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<DATE>2014-04-23</DATE>
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<NAME>TCP Staff (Michigan)</NAME>
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<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch B140226.pdcc.</ITEM>
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<BIBNO T="umi">99827500</BIBNO>
<VID>207609</VID>
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<TEXT LANG="eng">
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<DIV1 TYPE="treatise">
<PB N="1" REF="1" MS="y">
<HEAD>An Antidote again&s;t Pretended Caution, To the INHABITANTS in every WARD, In the Choice of their <HI>COMMON-CO&V;NCIL.</HI></HEAD>
<P>THE <HI>Cautioner</HI>'s Advice is like the Wolf's to a well-guarded flock of Sheep, which mu&s;t be divided that it may become an ea&s;y Prey.</P>
<P>With &s;uch gentle Policy he would make &s;everal Religions, not only between Prote&s;tants conforming to Ceremonies, which the Wi&s;dom of our late Parliament has left indifferent, and them who &s;cruple the u&s;e of them; but between the &s;trict adherers to them, and tho&s;e who believe they may &s;erve God acceptably, either with or without them.</P>
<P>That he may &s;ecure &s;ucce&s;s with Men of different Capacities and Under&s;tandings, he has varied his Phra&s;e in two &s;everal Editions; or rather &s;ome Bo|dy, le&s;s a Stranger to common Sen&s;e, has lent him &s;ome in a friendly correction, with a &s;mall &s;prink|ling of Salt.</P>
<P>One Edition will have it, That <HI>our Di&s;ea&s;e is grown de&s;perate, and will &s;oon be incurable, unle&s;s we do herein countermine our Adver&s;aries.</HI> It &s;eems he has a Faculty of curing <HI>de&s;perate Di&s;ea&s;es.</HI> In|deed upon correction he &s;ays, the Di&s;ea&s;e is <HI>growing de&s;perate.</HI> There, he &s;ays, the <HI>Adver&s;aries are both vigilant and &s;ecret (and &s;o mo&s;t dangerous) A|gents;</HI> but in the fir&s;t 'tis, they are <HI>[invi&s;ible]</HI> and <HI>&s;o more dangerous:</HI> and indeed mo&s;t of the <HI>Adver|&s;aries</HI> to the <HI>&s;ettled Religion,</HI> for which he would be thought very zealous, are of his own conjuring up, and <HI>invi&s;ible</HI> to all that are unacquainted with his Spell.</P>
<P>To follow the Example of them who compos'd the Form of Prayers for the Re&s;toration of their Prince, whom they &s;ay the Sins of Prie&s;t and Peo|ple have kept out; this Writer has his Litany too.</P>
<P><HI>According to one Edition.</HI></P>
<Q REND="margQuotes">But let us chu&s;e &s;uch as have been con&s;tant to our &s;ettled Religion, not ea&s;ily &s;wayed by Faction, nor bya&s;s'd by Intere&s;t, joining with us in Wor|&s;hip, and in De&s;ign with our Enemies; <HI>[who can]</HI> be in the Morning a Church-man, and in the Evening for Separation, <HI>[and if the Wind turn the next day, join with the Papi&s;t in pulling down our Fences to bring in Popery]</HI> By which our Church and Government is fir&s;t divided, weak|ned, undermined, and at la&s;t betrayed. <HI>From all &s;uch, as from our wor&s;t Enemies,</HI> let us pray, <HI>Good Lord deliver Vs.</HI></Q>
<P><HI>The other Edition.</HI></P>
<Q REND="margQuotes">But &s;uch as have been con&s;tant to our &s;ettled Religion, not ea&s;ily &s;wayed by Faction, nor by|a&s;s'd by Intere&s;t; joining with us in Wor&s;hip, and in their De&s;igns with our Enemies, be in the Morning a Church-man, and in the Evening for Separation. By which our Church and Govern|ment is fir&s;t divided, weakned, undermined, and at la&s;t betrayed. <HI>From &s;uch, as from our wor&s;t Enemies,</HI> let us all pray, <HI>Good Lord deliver Vs.</HI></Q>
<P>Notwith&s;tanding the great noi&s;e Men of that Opinion, which this Writer profe&s;&s;es, make for <HI>Ca|tholick Communion;</HI> according to one Edition, they who are ready to communicate with Prote&s;tants of &s;everal Denominations, are to be prayed again&s;t as the <HI>wor&s;t Enemies</HI> to the <HI>Church and Government;</HI> Which is demon&s;tration, that &s;uch Men plant both, upon a Bottom divided from common Prote|&s;tancy.</P>
<P>According to the other Edition, all who are of &s;uch generous Principles, as not to confine the Re|formed Religion to a Party, are upon that account uncharitably cen&s;ured, as ready to <HI>join with the Pa|pi&s;ts in pulling down our Fences to bring in Popery.</HI> If indeed Ceremonies are the <HI>Fences,</HI> &s;ome will &s;ay they have many Briars and Thorns in them; and, perhaps, many good Men may, in a legal way, be for pulling them down, or here and there opening a Gap.</P>
<P>But it would &s;eem &s;trange if Papi&s;ts &s;hould join with them in removing tho&s;e Things, which were retain'd for their &s;akes by our Fir&s;t Reformers, who hop'd to win them over to us, and found the bene|fit of &s;uch their conde&s;cen&s;ion, till the Papi&s;ts were forbidden our Communion by the Pope. And ever &s;ince they have &s;lighted the Invitation; and the&s;e <HI>Fences</HI> have &s;erv'd only to keep out many, who pro|fe&s;s the Religion <HI>&s;ettled and e&s;tabli&s;h'd</HI> among us.</P>
<P>They who labour to divide its Profe&s;&s;ors, there|in manife&s;tly &s;erve the only real <HI>Adver&s;aries</HI> to it; as formerly they did, when under colour of <HI>Zeal</HI> for the <HI>Church,</HI> and <HI>Loyalty</HI> to the <HI>Crown,</HI> they re|&s;igned the Engli&s;h Liberties into the Hands of the Papi&s;ts, of who&s;e De&s;igns and Expectations they could not be ignorant.</P>
<PB N="2" REF="2" MS="y">
<P>But they thought their Merit would &s;ecure to them the Places and Profit which they got by their Treachery to their Country. And therefore they who &s;urrendered Charters to have their own Names in&s;erted in them, never apprehended any danger in that Clau&s;e, which gave the King a Power to turn them out at plea&s;ure.</P>
<P>While they render'd our Religious and Civil Rights precarious, and encourag'd the late King to exerci&s;e an Arbitrary Power, to which they would have it believ'd that he had a Divine Right; 'tis certain, how much &s;oever Religion was pretended, it was for the &s;ake of having the Government with their Party: they had &s;o weakned and impoveri&s;h'd them who oppos'd their raging fits of Loyalty, that them&s;elves were put to &s;tand the Shock alone; and too &s;oon found how much better it would have been to have come earlier to that <HI>Temper</HI> with Di&s;&s;enters, which then they held forth with both hands; and it was almo&s;t too late, that they were &s;en&s;ible of what befel them by &s;tanding upon too narrow a bottom.</P>
<P>But when the court complied with the Temp|tation, in finding them alone to receive the Effects of that Power, which they had incited a Popi&s;h Prince to exerci&s;e; then they &s;hewed that the ca&s;e was altered, when them&s;elves were to &s;uffer by it: Nor were any more forward than they to em|brace a Deliverance offer'd by his pre&s;ent Maje&s;ty, e&s;pecially as &s;oon as they found the late King not able to protect them.</P>
<P>Yet many of them &s;oon appeared in their co|lours, and made it evident that they were not touch'd with any Sen&s;e of Gratitude to their pre|&s;ent Maje&s;ties, or Concern for the Publick Good. But their Turn being &s;erv'd, the late King having been oblig'd to take new mea&s;ures, and giving them a&s;&s;urance that they &s;hould be uppermo&s;t, they were for tru&s;ting his <HI>Catholick,</HI> or rather <HI>Pu|nick</HI> Faith, and &s;ending their pre&s;ent Maje&s;ties back uncrown'd: and that many of them are at this very day for re-calling the late King is pa&s;t a Que&s;tion. Some, tho they have &s;worn Allegiance to their pre&s;ent Maje&s;ties, maintain that the <HI>late King</HI> has an in&s;eparable Right: Others ab&s;olutely di&s;own this Government, and refu&s;e to give a&s;&s;urance of Obedience to it. Some Church-men have com|pos'd a Form of Prayers, wherein they pray for its Confu&s;ion: and 'tis to be fear'd that many of the Laity are led by the &s;hew of Devo|tion in them,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><Q>Our holy Religion needs neither can|ting nor wheedling to &s;et it off. <BIBL><HI>Fir&s;t Edit.</HI></BIBL></Q></NOTE> which whatever the <HI>Cautioner</HI> talks of <HI>canting,</HI> have more of <HI>Cant,</HI> than, I dare &s;ay, is ordinarily to be heard among Di&s;|&s;enters.</P>
<P>Of his Friends it is to be believed that numbers are meer <HI>Trimmers,</HI> who &s;tand more divided be|tween two Kings, than tho&s;e, whom he calls <HI>Adver&s;a|ries</HI> are between the <HI>Church</HI> and &s;eparate Meetings; they &s;tay for the Event of an expected Battel be|fore they think fit to declare them&s;elves.</P>
<P>But &s;urely all who have any value for the Reli|gion and Liberties of this Prote&s;tant Nation, will endeavour that no Man may be cho&s;en at this time, who has not given good proof of his being en|tirely for the Intere&s;t of King <HI>William</HI> and Queen <HI>Mary;</HI> and therein for the Defence of the common Prote&s;tant Religion, which 'tis to be hop'd will no longer become a Term of Reproach among us.</P>
<P>Nor ought they who have been any way acce&s;&s;o|ry to tho&s;e heavy Grievances, from which their Maje&s;ties have deliver'd us, to be tru&s;ted with means to betray this Great City; till they have brought forth <HI>Fruits meet for Repentance.</HI></P>
<P>This <HI>Cautioner</HI> advi&s;es the Inhabitants within the &s;everal Wards, not to chu&s;e &s;uch as &s;hall again in <HI>defiance to Prerogative,</HI> (or as the Corrector has it <HI>in defiance of Parliamentary Priviledges and Prerogative</HI>) <HI>affront</HI> the <HI>Wi&s;dom and Authority of our Law-makers,</HI> in pe&s;cribing them <HI>Laws,</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg">The 2d Edit. <HI>weighty.</HI></NOTE> <HI>and &s;ending obnoxious Am|ba&s;&s;adors on &s;uch &s;acred Errands.</HI></P>
<P>Wherein he &s;hews him&s;elf to wi&s;h as well to the City of <HI>London,</HI> as they who would have its Char|ter forfeited for petitioning: and the Exerci&s;e of an undoubte Right of Engli&s;h-men is made an Offence again&s;t Prerogative, and breach of Parlia|mentary Priviledg. Men of this heighth have great rea&s;on, with this Writer, to ob&s;erve <HI>the bleeding ca&s;e of the Widows and Orphans, and that the City Government is out of frame.</HI> It is natural for them who have felt the&s;e things, to ask who they may thank for them? and to take care that it may not be imputed to them&s;elves, for their fooli&s;h Confidence in Men, of whom they have had &s;uch woful Experience.</P>
<P>But ob&s;erve the great Ju&s;tice of the&s;e Men, and their Equallity in relation to them&s;elves and others: for them who are not of their &s;tamp to petition concerning the &s;ubject Matter of any Bill, before it has pa&s;s'd into a Law, is an heinous Offence a|gain&s;t the <HI>Prerogative</HI> or <HI>Priviledg</HI> of Parliament, they know not which.</P>
<P>Yet it is very allowable in them to abhor Parlia|ments after they are di&s;&s;olv'd, and to declaim again&s;t the fulle&s;t and true&s;t Repre&s;entatives of the Nation, before Corporations had been put <HI>out of frame</HI> by Arbitrary Judgments, and treacherous Surrenders: And after the great things which this pre&s;ent Par|liament has done, for them, they take a liberty in reflecting upon its <HI>Wi&s;dom,</HI> and &s;ay the <HI>Government of the City</HI> &s;ettled by it, <HI>is out of frame,</HI> and their <HI>Freedom is</HI> &s;till <HI>a Bondage:</HI> who therefore mo&s;t <HI>affront the Wi&s;dom and Authority of our Law|makers,</HI> is left to more equal Judges.</P>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
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<P><HI>London,</HI> Printed for <HI>R. Baldwin,</HI> 1690.</P>
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