A NEW DISCOVERY Of the Horrid Association & Conspiracy OF THE PAPISTS in Lancashire, &c.   

A New Discovery Of the Horrid Association & Conspiracy OF THE PAPISTS in Lancashire: TO Raise War and Rebellion in the Kingdom of England, during the Absence of King William in Ireland. In a Letter of Instructions from a Roman catholic of Great Quality, in London, to a Papist Mutineer in Lancashire.  
LONDON, Printed for Jonathan Greenwood, 1690.   

A NEW DISCOVERY Of the Horrid Association & Conspiracy OF THE PAPISTS in Lancashire, &c. Instructions sent from a Roman catholic of Great Quality in London, to his Friend a Papist Mutineer in Lancashire.  
SIR,  
THOUGH I can with abundance of good Will, and all the love and liking of a true Son of our Holy Mother Church, applaud your Zeal for the Service of our reputed Declining Cause; yet I must freely ask leave to censure your Discretion, and arraign your judgement for so unseasonable Applications of Wrath and Revenge, at a time when by the unexpected gentle Usage of our Prevailing Adversaries we are obliged in Honour, Conscience and Duty to acquiesce in at least, if not to approve the mildred Proceedings of so justly a provoked Government: For to be plain, though the Extirpation of heresy by the just Enjoynder of our Church, is and ought to be by every of her Members, with all just Zeal and Industry prosecuted and endeavoured, yet I could never arrive to those Heights which some of our high-flown Brethren so warmly maintain, viz. Of endeavouring to raise the Credit of our Church and Religion, by the Loss and Destruction of all necessary Principles of Morality and virtue.  
And although it be certain that too many of our Pastors indulge and promote our Belief, That the greatest villainy is as it were sanctified by the Agents Intention of Service to our Church; yet I must be bold to own, That I cannot more admire and reverence the Purity of our Holy Religion; than detest and abhor the Baseness of such a Principle that is utterly destructive to all Conversation, the Bane of Kings, and Snare to Subjects; that ties up the Hands of Charity, and bids Defiance to all Godliness; a Principle, to the unfortunate practise whereof we owe the Growth of Schism, the Contempt of our Clergy, and our present Fears and supposed Dangers. And lastly, A Principle which we must with shane confess foisted into our Church by a Sect of Men amongst us, whose Ambition, Cruelty and Covetousness has even from the Life of their first Founder forfeited all Pretensions to the Purity of their Title, and whose violent wicked Conduct has been at all times the Plague, and now( at last in England) I fear the utter ruin and Destruction of our Cause and Profession.  
This being premised, I shall endeavour to convince you of the unreasonableness of your Endeavours to raise War and Rebellion( for so I must name it) from these Three Considerations, viz. 

First, From the Ingratitude of such an Action.  
Secondly, From the very little, or really no probability of Success.  
And Lastly, From the dreadful Consequences of such an Attempt, supposing you should fail in it.    
First then, If you will believe the practise of Moral virtues not incompatible with the exercise of our holy Religion; you must confess there are many grateful Returns due to a Prince, who by so many gracious condescensions to his sworn actual Enemies, even after the highest and bitterest Provocations, has so recommended himself to the good Opinions of the better part of the Christian World, as to be looked upon as the Standard of Honour, virtue and courtesy in all the Courts of Europe; his long Sufferance of Affronts and Injuries of the severest nature, even from a Father and uncle, I can let alone, with much more Will than Justice, and rejoice much more at the opportunity of passing them over in silence, than be put to the necessity of a blushy in the repetition; his Father's siding with his greatest Enemy in the robbing and detaining his rightful Inheritance, without the least Plea of Law and Justice; his endeavouring to make him accessary to the Subversion of the Laws of England, and consequently of rendering him odious or suspected to to those who in all probability were shortly to be his Subjects. And lastly, his unimitable Design to set up a Spurious Issue to dis-inherit the Princess and himself.  
All these Designs, I say, which by the sole Counsel and abetting of Jesuits and Papists,( as it was too sensibly believed at least) were Provocations, which without a mixture of Divinity in his Nature, no Mortal could with the least moderation bear, and the least of which, believe me, our beloved Monarch would with the utmost art of Revenge, and the most exquisite Tortures, have retaliated; but quiter otherwise, when by the indisputable Fortune of Arms, by his greatest seeming Interests, by the natural Appetite and desire of Revenge we saw it in his Power, and had the greatest reason in the World to fear his just Resolutions to destroy us; even then I say, we saw him survey us with the Meekness of a Lamb, with the Mercy of a Saviour, and the Generosity of an Hero; and further, that even since his Establishment, there has not, nor in any likelihood will there one Person suffer Death, among the many notorious Malefactors,( as the Law of England calls them) of the two last Reigns.  
Consider this, Dear Sir, and think how inhumanly black even in catholic Countries we shall appear, if after such unspeakable Grace and Goodness, we shall so much as attempt any thing against your Interests, or foolishly trouble ourselves concerning the Pretensions of our so great Benefactor.  
You cannot be insensible, if you will take the pains seriously to reflect in your Heart, that our Condition in reality is now more advantageous and satisfactory, than at any time it has been since their Separation from, and renunciation of the Jurisdiction of our most Holy Father the Pope: For though by the Connivance and Indulgence of our late Gracious Sovereign K. Charles II. and by the Endeavours of his Royal Brother King James the Second, we began to see the Sun of Hope break clearly out upon us, and although by the Power and Authority of each of them, we saw ourselves not only toleratedin the open Profession and practise of our Holy Religion; but also set up Candidates, nay, and actually promoted to places of the greatest Honour and Profit in the Kingdom; Yet between you and I, I must conscientiously own, that those Favours, though highly to our Interest, were yet applied directly against the plain Letter of many positive Laws amongst them, and consequently, that the enjoyment of them, accompanied with the continual Murmurs, and many times open Exclamations( which opportunity alone, we find was to ripen into actual Resistance and Non-complyance) was, and in my Opinion is much less satisfactory to us than the moderate, but voluntary and legal Toleration, at least connivance, which we under the present Government enjoy, and which if we behave ourselves now like Prudent Men, meek and good Christians, true English Men, and Loyal Subjects, we need not doubt to see established upon better, surer, and more lasting Foundations than by all the Fraud, Illegality, and Force we lately made use of( at least as they allege) could ever be expected or pretended: A considering Man with half an Eye might have seen, and judged of the Issue of the violent Proceedings of the last Reign; and though the Ambition and Covetousness of an ill natured Party of Men amongst us,( on whom I have before hinted) who were ever more Famous for the Boldness of their Attempts, than the Success of their Prosecutions, by their crafty Insinuations, blinded us into a belief of the feasibleness of their Designs; yet a small inspection into the fixed Nature of the English in general, would have served for a sufficient discouragement to the precipitate Counsels of those hot headed Policians.  
Liberty and Property are so much the Darlings of the English Nation, that a Man might with more ease, and better assurance, make an attempt on the Golden apple of the Hesperian Garden, than offer at a public Encroachment on them; and the ever-waking Dragon could not be more industrious to preserve the one, than the Patriots and People of England are to defend the other.  
Now that public Attempts and Encroachments were made on the premises aforesaid, the Breach of most of the Laws made for above a Century of Years in relation to us and them, they say, do very plainly evince( I take a Liberty with you, which perhaps others of our Religious would give me but very little Thanks for; but believe me, all I say is too true) nor will our Objection salue the Matter, viz. That supposing all Things were unraveled, and brought in the same balance as they were before their pretended Reformation, it were but Justice, Conscience and Reason, and which every good catholic ought with his utmost endeavour and industry to prosecute and obtain; to this I answer, that the change of affairs in Church and State that was begun in Henry the Eighth's time, was consented to, and enacted by the consent and free voluntary advice of the whole Kingdom of England by their representatives in Parliament, and that the Laws and Penal Severities made since in the several Reigns of Edward the 6th, Q. Elizabath, King Jac. Car. 1st, Car. 2d, were not against Papists as merely Papists, but as Mutineers, Rebels, Plotters; so that we must really and in all Justice and conscience lay the sanction of most of the Sanguinary and Penal Laws at the doors of our degenerated Brethren, who by their Rebellious Practices, Horrible Contrivances, and Bloody Actions, have justly rendered themselves obnoxious to the best of Governments.  
I press this discourse to you, Dear Friend, with a little more warmth than to you may seem suitable or seasonable, even though granted for truth; but I protest to you upon my Honour and Conscience, that I mean no more by it than by a real and just representation of things to you, I may disengage you from such pernicious Principles which are too often to my own knowledge slurr'd upon us by ignorant, selfish, hot-headed Men, the generality of the professors of our most holy Roman catholic Faith, from the imputations of Blood, Cruelty, Perfidiousness, which by the reiterated Practices of Villains, are too truly, though very hardly laid to the charge of them all.  
And lastly, as your real Friend to dissuade you from the least concurring, abetting, aiding or assisting in that damnable though foolish Association in your own Country or elsewhere, to rise in Rebellion to cause any riots or disorders during King William's absence, by stirring up Arms, or by inciting any of your Friends to any the like designs. For besides that as I  told you already, such practices more especially at this time, are inconsistent with honour, conscience, and especially gratitude due to the benign and generous Disposition of so gracious a Prince from us all: You must in the Second place consider the little or no probability you have to succeed, if you should be so vain to engage in such an enterprise.  
Our Three great Pillars whereon we supinely lean, are, I presume, the assistance of France, the Army in Ireland, and the malcontents in England; all mere Chimaeras, Clouds that in my Conscience this only Summers Sun will dissipate and drive away.  
For First, As to France, the Assistance that we can expect from thence, must be by one, or all of these three Methods, viz.  
First, By sending into Ireland considerable Supplies of Men and money, and all other necessary Provisions of War, and almost all Necessaries for Life.  
Or Secondly, By giving King William a diversion of his Arms in Ireland, by making a considerable Descent upon England.  
Or Lastly, By patching up a Peace upon any Terms with the Confederates, that so he may apply his whole Strength against England, and so force them to a re-acceptance of King James into his Throne again.  
These are the three Proposals, that on that side we comfort and buoy ourselves up with; but which to a Protestant, who maintains that Miracles are ceased, are the most improbable, vain and fictitious Stories as ever were uttered or imagined, and which upon any considerate Man's Enquiry and Consideration, will appear ridiculous even to Ideotism.  
For First, Let us only reflect on what he has done, and from thence we may undoubtedly be able to give a shrewd Guess at what he is, or will be able to do for the effectual re-instating of King James. We all know that Lewis the French King, is by all the Sacred Ties of Honour, Gratitude, Conscience, and above all, of Interest, obliged to stand by King James, and to endeavour by any means to see that Person set at the Helm of the Government of England again, who by a fatal Bigotry to his Friendship, had first chalked him out a Path that lead to the performance of all his ambitious Usurpations. This I say was so plainly incumbent on him for the several Reasons aforementioned, that even the Dolthead of an irishmen has been able to see through it, and expect assistance for the bringing it about, far greater than the aforesaid renowned Hero has been either able or willing to afford: For granting the assistance of Six thousand Men, which even by their own Accounts, want a thousand or two of the number; I cannot but look on it very insignificant to the maintaining of a Kingdom, which by the united Force of England is resolved upon to be reduced: To this add, That the Forces sent from France were so little capable to be spared, that he was forced to desire the like number, or more to be return'd in their places; from whence naturally ariseth this Consideration, That either he has no Men of his own to spare, or that the Irish are not in themselves capable of maintaining the Country; If he has not Men to spare, Where is the mighty assistance we rely upon, and expect thence? If he has, Why do's he not deal more sincerely and effectually for the restoration of the King? And then if the numerous boasted Army of the Irish are not able to drive their Adversaries out; how small an addition of help will four or five thousand Men contribute against so powerful, enraged and resolute Army as will certainly meet them? Then for the Warlike Ammunition, Provision, money, and other necessaries, the Supplies have been so very inconsiderable, that the Irish themselves, though naturally boasting and magnifying their Circumstances, have been ashamed almost to own any; so mightily are these Mountains of Gold, from France, dwindled into Mole-Hills, of Hypocrysy, Perjury, Self-Interest, &c. For believe me, my Friend, Lewis the French King has in the somenting the War of Ireland, no other hopes, aim, or indeed probability of Success, than by getting the strongest Fortresses of the Kingdom into his Hands, to make himself able to drill off for a time the powerful Application of the Arms of England from his own Dominions, and retains not in reality, so much as a grateful remembrance of the Services of K. James to him, nor of assisting or supporting his Pretensions, than under the pretext to make him a necessary Instrument for the furtherance of his Interest: What shall I say of the insupportable insolences, and haughty Behaviour of those few French, not only to the Irish, whom they ought to look upon as Friends and Allies, but even to the King himself, I need not mention; the several peremptory Denials of executing his Orders and Commands, the Haughtiness, and I may justly say Impudence of that little crooked vermin, Monsieur Lazune the French General, is such as has made it become a By-Word throughout the City of Dublin, and rendered the King the very scorn and laughing-stock of his Enemies, and the pity of all others that hear it; Tell me my Friend, would it not make the Heart of an English-man tingle, when he is  told that the King of England is not suffered to dispense even Common Justice to his Subjects, without the Licence of a French Puny General? Oh let the sacred Sense of Loyalty and Duty restrain my rising Passion, lest I undutifully break out into Reproaches of so poor, precarious, degenerate, descending Majesty; and yet this is sincerely true, that neither the Motion of any part of the Army, the Process or Execution of a Malefactor, nor hardly the disposal of a Commission, or place of Trust, is in the power of K. James, before Approbation and Consent first had of Monsieur Lazune.  
From Hence naturally arise hard Words, Jealousies and Fears between the French and the Irish, who, though a People of the thickest Apprehension in Europe, yet cannot but be provoked by such plain gross Impositions; and an Army at variance in itself, will very little need a Chronicler to expatiate upon the famed of their Exploits.  
From hence I fancy you may draw a just estimate of all the boasted assistance France is able to afford towards the Restoration of K. James by any Furniture of Men, money, Provision or Ammunition for the bringing the War in Ireland to its wished perfection. We will now take a short View of what may be expected from him, upon the aforesaid Considerations, if he should happily venture to make an Attempt upon England during the King's Absence.  
In the handling of this Point, I know you expect I should grant you, that the French King is at this time the most powerful Monarch in Christendom; a Concession which if you will take as comparatively with any other one Prince, perhaps I should not quarrel with you about; but if you will needs flatter yourself with an Exaltation of his Strength and Might above the United Forces of all the Confederates, I must be plain to tell you, that any knowing Man can never be a Proselyte to such an Opinion or Belief: Nay, I am so very far from my Assent in that matter, that though I know he has by the irreparable Damage of his own Subjects, by the ruin of many worthy and innocent Princes his Neighbours, by the Desolation and Destruction of many fair populous Countries, by and infinite Effusion of innocent Christian Blood: And lastly, by a long and altogether causeless disturbance of the Peace of Christendom, lulled himself into a fantastic dream of an Universal Empire; yet you and I and all must be sensible that he owes the extent of his Dominions, the exorbitancy of his Power and the very foundation of all his greatness to the unhappy connivance( not to give it a worse name) of our Two last Kings. You cannot I say be insensible that if either King Charles or King James had at any time resolved upon a rapture with France, and had disengaged themselves from that mysterious Association with him( which by the vilest Acts and practices he persuaded them into) they had quickly been able to put a stop to his aspiring greatness; and made the haughty genius of Franee shrink back and quietly contain itself within its proper limits, nevertheless I would not have you from my seeming acknowledgement of his present greatness conclude upon a certainty, or so much as a probability of his being able to make a descent upon England, no, not even in this juncture, for although we may flatter ourselves with the feasibleness of the project; by recounting the many helps they would meet with from the inclinations abundance of us have to join and assist them, yet the obstructions and difficulties to accomplish any thing of Moment to me, seem so inextricable that though I had never so much will I could hardly be brought on to think of any engaging in so mad a design: That four parts of five of the English Nation are cordially affencted to the present settlement of the Nation, I believe may be easily demonstrated; and that the English in general were ever implacable Enemies to the French, has on an hundred occasions been evinced.  
Now from these few Considerations it seems to me impracticable for the French to pretend to make a Descent upon England; and if ever you hope to make me an Abettor of your projects, you must first convince me of the possibility of their success: I presume you will allow double the number for a Descent upon England as was allowed to Ireland, which amounting to ten or twelve thousand( almost the quantity that the Prince of Orange brought with him) will require greater preparations than perhaps the French King will ever be able or willing to advance upon so hazardous an occasion, for beside the almost inevitable danger from the ●… utch and our Fleets, whose good inclinations to attempts of that nature( though upon the greatest disadvantage imaginable) he has too well and lately experimented, I can never believe that he would hazard the lives of ten Thousand of his best men( for such they must be if he has the least hope of succeeding) to the fury of an already alarmed country, and all upon the poor assurance of an inconsiderable number of men of small quality, less ability, and of no reputation or credit: for granting that in every County of England there were two or three hundred persons associated( which is altogether incredible, and indeed hardly possible) you cannot possibly draw together, to any the least considerable body before the very Militia will snap you up, and believe me Sir, King William has so well the Art of keeping as well as gaining a Crown, that none but madmen can believe he would leave the Kingdom exposed to such wretched attempts as these, and for your French I know no readier way upon Earth, to unite the people of England to a general opposition as the project you so much please yourself with: Well but rather than fail of performance( for I am sensisible how much your wise Politicians hate to be baulked) you will have a Peace with the Confederates ready cut and dried, that so you may have France at Liberty to set upon us on all sides, and as it were swallow us up at a mouthful. Well now, this a body would think should without dispute or scruple work its desired effect upon us, and yet upon one serious thought of a considerate man he would think us much fitter to be begged for Fools than hanged for Rebels, if we should be so mad as to attempt an Insurrection upon so miserable wretched an encouragement.  
For first as there is not the least probability, thought or word of a Peace as yet at least, and consequently that you missing the expected assistance may be all taken, hanged and rotten before such a thing can be brought about, so can any thing but an Idiot or wilfully blind man believe that granting a Peace were to be set on foot between the Confederates and France, that ever so many States and Princes of the first rank in Christendom for true honour, bravery, and generosity would ever enter upon a Treaty, exclusive to a Prince whose fool conduct, personal Industry, and assistance has contributed more to the curtailing that immoderate ambition of the French Tyrant, and settling an honourable and lasting Peace to Christendom, than any four of them together? But no less absurdities than these must go down glib with you, if you upon such frivolous encitements will expose yourselves to these unnecessary evils: No, no, believe me, the barbarous and unheard of practices of the French Monarch are not so easily to be compounded; the Confederates are too well acquainted with his Maxims, and trust me, will be as inexorable to his Hypocritical Proposals, as the Protestants here would be to any Remonstrances of King James: The open infractions of the Treaties of Aix la Chapelle and Nimeguen: The infamous and base surprisal of Strasbourg, even in a time of full Peace: The building of the Fort of Hunninghen, contrary to his solemn Promises given to the swissers, are too well remembered by the Confederates to give him the least prospect of a Peace, till returns suitable are made: His Invasion of Flanders and Holland since Eighty Two, and his unexpressible Outrages committed upon the Empire, by attacking the Fort of Philipsbourg, even before any Declaration of War: His wasting the Palatinate with Fire and Sword without the least cause or provocation: His unjust siezing, and basely detaining the Principality of Orange, King Williams Rightful Inheritance, and an hundred other insolences, Robberies and Tragedies committed by him. As they have justly rendered him the Common Enemy of all the catholic World, so you may be sure they have very meanly recommended him to all Protestants, and in particular to the English; and this is sufficient to convince you of your Folly and Madness in any wise relying on the assistance of France, who already begins, like a wearied Gladiator, to lay by its Sword, the better to shield itself from the thickening blows of its vigorous encroaching Adversary.  
Since then, as I have plainly demonstrated your Encouragements, France are so very inconsiderable; that as I have before evinced, you must incur the imputation of downright Folly as well as Ingratitude, to engage yourselves in such horrid attempts on so little encouragements: Let us in the next place consider the vanity of your reliance on the strength of the Army of Ireland for the reduction of King James: And here at first dash appears their cowardly and impolitic behaviour before the Walls of London-Derry; with such an awkard, uncouth look, as I assure you would strike an ill natured damp on any good Opinion I had conceived of them; believe me, it sounds but very gratingly in my Ears, when I hear and am convinced that so considerable a number of Men, and those the choice and flower of the whole Irish Nation, even under the Conduct of their famed French Leaders, and in their first attempt, and flushed with the success of ravaging an unresisting Country before them; I say, it sounds very oddly for these Men to see themselves, by the poor effects of the Garrison of one small Town, so repeatedly baffled, routed, and at last with the help of very small Supplies, utterly and with such precipitancy driven away, that for Forty Miles in length they hardly ventured to steal the Opportunity of looking back: That an Army, I say, of one grain of Reputation should contentedly put up such a signal dishonour, is a strong Argument to me of putting very little assurance in their future achievements; but I know this is easily salved by our Friends with Apologies, as wholly inconsistent with Reason and never lying Interest, as that wretched and never to be forgotten enterprise was with valour, and but tolerable conduct. I know it is readily as insignificantly urged, that they never headed formally to Besiege it; that King James his mildred Nature was willing to soften them into Obedience; that hang it, it was of little consequence if it had been taken; as the Countryman said of the Hare when he could not catch her; Arguments so silly and insipid, so full of absurdity and so undeserving of an Answer, that the Protestants laugh downright at the non-sense of our evasions, and justly conclude us to be in the condition of drowning Men, who piteously catch at every straw to uphold them: Well, but I remember you once objected to me one weighty Argument,( as you thought) and that was the necessity that pressed the Irish to the extremity of defence and opposition from a just despair of obtaining any Reasonable Conditions, or indeed Life, from so severely an enraged Enemy: To this I Answer, that notwithstanding the many Just Pretences King William may have utterly to destroy them, and root them entirely out of the Country; yet such is his known Generosity; known I say, even to all those of the better sort of the Irish Nation, that it seems much more likely than impossible, that upon a small consideration and a good opportunity, they may much rather incline to a moderate composition, than run the miserable hazard of their Lives, and the severities of a second Act of Settlement: They know how wretchedly they have already suffered by a vain fond opposition of an Enemy, who by all advantages in the World, must at all times, even by the vainest of themselves, be acknowledged their superiors, and upon pleasure able to reduce them to a Just Obedience; they have most of them sowrly bit for their last pretensions of rising in Rebellion, and the apothegm is too truly verified in them, that Plots discovered, or Rebellions quashed and suppressed, serve at all times to strengthen the hands of the Prince against whom they are designed; and consequently, of putting it into his Power to determine their Fates according to his Pleasure. If the Irish Army cannot drive out the English this Summer, you'll hardly find them in any tolerable condition able to bring themselves into the Field another; their want of all Necessaries being to be supplied from France, you'll Reasonably be satisfied of the extreme difficulties they will have to keep together: Nay already, notwithstanding their boasted love to King James, they do with so much diffidence march, and prosecute any of their Officers Commands, that it is thought necessary to buoy up their Hearts by fictitious stories of the Affairs of England: As that Scotland has declared, and stands out for King James: That there are considerable Risings in England for him: That the English Army are weak, sick, and few in number: That King James expects nothing but the Fleet, who undoubtedly will come over to him, and then he shall be able to Transport himself and his Army, and over-run all his Enemies in the twinkling of an Eye; all mere stuff and banter; chimaeras bread only in the doltish Brain of an Irish Politician, and which will serve to make their ruin more universal; for let me tell you, this project of deceiving the poor Irish, will in all probability be the greatest advance to the affairs of King William as may be; for when they shall be drawn out, as it were only to Plunder and Ravage a small body of weak Men, who already( as they are made believe) languish with want of all Necessaries, &c. and find unexpectedly, a vigorous, large, puissant Army, in all things complete;( for such really is King Williams Army in Ireland) the unexpected surprise, their own Natural Cowardice, and the apprehensions of the Calamities they must of necessity expect from any Fruitless Resistance, will undoubtedly recollect their Senses, and very naturally incline them to harken to any Conditions of Peace, rather than expose themselves afresh to the Arbitrary Determinations of an enraged Prince, and conquering Army: But perhaps you will here object, and tell me, that I beg the question, and seem to swallow down suppositions, which by good assurances to the contrary you will not grant; you'll tell me that you doubt not of a brave demeanour, and in good probability you hope for the utter overthrow of the English Army this Summer, &c. Well, but in answer to all this, I will only tell you, that supposing the Irish Army will venture to look the English in the face, yet if a body by all Reasonable Circumstances may conclude of a thing not actually done, you'll find but very little encouragement from their endeavours: For tell me, did they ever since the War begun, in any the least action, skirmish or assault, behave themselves with the least glimpse of Honour or Courage. The small Actions of Sligoe, Bellturbet, Charlemont, Ballingargy, Dundalk, &c. are such sure and reproachful marks of their future Behaviour, that I should be every hour upon making my peace with God, and preparing myself for a speedy remove, if my Life or Fortune depended upon their trivial assistance. And now dear Sir, I am very fond and apt to believe that I have evidently demonstrated to you the unreasonableness of our endeavouring to raise War and Rebellion against King William and Queen Mary; both from a respect of Honour and Gratitude due to the mildred and bounteous condescensions of the present Government to us; as also from the very little or no probability( if any possibility) of succeeding, or attaining any the least end of such our horrid Insurrection and Rebellion: Which brings me to the last Consideration of the miserable consequences of such attempts, in case of failure;( which you have Fifty to One Reasons to fear:) I say, the sad effects, the ruin, Slaughter, and Misery that will ensue to all the Roman catholics in England: You cannot be insensible of the lamentable ruin and devastation of Houses, chapels, and Persons, made by the Rabble in London, and elsewhere, about the time of the Princes coming to Town: At a time when the Roman catholics were in an entire subjection; when there could not be the least apprehension of danger from them, when they were in such a consternation, affright and amazement, that they might with all reason be much rather pitied than feared; you saw that no Considerations, no Arguments, even from the moderate Protestants, could assuage their Fury, when all respect to all Quality was laid aside; when the very Houses of foreign Ministers and Ambassadors were exposed and ransacked by an heedless strongheaded multitude; if such were then our fears, if such our dangers, if such their inveteracy, and such our misery, what extremities shall we not have now reason to apprehended, if by a weak essay,( for no other I think I have clearly evinced, and you will fatally find it to be) we lay a snare for ourselves, into which if we fall, we may for ever justly despair of any redemption.  
Reflect, dear Friend, upon the reasonableness of this Advice, and withdraw your foot e're you tread the dangerous toils. Remember that slighted or neglected Mercy commonly turns to the severest Vengeance; and think, we shall not have any more such Opportunities of making ourselves easy and happy. Flatter not yourself with the vain assurance of the number of your Associates; believe me, the main part of your assistance must be from Pick-Pockets, Cut-Throats, Pimps, panders, Hectours, Gamesters, Sharpers, and the like; for these sorts of People only are to his Eternal Reproach and our Grief, the Friends and Sticklers for King James: You must in your Conscience confess that these sorts of People were in great vogue at W— ll in the Two last Reigns, and that King James could never indeed hope to bring his projects to perfection, but by the assistance of such Principled Persons; these only are the malcontents of England,( at least for the most part) and then judge by what Ability, Interest and Credit, they can pretend to sway the Country into a general resolution of bringing back King James: Think not that the little grumbling of some unthinking People, who for the Necessary Imposition of a few Taxes, take a liberty of reflecting on the present Government, denotes a Disposition to side with you for the restoring him; the People of England were ever a murmuring Generation on that score; however when the common safety comes to be seriously represented, you'l find your hopes in them disappointed: Popery and Slavery are the two Epidemical Grievances of the Nation; they have, like the Childrens Bug-Bears, in the very mention of them terror; and believe me, in the opinion of the generality of the People, the very Name of King James includes both.  
Remember well that it is not the business of private Men to dispute the Titles of Kings; and since the generality of the People of England, of all Ranks and Degrees, by their Free Representatives in Parliament have thought fit to place King William and Queen Mary in the Throne, let not us who are not the Twentieth part of the People, and who by many positive Laws are excluded from any concern in the Government, foolishly and madly pretend to opposition, and thereby give our ill-wishers, as well as the long-lull'd Justice of the Government, too fair an opportunity for our utter ruin and extirpation: Believe me my Friend, you cannot be so sensible of the inclination of the People from the scattering Discourses of a few Bigots in the Country, as I can from the constant Conversation of all sorts here; and let me tell you, it would prove but a very sorry provocative to Rebellion and rising in Arms, if you heard the unwelcome invitations of the Protestants here as I do; who stick not upon all occasions publicly to wish for a discovery of the least Action of us, tending to a rising; and please themselves hugely with the thoughts of being entirely let loose at us: There's not a House, Family or Person of the Romish persuasion, but what they have already a shrewd eye upon; and believe me, upon the first News of any Insurrection would certainly have their hands. These will appear to you surely dreadful Considerations, to see the Papists on all hands, both innocent and guilty, indistinctly fall Sacrifices both in their Lives and Fortunes, to a blind, impartial, popular Rage; and whoever should have the fortune to escape that, would however lie obnoxious to the Inquisition of the Government; and at least, by fresh Laws be justly tied up from all those Liberties which by Natural Right are the Just Claims, Enjoyments and Happiness of every true English-Man.  
Thus, my dear Friend, I have shown you the two great Paths of Good and Evil, of Peace and War, of Dutiful Submission and Wicked Rebellion. I have laid before you the inconveniencies of the one, and the satisfactions of the other; have abstracted the Englishman from the Papist, the Subject from the malcontent: I have satisfied you of the necessity of Obedience to the Present Government, and the dire Consequences of Resistance. A right Application of what has been said to you, will be all the returns I can wish from you, and which will always preserve to you the value and esteem of  
Your Faithful Friend J. G.  
FINIS.