they are more proper for the Gravity of an Historian or the Authority of a Parliament to handle than for a private Gentleman in a Letter to his Friend The Bishops Papers and the Prince of Orange's Declarations are the best Memoires of them but they only begin where the two parts of the History of the growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government left off and how far we may trust to Catholick Stipulations Oaths and Treaties the Facts of past and the present Age are the best Criterions and Rules to guide and determine us for what happens every day will in all probability happen to morrow the same Causes always produce the same Effects and the Church of Rome is still the same Church it was an hundred Years ago that is a Mass of Treachery Barbariety Perjury and the highest Superstition a Machine without any Principle or setled Law of Motion not to be mov'd or stop'd with the weights of any private or publick Obligations a Monster that destroys all that is Sacred both in Heaven and Earth so Ravenous that it is never content unless it gets the whole World into its Claws and tears all to pieces in order to Salvation a Proteus that turns it self into all shapes a Chameleon that puts on all Colours according to its present circumstances this day an Angel of Light to morrow a Beelzebub Amongst all the Courts of Christendom where I have conversed that of Holland is the freest from Tricks and Falsehood and tho I am naturally jealous and suspicious of the Conduct of Princes yet I could never discover the least Knavery within those Walls it appear'd to me another Athens of Philosophers and the only Seat of Justice and Vertue now left in the World. As for the Character of the Prince of Orange it is so faithfully drawn by Sir William Temple Doctor Burnet and in a half sheet lately printed that I who am so averse from Flattery that I can scarce speak a good word of any Body or think one good thought of my self will not write any further Panegerick upon his Highness only that he is a very Honest Man a Great Souldier and a Wise Prince upon whose Word the World may safely rely A late Pamphleteer reviles the Prince with breaking his Oath when he took the Stat-holder's Office upon him not considering that the Oath was impos'd upon his Highness in his Minority by a French Faction then jealous of the aspiring and true Grandeur of his Young Soul that the States themselves to whom the Obligation was made freed his Highness from the Bond and that the Necessity of Affairs and the Importunities of the People forced that Dignity upon him which his Ancestors had enjoy'd and he so well deserv'd that he sav'd the sinking Common-wealth their Provinces being almost all Surpriz'd and Enslav'd by the French compared to the gasping State of Rome after the loss at Cannae His Highness was no more puft up with this Success than he had been daunted with Hardships and Misfortunes always the same Hero Just Serene and Unchang'd under all Events an Argument of the vastness of his Mind whereas on the contrary Mutability sometimes Tyrant sometimes Father of a Country sometimes Huffing other times Sneaking is often-times a Symptom of a Mean and Cowardly Soul vile and dissolute born for Rapine and Destruction As for the Princess she may without any flattery be stiled the Honour and Glory of her Sex the most Knowing the most Vertuous the Fairest and yet the best Natur'd Princess in the World belov'd and admir'd by her Enemies never seen in any Passion always under a peculiâ—r sweetness of Temper extreamly moderate in her Pleasures taking delight in Working and Study humble and affable in her Conversation very pertinent in all Questions charitable to all Protestants and frequenting their Churches The Prince is often seen with her at the Prayers of the Church of England and â—he with the Prince at the Devotion of his Church She dispences with the use of the Surplice bowing to the Altar and the Name of Jesus out of Compliance to a Country that adores her being more intent upon the Intrinsick and Substantial Parts of Religion Prayer and Good Works She speaks several Languages even to Perfection entirely obedient to the Prince and he extreamly dear to her In a word She is a Princess of many extraordinary Vertues and Excellencies without any appearance of Vanity or the least mixture of Vice and upon whose Promise the World may safely depend As for the many Plots and Conspiracies against this Royal Couple a short time may bring them all to light and faithful Historians publish them to the World. Lastly We may observe that whereas it hath been the Maxim of several Kings both at home and abroad of late Years to contend and outvie each other in preying upon and destroying not only their Neighbours but their own Protestant Subjects by all methods of perfidiousness and cruelty the only way to establish Tyranny and to enslave the natural Freedom of Mankind being to introduce a general Ignorance Superstition and Idolatry for if once People can be perswaded that Statues and Idols are Divinities and adorable and thaâ— a Waâ—er is the Infinite God after two or three ridiculous words utter'd by a vile Impostor and impudent Cheat then they may easily be brought to submit their Necks to all the Yokes that a Tyrant and a Priest can invent and put upon them for if once they part with their Reason their Liberty will soon follow as we behold every day in the miserable enslav'd Countries where Popery domineers On the contrary it hath always been the steady and immutable Principle of the House of Orange to rescue Europe from its Oppressours and to resettle Governments upon the Primitive and Immortal Foundation of Liberty and Property a Glorious Maxim taken from the Old Roman Common-wealth that Fought and Conquer'd so many Nations only to set them Free to Restore them wholsome Laws their Natural and Civil Liberties a Design so Generous and every way Great that the East groaning under the Fetters and Oppressions of their Tyrants flew in to the Roman Eagles for Shelter and Protection under whose Wings the several Nations liv'd Free Safe and Happy till Traitours and Usurpers began to break in upon the Sacred Laws of that vertuous Constitution and to keep up Armies to defend that by Blood and Rapine which Iustice would have thrown in their Face and punished them as they deserved the Preservation and Welfare of the People being in all Ages call'd the Supreme Law to which all the rest ought to tend From the foregoing Relation of matter of Fact it appears most plain that the Roman Catholicks are not to be ty'd by Laws Treaties Promises Oaths or any other bonds of Humane Society the sad experience of this and other Kingdoms declares to all Mankind the invalidity and insignificancy of all Contracts and Agreements with the Papists who notwithstanding all their Solemn Covenants
how unfit I am to arguâ— matters of Religion with your Highness and those subtil Sophisters the Pest of Europe and shame of Christianity which are always croaking about Persons of Quality whom they have perverted to their Idolatries being my self but a Lay-Gentleman of little Learning and in the course of my Life more conversant with the Sword than the Pen And I must wonder with Regret if none of the Right Reverend Fathers my Lords the Bishops or some of our other Learned Divines have not vigorously made Applications to your Highness even in a publick Manner to regain you to the Protestant Communion If they have not charg'd you as they are God's Ambassadors to shew some Reasons why you havâ— broke the League your Baptismal vows with his Church and join'd your self to the Tents of his Enemies If they have not adjur'd you in the Name of our Lord to shew on what offence taken amongst us and for what Beauties observ'd in the Church of Rome you quitted the true Spouse of Christ to follow the Enchantments of a Strumpet whose shameless Adulteries have long since caused an utter Divorce between Her and the Blessed Jesus If they have not solemnly called Heaven and Earth to Record that they are ready to satisfie all your scruples to answer all your objections and to shew That it is not through any default in them for want of Endeavours nor in our Church for want of Truth but that your defection must be wilful as well as unreasonable whereby to render you either convicted or inexcusable Nor do I doubt but several of those Glorious Lights of our Church may accordingly have discharged without fear of flattery their Functions herein in private discourses But certainly a matter of that inestimable importance as wherein not only the Soul of one of the Bravest Princes of the Earth but also the whole Protestant Interest in the World especially within these Three Nations is so deeply and dangerously concern'd might require since I am sure it deserves a Publick and General Application Nor ought any though the meanest of Men to be blam'd for contributing modestlyÌ„ his help to prevent a disaster of such universal influence And therefore who knows but that Almighty Providence who overthrew Iericho's proud Walls of old not with Battering Engines of War but with the blast of contemptible Rams-Horns and is often pleased to make use of the weakest Instruments to effect mighty Works may give a Blessing to these poor uâ—polish'd inartificial Lines which have nothing but the Power of Truth and the Honesty of a sincere Intention to recommend them to your Princely Consideration That you were educated in Protestant Principles is notorious I beseech your Highness therefore to satisfie the World what could induce you to a change I shall not mention your Royal Grandfather whose Learned Pen baffled all the Conclave nor shall I insist on that Curse which he solemnly pronounced on any of his Posterity that should turn Papist I shall only say Had you not the Example and the Commands too of a most Indulgent Pious Prince your Royal Father for perseverance therein who though barbarously murder'd by vile Men yet continued stedfast and even with his last breath discharg'd and â—lear'd the Doctrine of the Reformed Religion from having any share in their Crimes What Impiety is it if you should dare to profess your Fathers Blessed Soul to be eternally damn'd and yet if you are a Papist you can do no less for you cannot be such without believing That there is no Salvation out of the Pale of the Church and that there is no Church but that of Rome and I am confident none can have the Impudence to suggest that He died in the Communion of that Church What follows then or how will you answer this Horrid Scandal on his Sacred Memory when you shall meet his glorified Spirit at the last dreadful judgment-Judgment-day Nor can the keenest Jesuit blunt the edge of this Argument by a Retortion from the Consideration of your Highnesses Illustrious Mother For though Papists are so audacious as to place the Keys of Heaven at the Pope's Girdle and uncharitably doom us All to unquenchable flames not affording us so much as a Room in Purgatory yet Protestants are not so unchristian but according to Scripture leave secret things to God and allow grains for Education Prepossessions Ignorance c. which is yet no more a Reason for any Man to turn Papist than 't is for him that stands safe on the shore to leap off into a Vessel so rotten and leaky as just ready to sink upon a presumption that still some of those that are in her may escape the danger Or to chuse an impudent Quack who boasts he only can cure him and refuse a Learned Physician who modestly grants he may peradventure be healed by the other though very improbably but withal that 't is a Million to one but the Patient under such hands miscarries and that in this case eternally But quitting this Argument which is only Personal I beseech your Highness to tell us how you or any Man of sense can so far forget not only his Education and Interest but his very Reason as to imbrace POPERY frightful detestable ridiculous Popery that Chaos of Superstition Idolatry Error and Imposture that has no foundation but a Cheat No Ends but to gratifie Pride and Avarice no solid Argument to promote and maintain it but Impudence and Cruelty Popery That depends wholly upon nice and poor uncertainties and unprovable supposals As 1 st That Peter was Bishop of Rome 2 dly That He left there one to be Heir of his Graces and Spirit in a perpetual unfailable Succeâ—sion 3 dly That He so bequeathed his Infallibility to his Chair as that whosoever sits in it cannot but speak Truth so that all who sit where he sat must by some secret Instinct say as he taught that what Christ said to him absolutely without any respect to Rome must be referr'd yea ty'd to that place alone and fulfill'd in it 4 thly That Linus Clements and Cletus the Scholars and supposed Successors of Peter must he preferr'd in the Headship of the Church to Iohn the beloved Apostle then still living 5 thly That He whose Life is oft times monstrously debauch'd his Judgment childishly ignorant cannot yet when in his Pontifical Chair possibly erre 6 thly That the Golden Line of this Apostolical Succeâ—sion in the confusion of so many long desperate Schisms shamefully corrupt Usurpations and Instrusions and confess'd Heresies yet neither was nor can be broken Popery That teaches Men to worship Stocks and Stones and painted Clouts with the fame Honour as is due to our Creator and lest that practice should appear to her simple Clients too palpably oppoâ—ite to God's Law most sacrilegiously stifles one of the Ten Commandments in their vulgar Catechisms and Prayer-Books Popery That utterly confounds the true Humanity of Christ while they give unto it Ten thousand places
tugging and strugling to regain them whence continual disturbance will ensue and a standing Army must be kept on foot to support this ill acquired Grandâ—ur For those Subjects that contended with King Iohn and King Henry the Third c. tho' they were Papists and of the same Religion with those Princes could not brook it to be Slaves to their Arbitrary Pleasures in their Civil Rights Besides what a waking dream is it for any King that is free from the Roman Yoke to think to make himself more Absolute by involving himself and his Kingdoms in Thraldom to the Church of Rome wherein not only the Pope pretends a Right to domineer over him but every Ecclesiastick esteems himself wholly exempt from his Jurisdiction and all his People will be but half his Subjects viz. in Temporals for in Spirituals and in ordine ad spiritualia a monstrous draw net that may include almost all the Actions of Humane Life they are wholly to be Conducted by his Holiness and his Subordinate Ministers How therefore can your Highness if a Roman Catholick complain of the late successive Houses of Commons for pressing a Bill to exclude you Is it any Disloyalty to endeavour to preserve the Imperial Crown of England from a truckling and shameful Servitude to a Foreign Usurper's Power Or is it any such unheard of thing to debarr a Prince from a Throne that hath obstinately disabled himself Certainly above all Men the Roman Catholicks ought not to murmur at this for did not the Pope issue forth a Bull to exclude your Grandfather King Iames unless he would turn Papist And did not the Romanists though they acknowledged the Title of your other Grandfather Henry the Great to the French Diadem yet refuse to pay him any Obedience because a Protestant and on that only score fought against him as long as he continued so and thought it no Rebellion Your Highness perhaps will say What though they did so true Protestants and the Church of England do not own such Principles Well then if the Protestant Principles be better than those of the Church of Rome what Madness is it in your Highness to abandon the first and chuse the latter I am a dutiful and hearty Lover of Monarchy and when establish'd on such an Equi-pois'd Basis of Wisdom as ours is shall ever assert it to be the best Form of Government in the World and most agreeable to the Genius of English-men But that lineal descent is so sacred a thing that the Heir presumptive can for no default or crime whatsoever be debarr'd from the Crown by an Act of Parliament or publick Decree of State I do not understand For I am sure the practice in all Ages both at home and abroad in almost every Nation in the Earth hath run contrary And as to Right those that pretend such Succession in all Cases to be Iure Divino would do well to shew in what Texts of Scripture the same is prescribed till then they do but talk not argue and if a Candidate to the Crown for any Reasons whatsoever may without offence to the Law of God or Nature be Excluded by an Act of King Lords and Commons Then the Iune-divino-ship vanishes and nothing is left to be considered But whether such next Heir have done such Acts or is so qualified that in Prudence it be necessary for the Tranquillity of the Publick to Exclude him Now I believe there are but few of the Church of England but if the Bill had passed the Lords and his Majesty had given his Royal Assent to it would have acquiesc'd therein and consequently they do not believe the Exclusion to be simply unlawful by the Law of God or Nature for against either of them no Humane Ordinances ought to prevail But all true Loyalists do not despair but your Highness may yet prevent all Occasions of such Disputes by opening your eyes or rather that God in whose hands are the Hearts of Princes may irradiate your Royal Understanding and let you see the horrid Blackness of those Men who have endeavour'd to seduce you and of those Principles to which they would have inveigled you on purpose to have made your Highness a Property to their Ambition and Avarice and that under the shadow of your Illustrious Name they might one day Tyrannize at Pleasure over these Three Kingdoms If Heaven shall be pleased to work such an happy Inclination in your Highness you shall presently see the whole British Empire echoing with Praises and Acclamations and instead of murmurs of Seclusion every good Subject shall erect you a Throne in his heart But the grand difficulty will be to satisfie the prejudiced World of your sincerity herein for if your Highness which God forbid should declare your self a Protestant only to serve a present turn and use the Sacred Name of our Religion but as an Engine to advance the design of our bloody Enemies you would act at once the most dishonourably and in the end most prejudicially to your own Interest in the world and must certainly expect the blasts of Heaven and curses of Earth on all your future proceedings for Hypocrisie is odious to God and Man nor is there any Monster so abominable to serious Men of both sides as a Church-Papist Your Royal Highness I hope will excuse our fears for we are not ignorant of the Arts and Craft of Rome that she esteems no means unlawful to obtain her ends How shall any Oaths be sufficient Tests when a private dispensation may at once allow the taking and warrant the breaking of them Or what signifies the participation of our Sacraments to one that is taught We have no true Ministers of Christ if so no consecration consequently nothing but an ordinary Breakfast of common Brâ—ad and Wine and who shall lose the hopes of three Crowns rather than not taste such harmless viands Not that I dare imagine your Highnesses Understanding would suffer you to believe the lawfulness or your Princely Generosity permit you to practise these lewd dissimulations yet since such Doctrines are daily taught in the Roman Church how shall Protestants be assured they have no Influence on your Conduct I must therefore with all humble freedom assure your Highness that after so general an Opinion of your Highnesses having been a Roman Catholick though you should go never so duly to Church receive the Sacrament a thousand times and take Oaths all the way from Holy-rood House to St. Iames's yet the People would scarce believe the reality of your Conversion unless withal they see it accompanied with some other Demonstrations For as Faith without works is dead so Profession of a Religion without agreeable endeavours to advance it will be vain If his Royal Highness will the People say be a good Protestant he will undoubtedly discourage all Papists the sworn inveterate Enemies of our Religion he will not suffer a Popish Priest to approach his Person or Palace If he have had any intimation of
succeed when he elsewhere acknowledges that the late King's Design was to ruin us and the Prince's to prevent it As to Tricks and Sophistry I detest them as much as any Man yet think such harmless Guides whoever was the Author less pernicious and destructive than force and bloodshed This Gentleman who sâ—ily pleads all along for the Popish Interest is now for sooth much scandaliz'd at the Dutch-Papists in the Princes Army but at this he need not take Offence seeing they are going over whence they came to serve the States against the most unchristian Usurper or both Popish and Protestant Countrys But before this worthy Author can come to a Conclusion of his Book he must have several things proved to him to wit That the Prince of Wales is a supposititious Child that a League was made by our King with the King of France for the Destruction of his Protestant Subjects and rooting out our Religion under the Notion of the Northern Heresy that the late King was poyson'd and that the Earl of Essex was murthered These things we desire may be proved and then we cannot but agree that nothing can be too bad for the guilty Authors This Gentleman cannot but know the Unreasonableness of his Demands and that what he desires is not only unseasonable but impracticable till the Government be setled when and at what time perhaps to his great Confusion these and many other Deeds of Darkness will be brought to light Moreover the Astonishment he expresses at the mention of these vile Practices seems to arise in him rather from some crafty Design than mere Ignorance of what has been done oftner than once in Neighbouring Courts To conclude then in my Authors own Words If these Accusations be cleared once who can reverence the Person guilty of them as the Father of his Country and not rather avoid and fly him as the worst of Tyrants The Scot's Grievances Or a Short Account of the Proceedings of the Scotish Privy-Council Iusticiary Court and those Commissionated by them whereby the Consciences of good Men have been Tortured the Peace of the Nation these several Years past exceedingly Disturbed and Multitudes of Innocent People cruelly Oppressed and inhumanely Murthered IN the Tract of these Years although Informing was a Trade more encouraged than in the Reign of Tiberius yet they arraigned Multitudes without Informer or Accuser and whosoever appeared not upon their Summer Citation which often times was impossible were treated as Criminals They seized many of all Ranks and detained them Months and Years without any Signification of the cause of their Imprisonment and seldom liberate any such without Exorbitant Bail but if they could find the least Shadow to prosecute any suspected to mislike their Arbitrary Courses they precipitated their Process not allowing them time or means to vindicate their Innocency They sent their Inquisitors through their Prisons and Citizens Houses to examine whom they pleased upon most intricate Questions of Church and State Government and made their refusing to answer or dissatisfactory Answers the Foundation of their Indictments others seized in the Crowd at Executions and some when visiting the imprisoned were condemned and executed for refusing to justify their Severities against their Brethren and disowning their Dagon of Nor resistance They frequently sent out Spies to Prisons Cities and Country under Disguise who by simulating their Dissatisfaction at the Exorbitances of the Government and Zeal for persecuted Piety might draw Words from the most wary sustaining such and other Informers as habil Witnesses to the taking away the Lives of many Innocents notwithstanding of one Express Act of Parliament to the contrary They often prosecuted without a Libel and when they formed Libels they seldom restricted themselves to the Points therein contained holding them as confessed who refused to answer their captious and extraneous Questions They not only employed Emissaries but Judges themselves were active to suborn Witnesses against the Lives Estates and Honours of Peers and worthy Patriots a palpably gross Management of such an Intrigue having qualified a Person for a chief Seat in their High Court of Justice and when they could not find such Execrable Russians to serve their turns they forced Pannals to answer de super Inquirendis in the most Criminal Cases They have often sustained Jurors and Witnesses who could not purge themselves of Prejudice or partial Counsel They have Indicted Tryed Condemned and executed Persons in one day and when Intercession hath been made for some time to prepare for Death it hath been answered They shall have no time to prepare for Heaven Hell is too good for them They have kept some in Expectation of Reprieves and Pardons till the very Day and Hour of their Execution others they have hanged early in the Morning thereby preventing the Peoples seeing their Cruelty and hearing the dying Persons last Words and too palpably designing by such Surprizals the Ruine of their Souls They frequently beat Drums about the Scaffolds their Cause being such as could not bear the Words of dying Christians They searched several when removing them from the Prison to the Scrffold seized their Testimonies that so they might not come to publick They would have their Laws to reach Thoughts as well as Actions and many against whom they could charge no matter of Fact they sought to reach their Lives for their Thoughts asking them What think you of the Government c. Some they have wheedled to Confession by promising to favour their Ingenuity upbraiding them for Dissemblers if they would not speak freely and by mock-Expostulations viz. Are ye ashamed of your Principles Are ye afraid to give a Testimony c and forced them to subscribe their Confessions before the Council which they produced as Witness against them at the Criminal Court whereupon they were Sentenced and Executed When any refused to give Categorical Answers then could they extort all by Torture with their Engines of Cruelty the Boots fired Matches betwixt the Fingers and Thumkins and after torturing hanged several though thereby they could extort nothing When some had answered all their Questions and cleared themselves of all charged against them yet would they not pass them so but impose some of their wicked Oaths which they concluded they would not take and according to the measure of Tenderness they discovered in any they apportioned the Oaths to the stricter the more smooth to the laxer the more harsh such as once their own Natural Consciences did fear at They required not only to have their Laws obeyed but subscribed also holding it not sufficient that People transgress them not but likewise own the Justice of them and the Lawfulness of the Authority enacting them and swear to maintain them and yet when some have complyed to all they sought yet would they not discharge them but upon Bond to answer again when called Not only Extrajudicial Confession will sustain with them but when they have given the publick Faith the King's Security