of the late COUNCEL of STATE, By a Lover of
Peace and of his Countrey: With a Touch at the pretended Plea for the
Army.
SIR,
The many Civilities which you are still pleased to continue to me, and
my very great desire to answer them in the worthiest testimonies of my
zeal for your service, must make my best Apology for this manner of
Addresse; if out of an extream affection for your noblest Interest, I
seem transported a little upon your first reflections, and am made to
despise the consequence of entertaining you with such Truths, as are of
the greatest danger to my self; but of no less import to your happiness,
and, which carry with them the most indelible Characters of my
Friendship. For if as the Apostle affirms, For a good man, some would
even dare to dy, why should my Charity be prejudged, if hoping to
convert you from the errour of your way, I despair not of rendring you
the Person for whose preservation there will be nothing too dear for me
to expose?
I might with reason beleeve that the first election of the Party wherein
you stood engaged, proceeded from inexperience and the mistake of
your zeal; not to say from your compliance to the passions of others;
because I both knew your education, and how obsequious you have
alwayes shewed your self to those who had then the direction of you:
But, when after the example of their conversion, upon discovery of the
Impostures which perverted them; and the signal indignation of God,
upon the several periods which your eyes have lately beheld, of the
bloudiest Tyrannies, and most prodigious oppressors that ever any age
of the world produc'd, I see you still persist in your course, and that you
have turn'd about with every revolution which has hapned: when I
consider, what contradictions you have swallowed, how deeply you
have ingaged, how servilely you have flatter'd, and the base and mean
submissions by which you have dishonour'd your self, and stained your
noble Family; not to mention the least refinement of your religion or
morality (besides that you have still preserved a civility for me, who
am ready to acknowledge it, and never merited other from you) I say,
when I seriously reflect upon all this; I cannot but suspect the integrity
of your procedure, deplore the sadness of your condition, and resolve to
attempt the discovery of it to you; by all the instances, which an
affection perfectly touch't with a zeal for your eternall interest can
produce. And who can tell, but it may please Almighty God, to affect
you yet by a weak instrument, who have resisted so many powerfull
indications of his displeasure at your proceedings, by the event of
things?
For, since you are apt to recriminate, and after you have boasted of the
prosperity or your cause, and the thriving of your Wickedness (an
Argument farr better becoming a Mahumetan then a Christian) let us
state the matter a little, and compare particulars together; let us go back
to the source, and search the very principles; and then see, if ever any
cause had like success indeed; and whether it be a just reproach to your
Enemies, that the judgments of God have begun with them, whilst you
know not yet, where they may determine.
First then, be pleased to look North-wards upon your Brethren the
Scots, who (being first instigated by that crafty Cardinal [SN: Richlieu]
to disturb the groth of the incomparable Church of England, and so
consequently the tranquility of a Nation, whose expedition at the Isle of
Ree, gave terrour to the French) made Reformation their pretence, to
gratifie their own avarice, introduce themselves, and a more then
Babylonish Tyranny, imposing upon the Church and state, beyond all
impudence or example. I say, look upon what they have gotten, by
deceiving their Brethren, selling their King, betraying his Son, and by
all their perfidie; but a slavery more then Egyptian, and an infamy as
unparallel'd, as their treason and ingratitude.
Look neerer home on those whom they had ingaged amongst us here,
& tell me if there be a Person of them left, that can shew me his prize,
unless it be that of his Sacriledg, which he, or his Nephews must
certainly vomite up again: What is become of this ignorant and furious
zeal, this pretence of an universall perfection in the Religious and the
Secular, after all that Blood and Treasure, Rapine and Injustice, which
has been exhausted, and perpetrated by these Sons of Thunder? Where
is the King, whom they swear to make so glorious, but meant it in his
Martyrdome? Where is the Classis, and the Assembly, the Lay-elder;
all that geare of Scottish discipline, and the
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