Jealousy of Religion into the publick Rupture of a National Quarrel to the almost inevitable and irreparable Loss of his Reputation his Friends and his Dominions together Now the other way in case of his being injuriously excluded it would be forty times more easy for Him to recover his Pretensions from abroad by a Foreign Assistance in concurrence with such an English Interest as a generons Compassion to his Wrong a Respect for his Person and the Justice of his Title would certainly create him than to erect an absolute Power against the Wills and Hearts of his People and contrary to all the measures of Equity and Prudence And to do all this too while he might live and reign easily and comfortably to himself and his Subjects within the limits of a Legal Administration And if he can never expect to gain this point by calling in Auxillaries from beyond the Seas much less will he be able to do it upon the bottom of his own Interest and within himself For there must go a great many more hands than his own to such a work And to say that he may do it by his Officers or Ministers by the force of Gratifications Pensions or the Promises and Hopes of Preferment and Advantage That Objection may be easily obviated For it is a thing of clear and easy prospect the Forming of such a Scheme of Laws for securing the Bounds of the Government as no man that has either a Neck or a Fortune to lose will dare to violate But the bare Power if he had it would signify nothing neither unless the VVill as he says goes along with it Now if he may WILL he may NILL too So that he is left at Liberty to make his Election either of the One or of the Other which has in a great measure discharg'd him of the pretended Impulse of Religion and translated the Exception from the Papist to the Person Founding the apprehension upon a pretended Foresight of Tyranny and double Dealing in That Princes Character which being a thing that is only to be seen with His Spectacles and a Prognostick Peculiar to His way of Calculation wee 'l go to the next I will not deny says he ibid. but a Popish King may be totally restrein'd from all Power of Introducing Popery by the Force of such Laws as may be made to tye up his hands but then they must be such as must ruine his Prerogative and put the Executive Power of the Laws into the hands of the People This shift does not at all either weaken or avoid my Assertion for the Kings hands are sufficiently ty'd in holding the hands of his Ministers And This may be done so far as is necessary for This purpose without any Diminution to his Royal Dignity If the transferring of the Executive Power to the People that is to say Deposing of him would do the Job the Character will shew us by and by how That may be done without need of New Laws and in spite of Old Ones But what Monarch says he will be so unnatural to his bloud So ill a Defender and so weak a Champion for the Royal Dignity he wears as to sign and ratify such Laws as shall entail That Effeminancy and that Servility on a Crown as shall render the Imperial Majesty of England but a Pageant a meer Puppet upon a wire He does well to presume that a Prince will not Unking himself but he would do better yet to keep himself clear from such Propositions and Principles as lead to that Dâ—posing End For whatsoever strikes at the Crown in a Papist falls upon the Rebound on the Royal Authority in a Protestant But says he ib. If no King will assent to make Laws to do it this way and no Laws can do it t'other all Laws against Popery in case of a Popish Successor are as I told you before but building the Hedge c This Author seems to scrupulize more then needs upon the fear 〈◊〉 Cramping the Prerogative For he himself will shew us by and by how to do that without a Law which he despairs of ever seeing done by one If he had thought of what the King has lately parted with out of his Prerogative for the begeting of a Plenary Trust and Confidence in his People he would not have despair'd of any Condescension from his Majesty for the securing of his Subjects in their Properties and Religion after so much more done for them already than that which is here propounded amounts to He tells us fol. 14. of the danger of the Popâ—s Supremacy and I must tell him that within the Kings Dominions the Supremacy of the Kirk is every jote as dangerous Wherefore let us look to our selves both ways as well against those Papists that did murther the Last King as those other Papists that are in the Plot to destroy This. No doubt Says he but the Fire that burns the Heretique Law-makers shall give their Laws the same Martyrdom If they have power 't is probable enough that they will But their 's a great difference in the case betwixt a Prince and his own Subjects and the Pope and Stranger Hetiques The one destroyes his Enemies the other his Friends The Pope is in One Barque the Heaetiques in â—onother and the one may Sink and the other Swim now the King being in the same bottom with his People if he runs the Vessel upon a Rock they are all cast away together Châ—r With this certain prospect both of the ruine of their Estates Lives and Liberties where lies the Sin in the Commons of England to stand upon their Guard against a Popish Successor Aye a Gods name let them stand upon their Gaurds and use all expedients to keep out Popery and Tyranny provided still that we preserve the sacred Succession in its right line for that we are told both King and People aâ—e obliged in conscience to defeâ—d and uphold This clause has both more and less in it than a body would imagine and a man hardly knows either how to meddle with it or how to let it alone He begins with the assumption of a thing certainly prov'd though without any colour that I can find of makeing it out to be so much as probable and barely possible is the mosâ— that I can make on 't Nay and it is not that neither without imputing more of Rancâ—ur and Implacable Virulency of Nature to his Popish Successor than ever any Man yet discovered either before â—r beside the Author of this Character But however upon that substratum he takes up the Quarrel as he would have it understood of the Commons of England Where lies the sin says he in the Commons of England to stand upon their Guard against a Popish Successor This is only a Gin set for a Woodcock under the Equivoque of the Commons of England so that if a Man speaks only to the Multitude and he applys it to the Representative there may be matter pickt out
had a Bed for all Travellers but then he either cut them shorter or stretch'd them longer to fit them to it And is not this very charitably done now to imagine the worst things that either ever were or can be done Of a Prince admitting my Author's supposition whose Empire Safety Donions and the wel-fare of whose People are all dependent upon his good behaviour and justice So that he ventures his All on the one side to get nothing on the other Here is the fansie of remote and uncertain difficulties oppo'sd to our present security and well-being and after a Capital Sentence pronounced with a formality of Law upon an Imperial Prince as a Traytor to the Sovereignty of the People We are now opening the way to bring another Prince to the Scaffold For that 's the Scope of several Virulent Libels both printed and written that have at present their free course without controll These are the Incendiaries I speak of and no other Well says he again but if the publick Ministers of Justice betray the Liberty of the Subject The Subject may Petition for a Parliament to punish 'em for 't But what if he will neither hear one nor call the other who shall compel him This is a very artificial way of getting a shoot at the King through the Duke and to intimate the Exercise of an Arbitrary Power by this manner of supposing it It was by these very steps of accusing evil Councellours crying out for justice against them and for a Parliament to punish them that the Faction mounted the Government and strip'd his Majesty first of his Friends then of his Revenue next of his Liberty and lastly of his Life and all this was actually done for fear of no body knew what Ther 's no doubt says the Character but hee 'l find sufficient assistance from the Pope English Papists and Foreign Princes beside the Revenues of the Crown And then having but a prudent eye and a tenacious hand to manage his Exchequer we shall find hee 'l never call that People he shall never have need of fol. 8. He supposes here an assistance for a Prince in possession of his Crown But an assistance for what unless in case of a Rebellion Or is it an assistance to enable him to live without Parliaments As if Foreign Princes would be at that charge to be never the better sor't Or if he means a Military Assistance toward the settling of him in the Possession of an Absolute Power his Interest undoubtedly will be much greater in the supporting of him as an Heir than in advancing him as a Tyrant beside that for one English Man to serve him in such an unwarrantable design he will have an hundred in case of any unjust delusion to stand by him in the defence or recovery of an nndoubted Right This is only the quitting of one Pamphlet with another and to make use of that liberty my self which is allow'd to others But all this while says he the Pope is not Absolute There wants a Standing Army to Crown the Work And he shall have it for who shall hinder him Nay all his Commanders shall be present qualifi'd even by our Protestant Test for the employment We have not forgot the Time when one standing Army was Raised for fear of another and between Thirty and Forty Thousand Men kept in Pay for a matter of thirteen or fourteen years together when the War was over and not one Enemy left in the Field one King imprison'd and another in Banishment Taxes multiply'd The People peel'd to the very Bones and the Persons and Estates of Free-born English Men subjected to the most Scandalous Tyranny that ever was inflicted upon reasonable Creatures And what was the Ground and Foundation of this Calamity The Multitude were Buzz'd in the Head that the King was Popishly inclin'd and govern'd by Jesuitical Councels nothing but Papists about him and two or three Antichristian Bishops a Pack of Tories and Tantvies and a mighty noise there was of German Horse and the bringing of an Army up to Town to awe the City and the Parliament and the very fear alone of these shadows Transported them into the uttermost extremities of rage and confusion 'T is true there was no Plot afoot then as there is now but they made sufficient shift without it to do their own and the Kingdoms business You shall now see the Composition of his Popish Successor's Standing-Army He shall have enough Men of the Blade out of one half of the Gaming Houses in Town to Officer twice as many Forces as he shall want 'T is true they shall be men of no Estates nor Princples c. He should e'en have gone on when his hands were in and quarter'd his new Leveys in Lambeth House or Pauls as in the days of his Forefathers But is not this better yet than Spiriting away of Apprentices from their Masters decoying the poor Wenches out of their Bodkins and Thimbles and squeezing a Rebellion out of the Gospel We have seen an Army of pretended Saints to the value of Twenty or Thirty Thousand in a Body and as many Religions as Men every Article of the Creed call'd in question and the Lord's Prayer exploded as a stinting of the Spirit This and a great deal more and worse is true to the very Letter But forward And that this Army may be more quietly rais'd how many honourable pretences may be found fol. 9. Very right As the fetching of the King home to his Parliament the delivering of him out of the hands of Papists The defence of his person and just rights in the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion and all this in the Stile of his Majesties most humble and obedient Subjects Perhaps says he the greatest and most importunate preservation of the Kingdom shall call for 't and then upon second thoughts instead of defeating some Foreign Enemy they are opportunuely ready to cut our Throats at home if we do not submit and give all that this King shall ask bid This ingenuous Author has directly Translated the true History of the Rise and Advance of the late Rebellion into a Prophetical Computation of the Methods and Proceedings which the World is to expect from a Popish King Did not they seize those very Arms that the King had provided for the Relief of Ireland and employ them against his Majesties very Person at Edg-hil And were not those very Troops that were Raised as they swore for the defence of the City of London Quarter'd upon the Citizens to Ruine and Enslave them Char. Thus far says he we have given the Pourtraicture of a Popish King And now let us take a draught of his Features in his Minority that is while he is only a Popish Heir Apparent I.d. After the Preamble of an Imaginary Prince elevated to the height of a Generous and a glorious Character with a Supposal of a People too not unworthy of the blessing of such a Sovereign and
their Livingâ— the King himself and his Loyal Subjects out of their Lives Liberties and Estates the Crowns Churches and the Peoples Monies into their own â—ockets the House of Peers into a Cypher or Nullity the House of Commons into a Secret Committee the Monarchy into a Republick the Laws into Votes and Ordinances their Committe into a Rump-Assembly That Rump into a Protector and that Protector again into a Committee of Safety And all this was done by the Power of Imagination and a strong phansy of Tyranny and Popery And why may not all this he phansy'd over again But pray let me Phansy a little on the other side Let us Phansy his Majesty to Survive his Brother Let us Phansy an Heir Apparent either by her Majesty in being or by the providence of a Second Marriage or the Successor to be a person of Honour Conscience or Prudence whatever his Religion be And that in Honour and Conscience he will govern himself by the Tyes of his Word and his Duty and that in Prudence he will not venture upon a Project so impracticable as an attempt of Subverting the Religion and Government when every mans Neck shall lye at stake that shall but dare to assist him in 't which might be sufficiently provided for by some previous Act that saving the Kings Prerogative in the Case might secure their not being pardon'd in That particular We shall now Counterpoise Dangers to Dangers Here is a present opposed to a future a Certainty to a Possibility a Greater to a Less and a Protestant King to a Papist The Present danger is the probable Effect of these Intoxicating Methods to the People If Phansy was Poyson to the Multitude under the late King the same Phansy in a larger Dose and with less Corrective to it will be at least as strong a Poyson to the People under This. If the Fact on the one side be true the Reason on the other side is not to be deny'd The dismal Calamities that ensu'd upon it I have â—et forth already Now what is there in the future to weight against the Life of the King the Safety of the Church the Law and the Government the Peace of the Kingdom There may possibly be a Popish King and there may probably not And that King may Possibly have a Will to change the Government but probably not in respect of the very Immorality of Inclining to such a Violation of his Trust and Word But all most certainly not in regard of so manifest an Inability to bring it to pass When I say a Certainty I mean only a Natural Train of Events in the Application of Actives to Passives which in a high degree has taken place already For the People are almost Raving mad at the apprehensions of these Stories the Feaver encreases upon them and they grow every day Hotter and Lighter-headed than other So that we are in Forty times a greater danger of a Sedition at hand than of a Popish Successor at a Distance As to the Ballance of a greater danger and a Less we 'l e'en take the matter as they suppose it A King upon the Throne that 's Principled for Arbitrary Government and Popery But so clogg'd and shackl'd with Popular and Protestant Laws that if he had never so great a mind to 't there is not a Subject in his Dominions that would dare to serve him in his Design But on the other hand there 's no King at all no Church no Law no Government no Magna Charta no Petition of Right no Property no Liberty c. PROBATVM Beside that the Phansy comes to no more in Effect than if the sky fall we shall catch Larks But once again yet Here 's a Protestant Prince expos'd for fear of a Popish one Is the Chimera of a future danger of more value to us then the Conscience of an incumbant and indispensable Duty shall we take pet at God Almighties providence and not go to Heaven at all unless we may go our own way Shall we Level a shot at the Duke at a distance if there be no coming at him but through the Heart of our Sovereign shall we actually break in upon the Protestant profession which stands or falls with the Church of England because the Author of the Character phansies the hazard of a Popish Religion in the Moon and by the unavoidable Consequence of a Misgovernment under this apprehension draws the very plague upon us that we pretend to fear While we thus go on exposing both our Temporal and Eternal peace for shadows The Writer of the Character had most Rhetorically amplifi'd in his Calculations upon his Popish Successor but so Oversiz'd the figure that when ever the people come to their wits again they will look upon the story of Garagantua as not much the less Credible of the Two For his dangers are all out of Ken his Thunderâ—s in the Clouds and the Multitude are all turn'd Star-Gazers and gaping after ill-boding Conjunctions and malevolent influences while with him in the Fable They are tumbling into a Precipice as deep as Hell and take no notice of it Here is a danger suggested and such a means intimated for the prevention of it as makes the Remedy worse than the Disease for the very Expedient undermines the Government But first a word of the dangers on the other side There are several ways started for the disappointing of this inconvenience One by Attainder upon 23. 13. of Eliz. Another by a Bill in Parliament for diverting the Succession And some of the Libellers fall down right upon a Third Proposal of the peoples preventing the Succession though without or against Law And Fourthly either to expel the Successour or to keep him out in case of Survivorship To the first of these ways I shall speak when the point comes on As to the second which is matter of Parliamentary Cognizance I reckon it my duty to acquiesce in the Legal Issue of their Debates as an Authority to which I have ever paid a Duty and a Veneration This only I shall take the freedom to say that there is a vast difference betwixt their Deliberations that purely regard the prospect and interest of both Church and State in what concerns the Popish and Protestant Religion and the passionate excursions of private men on the wrong side of the Parliament Doorâ— that thrust themselves into the Controversie rather out of envy to the Person and fame of the Successour than to promote the more important cause of Religion like men that crow'd into a Church for company to pick a pocket and this to without any respect to the King himself in the person of his Brother or to the measures of duty to the Government Now as to the two last ways of proposal which are eiher for prevention or exclusion I have this to say If there be danger from a popish Successour during his expectancy within the Kingdom the danger is infinitely greater if he be driven
the Nation Char. As First Says my Authour why should we stand in fear of Popery when in the present Temper of England 't is impossible for any Successour whatever to introduce it And First say I too what fear of Phanaticism and a Common-wealth under the present Settlement of Episcopacy and Kingly Government Char. And next amids our groundless Fears says the Anthor of the Character by way of supposal let us consider what that Prince is that appears so dreadful a Gorgon to England A Prince that upon all Accounts has so Signally ventur'd his Life for his King and Country a Heroe of that faithfull and matchless Courage and Loyalty A Prince of that Vnshaken Honour and Resolution that his Word has ever been known to be his Oracle and his Friendship a Buâ—wark whereever he vouchsafes â—o place it with such an infinite Mass of all the Bravery and Gallantry that can adorn a Prince Why must the Change of his Religion destroy his Humanity or the advance to a Crown render his Word or Honour lesse Sacred or make him a Tyrant to that very people whom he hath so often and so chearfully Defended Why may there not be a Popish King with all these Accomplishments that whatever his own Private Devotions shall be yet shall Publiquely maintain the Protestant Worship with all the Present Constitution of Government Vnalter'd And next say I let us consider those Covenanting and Republican Spirits that appear so dreadfull to us a Party that so signally ventur'd their Lives â—or the Kingâ— Authority in the Two Houses against his Person in the Field nay of that matchlesse Courage and Loyalty that they hazzarded their Souls as well as their Bodyes to make him a Glorious Prince by sending him to Heaven before his time A Party of that unshaken Honour and Resolution that their words were Oracles their Protestations Oaths and Covenants ever bearing a double and an equivocal meaning their Friendship a Bulwark only the Guns were turn'd upon all that ever Trusted them And of so great Bravery that they charged thorough Heaven and Hell without Fear either of God or Devil and trampled under foot all Laws both Divine and Humane for the Accomplishing of their Ends. 'T is true that of Papal they are become Phanatical Jesuits and why should the Change of their Profession now destroy their Nature Or their word and Honour be lesse Sacred if they get the Power into their Hands once again then we have formerly found it They eas'd us of our Laws Lives Liberties and Estates and why should they become Tyrants Now that were so Mercyfull to us before Why may they not be such Covenanters and Common-wealths-men as whatever they be in Private will yet in Publique maintain the Monarchy and Episcopacy unalter'd Especially after that famous Instance of their Indulgence to his Majesty at Holdenby when they kept him a Prisoner without Allowing him the Benefit so much as of a Chaplain or a Common-Prayer-Book And now he proceeds Char. But alas what signifie all the great past Actions of a Princes Life when Popery has at last got the Ascendent All Virtues must truckle to Religion and how little an Impression will all his Recorded â—lorys leave behind them when Rome has once Stampt him Her Proselyte But since unlikely things may come to passe let us seriously examine how far the Notion of such a Popish Successour consists with Reason Fol. 2. Alas Alas What are the Good-Old-Cause-men the better for their Crown and Church-Lands Sequestrations Plunders Decimations Directories Classical Congregational Presbyterys when Monarchy and Episcopacy have at last got the Ascendent All Virtues must Truckle to Religion as they did when Rebellion Sacriledge Oppression and Murther were hallow'd and Authorized in the Pulpit for the Propagation of the Gospel But since unlikely things may come to pass â—â—t us see how far the Notion of a Phanatical Popery consists with the Discipline and Government by Law establish'd Char. Fol. 2. If to maintain and defend our Religion 〈◊〉 any more then a Name it is in possible for any man to act the true Defensive Part without the Offensive too And he that would effectually uphold the Protestant Worship Peace and Interest is bound to suppress all those potent and dangerous Enemies that would destroy them for all other Defense is but Disguise and Counterfeit The States-men of Forty One that defended the Protestant Religion with Sword and Cannon and our Liberties Properties and Persons at the same rate were extreamly well read in this Offensive way of Defence And our Authour is much in the Right that the way to uphold it is to suppress those that would destroy it That is to say to suppresse those that enter into Protestations Oaths and Covenants against Episcopacy Root and Branch All other Defence as he says is but Disguise and Counterfeit The Remonstrants of Forty Two declar'd it to be far from Their purpose to let loose the golden Reins of Discipline and Government in the Church which was only a Political Cheat as it is here expounded for our Churches were turn'd into Stables our Clergy hunted like Partridges in the Mountains our Pulpits Stuff'd with Blasphemy and Blew Aprons and in the Conclusion a hundred Heresyes let loose among us for one Orthodox Religion Char. Fol. 2. If then the Wisdom of several Successive Monarchs with the whole Nations Vnanimous Prudence and indefatigable Care for the Protestant Preservation has determin'd that those Papist Priests who have sworn Fealty to the See of Rome and taken Orders in Foreign Seminarys are the greatest Seducers of the Kings liege People and the most notorious Incendiaries and subverters of the Protestant Christianity and Loyalty and for that Cause their several Laws declare them Traytors by Consequence these are the Potent and dangerous Enemies which in defense of the Protestant Cause this Popish King is oblig'd to suppress and Punish and these the very Laws he is bound to Execute Fol. 2. As the Wisdom of Successive Monarchs has provided for the Protestant Preservation by necessary Severitys against known Priests and Jesuits on the One hand so have they likewise on the Other hand against Separatists of another Denomination where we find the same Principles couch'd under other Names And these are a kind of Protestant Jesuit The Pope Deposes Heretical Princes the Fanatique Deposes Popish And as Ill manners produce Good Laws the Lewd Practises on Both hands put the State upon Provisions that look both Ways The Schism here among us brake loose but once since the Reformation And what a Deluge of Hypocrisy Bloodshed Oppression Athiesm and Prophaneness flow'd in upon it But that we may not Cavil upon the Word Protestant let the Law expound it which does expressly provide for the securing of Conforming Protestants against the danger of Dissenters So that we have Potent Enemies it seems on both sides Now if a Phanatique Interest should get Head it is as improbable on this side as it is
again Char. Thus says he whilst the bonds of Faith Vows Oaths and Sacraments cannot hold a Popish Successor what is that in an Imperial Head but what in a private Man we punish with a Jail and Pillory whilst the Perjur'd Wretch stands the Vniversal Marque of Infamy and then is driven from all Conversation and like a Monster hooted from Light and Day Pray'e correct the Errata ' s of this passage thus For Popish Successor read Jesuitical Covenanter and for an Imperial Head read a Committee of Safety And then ye have the Mystery uncipher'd But the Pope he says and a Royal Hand may do any thing there 's a Crown in the case to guild the deeds his Royal Engines act This Pope and Royal Hand should have been their General Assembly and their Pretended Christ upon his Throne and then Gods Cause and according to the Covenant hallows the Sedition Et quod Turpe est Cerdoni Volesos Brutosque decebit One Verse more would have expounded the whole business Ille Crucem sceleris Pretium tulit Hic Diadema Char. They are still says he that adorable Sovereign Greatness we must kneel to and obey What if a little Perjur'd Villain has sworn a poor Neighbour out of a Cow or a Cottage Hang him inconsiderable Rogue His Ears deserve a Pillory But to VOW and COVENANT and FORSWEAR THREE KINGDOMS OVT OF THEIR LIBERTIES AND LIVES that 's Illustrious and Heroique There 's Glory in great Atchievments and Virtue in Success Alas a vast Imperial Nimroâ— hunts for Nobler Spoils flyes at a whole Nations Property and Inheritance A Game wâ—rthy a Son of Rome and Heir of Paradise And to lay the mighty scene of ruine secure he makes his Coronation-Oath and all his Royal Protestations those splendid Baits of premeditated Perjury the Cover and Skreen to the hidden fatal Toyl laid to ensnare a Nation fol. 7. Never were those Illustrious and Heâ—oick Vowers and Covenanters that for swore three Kingdoms out of their Liberties and Lives drawn so to the Life and five hundred Nimrods too upon the chase of our Property and Inheritance And it was a Game worthy of the Sons of Buchanan and if they may be their own Godfathers the Children of the Lord too under the Cover of their ambiguous Protestations and their Holy League-Bands of Confederacy they câ—nceal'd the Snare of that premeditated Perjnry which was follow'd with so many dreadful judgments upon the Nation He prosecutes his Subject with a Reply to the Objection that ' its impossible for a Popish Successor to introduce Popery into England That the Jesuits had such a design that the whole Party believ'd it practicable he evinces from the Plot and the prospect of a presumptive Popish Heir render'd them more confident of succeeding in it fol. 7. and 8. And yet four or five Lines further he represents the difficulties of restoring Popery into England to be almost insuperable and so with just reflections upon the Paris and Irish Massacres Villanies of Gun-powder Treasons Conflagratiens and Plots against Kings and Kingdoms He finishes that Paragraph I shall easily agree here to all the Ill that he says of the Seditious and pragmatical Papists without disputing one syllable of it And yet I think it very well worth our care to distinguish betwixt zeal and clamour and not over-hastily to give credit to That Sort of People whose method it is first to make Papists odious and then to make the Church of England Popish And this is not said neither to divert any man from a reasonable apprehension of the other danger There never was a greater noise of Popery than in the Prologue to the misfortunes of the late King And what was the Ground or what the Issue of it There was a Conspiracy to undermine the Government and no way but that to put the People out of their Wits and out of their Duties together and the Project succeeded to the actual subversion of the Government And when the Zelots had possessed themselves of the Quarry they shar'd both publick and private Revenues among themselves and fell afterward to the cutting of one another's Throats for the Booty without one word more of Popery In Brief to joyn in an Out-cry against Papists with those that Reckon Episcopacy to be Popery is to assist our Enemies toward the putting on of our own Shackles And it is gone so far too that the Libellers and their Dictators range them hand in hand already and you shall seldom see a Blow made at the Pope without a Lick at the Bishops But the Project begins now to open Char. Let us now rightly consider how far the first Foundations of Popery vix Arbitrary Power may be laid in England First then if a Papist Reign the Judges Sheriffs Justices of the Peace and all the Judiciary Officers are of the King's Creation and as such how far may the influence of Preferment on baser Constitutions cull'd out for his purpose prevail even to deprave the very Throne of Justice her self and make our Judges use even our Protestant Laws themselves to open the first Gate to Slavery We are just now upon a Preliminary to the Nineteen Old Propositions over again For fear of an Arbitrary Power the King was not to be trusted with the Choice of his own Officers But no though taken for the securing of the Government from Popular Tumults and Insurrections in case of lodging that trust in any other hand Beside the putting of the King into an incapacity of providing for the justice and security of the Government But he is so far however in the right that the perverting of that power may endanger the State And for that consideration it is a Trust not to be parted with lest it should once more be re-apply'd to the destruction of the King and People as it was before It is a certain Truth that a Prince by the abuse of his Power may prove a Tyrant But it is as certain again that there is not any form or temperament of Sovereignty imaginable that is not lyable to the same possibility For Tyranny it self is only the straining of the Essential and necessary powers of Government beyond their pitch We have experimented the worst effects of Usurpation and Corruption and of turning the Equity of the Law against the Letter of it nay of setting up the Laws themselves against the very authority that made them And all this would never have done the work neither if the faction had not supply'd the want of Laws for their purpose in some cases and superseded others that were against them by an Arbitrary Device of Votes and Ordinances So that the hazard is nothing so great as he represents it in the hand of a Prince for want of that power of Enacting and Repealing which the Faction possessed themselves of by an Usurpation But alas says he Pag. 8. The Laws in corrupted Iudges hands have been too often used as barbarously as the Guests of Procrustes who