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made, that the Religious, the Priests and the Nun, fhould Revile and Curfe him, ftoutly refused to perform that Office, saying, that fhe was profeffed Religious, to Pray and to Blefs, not to Curfe and Ban. And if the Perfon and Place can improve and aggravate the Offence, as no doubt it doth, both before God and Man, methinks the preaching Rebellion and Treafon out of the Pulpit fhould be as much worse than the advancing it in the Market; as poisoning a Man at the Com munion would be worfe than killing him at a Tavern; and it may be in the Catalogue of thofe Sins which the Zeal of fome Men declares to be against the Holy Ghoft; there may not be any one more reasonably thought to be fuch, than a Minister of Chrift's turning Rebel against his Prince, which is a most notorious Apoftacy from his Order; and his preaching Rebellion to the People as the Do&trine of Chrift, adding Blafphemy and Pertinacy to his Apoftacy, hath all the Marks by which good Men are taught to know and avoid that Sin against the Holy Ghoft: If you do not provide for the thorough quenching these Firebrands, King, Lords and Commons thall be their meaneft Subjects, and the whole Kingdom kindled into one general Flame.

My Lords and Gentlemen,

When the King fpake laft in this place, before this Day, he faid, when he fhould call the next Parliament he fhould receive their Thanks

Thanks for what he had done fince he had diffolved the laft; for he faid he should not more propofe any one Rule to himself in his Actions or his Councils than this: What is a Parliament like to think of this Action, or of that Council? And that it should be want of Understanding in him if it would not bear that Teft. He told you but now, that he values himself much upon keeping his Word, upon performing all that he promifes to his People; and he hath the worft Luck in the World if he hath not complied with this Promise, and if his Understanding hath failed him in it. It was in a very little time after the Diffolution of that Parliament, His Majefty giving himself a few Days to accompany his Royal Mother to the Sea-fide, (the only time he hath flept out of this Town near this Twelve Months,) that the most defperate and prodigious Rebellion brake out in this City that hath been heard of in any Age, which continued two or three Nights together, with the Murder of feveral honeft Citizens. Let no Man undervalue the Treafon because of the Contemptibleness of the Number engaged in it; no Man knows the Number, but by the multitude of the intercepted Letters from and to all the Counties of England, in which the Time was fet down, wherein the Work of the Lord was to be done; by the defperate Carriage of the Traitors themfelves, and their bragging of their Friends, we may conclude

the

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the Combination reached very far; and in truth we may reasonably believe, that if the undaunted Courage and indefatigable Industry of the Lord Mayor of London, who deferves to be mentioned before King, Lords and Commons, and to be esteemed by them, had not prevented it: I fay, it is probable this Fury would not have been extinguished, before this Famous City, or a great part of it, had been burned to Afshes. If you enquire what the King did upon this unheard-of Provocation, what Vengeance he took upon thofe whose profeffed and avowed Principle was not to diftinguish between him and another Man, nay, to kill him fooner than any other Man, you will find, as was faid of Cafar, that Libentius vitam vi&tor jam daret, quam viƐti acciperent: That his Mercy hath been no less * obftinate than their Malice and Wickedness ; that few Perfons have fuffered; and that he hath restrained the Law from being severe to many, who at the fame time continue their Guilt, and undervalue his Compaffion; that there hath not been a Week fince that time in which there have not been Combinations and Confpiracies formed against his Person, and against the Peace of the Kingdom, which before this time would have taken effect, if God had not put it into the Hearts of fome who were trufted in the Councils, to discover the Defigns time enough for Prevention; and upon all these Alarms, and the Interception of

fuch

fuch Letters as would, in all other Countries, have produced the Rack for further Discoveries, and under the late Government, in this, would have erected High Courts of Juftice for their Punishment, He hath left the Offenders to his Judges of the Law, and those Judges to the precife Forms, and ordinary Rules of the Law.

My Lords and Gentlemen,

If the new License and Corruption of this Time hath exceeded the Wickedness of former Ages, that the Old Laws have not enough provided for the Punishment of Wickedness, they could not Forefee or Imagine, it will become your Wifdoms to provide New Remedies for new Difeafes, and to fecure the precious Perfon of our Dear Sovereign from the firft Approaches of Villany, and the Peace of the Kingdom from the first Overtures of Sedition: If you will not provide Laws to do it, the King will not do any thing extraordinary, even towards his own prefervation.

You fee the Rule by which he hath walked, and as he hath made good his Promife to you, fo I doubt not you will make good his Prophecy, and that he fhall receive Thanks for what he hath done fince he was laft here. He hath told you now what he hath done, That he is refolved to Marry, and refolved whom to Marry; which, I believe, is the most grateful News that the whole Kingdom hath longed for, or could receive from the first

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Day of his Landing here; and when they fhall know the great Deliberation he hath ufed before that Refolution, and the Circumstances in refolving it, they will furely have caufe to confefs, that never King, in the difpofal of himself in Marriage, took fo great Care for the Good and Felicity of his People. Within a very short time after his Landing in this Kingdom, he was moved by the Ambaffador of Portugal to renew a Treaty lately made between that Crown and the Ufurper a Treaty in very many refpects the moft Advantageous to this Nation that ever was entered into with any Prince or People; a Treaty by which at this time that Crown is paying the Penalty (which the Ufurper exacted from it) for the moft Heroick and Noble Act of Honour and Friendship performed by that King to our Mafter, that ever was performed by any Prince towards another Prince in Diftrefs; and yet the King was nothing forward to ratify this Treaty, tho' it is very true every Article in it, but one, was entirely for the Benefit of this Nation, for the extraordinary Advancement of Trade, for the good of Religion, and for the Honour of the Crown yet there is one, one fingle Article that muft oblige the King, as it did oblige the Ufurper, to fupply Portugal with an Army for his Afliftance when he fhould require it; that is, That Portugal fhould have power to make Levies of Ten Thousand Men for their Ser