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<DATE>2014-10-09</DATE>
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<NAME>TCP Staff (Michigan)</NAME>
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<PB REF="1">
<PB N="1" REF="2">
<HEAD><HI>A Short view of the</HI> MANIFEST <HI>and</HI> REMONSTRANCE <HI>lately publi&s;hed in the name of the County of</HI> Kent.</HEAD>
<P>THough it might &s;eem the extream Act of folly to de|&s;cend to an ob&s;ervance of each rude A&s;per&s;ion on de|rived Powers, when the Highe&s;t Court of Judicature, and Fountain of Authority hath been openly traduc'd, and even prophaned by the irreverent reproaches of Malevo|lent and impure tongues and &s;editious papers; yet le&s;t through the advantage of &s;ilence, the contrivers and &s;pread|ers of tho&s;e late in&s;olent &s;candals, &s;hould occa&s;ionally tri|umph; Rea&s;on wil forgive me the wa&s;te of that brief di&s;cour&s;e which betrayes Calumnies, and clear the proceedings of the mo&s;t wi&s;e, and (when time &s;hall &s;catter the pre&s;ent Clouds, and make way for the breaking out of Truth) the mo&s;t Ap|parently innocent Committee.</P>
<P>The turbulent and unquiet &s;pirits, which were for a long time kept under by the care and vigilancy of a faithfull Com|mittee, taking advantage of &s;ome di&s;tractions in other parts of this Relap&s;ed Kingdome, and the diver&s;ions of the Army grew &s;o factiou&s;ly bold as to &s;ling off their (now u&s;ele&s;&s;e) vi|zard, and appear bare-fac'd in the field, with a <HI>Sword</HI> and a <HI>Manife&s;t,</HI> things fitly conioyned, where the infamy of the lat|ter, mu&s;t be beholden for &s;upportance to the violence of the former; wherein yet they make nothing manife&s;t to the eyes of the world, but the Rotten fruits of old <HI>Malignancy,</HI> not as then utterly extirpated through the mercies of <HI>Parliament,</HI> and Lenity of tho&s;e men whom yet they ri&s;e up in Armes a|gain&s;t for conceived wrongs, and Immaginary oppre&s;&s;ion, then intru&s;ting the vigor of their applauded <HI>Manife&s;t,</HI> as want|ing
<PB N="2" REF="3" MS="y"> &s;tings to wound &s;ingly, (though in coniunction with the Sword) they let flie a <HI>Remon&s;trance,</HI> in which after a vain &s;ug|ge&s;tion of nece&s;&s;ity, exa&s;perating and in&s;inuating their Armies at Publique Peace (The ordinary Gui&s;e of all Rebellions) They invade the Per&s;ons of particular men, and by &s;uch lime-twigs attempt to en&s;nare the mindes, and hold the hearts of the unwary vulgar, although in both tho&s;e iniurious Papers they limit their Grievances within the Pale of their own County, having either too little of valour, or el&s;e too much of cunning, to a&s;&s;ault the Power of the two mo&s;t Honoura|ble Hou&s;es of <HI>Paliament</HI> in a plain open behaviour.</P>
<P>Yet ('tis evident) their Reach was at that Judicature, &amp; how|ever they drive their de&s;ign in a narrower compa&s;&s;e, and after a more plau&s;ible manner, yet their Gra&s;p was at that High Court, and their onely end to give the honour and very be|ing of <HI>Parliaments,</HI> mortall <HI>wound,</HI> through the bleeding &s;ides of that Loyal obedient and ever <HI>Renowned Committee.</HI></P>
<P>To enter here on a narration of their &s;aithfull Acts, and un|paraleld &s;ervices, con&s;ecrated to the good of the State, ever &s;ince the fir&s;t Buddings of the Kingdoms di&s;tractions, how Impartially iu&s;t &s;ome of them have been in the execution of <HI>Ordinances,</HI> even to the pro&s;trating as it were their own natural affections, at the Feet of Ju&s;tice, and their intru&s;ters Com|mands. And how have they been generally lookt upon as the chief Pillars of <HI>Parliament,</HI> and prop of Liberties, &amp; con&s;e|quently have alwayes proved; but now of late more exce&s;&s;ive|ly offen&s;ive to the eyes of men eminently di&s;affected.</P>
<P>This Copious Narration would be incon&s;i&s;tent with in|tended brevity, and challenge a more &s;peciall and lei&s;urable imployment, I &s;hall only touch the particular charges, and from the weakne&s;&s;e of the Crimes objected, leave to every indifferent man to con&s;ider the &s;trength of envy, and the &s;harpne&s;&s;e of her &s;tomack, that can &s;o ha&s;tily leap at empty bates, and bite almo&s;t at nothing.</P>
<P>As to the <HI>Manife&s;t,</HI> the fir&s;t thing they labour to Brand the
<PB N="3" REF="3"> Integrity of the Committee with, is the &s;uppre&s;&s;ing of a Peti|tion; 'Tis true, &s;ome writing there was contrived, &amp; pen'd by the Factious of that County, in oppo&s;ition whereunto, the reverent <HI>Committee</HI> i&s;&s;ued out orderly, &amp; &s;ummons the Coun|ty Forces, but whether it own'd that name wil be only affir|matively decided, by &s;uch Per&s;ons who have the Power, or rather impudence to new &s;tamp <HI>Violence,</HI> and Chri&s;ten <HI>Sedi|tian,</HI> by the Specious name of an humble Petition: When an Armed multitude Accoa&s;ts &s;ome number of naked travellers in the <HI>Kings</HI> High-way, and with the prevailing Rhetorick of <HI>Swords</HI> and <HI>Pi&s;tols</HI> begs their Almes; would any but one as &s;en&s;le&s;&s;e as that multitude would be re&s;olute and mercile&s;&s;e, account &s;uch demanders in the Rank of &s;imple Beggers? And &s;hould not this <HI>Committee</HI> have forfeited, not their Fide|lities onely, but their very Rea&s;ons, if being intru&s;ted with the Peace and quiet of that County throughout &s;warm|ing with Troops of Hor&s;es, and Companies of Foot; After having &s;eiz'd the Publique <HI>Magazines,</HI> po&s;&s;e&s;t them&s;elves of &s;trong houlds, renounced ho&s;tility, again&s;t all who &s;hould endeavonr to oppo&s;e them, and all this under the &s;hadow and fair pretence of a Petition.</P>
<P>I &s;ay, if they had not with&s;tood &s;uch violent perparations, but had even befool'd their own judgement, to a &s;illy belief; that &s;uch furious preparers, were but hone&s;t and well meaning Petitioners: This confe&s;t the wi&s;e <HI>Committee</HI> oppo&s;'d their Councels and Power, before any Actuall Armings and open Po&s;tures of War and defiance. But as in the Naturall body, prevention is the be&s;t part of Phy&s;ick, &s;o in Policies and State-Government, 'tis the highe&s;t commendable&s;t part of Guber|native wi&s;dome to anticipate the Councels of Seditious heads, and to &s;tifle Faction in the very conception, le&s;t comming to a birth, and gathering &s;trength, it grow too unweildy and Potent for &s;uppre&s;&s;ion.</P>
<P>Could that <HI>Committee</HI> be &s;o unskilful in the A&s;tronomy of that ever-rowling and un&s;etled County, as after the narrowe&s;t
<PB N="4" REF="4"> and exacte&s;t Ob&s;ervations, of the number and quality of ex|halations, which from time to time had evaporated in tho&s;e parts, to be ignorant at la&s;t; what fiery Meteors would nece&s;|&s;arily kindle from the confluence of &s;uch unwhol&s;ome mat|ter, and after Demon&s;tracy of the nece&s;&s;ity of event, could they do le&s;&s;e then be&s;tir their &s;trengths, to keep off the fatall Combu&s;tion? had the <HI>Committee</HI> for many uninterrupted years &s;ate as it were at the beds-head of that labouring and feavouri&s;h body, and actually cured it of many de&s;perate di|&s;tempers, as that of <HI>Dover, Tunbridge, Canterbury;</HI> &amp; the la&s;t late unparaleld Petitionary In&s;urrection, rai&s;ed by that Arch Monopolizing Rebell, <HI>Goring</HI> and his complices. And was it not proved at this in&s;tant, after the addition of &s;o long times experience, it &s;hould not di&s;cover the marks of inwardly pu|tred ulcers, and even in the fair and healthful countenance of a Petition, read the <HI>Character</HI> of <HI>Ruine</HI> and <HI>Rebellion,</HI> when in their well-grounded judgments, they fore&s;aw the fire approa|ching, &s;hould they have expected till the flame had &s;eized on them, and have defer'd the laying on the remedy, till the &s;oar had grown too wide for the plai&s;ter; had the wi&s;dome of that prudent <HI>Committee</HI> mi&s;carried, in their &s;entences, on &s;o e|vident, &s;o Malignant a Symptome, they had lo&s;t the credit of all their former cures, and the pa&s;t Recoveries of that di&s;ea&s;ed County, would have been adjudged but the works of chance and immediate providence, and not the actings of a skilfull and carefull <HI>Committee.</HI></P>
<P>Secondly, the next thing which the <HI>Manife&s;t</HI> vents, to make odious the very name of a <HI>Committee,</HI> For what is more intol|lerable then unlimmited Taxations in their increa&s;ing of Taxes of the County above the due proportion? How ea&s;ie is it for men who look through Gla&s;&s;es of their own chu&s;ing, to erre in the ju&s;t proportion of quantity, and to mi&s;take mole|hils for mountains, when either a naturall Avarice, or a &s;trong di&s;affection to the cau&s;e, be the fal&s;e pro&s;pective to convey the Image of a Tax, to the unwilling fan&s;y, how unproportio|nate
<PB N="5" REF="4"> and beyond all degrees of mea&s;ure mu&s;t that Tax ap|peare? whereas the inproportion &s;till lies not in the object, which is but ordinary and mean, <HI>Rebus &s;ic &s;tantibus,</HI> but in their own eyes di&s;tracted, by the inequality of their contrary affections, and perverted judgments.</P>
<P>But had the&s;e <HI>Manife&s;ters</HI> either mind or lei&s;ure, to compare their money with their wars, in a ju&s;t and equall account, they would &s;oon find the alledged interruption, le&s;t any yet appear to be rather on their &s;ide of the bargaine; For was it po&s;&s;ible, had them&s;elves been their own Traders, and had managed the bu&s;ine&s;&s;e of Peace and content, they &s;hould ever made a better market, then the <HI>Committee</HI> hath done for them? could they have bought Ea&s;e and Re&s;t at an ea&s;ier hand? Other Counties have bled as much in their veines as the&s;e men in their pur&s;es; and even in their pur&s;es too, have they bled in a more evce&s;&s;ive manner, having had their hou&s;es fired, their goods Plundred, their Per&s;ons &s;tripped, and impri&s;oned, and yet endure all with more moderate relentings; contented though late, to be rid of the fury of war; and now at la&s;t to enjoy a dear-bought Peace within their Ruin'd habitations. How many even among&s;t the&s;e now-Repining <HI>Manife&s;tors,</HI> were formerly them&s;elves Actors and Promoters of the&s;e now Scandalized A&s;&s;e&s;&s;ements, yet now look back upon them as Grievances, and tumultuou&s;ly declare again&s;t them, al|though with that de&s;ertle&s;&s;e Mariner in a &s;torm they could have once vowed Candles as big as their Ship-Ma&s;ts, to the Patron &s;hould protect them, yet having once recovered the Shoar to &s;afe harbor, they think much one of ten to the pound; like unthankfull fooli&s;h Merchants, they bewail from the &s;ecure harbor, tho&s;e trifling goods they flung out, as a Pledge for their lives, in the extreame rage of a violent Tem|pe&s;t; &s;o unmindful are they of pa&s;t benefits, and pre&s;ent grudgers of what they once freely parted with; in times of troubles and vi&s;ible dangers, that they even quarrel (being made well) at their Phi&s;itians, for too much letting them
<PB N="6" REF="5"> bloud, though thereby they received their health; and had they then bled le&s;&s;e, they might have perchance now wanted veines to bleed at all.</P>
<P>Now to the Remon&s;trance, le&s;t Generals &s;hould not take <HI>(Nam dolus ver&s;atur in Univer&s;alibus)</HI> which tho&s;e who ex|pect di&s;tincter knowledge in Impeachment of &s;uch concern|ment, and le&s;t the Pil &s;hould not go &s;moothly down which was &s;o guilded over with Liberty and Peace, they Ran&s;ack the mouths of parcidular per&s;ons, and bring their words to the Bar, for a general condemnation.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t they Arraign S^r <HI>Antony Welden,</HI> a man &s;o elevated in inward worth, and very high in his Countreys &s;ervice, that (it &s;eems) envy her &s;elf was put to mi&s;erable &s;hifts, to find matter to be&s;mear him, at la&s;t was forced to rake the very kennel, and gather up thence tho&s;e fragments of Coller, which that mo&s;t worthy Knight had &s;pit out of his mouth; which yet (in the wor&s;e con&s;truction) are but the Boylings up of a ju&s;t and Noble indignation.</P>
<P>Next they attach the &s;peech of M^r <HI>Beale,</HI> a very wel affected Gentleman (and a worthy member of that Honourable <HI>Com|mittee)</HI> unable (as it &s;hould &s;eem) to tax him farther, and from &s;uch aiery foundations, erect the Ca&s;tles of their fears, and ungrounded pre&s;umptions; Is not that man think you in a very de&s;perate condition, who in the mid&s;t of his precipitacy is con&s;trained to catch at &s;traws? and tho&s;e are his &s;ure&s;t holds to &s;ave his neck the breaking: What &s;tronger &s;upports have the&s;e men, who catch at, and are enforced to fa&s;ten on the brittle and &s;lippery matter of words, to &s;ecure their head-long cour&s;es, from the &s;u&s;pition and danger of <HI>Rebellion?</HI> mu&s;t not their actions be extreamly Regular, and very even, on which envy cannot &s;tick, but thence &s;lides off to words; and re&s;ts &s;atisfyed to have found a flaw in their manner of ex|pre&s;&s;ions.</P>
<P><HI>The&s;e Remon&s;trers</HI> (like that <HI>Romane Emperor,</HI> who to bu&s;ie him&s;elfe, would kill flies) rather then &s;uffer their di&s;contents
<PB N="7" REF="5"> to remain idle, will imploy them on &s;ubjects as mean and re|diculous, as infects and wil fill the mouths of the&s;e, whom they have deluded into Commotions, with &s;poonfuls of <HI>Eye|meates</HI> and vani&s;hing accu&s;ations.</P>
<P>Words in this ca&s;e are but meer Ciphers, and &s;ignifie no|thing but in a&s;&s;ociation with actions, they more fright, then either hurt, or harm; and are but the innocent Thunder of a ju&s;t zeal, provoked by a &s;trong feare of Lawes and liberties, at the point to be &s;wallowed up by the gulfe of Tumults and In&s;urrections: The &s;tory of King <HI>James</HI> is notable for e|ruptions of Pa&s;&s;ion, who though but a &s;imple unknown Countrey-man, had by meer chance but cro&s;t his &s;ports, in pur&s;uit of his game in hunting, would in a wrathfull di&s;|plea&s;ure command him to the Gallows, yet was his Reign as Peaceable and gentle, as his &s;peech was Rough and ha&s;ty; whether were tho&s;e inju&s;t, and (if executed) the mo&s;t Tyran|nicall Command e&s;teemed an u&s;urpation, over the lives and e&s;tates of Per&s;ons, by His word of mouth &s;o imperiou&s;ly condemned?</P>
<P>What but a di&s;turbed hunting drew from a wi&s;e but Pa&s;&s;i|onate King, (who&s;e very words notwith&s;tanding carry Power in them) might not the apprehen&s;ion of an afflicted Country ready to be expo&s;ed to the humours and lu&s;ts of impatient men, with much more rea&s;on extort from the lips of tru&s;ty Magi&s;trates, overborn with a Pious zeal and affection to their Country, however the&s;e Remon&s;trancers &s;hould have afforded us the occa&s;ions, and the entire Chain of the circum&s;tances of tho&s;e &s;peeches, otherwi&s;e they quote words, but as the De|vill &s;ometimes brought in Scripture. They &s;ilence that one part, or nece&s;&s;ary adjunct of expre&s;&s;ion, which might per|chance quite de&s;troy; at lea&s;t qualify and moderate the Rigor of the other: When &s;uch furious objectors &s;hall actually find either their bodies expo&s;ed to open puni&s;hments, or their tired fouls langui&s;hing with inward vexations.</P>
<P>'Twill be indeed high and full time to complaine, but not
<PB N="8" REF="6"> of &s;ome occa&s;ional Prophetick &s;peeches, refering to &s;uch ends, but of their own di&s;obediences and in&s;olencies, which drew down upon them &s;uch exemplary judgements. But le&s;t this ha&s;ty di&s;cour&s;e &s;hould run out as far in length, as the <HI>Manife&s;t</HI> fals &s;hort of truth, and the <HI>Remon&s;trance</HI> of &s;trength, I &s;hall only adde: That the <HI>Intere&s;ts</HI> of <HI>Parliament,</HI> are &s;o twi&s;ted with the pre&s;ent Intere&s;ts of this honoured <HI>Committee,</HI> that the fall of the latter mu&s;t of nece&s;&s;ity give a main crack to the Fabrick of the former. And therefore though the Blow was Immediately directed again&s;t this one Branch of Power, yet was it Really and effectually intended again&s;t the Root and Foundation of all ju&s;t Rights, and Legall Authority: But the Plot according to the &s;ucce&s;&s;e of all, (for the mo&s;t part) di&s;loyal cau&s;es, have failed of that main end; and the too for|ward Actors, in&s;tead of &s;inking others, have them&s;elves been &s;wallowed down, in the noy&s;ome waters of their own trou|bling.</P>
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