THE Jacobite Principles VINDICATED, In Answer to a LETTER sent to the AUTHOR.  
DEDICATED TO THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND.  
reprinted at London in the year 1693.   

To the QUEEN.  
MADAM,  
I Beseech Your Majesty's Pardon, that, without first consulting You, I lay at the Royal Feet of a most Injured Queen the Vindication of a most Injured Party; and I hope this Dedication will have so much Effect upon the Public, as to satisfy the World of my Candour in representing the Measures of Your Majesties, and the Notions of those that are in Your Interest; for it cannot be supposed I dare inscribe that to Your Name, that is contrary to the Royal Intentions of His Majesty and Yourself. I must confess I think I have reason rather to beg Pardon that I have not sufficiently explained the good Inclinations You both have to make us Happy. I choose to put Your Majesty's Name before these Sheets, rather than the King's, (though I suddenly design to dedicate a short Discourse to Him) because, if possible, the World has been more maliciously Unjust and Inveterate towards YOU, than ever against HIM; nay, some have presumed to censure Your Majesty for those Errors and Mistakes of His Reign (for which I don't pretend to apologise) which were entirely the Work of His False and Corrupted Ministers: and yet I have heard from those who had Opportunity to know, and who are not much Your Friends, that Public Affairs were not Your Concern whilst His Majestly was here; which is the more to be admired and applauded in Your Majesty, since all that had the Honour to wait upon You about Business when His Majesty's absence in Ireland made it absolutely necessary for You to apply Yourself to it, found in Your Majesty a Genius fitted to all Great Affairs. And, Madam, tho' You retired, as soon as the King returned to St Germains, purely to the exercise of Your own private Virtues; yet I am so assured that the Reflections You then made, whilst You was perfectly forced to look into the British Affairs, and since You have entirely quitted them to His Majesty's Care, have fully convinced You that these are the proper Measures of Accommodation, that I don't doubt but Your Majesty will graciously forgive my Presumption.  
I know few Men approach Crowned Heads without making Panegyrics; but I shall not enter upon a Theme upon which Posterity will better bear Just Things to be said than the present Age will yet; nor is a Courtly Style my Talon, tho' it is from a sense of Your Goodness as well as Greatness that I am devoted to Your Commands and Interest.  
I have heard of but sew Faults that any Party has found with the First Edition of this Paper, which I hope is a good sign that all Men are at last inclined to moderate Things. I am sure it was written with all the good meaning imaginable towards my King and Country, Your Majesty and Posterity, and all the several divided Parties of Your Subjects: And that YOU may be Glorious, and They Happy, is the constant Prayer, and shall be the Endeavour of,  
May it please Your MAJESTY, Your Majesty's most Obedient Subject, and Faithful Servant.   

THE Jacobite Principles Vindicated.  
SIR,  
AS much as Englishmen have been famed for their Hearts, they have been always reproached for their Heads. They have always lost their Wits by National In●oxications. They have been always a tempestuous, a heady, and a divided People: But they never were more apparently so, than they have been in this last Change. They have not only outrun their Own, but the Pretences of their Deliverer. He came not for a Crown, but to redress our Grievances; but we would give the Crown, yet neglect our Grievances, and all Amendment of our Constitution: And we will still maintain our Injustice in the one, and Folly in the other. Those that resolve to do so, may see Maestricht taken after Mons and Namur, Flande● submitted to France, the Confederacy broken, and we (divided as we are, and shall be, amongst ourselves) left to grapple with all that Power, which has now for four Years employed such united Forces. Nor can we hope God will work a Miracle to support so unjust a Quarrel. They may see all this War brought into our own Bowels, into this divided Kingdom; may see it make Havoc and Desolation upon this Island; in a word, may see Friends and Kindred killing and destroving one another, embruing their Hands in each others Blood; and then our pretended Fears may become true, those Miseries overtake us, with the pretended Suspicions of which we have coloured over and countenanced our unrighteous Do. But you think it is too late to or ●w back, and you can see no security in the Restoration; you can't see our Lives, and our Religion, our Liberty, and our Property will be safe. I aver you impose upon yourself, and one Man imposes upon another. But you say you are frighted at the Discourses of some, both Protestant and Catholic, Jacobites. You say they talk for Slavery, and that when we are Slaves, we may be made Papists. Yet if you would consider, you have been invited by published Pamphlets to reflect who among the Jacobites are likely to give you satisfaction. Would you have Men set their Names to what they writ? There are Men that you believe are in King James' Interest, that you have no reason to believe would sacrifice their Country or their Religion, and that I assure you have as true a love for those good things you mention as you can have yourself, and that would join with you and any Englishmen, to ask in a respectful manner for every honest thing that is necessary to secure us from Arbitrary Power, and the Violence of all sorts of Priests, and that are themselves satisfied, and can authentically satisfy you that the King has been a long time willing to make all those necessary Concessions that will secure the Church of England, as the Established Worship, make an Impartial Toleration safe, and for the future put our Liberties and Property out of the Power (as much as good and wholesome Laws can do it) of Maladministration; nay, that are satisfied he must be willing to do so if ever he will come home. There are Jacobites that believe what Gourville is related to have once said concerning our Kings; Qu'n Roy d'Angleterre qui veut estre l'Homme de son Peuple, est le plus Grand Roy du Monde, mais s'il veut estre quelque chose d'avantage par Dieu, il n'est plus Rien. There are Jacobites that are for Reformations, though they believe them more lasting under uncontested Titles than where Title is too great a part of the Dispute; that think it Lawful for Kings, and their Parliaments, to limit and explain the Nature of Prerogatives, though they think it safer to the Constitution to leave it to the three Estates so to do, than for one or two of them to innovate too rudely without the Consent of the other; that own a great Difference between the Changing or Abolition of some particular Laws, and altering Fundamentals. And the greatest Assertors of Liberty must acknowledge, that Prerogatives in Kings, suitable to the Respective Constitution, are necessary to maintain those Constitutions, and to protect their Subjects, and consequently that in all Pacts and Compositions their People make with them, due care should be taken even by the People, not to take from their Kings any essential Powers. Prerogative, like a River, sometimes gains, and sometimes decreases in its Banks; but the Balk of the Community sails safest when it keeps its own Natural Channel, according to the respective Constitutions. Bacon, that writes the Uniformity of the Government of England, is certainly no over Monarchical Author; yet he has this Expression in relation to King Stephen: Too much Countersecurity from the King to the People, is like too many Covenants in Marriage, that make room for Jealousy, and are but Seeds of an unquiet Life. After all, it is certainly the Nature of Englishmen to delight in, and they have been used to a Limited, Explained, and Hereditary Monarchy; and Naturam licet expellas furca tamen ipsa recurrat, will be found true in a Politic, as well as a Natural Sense, by all those who would change our Government into an Absolute Monarchy or Downright Democracy, or that will interrupt the Succession. The Lancastrian Usurpations, and the Late Times, witness this. But perhaps some of these Jacobites you complain of, may think to disgrace what I have said, by calling these Notions Republican. To these Gentlemen I will first Answer, That since we are so Elemented for a Commonwealth, there is no keeping it out but by a Reformation of the Monarchy, that may as apparently Answer all the Reasons why Government was first deposited in the Magistrates hands, either by God, or the People. I will not dispute the Original of Government at this time, but I will offer one thing to these Speculators to consider of, which is, That whilst they too much cajole Kings, they lose their Interest with the People, and misled an English Monarch, and make way for that Government both in Church and State, which they would (if they understood how) oppose. They help the Real Commonwealth's men to Arguments, and give the Presbyterians opportunity to insinuate, and gain the Hearts of the People. Perhaps were the People of England a Prima Materia, I would be very well content that the Draughts of these superfine Projectors should be debated, but I think Machiavelli was as good a Politician as most of Them; and yet he says, If the Variations of Times are not observed, and Laws and Customs altered accordingly, much Mischief must follow. And in another Place, he affirms it a very had Thing to keep them in Servitude, who are disposed to be Free. And whoever has reflected upon the extravagant Courses we have taken to be so, ever since the Beginning of the late Civil Wars, cannot sure doubt of our Disposition: For though we have been mistaken in our Cures, no body can be mistaken in our Propensity. I am no Lord, nor ever desire or hope for any Title. I had rather serve my Country in the Lower than the upper-house; and if my Country never thinks fit to send me to that neither, I shall never Court, much less Bribe, for that Employment from my Country: for I would not be Bribed in it. Yet considering how much the Power of the Lords has in some Reigns been a check to the Encroachment of Kings, and in others to the hot-headedness of the People, I should be willing to screw up the Aristocratical part of our Government, though not to the height it sometimes has had in our Policy: but the present Ferments of England make it impracticable. And though some Men are, I am not for driving Nails that will not go; when we may without breach of Conscience let that Work alone to a more clear-sighted Age. Though I think our Oaths, and the Original Contract of our Law Books, bind us to restore the King; yet I know no Obligation we lie under to restore Power to the Lords, but as there shall appear both great Feasibility and Expediency: I am not for hazarding much for bringing things exactly and minutely to my Platform. It will be always enough for me, if the Fundamentals of our Government are preserved. A Trimmer in Politics, if it means one that would avoid Extremities, and compose Things, and not one that serves himself by all Times and Changes, is a Name and Character that I shall always revere. But to give these Gentlemen a farther Answer, I must tell them, that it is plain, by undeniable Matter of Fact, that to those Persons that engaged in the Scotch Plot, though he had not tried his Fortune in Ireland, nor could the Persons engaged assure his Return, even upon such Condescensions; yet the King granted under the Broad Seal of that Kingdom, a full Redress for all Grievances, and that at the Request of People that had opposed him; so that talking of Terms will be no harsh Language to him now; he can want no farther Illumination, by a longer Series of Misfortunes, to let him see, that Compliance with his People is his true and only Interest. In a private Pamphlet, and in a private Capacity, it is not proper to state the Manner and Bounds of our Redresses: But did ever People re-admit a King they had ejected upon the maladministrations of his Ministers (if they could any ways help it) without making good Provisions? Can any body imagine we expect the People of England should? The Men of S●nse, and Quality, and Estates, amongst the Jacobites, be they Protestants or Papists, don't wish they should do it. Would you have Trials secured? It is the Interest of all Parties, care should be taken about them, or all Parties will suffer in their turns. Plunket, and Sidney, and Ashton, were doubtless all Murdered, though they were never so guilty of the Crimes wherewith they were charged: The one Tried twice, the other found guilty upon one Evidence, and the last upon nothing but presumptive Proof. Either let Prisoners have Counsel, or the Judges be forced to be more impartially so than they were in any of these Cases; and let Juries understand that only Allegata and Probata are to direct their Verdict, and not Deadly Feuds, Foreign Belief, or State Necessity. In Scotland, at all Trials, the whole is taken down in Writing, Word for Word, as well all Probations, as what is said, both by the King's Advocate, and the Panel or Criminal, and is all made a Record; that Aftertimes (when the heat of the Prosecution is over) may examine whether the Judge dealt impartially; and if he did not, and is alive at the review of those Proceed, if the Prisoner suffered Death by his warping the Law, the Judge is to undergo the same Punishment; and if he is dead, the Heirs of the injured Person is to recover equal Damages to what they sustained in their Fortune, by his illegal Sentence, from the Heirs of the  Judge. The Saxons punished false Judges by giving Satisfaction to the Party wronged by them; and as the Case required, by Forfeiture of the Residue to the King, and by his disabling them for ever for Places of Judicature, and by leaving their Lives to the King's Mercy. Who can have the Face to oppose the Revival of something equivalent to that Law? But I will not discuss too particularly the Particulars I shall mention. The granting of that Bill for Judges, that the Prince of Orange refused, and Whitlock's for Trials, will be the Glory of King James' Reign, whenever he is Restored.  
As to the Armed Force of England, I think there may be ways found out to make our Militia as serviceable as any Mercenary Bands, to employ all our Officers that have had Military Experience, to raise from time to time such Numbers of Officers, and such Nurseries of Private Sentinels, as may make both the King and Kingdom safe, add to the Glory and Majesty of our Monarch, and yet not leave the least Umbrage for Jealousy in the Minds of the People. But this is not a time of day for me to lay before the World such Plans. I will not hold forth such Doctrines under any Government I think Unjust, and that I think too have not the Honesty to embrace them if I would. But if ever I see an English Parliament under a Rightful Prince, I will not be wanting in offering my Mite, in this and all other things that may contribute to the Good of my Country: And sure no body can be so unreasonable as to be unwilling to hear from One that has given Testimony of his Loyalty to his King and Nation too, any thing that such an One will propose, to establish the Throne, and quiet the Minds of his Fellow-Subjects. Praetorian Bands in Rome Butchered as well as Guarded their Emperors. It is but very lately that the Janissaries Deposed the Grand Signior, and King James' own Army Deserted from Him in these Kingdoms; and I am confident I can show, that the Love of his Subjects is the best Standing Army for an English King as well as how he shall have it, and be able to look all his Foreign Enemies in the face to boot: But, I say, it is not time for the Publication of these things by my hand, nor will I be too prolix upon any one thing; therefore to come to Parliaments.  
Is there any Man of Sense and Fortune, that does not know them to be the Conservators of all that we hold dear? Can there be an unjuster thing, any thing more fatal, than a partial Representation of the Minds and Interests of Men in that House? Tho' this Reign has taught them to do very little else but give Money, or Sanction to, or Pardons for the Irregularities of Ministers; yet the Design of their Institution is as well to provide Remedies for the Complaints of the Kingdom, as Cash for the Prince's Coffers. I will not debate what is necessary to make them Free, but I am sure they should be so. I will not say how often they must sit, but I am sure they should frequently. Both these Considerations are ●●test for their own House, and I am not willing to make narrow Spirits peevish: But sure no Man of Interest, or that hopes to keep any Reputation with the World, will deny they should be free and frequent, and that they should not be too much Officered, that they may be Faithful.  
I shall not enter into a Detail of what is the Work of Parliaments; but there is One Thing I am sure is very properly Theirs; and that is, to make an exact Scrutiny into the Public Administration, and to bring Ministers (who are above the reach of Common Courts of Judicature, and can stem all other Prosecutions;) I say, It is the Work of Parliaments to bring such Ministers to condign Punishment, if they deserve it.  
I know not any thing wherein Princes, and some of their Subjects, have been more unfortunately mistaken, than in their Wishes that Ministers should be Impunible: whereas Favourites that are not a Cement between Prince and People, that don't consult in all their Actions the Laws of the Constitution, and Inclinations of the Inhabitants, become Rocks of Offence, and bring Ruin, sometimes upon Al●, too often upon their Princes, and, God be praised for it, more generally upon Themselves. What is the Reason of that admirable Maxim, That the King of England can do wrong? Why do the People of England make him an Epicurean God so happy in the enjoyment of His own Majesty? Why do we say, That He neither can nor does disturb the Peace of our World, but because His Eyes and His Ears, His Omnisciency and His Omnipresency, are comprehended in his Ministers; but because, if those Ministers are Troublers of our State, they are to be punished, even for Inadvertencies, and much more for Sins of Malice? Tho' this Revolution has blotted out all our Original Contract, razed all our Statutes and Law-Books, turned our Monarchy topsie-turvey, and scandalously prevaricated from all our Civil Compacts, by employing the Men that persuaded King James to, and acted in what we imputed to him as false steps; yet it was his Ministers should have been punished, and not he himself dethroned; and sure King James, after he has found so many Ministers were false, others flattering and foolish, cannot be unwilling to leave it an everlasting Law to his and our Posterity, that Ministers shall be accountable. It is our Law, tho' both weak and profligate Men have, the one fancied, and the other pretended the contrary; and for that Reason, and that Reason only, it ought to be written more legibly in our Statute-Books: Is it not the Interest of Kings, that Ministers should not Male-administer away all the Affection of their good and loving Subjects? Is it not the Interest of Kings, that the Representative Body should plainly show them by whom and how they are betrayed? Yet, after all, those that will read that excellent Chapter in Machiavelli, which shows how necessary it is for the Conservation of the State, that any Citizen be securely accused, p. 277. of his Works, aught to read the two next pages, which show, that unjust Calumnies are no less pernicious to a Commonwealth than legal Accusations are profitable and good; and there you will find a great difference betwixt Accusation and Calumny. Ministers ought to be punished; I am satisfied the King is willing they should be so, for the future: Sunderland's Ministry suggests that Advice to Him very effectually and strongly; but Beautefeaux also are to be suppressed in all well ordered States.  
One thing seems naturally here to fall in my way, which I beg leave to handle in the most inoffensive manner that I can. I foresee this will less please some Men, for whom no Man living can have a greater Honour than I have; yet I think it of so much Necessity and Importance, that I cannot forbear mentioning it. There was not an ill thing done in King James' Reign, that I did not call so then; and all that know me, know that I have taken it as my Province to represent Truths, be they never so bold or bitter, whilst they are for Instruction. I I am no Advocate for any Man's Faults, nor for any Faults, tho' I would be charitable and goodnatured, forgiving and forgetting, towards all men's Persons. Methinks the State of things require this measure. I scarce believe there ever was a Period of Time, wherein an Universal Amnesty was so requisite; a forgetfulness, as well as forgiveness of all past Crimes. Methinks all sides stand in need of this Temper. If the Ministers of King James exceeded in their Management of our Affairs, as doubtless they did, we have doubtless exceeded too in our Revenge upon the King's Person; and besides, those that have fallen in with the Usurpation have not proceeded against any one Man that has been in their hands, for any thing that was done amiss in the two late Reigns; and therefore methinks it is very hard, if we cannot forgive those that have undergone Banishment, (which in all Countries has been reckoned some sort of Punishment) or such as have hazarded Prisons, or the Gallows, every day. Why should we not forgive all those that serve him amongst us, or that are with the King (tho' they may have had Faults) when we desire, or I am sure aught to desire, that the whole Land should be forgiven? All Parties, and almost all Men, have some way or other been to blame; and therefore there seems to me to be a little too much Passion and Self-interest in keeping up old Grudges. I avoid saying there is any infatuation in keeping them up, tho' I cannot think that it is the likeliest way to prepare the King to close with Wise Councils, to revive or continue our Piques: For the King can scarce be supposed to be without some Kindness for those who have either followed His Fortunes, or ventured their Necks for Him; and cons quently, it is not perhaps advisable to make those that transact in his Affairs (tho' they have been peccant) believe they can have no Quarter, no Share in him, unless he return with a High Hand. They will have some Opportunities to put ill Constructions upon good Advices. I have read of but few of those Heroic Spirits in any Age, who have so divested themselves of all Regard for their own Persons and Posterity, as to be willing to become a Sacrifice to their Country. I think this Age affords fewest Instances of those Great Minds; and therefore I think it the likeliest way to m●ke Men instrumental towards the Good of their Country, to show them that they shall find their own Account in being so. I hope I have expressed myself in as modest and inoffensive words as any, in which I could conceive my Thoughts; and I hope I shall not be so misunderstood, as if I would justify any thing that was by any body done amiss; for I will not justify a false step, even in the King; but I would have us lay aside all the Byasses of Factions and Friendships, and much more all Enmities, that we may unanimously offer to the King Right Notions, and thereby Restore Him to His Hereditary Kingdoms. After all, I would not have less than such a Repentance as gives evidence of Amendment entitle to Absolution, but I would leave Room and Rewards for such Repentance.  
I fear this Moderation, and forgiving of Enemies, will be thought a hard Lesson; but, I bless God, I have practised it, and I think it not only the noblest Precept in Christian Morality, but an admirable Rule in Civil Prudence, especially in our Case; for it is as difficult for a Party that is subdivided within itself to pull down an Usurpation, as it can be for a divided Kingdom to stand.  
But I am sensible I have made too long a Digression, and therefore must omit many other particulars, upon which I would explain myself, and the Sense of many other Jacobites; and I can assure you, I am sorry that any Jacobites say any thing that offends well-meaning Men: but I wish, for their own sakes, my Countrymen would not take a Standard, either of the King's Inclinations, or the rest of his Friends, from their indiscreet Tattle. There are in His Interest those that know, that to talk too loftily and dogmatically, to dispute, as they do in the Schools, concerning Prerogative and the Nature of Monarchy, to stand nicely upon Punctilios, to consult Aristotle's and Xenophon's Kings, is as unlikely a way to come to a mutual Accommodation, as to peruse and and or am of Plato's Commonwealth, Sir Thomas More's Utop a, Harrington's Oceana, etc. There are Men of his sid, that think (as the great Lawgiver Solon did) that a Government must be framed according to the Nature of the Governed, and that he is the best Subject, as well as Politician, that adapts all his Notions to our Tempers; that considers Men, as well as peruses Books, when he is to draw a Scheme; and I believe, as you say, that the high flights of some Jacobites hinder many honest Men from coming into his Interest; and farther, that they sometimes misled the King. Nevertheless, there are in his Interest Men that I assure you are not frighted at Words, nor startled at Nicknames, that know the King of England makes the greatest Figure in Europe when he is best with his People, and that is when he governs by the Measures of Commonweal. These Men know, a good Commonwealths-man was not a Character of Reproach in our Legislation and Politics, till all our Glory dwindled, and the Absoluteness of Ministers was more consulted than the true Interest of King or Kingdom; till a pack of Knaves forged a separate Interest between the King of England and his People, and till they began to call a mixed Monarchy an errand Bull, and would Reform our State by Metaphysical and Court Distinctions: whereas, if our Histories and Statute-Books were consulted, they are every where full of Explanations. Are these Gentlemen you complain of weary of Magna Charta, (which was but a Revival and Recitation of the Saxon Liberties, and ancient British Laws?) I will prove them farther, That Laws and Lawful Prerogatives may be so abused, that it may be fit to take away the One, and to desire that the Other may never be again so used; and that our former Kings have thought so. But I will go no farther back than the Conjunction of the Two Roses, and they may find that in Henry the Seventh's Time Empson and Dudley harassed the People by obsolete unrepealed Laws; nay, it has never been thought mean by our greatest Kings to make Condescensions to their People: And, as haughty as King Henry VIII. was, my Lord Herbert in his History of his Reign, tells you, That in his first Parliament he Repealed, Explained, or Limited those Statutes, by which his Father had taken Advantage of his People; and (as my Lord Herbert judiciously observes therein) was willing to restrain his own Authority, in some sort, that he might enlarge the People's Confidence and Affection. This that King did in the celebrated part, to wit, in the beginning of his Reign, tho' he had at the same time his Exchequer what was equivalent to Seven Millions Sterling now, and was in peaceable Possession of his Throne, and had no particular pressing Occasion to please his People. How much more necessary is this measure to regain the People's Confidence and Affection towards an Exiled Prince? The Author of this History (my Lord Herbert of Cherbury) professes in his Epistle Dedicatory great Deserence to Kings; and that the King (to whom he dedicates his History) had lustrated by his Gracious Eye, and consummated by his Judicious Animadversions, all the parts of that History, as fast as he finished them. And therefore this Instance ought to be of great weight with every body, even with those Jacobites you talk of. It is a Royal, as well as my Lord Herbert's History of Henry VIII.  
I am not ignorant, that this King Henry VIII. is brought as an Instance of a King that could pull up Foundations, and do what he pleased; but there was a strange Concurrence in his Time to help him in the business he was doing, and he did it by Parliaments, and often used Palliations; and perhaps if a Man looks observingly upon his Life, he was but the Head of the Rabble-rout; and that neither He nor the People knew what he would be at. It was an Age big with Changes; and his greatest Exorbitances fell upon a sort of People who were wearing into disesteem, or were of a more private Nature. Besides, he began his Reign with a wondrous good Grace, and he sacrificed now and then a Minister; and what he took from the Church, he divided amongst the Gentry and Nobility. But, after all, I will own there are some Periods of his Reign, wherein the Prince went farther and faster than the Peeple, and he had the good luck to do strange things by in comprehensible ways: For my Lord Herbert of Cherbury (as judicious and sharp-sighted an Author as he is) seems to wonder, and not to understand all the Occurrences of his Reign. His beginning it so condescendingly, makes it less a wonder, that the People were a great while apt to put good Constructions upon what he did afterwards. He gave up Empson and Dudley merely to their Rage; and Woolsey's Fall was pleasing; and, as I just now intimated, he was more Sacrilegious towards the Church, which was then going down with the People, than he was otherwise Oppressive.  
The next Person I will introduce shall be Qu. Elizabeth, whose Speech in the 43d year of her Reign, occasioned by Complaints against Monopolies, is so excellent, that I think fit to transcribe it at length; tho' I will not commend the Sanguinary Laws she made in matters of Religion, as well against Brownists, etc. as Papists, no more than I will many other parts of her Reign. I have often wondered why mere Church of England-men cried out against, or Whigs so much extolled her, ten or twelve years ago; for she was a mere Church of England-Queen: but I protest I know not how enough to commend this Speech which she made to her Parliament; I wish every body would peruse the Context of it in Camden, but the words of it are these:  
We own unto you special Thanks and Commendations for your singular Good will towards us, not in silent Thought, but in plain Declaration expressed; whereby ye have called us back from an Error, proceeding from ignorance, not willingness. These things had undeservedly turned to our disgrace (to whom nothing is more dear than the Safety and Love of our People) had not such Harpies and Horseleeches as these been made known unto us by you. I had rather be maimed in Hand to give allowance of such Privileges of Monopolies as may be prejudicial to my People. The Brightness of Regal Majesty hath not so blinded mine Eyes, that licentious Power should prevail more with me, than Justice. The Glory of the Name of a King may deceive unskilful Princes, as guilded Pills may deceive a sick Patient, but I am none of those Princes; for I know that the Commonwealth is to be governed for the benefit of those who are committed, not of those to whom it is committed; and that an Account is one day to be given before another Judgment-Seat. I think myself most happy, that by God's assistance I have hitherto so governed the whole Commonwealth, and have such Subjects, as for their Good I would willingly leave both Kingdom and Life also. I beseech you that what Faults others have committed by false Suggestions, may not be imputed to me. Let the Testimony of a clear Conscience be my absolute Excuse. Ye are not ignorant that Prince's Servants are now and then too attentive to their own benefit, that the Truth is often concealed from Princes; and they cannot themselves look precisely into all things, upon whose Shoulders lieth continually the Weight of the greatest Business.  
I cannot but observe, before I go any farther, that this Queen was not willing to take upon herself the faults of her Servants; but, on the contrary, gave them very hard Names. I must observe likewise, that Commonwealth was no odious Word then; for she twice in this Speech; and in her time Secretary Smith wrote a Book of our Government, to which he gave that Title. This was an Age wherein Majesty could court, and Ministers affect to be Patriots of the People; and yet Prerogative did not lose much ground, altho' it sometimes yielded.  
But I will come nearer to our Times, as far as the Union of this Island. Sir Francis Bacon advised King James the First (as you may find in his Resuscitatio) to amend by consent of Parliament some of our Laws, and to expunge others, especially Penal Ones.  
He quotes a Learned Civilian (tho' he does not name him) that expoundeth the Curse of the Prophet, Plu●t super eos L●queos, of multitude of Penal Laws; which (continues he) are worse than Showers of Hail, or Tempests upon ; for they fall upon Men.  
He goes on, There are some Penal Laws fit to be retained, but the Penalty too great. And it is ever a Rule, That any overgreat Penalty (beside the acerbity of it) deads' the Execution of the Law.  
He says also, There is a farther Inconvenience of Penal Laws obsolete and out of use; for it brings a gangrene neglect, and habit disobedience upon other wholesome Laws, that are fit to be continued in practice and execution. So that our Laws endure the Torment of M●zentius, The Living die in the Arms of the Dead.  
I chose to express my Lord Bac●n's Mind in his own Words: But I will add to what he has said a farther inconvenience that I myself have observed in the reading of Histories; 〈…〉 Powers, and obsolete Penal Laws, have not only proved a Snare to the People, but given Kings too often an Handle to fall into such Measures as have proved destructive to themselves. Powers in a Crown, that are wholly unfit to be exercised, are only Temptations to Oppression and Misunderstanding. Knight Service was once a very Politic Tenure: It was once fit, before the several People of this Kingdom were mixed and civilised, that whoever was born upon a Lord's Land, should be brought up under his Care; and that no Woman that held Land of any Lord should carry her Estate to any Man that was an Enemy to that Lord: yet in King James the First's days, the same Sir Francis Bacon, tho' then Sollicitor-General to him, in a Conference with the Lords, by Commission from the Commons, made a Speech to persuade the Lords to join with the Commons in a Petition to the King, to obtain Liberty to treat of a Composition with his Majesty for Wards and Tenors This was in the seventh year of K. James' Reign, in Halcyon-days. The Speech is in the 34th page of my Lord Bacon's Resuscitatio, and worth any Man's reading. He therein proposeth, in Recompense of the Revenue of Tenors, a more ample, a more certain, and a more Loving Dowry; Loving Dowry expresseth admirably well, that Kings should be willing to change any part of their Revenue, for what may suit better with the People's inclinations. But I won't make Remarks upon this Speech.  
The next Paragraph speaks of the Nature of those things, and how it is changed with the times. Voca●●●● manent, Res fugiunt, are his words.  
And the next Paragraph to that says a great deal in these two Axioms, Naturae vis maxima, & suus cuique discretus sanguis: for restoring Children to the care of their most affectionate Relatives.  
I come to the Reign of K. Charles I▪ and must say, that the strained use of some Powers and Prerogatives, for which the flattering Lawyers had some dark semblance of Authority in our Law-Books, gave the fatal Rise to the late Civil Wars, which ended in the horrid Murder of that King; and when K. Charles II. was Restored, tho' the first Parliament he called will be allowed by every body to be sufficiently devoted to him, yet he therein, when they were under the greatest Transports and Raptures of Loyalty, passed many Acts that plainly own the great Inexpediency, if not Illegality of several things done in his Father's Days, and secured us against the like Abuses hereafter; and had he lived, he must have owned that he himself had carried the Quo Warrantoes too far, or he would have sat uneasy; and those very Men that were instrumental in Quo-Warrantoing Corporations, did every where declare, that Regulations, which (however illegal I take them to be in themselves, how much soever I think them a Fanatic Rowland for the Church of England Oliver, yet I think they were agreeable to the Powers the Crown reserved to its self in the New Charters;) I say, That those very Men that were instrumental to the Quo Warrantoing Corporations, did every where declare, that the Regulations in the succeeding 〈…〉 Power insecure, and resolved all our Government into an Absolute and Despotic Rule. Questionless there should be some way to punish the Abuses in Corporations, but the Penal Laws that are against Corporations have perhaps annexed to them too great a Penalty; perhaps it would be better to punish the Persons that offend, than to fall upon the poor innocent Charter. I would have the Body Corporate be able to do no wrong, tho' the Members may.  
But it is not my business in this place to propound the Remedies, but to show that it is lawful to make, and that there used to be made, and that there ought to be Reformations now, as well as there have been formerly. And I hope I have made it plain, both from our Histories and Statute-Books, That Civil Infallibility was not formerly an Article in our Politics, nor has it the Universality on its side; nor will any Party abide by it, unless for Personal Ends, or when it serves their own Party. The Papists did not believe it in their days; the Church of England did not believe it when His Majesty was amongst us; and the fanatics never pretended to believe it. Thus you see my thoughts; and, as different as they may be from the Williamites that have deluded, or from the Jacobites that have affrighted you, I defy any of the One to be readier to hazard themselves for their Country, or the Other to venture farther for the Service of King James. All that I desire is, That the King may have for his Motto what the sincere Historian says of the two best Emperors of Rome. Tacitus his words are, DIVUS NERVA, ET DIVUS TRA●●● 〈…〉 MISCUERUNT, IMPERIUM ET LIBERTATEM. And may the remainder of King James the Second days give yet leave, after He has lived long here, to write upon his Tomb, Divus JACOBUS Secundus, etc. Res olim insociabiles miscuit Imperium & Libertatem. I would have the King consult his own Honour; but I think he does it best, when he considers well and throughly of the Liberties of the People. I allow that Maxim to be true, Principum actiones proecipue sunt ad famam componendoe. But no English King will preserve his Memory grateful, in the Records of Time, or his Name dreadful in Foreign Courts, who is not beloved by his People; and none will be so, that does not carefully Fence, and inviolably preserve our Rights. We have been a People always jealous of our Rights, Tenacissimi libertatis. The Word Conquest is often met with in our common Histories, and misleads our common Readers; but though our Nation has been often stormed, our Essential Laws and Customs were never carried. The Romans governed us, in great part, by our own Laws, and the wisest of their Lieutenants found we were more easily governed by Gentleness and Justice, than by Force. The Danes made no alteration in our Constitution; and the Saxon and Norman Invasions ended in Treaty; and the Saxon Government was homogeneous to our Temperament; and when William (called the Conqueror) would have introduced the Customs of Norway, the People neither would, nor did receive them. If a Man reads Histories to understand Government, he 〈…〉 Tale of them; and whoever looks into our Antiquities, will find the footsteps of our Liberties are as ancient as of our Being. But to return to what I was saying some time since, I would not injure my Country for K. James, nor would I injure K. James for my Country. I think your Party wicked, and I fear too many Jacobites are weak: They are weak by fantastic Notions, and violent Aversions, and Personal, Party, and Church-Quarrels. But I would rather lament, than expostulate too freely, and I desire no body to serve King James, but on the Principles of making him the Father of his Country: I once again assure you, I neither do, nor will upon any other; and were he reinstated in his Throne, if he pursued partial Notions, and ungrateful Measures, I would rather make a Vow of Voluntary Exile, than accept the best Employment that a King of England has in his Power to give: I have many times told Him so. And farther, I would always advise him to take into his Business Popular Men, and to let them serve him by the Methods that made them Popular: But at the same time, I say, I would advise him to forget as well as forgive all our Miscarriages. I would have a perfect Act of Oblivion from Him; and I would have the People pass on their part so entire an Act of Oblivion, that they should not gall any one Man for what they did amiss in his Reign, or under this Usurpation, on condition they testify their Repentance by their Amendment of Life. Tho' Henry 4. of France (so justly called the Great) was in his absence arraigned and condemned to 〈…〉 Harquebuses; and this by the Votes and Orders of the Parliament of Tholouse; yet, notwithstanding he recovered his Kingdom by force of Arms, that Great and Excellent King did not in the least revenge their Traitorous and Rebellious Usage; by which Generous as well as Politic Carriage, he added to the Conquest of his Country the Conquest of the Hearts of all his People, reconciling at once all the Animosities and Factions which had been the Product of near Forty Years Civil Wars. Let a new Face of things arise likewise out of our State-Chaos. May the King govern with that Equal Hand, that Merit may be rewarded, and nothing but Vice in disgrace; that those may be thought to serve him best, that most serve the General Good; and let it be a Crime, as well as ill Manners, to revive any of our old Distinctions; let there be no distinction upon the account of Ecclesiastical or Civil Faith; and let Obedience and Allegiance to the Civil Power be the only Test for Preferment. You know, my Friend! I am no Papist, tho' I am for a Civil Comprehension: And as falsely as your Irish Dr. King has traduced His Majesty for what he did in Ireland, I am told one thing for which his Wisdom and Goodness can never be enough commended; and that is, that he required no Oath from any one Man that served him, but trusted to their Honour and their Interest, rather than the Obligation of Oaths, being sure an honest Man would do his Duty without them; and being also convinced by a late and sad Experience, that they never bind a Knave. And thus he truly made himself the King of all Persuasions.  
The Discipline of the Lacedemoniuns was positive, That every Man should keep his Rank or Die; yet they never put an Oath to their Soldiers: Shame and Honour had more Power over those brave Minds, made them even scorn Death (which is the greatest Trial) had a more infallible effect upon them, than we can pretend all Oaths have upon us.  
Notwithstanding this short Remark about Oaths, I am neither Quaker nor Sectaria; therefore a hint is enough from me upon that Subject: But from the several Heads of Discourse I have handled, methinks I find myself under a necessity of clearing, at least, briefly Three things, and I will do it as briefly as I can.  
The First is, That those that are both Zealous and Jealous for Liberty and Property are more in number, than those that are for the Strains and Stretches of Prerogative.  
I find there is a vast and unlucky mistake in the Computations of some People, and that by reason that they do not distinguish between the State and Religious Whig. I allow the Fanatic Whig, or those that refuse to come to our Communion, are not perhaps the twentieth Man in England; but there are very great numbers of Men, who never went formerly, nor do now go, even by reason of their Principle, to any other Church but the Church of England. There are likewise many others, who are not at all Biggotted to any particular Form of Church Worship, who yet mostly, if not altogether, go to the Church of England; and yet both the one and the other of these are as much, or perhaps more nicely whigs in Civils, than are the fanatics, though not so generally called so: So that there are Church of England and Latitudinarian, or (as the Scotch call them) Erastian as well as Fanatic whigs. Now let us consider what Interest all these Three sort of whigs have in our Affairs; what influence they have over them; and you will find by Matter of Fact, that these many years last passed, they all joining upon a Civil Bottom, have all along been too hard for that which is the Church of England, as it is contra distinguished to the Whig. They were fatally so in King Charles the First's Time. But to bring things within all our Memories and Observation, the three last Parliaments in King Charles the Second Reign, is not an improper Season to calculate their Interest and Influence: For than they chose before any illegal or unwarrantable Tricks had been played by either side with Charters, and if the Nation was inflamed by a Popish Plot, I am sure the Court leaned wholly to the High Prerogative Church of England. Then you see that the Bill of Exclusion (tho' it was an excessive and exotic Rant, rather than a natural Effect or Production of Whiggism) was carried in the House of Commons, and that tho' almost all the Members were Charch goers But I will show you yet by a later Instance, that State Whiggism runs thro' this Nation. All those that are for this Government act upon that Principle, and lay aside the Passive Obedience and Prerogative Notions of the high Church of England men; notwithstanding that they keep up the Episcopal Order, the Pomp, Ceremony, and Discipline of the Church of England. And whoever will turn one a King for Maladministration of his Ministers, will never receive him without a Reformation in the Constitution: They will be State-Whigs, tho' they do not call themselves so. It is for Liberty and Property that these Men struggle, tho' they do not know how to name their own Actions.  
The second thing that seems necessary for me to clear, is, That it is necessary to give a Liberty of Conscience; and that these Assertors of Liberty and Property will be for Liberty of Conscience, and be able, upon the King's giving good Securities for our Civil Rights, to give in exchange of them an Impartial Toleration. I will not dispute the inconsistency of Persecution with either the Christian or Moral Law; nor will I take pains to prove that where a Nation is greatly divided into Sects, it is the Interest of that Nation to give every body leave to worship God in their own manner: but I will show the likelihood that the State-Whigs should and will exchange Religious Liberty for Civil Security. And now I must again carry you back to the beginning of the late Civil Wars, and then you will find, because the Church of England would not give Liberty of Conscience, the State-Whigs set up Presbytery. The next Consultation, I must make you acquainted with, are the Debates of the  three last Parliaments of King Charles the Second, and you may easily recollect they were for Liberty of Conscience to all Protestant Dissenters; nay, they made some Votes that were thought extravagant in their favour, some suspending dispensing Votes; for they resolved it as the Opinion of that House, that it was contrary to the Interest of the Nation, to put the Laws (which were then in being) in execution against them: But you will say they did not Vote as much for the Papists. You must consider the Season. Besides that, the Papists have been esteemed errand Courtiers ever since the Reformation. The Pacliament than thought they had a Popish Plot on foot; they thought that Plot was not a Plot for Liberty to worship in the Popish Way, but to introduce Popery, by the Destruction of all our Civil and Religious Liberties. You know at the beginning of my Letter I charged my Country with National Intoxications: We can at some times believe Invisible Pilgrims, Black Bills, St. Jones' Gridirons, and that three thousand Irish can Massacre all England. And when that Popish Plot was prosecuted so violently, the generality of Men looked upon the Papists as Banditti and Misanthropis, in relation to the Protestants; they looked upon them as the Partisans or Janissaries of the Court, Propagators of Civil as well as Religious Superstition and Idolatry. And if these Men had a mind to ruin the Papists at that day, it was not because of their Prayers and Beads, but because they thought them Enemies to our Constitution; not only from their dependence upon the Roman See; but for a mischief that was nigher at hand, their excessive flattery of the Court and Crown; whereas the Dissenters being avowedly tender of Liberty and Property, were not only favoured by all those Parliaments, but influenced great numbers of those who were not of their own Communion, at the respective Elections of each of those Parliaments: So that the Principle of Liberty of Conscience was perfectly prevalent, though they held a strict hand over the Papists, out of the Principle of Self-preservation; and consequently, a trulychosen Parliament will make the Papists Englishmen where they find them so. In farther proof of this last Assertion, I must beg you to remember how King James' Declaration of Indulgence was at first entertained. I know the Universal Joy with which it was first received lasted but a little while; but I know that tho' the Whigs misliked that it should be put out upon a Dispensing Power; yet believing it a Preface to Comprehensive Measures and Latitudinarian Politics, they forgave that blemish in its Birth; and every where so unanimously embraced it, that those narrow Spirits of the Church of England who had a mind, were ashamed, if not afraid to oppose it. Liberty of Conscience would have made K. James the Second Memorable and Glorious in our Histories, had not Sunderland's Artifices, such Speeches as Mr. Alsop's, and such Pampalets as Can there come any Good out of Galilee? spoiled the Noblest Project any English Monarch ever set on foot, which was, A separation of Religious from Civil Interests.  
I confess we can make Popery a Ball-begger when we please, and that ought to teach the Papists Moderation; bue the Liberty and Property-men can also call off the Mob when they please: For you see at this time the Nation finds no fault with the Emperor's and the Duke of Bavaria's Idolatry and Persecution; no nor with the Spanish Inquisition, whilst they fancy (tho' wildly and falsely) they are by their help supporting their own Civil Rights. They fall not upon the Papists here, that they may not displease the Confederates abroad; so that Popery is not so dreadful, as Property and Privileges are dear and charming.  
And now since I have been proving that Interest governs the World, however Men may mistake what is their own Interest, I think myself obliged in the third place to show that it is the Interest of the King, and every sort of Men, that he should be Restored upon Civil Securities; and that it is not the Interest of the King, or any sort of Men, to endeavour that the Restauration should be put upon any other Foot.  
Whilst I show that it is the King's Interest, I shall answer the Objection of those who say the Whigs won't think their Properties and Privileges sufficiently secured, unless the King part with some of his Prerogative. I am sure whilst he is dispossessed he has no Prerogative, or at lest no exercise of, and benefit by it; and the Chance of War is too doubtful to know whether he shall have any, unless the People please. He is outed of his Estate, and can in all probability only have it upon Composition; which if he will not make with us, the Nation will try to the last to keep the Possession; and it has those eleven points of the Law. Nor are all things Prerogatives that flattering Lawyers have called so in Westminster Hall, and some well-meaning, and other self-designing, Ciergy-men, have believed so in their Closets, or preached for as such in their Pulpits. They can see farther than I, that expect to do any thing without an Accommodation. I think it impossible he should be Restored, or were he, that he should keep his Throne, without it. I think it impossible for One Man to govern the People of England, unless they have a mind he should; and they will never have such a mind, unless he sometimes gives way to their Impetuosities. But farther, His Age, and the Minority of his Son, are the highest Inducements imaginable for him to endeavour to leave a settled Government, to quiet the Minds, as well as suppress the Insurrections of the People. There is likewise another Reason, why as a Man of Conscience he must be yielding; for be cannot but be willing that his Son should be educated in his own Religion; and if he will let the Kingdom be secure of their own Religion, and of their own Laws, notwithstanding that the Crown should be of one Religion, and the People of another, I am satisfied that the People of England will be little solicitous which way our Kings think the best to Heaven. This has Argument, as he is a Religious Man. But I must again enforce Condescensions, as the Interest of the King under a Natural Consideration. Good Securities will make the Nation own the Legitimacy of his Son more than all other Proofs; and without out good Securities, there will be pretences that his Birth is disputable; (though I affirm it impossible for any thinking Man to question in his own Mind the Prince of Wales' being born of the Queen's Body.) Compliance with the People made Queen Elizabeth's Title unquestioned; so that those that flatter the King with His Right, and seem to despise our Rights, take the most infallible Course to destroy both the King and his Posterity.  
I need not have said one Word of this matter to inform the King's Judgement; for he is in that Temper in which his Subjects wish him, and that would satisfy a , were he to receive their Petitions and Addresses, to stamp their Votes, and to end our Disputes. I do not speak this by guess, but am convinced of it by many Discourses I have had the Honour personally to have with him, since his Misfortunes; and the Letters I have had from several of the best hands since I left his Court, confirm me he remains in the same Opinion. But I thought it was necessary to say something of this sort, to set before those Jacobites you complain of, the Interest of the King in the truest light.  
As for the whigs of all sorts, every Body knows that they will find their Account in a Restauration upon Civil Securities, and that no other Restauration will please them: So that I will not labour that matter at all; but hasten to show that it is the Interest both of the Church of England and Catholics to promote such a Restauration.  
The Church of England is not secure that she shall be continued the National Church, so long as there is unlimmited and unexplained Dispensing Power; and she saw Quo Warrantoes could produce Regulations, and so I might go through other things. And the Ministers of a Catholic King may again mistake in the Exercise of his Power, if the Boundaries of the Administration are not plainly chalked out; and whilst the Church of England appear Enemies to Liberty and Property, they will lose their Interest with the People; and the next Revolution will conclude in Presbytery and a Commonwealth: For Popery wants Numbers to establish its self; though some of the Members of that Communion may have Vanity enough to hope to establish it; and if the Church of England do not join in Civil Seourities; nay, if there should be a Restauration without them, those Catholics (though it will be to their certain Ruin) may be able to do enough towards it, to make the Church of England fall, and the Presbyterians get all in the Scramble. And tho' the Presbyterians have an odd hankering after a King; yet, after they have been bit once more, they will become tuneable to a Democracy. Nothing can destroy the Church of England, but their Opposition to the Liberties of their Country, or to Liberty of Conscience, or their closing with Comprehension.  
It is a little light, but however I will set down what I have often heard said concerning it by Men of very large Minds. They have said, That if the Members of the Church of England were as good-natured as the Constitution, it is the best-bred, civilest National Church in Christendom. I set it down as a light expression to be used concerning Church-Affairs, and yet there may be Instruction in it: For I believe its Civility, if it does not make too extravagant Compliments of our Liberties, will for ever make it stand; but if our Liberties are not well guarded, that may be pulled down, and Presbytery will be set up.  
As for the Roman Catholics, I think it is in the highest degree improbable that the King should ever be able to come home by Conquest, and yet more improbable he should be able to stay here upon that Title, (if indeed it is One in a Natural King:) and if the Catholics would in all places declare for Civil Securities, I think this is the properest Opportunity for their Incorporation Our having been in Confederacy with Princes of that Persuasion, has made us capable of allowing fair Quarter to those Catholics that are here. We can follow our Interest, notwithstanding our old Grudges, and if the Catholics will come to a Temper, we are enough in one to embody them: Whereas, should not the Restauration be in the Life of the King, the Prince of Wales would be fetched home upon a mere Church of England Plot, and the Proofs of his Birth will be Authentic, and without dispute, during his Nonage, and till he has disobliged us; and the Church of England men will, in point of Religion, carry all things before them, as far as is in Opposition to Popery; he will be bred up a Protestant, and must, in Proof of his being so, consent to any farther Laws that the Church of England will think necessary to secure their Church against Popery: So far will it then be from repealing the Test, or even the Penal Laws, in relation to Catholics. And the Church of England, whilst they may have their Church secured, will, during the Minority of the Prince, (before Flattery will advance to Preferment) agree with the Liberty and Property men for any good and wholesome Laws; and the Protectors of young Princes must give way to the Importunities of the People. Now the Catholics will not have an Opportunity to bribe us by Civil Securities; the Church of England will remember all those Male administrations of his Ministers, for which they turned out King James; and will say it was the Papists hindered us from being redressed against them. And the Whigs will throw it in their Dish, that they offered them Friendship upon Legal Establishments, and that they did not cry out upon the Declaration for Indulgence, tho' founded upon a Dispensing Power, till the Roman Catholics flew, or made at least an appearance to fly, at several of our most invaluable Rights and Privileges. The Whigs will say the Papists doted upon French Power, rather than National Restauration; nay, that they slighted the last, and have every where declared against the King's coming home upon Terms, Concessions, Reformations, and amendment of our Constitution; tho' unless they had intended to exercise a Danish Lordliness over us, their own Welfare must have been concluded in every thing that made England Happy. It matters not how unjust these Accusations will be: it is a true, tho' a course Proverb, It is easy to find a stick, when one has a mind to beat a Dog. Is it the first time that we have against you believed Lies? I neither am, nor I hope to God ever shall be a Roman Catholic; but I have such Bowels towards all Mankind, that I seriously protest I have such melancholy Bodings far the Romans Catholic Party, I foresee such a Period of Calamity (according to Human reckoning) falling upon them, if the King is not restored by Great Compliances with his People, and in his own Person, that it has given me many a painful Though: and I must confess I am infinitely concerned for many excellent Persons of that Communion, who deserve better than to be made a Sacrifice to our Rage and Madness, who deserve all the Benefits of Fellow-Subjects. The Whigs and Church of England-men will come to a Compromise at that day; but in all Human appearance it will be a dreadful one to the Catholics. Now they have an Opportunity to be incorporated with the Protestants; but if they don't make use of it, they may be pitied, but no Man will▪ in all probability, be able to help them. How Universal and Catholic soever their Religion may be in other places, I am sure they are fanatics in England under a Civil Consideration; and therefore that they have all the reason in the World to be State-Whigs, and as such only will ever be impartially used by us.  
I think nothing that I have said has depretiated the Doctrine of Passive-Obedience. I do not pretend to determine who is in the Right in that Controversy, much less to handle it as a Religious One: But give me leave to tell an admirable Story concerning Dr. Colvil, a great Man in the Kingdom of Scotland, but one that was thought not to understand clearly the Principle of Nonresistance. The late Earl of Middleton having him once at Dinner, asked him, Whether there could be no Case in which Defensive Arms were Lawful? The Doctor replied, It was fit for the People to believe them unlawful, and for Kings to believe them lawful. It was an admittable Repartee upon a sudden Question: But perhaps, had he thought of it, he would have said likewise, That it is fit for the Ministers of Kings to believe them lawful too; and I presume the present Earl of Middleton set down that additional Instruction to the Apothegm. For tho', to the eternal shame of the Judges who now sit upon the King's Bench, they violated our Laws in the continuance of his Imprisonment it must be allowed, for his everlasting Honour, that that Noble Lord was as cautious of making the Law the Limits of his Ministry, as if it were lawful to rise up in Arms whenever the Laws were broken.  
But I must Answer your Postscript, wherein you tell me, that you neither know how the King can be restored now the Prince of Orange is in possession; nor what will become of the Prince of Orange if we should restore the King; nor what Security we could have from any Conditions the King could make with us. I Answer, that if the Prince of Orange is not kept in possession by English men, he may soon be brought to Reason; and I do assure you, that there are many Jacobites that desire rather to see the Prince of Orange return to his Station of Stadtholder again in Holland, than wish him any personal Injury: And as for the Security you require for any promised Conditions, you must forgive me if I think you a little insincere, if not trifling, when you place so much Weight upon the Pope's giving King James an Absolution for any Promises he should make. You might have said this artfully to the Mobb; but you cannot suppose that I would believe you were in earnest, though you make such a clutter with it. I allow, as you say, that our Histories tell us of some Kings that were absolved by Popes; but you know that Bulls, Absolutions, and the Pope's Excommunications were like to go farther with the Nation in Popish Times, than they are like to do now: And yet by your very instance of King Henry the Third, you might be convinced, that the People of England never would, even then, let a King be at rest, till he had performed his Promises. I will not write a long Confutation of a thing that I know cannot stick with you, or any wise considering Man. And besides, I do not go about to persuade you to take up with a Constitution, that will depend either upon a King's Temper or Religion, Honour or Veracity. Make a Government that is easy to all, and it will be the Interest of all to preserve it: But if you would do so, you must bring the Right Line into it; you must nicely preserve the Church of England, as the National Church; and yet you must remember that the Kngdom of Heaven is not of this World: You must take care in your Civil Compacts, that Priestcraft does not spoil all at last: You must take care even of a Protestant, in Ordine ad Spiritualia; and let the Tares and the Wheat grow up together. But farther, although you have such wild accounts concerning the Jacobites; there are amongst those that serve King James, Men that know what you are a doing; that know you are looking far and near for a Deliverance; that know how impotent you think the Prince of Orange is to Rule; how that you depise him, as much as the Nation misliked Richard Cremwel before the Restauration; that know your extravagant Projects, and more temperate Thoughts, and yet have accounred for all things; and will, as things ripen, find ways to give you satisfaction, if any thing will. We know that Maud the Empress, even when King Stephen was a Prisoner; and though her Title was indisputable, and though the Nation was all Catholics, lost the Crown, because she was refractory and haughty, and denied to the Londoners, Edward the Confessor's Laws. And I assure you there will be Men that will lay before the King the Necessity and Wisdom of giving Satisfaction to all your Reasonable Demands. If you do not ask too much Countersecurity, things unfit for an English King to grant, there are Jacobites that will not only deliver, but second your Petitions. A Good and Settled Monarchy you may have; and a Commonwealth is scarce practicable, will be hazardous at present, and cannot be lasting.  
I know there are some amongst the Jacobites, who are otherwise Men of great Honour and Worth; and yet suspect every thing, such as you promote is to make the King a Doge of Venice: But there are others who have compared, and taken in pieces, and viewed in parts, all the Models of Government; who, if you would rectify, and not change, either the Name or Nature of ours, will receive very kindly any thing you offer, will instruct you how to make it palatable to the King, and show him how consistent it is both with his Honour and his Interest. Let the manner be decent, and your Propositions allow King James to have the Balance that an English King should have, and must necessarily have in our Constitution. And I assure you many of the Jacobites know no other but such an English King to be our Supreme Head and Governor.  
But, after all, if King James is called home by the Nation, we need no other Security than a well-chosen Parliament. The present Parliament may call him home when they please, without any other Force, but their own denial of Money. And the King's being of another Religion, will in some measure check the effects of a Revolutionary Joy, and prevent our Excesses. And if sober and honest Men would in all Corporations (instead of all other Projects) instruct all the Populace, That all those that drink upon their Members Cost, hazard being Slaves for that Draught; and that it is time seriously to take Care of Themselves and their Posterity, by choosing Men of Virtue, rather than the Favourites or the Factions of any Opinion, whether they are Jure Divino or Original Contract men; Men that are as well Loyal to their Country as their King, and to their King as their Country; Men that have good Nature, Estates, Honesty, Sense, and moderate Minds: Such a Parliament would be an healing Parliament; might not only end, but take away all occasions for Strife and Changes. And Establishment, Virtue and Liberty, are a Nobler Happiness than excessive Riches, pompous Buildings, and all the other Glories that a People can possess. How is the Excellency of the Spartan Institution every where and every day applauded, tho' all their Pleasures seem to be nothing else but Hardships and Self-denial? But we may add Plenty to our Peace, increase our Trade and our Strength, and by our Naval Force, and a perfect Union amongst ourselves, be again considered as the Arbiters of Europe.  
But I am unawares launching into a spacious Subject. It is time to conclude. I wish all Englishmen would consider how to do it; and I wish there could suddenly, before we are undone, a method be found out to reconcile the King and his Nephew, and all his Children, both Natural and National; a method found out to adjust all our Interests, and bring us all to our respective Duties. I beseech God so to order things, that all Sects and sorts of Englishmen may think it a National Good to restore our King. I have read our Annals; I wish every body had. Can I here delineate the Scars and Woulds, the Bloodsheds and Distresses, that the Violation of the Hereditary Title (which will hover over all Usurpations, and all Forms of a Commonwealth) have 〈…〉 could I paint out the Executions, and Extinctions of Noble Families, that the Wars between the Two Houses have occasioned, they would represent but an horrid Prospect, a doleful Scene.  
Oh, Blessed God Visit not this Land for its Iniquities with Destruction; but in Judgement remember Mercy. Let Righteousness and Mercy Restore Him to it, and on them establish the Throne of thy Servant JAMES; Teach Him to go in and out before this great People, which (by our Laws and Oaths, and His Inheritance) thou hast committed to His Charge: Let His Children Honour, His Subjects Obey, and His Nephew be Just to Him, and GOD be Glorified, be still Glorified, in His and Our wonderful Deliverance; that Wickedness may no longer prosper, but Peace return to us, and our children's Children, to all Generations. Amen, Amen. And God put it into the Hearts of all His Subjects to say likewise Amen to this National and Honest Prayer.  
I find that my Letter has grown under my hands; but if it tires you, you must thank yourself that you started so much Game; a great deal has risen before me in writing that I have not followed, tho' I hope I have writ enough to let you know, that whatever Spirit you find some Jacobites in, yet there are others that cannot disgust a reasonable Man; and also that I am the same Englishman you ever knew me, as well as,  
SIR, Your affectionate Friend, and faithful Servant.   

POSTSCRIPT  
THE Letter I sent you last August, being shown to some that are yours as well as my old Friends, and more so to England than to either of us, it was, at their importunity, sent to the Press, soon enough to have been published long before the Parliament met; but when part of it was Printed, the rest was stopped by some Accidents that are not so proper to mention, and therefore some sew Expressions of it may not be altogether so seasonable as they were when I wrote it to you (since the Money is now given;) however I hope in the main it may be of some use. And now we have begun this Scribbling Conflict, I desire that in your next you will let me know when you can reasonably suppose this War, and consequently Taxes, will end? And whether, if the Confederacy should break before you have thought fit to restore your Rightful and Lawful King, or the French are more humbled (as you call it) than they are hitherto, we should not indeed run a greater risk of our Liberties, for the present, (after such a continued Provocation of the King) than either you, or I, or any good English man could wish to see? Tell me likewise, whether those that are not of our Army or Fleet, cannot, if they have a Mind to restore the King upon a National Foot, influence those Natives that are in both, to restore King James, as the Old Army did his Brother. You have read History, and know that an Army of Natives follows the inclinations of the Inhabitants; you know the real Power your Party has in the Nation; and that it is not the Tories, who have broke in upon their own Consciences, but you, who have forsaken your Understandings, that keep the Prince of Orange (as much as you every day ridicule him) from being sent for good and all to Holland; and though you do not know how to make him either value your Persons, or see his own Interest; yet you can soon find ways (notwithstanding your own Latitude) to make an English Army reflect upon their Oaths and Obligations to King James, and their Usage under this Man; nay, you cannot but know they begin themselves to have these Reflections, and therefore with very little pains you may prepare them Nationally to Restore the King; which if they do (with all due regard to him be it spoken) he is, as it were, in our Power, and he must grant those Concessions we really want; and where a King, whose Title is indispured, frankly hears Advice from a duly-elected Parliament, the genuine and united Sense of the Nation may be gathered up, and a Natural Cure given to all our Troubles, and only from thence can come an impartial Settlement. Think of these things seriously, and let not the Discourses of such Jacobites, as you complain of, (who have as little Interest with the Kin●, as you say they have with England) either give you disturbance, or make you any longer willing to undergo worse things under this Usurpation, than you can have any just reason to fear, if the King returns; especially, if you yourselves Restore him. Besides, I must tell you, I have good reason to believe, the King of France himself (with whom you fright the Mob) is not politically an Enemy to a limited Monarchy in England; and that he will agree to a reasonable Peace in Europe, if the Restauration of King James is made one of the Conditions of it; and that he will not be brought to any Peace unless we Restore him, how much soever the Prince of Orange has flattered you, that (instead of the Vineyards and Spoils of Paris, that he seemed to promise) he will bring him to an honourable Peace. I will only 〈◊〉 That whereas some of your Party do now, as you did formerly, raise malicious and unjust Calumnies upon the Queen; I am fully satisfied that she is as desirous the King should comply with his People, as the Noblest and nicest Patriots could be, were King James upon the Throne: She has a mind that the Struggles between the Crown and the People should be adjusted, that so the Succession of her Son may be secured. Think of all this seriously, writ me your mind freely, and act as becomes a true Lover of England. Be not over fond of your own Creation, as a Williamite. Meddle not with those who world yet farther change the Name and Nature of our Government, and then (fiercely as you are so now) be Anti-Jacobite as long as you can. Once again, Adieu.  
FINIS.   

ERRATA.  
DEdication, line 12. for ever, r. even. Pag. 6. col. 1. l. 40. r. Encroachments. Pag. 9 col. 2. l. 9 after this, add part. Pag. 11. col. 2. l. 6. after prove, add to. l. 33. after time, add in.