AN APOSTROPHE From the LOYAL PARTY To the Kings Most Sacred Majesty; Humbly showing how the next House of Commons by Law may be purged of its dis. affected Members.  
Great King.  
WHom God has chosen to be his Anointed, and for whose Preservation wonders and miracles were done to that degree as to joy the Faithful, and confound the Incredulous; It was for this that God touched the heart of a Woman, and made her become another Judeth to pass through the Assyrians Camp, at the same time that Bethulia was besieged, to the end she might deliver the Kingdom and People from the fury of the Enemy; Judeth delivered Bethulia and her distressed People by carrying away the dead Head of the Assyrians General; and this delivers the People of three Kingdoms from the Slavery and Tyranny of Usurpers, by bravely carrying away the living Head of these Three Kingdoms. It was for This that she courageously looked Death in the Face, and exposed her Life and Fortune to the worst of Fates. It was for this that Gold was to Peasants of no other value than Dirt, when it was only to be purchased by delivering up the Innocent into the hands of the Guilty. But that which makes it the more remarkable and worthy of admiration, is, That God should make use of such Instruments to effect Your Preservation, as have now lately been Accused, Condemned and Sacrificed, for attempting to destroy, You, whom (with the hazard of their Lives) they had formerly preserved. Nay, for this it was, that even the Romish Priests themselves were instrumental.  
Sir, God took You out of the hands of your Enemies, at a time when all the world despaired of seeing You seated on any other Throne than that on which Your Royal Father acted the last Scene of a Horrid and Bloody Tragedy. Who can repeat the buying and selling of a King, the best that ever People had, and this by his own Vassals? his being accused by them? his being betrayed by them? his being judged by them? his being condemned by them? and his being murdered by them in the Face of Heaven and the whole World? Who (I say) can repeat these things without Horror and Execration?  
God miraculously delivered You out of the hands of a barbarous people, who sought you for no other end than to destroy You; but he mercifully withheld the blow which all the world believed was inevitably falling on You; for there was no one could avert it but God alone: And he did it, that we might one day see you seated on the Throne of Glory. 'Tis true, he withheld You from Us for some time; but it was that You might return the more glorious and welcome, and to make Us sensible of the ill was done in banishing Him from us whom God had appointed to Rule & Govern us.  
I believe there are few alive now who lived then, who have forgotten the Calamity this Kingdom groaned under at that time, and the sad Catastrophe attended Your absence.  
It was a sad thing to see your 3 Kingdoms governed by the Murderers of your Royal Father; to see Mechanics seated in the Throne of Princes, and the giddyheaded Mobile to Lord it over the Nobility, Cobblers & Bricklayers turn Preachers, whilst the Bishops have their Rockets pulled over their ears, and the best of the Clergy turned out of their Benefices; at the same time their Wives and Children going a begging: to hear nothing but Sedition & Treason daily preached out of the Pulpits; to see the Royal Party dance attendance every day to a damned Committee, made up of a Company of formal prick-eared Rascals, who had no other Religion than by sinister ways to monopolise the Riches of the Nation, whilst honest men turned Bankrupts; to see those men who had served the King your Father with their Blood and Fortunes, by these Governors Banished, Imprisoned and Tortured, and for no other Crime than because they had the honesty to be Loyal; to see the best of these men forced to buy their own Estates three or four times over of these Villains, who had seized them as their own, whilst other of the meaner sort had not Bread to put in their Heads.  
But God was pleased at his proper time to commiserate our Sufferings, by outdoing his former Prodigies which were acted in your Preservation, in restoring You to a People who lived with no other hope than despair of ever seeing You seated upon the Imperial Throne of Great Britain. Sir, 'tis undou●bed Your Restauration was decreed by Heaven, and to confirm which, God (as it were with his own hand) led You into Your Kingdoms, that there You might be made Sacred, and have your Temples encircled with a Crown; and than it was he consigned a Sceptre into Your Sacred hand, with which at the same time be commanded You to Rule and Govern your People in the strict observance of Justice and Equity; and after that perfect Model which he himself hath left you, in his Sacred and Divine Laws, and not according to those exorbitant Laws the ignorant Rabble, and their Abettors would prescribe you.  
What joy was it at that time to all true English hearts to see You Return in Triumph from your long Exile? to see You not only received into your Kingdoms, but into the hearts of Your People; who looked upon You as no other than the Angel of Peace sent by the living God to comfort an afflicted People and to redeem them from Slavery? It was then that we were all big with hopes no longer to see our Laws (which are the best in the world) trampled under foot by Tyrranical Usurpers: It was them that we gave ourselves the assurance that we should see Justice, and Mercy equally poised in one Balance: and neither to outweigh each other: It was then that we expected to see Impiety banished out of your Kingdoms, as an Imposter, and Virtue raised to that Throne it deserves, that is, to be seated on the right of Kings: And then it was that we believed that the Loyal i● should nobly be rewarded for their Fidelity and past Sufferings; and the Disloyal Traitor punished, and for ever banished from the Influence of your Bounty, the performance of which had established to Your People a Kingdom of Peace, and we should have seen a Golden Age to flourish.  
But, Sir, there are some men who are bold, and take leave to say, that your Clemency and Mercy have infinitely outweighed the Scale of Justice; That you have misplaced your Bounty; And (they now begin to fear) You have Sacrificed your Friends to please your Enemies, And this they say hath alienated your Friends, and made their Loyal hearts grow cold, and freeze; And bold Mouths spit their Allegiance out: This hath so far prevailed upon your Enemies, as to persuade them that their former ill-doing were well done, which makes them bold to act them over again. Sir, such are their proceed, s make us fear you have delivered your Royal Sceptre into their hands: And if so, you have made Yourself, and Friends one Sacrifice to the Fury and Malice of Your Enemies: So that we have nothing now in prospect, but the Old Tragedy acted over again, where we behold a Stage filled with Rapine, Sword, Fire, Blood and Masacres, with the Desolation and Overthrew of three Kingdoms.  
Dread Sovereign, You are the Object on which all our eyes fixed: You are the Centre in which the hopes and desires of all Loyal hearts are lodged. Now is the time to make yourself a King, and us a happy people, or never if you put on an unshaken Resolution, You will en. courage and strengthen Your Friends to stand by you to the last; which we are resolved to do, if you force us not from you: And this will not a little tame the insolency of those bad men who brand all those who stand up for your Rights and Prerogatives with that scandalous Name Papist. All those honest Gentlemen had a desire to serve their Country, by being Parliamentmen, because they opposed the Rump Faction, they and all their Friends were Papists, rank barefaced Papists. If these men can make us Papists at this rate, we shall have Popery among us beforewe know where we are; and really I think we have no great reason to be so much afraid on't; for 'tis come to that, that you shall not hear of an honest Cavalier, nay scarce an honest man but presently he is a Papist.  
Sir, you have been silent too long, therefore since you have given us your Royal word, That our Laws shall be your Rule and Measure, by which You are resolved to Govern, let us hear you roar like the King of Lions, when next you meet your Parliament; cry ha'! to them, and ha'! again, till (like your Predecessor H. 8.) you make them tremble. Sir, remember you are as well King of France as England, therefore let not the French King be a greater Monarch than yourself; At least for a time show yourself as absolute over your people as he is, since the Law is Your Measure, take off the head of that man who shall dare to open his lips to contradict it: And be assured that this way of Governing shall gain you more Friends in one day, than all your compliances to the unreasonable demands of your Parliament shall gain you in an Age.  
Be pleased to take from the Commons that old Theme Religion, or else you must never expect any business to be done by them either for the good of yourself, or your Kingdom. If we must have a Change or Reformation, in our spiritual Government, let it be done by spiritual men, the Bishops, and such who understand what Religion is: But for such men whose conversation is chief among Dogs & Horses, Women and Wine, to be perpetually making new Reformations in Religion, is the most preposterous thing in the world.  
What a monstrous thing it is to see the Tail pretend to more Wisdom and Understanding in Government than the Head! We have too sadly experienced what it is to live under this damned Rump Government; therefore, for Heaven's sake, Sir, let us have no more on't.  
Sir, as God was pleased to perform wonders at your Preservation and Restauration, so hath he done no less all the time of your Government: For (setting aside the precipice into which your Father fell, and in it was irrecoverably lost, which still lies open before the Gates of your Palace, so that it is not possible for You to enter in, or out, but you must necessarily remember your Father's sad fate. The Peal that these men daily ring in your ears, which was your Father's Knell:) setting aside, I say, these things: Heaven and Earth have conspired daily to alarm you, and bid you arm yourself against the Treacheries and damned Conspiracies, which are hourly acting against your Life and Government.  
Sir, the first thing you are to do is to know your Enemies, and then to arm yourself against them: You cannot have forgotten those men by whom Your Royal Father fell, and pursued you to Banishment; These are the men, Sir, who strike so boldly at Your Crown, therefore beware Your Head: You cennot therefore persuade yourself that the Murderers of of the Father can ever love the Son. But lest Your Majesty should mistake these men, and think them to be your Friends, our famous Salamancha Doctor Oates hat hunmask'd them unto You; For he says, (and what he says with us is Gospel) That they are Papists in Masquerade, disguised in the Habit and Manners of the Godly Brethren. So that 'tis to be hoped your Majesty will trust none of them, nor any thing that looks like this kind of Cattle. We humbly therefore beg that the next Parliament You will take a view of your House of Commons, that You may know the Members of which it is composed; and if there be any of these disguised Papists there, that they may be turned out, that is not a place for them; for the Law says, No Paepist shall sit in the House. If therefore there be any there who had their hands embrued in Your Father's blood, they are disguised Papists, they must out also. If there be any there who have unsheathed their Swords against their lawful Sovereign, and appeared in open Rebellion against him, they are the same, they must out too; for they are all Papists in Masquerade. Or if there be any of the Sons of these men, they are the same flesh and blood, and they'll prove themselves no Bastards i'll warrant you; they have sucked in their Father's Disloyalty and bloody Nature with their Milk, which 'tis to be feared they will never dilgest so long as they have an hour to live; therefore these must out too. And when the House is thus purged of these kind of , we may hope to see good times again, and not till then: For believe it, Sir, they are so glutted with the Spoils, and Sweet of their last Rebellion, that they will now be Caesar's or nothing; which Heaven and your endeavours must prevent.  
I could wish with all my soul that what the Prophet Isaiah spoke of the Counsellors of King Pharaoh may not truly be verified in the people of this Nation. God hath sent among them a spirit of giddiness, and made them reel up and down in all their actions like drunken men.  
Sir, great and terrible are the menaces which God thunders out by the mouthof holy Job, against those who wander from the true way of Justice. God (says he) suffereth these wise Counsellors to fall into the hazards of senseless men. God maketh the Judges stupid, taketh away the Sword and Belt from Kings to engird their Reins with a Cord; God maketh the Priests to appear Infamous, supplanteth the Principal of the people, changeth the lips of Truth-speakers, taketh away the Doctrine of Old men, and poureth out contempt upon Princes, Job 12.  
But that these things may not fall upon this Kingdom, & that they may be timely prevented, be pleased, Great Sir, to hear the Counsel that a great Statesman gave to the Governors of the Empire; and it is this:  
Use the matters so that Judges of Provinces may be very careful in the observance of Laws, that Tribunals spare not to thunder out Sentences against ill manners, but especially against False Witnesses and Perjurers; That Thiefs may fear the Gates of your Palace: That the Forger may feel horror at the voice of a Herald; And that all Crimes may be banished from our Teritory: That no man oppress the poor: That the persecutors be apprehended and pursued as disturbers of the pulick repose: You shall make a general peace when you have beaten down the Authors of mischiefs which are committed: Let Captains contain their Soldiers in all manner of Discipline in such sort that the Labourer, the Merchant, the Sailer, and Artificer, may understand Arms are not made but for their defence. I will not likewise that my nearest Allies be pardoned in any cause of justice, since I have taken the Commonn ealth into my charge, I have despoiled my proper Interests, I wish well to mine, but in the generality.  
Sir, when we shall behold these things practised within your Dominions, we shall conclude that all these prodigies which have been done in your Preservation and Restauration were performed by Heaven for no other end than that you should be that darling Prince to make your Kingdoms flourish, and Us a happy people, which we all promise ourselves, and that we shall see you the greatest of Monarches. It was to Princes that the Angel in the Apocalypse, speaks these words: He who shall overcome and keep my works unto the end, I will give him power over Nations and he shall rule them with a Rod of Iron: and as the Vessel of the Potter they shall be broken.  
VIVAT REX.   

Edinburgh, reprinted by the Heir of Andrew Anderson, Printer to the Kings most Sacred Majesty, 1681.