order But the insisting upon such a Contradictory Oath or intending to make it good is a Double Crime so that continuing thus to the end is final Impenitence and consequently equal to the sin against the Holy Ghost The Supream Lawful Authority of England is our Lawful King all other Lawful Authority in the Kingdom being but subordinate and Act by his Commission Nay our very Laws are not only call'd his but as Laws solely made by Him for tho the matter be Consider'd and the words put in order by the Wisdom of a Parliament yet all is but a Lump a Dead Letter till his Fiat gives it Life And as the Scripture calls Kings Gods by reason of their high and necessary Attributes so nothing can better Quadrate with that Allegorical Title than the common and usual Rhetorick of our most Ancient Lawyers when they treat of the Majesty Power and Right of our Kings Our Lawful King and to him our Obedience in only Due sits always on a Hill and is as Conspicuons as the Pyramids of Modin the Tombs of the Maccabees which might be seen even by all that sail'd on the Sea The Inscription on his Throne is in such legible Characters that he that runs may read it Nor can any Native of England or Scotland possibly mistake his Royal and Sacred Person unless the Remainder of those ten Tribes who could in Defiance of Law and Law-Makers ser up a Calf in Dan and Bethel and yet own themselves still in the Right Our Obedience to our Lawful King is not only positively and explicitly injoyn'd by the Word of God who equals Rebellion to the Highect Crime but we are oblig'd to it by the very Law of Nature which Dictating Self-preservation tell us that Government is the only Medium to it and consequently that even Tyranny in the Abstract is far better than Anarchy and Confusion Yet seeing the Depravity and Corruption of Mankind is great and that without refreshing Artifices our very memory grows torpid if not wholly lost Good Men in all Ages thought it necessary to impose Oaths and Enact Laws also to preserve Obedience In a Well-meaning man by the sacredness of the action and by the grievous penalty that follows the Breach Swearing or a just Oath makes his Conscience strangely mindful of the thing tho a known Duty before nay we see sometimes great Effects of it even in private Oaths between man and man for by this means a Profligate Rogue shall sometimes V. G. pay a Debt which he never perchance intended to do a Drunkard to continue for a while sober and it may be a Common Whore as long Continent So that Lawful Governours finding this and the like by Experience have on emergent occasions sworn their Subjects in general as well as Ministerial Officers in particular even to those very things as I said which they all knew they were oblig'd to before both by Nature and Religion Obedience being the first Postulat in Government and indispensably due to it our principal Laws have therefore Exacted it from us to our Lawful King under the highest Punishments and call even the lifting up of a Finger against his Sacred Person not only Treason but fully to awaken and terrifie us give it the most horrid and sacrilegious Name of Killing him nay our Law like the Precepts of the Gospel descends even to thoughts and to silence all Criticisms and Excuses in unquiet Breasts it declares not only that the Crown takes away all former Blemishes and Faults but that the King can do no Wrong Now to shew us that this is indisputably so no subject from the beginning of Monarchy among us which is far Antienter than our very Records was ever yet Indicted for Rebelling or Maliciously doing the King Harm that the Fact being prov'd did escape Conviction let his Pretence Reason or Plea be what it would Even Bethel and Cornish knew this full well and that 't was past all Art to bring the most Pick'd and Garbled Jury to the Impudence of doing otherwise so that Ignoramus to save a Noble Peer was forc'd to Damn and disbelieve three Discoverers in Oats's Plot even three Saviours of the Nation with seven more of the second Rate Men once of mighty Fame and Valour for the whole Gang tho they and others had made Cha. II. long before blacker every way than his hair were yet sufficiently assur'd that this if true lessen'd not his Royal Authority and that all Defences of that Nature were too weak to stop the Fury of the Law that Uncontroulable Bear if once Unmuzzl'd and let loose All which demonstrates what we owe to our Lawful Soveraign and that his Person being out of the reach of Man can cry peccavi to none but God This being then the summ of our written as well as often inculcated Constitutions the present Repetition cannot but be infinitely serviceable to the Mighty WILLIAM whose Sirname is Just and whose Title is so much beyond Controversie that even meddling would if possible lessen and dishonour it I say this cannot but be extreamly serviceable to him especially when I show the Indispensability of the Oath of Allegiance which we have or shall take at any time to our Lawful Prince and how the Breach of it will most certainly draw upon Transgressors all the Plagues and Judgments that the highest Perjury can deserve The Indispensability of the said Oath appears even at the first sight by the intent and purpose of it For 't was purposely fram'd and design'd by our Lawful Governours to oblige all that took it to a strict remembrance and performance too of their natural duty in case our Lawful King were in any danger or misfortune and this they hop'd it might chance to accomplish by alarming not only good Men and so cause them to have their Eyes and Hands in readiness but by obviating also all sly Insinuations and Fancies as if Allegiance were an indifferent thing and at the pleasure of a Subject for an Oath the end of strife makes indifferency become an obligation Now to give my Reader a full and true Idea of the Breach of a Lawful promissary Oath and what a vile baseness it is in a Subject as well as a foul sin I shall here lay down a very remarkable Example and as I believe very pertinent also to the present business Henry the first drawing towards his end called his Great Lords and prime Subjects together and then told them that his Son being Dead and Maw his sole Heir being therefore to be their Queen he desired for his own satisfaction as well as for preventing all scruples about Women that they would own and swear Allegiance to Her This being deemed very far from unreasonable they did it not only once but thrice also yet after his Death one Stephen seising the Crown was declar'd the true and Lawful Monarch But that the whole matter may be yet more plain and Easie 't will not perchance be inconvenient before
The ENGLISH-MAN's Allegiance OR Our Indispensable Duty by Nature by Oaths and by Law to our Lawful King Ante leves ergo pascentur in aethere Cervi Et freta destituent nudos in littore Pisces Quam nostro Illius labatur pectore Vultus Virg. BEing as fully sensible as any Man breathing how much we OWE to the late Pious and Disinterested Undertaking of the Matchless Prince of Orange now our declar'd True and Lawful Soveraign And being also as intirely convinc'd as the best of my Fellow-subjects of his Wonderful PRUDENCE ever since which renders him we must confess Worthy of the Crown were his TITLE questionable as having put the whole Nation in the present happy State nay fixt besides our Liberties and Religion the Monarchy it self on a most firm and a durable Foundation I say being fully sensible and intirely convinc'd of all This and finding besides by the sober cool and well-temper'd Votes of our Loyal and most Legal Parliament I mean those of the House of Commons That all Persons whether Men or Women above the Age of Sixteen are to take the Oaths of Allegiance or be Imprison'd without Bail or Mainprize I thought it an incumbent Duty being a known Patriot and yet walk ever Incognito to cast in my Mite that is in other terms to do something and what considering some Circumstances can I do more for if I cou'd I would do it without fail than advise Loyalty to others as well as practise it my self Therefore in this small Treatise I shall shew to the World even to all that have their Eyes as the usual Phrase is upon our World That as following a River is a most certain way for a young Virtuoso to find out the Sea so the breaking Allegiance is the ready and Infallible Road to the Devil Now seeing what I am to Discuss is a very difficult and nice Point and who in manners and good breeding can call that Easie which has many hard and wilful Antagonists I intend to handle it in exact form and like a Grave School-man or perchance a School-Boy and so must tell my Reader as well what I am not as what I am First Negative I am not a Quaker for I can swear and have both sworn Allegiance and am also very fully resolv'd to keep it as firmly believing that whoever makes a Vow I will require it at his hands says the Lord. Secondly I am no Commonwealths-man and therefore had far rather hear the Dutch whose Wit and Language I strangely fancy call an English-man-of-War the Constant Prater than our own people stile an English-Grown-man the Constans Speaker Nor do I by any means admire a Duke of Venice unless it be in the Morea or some other pâ—rt of Turkey Thirdly Affirmative I am and three or thrice bring generally most men as well as Poets to the point Nay it distinguishes a Christian from an Infidel and makes even Dogs according to Plutarch to Syllogize and find out a Hare without smelling and truly I love three Things or three Persons with all my heart as I guess my Reader will tho I am about Oaths presently Believe without an Oath I say Thirdly Affirmatively I am one Born and Bred in the Church of England that extremely lov'd Plumb-Broth when Porredge was out of Fashion that Eat many a Mince-Pye in Defiance of the Directory and that still daily says We have Err'd and stray'd like lost Sheep Besides I am of the long Robe especially when I put on a Night-gown and ready therefore secundum Artem to give iâ— under my hand that Abdicating is a far less English Law-Term than Dispensing In my Family for want of a Chaplain I say Grace my self and then heartily pray according to the Ancient Rubricks and Canons for both Their Majesties and the Prince that is in the words at length for King Queen and Prince of Denmark and doubtless this last pâ—tition is most decent and just for if we consider that Hero in himself he is certainly a Great Man but when we Reflect upon the present Courtesie of England by which Men precede their Wives he is a kind of an Heir apparent Now had this been Law in other places Jack in the Old Tale of Rushy Coat who ran away with the Kings Daughter would have been the True King and she in her own Kingdom only Hoyty Toyty and Nominal but all Legislators are not of the same opinion as the Hebrew Proverb has it So much then for the Porch or Preliminaries now for the Main Body of the Fabrick and thence to the Penetralia and innermost Recesses of the very Oracle For to speak the plain Truth after Puns and Witticisms of that Nature I love plain dealing and therefore was from Youth tho it may seem at first dash a Bull much inclin'd to Riddles and to Doat on Enigma's and Hieroglyphicks which still makes me think Sphinx the greatest She-Philosopher among the Ancients and yet I acknowledge I shall never willingly follow her Example should any Ingenious and Egiptiacally-Abstruse Meaning of mine be found out But certainly no way of Speaking and of Writing also can be more proper for our Refin'd Age and Nation since we have so many rare men so many Oedipus's nay greater than he among us Sparks that to serve a Turn can Kill a Father without rubbing an Eye and would Lye too with their Mother out of a meer Experiment or Joke JOCASTA Mr. Bays JOCASTA Pray remember that happy jest and particularly what a Bob in your own way I have given to Tottenham-Court or as some now write it Totteridge alias Tottering-Court and then confess I have out-done you a whole Bar and a half But to the business and first for Definitions Axioms or common receiv'd Opinions A Promissary Oath or Vow Terms here Synonimous is not only a Declaration That as sure as God is or has a Being I will make good my Word but also a sincere Supplication and Wish That he would if I fail in it both eternally deprive me of his blessed sight and throw me headlong into Hell All Oaths lawfully injoyn'd are ever to be taken in the sense and meaning of the Imposer seeing otherwise a Cardinal might possibly without breach of Principles take the Oath of Supremacy which possibility Enervating the whole Drift and Intent of the Oath renders the Action a sin in it self for who without sin can take Gods Name in Vain To wit considerately use it to no purpose These Oaths are ever to be Impos'd by Lawful Authority that is to say by those that have Right to do it for else they oblige no more than if a Filoux a Highway-Man or any other Atheistical Russian should by Invading or setting upon us on the Road or any place else force us to swear Nay the bare compliance in taking such an Oath tho upon Compulsion may chance to be a sin to be repented of with many Tears especially if we have already taken the contrary by lawful
forgiven in this World nor in the World to come By all which 't is evident that as Contradictories can never be both true so there can be but one Lawful King in England which makes all others but meer troublesome Scare-Crows and Impostors But since I am fallen upon the word Impostor I must not tho much pressed in time pass by without mentioning the grand One I mean little Mahomet or Him whom not a few as well Protestants as Papists call and deem the True Prince of Wales Now that the World may see that men when they please can be far more wilful than Mules and deafer also than an inchanted Adder I will here give my Reader a smack or taste of some of the wise Arguments with which the Musselmen or Tories defend the Paradox and then I 'll shew in six words for Truth hates Meanders and Ambages how the Loyal can like Hercules himself tear open young Cacus's Den and so with one Pull expose the mighty Thief in all his Shapes and Colours First Those odd Jacobites ask in what Region or Age was such a Hocus-Pocus-Trick ever yet played Nay omitting the Authors of Cassandra Grand Cyrus and men in that Classe of Fancy they demand whether Bays durst for shame venture on a Plot founded on this Impossible Supposition That a Great Queen living publickly and after her usual manner in a thronged prying and suspicious Court was not only to carry a fictitious Great Belly Nine Months undiscovered but was also with the like success to be brought to Bed in a Chamber crowded with Persons of both Sexes and many of them utter Enemies to Her and Hers. Secondly That tho this might pass muster at the Antipodes or in Terra Incognita yet how could it be effected in England when there would be in spite of Fate Great Men and Women that must be Spectators and Actors too in the Play not only of different Interests and Factions but that hated both Papists and Popery as much as Calvin and Luther ever did and Persons also to whom the Discovery would infallibly have been much more Advantageous than the Concealment Thirdly Was it possible for King James of whose Morality most Men had a good Opinion not only to put by and with such hazard too both his Daughters which had received such Constant marks of his Tenderness but to Disinherit by a Supposititious Brat any Son that he might chance to have by this Queen who was still Young or by a New One if she died nor could his constant Hunting or other manly Exercises but assure every body of his still remaining Vigour Fourthly They ask whether the Practic part were not yet if possible more Impossible than what has been already hinted For say they there must have been at least three or four Women procured of the utmost Fidelity and all with Child and of the same Reckoning who when they came near their Time must be also taken from their Friends and Acquaintance which could not but occasion strange talk and disorder to be put in secret places near the Court for one or two besides Accidents might bring forth Daughters and if they were all to be Delivered in their respective Dwellings the Cheat would not be concealed two hours Fifthly after all these unexpressible Difficulties New ones they say 〈◊〉 greater must follow For upon the first Womans being in Labour the Queen must presently be so too where-ever she were and if that Child happen'd to be a Female the whole Seene must be re-acted i. e. deferr'd till the next Woman cry'd out Now when fortune should bring a Boy it must be carry'd with all its After-Birth c. thro a Court which would have in it for certain many Curious Eyes do what they could into the Queens Bed either before she were lay'd or after If before then the Query is whether a Child were he not in that strange impossible pickle could lye under the Cloathes for three or four hours and neither be stifled nor cry If the famous Warming-Pan were brought in afterwards then the Chamber must be necessarily as it was full of Men and Women And how could they place the Creature a thing to be done with wonderful gentleness and care in a Bed if not in the presence of Men yet in the open view and sight of God knows how many Ladies and Women that encompass'd the Queen and still the Child notwithstanding Her Majesties many turnings and seeming throes was neither to be smother'd nor to cry Sixthly they say let all this also pass and let my Lady Sunderland her self be mistaken that swore She forwarded the Birth with her hand but how can a Child after so long a stay come out of the Bed reeking like one newly Born as so many Protestant Doctors themselves swore Nay they depos'd that the Blood came from the very Navel-string when they cut it which they gave the Child for a Medicine against Convulsions Lastly Well then cry they for once we 'll suppose the present Loyal people of England turn'd Papists that is to say Persons that will maintain any Impossibility if Religion and Interest commands it as also that the Countesses of Peterborow Sunderland Roscommon Lady Bellasis and other great Protestant Peeresses and of the Bed-Chamber will Dispence with an Oath tho' the Dispensing Power be now Null and Void by Law VVe will suppose too continue they that my Lady Wentworth Mrs. Bromley Dawson with the rest of the Dressers once known to be most Zealous against Popery will now rather forswear themselves than that Popery should not be secur'd Add besides to this that a crowd of Protestant Doctors Apothecaries Surgeons and other necessary people are to go to the Devil for Company But how came it roar they out higher than Stentor and Moreland that the Princess of Denmark whom the Cheat so much concern'd both as to Religion and Interest could neither perceive it all along with her own Eyes nor with those of her Faithful Ladies If she did the Difficulty they say is harder for 't was impossible that she would be silent and mealy-mouth'd that had the Courage and Piety in Defence of Religion and Property to forsake her Fathers house and to Head an Army against his Wicked Councellors as we all know But further proceed they in the like tone Is it not beyond Comprehension if things had been but suspicious and much more if really so that William and Mary who hazarded their All for the Gospel and Common Justice should upon the Childs Birth send Monsieur Zulestein as their Embassadour to Congratulate with the King and Queen to Visit and Complement him as Prince of Wales and which is yet stranger to Insert him in the Collect of the Royal Family and consequently Pray for Him thus in their own public Chappel◠Now as an assuredly compleating blast which blows away every Corn of Doubt They stretch their voice and cry Tho all these unaccountable Blots were overseen formerly why did both King William and the Parliament join in a manner with these Clancys and Fourbs by their present silence which makes the Cheat if it had been one not only victorious but invincible Nay a Parliament also that had all the Reason in the World to take the Business in hand both for our future Quiet and for the confounding of all King James's Party since the fiercest of them would upon this proof have granted that nothing could be said against him that was false Thus reason these extravagant Men. But now let us hear how all is answered as I said in six words by these Loyal Wise and Conscientious men that have contributed so much to our Deliverance and helpt to put us in our present happy and flourishing condition Was not a Prince of Wales answer they for the Advantage of the Papists are they not a restless Party and is there any thing they will not do or venture for the advancement of their Religion all men know what Dispensations they have and howindefatigable they are in propagating their Cheats and how subtly they always endeavour'd to amuse and confound poor Protestants Tho piety of the King and Queen is apparent who wave the blackening of a Father as such secret actions must do when publick to the World and what is more ridiculous and below a Parliament than in time of great business to debate and then vote 't is day at Noon Rex Regina beati Quid agitur in Anglia consulitur de Religione non de Partu FINIS