony, defrayed all the Charges, and supplied all the necessary occasions of the Crown; Land going Scotfree, and paid nothing. Nay his Majesty has partend with a considerable Branch of his Revenue, when he let go the Hearth-Mony, which brought in Yearly so vast a Supply to the Treasury. By which generous Act he shows us, how loathe he is to burden his People any further than needs must, or absolute necessity requires. But now when the necessities of the Crown call for fresh Supplies, nothing can be more reasonable, than that we should cheerfully allow them; especially having lived so easily, and with so little Charge of late. Had we indeed been harassed and oppressed for the last Ten Years, as the French have been, we should have more colour and reason to grudge the large Supplies that are now called for; but yet Necessity has no Law, and we should still be forced either to give them, or fare worse for our Refusal. But now having been spared so long, we have little reason to complain or murmur, though the present Contributions lye something heavy upon us. I know leisurely Payments are commonly accounted less burdensome, though much larger, than those that we are forced to contribute to once or twice for all: But yet as I think there never was( however in this last Age) more occasion for speedy and plentiful Contributions, so all things considered, and this especially, that we have been at little or no Charge this great while upon those acccounts, we ought both patiently and gladly for our own convenience to join in them, and submit to them. The Landlord that hath pursed so much of late, may very well disburse a little more than ordinary upon so extraordinary an occasion, where their All lies at stake; and the niggardly Supplies some would allow, are only like to continue( and so in a small while enhance and augment) the Charge, rather than alleviate or abate it. It is commonly supposed upon Computation, that King Charles the Second had between the Years Sixty and Eighty, as much money granted and paid, as all England is worth; the Taxes were almost continual, one treading upon the heels of another; and yet few repined at all this, though the money did us as much good as if we had thrown it into the Sea: Why then should it be thought so extraordinary a matter, for the half of one years Revenue and Income to be paid in two or three years; especially when the Occasions are so importunate and pressing? I know indeed some Families may be in so ill and low circumstances, that they will be sore strained and ill able to part with so much in so short a time; it is confessed the burden will lye heavy upon middle Fortunes; but I question not, but such have made a considerable advantage of the late ease and respite they have had; and therefore it is no Injustice to desire them to refund part of their former Profit at this extraordinary juncture.  
IV. Especially considering, though the liberal Supplies, which are now so absolutely necessary may for the present seem grievous and burdensome; yet the success and amendment of our Trade, as well as our Peace and Security, depending upon this War, not to give them, would show us uncharitable and wanting to ourselves and our own good; and the ready granting them will( in all probability) advance us so much the more e're long; we shall find within a while find our Accounts sufficiently in those disbursements. It is true Liberality, as well as Frugality, never to spend what may be honestly and safely spared, nor spare what ought to be freely and generously spent. We are now engaged in an expensive War, which has been gradually approaching us this many and many a year. The French have made long preparation for it, because they designed it; and that is the reason they are now so well able to manage it. Our Princes were desirous to keep us in ignorance of this, to cover this intended blow from us, and hoodwink us, or lull us asleep in a supine Security, that we should not perceive it, till it should come; I do not say they abetted the mischief that was intended us. And this makes the Nation so unprepared to receive the Assaults, that are now made upon us by the ravenous Ambition of our potent Enemies. But yet( thanks be to God) it is not too late for us to prepare; Nay the short warning we have had, has given them a pretty Essay of what treatment they might have expected for their perfidious dealings with us, had we but had a little more notice of their designs. They have( for all their Bravadoes) little reason to boast of their exploits this Summer; and I hope will have good reason to repent of their malicious Adventures before the next be half over. Some mischief they have done us, but not the tithe of what the Frenchisied Jacobites( in order to dishearten the Country, and make People averse to new Contributions,) would persuade us. But the advances we have made this year under his sacred Majesty's happy Conduct have been very considerable and remarkable. But yet as long as France continues an Enemy, and so potent an one as it now is, we can never hope for a free Trade, no more than we can be assured of a stable Peace or Security; and yet unless we have a free Trade and be secure, I cannot see how the bad and dead Times we so complain of, should ever amend or revive, or the Country rise to it's former Wealth and Interest. At present things are but in a dubious posture, and it is some Peoples Master-piece of wicked Policy and Ingenuity to infuse worse Thoughts and Conceptions of them into their Neighbours, than are consistent with the happiness we already enjoy, and the glimpse of that greater Felicity, we hope to be Masters of within a while under his present Majesty. But the truth is, we have been so long under the influence and ascendent of that Tyrant, who has justly obtained the Name of the great Troubler of the World, and is now unjustly our professed and declared Enemy, that though we are in part delivered and emancipated, yet we scarce know whether we are or no; and there are a party of Job's Comforters amongst us, that would discourage us, and make us believe we are as deep in the mire as ever; and this they do to obstruct and impede our proceedings, and hinder us from asserting the English Liberties to that height, that moved his present Majesty to undertake our cause and expose his sacred Person to so many dangers in our just quarrel. But the only way to make us happy, as we are a Nation, must be for us ●o join unanimously and courageously with our Head in making our way to that Trade and Security by the Sword, which we formerly had without it. Lewis XIV has now forced us to draw it, and he will force us to keep it drawn as long as he pleases, unless we can wrest his out of his Hand. We may thank him for the expenses we have been at of late; and the only way to put an end to them, is to push home our business at once, and go through-stitch with our Work. If we linger and hang back, we both discourage and affright ourselves, and he too gains an opportunity to undo us: for the World has had little experience yet( though it has known him above this fifty years) of any great Clemency or Mercy he hath had, when it has been within the sweep of his venomous tail to do mischief. We must hope for no peace nor safety, as long he bustles and swaggers and hectors in Europe at this rate. Attila the great and furious King of the Huns was by many entitled the Rod and Scourge of God for the barbarous severities he used in Italy and elsewhere; but how small a Rod was he in comparison of Lewis XIV? Who may not so properly be called a Rod or Scourge, as a Scorpion. But when God has done with those Instruments, wherewith he chastises others, he usually throws them in the Fire. And we hope therefore this fury has almost done his worst, and must within while be afflicted himself for furthering and taking delight in the Afflictions and Pressures of his Neighbours. Our only confidence( next to the Mercy of God) of future quiet, and the other happinesses that are attendants thereon, springs and arises from this prospect, that if we exert our Forces against him and show ourselves men, as we may and ought, we shall be able to win and ravish it from him, whether he will or no. It is a lazy temper for Men to wish and would, that which they will be at no charge to obtain. The only way of lessening and shortening the charge of the War, is for us to put his Majesty into a Capacity of righting us and our Cause against him that is the aggressor, and making a good end of it, as soon as he can. Peace and Security are the Nurses of Plenty, Wealth and Honour; but an obstruction of Trade as naturally impoverishes a Nation, as an Atrophy leads to a Pthisis. And therefore though we may be forced to buy our Peace and Security at such a rate, as seems now dear and high, yet when we come to have our ends served by it, we shall find and see the reembursements will make an ample amends, and pay us the best interest for our money. I know not what any Man can propose to himself, that would have the French to domineer over us and abuse us, as they have done of late; unless he would have us imitate the Genoese, who for defending themselves from the unjust Arms of his most Unchristian Majesty, were forced to submit, and trot to Paris and beg the Devil's pardon for being in the right and resisting wrong. If we are so enamoured of the French Yoke, why do we not let him in at once, and thus see if we can oblige him to Friendship? If we have a mind to be Slaves and Vassals and to try whether he will make us such or no; let us declare for him, and do him some Service that may merit our acceptance, and admit us to that honour. But I am afraid the most of us know him too well to trust him any longer than we need care whether we trust him or no. It is an ordinary saying among the Turks as well as Papists, That Faith is not to be kept with heretics or People of another Profession: But we all know that the Blade of whom we are speaking so far scorns to be a Slave to his Word, that he keeps his Word and Faith with no body, no not with those of his own Profession. But if we really detest and abhor the rigorous and merciless Severities, the oppression and inexcusable Tyranny, with which he studies to wear out the patience of his own People; let us show our Detestation and Abhorrence by a stout vindicating ourselves from that yoke he is bringing on our Necks: Let us show ourselves Englishmen, such as have a sense of their Liberties, and Properties and Honours, such as used to triumph o'er France, and not to truckle to it.( 1 Sam. 4. 9.) Be strong and quit yourselves like Men, O ye English, that ye be not Servants to the French, as they have been to you; quit yourselves like men and fight. Never let it be said, that we were too covetous, and would not buy the Peace and security of an Age for half a years purchase, but slipped our market till the price rose, and ten times as much would not acquire it.( Prov. 10. 4.) He becometh poor that dealeth with a slacken hand. If we loiter and divide our supplies, we perhaps shall not only increase the charge, but when the Kingdom is lower, and our stock far worse exhausted, than it can be by those Payments, be just where we were, if not worse.( Prov. 11. 24.) There is that scattereth and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to Poverty. No People in the World now adays more happy than the Dutch, who in an odd end of the World and sunken Country between two of the worst Enemies in Nature, the Sea and the King of France, are grown rich to Admiration and Envy; and yet who are( or indeed can be) subject to more Impositions and Exactions than they? Nevertheless they are opulent and plenteous in their Fortunes, and indeed keep the Cash of Europe. It is a foolish as well as a sordid saving, that occasions a larger effusion afterwards: Like those Monks, that for want of one Groat in paying a Fine to the King, were forced to pay several Hundred of Marks afterwards; and right enough served they were. If we open not our Purses now, I wish it be not too late to open them when we would, and would compound for our safety with a greater sum. There is a critical opportunity for every thing; and our time for making England happy or miserable for several Generations seems to be now; it is in vain to save and spare what will( and must) have a going sooner or later; and we may much better lay out our money for our own Peace and Security to purchase our Safety withal, than be forced to compound with our Enemies for it; who if ever they have us at advantage will look so big upon the point, that all the Wealth within the four Seas will be too mean a Present to ransom our Liberties and Religion withal: The King of France's little Finger being thicker than Loins of any Prince that ever wielded the English sceptre since William the Conqueror, to this present day. I can never reflect upon King John's base and impious offer of this Kingdom to Miramumalim, but with the greatest Horror and Indignation imaginable. Nor can we fall into the hands of Lewis XIV. without as dreadful consequences; no Turk using his vilest Slaves worse than he does his loyal Subjects. And therefore( in my opinion) it stands us in hand to keep out of his clutches, if we can; and if a large Assessment or two will do it, he deserves a worse Master( and there is but one worse, and he not on this side Hell neither) that refuses. We know what vast sums some of our Kings in the days of yore have got from their Subjects for nothing. When Henry 2d. died, he left a Treasure of nine hundred thousand pound to his Son; a vast sum for those times, and worth five or six millions of our money at the lowest reckoning. Which Lion-hearted Son of his( Richard 1st) not only spent all that, but when he was taken Prisoner in his return from the Holy War,( as was then called) was forced to compound with the Emperor and the Duke of Austria for his Liberty at the rate of an hundred and fifty thousand Marks; which Ransom was exacted of the Country; and though it were a prodigious Sum, those days considered, yet the People little murmured at it, though that Prince was none of the best, nor his Government the most easy. Nay afterwards, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was his Treasurer or Collector, made it appear upon account, that within the term of two years he had levied of the Kingdom for the Kings use eleven hundred thousand Marks; an incredible Sum, considering the shortness of the time, the King's Ransom being paid but just before. And yet all these vast Sums with several others( and the total of his own Annual Revenues) were consumed in ten years time; the Kingdom after so vast an effusion of Coin not being any way in the least one single farthing advantaged; nor indeed being from the very first in any prospect of being so. What ought we not to give for the Security and Peace of the whole Kingdom? The People then made large Contributions, because it was the King's Mind and humour to go a gascomading in the Popes quarrels; King William requires those Contributions of us, because he has a mind to protect and defend his own Kingdoms, now endangered by a Popish Faction, and an Atheistical Tyrant, from the insolent Assaults of all that would disturb our peace and quiet. The causes compared, I think we have at least as good reason to contribute as they had.  
V. We have all the Security his Majesty can possibly give us, that our money shall be truly and faithfully employed to those necessary uses, for which it is given, and no other. In supplying his necessities we serve and supply our own, because he manageth no separate Interest from the Country, as some of our Princes have done. money is the Sinews of War; but his present Majesty has no occasions to spend our money and thus enervate the Country; he has none of those vain ways to waste what we give him, that have made some Princes that we know of, poor. He has no Pensioners nor Sycophants; no Parasites nor Flatterers; no She-Leeches, no Children to raise to Honors and Estates at our cost. It is well enough known, that before his Majesty accepted of this Crown, he was one of the richest Princes in Europe, and could have disbursed more money of his own than he that commands the Indies. But all this for our good is quiter exhausted. He came to an empty Exchequer, and a poor Crown, which is the most uneasy wear in the World. Father Petre and his Brethren took care of our money, whatever they did of our Souls; the one was sooner converted to their use, than the other to their Religion; and consequently a better prise with them. Nor must we think, that the little money we have given has born the charge of the War: His Majesty has spent all he had amongst us, and desires not to be reimbursed, because he has no occasion for money, but what is common to him and his People. Now we know how the money, that he has already had of us is disposed of. His Majesty disdains not to condescend below his own Honour and Grandeur to give a just and perfect account to his Subjects how he has ordered it. The Accounts were made up and laid before the honourable House of Commons for the plenary satisfaction of the whole World in this particular. What we give his Majesty, he bestows at the best hand in providing for our defence, not for his own pleasure or humour: He is none of those that are bewitched with the Charms of an opulent Fortune, or dazzled with the Lustre of a Crown, and thereupon fall to Luxury and glorious Ease, and progress their Kingdoms round for an expensive Recreation. He delights not in stately and sumptuous Palaces, nor consumes his Revenues in erecting or adorning such. He has none of those State Tools, that were so largely bribed of late for secret Service; for why? he can have his business done by better Instruments and more honourable Hands. He has none of those costly Monsieurs or Madamoisels about him that some have had, to pick his Pockets and run away with half a Subsidy. Effeminacy, Luxury and Gallantry( the summum bonum of some Princes) are the least part of his concern; no Prince in the World of his rank bestowing less of his Time or Coin that way; and therefore we find he loves the Camp better than the Theatre, and encourages Soldiers more than Players. He is none of those Popish Bigots, to maintain a conscienceless Crew of hungerstarved Sacrificers, till himself fall a Sacrifice to their Guile and Malice. No, no; our money( thanks be to God) is better employed now, and to wiser purposes. And for Officers, that are employed in the receiving and husbanding and expending his Treasure, to his Honor be it spoken, who has made so prudent a choice, and to their Credit and Praise be it spoken too, who are so faithful to their Trust; no Prince was ever furnished with a stock of honester. The greater still is our Security, that our Contributions shall not be embezil'd and squandered away to no purpose, but the raising a few private Families; but be laid out to the best ends, such as may contribute to our Honour, Peace, Safety and perpetual Security. When Henry 8. came to the Crown, he found in ready Cash at least eighteen hundred thousand pounds; which( according to the rate that money then went at, and even as it goes now) was a large and Royal Sum; this the Avarice of his Father scraped together( vitiis & modis) to set up his Son for a Prodigal; who indeed threw it so lavishly about him, that in three years he was almost ready to shut up Shop for a Bankrupt. Such was his Bounty and Magnificence in times of Peace; for the French War was not yet begun; and when it did begin, he was to begin to gather money to maintain and carry it on. So extravagant are some People of that which comes of a free cost; Princes often employing their thoughts how to spend their Subjects Estates, rather than how to husband and lay out their money to any purpose, or for their Profit. But his present Majesty as he came to a poor Crown, so he well and providently( as appears by all the management of his Affairs) considers the good of his People, not desiring to spend a farthing of ours to any other purpose, than as it may in some measure or other turn to account for our real benefit: He well knows and considers the hardness of the times and the general decay of Trade; and thereupon( as it is evident upon a great many occasions and in several Instances) endeavours to put every thing to the furthest, and go the cheapest way to work to secure us; it being no part of his Design to make us pay more for our Peace and Quiet, than it is worth; but only to be enabled to execute that weighty Office, and discharge that Trust as he ought to do, for which he ascended the English Throne. He manages his Wars himself in Person, exposing himself to Fire and Sword, as well as the meanest sentinel, not desiring that the vilest Soldier in his Pay should venture further than himself dare led on. He gives Order for every thing himself, which is still the best and cheapest way to have his work done as it should be. He bushes the War forward with the greatest Expedition that is consistent with our safety, and a security from making false Steps. In a word, he doth all that can be done by Man, towards the making us Happy again, though it was none of his fault that we were involved in so much misery. And thus he seeks to engage our Love, and tie our Affections to him by the strongest Bonds of Allegiance and Gratitude.  
VI. We have no reason to complain of paying for our Peace and Security now, seeing two or three Years ago, we were ready and willing to have given a great deal more for it, than is now desired of us for the establishing of it. When King James and his wicked Instruments were in the height of their majestic Tyranny, Seizing on part of our Liberties and Properties, and threatening a formidable Invasion on the rest, what would we have given, nay, what would we not have given, to have been delivered from those fears and dreadful apprehensions, that were at every turn ready to overwhelm us? Thus when the great Gulf expanded its horrible Jaws in the midst of the Forum at Rome, and the People were admonished to throw in whatsoever was the most precious to them; then was many a Golden Bag sacrificed, and many a Rich Jewel thrown quiter away: But yet all would not do, there was still something more dear and precious than all those trifles, and that was it the Devil would have been at; viz. their precious and sweet Lives: And so the audacious Knight, who gave himself for his Countries good, plainly interpnted his meaning. This is but too applicable to the matter in hand; for if money would have contented the Jesuitical Harpies, and have bribed them to let us be quiet, no Charge would have been judged too heavy to have procured and established our Security. And shall we now despise our Peace, because it is so cheap, though miraculous? Do we grudge to disburse a little money for confirming our Protection? It was generally believed long ago, by the most judicious of Men, that Ireland would never be reduced, or recovered out of the Papists Hands without Blows; the courses that were then taken there to secure them of the Government, gave but too just reason for that opinion: And yet unless it were reduced, all People could easily conjecture what a Thorn it would prove in our Sides, and how much Disturbance might from thence upon any occasion be given us. So that had the business of the Prince of Wales never come upon the Stage, nor been thought of, but King James had died quietly in his Bed, and left the Princes that now more deservedly fill his Throne, to have ascended thither by the common course of Succession, yet it was easily foreseen, Ireland would never have owned their Authority without compulsion. We know full well, how upon some other occasions, that obstinate and tumultuous People have oft endeavoured to shake off the English Yoke, though it has never galled them, nor were they ever before sensible of that Happiness that has waited upon them under our Government. Nay, we know they have several times attempted to surrender the Country to any Body that they thought Enemy enough to us, and seemed in the least inclined to accept of their offers. And the like attempt was not now unjustly feared and suspected; more especially since that iceland became a Nest to such disaffected Persons, as have under the mildest Protestant Government here, still been showing their Popish tricks, Plotting and Contriving Mischief, and so oft near the accomplishing their base Designs. When the Native Irish, who have treated the English as oft as they had opportunity, with all the Treacherous Cruelty and Barbarism, to which Hell and Rome could improve their innate Blood-thirsty Humour; when these( I say) were advanced to Honour and Dignity, and made to domineer over those whom they watched but a convenient opportunity to extirpate, and all this by the Authority of their Prince; and when they were encouraged, backed, seconded and prompted on to their Bloody and Rebellious adjectives by the English Papists, a rascally Crew of whom flocked thither, and restend there in hopes of Prey and Mischief, to be made Rich with the spoils of some meritorious Massacre; and all this Insolence not only connived at, but countenanced and abetted and authorised, by such as only had power to Repress it: What could be thought of such prodigious and monstrous Methods and Practices, or what could they be judged to portend,( for every Body thought them unnatural and ominous;) but a general Revolt from us; especially the French being so able and ready to assist them, as they have since done? And yet nothing could have been of more dangerous and pernicious consequence to our Peace and Safety here( bating only the French eruptions upon us, so dreaded in the last Reign,) than to have that Kingdom dismembered from this. So that whatever Protestant Prince had succeeded to this Crown, and by whatsoever Title, it had in effect been the same thing; for an Irish War was as inevitable, as the Protestant and Popish Interests are discordant and unagreeable; and the charge we should have been at upon the account of reducing it, could hardly possibly have been avoided. Nay, it is more than a little probable, our Charge might then have been much more heavy, than now it is like to be; his Majesty( whom God preserve for more and more, eminent Victories of this kind) having taken all imaginable care,( though at the utmost peril of his Royal and Sacred Person,) to cut the work as short, and give as ready a conclusion to those Wars,( and the concomitant charge,) as could possibly have been expected from any Prince in the World, that had the parallel Inconveniences and Hazards to encounter and force his way through. This by the by; though this Digression is far from being impertinent to the matter in hand. But yet considering England as a Nation unconcerned for its dependencies, but only regarding and providing for its own Peace and Quiet at Home, they that reflect upon the fears and dangers that of late shewed themselves in so menacing a shape amongst us, I little question but they would have been ready to have compounded with France and Italy for the security and continuance of our Religion and Laws, and have paid a considerable Ransom to relieve them from the Jaws of that Destruction that was formed for them, if money would have don● the feat: But I never heard of any Insurance Office that was set up upon this account. One of the three Estates of this Realm was in a fair prospect of being crushed to nothing by the dead weight of an Arbitrary Power: Part of the Clergy was Suspended, and the rest every day looked for the same treatment, for not complying with the King in a thing so unconscionable and illegal, as no Power could have imposed upon them, but such an one, as pretended and arrogated to be obeied without Reserve. But had the whole Clergy complied as readily, as some out of Ignorance, and some from other Principles did, it is a vain thought to fancy things would have stopped there; greater and larger lengths were to be gone, than were consistent with the being of Protestancy; and the complying with one illegal method and practise, would but have animated our Enemies to have pricked us forward upon something that should have been worse. If like Asses we had patiently suffered that Load to have settled to our Backs without grudging, more should presently have been laid on us, and more still( as long as we were for Passive or Active Obedience) because it was resolved our Backs should be broken, and if one thing would not do it, another should; one oppression here being but the unhappy Prodromus of another and greater; though perhaps we could not then have been so easily extricated out of those perplexities and difficulties,( if things had gon much further) as now we are; I mean neither with that safety of Honour nor Conscience. For it is evident beyond denial or dispute, that the utter ruin of the Church of England, as then by Law established, nay and the ruin of the whole Protestant Name and Interest amongst us,( though the Dissenters were prettily chucked under the Chin, and caressed with a flattering Indulgence,) was absolutely resolved on and determined. Only because the Projects were not yet ripe for booted Apostles and the French fashion of Conversion, therefore every thing was tried, that might make one Party subservient to the undermining and overthrowing another; that being thus weakened and dispirited by mutual animosities, and irreconcilable Divisions, the Conquest over us all might be the more quick and feasible. This was so plain, that every man of common and ordinary sense, saw to the bottom of the grand design; and accordingly their fears were neither mean nor panic: Every one sighed and murmured in private for the impending ruin. For when one of the Three Estates was thus run down, as it almost was,( saved only by Miracle, and as a Firebrand plucked out of the Burning,) what could the other two expect, but in time to be shams of the same fate and misery? Jam tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet. Every one was concerned; and even those, who in their Hearts bare no good will to the Church of England, could not yet dissemble their affrightments and horror, when they saw her thus used and trampled on; because they knew full well( without the Spirit of prophecy,) that the same fate would within a while overtake them too: The Jesuits being their Friends( or bearing the Vizard of being such) only to serve a turn, but inwardly the most rancorous and malignant En●mies in the World; such Enemies, as make no distinction between Foes and Friends, that will not lend their utmost assistance to pr●mote their rapacious and ambitious ends. The whole Nation th●n lying under such dreadful, but just apprehensions of Misery, all Mens Minds being shaken with so horrid a prospect of the prevailing of Popery and Arbitrary Power, no Body would have refused to have complied in the largest Contributions to secure us. But no Security was to be dreamed of, or hoped for, till his present Majesty appeared for our Deliverance; and by the miraculous guidance of a Merciful and gracious Providence turned all those fears upon their heads, that first devised them. But since Almighty God has raised us up so great a Deliverer, we have all the assurance imaginable of enjoying without trouble or disturbance whatever we were before in almost hourly fears of being robbed and spoiled of by catholic Ruffians. We know full well, how ready and inclined his Majesty is to establish our Liberties and Properties, as well as Religion by any Law, that can be proposed to him for that purpose; our experience tells us this, by what he has done for us already: And his own sentiments and judgement in matters of Conscience, assure us he can never entertain the least thought of betraying us into the hands of the Enemies to Protestancy; nay, we are sufficiently convinced, that he will never attempt the least alteration in those little things, which are now established by Law( though those have been the unhappy occasions of dividing us, and both blemishing the report of our Prudence, and hindering our real Interest,) without our Consents, and the concurrence of our Representatives. And as for invading any Mans property, we have less reason to be afraid of that; the Laws being now returned to their pristine force and vigour under him, against all such as by pretence of any Commission or authority whatsoever, commit the least injury. And though I have often thought, and am fully persuaded in my Conscience, that if an Arbitrary Power be allowable and justifiable in any case( as all confess it is now and then in some few and extraordinary contingencies, where the Laws have not made sufficient provision,) it may be just and rational in this, that the Prince should compel those People to contribute towards their own safety, who will not willingly understand they are in danger, or that their Purses ought to be opened for their Security; yet here,( as in all other cases) in the greatest exigency of State, his Majesty by his legal Methods, declares his abhorrence of ever using a Power, which may so easily be abused and degenerate into Violence or Oppression, or become an ill president to future Ages: He is no Invader of any Man's Right upon any occasion whatsoever; no, not when he has the most plausible pretence for so doing. Nay we see how willing he is rather to recede from his own Rights, than make the least encroachment upon ours. He uses none of those odd rapacious Artifices to get money, that some of our Princes have extorted large Sums from their Subjects by; he oppresses no Man, but desires our Aid in a Legal and Parliamentary way, the fairest and equitablest of all. He has no Empsons nor Dudleys, no Instruments of Rapine and Extortion to play the Spies upon his Loyal Subjects, and hook them to compositions for their Peace, before they break it. He desires to be no Richer, than so that he may be able to Protect us; and his not using any Illegal Methods, evidences his entire dependence and reliance on the love and generosity of his People; who if they have any of that reciprocal kindness which they ought to have, will never let him fare worse for so doing, but will readily consent to furnish him with all the Supplies he requests of us. So that upon the whole, being thus rescued and delivered from all those Fears and Troubles, that of late surrounded and were▪ ready to overwhelm us, and for the removal of which we would gladly have Contributed much more, than will now do his Majesties business and the Nations, we may reasonably enough straighten ourselves a little for the establishment of our Safety and Deliverance.: His Majesty having spent so considerable a Sum of his own, to advance the work of our Happiness thus far, all the World would cry shane of us should we now grudge at the charge of Perfecting and completing the great Work, upon so fair and solid a Foundation.  
For these and the like Reasons, it seems to me very just and equitable, that we should willingly submit to pay our shares of all those Contributions and necessary Expenses, to which our Representatives at Westminster have agreed, or shall hereafter consent, and that without Murmuring or Repining; not Grudgingly or of Necessity( as the Apostle speaks in a case not much different,) for God loves a cheerful Giver. As God has made it the Princes duty to use his ut●ost endeavour to preserve the Peace and Welfare of the Nation committed to his Charge and Trust; so has he made it the Peoples bounded duty likewise to assist their Prince with their Lives and Fortunes, when ever a public necessity and exigence calls for them. For this cause we are to pay Tribute also, because the Prince is God's Minister, attending continually on this very thing, viz. the conservation of Peace and Quiet, a thing of inestimable worth and value; and that no such can hardly be ever dear bought, with all we can expend to obtain it. And therefore we must render to all their deuce, Tribute to whom Tribute is due, Custom to whom Custom, Fear to whom Fear, Honour to whom Honour. Our Saviour upon the first sight of the Image and Superscription upon Caesar's penny, determined and resolved in favour of the Prince, that he was to have his deuce as well as God Almighty; intimating likewise in that Divine Answer of his, that Tribute is a due to those Higher Powers, to whose Charge and Care Providence has committed us; and that we ought in all reason to contribute toward the Support and Maintenance of that Government and Authority( of what sort soever it be) by which we are protected in our own deuce and Rights, and maintained in Peace, and guided in Justice.  
These considerations well weighed, and impartially reflected on, will, I have good hopes, do something towards reconciling those Peoples Minds, that now seem so disaffected to the present Taxes and Payments, which indeed are as absolutely necessary, as Peace and tranquillity are lovely and desirable. It is too great a presumption upon that Providence, that has already been so kind and gracious to us, far beyond our Deserts, and almost as far beyond our expectations, to think every thing shall fall out according to our Wishes and Desires, without laying ourselves out to obtain what we esteem our Happiness. Though Almighty God appeared in a wonderful manner to bring his own Chosen People out of the Iron Furnace of Egyptian Servitude and Bondage, and infatuated all the Counsels, and disappointed all the Designs of their Merciless Oppressors, and all this in order to bring them to the Land flowing with Milk and Honey, according to his promise to their Fathers; yet when they were delivered, it was his pleasure to let them find their way thither on their own Feet; nor could they justly expect ever to arrive there, without several Conflicts and hazards: For by those it was his design in some measure to make a Trial of them, and see how they would carry themselves, and whether by their Faith, Patience and Endeavours, they would in any tolerable measure approve themselves worthy of so great an act of Mercy and Mu●ificence, as he was going to bless them withal. And accordingly we find, that the sluggish, morose, querulous part of them by their infidelity, impatience and perverseness, forfeited their shares of Inheritance in the Promised Land; their Carcases fell in the Wilderness, between Egypt and Canaan; it was a mercy God suffered them not to return to the snaring Idolatry and Superstition of the former, and a sore judgement( though just enough) that he would never suffer them to taste the sweet and ravishing contentments of the latter: But yet after all this, their Children, whom they feared and complained should become Preys and Miserable, were brought in; and upon them did God bestow the Mercies, which the Parents made themselves unworthy of. The only way for us to prevent the like miscarriage, is to be wise in time; for the plain truth is, as far as our circumstances concur with the Israelites, we may( without running the risk of being counted false Prophets or Boders of Ill News,) make a just estimate of our future Felicity or Misfortunes. An opportunity is now put into our Hands, of raising the fortune of our Nation to a greater pitch than it has been at for some Ages; and though the affairs of all Europe are strangely embroiled and perplexed at this juncture, yet an impartial Observer of things and circumstances, shall find nothing amongst all those, that ought to discourage or affright us; every thing almost( on the other hand) conspiring( by the special conduct of the supreme Orderer of all things no doubt) to favour our designs and Interest, and draw us good out of evil: Only if we be not wanting to ourselves and our own cause, and suffer ourselves to be more swayed and biased by groundless Fears and jealousies( hatched on purpose by our Enemies, and nourished and disseminated by false Friends and with design to keep us in a discomposed and discontented posture) than guided by Reason and the due consideration of our own true and real interest. If we take not Time by the Forelock, we shall repent too late when he shows us the hinder and bald part of his Skull. Wealth, Wit, Courage and Strength are ordinarily reckoned up as the four great Champions, without whose Assistance no War can be prosperous or successful. We are now under the guidance of a Prince, who has abundantly signalized himself for the second and third of these; and the fourth is at our Command by the mediation of the first. So that if we miscarry, as we have none to lay the blame on but ourselves, so it will be found in the issue our own shoulders will be ●oo little and weak to bear it; for we shall not only involve ourselves in greater and more deplorable difficulties than before we stuck in, but shall become the unhappy Instruments of involving our Neighbours and Allies in the same Miseries: who deserve them so much the less than we, as they are more ready and courageous and free to oppose them.  
Throughout the tenor of this whole Discourse I am every foot falling back to harp upon the same string▪ and inculcate the same Advice, about contributing freely and assisting his Majesty with such pecuniary Auxiliaries, as may enable him to do our business at once and to purpose. Whence some perhaps will take occasion to demand of me, how and after what manner so great Sums, as I hint are necessary, must be raised and gathered? After what manner I would have the Contributions to proceed, and upon whom I would have the greatest burden of them to lye? But the truth is, it was not my design, when I first put pen to paper; to meddle with that point, or to make any Proposals of that nature; and that lest thereby I should seem to intrude where I have nothing to do, and prescribe to those, whom the whole World will( when I have done what I can) aclowledge more sit to give than take Directions of this kind. His Majesty having assembled the greatest Council of this Realm( and perhaps the wisest in the World) to consider of this point more especially, it were steadiness and Rudeness in any private or particular person to think he can order things better by his single judgement▪ than the three Estates of the Kingdom can do in conjunction. And indeed one thing I am hearty glad of( and I think every wise and considerate person will be as glad of the same;) that our wise and honest Representatives are for laying the burden of those Payments upon Persons that are best able to contribute towards them, and those things, in which so much money is so unnecessarily bestowed, not to say cast away and wasted; those things I mean which administer so much to our Pride and Luxury. For as by raising the Prices of those his Majesty will gain considerably for his necessary expenses, so this will( in some measure) be a check to People's Folly, and Vanity and Excesses, and thus become a means to make the Nation more sober, temperate and industrious, and consequently by degrees move Almighty God to take his afflicting Hand off from us, when he sees us thus reformed and bettered by paying so dear for the maintenance of our light and vicious humours. And why we should deny to supply our more necessary, urgent and importunate occasions with part of that, which we are always so ready to bestow upon our Lusts, is unaccountable; unless we will carry on our Follies at the price of our destruction. No Man is so poor but can find money for idle and needless expenses, and in those spends more in a year, than he should pay for his share of the heaviest Assessment that has been this two or three Ages: and therefore has no just reason to complain, if part of that were exacted of him▪ and put to a better use: I mean for carrying on the great business of the Nation against our Enemies, and putting us once more into a capacity of being the Head and not the Tail of Europe. And why should we be behind hand with our Prince in any Offices of Kindness? Why should not we be as willing to raise his Glory,( in which we elevate our own to) as he to raise and confirm our Happiness? And happily we may be, if reason will persuade us but to endeavour to be so. When his Majesty has done what he can for us, our own Consents must be had to our Felicity, because it can only be tendered us, and forced upon us. The continual success with which Almighty God has hitherto been pleased to bless and crown all his Enterprises both in War and Peace, may justly inspire us with good hopes of greater and better things yet kept in store for him and us; of better times and more glorious days after these Clouds and Storms; of joy and Comfort after those Plagues and Judgments we have so long laid under; and of so much the greater Happiness and Prosperity for the many years, in which we have suffered Adversity. His Majesty was never one of those( nor affencted their ways and courses) that hunted after the vain-glorious Praise and Applause of the World, and sought to raise their Thrones upon the ruins of their People; he never sought to aggrandise his Name by any mean and pitiful, much less injust and tyrannous Artifices; and therefore God has raised him to the highest step of human Grandeur and Glory by the gentle and indulgent Methods of his own Providence, the surest and safest guide in the World: Whilst such as run mad after famed and desired to eternize their Memories by Violence and Injustice, and rai●●ng Combustions in the World, shall be remembered indeed, but only as that miscreant, who out of that principle laid the stateliest fabric in Asia, and one of the Wonders of the World, in ashes; and is ever since thought and spoken of with Detestation and Curses only; and consequently had better be butted in eternal Silence and Oblivion.  
FINIS.