out of it For first as supposing it to be the peoples Act There must be an illegal and popular violence to accomplish it and there 's the peace of the Government broken already Beside that the Authours of that Violence can never be secure but by following it with more and greater And this comes presently to be a natural transition from a murmur against the Successour to a Tumult in the State In which Case the King has only this Choice before him either to part with every thing for the asking or to stand the shock or a Rebellion Now take it either way here 's much a greater mischief incurr'd than that we feared beside a Sanding-Army Taxes and Oaths that follow in course and a new Set of Liberty-keepers and Major-Generals to preserve the peace I speak this in the contemplation of a violence without a lawful Authority to back it which is the thing that some people have in prospect This is the Scene of things at home and abroad we shall undoubtedly see the Successours Interest and Reputation eâ—creasing daily in regard of his Sufferings his Title and his Religion having Scotland to friend over and above and probably as it is at present the place of his Residence But these are as yet all dormant Interests and not to be employ'd till either his duty to his Majesty or Justice to his own pretensions shall require their Aid Take it the other way now In the case of a Popâ—sh King who is either kept out as I said before or dâ—iven out from the exercise of his right by the tumultuary licence of the Rabble an Oath of Abjuration in case of any fair opportunity for him to assert his Claim with his Sword in his hand will be so far from engaging any man against him that yielded contrary to his conscience to swallow it for the saving of his stake that he will find no firmer Friends to his Cause and Interest than those men that are stimulated both by Honour and Revenge to the execution of their Duties For there is no hatred so fell and deadly as that which has for the object of it the Authors or Contrivers of our damnation and the hazard is so much the greater in regard of the difficulty to discover either the persons or the strength of their Enemies And whether that King makes any attempt or no the Nation must be at the charge at least of a defensive war and of Impositions to maintain it And this will be the inconvenience even in the bare prospect of the state of the Nation without a blow striking But from Scotland at least if not from Ireland too they must expect to be ply'd with continual Alarms till the insupportable expence of guarding the Borders and the Coasts shall make them as sick of their new Patriots as ever they were of their old ones and force them at last or perhaps sooner than they are aware to render themselves and their Spoil to their irresistible conjunction of so many Powers as will be then Confederate to their destruction And then comes in the Popery in earnest that was dreaded but in fancy before When this new King shall by the proper act and forfeiture of a seduc'd and unforeseeing people be deliver'd from the Fetters of both Honour and Laws who brings in Popery then but they that discharg'd him from those sacred Bonds by the solly and conâ—umacy of their own inconsiderate Undertakings Compare now the dangers of a Popish King bounded by Protestant Laws and ruling over a Protestant People where he may be as happy as an Imperial Crown and the Affections of his Subjects can make him Compare I say a Popish King under these gracious and obliging Circumstances in the quiet administration of his Government with a Prince that is forc'd to make his way with his Sword for the recovery of his own and is not onely prick'd on by the impulses of justice and vengeance but animated by the Pope himself and provok'd by indignation to take the utmost advantage of that foolish forfeiture the people themselves having cancell'd the Bonds of Authority and Obedience Let any man compare these two cases and then speak his opinion There is one pâ—int yet behind that goes further I think than any of the rest If it be reasonable to believe as we are often told and no Mortal can deny it that our Religion is an Eye sore to the Church of Rome and that this Island would make a considerable addition to our victorious Neighbours late Conquests what way in the world could be propounded more to the advantage both of the Crown of France and the Court of Rome than the bringing of matters to the issue here in question when in the powerful and liberal Assistances to this supposed King for the regaining of his own the one and the other are but doing of their own business This Prince in the mean while being led to the one by inclination and overborn upon the other by Necessity Here 's enough said to lay open the miserable effects of popular motions in matters of this high importance and so I shall pass forward submitting what I have said upon this occasion to the judgment and determination of my Superiours The remainder of the last Paragraph above cited is fully answered already bate onely the Clause that I am now about to proceed upon Char. Whilest we are thus enslaved says he by a medly Government betwixt Tyranny and Usurpation by establishing a Papist on a Throne we are so far from preserving the Crown that is the Imperial Dignity in a right Line of Succession that we do not preserve it at all but on the contrary extirpate and destroy it whilst by Enthroning a Papist we totally Subvert and Depose the very Monarchy it self And can it be the Duty of either Englishmen or Christians to have that Zeal for a Corrupted Leprous Branch of Royalty that we must ruine both Religion Government and Majesty it self to support him It is a strange way this of shewing a Mans Honour for his Prince by blasting the very Bloud of his Brother or of expressing his love to Monarchy by treating Majesty tho but in reversion at so course a rate But it is upon a Principle that may be supported by Imperiousness and Heat in regard that it will not bear the Test of a modest Debate and a corrupted Leprous Branch of Royalty is the dint of the Argument But what does he mean to confound Civil Power and Religion thus and impose upon the World a Paradox that for want of rightly dividing endangers both Government is matter of Publique and External Order and a Divine Provision for the Peace Comfort and Security of Mankind wherein all the several parts are bound up in one Community to attend the Interest and Conservation of the whole Whereas Religion is the business of every individual apart and only so far cognizable in a State as it affects the Civil Power What can be
God and the Gospel to be Subject to Him to Fear Honour pay him Tribute and Legally obey him Nay the same reverend Prelate Pag. 54 in confirmation of this Doctrine cites the Precept of our blessed Saviour himself as well as St. Paul Our blessed Saviour Says he whose Vicar the Pope pretends to be does himself pay Tribute to Caesar Tho' a Pagan and Idolatâ—r leaving us an Admirable and most Pious Example of that obedience and Loyalty due even to Impious and Pagan Princes Nâ—r is this all for he further gives express Command that all should render to Cesar the things which are Cesars He acknowledgeth the Imperial rights of Câ—sar of which his Impiety and Idolatry did not deprive him Our Author said but just now that Passive Obedience was no more then a Bug-bear and a Doctrine groundless and only slipt into the world as by the By. But he tells us now Fol. 20. toward the bottom that in case of a Vow'd Allegiance to an Absolute and Arbitrary King a Passive Obedience was due But what 's this says he to a King of England With his leave I take it to be the same thing as to the Peoples Obedieâ—ce or Submission tho' in respect of the assuming and Exercising that Power the Case on the Kings side is greatly differing for the question is not whether the King does Well or Ill in forcing his Authority beyond the due hounds but whether the Tyranny on the one side will justify an undutiful behaviour on the other And the Law it self will easily determine This Controversy If the Subject be ty'd up by the Law to an Allegiance unconditional as aforesaid and without any Exception or qualification to discharge him of that Duty in any Cace whatsoever the Cause is clear against him And this is enough said to shew that under the Masque of a zeal to crush one Sort of Popery there is a design Carryed on for the introducing of another See now what he says of Monarchy Monarchy says he fol. 21. can be acquir'd but by two ways First By the Choice of the People who frequently in the beginning of the World out of a natural desire of Safety for the securing of a Peaceful Community and Conversation chose a Single Person to be their Head as a Proper Supream Moderator in all Differences that might arise to disquiet that Community Thus were Kings made for the People and not the People for Kings This Principle of Popular Liberty and placing the Original of Government in the People is highly derogatory to the Providence of God contrary to the express Letter of the Text and destructive of the very Being of Human Society First By implying Mankind to be cast into the World unprovided for Secondly It makes Magistracy which the Apostle tells us Rom. 13. 2. is the Ordinance of God to be of Human Institution or at best Nature's second Thought but in truth an effect either of Tumult or Chance according as Men were led to 't either by Choice or Necessity Thirdly in supposing Power to be radically in the People and the grant of it to be only an act of conveyance by common Consent and with a power of Revocation upon certain equitable Conditions either express'd or imply'd there goes no more than the Peoples recalling of their Power to the dissolving of all Commuâ—ities and Humane Society at this rate lyes at the Mercy of the Multitude But how this Revocation shall be notify'd unless by way of Advertisement in one of the True Protestant-Anabaptist-Mercurys I cannot imagine But then consider again That this Grant and Revocation must Pass with a Nemine Contradicente nay and a Nemine Absente too for one single Dissâ—â—â— or the want of one single Vote spoils all and makes void both the Original Grant and all that was done subsequent upon it for by reason of that defect it is no longer the act of the People It may put a Man in admiration to see what Credit this Phantastique and Impracticable Conceit has got in the World if he does not observe the Address in the Application of it and the use that is made of it All violent Motions of State we see are wrought and brought about by the Favour and Assistance of the People And there can be no readier way in the World to make them sure then either to calumniate or otherwise to lay open the Nakedness of the Government and to tell them that Princes are only Trustees for the Peoples good the Sovereignty in themselves and that if Governours break their Trust the People may resume their Power When the Multitude has once imbib'd this Doctrine the next work will be to set up for the recovery of their inheritance and when it comes to that once we need but look behind us to see the end on 't Our Author has already admitted upon this mistake of the Fountain of Power that the People may yet pass away their Original Right without power of Revocation Here indeed says he speaking of a Concession of Absolute Power a passive Obedience was due but what 's this to a King of England Now though the Doctrine of this Passage fol. 20. seems to clash with an Equity of Resumption reserved to the People in the last Paragraph above-recited fol. 21. I shall yet lay no hold of that implication but turn the force of his own allowance against himself If the Peoples alienation of their Power to a Prince without conditions shall stand good against them so shall the alienation of their Power also to a Prince under conditions stand every jote as good within the limits of those conditions And where shall we find those conditions but in the Establish'd Law which marks out the bounds both of King and People Now if the Law Pronounces the King to be Supream in all Causes and over all Persons c. and yet with some Limitations and Restraints upon his Prerogative Suppose he passes those Terms who shall judge him but God if he be Supream and has no other Power above him Or if the People have reserved in such a case any controuling Power to themselves how comes it that the Law takes no notice of it but on the contrary makes the Subjects accountable for any act of Disobedience or Violence to or upon the Person or Authority of the King upon what pretence soever So that under the colour of opposing or preventing an Arbitrary Power the Law is subverted here at a bâ—ow and a Foundation laid of the most pernicious and shameful sort of Tyranny He says that Kings were made for the People and not People for the Kings which is well enough if he means that Kings were made for the Government of the People which is the great Blessing of Mankind and not People for the Government of the King which turns Society into Confusion But after all these words to shew that Government Originally was not Popular I shall add a few more to prove the Institution of it to
Church of England as much as the Church it self hated the Mass. Whereupon the Pope gave him a Reward of Two Thousand Duccats for his Pains The matter of Fact is sufficiently clear'd and the Practise too Notorious to be deny'd As to the Influence that these Papists have under the notion of Dissenting Protestants upon the Unity of the Church and the Peace of the State But the Craft as they say lyes in the Catching of them For the Test of Oaths will never do the Business as we have found by their Swearing to so many Contrary and Inconsistent Purposes and Interests throughout the whole Course of our Late Troubles So that we have no other way left that I can Imagine of knowing a Disguised Jesuit from one that calls himself a Dissenting Protestant but by comparing their Principles which would infinitely conduce to the Credit and Advantage of the Conscientious sort of the Divided Party And without such a Test of Discrimination the Project of Uniting Dissenters seems to be utterly Impracticable unless to the Extream Hazzard of Authorizing the most pernicious sort of Popery and Incorporating a Jesuitical Leaven into our very Constitution according to the Method which Mr. Coleman himself had projected as the most probable Expedient for the Introducing of Popery into this Kingdom The Removal of this Difficulty will open a way to a General Accomodation to the Common Security both of our Religion and Government And this is only to be done by applying the Maxims of those that we suspect here for Jesuits to the Standard of those Detestable Principles which we so much abominate in the Church of Rome And where ever we find any Party of what Denomination soever that pretends either to Erect an Interest or to support a Claim upon the same Foundation it is but matter of Common Equity to presume and to conclude that Party to be acted and directed by a Jesuitical Spirit These Positions I shall Confront with a Counter-Part of which further in its proper place But in my way to 't I shall now pass to the Character it self The CHARACTER c. IT has been my Fortune to be a Subject and a Native of that part of the World where almost three years last past I have scarce heard any thing but the continual Noyse of Poperâ— and Plots with all the clamorous Fears of a Jealous Kingdom about my â—ars And truly I must plainly confess I am not so Ill a Common-Wealths-maâ— but that I am glad to see my Country-men disturb'd in a Cause where Religion Liberty and Property are at Stake Fol. 1. Hereâ—s the very Bourdon already of that Fatal Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom Dec. 15. 42. and only a short Paraphrase of the Preface to it God blesse us from the Omen The malicious Dâ—signs of the Popish Party the hazzard of Religion and great prejudice and Oppression of the Laws of the Kingdom and just Liberty of the People Exact Collections Pag. 2. That which follow'd upon this Popular Introduction did sufficiently evidence the Design You shall see now how Pat this Prologue runs Another way Mutatis Mutandis It has been my Fortune let Me say too to be a Subject and a Native where the Noise of Popery and Plots Jealousies and Fears and Affrights about Religion Liberty and Property as if All lay at Stake brought a pious and a Protestant Prince to the Block prostituted the Honour Dignity and Revenue of the Government Ecclesiastical and Civil to a Band of Seditious and Sacrilegious Usurpers Our Temples were Demolish'd our Alâ—ars Profan'd the Priestly Office Invaded by Mechaniques Swarms of Heresies and a Scandalous Schism in Exchange for Purity and Unity of Religion Of a Free-born People we became worse then Turkish Slaves Our Common-Wealths-men were glad also to see us Disturb'd and who but our Pretended Advocates and Patriots to be our Tyrants and Tormentors Char. But if their Jealousyes are Just and their Fears Prophetique in Gods name let them talk Every man ought to be so far from silencing any Reasonable Murmurs that 't is rather his Duty to bear a Part in a Choire so Vniversal And if we sâ—e the Great and Wise-men of our Nation like True English Patriots struggling and toyling to prevent our Threatning Calamities let us take delight to behold them Restless and Vneasie Rolling about our Troubled Sea like Porpoises against a Tempest to forewarn us of an Approaching Destruction Ibid. Let them talk on says he just to the Tune of Forty Two again God forbid says Mr. Pym that We should dishearten our Friends who come to assist us And this was when Ven and Manwaring forc'd the Passing of the Bill of Attainder in the Lords House by Tumults against the Earl of Strafford and his Sacred Majesty little better then Besieg'd in his own Palace by the Rabble What a blessed Harmony was there then among the Porters Car-men and Well affected Brethren in the Lobbyes crying out with one Voice no Bishops no Rotten Peers no Common-Prayer while the great and wise men in their Generation were Struggling and Toyling to Pack Parties Contrive Invectives against Authority perplexing the Multitude with Scruples enflaming of Passions and rolling about like State Porpoises not as a Forewarning but the Foreboding of a Tempest Char. But amids our Evident Danger we see another sort of People dayly flattering and deluding us into a False and Fatal Security And sure none are so little our Friends or indeed so void even of Humanity it self as those who would lull us asleep when Ruine is in View Ibid. There are some indeed that after Open Rebellions in Scotland horrid Assassinates Anathema's Denounc'd against his Majesty Declarations point blank against his Person and Government with an Indissoluble Confederacy of Brotherly Union in our own Bowels too by virtue of that Magical Seal of Reprobation the Diabolical Covenant there are some I saâ— that after all these Acts and Demonstrations of Violence and Conspiracy will yet bear the World down that the believing of our eyes is the shamming of the Plot and that there 's no Fear at all of a Storm from that Quarter As if a Jesuitical Practice or Principle were Consecrated in the Heart or Shape of a Presbyterian But says he since Zeal and Hypocrisie Naked Truth and Artificial Falshood have oftentimes alike Faces I cannot but think it the Duty both of a Christian and an English-man to unravel the Treachery of those Arguments which they raise to destroy us But since Zeal and Hypocrisie c. are so alike that we have seen Sacriledge and Heresy pass upon the People for Reformation Rebellion for Loyalty Perjury Blasphemy and Murthâ—r for Religion Regicide for the way to make a Glorious King Bondage for Freedom Rapine for â—ropriety the King 's the Churches and the Peoples Enemies for their Friends what can a man do better then to Unmask this white Devil and expose the Cloven-Foot of this Angel of Light to the View of
effect as have been by great Authority judg'd Competent for the Obviating of that Difficulty As to the Rest I will not deny but that it is a hard thing for a Prince to â—eize and persecute a People of his own Religion purely eo nomine for their being so And it is very Probable too that he will connive at men of that Perswasion in many Cases where the Law directs a Punishment And what is there more in this theâ— what has been done already more or less from the Date of the Statutes themselves to This very day and what is done by the Government it self toward the Non-Conformists at this Instant where is the great hurt now upon this Admittance in not punishing the Papists so long as the Protestants are not Persecuted Whereas the Fanatical Papists did not only in defiance both of Law and Gospel engross all Offices Benefits and Priviledges to themselves but without Mercy or Distinction destroy'd the rest of their Brethren Char. A very pretty Chimaera Which is as much as to make this Popish King the greatest Barbarian in the Creation a Barbarian that shall cherish and maintain the Dissenters from Truth and punish and condemn the Pillars of Christianity and Proselites of Heaven Which is no other then to speak him the basest of Men and little lesse then a Monster Beside at the same time that we suppose that King that dares not uphold nor encourage his own Religion we render him the most deplorable of Cowards a Coward so abject that he dares not be a Champion even for his God And how consistent this is with the Glory of a Crowned Head and what hope England has of such a Successour I leave all men of sense to judge Fol. 3. Behold here 's the upshot of this high-flown Paragraph A Popish Prince that puts the Laws in Execution for the punishing of Papists and for the protecting and countenancing of Protestants is little less then the basest of Monsters How comes it then that the Crown of France has not treated the Protestant Subjects there as this Picture-drawer pronounces that a Popish Successour would treat his Protestant Subjects here The Protestants have now and then been severely handled I know in France as the Papists upon some Junctures have been in England And now of late worse then usual All which has been Influenc'd well by Reasons of State as by Impulse of Religion But shall we Pronounce the most Christian King the greater Monster for his better usage of us If a potent Aversion to us in matter of Religion had transported the French King 's into so mortal a Detestation of us to all other purposes they would never have committed so many Eminent Charges both in Councells and in Arms to the Honour and Trust of Protestant Officers and Commanders But the Convenience and Utility of the State preponderated against Disagreements in Religion The Barbarisms of the Holy League were the Results of a Sanguinary Faction as well in Civil Government as Religion And one Egg is not Liker another then the League of these Dissenting Papists to the Covenant of our Jesuitical and Dissenting Pseudo-Protestants To come now to the Reason and Conscience of this Elaborate Padox Taking His Position for granted that a Popish Prince is bound by his Religion contrary to Oaths and Promises Honour and Justice the Dictates of Nature the Laws of Nations and the Bonds of Humane Society contrary to all This I say and to his Interest also to break Faith with Protestants and those Protestants his Subjects too He must be unman'd as well as Unchristian'd an Excomunicate to Humane Nature and excluded from all the Benefits and Offices of Mankind And yet we are not without many Instances in the French League and the Scottish Covenant of an abandon'd Perfidy even to this degree It must be a strange Digestion sure that can put over all other Impieties and turn the violation of all that is Sacred in Nature into a meritorious Virtue Char. Besides what mismatch'd incongruous Ingredients must go to make up this Composition a King His Hand and Heart must be of no Kin to one another He must be so Inhumane to those very darling Jesuites that like Mahomets Pidgeon infus'd and whisper'd all his Heavenly Dreams into his Ears that he must not only clip their wings but fairly Cage 'em too even for the Charming Oracles they breath'd him And at the same Minute he must leave the wide and open Ayr to those very Ravens that daily croak Abhorrence and Confusion to them and all their Holy Dreams and their false Oracles Thus whilest he acts quite contrary to all his Inclinations against the whole Bent of his Soul what does he but publikely put in force those Laws for the Protestant Service till in fine for his Nations Peace he ruines his own and is a whole Scene of War within himself Whilst his Conscience accusing his sloth on one side the Pope on the other Rome's continuall Bulls bellowing against him as an undutifull Son of Holy Mother-Church a Scandal to her Glory a Traytor to her Interest and a Deserter of her Cause one day accusing the Lukewarmnesse of his Religion another the Pusillanimity of his Nature all Roman-Catholick Princes deriding the Feeblenesse of his Spirit and the Tamenesse of his Arm till at long run to spare a Fagot in Smithfield he does little lesse then walk on hot Irons himself Thus all the pleasure he relishes on a Throne is but a kinde of Good-Fryday-Entertainment Instead of Royall Festival his Rioting in all the Luxury of his Heart to see Rome's Dagon worshipp'd Rome's Altars smoke Rome's Standard set up Rome's Enemies defeated and his victorious Mother-Church Triumphant his abject and poor-spirited Submission denyes himself the only thing he thirsts for and whilst the Principles he suck from Rome do in effect in the Prophets Words bid him Rise Slay and Eat his fear his unkingly nay unmanly fear makes him fast and starve Fol. 3. This Passage is only the same thing over again in a diversity of Words and Phrase But it is well enough to answer the Ends it was intended for the tickling of the Phansy and the moving of a Popular Passion without one syllable of weight to strike the Judgement My Reply upon the Last Paragraph shall serve for This too which I have not here Recited as requiring any Answer but to shew what pains he has taken with the Ornaments of his Rhetorique to supply the Defect of Argument I cannot liken it to any thing better then the Gaudy Glittering Vapour that Children are used to Phansy in a Cloud They 'l Phansy Lions Peacocks in it or what other Figures they Please but the first Breath of Ayre scatters the Phantastique Images and resolves the whole into its original Nothing And just so it is with this Character There are many things in it finely enough sayd to work upon a partial and an Easy Imagination and to mislead a body at first
of it for an Enformation Why who says there 's any sin in 't And then there 's Guard and Guard People are said one way to be upon their Guard with their Swords in their hands and another way with their eies in their heads But I presume he speaks to the multitude and he speaks too in the Stile of Authority Let them stand upon their Guard says he as if he were giving Orders He might as well have said Let them stand to their Arms and his expression of all expedients expounds it so even allowing him to be his own Interpreter for the business is to keep out Popery and Tyranny And he makes it one expedient fol. 2. and an essential one too to act the Offensive part as well as the Defensive Provided still says he that we preserve the Sacred Succession in its right Line for that we are TOLD both King and People are oblig'd in Conscience to defend and uphold That same little word TOLD is a most Emphatical Mockery and then provided that the Succession be secur'd all other expedients are pronounced lawful Methinks he might have thought of a Proviso too for the securing of the Kings Honour Dignity Person Government and the Peace of his Dominions which are at the rate of his latitude of allowance all of them equally concerned in the danger with the Succession He proceeds now to debate the matter of Conscience And if we find him as Tender as he is Zealous as good a Christian on the Subjects side as on the Patriots as careful to uphold the Sacred Character of Majesty as to prevent the Excesses of Tyranny and finally as clear a Casuist as he is a powerful Orator there will be no contesting any further with him Char. First then saith he let us fancy we see this Popish Heir on his Throne and by all the most illegal and Arbitrary Means contrary to the whole Frame and Hinges of the English Government introducing Popery with that Zeal and Vigour till his inâ—atuatedâ— Conscience has perverted the King into a Tyrant What a phancy of a phancy is here that for want of fact and argument is fain to have recourse to Imaginations and Dreams And to what end is all this but by disgusting of the People at the ways of Providence set them a hankering after State-Wizzards again and Strange-Gods for the knowledge of things to come wherefore let me once again inculcate that of 27 Jer. Hearken not ye to your Prophets nor to your Diviners nor to your Dreamers which is the same with phansiers nor to your Inchanters nor to your Sorcerers which speak to you saying you shall not serve the King of Babylon Foâ— they Prophesie a Ly unto you to remove you far from your Land Let us for the Honour of our kind either live and act and reason like Men or else down upon all four and away into the Woods and Rocks and hunt and growl'd and tear one another to pieces like Beasts But we 'll discourse the matter a little Well! The English are certainly the Freest and the Happiest People upon the Face of the Earth Ay but we shall be all Slaves e're 't be long When 's that When the Popish Heir comes to the Crown Ay but when 's that again When the King is dead Well but when is the King to Dy Nay I cannot tell that How long has the Popish Heir to live I cannot tell that neither Will the Queen have any Children Nor that neither How long will the Queen live How should I know that Will the King survive her or not I cannot tell Will he Marry again if he does I cannot tell that neither Will he have any Children if he Marrys again Who knows But what if the Heir should not live to come to the Crown but it may be he may though And it may be he may not Ay but I PHANSY that he will Well! But suppose he should come to the Crown What then Why then he will set up Popery and Tyranny Not whether he can or no. Why how did Queen Mary She had the odds on her side for the Papists were then in a manner as the Protestants are now And yet coming in betwixt two Protestants Popery ye see went off as it came on But still there was a Persecution 'T is true there was but all Princes are not alike Q. Mary Persecuted the Protestants Henry the Fourth of France did not so And it is as good an inference from the instance of Henry IV. that the Popish Heir will not be a Persecutor as from that of Queen Mary that he will But where the Popes Authority intervenes both King and People are bound to obey And yet you see that for all the Power of the Pope and the Covenant of the Holy League to boot the People of France though Roman Catholiques would not submit to the Dis-possessing of a Protestant Successor neither did that generous Prince upon the Reconciling of himself afterward to the Church of Rome exercise any one act of Tyranny over his Protestant Subjects which is enough said upon this point Well but I PHANSY it will be Popery and Tyranny yet for all this Well! but to go a little further with you now suppose it should come to a down right Persecution Aye but we must stand upon our Guards to prevent it That would be more than ever the Primitive Christians did under the Ten Persecutions And we have not only their Example but their Express Doctrine against it And we are never the better Protestants for being the worse Christians So that here 's only Phansy set up in opposition to Religion Reason and Experience And That 's enough in all Conscience too For there needs no more then the Flames of a distemper'd Spleen to cause an Earth-quake in the Government What are Fears but Phansies What are Jealousies but Phansies What Original had they Phansies again And what was the Consequence of them Sum up the Sins and the Calamities of the worst of People and of Times Those Crimes and Those Miseries were the effect of Those Phansies They were Hag-ridden and Night-mar'd with Goblins and Apparitions and haunted in their Beds with the Images of those Visions and illusions which they had taken down from the Press and Pulpit waking The brave Strafford was a Sacrifice to the Phansy of Arbitrary Power and the Venerable Laud a Victim to the Phansy of Popery They Phansy'd AntiChrist in the Hierarchy the Rags of the Whore of Babylon in a Surplice Popery in the Common-Prayer the Sacrament of Baptism they phansy'd little better than an Exorcism the Lords Prayer well enough for a Christian Primer a School-boy Form that might do so so till People came to be better gifted When they had Phansy'd the Heads of these great men off their Shoulders the Bishops out of the House of Peers they went on Phansying still They Phansy'd Episcopacy out of the Nation and their Scotish Presbytery into it the Clergy out of
be purely Divine which opinion in truth needs not any other Support than the Authority of the Holy Scriptures By me Kings Reign c. I have made the Earth the Man and the Beasts that are upon the Ground by my great Power and my Outstretched arm and have given it to whom it seemed meet unto me Jer. 27. 5. That which we now call Kingly Government was at first called Paternel and after that Patriarchal c. And we find by the Powers they exercised as Life and Death War and Peace c. that their Paternal Power did Then extend to all the Acts of our Regal Power The Objection is could there be a King without a People Which is all one with the Supposal of a Father without a Son But This does not at all conclude that Adam had not both a Regal and a Paternal Power before he had either People or Children actually to govern and exercise it upon It being a thing so consonant also to the Methods of the Divine Wisdom to supply him previously with all needful Abilities and Authorities for the Discharge of his Fatherly and Governing Office The whole Race of his Posterity lying open even before they had any Existency in Nature to the Omniscience of God with whom there is no PAST or FUTVRE but all things always PRESENT Again if Adam did not bring his Authority into the World with him when did he receive his Commission Or if he had none at all how could he justifie the Arbitrary Rule he exercis'd over those People that were only his Fellow Subjects under the same God and without any Subordinate Ruler over them Or if Adam was vested with a Right of exerting the Power he exercis'd how came our Authors Imaginary Multitude to chuse a Governor of their own in opposition to the appointment of Providence Or who absolved them from the Bonds of their filial and primary Duty and Obedience What he says afterward of Conquest which he calls his Other Acquisition of Monarchy serves only for an occasion to tell us that our Last Norman Conquest was little more than a Composition which is an error and nothing at all to the point here in hand which refers only to the constitution and Settlement of the Government as now it stands without any respect to the manner of acquiring it But he is now drawing to a conclusion Char. If now at last says he Popery must and shall come in as by law it cannot and consequently must be restored by Arbitrary Power If a new Monarchy then a new Conquest and if a Conquest Heaven forbid we should be subdu'd like less than English-men or be debar'd the Common Right of all Nations which is to Resist and Repel an Invader if we can fol. 21. This is spoken upon the supposition of a Popish Successors coming to the Crown whom he calls an Invader though qualifyed with a Legal Title and he incourages Violence against him tho' in this case the Law pronounces him a King and this Resistance to be made like English-men too that is to say English-men of the late stamp So that there goes no more I perceive to the destruction of a Lawful Prince but to say that he either is or will be this or thaâ— And the King himself stands in as much danger upon the admittance of this Principle as his Royal Brother But before Subjects proceed to these terms which without a legal Authority are criminal in any case whatsoever Malice it selâ— will not deny but that there ought to be an infallible certainty of the Inconvenience whereas as I have said before this is a case lyable to many disappointments the prospect of it remote the expedient unwarrantable and the danger it self at last not so mortal as it is represented He supports his presumption upon this ground for granted that a Popish King must do whatsoever the Pope will have him do and subject his people to the Tyranny as well as the Religion of the Church of Rome What does he say to the French Kings Pyramid then and the vindication of himself and his people in divers other cases from the Insults of Rome and to several other instances already given in this particular Char. But to summ up all this says he I must say the most vehement Disputants against the Peoples right of defending themselves must at length acâ—nowledge thus much that whenever a Papist King shall by Tyranny establish the Popes Jurisdiction in England undoubtedly in the eye of God he is guilty of a greater sin than that People can be that with open Arms oppose that Tyranny Fol. 22. This is a clause of double consolation First to the Author that this Popish King shall be damn'd the deeper of the two And Secondly to the People that they shall go to the Devil in good company Char. The very Essence he says of a Popish Successor is the greatest Plot upon England since the Creation a Plot of God himself to scourge a Nation and make three Kingdoms miserable This must be a very great Plot if it be the greatest Plot that we have seen even in our days a Plot upon our Laws and it subverted them upon the Church and it destroyed it root and branch upon our Estates and it took them away by violence upon our Liberties and it enslav'd us upon our Lives and it was made death to do our Duties It was a Plot that left us no other choice in many cases but Death or Damnation If I had ask'd my revenues says the late King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sect 24. my power of the Militia or any one of my Kingdoms it had been no wonder to have been denied in those things where the evil policy of men forbids all Restitution lest they should confess an injurious Usurpation But to deny me the Ghostly comfort of Chaplains seems a greater rigour and barbarity then is ever used by Christians to the meanest Prisoners and greatest Malefactors whom tho' the Justice of the Law deprives of worldly Comforts yet the Mercy of Religion allows them the benefit of their Clergy as not aiming at once to destroy their Bodyâ— and to Damn their Souls But My Agony must not be Reliev'd with the Presence of any one Good Angel for such â—account a Learned Godly and Discreet Divineâ— such I would have all Mine to be They that envy my being a King are loth I should be a Christian while they Seck to deprive Me of all things else they are aâ—â—aâ—d I should save my soul. Has the Author of the Character heard of this Un-Christian Barbarity toward a Prince of the most Exemplary Goodness and Piety one of them that ever liv'd And how he was yet after all this Murther'd on a Scaffold in the Name and under the pretended Sovereignty of the People of England How has he then the hardness of Heart to set up that Regicidal Principle afresh and to pronounce the Government of a Popish Successor to be a
the way I look upon Majesty as a Sacred Character and not to be handled but with Veneration Wherefore whether his Assumption be True of False I shall speak to it only as a Supposition He proceeds now to the ballancing of the matter If says he a Roman Catholique can break an Oath only for the Pleasure of Conquering which he knows is doing Ill Shall not a Popish Prince in England have ten times more Inclination to break an Oath for the Propagation of his own Faith which his Conscience tells him is meritorious I Answer that the breaking of an Oath out of a Lust of being Great is the Crime properly of an Ambitious Prince not of a Popish For he does not consult his Religion but only his Glory in the Committing of it And the same Thirst of Dominion with the same degree of Indifference as to the Businesse of Right or wrong in concurrence with the same Advantages of Power and Opportunity would have produced the very same essects in a Prince of any other Judgment Well but he does an Ill thing knowingly and so are most of the Ill things that are done in the World without any regard to the difference of Protestant or Papist But Then his Application of This Ill thing done to another Prince of the same Perswasion is only the cutting of One Diamond with another and nothing at all to our Case But much more will a Popish Prince in England says he c. Does it follow Here that because a man would rather forswear himself to bring a Good thing to pass then a Bad one though we are to do no evill at all that Good may come of it that therefore for the compassing of a good end a man will forswear himself Neither have I ever as yer heard of the Merit of propagating any Religion by Perjury Or that the Consciences of any sort of Christians could justifie them in a Crime which even Infidels themselves by the meer instinct of Nature have in extreme abhorrence And he follows the point yet further Char. He has Religion says he to drive the Royal Jehu on Religion that from the beginning of the world through all Ags has set all Nations in a Flame yet never confessed it self in the Wrong These are strange words to come from the mouth of a pretender to Scruples and a Protestant Advocate His Quarrel is not now so much to a Popish as to a Religious Successour Nor is it any longer Popery but Religion it self that he strikes at as the dangerous and Obstinate Incendiary Nay and since Religion was in the world it was never otherwise he says So that here is a very fair expedient hinted for the good of Christendom to exterminate this Spirit of Discord RELIGION from off the face of the Earth If he had said only the Pretext of Religion he might have Appeal'd either to the Clamour of his Brethren or to his own Papers For it is the Pretext that both Furnishes the Fewel and blows the Coal while Religion lies burning in the Furnace Char. Beside says he how can a Popish Prince in attempting to Establish his own Religion believe he does his Subjects an Injustice in that very thing in which he does God Justice or think he Injures Them when he does their Souls Right Fol. 6. This Pretense of doing God Justice and the Souls of men Right will entitle a Prince with a much more plausible Colour and a better Grace to the breaking in upon the Territories and Subjects of other Princes and States under Countenance of the same Design For in that case there 's no Bar of an Oath upon him whereas the same Violence upon his own Subjects renders him Guilty of a manifest Perjury But what does he mean by an Attempt to establish his own Religion If it be by way of Argument 't is well But if he makes use of any compulsive act of Authority contrary to his Oath he stands accountable to God for breach of Faith and does no Justice to God in it neither nor Right to the Souls of his People For where 's the justice to God in making use of his Name to an Imposture and in rendring him not only a Witness but in some sort a Party to a Cheat And where 's the Right to his Peoples Souls in forcing them to the Profession of a Religion with their Lipps which they abhor in their Hearts Or in fine how can a Popish Prince so much as pretend either to the one or the other against so clear a Light both of Scripture and Nature In short either he is indispensably bound to do the thing or at liberty whether he will do it or no If the former his Oath must be either a Nullity or a Fraud and if the other his antecedent Obligation has determin'd that liberty But Religious Phrenzy says he Fol. 7. leaves that eternal intoxication behind it that where it commits all the Cruelties in the World 't is never sober after to be sorry for 't How truly and how severely is this said Witness the impenitent Ends and Courses of all the Kings Murtherers both Dead and Living And now again Thus says he Whilst a Popish King sets his whole Kingdom in a Combustion how little does he think he plays a Second Nero Good Conscienti-Man not he Alas He does not Tune his Joys to the Tyrannick Nero's Harp but to David's milder and more sacred Lyre whilst in the height of his pious Extasy he sings Te Deum at the Conflagration ib. Turn but Popish King here into Popish Phanatical Faction and what an admirable illustration is this of the Brethrens Exultations and Thanksgivings for the Ruine of their Sovereign the Holy Church and Three Kingdoms Nay and the florid humour goes on with him still Thus says he with an Arbitrary unbounded Power what does his Licentious holy Thirst of bloud do less than make his Kingdoms a larger Slaughter-House and his Smithfield an Original Shambles Thus the Old Moloch once again revives to feast and riot on his dear human Sacrifice And whilst his fiery Iron hands crush the poor Victim dead the PROPAGATION of RELIGION and the GLORY of GOD as he calls it are the very Trumpets that deafen all the feeble Cryes of bloud and drown the dying Groans of what he Murthers Ibid. Can any Man read this Pathetical Figure of Tyranny and Desolation without turning the OLD MOLOCH into the GOOD-OLD-CAVSE and calling to mind the Glorious Sacrifices that were offer'd at White-Hall-Gate upon Tower-Hill Cheap-side Charing-Cross and in a word in all the Quarters of His Majesties Dominions to that Mercyless and Insatiable Idol To say nothing of those Whole-Sale Carnages at Edge-hill Newbury Marston-Moor Navesby c. where the blood of loyal Subjects and true Protestants was spilt like Water and the Priests of Baal all this while with the PROPAGATION of RELIGION and the GLORY of GOD in their Mouths celebrating in their Pulpits and Festivals these Barbarous Triumphs And yet
a Mental Reservation First We swear in this Oath as in all others to the Sense of the Authority that imposes it And can any body imagine that the Government impos'd this Test of Allegeance upon the People to leave them still at Liberty to play fast and loose with Reserves and Qualifications of their own And so to frustrate the main intent of the Oath by accommodating the Exposition of it for the serving of a Turn or a Faction The Oath binds them to Subjection and they absolve themselves of That Subjection by giving it the Name of Slavery And so every man is left at pleasure to take off his own Shackles But what if it were Slavery it self The Prince were to blame for straining his Authority but the Subjects nevertheless Criminal on the other side for withdrawing their Duty He has found a Loop-hole to evade This Oath by turning SVBIECTS into SLAVES But That will not do his business without turning a Lawful Successor to a Protestant Establisht and bounded Government into an arbitrary absolute Popish Tyrant In which supposition he holds forth This Doctrine to the People that in This Case there is a Forfeiture of the Government and that this is the very Case which we have now before us wherein contrary to Law Reason and the Fundamental Essentials of all Government he does as much as in him lyes authorize and incite the Multitude to a Sedition I answer that the Law is clearly against him for tho the Prerogative is bounded the Duty of the Subject is yet left unconditional there being no Law nor so much as the colour of any incase of the Kings passing his legal Limits to absolve the People of their Allegeance And it is not the Plea of Provocation or the exercise of a Tyrannical Power that will save the Subject from the Sentence oâ— the Law in case of any disloyal act of Assault or Resistance It is against Reason likewise that the Inferiour shall overrule the Superiour and invert the last Resort of Decision and Judgment from the Prince to the Subject It is lastly destructive of Government it self to suppose such a Reserve in a Political Constitution as carries the last Appreal to the People which is the case in this Proposition The King as a Trustee that abuses his power incurrs a Forfeiture as our Author will have it of that Trust and so all subordinate Trustees may incurr the like Forfeiture till all Communities are melted down again into the ridiculous conceit of the Original Soveraignty of the Multitude which is onely a Chaos of Anarchy and Confusion He is over again here with the Royal Constitution of the three free States of England which must be understood either of the Lords Spiritual Temporal and Commons or of the King Lords and Commons reckoning His Majesty to be one of the three Estates Take it the former way and instead of Your Majesty's Loyal Subjects the Lords and Commons in Parliament which was the style even of the last Rebellion it self the Petition should run t'other way and say The humble Petition of Charles the second to your Majesties the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons â—ssembled in Parliament Now take it as accounting the King to be one of the three Estates that Imaginary Câ—ordination leaves him at the mercy of the other two whensoever they please The Learned and the Right Reverened Bishop of Lincoln in his Discourse of Popery pag. 4. England says he is a Monarchy the Crown Impâ—rial and our Kings Supreme Governours and sole Supreme Governours of this Realm and all other their Dominions c. In our Oath of Supremacy we sweaâ— That the King is the Only Supreme Governour Supreme so none not the Pope above him and Only Supreme so none Coordinate or equal to him The Character brings in the Subjects Petition of Right for a further countenance to his pretension but what noise soever it makes in the cars of the people there is not one syllable in it that appears in his favour And yet once again upon the presumptions ascresaid he grounds this Assertion That in such a case neither is he the same King that we swore to nor we the same Subjects that took the Oath If this be not Rome against Rome and Popery against Popery I know not what is But at the worst it is but paraphrazing upon the Oath of Allegiance as they did upon the Covenant Give me leave now to retort the Argument His Popish Successâ—r will be a Tyrant he says for it is a Tyrannical Religion But after all the stress of â—rreverent Language upon his R. H. he cannot charge any thing in the worldupon him that looks that way in his inclination But yet here 's enough says he to conclude the Reason and the Necessity of his Seclusion The Compiler of this Character would take it ill now on the other side if a man should say that his very argument against the Duke holds as true against the Author of the Character For that Dominion is founded in Grace is the Principle both for which and by which he pretends to Supplant the Successor Now why may we not apprehend Sedition from the one as well as Tyranny from the other Nay and with more Justice too considering that there is but a bare Contemplation the One way and the Practice of an enflaming Discourse over and above that Contemplation the other Char. But alas says he that Bug-bear Passive obedeience is a Notion crept into the world and most Zealously and perhaps as ignorantly defended Fol. 20. This Period brings him well nigh to his Journeys end For till now he contented himself with only opposing the primitive Practices and the Common Principles of Christianity in justifying a Violence upon an Impulse of Religion But the making of Passive Obedience only a Bug-bear and the Defence of it an effect of Ignorance brings it home to the very person of our Saviour and to the Doctrine that was delivered by those Holy Lips So far says the Learned Prelate above mentioned Pag. 55. was St. Paul from believing those Popish Rebellious Principles Denying the Superiority of the Civil power and from Dissoyalty or Disobedience to that Imperial tho' Pagan Power under which he Lived that he publickly acknowledged and humbly submitted to it Nor was he only in his own Person Obedient and a Loyal Subject to the Emperor but writing to the Romans he did as an Apostle of Jesus Chrâ—st command them also to be Loyal and Obedient Let every Soul every man be Subject to the Higher the Supreme Powers c. And then he adds that they should render to them Tribute Custom Fear Honour and all their Duties By Supreme Power there he means men possessing Supreme power and the Supreme power under which He and the Romans then were was Nero a most Impious Pagan and Persecutor of Christ and Christians and yet every Soulq within his Empire even Peter as well as Paul was by the Law of
which if he had accomplish'd he might easily have done And to do his Memory Justice he told me this Story with very great Inâ—â—ignation the Substance of which as I shall answer for it to God at the day of Judgment I have faithfully related to the best of my memory upon the Faith of a Christian man Now to 〈◊〉 his Point will not the very Name of a Republican Râ—formation which is at Present become the Theme of every Pamphlet warm Our Mud into Monsters again and raise Coblers and Tinkers to Colonels Draymen and Thimble-makers to be Kings Judges Wherefore Now or Never is his Majesty oblig'd if his Word Honour or Coronation-Oath be more then a Name if I may be pardon'd for speaking my Authours words after him to uphold the Protestant Interest which now lyes a bleeding in this Cause of the Church One Branch of the Coronation Oath being as follows I will preserve and maintain to You the Bishops and the Churches committed to your charge all Canonical Priviledges and due Law and Justice and I will be your Protector and Defender to my Power by the Assistance of God as every good King in his Kingdom â—n right ought to protect and defend the Bishops and Churches under theâ—r Government Then the King ariseth and is led to the Communion Table where he makes a Solemn Oath in sight of all the People to observe the Premises and laying his hand upon the Book saith The Oath The things which I have before promised I shall perform and keep So help me God and the Contents of this Book Char. But let us suppose we may have such a Roman Catholique King as shall discountenance Pope and Popery Cherish Protestantism and effectually deterr and punish all those that shall endeavour to undermine and supplant it And then let us examine what This King thus qualify'd must do Fol. 2. Here is a Supposition fairly propounded in appearance but yet without Expounding himself upon the Worâ—d Protestantism there 's no coming to an Issue upon 't If he means by Protestantism the Opions of the Outlyers that have leapt the pale and which are rather Phansies then Perswasions the Law it self animadverts upon those people as the Underminers of our Ecclesiastical Establishment And his Discountenancing of Separatists will amount to no more then a Legal Discharge of his Office But if by Protestantism he intends a practical Conformity to the Orders of the Church the Law provides as well for the upholding of the One as the suppressing of the Other And it would be a strange Oversight for any Prince that should mount the English Throne under the disadvantages of that Perswasion to put his Perogative upon the stretch of Enacting or Abrogating Laws without the Consent of his Parliament Char. First then In continuing the Ecclesiastique Jurisdiction Honours and Preferments in the hands of the Protestant Clergy he must confer his Favours and Smiles on those very men whom by the Fundamentals of his own Vncharitable Perswasion which dooms all that dy out of the Bosom of the Romish Church to a certain State of Damnation he cordially believes do preach and teach and lead his Subjects in the direct way to Hell And next at the same time he must not only punish and persecute but perhaps emprison and hang those very only Righteous men whom from the bottom of his Soul he believes can only open them the Gates of Paradice whilest in so doing he cannot but accuse himself of coppying the Old Jewish Cruelty Nay in One respect he outgoes their Crime for he acts that Knowingly which they committed Ignorantly For by the Dictates of Religion he must be Convinc'd that in effect he does little lesse then save a Barabbas and Crucify a Jesus Fol. 3. Here is First presented a dismal Prospect of a Popish Successour in the Life of a Protestant Prince and the present Government of that Protestant Prince troubled and distracted with Clamours and Jealousies for fear of a Popish one to come If Religion were really the business they would rather blesse God for the Peace and Happiness they enjoy and wait his further Pleasure with Thankfullness and Resignation then with Murmuring and Distrust to anticipate Future Evills and Prejudge Providences to come Or if Religion were All what 's the meaning of their hammering so much of late upon the Subject of Arbitrary Power and so many Models and Projects of a Common Wealth which were the very Method of our late Usurpers as to matter of Arbitrary Power the King has pass'd away so many Concessions already for the gratifying of his Subjects that if he had it in his Will his Majesty has not left it in his Power to be guilty of that which is so ungratefully Charg'd upon him Which makes it look liker a mockery then an Accusation And then for the New-fangled Device of a Free Common Wealth our Republican Agitators should do well to mind the People of England of the blessed condition they were in under the pretended Keepers of an Liberties The Sound of Freedom and Liberty brings the Multitude like Larks to the Glasse but not a word of the Net They say nothing of the Standing Army that must be kept afoot to support it nor of the bloudy Taxes that must be rais'd to maintain those Troops and Martial Law to make good all those Violences Why do they not tell them of their Charters Franchises Priviledges and Tenures which are all swallow'd up in that Gulph of Popular Tyranny And so are all other advantageous Dependences upon the Crown The Body of the Law must be new garbled and a Civil War with all the Miseries and Contingences of it must be the Prologue to the Opening of this Tragical Scene And if the Sedition fails of successe they bring themselves into the state again of a Conquer'd Nation And upon these Terms it is at best that they are to exchange a Condition of Peace Freedom and plenty for â—eggery Bondage and Confusion It was very well sayd of Grotius upon the NetherLanders delivering themselves from the 〈◊〉 of Spain We Fought says he to save the Tenth part of our Estates and now that we have got the day we have Compounded 〈◊〉 th' other Nine Here is a Criminal and a Dangerous but I hope an Impracticable Proposal set afoot But brought in God knows by Head and shoulders under the Countenance of Religion and Succession It is possible there may be no more in it then a Well-meaning mistake But there must be an Infinite Tenderness of Conscience and a most untainted Loyalty to justify the Authour But to return to my Character As to the Influence which a Popish Successour may have upon Ecclesiastical matters as in the Character there needs no more to be sayd in 't then this that the King hath been gratiously pleased to offer the Passing of any Bill for securing the Protestant Religion without barring or diverting the Succession And such Expedients have been also fram'd to that