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<DATE>2012-08-09</DATE>
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<NAME>John Pas</NAME>
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<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<P>AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST An Infectious Aire.</P>
<P>OR A Short Reply of Wel-wi&s;hers unto the Good and Peace of this Kingdome; Vnto the Declaration of the 11^t^h of February, 1647.</P>
<Q><P>Is it fit to &s;ay unto a King thou art wicked, or to Princes ye are ungodly?</P>
<BIBL><HI>Job 34.18.</HI></BIBL></Q>
<P>Printed in the Yeare, MDCXLVII.</P>
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<PB REF="2">
<PB REF="2">
<HEAD>A briefe Reply to the Declaration of the Hou&s;e of Commons.</HEAD>
<P>VVE have read your Declaration, and have thought good to give you this &s;hort account of tho&s;e impre&s;&s;ions that it hath left with us. Wee find it of that nature, that it would faine prompt others to thinke more than it &s;elfe dares &s;peake or utter, and yet &s;peakes much more than it proves. But though we &s;hould take all in&s;inuations for a&s;&s;er|tions, and all a&s;&s;ertions for probations, we cannot &s;ee how all together would be &s;ufficient to bring home the conclu&s;ions: neither that which is expre&s;ly &s;et downe as the profe&s;&s;ed drift of the whole Booke: nor yet tho&s;e that it is farther to u&s;her in: The great &s;inew of that Body: The maine wheele or &s;pring of your Engine, which if any thing mu&s;t doe your feat of di&s;-uniting the hearts of the Kingdome from his Maje&s;ty, and ju&s;tifying your profe&s;&s;ed rejection of him, is that which concerneth the death of the late King. A matter in deed of a very high nature; and though you are loth to expre&s;&s;e your &s;elves therein, yet it is not hard to di&s;cerne what thoughts you would thereby commend unto us. But if you can clearly make good what you intend, why did you not &s;peake it plainly? If you cannot, why doe you goe about by malicious art to in|&s;inuate that which you are not able to make good? Men that are under the power of others, u&s;e indeed &s;ometimes to &s;peake timorous verities: But where men armed with greatne&s;&s;e and &s;trength, &s;peake fearefully, there the Truth is in danger.</P>
<P>But doe you beleeve, or can you thinke to per&s;wade us, that the honour of &s;o great a King, or his ju&s;t power and Rights, are to be laid under foot upon &s;urmi&s;es? upon quodlibeticall and uncertaine conjectures, who&s;e grounds and foundations are rather in the conceits and apprehen&s;ions of men variable according to the variety of their affections, than in the reality of things or actions? When events are liable to divers cau&s;es, and tho&s;e that have their re&s;idence within the brea&s;ts of men, to fixe them upon one without any &s;ound rea&s;on for the choice, but becau&s;e it ap|pearres mo&s;t &s;erviceable to our purpo&s;es, is a fallacy of too open a collu|&s;ion; That we &s;hould tru&s;t our judgements with it in &s;o great a matter; and therefore &s;ince you have proved nothing again&s;t his Maje&s;ty, in that particular, we cannot but inferre, that all that you want of evidence again&s;t him lyeth again&s;t your &s;elves, and doth convince you to have committed as high an offence again&s;t the duty of Subjects, at again&s;t the candour of Chri&s;tians.</P>
<PB REF="3">
<P>As for us, The pious life of his Maje&s;ty; His exemplary carriage in the whole demeanour of his life The quiet and undi&s;turbed temper of his mind, notwith&s;tanding the &s;urly &s;tormes wherewith he hath been at|tempted: His mercy toward others, even toward his enemies, unlikely to con&s;i&s;t with &s;uch horrid cruelty towards his owne &mdash; His con&s;tancy and undauntedne&s;&s;e of &s;pirit in his &s;ufferings, together with his great and commemorable patience; a&s;&s;i&s;ted with the great improbability of the act, as having in it too little an hire of advantage to procure the undertaking of &s;o high an impietie, as that which brought a farre greater addition of burden than honour upon his back: The con&s;ideration of the deare affe|ction between him and his Royall Father, never interrupted by any di|&s;ta&s;te likely to hatch &s;uch a viper in &s;o noble a brea&s;t. The&s;e and many more together, with the highe&s;t engagement of Chri&s;tian charity to our King, as they doe bind us, and even inforce us to abhominate and abhorre the thought of that thought, which you &s;eeme to de&s;ire to infu&s;e into us, and to keep our brea&s;ts armed and grounded, however you have or may di&s;arme us otherwi&s;e again&s;t any in&s;inuations that may lead us therunto:</P>
<P>So when we con&s;ider the rules and practices of &s;ome Politicians, and the nature of man, which is ob&s;erved to be &s;uch, as it is apt to hate tho&s;e whom they have wronged, and to wrong them more; when we con&s;ider what hath been done already, what is dayly done, and what it is &s;ome mens intere&s;t, as the world judgeth of Intere&s;ts to do: we cannot but encline to adhere rather unto this choice, to beleeve it much more likely that &s;uch a thing may be forged by &s;ome again&s;t him, than that he could commit &s;uch a thing again&s;t his Father without any &s;uch inducements either of revenge or intere&s;t: and where the guilt of this is now let the world judge, and which is the greater offence of the two.</P>
<P>But &s;econdly, in ca&s;e it could be proved, and &s;o fully, &s;o demon&s;tra|tively proved, as is requi&s;ite to overcome that large portion of Charity which is due unto a King above all other &s;orts of men, and to him for ought we know above all other Kings, much the more for the &s;ad con|dition wherein you keepe him, &s;o clearly as to be victorions over &s;o many and &s;o di&s;&s;wa&s;ive improbabilities that pre&s;ent them&s;elves in array again&s;t it: we &s;hould indeed even then admit it with great reluctancy, as a truth that it might be thought a kind of impiety to under&s;tand; wee &s;hould then (when we mu&s;t needs) looke upon it as a &s;ad and great affli|ction unto our Nation, and as a great cau&s;e of humiliation (not of tri|umph or in&s;ulting) unto us; That God &s;hould &s;uffer our King to fall into &s;uch a depth of impiety, for the &s;ins of the Magi&s;trate as of the Mini|&s;ter,
<PB REF="3">are u&s;ually the judgements of the people for their &s;ins: But yet neverthele&s;&s;e, we &s;hould hold it our duty even in that ca&s;e to cry out with the holy Prophet, <HI>Micha</HI> 7.9. <HI>We will beare the indignation of the Lord, becau&s;e we have &s;inned again&s;t him,</HI> &amp;c. And to let our &s;elves to the duties of Fa&s;ting, and Prayers, and Teares, for the lamentation and expiation of &s;o horrid an iniquity from his Maje&s;tie and the Kingdome. But we could not be per&s;waded that it were a Chri&s;tian cour&s;e for us to make His iniquity the countenance or excu&s;e of ours: or admit it as a &s;uper&s;edeas or di&s;charge of the bond of our allegeance, though it &s;hould render it indeed much di&s;comfortable unto us; for as a Child owes his filiall honour and obedience not to a good Father, but to a Father, be he good or bad: &s;o Subjects their allegrance not to a good King but to the King: and though wee deny not but Potentates may forfeit their Crownes by their impieties, yet the holy Word of God leades us to be|leeve that none is thereby enabled to take that forfeiture but God; <HI>Saul</HI> forfeited his Crowne by his Sacrilegious intru&s;ion into the Office and Function of the Prie&s;thood, 1 <HI>Sam.</HI> 13 8. &amp;c. and doubled that forfeiture by his di&s;obedience unto the Command of God concerning <HI>Agag</HI> and the &s;poile, 1 <HI>Sam.</HI> 1<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">.9. &amp;c. And God both times proceeds to &s;entence again&s;t him: but yet none mu&s;t take the forfeiture, nor put the Sentence in execution, till God him&s;elfe was plea&s;ed to do it: And therefore notwith&s;tanding all that, <HI>David</HI> dur&s;t not lift up his hand again&s;t him, 1 <HI>Sam.</HI> 24. &amp; 26. <HI>David</HI> him&s;elfe afterwards, though an holy man, yet was &s;o far left unto him&s;elfe for a time by God, that he fell into two horrid and unworthy &s;innes: ba&s;e in the eyes of men as well as hainous in the &s;ight of God: Fir&s;t, committing adultery with <HI>Bath&s;hcha,</HI> at &s;uch a time when her husband whom he &s;o vilely wronged therein, was imployed in the hazarding of his life to doe his &s;ervice; and then to cover that, treacherou&s;ly contriving and procuring his murther: and yet this was no good plea to ju&s;tifie <HI>Ab&s;alom</HI> or the &s;onne of <HI>Bichri</HI> in their rebellions: no nor yet <HI>Shimei</HI> in his foule-mouthed railing again&s;t him for it: But all of them were in their times overtaken with their re|wards: and <HI>David</HI> yet ended his dayes in peace, being reconciled to God by his repentance. <HI>Nero</HI> was as it were a Devill incarnate, &s;o had, that his wickedne&s;&s;e added glory to the per&s;ecutions of tho&s;e that &s;uffered by him: And <HI>Tertullian</HI> u&s;eth it as an argument to prove Chri&s;tianitie to be good, becau&s;e <HI>Nero</HI> oppo&s;ed it: He made it his &s;port to &s;ee his owne Imperiall City &s;et on fire before his face: and then when he had done, cau&s;ed it mo&s;t fal&s;ly and mo&s;t wickedly to be laid upon the Chri&s;tians.
<PB REF="4">And embrued his hands in the bloud of his owne Mother: and yet it is ob&s;erved this very <HI>Nero</HI> was then Emperour and Governour of the Re|manes at that very time when Saint <HI>Paul</HI> wrote unto them to be &s;ubject unto <HI>the higher powers:</HI> and tels them withall, that <HI>whoever re&s;i&s;ts &s;hall receive to him&s;elfe damnation.</HI> Let not any thinke that in this we plead for the wickedne&s;&s;e of Kings: we are &s;o farre from it, that as we doe beleeve the &s;ame &s;innes to be more hainous in them then in other men, and that their very iniquities contract greatne&s;&s;e from their greatne&s;&s;e: &s;o we know and wi&s;h they may alwayes remember that their puni&s;h|ments, if they take not heed, will keep the proportion too, and prove that &s;entence Canonicall, though it be written in the Apocrypha, <HI>that great men &s;hall be greatly torme<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ted;</HI> &s;o that they &s;hall get nothing by their impunitie from men. Neither is it for their &s;akes, but for others that they are &s;o priviledged: For the pre&s;ervation of Government, which is the good of the people.</P>
<P>Nor would we wi&s;h any to imagine that we thinke the&s;e patternes of wickednes have any &s;uch paralells in his &s;acred Maje&s;ties &s;tory, if it may be truly &s;et down as &s;ome would per&s;wade, but only to &s;hew the unfor|ciblene&s;&s;e of &s;uch kind of deductions as our dayes have produced: and if it may be, to prevent the like hereafter. And to &s;hew you here, that the Kings Right unto his Crowne and Government is entire again&s;t all that you have &s;aid, though it could be made appeare (which God forbid we &s;hould imagine) and if &s;o, than there is no ground for us either to with|draw our Allegiance from him: nor is there any ju&s;tification to be found for your &s;trange, undutifull, and we thinke unpatterned re&s;olutions: Wherein you that are &s;ubjects, and in the highe&s;t con&s;ideration of your unlap&s;ed Being; but the great Councell of the King have re&s;olved, not only to make no more addre&s;&s;es to him, but to receive no Me&s;&s;ages from him; &s;o that if he &s;hould happily learne &s;o much humility more by his &s;ufferings, as to petition you for food or raiment, or to obtaine a Phy&s;i|tian for his body, in ca&s;e of &s;ickne&s;&s;e, or a Divine for his &s;oule in another ca&s;e, or in any other way wherein the good of the Kingdome may be concerned never &s;o much; yet like the Adder you have &s;topt your eares again&s;t him, and forbidden all others under the danger of the penalties of Traitors (a &s;trange puni&s;hment for &s;uch a &s;inne) not to receive any Me&s;&s;ages from him, nor to make any unto him.</P>
<P>As if to impri&s;on your King, to bani&s;h Him into an I&s;land, to Seque&s;ter Him from the comforts of His Wife, His Children, His Friends, His Servants; to deprive Him of the very means of His Salvation, by denying Him the a&s;&s;i&s;tance of His Chap|laines: as if all this and much more were nothing, unle&s;&s;e you did withall interdict
<PB REF="4">Him all Society of Mankind: the mon&s;tious inju&s;tice and cruelty whereof we may well wi&s;h had rather been found among&s;t Purkes and Heathens thou us: and grieve that it &s;hould pollute any Chri&s;tian and Engli&s;h Story; But that we may &s;ave you the labour of &s;tudying, or troubling your &s;elves overmuch about the di&s;po&s;ing of the Government of this Kingdome; we de&s;ire you to remember, that when&s;oever, and by what meanes &s;oever the Lord &s;hall plea&s;e to put a period unto the Raigne of His Maje&s;tie, we are &s;ufficiently in&s;tructed who it is that is immediately to &s;ucceed Him in the Government; &s;ince we haue not yet forgetten by his long and forced ab&s;ence, that we have a Noble Prince in the world, de&s;cended from the bloud not only of the Ancient Kings of the&s;e Nations, in &s;o continued and unque&s;tionable a de&s;cent, as is enough to &s;top the mouth of malice it &s;elfe; but al&s;o from the Loynes of many glori|ous Forraine Kings, who&s;e Intere&s;t God defend we &s;hould have any thought of vio|lating, or con&s;enting with any that &s;hall attempt i<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">: and whil&s;t it is &s;o, there is no imaginable he mane Act or accident that can put the Government of this Nation in|to your hands, or leave it to your di&s;po&s;ing So that your conclu&s;ions that you draw &s;o hard for, that you have even broken your Geeres, &s;tick &s;till in the mire, and you are run away without them, gingling your Bells as if all were at your heeles: we are &s;till to &s;eeke for a &s;ound rea&s;on why the King &s;hould be &s;ecluded from His Govern|ment, or from the addre&s;&s;es of a Parliament unto Him, who&s;e very E&s;&s;ence depends upon a corre&s;pondence and communion with him, &s;ince it is their very Parliamentary being to be His Councellers; which cannot &s;tand with a profe&s;&s;ed interception of ad|dre&s;&s;es unto Him, and from Him; nor yet it that were as you would have it, were we to expect a new way of Government or Governours from you. And if the Giant and the <HI>A<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">hilles</HI> of your Declaration, with all the allowances that can be admitted is &s;o weake, much le&s;&s;e will your purpo&s;es lind a For re&s;&s;e in any thing el&s;e that you have &s;aid, which for our &s;elves we have no power to examine; nor have we found truth and &s;idelity &s;o con&s;tant a Companion with all things that have been averred with much confidence in the&s;e times, as to depend in this upon bare avercoments; <HI>Si &s;atis e&s;t accu&s;a&s;&s;e, quis taudem innocens?</HI> God him&s;elfe &s;hould not be innocent, if to be accu&s;ed were to be convicted; we hold it therefore mo&s;t unju&s;t and unrea&s;onable for us to admit any of tho&s;e a&s;per&s;ions which you have laid upon His Maje&s;ty into our beliefe, or to make any re&s;ults at all upon them in the lea&s;t degree prejudiciall to His Maje&s;tie in our opinions, untill we &s;hall &s;ee as well what His Maje&s;tie can an|&s;wer, as what you have objected again&s;t Him; for &s;ince it is a ju&s;tice not to be denied to the meane&s;t of Subjects, nay, to the greate&s;t &s;laves, that they have liberty to &s;peake for them&s;elves, before judgment be given upon their accu&s;ation: we mu&s;t tell you that we hold it a thing again&s;t all equity and right, for you to take the freed<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="3 letters">e to &s;ay what you plea&s;e again&s;t His Maje&s;ty, and in the meane time to keepe Him in that re|&s;traint, that He can neither know what you have objected, nor hath liberty to make His An&s;wer thereunto; We do therefore de&s;ire it of you in point of ju&s;tice to His Maje&s;tie, and in regard of &s;atisfaction to our &s;elves, that this Declaration of yours may be &s;peedily communicated to His Maje&s;tie, and that He may have free liberty (with the helpe of &s;uch Secretaries, and others that &s;hall be needfull, to helpe His Memorie, and to do Him other requi&s;ite &s;ervice therein,) to make what An&s;wer He &s;hall thinke fit thereunto: and that the &s;aid An&s;wer may be as freely publi&s;hed and peru&s;ed as this your Declaration. If you &s;hall deny us this, we &s;hall have &s;o much the more rea&s;on to continue and augment our &s;u&s;pitions: That there was too much gall in that inke that wrote tho&s;e lines which you have &s;ent abroad, and that they are not of &s;uch &s;olid matter as to endure the examination and tryall of a ju&s;t Reply, and &s;hall therfore endeavour to bani&s;h all other impre&s;&s;ions thereof from us, but of hatred unto &s;uch unrighteous practi&s;es, and that which we &s;hall now briefly &s;et downe:</P>
<PB REF="5">
<P>Fir&s;t, that we beleeve it not impo&s;&s;ible, nor a thing to be much wondred <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 word"> by us, or to &s;tick by us in any great prejudice to his Maje&s;ty: That the &s;ad condition and mani|fold difficulties wherewith his Maje&s;ty hath encountred through the mi&s;carriages of others, have found him a man: and therefore (po&s;&s;ibly) have driven him &s;ome times into &s;ome refuges that were not &s;o proper for him at other times, and in another temper of things: as we have ob&s;erved many mi&s;carriages perhaps in others, on le&s;&s;e temptations.</P>
<P N="2">2. That in the mannage of &s;uch affaires which his Maje&s;ty hath been put upon: and in &s;uch a crowd of extraordinary and various exigents, it was not alwaies po&s;&s;ible for His Maje&s;tie to do all things with His owne hand, or to examine all things by His owne are or judgement, that have pa&s;&s;ed as His Acts: many things were nece&s;&s;ary to be committed to the tru&s;t of others: and if perhaps any of them have failed therein, we dare not lay this to the charge of His Maje&s;tie.</P>
<P N="3">3. Therfore we conceive in all equity, that his Maje&s;ty ought not to be judged of by us or his people, by the pa&s;&s;ages that have fallen out in this di&s;temper of his Raign. As we judge not of the complexion of bodies in their di&s;tempers, but in their naturall and healthfull con&s;titutions, and therfore we conceive all or the greate&s;t part that hath fallen out in this bu&s;ines, though it did appeare (as it doth not,) ought to have bin left out of your Declaration.</P>
<P N="4">4. And then fourthly, we can remember or find &s;o little before the&s;e times, that hath not been repaired abundantly, or &s;atisfied by his Maje&s;ty, that we can find nothing to re&s;t an evill thought again&s;t him ju&s;tly thereupon.</P>
<P N="5">5. That wee find in the recollection unto our memories, of divers pa&s;&s;ages that have of late fallen from his Maje&s;ty: That you have no &s;uch cau&s;e as you pretend to com|plaine of his ob&s;truction of Peace, &s;ince we have found him willing as appeareth by his late Me&s;&s;ages unto you: To &s;acrifice all his owne power and greatne&s;&s;e upon the matter, (more for ought we find than ever any King yet offered) to the peace and pre|&s;ervation of us his people: And that the maine things that he &s;tands upon, are the in|tere&s;t of his people in Religion and Liberty, and the intere&s;t of his &s;onne, and not his own, and we &s;hould be mo&s;t unthankfull &s;hould we de&s;ert him for &s;eeking to guard as in tho&s;e things which are &s;o precious unto us.</P>
<P N="6">6. That we are upon good grounds &s;o well per&s;waded of his Maje&s;ty, that we doubt not but very much of what is charged again&s;t him will fall &s;hort of evidence: and are the i&s;&s;ues of her of mi&s;-information or mi&s;-interpretation.</P>
<P>And la&s;tly, we de&s;ire to let you know that our Allegiance is yet unmoved by this battery: &s;o farre that we doe yet de&s;ire of you the re&s;titution of our King, and that his may be admitted to a per&s;onall Treaty; that we may enjoy againe the benefit of that happy Government which hath <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 word"> &s;o pro&s;perous and comfortable unto us. And that you will not to make good your own ends and purpo&s;es, expo&s;e us unto the hazard or another bloudy warre, le&s;t your &s;elves be partakers of the evils thereof. A&s;&s;uring you, that although we know not what God may permit you to force us unto otherwi&s;e by that power which you have, with other colours and profe&s;&s;ion, gotten into your hands; Yet in this we &s;hall not falle by Gods helpe; In endeavouring to pre&s;erve our Allegeance to His Maje&s;tie and our fi|delity to His Po&s;terity after Him: De&s;iting only t<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> be te&s;olved of this one que&s;tion by you as the latter ends Why the Hou&s;e of Lords was waved in a matter of &s;o great concernment to the Kingdome.</P>
<P>We be&s;eech God of his infinite mercy to re&s;tore His Maje&s;ty in His good time from that &s;ad <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 word"> of affliction He is in, not only to the great hurt, but di&s;honour al&s;o of this Nation; and that he will put &s;ome &s;oftne&s;&s;e into your hearts, that you may yet thinke upon tho&s;e cour&s;es that may be for the pre&s;ervation of this poore abu&s;ed and bleeding Kingdome, from an utter and finall de&s;truction.</P>
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