Capacity of Tyrannizing either with Armyes or without them that he has no other Support both of Himself and his whole Party but by following the forementiond Measures of Richard the Third and either to in dear himself by making of Wholesome Laws for the people's Freedom and Tranquility or at least by keeping within the Bounds of those wholesome Ones they have already made for their Security Now with all these Numerous and undeniable Blocks in his way why must a popish Successour be Able or indeed possest with so Enthusiastick a Presumption for nothing less than Supernatural Inspirations will do it as to Think himself able to accomplish that very Thing in England which was never done by Monarch before Nay to make the Presumption a little more prodigious this very Successour who of all the Kings since the Creation has the worst Tools for such an Atchievement must be the first and only person that is for undertaking it For as a National Slavery is always the work of Time and can get footing at best but by slow and subtle Encroachments and likewise if at all 〈◊〉 a thousand times more Feasible from a Prince that is the People's Darling than one that is the â—â—â—version How unfit a Prince will a popish Successour be for so hazardous an Attempt when the continual and united Jealousies of his Subjects will prevent the first part of the Danger by forewatching even the least Surprize or Arbitrary Encroachment upon them and next will never furnish him with half hands enough to perfect the Vndertaking Well but notwithstanding all this there are a sort of People in the World that shall make Answer that Arbitrary Power in a Papist is not a thing so new nor so unpracticable when the Government of the now French King is so manifest a Testimony to the Contrary And truly there are but too many Incendiaries in this Age that distract the Brainless part of Mankind with almost no other Gorgon Viz. That the French King's Standing-Armyes are to be the Pattern of a popish Successour's Government and the Persecution of his Hugonots the very Fate of the Protestants in England whil'st under the Rose Popery and Slavery are to Copy from no other Original As this is one of the main Pretensions of the Whig-Fears and indeed the Top-Demonstration of Popery and Arbitrary Power so when truly examined you 'll find it just such an Apparition as Otes's bloody Pilgrims the more terrible the more ridiculous For as 't is the common Fate of all popular Arguments on that Subject so much the more Formidable still so much the more Ayry the Phantom For first not to insist much upon the General Mistake of Mankind when possibly the French Arbitrary Power is infinitely magnifyed above what really it is for excepting the French King's now and then fleecing an Over-rich Cheating Courtier a little Arbitrarily and thereby in truth making but a Reprizal of his own I could never yet learn by those that know the French Government that any man's Meum or Tuum was Illegally taken away or any Man's Life or Fortune stood or fell but by the Judicial Process of the Laws of the Land 'T is true indeed his Wars have been Expensive but then his Revenues have been large to support them and not only that but his Forreign Depredations have supplyed the greatest part of the Expence Nevertheless whatever Arbitrary Taxes he may have raysed to the Injury of any particular aggrieved Subject or whatever Tyranny he may have exercised over the distrest and persecuted Hugonots if either of the two can be properly Arbitrary or Tyrannick when past into a Law and made a Decree enacted by parliament as both the Taxes and the present Hugonot Persecution are the French King 's Arbitrary Incroachments in France are no precedent for a popish Successour's Imitation in England and that because the State and Constitution of the Two Kingdoms are so extreamly different that there is not the least Ground for such a Foundation here as there For first as to the Nature and Genius of the People In France the Peasants ab Origine have not enjoyed half the Priviledges and Immunityes of the Freeborn people of England And therefore under that sordid Education as knowing no better and being in a manner inured to Slavery 't is no such great wonder to see the French Commonalty submitting to such Oppression as indeed why should they otherwise when they submit but to Law And if the French King has any greater Ascendance over his Parliaments than the Kings of England over Theirs to perform all this why should that be any Rarity when in reality they are of so different a Constitution from those of England that they are rather the settled Magistrrcy of the Nation than any thing like Our Parliaments and as Ours are of the peopl's Election Theirs in a manner only the King 's every Member of the French Parliaments holding his Office not only for Life but even to his Heirs unless alienated by the Prince upon a Forfeiture or any personal Dislike that in short as being the Creatures of the King they are truly more like a Turkish DIVAN than an English House of Commons But in fine to make a Parallel of our Dangers between the State of the two Nations which in truth is bringing North and South together BECAVSE a popish French King with the Majority of the Kingdom of his own Religion the Religion Established by Law and Flourishing in Glory by help of such vaste Armies too intirely of that Religion and thereby principled for his own Service can squeeze some particular of his Subjects Purses a little Arbitrarily and oppress and persecute the poor forlorn Hugonots a Party infinitely the Minority disabled too from all power and at highest but suffered by the Indulgence of the State and that even with the most favourable Aspect of the Government under that pittance of Encouragment that for Example to the whole Body of the Reformers inhabiting in that vaste and populous City of Paris there is tolerated but One Hugonot Church and that standing like our Pancras only more Miles out of Town because I say the French King under these Circumstances can do all this THEREFORE pray mark it a popish English King with his Diminitive Romish Party the most inconsiderable Handful of the Nation under not only the Censure of the Law but the utter Abhorrence of the People with the help of an Army if he has any of a quite contrary Religion and thereby wholly unprincipled for the Service intended shall vanquish and subject the Protestant Establish't Religion in all its Lustre and Strength upheld by all the Fortifications of Law and by Numbers even to a more than hundredfold Majority whil'st the English Protestants are not only to feel the French Hugonots Smart but if either the Fanatical Suggestions or the popish Character speaks Truth to groan under a hundred times Oh! Monstrum Horrendum more dismal Persecution and Slavery the
present French Arbitrary Stretch being little more than a Fleabiting to our total Abolition of our Laws Libertyes and Religion But to make this French Goblin more monstrous still there are some People that go a Bowes Shoot farther yet and will tell you that by the aforesaid almost Omnipotent Things called Standing-Armyes a popish Successour shall not only crush our Protestant Laws and Liberties to pieces Himself but likewise hectour our very parliaments to that degree as to force them to the giving up our very Birthrights to him nay to the very passing of at once both Popery and Slavery into Law it self and then Lord have Mercy upon poor lost England For alas the same Absolute uncontroulable Soveraignty that the French King has over his Parliaments is they 'll tell you the intended Scheme of a popish Dominion in England And then where Oh where is our Religion and Liberties when that black Day once comes Now in the Name of Lucifer what Infernal Impudence reigns in the World when such Rank such Nonsensical Stuff as this can be asserted by Rogues and credited by Fools For besides the most infamous Calumny that this execrable Imputation throws upon the whole Body of the Nation Viz. That Englishmen shall be such tame such abject such despicable Wretches and Cowards as out of any personal Fear whatever to yield up their Laws Rights and Religion to the Ruine of themselves and their Posterity and thereby offer as it were even their own Throats to the Slaughter What Relation has the present Management in France to that of Popery in England or the French King 's Parliamentary Influence to that of a popish Successour's For whatever extraordinary Obedience or Subjection the French Parliaments may yield to their King in the grant of any Oppressive Impositions upon the Subject to advance their King 's Exorbitant Power and Greatness are the French King 's Arbitrary Endeavours to root up the Foundations of his popish Laws and the Establish't Religion of France which vice versa is the Case in England so that if a popish Successour can hector our English Parliaments to no farther a Complyance than the French King does His the Devil an Inch of Ground will Popery get in England for as I take it the French Parliaments are all popish and as such are in so little danger of their Religion that truly their Prince in the other Extream is in the highest Extravagance of Advancing it So that unless we state the Parrallel between the two Kings Thus Viz. Supposing the French King a Hugonot which is but turning our Tables that then both his popish Armies and popish Parliaments would nevertheless be awed and bullyed into that intire Submission to him as to abolish the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and thereby subject themselves and all their Brethren Papists to the self same Persecution and Slavery under the Hugonots that the Hugonots suffer under Them without which Supposition his Tyranny is wholly alien to our popish Successour's and nothing but the most Villanous Phanatical Sophistry dares cant at this wretched rate to pretend to make the French Tyranny a Model for English Popery to work by But put the Case there were a French Hugonot King and that had the forementioned purpose in Agitation either by Armies or Parliaments as plyable as the French Genius is supposed to be his Ill Success in such an Exploit might be soon guest by the Difficulties and Obstructions of their Hugonot Henry the 4 th in his way to the Throne under but a suspition of inclining that way And consequently what worse Success would attend the like popish Changes in England under the manifest disproportion of the English Papists to the French Hugonots is past dispute However if neither English Armies nor English Parliaments can do the popish Feat there 's one last Expedient yet to vanquish all Obstacles and that I assure you if no small Authors may be believed a most puissant one Viz. If the popish Hands in England are too weak to enslave us this popish Successour shall borrow the Assistance of popish Neighbours to help out and so what cannot be done by Domestick Forces shall be perform'd by a Forreign Army call'd over on purpose This Expedient I confess is so much the more remarkable as it has some little Affinity to Bedlow's St. Jago Expedition and truly has sometimes had the Honour to be harangued upon even in a House of Commons as no small Danger from Popery But notwithstanding the Authority and Veracity this Projection may seem to arrogate from its Admission into an Honourable House of Parliament upon due Examination I am half afraid 't will prove but one of the Observator's downright Twangers For if this popish Successour be for setting up Popery by pitch't Battles and plain Conquest and that too by Outlandish Ayde in the first place he must have far more than tenfold as many Forreign popish Hands as he has of his own to pretend at least to a strength able to subdue England nay and in truth here 's one unlucky Circumstance attending that is if he can borrow popish Neighbours 't is odds but the protestants may borrow protestant Neighbours too upon occasion for Princes have as often lent Armies to succour opprest Subjects as to assist Oppressing Tyrants But let that pass But supposing the best face of the thing that there were some Chance for him in this bold Cast and that after his setting of Honour Life Empire all at a Throw upon the hazard of War there were only an even Lay of Keeping or loosing them a Caesar aut nullus 't were a little more pardonable Venture But as the Devil would have it there 's not one syllable of this in the Matter For if overthrown he 's so irrevocably lost that possibly not only his own Ruine but that of all his Royal Family and of Monarchy it self goes together But admitting he Conquers the Question is whether the Caesarship on the other side be so secure or no For truly what if the aforesaid tenfold Majority of Forreign Conquerours should make bold to pass a Civil Complement upon this Successour Militant and the rest of his popish Remnant and fairly keep the Victory when they have got it For I assure him little England is a pritty Parcel of Terra firma and 't were no small Temptation to popish or no popish Fingers to be a little tenacious with so fortunate a Prize And when those Triumphant Forreigners have tasted the sweet Air of so delicate a Spot as England 't is fourty to one whether They or at least the Crown'd Head that lends them will be overhasty of resigning so inviting a Trophy as the English Diadem and truly cosidering the Blackness of the Cause they came over to ingage in if any Forreign Prince can lend an Army for so Dishhonourable a Quarrel which indeed all Nations and all Religions must cry Shame against with much less Dishonour may he wear the Lawrel he wins
to the Church of Rome are equally guilty of High Treason and to suffer as in Cases of Treason And a second Act of Henry the VIII In which the Refusal of the Oath of Henry's Supremacy in Renuntiation of the Pope was also made High Treason Now if every Papist in England without lifting a Hand uttering a Word or imagining the least disloyal Thought against his Lawful Soveraign his Crown and Dignity or against the Peace of the Nation where he 's a Subject yet nevertheless out of a point of Conscience and meer Matter of Faith cannot be induced to believe a Temporal Prince capable of being Head of a Church but is invincibly perswaded how erronious soever that the POPE is Peter's undoubted Successour and Christ's unquestioned Vicar upon Earth and cannot without hazard of his Soul so much as consent to acknowledge otherwise yet notwithstanding by the Protestant Laws of the Land this Invincible Perswasion without any other Crime is interpreted High-Treason and punish't as such Now I say in this Case what wondrous Difference is there between the Rigour of a Popish or a Protestant Constitution This that makes a Defection from Their Church-Establish't TREASON and the other from Theirs HERESY This that punishes an Apostate with Hanging and Quartering at Tiburn and the other with Burning at Smithfield 'T is true that Branch of Queen Elizabeth's Statute that concerns the Popish Layman's High-Treason was never yet put in Execution and I hope for the Glory of the Reformation Establish't by that Illustrious Princess as so extreamly Sanguinary was never intended to be being severe enough to give our Popish Enemies a Matter of Recrimination though Enacted but in Terrorem But here I beg the Reader to be assured that I urge not this Comparison in Disparagement of our Protestant Laws but only to satisfie the Mistaken Part of Mankind that all such Judicial Severities under the Government of both Religions have ever been introduced by the most Awful and Sacred Authority of the rightful Law-Makers of the Nations and consequently in the English Constitution not only the King 's but the Peoples Acts and Decrees and so to convince them of the unreasonableness of that senseless Surmise that upon the Admission of a Popish Successour all the forementioned Cruelties though without any such Induction of Law and consequently with all the Injustice Rapine and Cold-blooded Murder even to that formal Solemnity of Butchery that humane Imagination would tremble at must and shall be introduced For alas how ridiculously extravagant must those Fears be that can aâ—dlâ— Men's Senses into a Dread of that prodigious Stroke from Popery that was never given by it since the Creation What Magnifying Glasses therefore must the Popular Fears see through to behold such Stupendious Visions of Popery as that THAT shall be that NEVER was whil'st a Popish Crown'd Head in England must be the first nay only Royal Savage of a Papist that ever Reign'd However for once let us suppose the Devil and Pope as familiar together as ever they were painted at a Queen Elizabeth's Night and that this Gospel Propagation were really the Doctrine of his pretended Infallibility and this Bloody Mandate to a Popish Successour the special Edict of the whole CONSISTORY what would the Execution of that Mandate make towards the Growth or Advancement of Popery God knows so far from promoting the Romish Religion that possibly there wants but that One Attempt to shame it almost out of the World For in the first place 't is so far from a way or means to convert even one Soul in England that 't is the only Course to increase their Abhorrence and Execration of that Religion and bring the very THOVGHT of Popery even below Damnation 'T would no more make Converts to Rome than the old Heathen Caldrons and Gridirons to Paganisme For as the greatest Prejudice of Englishmen against Popery lyes in their Horrour of the Cruelties of it so consequently nothing can contribute to the Advancement of it but the Clemency and Mercy of its Professours to reconcile us even into meer Charity with them whil'st the Exercising of the formentioned unexampled Barbarities would make us fall from our present Ill Opinion of Popery as a Corrupted Church to believe it no Church at all but rather an Association of Monsters and a Den of Cannibals and Tygers and the greatest Operation such unprecedented Cruelty could meet were at best but to force the frighted People into a superficial counterfit Complyance and make them Temporize a little only to compound for their Lives yet that Temporizing under so Villanous a Persecution would be so far from a True Conversion or any thing like it that they 'd only play the Highest of Hypocrites come perhaps to Mass to mutter Curses instead of Ave-Mary's or be hunted into the Popish Fold only to pray for a favourable Opportunity of having a pull at the Throats of the Wolves that drive them thither And Secondly Besides the Impotent Effects 't is certain to find towards the Heretick Conversion the Pope's Command nay indeed Connivance at any such Arbitrary Tyrannick Stake-burning or Throat-cutting from a Popish Successour instead of advancing of Popery by so excentrick a Motion will be enough to stagger half the Popish Hearts in Christendom for as Implicit as the Faith of the Romish Zealots is and as intirely devoted as they are to their Peter's Chair and Mother-Church undoubtedly there are Thousands of them that notwithstanding they can disgest a Wafer for a GOD can never be wrought to believe the Transubstantiation of such visible Tyranny and Butchery into Righteousness and Christianity how Zealous soever they may be for the Conversion of so Heretical a Nation as England And that this would be the Infallible Consequence of all such Barbarous Popish Measures they that will but look back to the Annals of Queen Mary will find Historians telling us That nothing so much advanced the Reformation as the Mistaken Conduct of Queen Mary and her bloody Counsellors in that Point And Dr. Burnet expresly assures us That the whole Body of the Nation grew to dislike the Cruelty of Rome Abridg. Book the 3 d. Pag. 275. to that degree that the Popish Bishops for their Apology threw it off from Themselves and openly laid it on the King's and Queen's Commands insomuch that King Philip for his Excuse made his Confessour preach a Sermon at Court against the taking of Peoples Lives for their Opinions in Religion and inveighed against the Bishops for doing it By which means a stop was put to it for some time But nevertheless as the same Severity soon after return'd again he tells us all along That the Nations Dislike of it was Universal and the repeated Acclamations and universal Transports of Joy at the Proclaiming of Queen Elizabeth proceeded from the People's Hopes of better Days under Her Scepter than her Sister 's By which it appeared how weary the Nation was of the Cruel and weak Administration
much borrow'd in the Character being little else throughout makes bold in another place point Blank to contradict this Passage and positively affirms That to set up Popery or Arbitrary Power by Law under the Laws we have already against them is wholly impossible and that our Laws will be but the Hedge to keep in the Cuckow For Papists and Slaves we must and shall be made as the inseperable Concomitants of a Popish Successour And to prove all this Breaking of all Laws whatever it says in haec verba How can the Force of Laws made by a Protestant Predecessour and a Protestant Parliament in any sort bâ—nd a Popish Successour When the very first Advance of the Pope's Supremacy a very nimble leap introduces that higher Power those Canonical Ecclesiastick Laws which no Secular or any other Temporal Court can or may Controul Laws that shall declare not only the Statutes and Acts of Parliament made against the Dignity of Mother-Church voyd and Null but the very Law-makers themselves as Hereticks wholly uncapable of ever having any Right of making any such Laws No doubt then but that Fire that burns those Heretick Law-makers shall give their Laws the same Martyrdom Here indeed the Affairs are alter'd and truly the Matter much mended This I confess says the Character and this at least three parts of the Fools of English Mankind believe for Oracles And though all our Records Histories Chronicles and the whole Series of all Ages since the Conquest to this day do notoriously prove the Contrary yet this Popular Maxime That the Romanists by their Ecclesiastick Laws pretend to anull and make void all Secular Laws against their Church and to incapacitate the very Prerogative and Authority of that Majesty and those Law-makers that made them though one of the most Impudent Falshoods in nature is nevertheless one of the most received Vulgar Traditions that ever startled Ideots For Example to begin with their very Heretici Comburendi The very Ax and Fasces of Rome was it not an Act of the Secular Power In the very highest Reign of Popery did or could the Pope punish an Heretick Apostate by Imprisonment Fire or Faggot any further than by Parliamentary Permission and excepting that the Clergy were made Judges of Heresy and that too by concession of the Secular Authority Was not the Execution of that Law kept in Temporal Hands Nay though 't is true the papal Power made many Vsurp'd Encroachments here through the Bigotry of the Government yet upon too hard Pressures from Rome did not several of our Kings many hundred years before the Reformation resume their own Original Right and expresly in the Statute against PROVISOES under Penalty of Forfeiture of Goods and Imprisonment for Life forbid the admitting of the Popes Legantine Power in England or making Appeals to Rome or taking Inductions to Episcopal Sees from the Pope And for Queen Mary her self was there one Syllable of the Laws Enacted by her Father Henry or her Brother Edward in favour of the Reformation that she ever pretended to Over-rule by any Ecclesiastick Law or Pretence whatever Nay and did not the Pope's Supremacy it self and that not till many a hard tug and two years after she came to the Crown come in by Act of Parliament under several Limitations of his Power with the Confirmation of the antient Statute against Provides c. and several other Boundaries as much as to say Move thus far and no Further. But alas what 's all this to the Author of a Popish Characterâ— Popery and Arbitrary Power in spight of Fate shall and must be set up And therefore what Laws shall or shall not get uppermost is ene as Mr. Scribler pleases For truly Malice put pen to paper and Truth and Reason were never minded and indeed there was no need of either of them for as that Pamphlet had the honour in the Title-Page of being humbly offered to the Consideration of the then HOVSES of Parliament both Truth and Reason were Immaterial to itâ— Recommendation For where an Oâ—es his Narrative past for Gospel the Devil 's in 't if a Popish Character could miscarry However to confute that sensless Fear that a Popish Successour will subvert the whole Foundations of the Government and erect his own Arbitrary Edict for the Supreme Standard of JVSTICE and that he shall find those Popish Judges Sheriffs or any other Officers or Ministers that under the Protection of a Standing Army shall make our Lives and Liberties wholly dependant upon the Caprichio and Pleasure of the Prince and persuant thereto shall furnish him with Jayls Gibbets and Smithfield Piles or any other Arbitrary though less Sanguinary Persecution to convert us to Popery First let us examine the Courage of all these Arbitrary Judges Officers and State-Ministers that embarque in this Arbitrary Undertaking They must be all those hardy popish Tools whether corrupted by Zeal or Interest that they must not value all their own Lives for notwithstanding whatever Protection or Impunity they may receive during the Life of their Royal Popish Driver no sooner shall the next Protestant Heir succeed him but every Mothers Son of them shall be answerable with their Necks for the least drop of Protestant BLOOD they have shed or Protestant Liberty they have invaded The Protestant Laws of the Land will not be so tamely overthrown without a certain Vengeance attending it insomuch that those bold Babel Builders these Arbitrary Popery Raisers must either be so generous to their King as the Indian Wives to their Husbands and make one glorious Funeral Pile upon his Grave or else resolve to live to offer up their Throats to the very Sword of Iustice in the Hand of a Lawful Authority which themselves before have so Vnlawfully abused in their own And that the Liberty of the Subject is so tender in the Eye of the English Government the very misusing and torturing of Hereticks in Prison though under that Attainder lyable to the most ignominious of Deaths and though done in a Popish predecessours Reign was sufficient to have taken the great Statesman Bonner's Head off but only that Queen Elizabeth's Mercy interposed as unwilling to stain the beginning of her Reign with Blood Reform Abridg. B. 4. pag. 357. And if his Illegal Compliance with his Prince was so Capital an Offence what must the more violent Irruptions of Arbitrary Rapines against the untainted Liberty of the Protestant Subjects now pull down upon the bold Invaders Heads 'T is no difficult matter to possess the overcredulous World the easy swallowing Multitude with what wondrous Atchievements the Zealots of Popery shall undertake and what indefatigable Labours and Hazards they will go through for the Re-building of their Faln Temples when animated and influenced by a Popish Soveraign I acknowledge 't is true there is no Courage more daring than that which Zeal inspires and no Zeal possibly more violent than that of the Papists and undoubtedly for Rome's Restoration there would be
upon occasion to show themselves in their proper Colours The Villany of which Damnable Falshood is sufficiently apparent from the forementiond Indulgence For why such a Dispensation Why a playing the basest of Hypocrites and Bantring with Religion Sacraments nay GOD himself as such a Dispensation is no less when under so universal an Impunity there was not the least Occasion for it There 's a natural Pride in all Religions to avow their own Principles and no Man like St. Peter denyes his Master unless like him too under some Apprehension of Danger in Owning him And therefore these papal Dispensations must be the Second Part of Otes his Commissions and nothing but the Restless Malice of Schisme and the Diabolical Spirit of Rebellion can raise so false an Alarum of popery and bugbear the Ignorant Rabble by so vile and so cursed an Imposture But to return to our Standing Army An Army of Papists is not to be had and an Army of Atheists is as unseizible as the other For whatever dissolute Debauchees might possibly be culled out as the Character tells you of no Religion nor Principles for a few particular Officers the whole Gross of an Army of the same Stamp is not in rerum Naturâ For if a popish Successour will have an Army of English-men he must take them as he finds them the loose and poorer sort of Rabble the Bore and Peasant the Refuse of the Shop and the Plough which are ever the Composition of Armyes in a Kingdom not so extraordinary peopled as England and these must be the Hands that this popish Successour must raise for his Standing Armyes And if so how far the Genius of the Commonalty of England lyes towards such a popish Vndertaking and this No-popish Army shall push on to these All-popish Designs is worthy our Consideration Here 's an Army expresly rais'd for a Forreign Invasion or the like and on the quite contrary intended to cut our own Throats at home rays'd for the Kingdom 's preservation used for its downright Destruction and all this forsooth because their Arbitrary popishly Affected Officers shall pull off the Vizor and wheel about and at the word of Command the whole Army after them But the Quaery is Whether they 'll obey that Command and be so tamely indifferent pro or con in their Obedience to act the most opposite thing to what they were raysed for and maintain perhaps the only Cause that they abhor I confess in the Quarrels of Princes and States as to Forreign Engagements the vindicating of a National Honour or the enlarging of Dominion c. Armyes are generally of their Leaders Inclinations and it boots litâ—le possibly to an English Army whether ingaged against a Dutch or a French Enemy But in Domestick and Intestine Jarrs the Favour of the Cause ever animates the Arm that fights it In all the popish Rebellions or Massacres whether in Ireland Piedmont or Paris whether for or against the Prince or in all the several Hugonot Rebellions in France or any other Kingdoms of Europe when Religion was the Quarrel 't was not the Command of the Leader but the Principle of the Party adhering to him that was ever the First Mover on both sides And a popish Cause in England can never move but upon the same Axle And nothing is more iâ—le than to fancy such an Extravagance in any People or Religion in the World as to swallow such Implicite Obedience to Princes as to do any Thing or all Things because Commanded 'T is not the first time that through prejudice to the Person or the Cause disgusted Souldiers have shot through their Captains instead of their Enemies Heads and the Fate of Kuniski amongst the Cossacks is no Original of the Kind nor is it any such Rarity in History to find whole Armies turn Deserters and not only set up new Leaders but new Soveraigns too And truly upon engaging an English Army under so Bloody a popish Standard what Assurance can this popish Successour propose to himself not so much of going through with so crabbed a piece of Work but even of his own meer Safety under the Protection of such Hands and Swords to uphold him What Security shall he or indeed can he in common reason expect from the Stubborn obstinate English Hands a People too apt to fly in the very Face of Princes upon a less Provocation than so ungrateful a piece of Service and that upon raising an Army for any such kind of purpose he has not put the Sword into their very hands that may guide it to his own Throat whil'st possibly they shall be opportunely raised for some more Darling-protestant Favourite to step into the Head of them and dismount not only their popish Officers but popery too and the very Royal popish Nimrod himself nay and perhaps use him with as little Remorse as the Turkish Janizaries have done several of their less hated Grand Seigniours under a much more Trivial Disgust But to give an Example out of our English Chronicles of the Obedience and Loyalty of English Armyes to a King they hate I shall only refer the Reader to the Fate of King Richard the Third at Bosworth Field Baker tells us that Richard's Army was double the Strength and Number of his Adversarys the Earl of Richmond's Yet see the Infidelity of an English Army to a Prince under the popular Dissatisfaction and Prejudice A great part of his Army raised for his preservation was actually ingaged in his Destruction For the Lord Stanly by a Revolt with 2000 Horse Sir William Stanly with a party of 3000 more and with these Sir Walter Hungerford Sir John Savage Sir Brian Stanford Sir Simon Digby all Commanders who withdrew likewise with their Respective Inferiour Souldiers amounting between them to the Majority of Richard's whole Army turned all to the Earl of Richmond and carryed the whole Fortune of the day to the Victorious Enemies Side to the Loss both of Richard's Crown and Life together Nay he goes further and expresly tells us that in this Battle Henry Earl of Northumberland a Commander of Richard's Party never strook Stroke as likewise many other who follow'd him moreout of Fear than Love which Neuters upon the same Revolt as the Lord Stanly might undoubtedly have withdrawn their party to Richmond too So that upon that dangerous and Fatal Rock the people's Aversion how easily are the Crowns and Lives of princes Shipwrack't and what little Trust can Monarchs repose in the Strength and Swords of Armies whose Hearts are not Theirs But alas if Richard the Third found such Treachery from a Revolting Army and an Antipathy so destructive to him What Truth or Faith is a popish Tyrant like to find from Armies under a more universal and inveterate Detestation For wherein was King Richard's Crime so great I mean as to the people 'T is true he Mounted the Throne by the most Inhumane of Murders And from that only Grievance proceeded the Defection
and assume that vanquish't Kingdom to himself when he robs but a Robber and at most deposes a Cut-throat And therefore to make Instance in the Case what popish Successour will venture to call over suppose thirty or forty thousand French to enslave his people and thereby at one dash loose his People's Hearts beyond all Thoughts of a Recovery as thither indeed the Whig Fears seem to point upon a Confidence that the now French King's Generosity though possibly not the best Faith-keeper in Christendom after the Accomplishment of the Conquest will make so intire a Resignation of all Pretensions of Victory to Establish this Absolute Popish Sultan especially considering the insatiate Ambition of that aspiring Prince to Vniversal Monarchy and particularly to the Soveraignty of the Seas which though with all his present great Ships under the Maritime Weakness of France he cannot atchieve he might intirely possess by so opportune and so important an Addition to his Conquests as England Now they must have a wonderful Stock of Faith with no small mixture of Madness that can really believe any popish Crown'd Head in the World will ever play so cursed a Loosing Game and take that Path towards Popery with two such amnable Precipices both on the Right Hand and the Left that the very Masterpiece of the Projection is but in effect writing his own MENE TEKEL over his own Head So that all the forementioned Impotence and Impossibilities of popish and arbitrary Tyrannys Introduction into England being fully demonstrated I have only this to add There is no greater Mistake in the generality of Mankind than an Imbibed Opinion that the Papists think themselves obliged to endeavour the setting up of their Religion hap-hazard right or wrong hand over head without Consideration or Regard to the Issue or Success of the Undertaking and that in fine a popish Successour will certainly muster all Forces and all Engines to attempt the Storming of the whole Protestant Liberty and Religion though under a tenfold Odds of laying his very Bones at the Siege But the Grossness of this popular Errour will appear from the past Conduct of all the Papists in all Ages and all Countreys when they never attempted a Rebellion Massacre or any such Monstrous Design but where they had not only proper popish Instruments for the Service but also a popish Strength capable in all reasonable prospect of going Through-stitch with it Besides a Bigot in Religion is nevertheless a Statesman in the Establishing of that Religion and excepting such Bedlamite Enthusiasts as the old Fifth Monarchy Adventurers there 's Policy as well as Faith in all Churches and how far soever Faith may stretch Policy moves in the Bounds of Reason and he that can believe the greatest lying Miracle in a Romish Legend will never trust to Miracles in a Romish Battalia And were a popish Successour in his Nature ten times if possible a Bloodyer-minded Tyrant than the very Character has shaped him if he wants Humane Strength to enslave us let us not suspect his relying on Divine or Infernal Assistance the Ayd of Angels or Devils to help him And truly when a popish Successour shall seriously consider the Temper of the Head-strong English a people always impatient of Wrongs to that degree of Ill-nature in the Resentment and Prosecution of Ills above all Mankind beside that whereas all other Nations cry Run Rogue 't is observable the English Note is ever Stop Thief But above all a People so nicely Jealous of Liberty that the very Name of Oppression especially from the Crown-side without the Thing is enough to make them slip the Biâ—â— and run stark mad insomuch that a King of England is but too justly call'd a King of Devils when he considers all this I say a popish Successour a thousand to one will never venture the raising those mutinous English Devils without a Charm full strong enough to lay them again And whatever his Inclinations might be for the Heretick Slavery yet as Vana est sine viribus Ira. 'T is not the Thunder in a Popish Successour's Heart but his Hand that can hurt us and where the Arm 's too weak and the Belt too unweildy let us never trouble our Heads with fearing the Blow But that Point Viz. A popish Successours POWER of Enslaving Persecuting Burning c. being sufficiently discust let us next examine the Veracity of the Character in another Point that is granting he either had or fancy'd he had the Power of doing it Quaery whither it necessarily follows that he must have the Will to do it The Character 't is true as I said before makes him plunge headlong into the Breach of all Promises Vows Obligations Oaths and Sacraments all the Dictates even of Morality and Common Humanity and what not and renders it withall so inseperable an Impulse and Principle of a popish Conscience that in a manner that popish Prince that neglects so incumbent and meritorious a Duty is little less in the popish Ballance than a Judas or a Julian c. Though I confess for all this terrible Oathbreaking the two Instances recited in the Character to prove this universal popish Infidelity are possibly the Idlest that a Man could wish to meet with The First of them is Queen Mary's Breach of Promise of their Quiet Exercise of the Protestant Religion made to the Norfolk and Suffolk Inhabitants that mounted her to her Throne which I acknowledge was both ungratefully and in the highest degree dishonourably done yet when truly weighed is far from any thing of that damnable Law-breaking popish Perjury that the Character all along endeavours to blacken all Romish Princes with that on the contrary though 't is true she broke her Promise given to Capitulating Rebels for the Norfolk and Suffolk Inhabitants were indeed little better for as their utmost Endeavours of setting their Lawful Soveraign upon her Throne was their absolute indispensible Duty whatever her Requital might be yet the Chronicle tells us they refus'd the Queen any Assistance whatever till they had first condition'd with her and extorted that Promise from her And if nevertheless she broke that Promise afterwards with them here was no Tyrannick Cruelty exercised nor any Coronation Oath Violated when she only burnt them by Law and as her Coronation Oath obliged her to rule by Law 't was only her Misfortune to believe the Equity of that Sanguinary Law and accordingly to act by it and consequently their Misery to feel the Scourge of it The 2 d. Instance of a Certain Gentleman on the Other side the Water that once took the Sacrament never to invade Flanders which since he hath so notoriously broken and the Inference from thence that a popish Successour will much more break all Oaths for the meritorious Propagation of his Religion when a popish Prince has violated even Sacraments themselves for his irregular unjustifyable Ambition is so impertinently urged that nothing can be less to the Purpose For that Gentleman's
her Purpose So that nothing could make a greater Turn of Church Affairs in the Kingdom in those Days when under such a Total Alteration of the Clergy and all ready at hand to step into their Seats the whole Interest of the Adverse Religion through the forementioned Equality of Parties could not but be extreamly shaken and the Prevalence in Parliament be highly mov'd by no other Spring Besides the Act De Hereticis comburendis was then unabolish't and as the Determination of Heresy lay in the Breast of the Clergy here was an easie leap into all the foregoing Severities of Rome even by the Law it self Insomuch that either of the Religions could not properly be call'd by Law Establish't whil'st our Pastors and our Fold were in a manner at the Will of the Soveraign and there wanted but little more than the Royal Breath to drive us to the Right or the Left the Sheep or the Goats But all this is so prodigiously remote from the present State of England and the Religion now Establisb't that Light and Darkness can be scarce more dissonant For besides the infinite Disproportion of the Popish Numbers in Queen Mary's Reign to Ours enough of it self to silence all Dispute a popish Successours Removal of the present Protestant Clergy and the Introduction of Priests and Jesuits in their Room as Head of the Church is no more in his Prerogative than the Government of Transylvania The present Bishops and Clergy holding for Life and only to be displaced or silenced upon Crimes or Insufficiencies adjudged or condemned by the Protestant Censure and Sentence And all the popish Clergy so incapable of their Places that they are Aliens to the Nation under an attaint of Treason upon the very Assumption of their Sacerdotal Orders and so shut out from our Church-Ministry by Parliamentary Oaths Tests and Abjurations that nothing but the most Diabolical Papal Dispensation and a Conscience even Brimstone Proof could introduce them were there really Room for their Admission But alas considering in what Equilibrium Religion then hung whatever Concurrence the Prince could then obtain from his People in Parliament in favour of his own Perswasion The Genius of England is now quite another thing All our Parliaments for almost a hundred years last past have been so far from granting even the least Concession to the Crown in favour of popery that on the contrary all their Study Votings Labours and Endeavours even to a Nemine Contradicenâ—e have been levell'd at the very Root of it so far from countenancing of it that the very sound of it has made them fly out into the most rapid Torrent of Contradiction even beyond the Duty of Subjects and instead of Complimenting either Pope or Popery they have tyed up their very Hands even from the best of Protestant Crown'd Heads and in their highest Extremities denyed them their most reasonable Demands in the most pressing Necessities of the Crown and all for the Apprehension of popish Designs and for keeping the least String of their Purses from popish Fingers I need not instance what Load of Miseries attended the late Royal Martyr from this Fatal Original Neither do I urge this in Relation to those detestable Regicides the corrupted Limbs of that Exetrable Senate that under the Vizor of Religion were plotting the most Infernal of Mischiefs and so from the false Alarum of popery denyed their Soveraign All Things only to make him Nothing No as All Men are not Monsters and even in that Accursed Parliament there were some honest Men yet those very honest Men those that by the universal Delusion were inchanted into False Fears and so design'd nothing but Truly the Prevention of popery were yet under that Terrour so Jealous of their Prince so Deaf to his Interest and so inexorable even to his most Crying Wants and all for battring these fancy'd Ayry Castles that in the vehemence of their Zeal they contributed to the very Designs of his Murderers and how ignorantly soever heap'd together the very Coals to the universal Conflagration so far too that they had only Time to detect the Infernal Imposture and deplore the dire Effects of their miserable Mistake too late Besides to come a little nearer home What dismal Consequences were the late Malignant Conjunction of Fears and Iealousies in the same Fiery Trigon producing again What Demi-Gods and Nation-Saviours did the whole Vox populi nay the very sensible Men of the Nation make of those very Varlets which now their Opened Eyes and waken'd Senses I appeal to their own Consciences tell them are those flagitious unparallel'd Villains that would shame a Gibbet And yet the very Loyallest of all our late Members of Parliament for they were not all Shaftsburys nor all Sidneys neither such that were for Associating to Kill-Kings to keep out Popes nor answering of Filmers out of Buchanan's and Miltons nor seating the Good Old Cause at the Right Hand of GOD. Not those that made popery the pretence alone to manage their own Hellish Republick Machinations But only those that alas and well a day had been Beuk-Blawd a little out of their right Wits by the aforesaid Nation-Saviours and so were for combating of Popery possibly for the Real Preservation of the King and Kingdom Yet the very Loyallest of these Men I say were wrapt up to that height of perverseness that to use the gentlest Terms I can find they thought they could never do little enough even for that very King attested by their own unanimous reiterated Acknowledgments to be the very Isthinus that kept POPERY from Surrounding Us and on whose Only Thread of Life the whole FATE of the Protestant Religion depended I shall not trouble my self with the Repeating the Diversity of Statutes recited in the Character to instance the various Bandying of the Succession of the Crown in Henry the Eighth's Reign designed there as an Argument of Justice for a Parliamentary Bill of Exclusion against a Popish Heir For whatever different Settlements of the Descent of the Crown that King and his Parliaments were pleased to make occasioned by the Intricacy of his Daughter's Titles grounded upon that long controverted Point the Divorce of Queen Katherine the Mother of Queen Mary and therefore not at all enacted as an Exclusion but a Confirmation of the Right Heir However as far soever as a Parlimentary Power may pretend to extend in that Case all these Statutes make nothing to the purpose for Justification of an Exclusion for matter of Religion For had those Parliamentary Proceedings been a Warrant or Precedent for any such Exclusion never was a more urgent Necessity than in Queen Mary's Reign of laying hold of such a Pretension For considering the State of Religion in her Time when looking back to the two last King's Reigns so formidable a Progress had the Protestant Perswasion made and the Inclinations of the People lean'd so much towards the Reformation that the very Change of the Prince was enough to turn