by Law established. But for your so justly abhorred Association, which you would infinuate was to have had the Royal Stamp, pray tell me where and when those audacious Ruffians (who would not allow their King, in the Management of his fettled Revenues, the Privilege which the meanest Owner of a Chattel-Leafe hath, in the Difpofal of it) did agree and confent, more than in the taking the Covenant to ask the King's Leave and Liking? Or rather, tell me whether you would not first have taken it, and have afterwards, upon the Point of a Spear, tendered it to him for his Approbation and Stamp, at Holmby Houfe, the Isle of Wight, or Hurst-Castle? How ftrangely (you fay) it looks, that the Mayor of Gl, who is recorded to have done Service against Charles Stuart at Worcester, should now be hugged for advancing these Addreffes! From a Perfon of good Credit I am affured, that this Gentleman, now * Mayor of Gl, was in those Times, with all the Family, expelled that City, because Perfons of known Loyalty. But if it be as you fay, it is not fo ftronge to fee deceived Men undeceived, which happening, none are wont to be more zealous Maintainers of the Caufe which they once oppofed. But it may be, you reflect on him, and the eminent Magiftrate in the City of London, by reason of the Opinion received by many, That Rebellion is never truly repented of: But 'tis a Mistake; for although it be rare, yet we have feen divers eminent Perfons, great in the rebellious Times, far greater in the King's; as Col. JB, and D-- L—— H——, one of the five Members, yet fince a Privy Counsellor, and Ambaffador, entrusted with the weightieft Affairs of the Realm; and above all, the Earl of S-, whofe Riches, Honours, and Trufts, were almoft unaccountable: Yet, to say these were not Men of Principles acting uniformly, but fwayed by Intereft, and ready to engage with the fame Heat in every Thing that lieth in Subferviency to their Gain, what is this, but to upbraid thofe pious, great, and wife Minifters of State with Infincerity, which must be an Inlet to all Villainy and Corruption; which, for you to think, or me to fay, were a Crime never to be expiated? Therefore, if nothing in Men's Actions and Manners doth appear, but what fpeaks them obedient, all good Men will rejoice at their Conversion, notwithstanding the affrightful Blackness of their former Tranfactions. As for your Brethren and Fathers of your Proteftant Corporation and Intereft, discourse them as you please at your own Leifure: But while your Zeal to the former Times tranfports you, no Wonder you mistake Men and Business, and dream all Things tranfacted after the Ufurper's Mode, as if the Country Gentlemen, Grand-Jurors, and chief Burghers of Corporations in these Days, are like your Upftarts, who were indeed mere Tools, and must be managed like Puppets, 'e're they could fqueek a pitiful Address to thofe Bables of Authority. And then, your mentioning the different Opinions of the Papifts in our Days, from those in Queen Elizabeth's Reign, in the Caufe of Succeffion, makes me wonder at your either Error or impofing Confidence, if you either believe, or would perfwade others to believe, the whirling Zealots have not a Papistical Rule and Method for all they do and fay, and change Senfe and Language as they are taught from Rome. You now all along fay exprefsly the fame which they then did, but the Doctrine introduced under the Title of the whole Clergy, Nobility, Gentry, and Courtiers Arguments, concerning the Succeffion of Mary Queen of Scots, is wholly falfe: For, whereas fome of the Puritan X X 2 * Anno 1682. 340 A Second Collection of Puritan Gang (which then began to be fomewhat in efteem with religious Time-fervers) did preach up, and throw forth fuch Difcourfes as you⚫mention, yet was it far from the Senfe of the Clergy or fincere Statefman, who would not alter from the Pattern of Loyalty fet before them, and fealed with the Blood and Sufferings of thofe who drew it, in the Cafe of Queen Mary's and the Lady Jane Grey's Title to the Crown. Though they faw the Danger, yet they had learned to believe in, and rely upon the Divine Providence, which takes care for the Safety of the Church, and bleffeth it chiefly, when the Governors thereof renounce the Refuge of indirect Politicks. And then, what a Story you tell of Affociations in Queen Elizabeth's Time? Which, had they been entered into without her Confent, and of fuch a Draught as this abhorred one, which you so much dandle, no Ignoramus Fury fhould have rescued the Abettors and Concealers from the Gallows. And yet you presently destroy your own rare Tale in the following Paragraph, by pratling where the King fhould reign, even in the Hearts of his People, which you would fuppofe he doth only of those who fubfcribe thefe Addreffes, an inconfiderable Parcel of Men (you fay) if compared with the Bulk of the Nation. Pray, my Lord, tell me, whether the Subfcribers in Queen Elizabeth's Time were a tenth Part of the Number? Yet were they a joyful Guard to her, who, having their Hands, was affured of the reft of inferior Ranks, who were under the Subscribers Command. And whereas you pretend thefe Addresses do proclaim the Weakness of the Government, you are out in that Note upon the Text, for they most certainly magnify it, rendering it glorious abroad and at home, in the Eyes of all who with the Profperity of it; being also a Difheartening to its Enemies, whether Foreign or Domeftick. Nothing can be imagined more to increase the Honours of Efteem towards him in our Neighbours Affections, than to fee the Readiness of the King of Great-Britain's Subjects, throughout the whole Kingdom, to affert the Royal Prerogatives, and give fuch hearty Engagements to defend his Majesty's Sacred Perfon, Crown, and Dignities, the Religion by Law establish'd, and the Right of Succeffion; which laft is no lefs Reputation abroad and at home than the former, because all Disputes and Heart-burnings concerning his Succeffor, difturbing his People's Affections, make him uneafy, and frequently proves of as ill Confequence to any Prince, as if his own Title were in Controverfy; but that, fettled and indubitable, ftrengthens his Power, and blunts the sharpeft Edge of Malice against that Prince that hath fuch a Revenger of any his Reproaches or Injuries. And when the Heads and principal Members of all Counties, Cities, Towns, and other Corporations, do with fo filial a Refpect purge themselves of all finifter Designs or Intentions towards the Crown, either in the prefent Fruition, or future Inheritance, and out of the Ardency of honeft Affections abhor all fuch vitiated and rotten Members as you and others, who are, and have been versed in indirect and difloyal Practices, not only foreign Malignity, but your's is hereby shattered in Pieces, and you, who pretend you tremble at others, are in an Agony with the Thoughts of this, and the co-operating Stings of Conscience. What your Lordship mentions concerning the Portugal King is foreign to the Matter difcourfed, and more ridiculously introduced, than I should a Petition that your Honour, as a Reward for your Oratory and Manners, should be fent to the Houfe of Correction. To conclude, feeing your Lordship fo great a Counfellor and fortunate Statesman, as never to be believed or loved, never to attain to what you feek, because your Mind is more changling than your unfightly Body gives us to fuppofe; and alway knowing, that you never fpeak Truth but as the Devil did Scripture, to corrupt the Holy to Apoftacy (our own Searchings having caufed us ftrongly to confide in the Duke of York's Loyalty, and unparallel'd Love of his Prince, his untainted Candor and Sincerity towards all who faithfully respect their Duty and Allegiance) your forming fuch terrible Dangers to the King and Kingdom by his Authority and Succeffion, doth fufficiently fecure us from Fear: For, were there any real Danger imminent, you would never discover it, it being impoffible but you fhould have an Hand in it. And this Giant Popery, as it is magnified by your Opticks to us, is but a Dwarf: How much properer he may appear to fome, when fhewn from off your Monkey Shoulders, I cannot tell, and leave you to the Trial; whom I defire to pardon for any Thing harshly expreffed, because I hope it may prove beneficial to your Honour, and if fo, it is the fame to Your Lordship's very From Newmarket, Friend and Servant, &c. A REPLY to the SECOND RETURN. 1682. I Received your's in Print by the Penny. Poft, and expected the Date from Ruff. Abbey, and not from New-Market, but I understand your Lordship hath given your Agents in this Town the Lye, and not retired to your Country-house upon the Duke's Coming, but have rather posted down to Newmarket, with the new Hofanna of O Duke live for ever, which was fome Years fince O King live for ever. I find your Lordship is no good Judge of Stile, for I can affure you the Letter was not the Earl of S-'s, and therefore you do ill to take this Occafion of railing at him, unless you are refolved to fave Charges, and do that in your own Perfon, which others are fo unfuccessfully hired to do. It is a notorious falfe Teftimony to fay that Earl was raised from a mean Fortune, when 'tis well known his Father in 1630, long before the Troubles, had a Revenue of between 8 and 9000l. per Annum: And I have heard him often fay, He would yield himfelf to be the worst Man alive, if he in the King's Service got his Maintainance, or did lay up above half his Paternal Revenue; and I think fo able a Man may be allowed at least to be maintained in fo great Employments. Neither do I understand that malicious Hint of merited Severity; it was never applied to any Man that had one of the chief Hands in reftoring a Prince to his Kingdom, as I know he had; and without whofe Courage and Dexterity, fome Men, the most highly rewarded, had done otherwise than they did; therefore I have heard him fay often, That the Act of Oblivion was an Act of the King's Honour and Justice, but not of bis Mercy; it being a Treaty and Agreement, much more facred than any Act of of Parliament can be; and I must tell your Lordship, and your Friends the Papifts, that if you confider what Promises, Declarations, and Engagements the diffenting Proteftants had, both of his Majefty, his Lords, and his Bishops, at the Time of his coming over, and how they have been fince used, and with what Submiffion and Loyalty they have carried themselves, you will not find a parallel Inftance. But your Lordship's Bufinefs is, to keep your Hounds in full Cry against the pretended Affociation; for fince you cannot find one really in being, a Redherring from your own Kitchen must be hunted, and trailed through the Kingdom, to make a Noife. The Malice is more than the Wit in the Matter. You have broken down your Gates in the Chace, and made fo many-Gaps in your own Hedges, that your Cattle are broke out and come to the Pound; and what Sort of Beafts you trade in will be discovered. 'Tis an Impudence beyond the Jefuits, to say that nothing was more exactly proved, nothing more unquestionable and free from Difputes, than that the Affociation was feized in the Earl's Clofet; Gwyn himself neither does nor dare pofitively fwear it, and 'tis judged in that great Cafe of Monfieur Fouquet, that a Man is not anfwerable for Papers feized, when he is refused to deliver them upon Inventory. Fouquet's Enemies were not more bloody and inveterate than the Earl's, nor the Concern of State against him higher; and yet the Law of Nature and Reason can never fubject a Man to fo unreasonable a Danger. Befides, was it ever heard that any Man was questioned for a loose Paper without any Hand to it, found in his Study, that cannot be proved to this Day, nor ever will, that he ever faw, read, or conferred with any about it; neither is it to be proved, notwithstanding all this Popish Clamour and Abhorrors, that ever any one Man did ever fign, or act upon it, or any thing like it. But your Lordship is very plain in the Matter, and would have the Parliament-men in the House of Commons, who promoted the Affociation, have their Heads advanced to the House-Top. I do not doubt but your Lordship and your Friends the Papifts (whofe Religion you have lately taken up, and mean to use while it is convenient) are of that Mind; but 'tis for fome other Votes they then made of declaring Enemies to the King and Kingdom, for otherwife your Lordship, and fome of your Friends, are as much guilty, as any of the House of Commons, of the Affociation; it being to be proved that the Affociation, and the banishing the Duke for ever, was your Lordship's Propofition in the Lords Houfe in the laft Westminster ParliaThe firft utterly difliked by the Earl of Shaftsbury, as no Expedient they could truft in, fince your Lordship, and others of your Make, could not be kept from being in the Head of it. But thofe eminent and worthy Perfons of the Earl of Shaftsbury's Jury must be railed at, at any rate: Yet where your Lordship found that two of the Jury fhould fay, This is the fame with that which we faw produced and promoted in the House of Commons, I cannot tell; I am fure there is no fuch Expreffions in the Proceedings at the Old-Baily, publifhed by Authority: But, between the Veracity of a condemned Jefuit in Newgate, and that of a Statefman mark'd out by a Vote of the Houfe of Commons for an Enemy to the King and Kingdom, I fee there is no great Odds. Your Lordship hath great Reason to be angry, for I confefs they spoiled the best Design that was ever laid, by a damned Popish Party. The Government according according to Law, with the Help of Irish Witneffes, and well-chofen Juries, fhould have delivered you from all the honeft, worthy, and confiderable Proteftants of England, for it is plainly confeffed by your Lordship how far you meant to go; "tis a thoufand Pities that the City Charter were not gone, and that your Lordship and your Fellows might not have the naming of Sheriffs for London and Middlesex, as well as the reft of the Kingdom, and then 'tis plain what Juftice we fhould have for our Lives and Fortunes; the Masters of the Companies would then be hanged with the Journeymen, and Sheriff Pilkinton's confcientious Surry Jury would be found at every Affizes; eight Hundred Pound Damages given to a Fellow, that proved not a Penny Damage re ceived, or poffible to be received by it. But fince your Lordship and your Friends have had fo good a Defign fpoiled, I cannot blame you to be angry but I would very fain guess what you would next be at, or whether your Patience will hold out till the City Charter be taken away, which I affure myself will be long before it be done. I fear you will refort to back the Pattern in the Mount, and follow the Precedent of your bloody Predeceffors, the Guifes in France, cut our Throats and condemn us after, fince we will not quietly be condemned first and hanged after; I am fure this is the next Step can reasonably be expected from Men of your Confcience, and from the Principles and Interefts you are carrying on: Neither let any one blame me for minding you of it, for I know it hath been long in your Mind and often in your Debates, and therefore I thought it more neceffary to warn others of what you are most likely to do. And fince you talk fo much of the Duke of York's Loyalty and Love to his Prince, I pray God preferve the King, and keep him out of your bloody Hands. I beg to know to what Purpose your Lordship recites that my Lord Sy was Lord Chancellor; do you quarrel at any of his Decrees or Actions then? or wherein did he not execute that Office as a great and good Man fhould? And what doth your Lordship mean by the certain ftrict Teft for the Discovery of Popery, oppofed by that Lord in Parliament? The Teft that was paffed against Popery (which every Officer is obliged to take) is notoriously known was principally promoted by him: If your Lordship mean the other Bill of the Teft which he oppofed, 'tis the fame with what the Duke of York hath paffed lately in Scotland, and is a great Step to the Deftruction of the Proteftant Religion. The Truth is, there are fo many of thefe downright Popish Touches in your Paper, that I fometimes doubt whether it be your Lordship's or no, fince you are but a Papift of two Years fanding, and yet they fay young Profelytes are the fierceft; but this Paper muft come from a Papift, or voted Enemy to the King and Kingdom, fince you tell us, that you would have the Days of Diffolving the two laft Parliaments kept Festival, Anniversarily, in Commemoration of your Deliverance from thofe great and apparent Dangers, wherewith you were encompaffed, whilft they were in Seffion: None but fuch Fellows and their Faction being then in Danger. But I find your Lordship extream angry at the Word Faction; fince you will pleafe to have it, that your worthy Ab. horrors and Addreffors are not a Faction, but the Total of the King's Subjects, who confcientiously respect their own Duty and the General Welfare. Pray, my Lord, let us examine this excellent Pofition of your Lordship's, fetting afide your Heat and Railing. Does your Lordship think that the Choice of Sheriffs, the |