Rome and ripens that mighty Work to a perfection which otherwise an overforward fool-hardy Zeal by ill management might destroy Thus his very Cardinal Vertues are the absolute Hinges that open the Gates to Rome Alas where Superstition rules the day all Moral Vertues are but those lesser Lights that take their Illumination from that greater Orb above ' em And thus what boots it in a Popish Heir to say he 's the truest Friend the greatest of Heroes the best of Masters the justest Judge or the honestest of Men All meer treacherous Quicksands for a People to repose the least glimpse of Safety in or build the least Hopes upon But I have heard a great many say It cannot enter into their thoughts that a Popish Successour will ever take such an inhumane and so unnatual a Course to establish Popery it being so absolutely against the English Constitution that it can never be introduced with less than a Deluge of Blood Surely his very Glory should withold him from so much Cruelty considering how much more it would be for his Immortal Honour to have the universal Prayers than the Curses of a Nation And one would think a King would so much more endeavour to win the Hearts than the Hatred of his People that certainly in all probability this excentrick Motion this disjoynting the whole Harmony of a World should be so ungrateful to him that no Religion whatever should put such a thought into his Head And all this his Glory shall do His Glory The Glory of a Papist A pretty Airy Notion How shall we ever expect that Glory shall steer the Actions of a Popish Successour when there is not that thing so abject that he shall refuse to do or that Shape or Hypocrisie so scandalous he shall not assume when Rome or Romes Interest shall command nay when his own petulant Stubbornness shall but sway him As for example For one fit he shall come to the Protestant Church and be a Member of their Communion notwithstanding at the same time his Face belies his Heart and in his Soul he is a Romanist Nay he shall vary his Disguises as often as an Algerine his Colours and change his Flag to conceal the Pyrate As for instance Another fit for whole Years together he shall come neither to one Church nor th' other and participate of neither Communion till ignobly he plays the unprincely nay the unmanly Hypocrite so long that he shelters himself under the Face of an Atheist to shrowd a Papist A Vizor more fit for a Banditto than a Prince And this methinks is so wretched and so despicable a Disguise that it looks like being asham'd of his God Besides If Glory could have any Ascendant over a Popish Successour one would think the Word of a King and the Solemn Protestations of Majesty ought to be Sacred and Inviolable But how many Precedents have we in Popish Princes to convince us their strongest Engagements and Promises are lighter than the very Breath that utters ' em As for Examples sake How did their Saint Mary of England promise the Norfolk and Suffolk Inhabitants the unmolested continuation of the Protestant Worship calling her God that God that saw the falseness of her Heart to witness That though her own Persuasion was of the Romish Faith yet she would content her self with the private Exercise of her own Devotion and preserve the then Protestant Government with all her Subjects Rights and Priviledges uninjur'd Upon which those poor credulous honest deluded Believers on the security of such prevalent Conjurations led by the mistaken Reverence they paid to a protesting Majesty laid their Lives at her Feet and were the very Men that in that Contest of the Succession plac'd her on a Throne But immediately when her Soveraign Power was securely established and his pious Holiness had bid her safely pull the Vizor off no sooner did Smithfield glow with Piles of blazing Hereticks but Chronicles more particularly observe that no People in her whole Kingdom felt so signal Marks of her Vengeance as those very Men that raised her to a Throne Her Princely Gratitude for their Crowning her with a Diadem Crown'd them with their Martyrdoms But since we have mentioned her Princely Gratitude 't will not be amiss to recollect one Instance more of so exemplary a Vertue In the Dispute betwixt hers and the Lady Jane Grays Title to the Crown it was remarkable that all the Judges of England gave their unanimous Opinions for the Lady Janes Succession except one of them only that asserted the right of Mary But it so fell out that this Man proving a Protestant notwithstanding of all the whole Scarlet Robe he had been her only Champion was so barbarously persecuted by her that being first degraded then imprison'd and tortur'd for his Religion the cruelty of his Tormentors was so savage that with his own hand he made himself away to escape ' em And well might the violence of his Despair sufficiently testifie his Sufferings were intolerable when he fled to so sad a Refuge as Self-murder for a Deliverance But here says another Objection Suppose that the Conservation of a Nations Peace the Dictates of a Princes Glory and all the Bonds of Morality cannot have any influence over a Popish Successour yet why may there not be that Prince who in veneration of his Coronation Oath shall defend the Protestant Religion notwithstanding all his private regret and inclinations to the contrary When rather than incur the infamous brand of Perjury he shall tie himself to the performance of that which not the force of Religion it self shall violate And then how can there be that Infidel of a Subject after so solemn an Oath that shall not believe him Why truly I am afraid there are a great many of those Infidels and some that will give smart Reasons for their Infidelity For if he keeps his Oath we must allow that the only Motive that prompts him to keep it is some Obligation that he believes is in an Oath But considering he is of a Religion that can absolve Subjects from their Allegiance to an Heretical Excommunicated Prince nay depose him and take his very Crown away why may it not much more release a King from his Faith to an Excommunicated Heretical People by so much as the Ties of Vassals to Monarchs are greater than those of Monarchs to Vassals But 't will not be amiss for strengthning this Argument to give the World an Instance of the power of an Oath with a Roman Catholick King There is a famous Gentleman on the other side the Water whom we all very well know pray Heaven we live not to be better acquainted with him than we desire that once took the strongest of Oaths the Sacrament That he would never invade nor make war upon Flanders But whether or no his Confessour found some Jesuitical Loop-hole from that Sacrament or that the Body and Blood of Christ could not hold him we see that
thrust in amongst their very Prayers and become almost a part of their Devotions Murmurs so bold that they dare approach the very Palace nay Throne and Ear of Majesty And whenever the People of England reflect on this Heir as their King in Reversion they have reason to look upon him as no better than Jupiter's Stork amongst the Frogs Yes notwithstanding all his former Glories and Conquests his whole Stock of Fame is so lost and buried in his Apostacy from the Religion and consequently the Interest of these Protestant Kingdoms that all his Services are cancell'd and his whole Mass of Glory corrupted Suppose likewise this Popish Heir for many happy years so blest in the Tenderness and Friendship of the best of Kings that there is not that Favour or Honour within the reach or wish of Majesty that he has not made it the Study of his whole Reign to confer upon him whilst his Greatness and Lustre have been so much his dearest darling Care as if the promoting his Interest had been the Support of his own till in short he has had so large a share in the Bosom of this Royal Pylades this kindest and most gracious of Princes as if one Soul had animated them both On this Foundation as great Affections are not easily removed and Sympathy is that Bond which Humane Power can ne'er dissolve suppose moreover that this inseparable Tie continues so long notwithstanding all the Changes of Principles and Religion a Byass so heavy that it almost overturns a Kingdom Yet still the force of Nature and Friendship surmounts them all and stands that zealous unshaken Bulwark for the protection and safety of this dearest part of himself till at length he does little less than act so over-fond a Pelican that he exhausts even his own Vitals to cherish him Thus whilst the long and lawful Fears of a drooping Nation have fully and justly satisfied them that the kindest and most favourable Aspect of Majesty that smiles on England thro' the defence and Interest of a Popish Heir shines but like the Sun thro' a Burning-glass whose gentlest morning Vernal Beams thro' that fatal Medium do but burn and consume what otherwise they would warm and cherish what can the Consequence of this unhappy Friendship be but that the very Souls and Loyalties of almost a whole Kingdom are staggered at this fatal Conjunction till I am afraid there are too many who in detestation of that one gangren'd Branch of Royalty can scarce forbear how undutifully soever to murmur and revile even at that Imperial Root that cherishes it Insomuch that those very Knees that but now would have bow'd into their very Graves to serve him grow daily and hourly so far from bending as they ought to a Crown'd Head till they are almost as stubborn as their Petitions and Prayers have been ineffectual Thus whilst a Popish Heir's extravagant Zeal for Rome makes him shake the very Throne that upholds him by working and incroaching on the Affections of Majesty for that Protection and Indulgence that gives Birth and Life to the Heart-burnings of a Nation what does he otherwise than in a manner stab his King his Patron and his Friend in his tenderest part his Loyal Subjects Hearts Which certainly is little less than to play the more lingering sort of Parricide a part so strangely unnatural that even Savages would blush at yet this Religion incorrigible remorseless Religion never shrinks at Thus whilst the Universal Nerves of a whole strugling Nation bend their united force against the Invasion of Pope and Popery in studying to prevent Tyranny they grow jealous of Monarchy And fearing lest their Loyal Aid to the Father of their Country should unhappily contribute to the strengthning of the Subverters of their Peace and Liberty instead of that Tributary gold which once they so cheerfully shower'd at their dread Soveraign's feet now on the contrary the protection of a Popish Successor makes them so far from supplying the real and most pressing Necessities of Majestie that they are rather well-pleased and triumph in his greatest wants and that perhaps when his Glory nay possibly when his nearest Safety calls for their Assistance Thus what does this Popish Heir in tying up the hands of a whole Nation from their just devotion to their King but onely this In return for the accumulated Honours heaped upon him he most inhumanely starves the very hand that fed him An Ingratitude that even an Infidel would be ashamed of But this Religion incorrigible remorseless Religion never blushes at Besides if there can be a Son of that Royal Martyr Charles the First a Prince so truly pious that his very Enemies dare not asperse his Memory or Life with the least blemish of Irreligion a Prince that seal'd the Protestant Faith with his blood who in his deplorable Fate and ignominious Death bore so near a resemblance to that of the Saviour's of the World that his Sufferings can do no less than seat him at the right hand of Heaven If I say there can be a Son of that Royal Protestant of that uncharitable Popish Faith who by the very Tenets of his Religion dooms all that die without the bosome of their Church irreparably damn'd then consequently he must barbarously tear up his Fathers sacred Monument brand his blessed memory with the name of Heretick and to compleat the horrid Anathema he most impiously execrates the very Majestie that gave him being Then in fine provided and granted that we have an Heir to the Imperial Crown of England perverted to the Romish Faith and consequently of that depraved constitution and principles that he has neither charity for the Stock from whence he sprang concern or care for the safety peace glory or prosperity of the best of Patrons Friends and Kings nor lastly any remorse for all the Groans of an afflicted Kingdom What promises can we give our selves of his future Reign when we have all these fatal Prognosticks before-hand Ex pede Hercules Or is it likely he will have greater care and tenderness for a Nations peace when he shall be seated on a Throne and have more power to take it from them But says a Critick to all this Suppose this Popish Heir undoubtedly believes as a Papist must do that there 's no way to Heaven but his own should he so far comply with the glory or interest of his King though a Father or a Brother on the one side and the quiet and safety of a Nation on the other as to renounce his principles of Christianity and conform to theirs What were that but to purchase their peace with his own damnation and to sacrifice his own Soul for their worldly interests And certainly neither Duty nor Allegiance nor any Tye whatever ought to extort that from him And then if all the grievances of a Kingdom lie at his door alas the worst can be said of him is That if he be any occasion of it 't is his unhappiness
he believes can onely open them the Gates of Paradise whilst in so doing he cannot but accuse himself of copying the old Jewish Cruelty Nay in one respect he out-goes their Crime for he acts that knowingly which they committed ignorantly For by the Dictates of his Religion he must be convinc'd that in effect he does little less than save a Barabbas and crucifie a Jesus A very pretty Chimaera Which is as much as to make this Popish King the greatest Barbarian in the Creation a Barbarian that shall cherish and maintain the Dissenters from Truth and punish and condemn the Pillars of Christianity and Proselytes of Heaven Which is no other than to speak him the basest of Men and little less than a Monster Besides at the same time that we suppose that King that dares not uphold nor encourage his own Religion we render him the most deplorable of Cowards a Coward so abject that he dares not be a Champion even for his God And how consistent this is with the Glory of a Crown'd Head and what hope England has of such a Successour I leave all Men of Sense to judge Besides What mis-match'd incongruous Ingredients must go to make up this Composition of a King His Hand and Heart must be of no Kin to one another He must be so inhumane to those very darling Jesuits that like Mahomet's Pidgeon infus'd and whisper'd all his Heavenly Dreams into his Ears that he must not only clip their Wings but fairly Cage 'em too even for the charming Oracles they breath'd him And at the same minute he must leave the wide and open Air to those very Ravens that daily croak Abhorrence and Confusion to them and all their holy Dreams and their false Oracles Thus whilst he acts quite contrary to all his Inclinations against the whole bent of his Soul what does he but publickly put in force those Laws for the Protestant Service 'till in fine for his Nations Peace he ruines his own and is a whole Scene of War within himself Whilst his Conscience accusing his Sloth on one side the Pope on the other Romes continual Bulls bellowing against him as an undutiful unactive Son of Holy Mother Church a Scandal to her Glory a Traytor to her Interest and a Deserter of her Cause one day accusing the Lukewarmness of his Religion another the Pusilanimity of his Nature all Roman Catholick Princes deriding the feebleness of his Spirit and the tameness of his Arm till at long run to spare a Faggot in Smithfield he does little less than walk on hot Irons himself Thus all the Pleasure he relishes on a Throne is but a kind of Good-Fryday Entertainment In stead of a Royal Festival his rioting in all the Luxury of his Heart to see Romes Dagon worshipp'd Romes Altars smoak Romes Standard set up Romes Enemies defeated and his victorious Mother Church triumphant his abject and poor-spirited Submission denies himself the only thing he thirsts for And whilst the Principles he sucks from Rome do in effect in the Prophets words bid him Rise slay and eat his Fear his unkingly nay unmanly Fear makes him fast and starve However if there be such a King in Nature as will not defend his own Religion because he dares not but sneaks upon a Throne and in obedience to his Fear shrinks from the Dictates of his Conscience and the Service of his God If like Jupiters Log such a King can be and Fate has ordain'd us for a Popish Prince pray Heaven shrowd the Imperial Lion in this innocent Lambs-skin But I am afraid we shall scarce be so happy and I shrewdly suspect that all those cunning Catholick Trumpetters who in all Companies found the Innocence of a Popish Successour and flatter us with such a hopeful harmless peaceful Prince in a Papist have a little of the Romish Mental Reservation in the Promises they make us and no small Jesuitical Equivocation in the Airy Castles they build us But I have heard some say Why may there not be a zealous Prince of any Religion who still out of the meer Principles of Morality shall have that tenderness and sense of his Peoples Peace as to trouble himself about Religion no farther than concerns his own Salvation and therefore continue the Administration of Laws and Devotion in the same Channel he found them And all this his meer Morality shall do Alas alas If he 's a Bigot in Religion all his Morals are Slaves to his Zeal Nay grant him to be the most absolute Master of all the Cardinal Vertues there 's not one of them that shall not be a particular Instrument for our Destruction As for Example allow him Fortitude suppose him a Prince of matchless Courage So much the 2worse what does that but make him the more daring and more adventurous in pushing on the Cause of Rome and with a more undaunted and manly patience bear all the Oppositions he meets in the way If he be a Man of Justice that still makes for Rome for whilst he believes the Pope to be Christ's Lawful Vicar and that that Office includes the Ecclesiastical Supremacy no doubt but he 'll think it as much the Duty of his Cstristianity to give the Pope his Right as to take his own And in Christ's own Words that give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar 's and unto God those things that are God's he 'll certainly judge the Popes Restoration as great a piece of Justice as his own Coronation Then if he be a Master of Temperance in the properest sense of this Moral Vertue viz. a Man that can govern his Passions that 's still as bad For he that has the most bridled Passions has always the firmest and steadiest Resolutions Who so renown'd for Constancy so fixt in his Resolves and so unalterable in his determin'd Purposes as that Philip of Spain who was never heard to rage or scarce seen to frown Nay History gives this Character of him That after the discovery of his Queens Adultery with his own Son at the same minute that he order'd her a Bowl of Poyson he did not so much as change his Look or Voice either to his treacherous Son or his incestuous Wife And what so fit a Pillar for Popery as such Constancy in a King But if we take Temperance in its larger signification viz. the self-denial of a Man's Worldly Appetites still worse and worse For a Riotous Luxurious Monarch bounds his Ambition wholly in the Pleasures of a Crown resigns his Reins to his Charioteers and leaves the Toil of Power to his Subordinate Magistrates like the Work of Fate to Second Causes whilst his Intemperance so slackens his Zeal that it unbends those very Nerves which otherwise might be more strenuously wound up for our Destruction And lastly If he has Prudence that 's worst of all That 's his onely winning Card the onely leading Vertue that manages his Policies and Conduct with that Care and Art till he effects the Business of
and not his fault More especially provided he is onely passive and that we plainly see that during his being this Popish Heir he acts nothing that may encourage or favour Popery in the least Pray by the way How must it follow that if we do not plainly see him act that therefore he must not act Does no man act but he that publickly treads the Stage Does no man sit at the Helm but he that visibly holds the Rudder Does no wind stir the troubled Sea into a Tempest but what the poor Mariners both hear and feel no Storm but that which lightens in their Eyes and thunders in their Ears to warn 'em 't is a coming Alas alas the greatest Hurricanes are onely made by subterranean Winds A secret silent underground-working Mine of Ruine which never bursts out till it destroys and which no man hears or sees till he is lost But to return to the Objection The grievance of a Nation may be his unhappiness and not his fault c. That is in short he cannot help it Very right And so when this Popish Heir comes to the Crown and promotes the Romish Interest with all the Severity Injustice and Tyranny that Religious Cruelty can invent his answer will be he cannot help it or at least cannot withstand those irresistible motives that prompt him to their execution which is the same thing The injunctions of his Conscience make him as active now in the ruining a Kingdoms peace as he was passive in it before For who can be so void of common sense as not to know that the same impulse of Conscience that makes a man a Roman Catholick will make him act like one when opportunity serves And what greater opportunity to establish Popery than for a Papist to wear a Crown And tho' perhaps the stubborn English Genius will not easily bend to the Superstition of Rome yet since his Almighty Friend the Pope the undisputed Keeper of the Keys of Paradise will no doubt assigne him no common Diadem in Heaven for so glorious a Task as a Nations Conversion who then will not make that sacred Work the study of years which cannot be accomplisht in a day for such a Reward Especially when he has these two infallible Arguments to spur him on in so godly a Cause First then he is of a Religion that makes humane Merit the path to Salvation Merit the Roman Catholick Exchequer Rome's bottomless Golden Mine Merit that makes the frighted dying sinner starve his own Blood and pawn his Estate to redeem his Soul Merit that drains the Wealth of Nations into the priestly Coffers and makes the Luxury of a World the pamper'd riotous Church-mans Inheritance Merit that can make a Loretto-Chappel vie with a Venetian Arsenal and Rome's Altars Cloysters and Covents rise so high so rich so numerous and so magnificent tho' the impoverisht Widows groans and the naked Orphans cryes do little less towards the building than a second Amphion Nay Merit that can consecrate Daggers and kill Kings Thus whilst he has the Wonder-working Merit for his Tutor what greater and more meritorious act to canonize him a Saint of the first magnitude than the converting of an Apostatized Heretical Kingdom And then next he is of a Religion that does not go altogether in the old-fashion Apostolical way of preaching and praying and teaching all Nations c. but scourging and wracking and broiling 'em into the fear of God A Religion that for its own propagation will at any time authorize its Champions to divest themselves of their humanity and act worse than Devils to be Saints And thus whilst neither the cries of Blood can deter him on the one side and so no Tyranny come amiss to him and next that he has the undeniable assurance of the greatest blessings of Eternity to encourage him on the other with these advantages who would not be as active as a second Romulus and with all his utmost vigour and pride build up his Romes new Walls tho' he made his nearest nay the Nations dearest blood their Cement And thus what is a Popish Heir but the most terrible and the most dangerous of Englands Enemies and of all our Foes has the most inflexible invincible Enmity Nay the very outrages of Thefts Murders Adulteries and Rebellions are nothing to the pious Barbarities of a Popish King The Murderer and Adulterer may in time be reclaimed by the precepts of Morality and the terrours of Conscience The Thief by the dread of a Gallows may become honest Nay the greatest Traytor either by the fear of Death or the apprehensions of Hell may at last repent But a Papist on a Throne has an unconfutable vindication for all his proceedings challenges a Commission even from Heaven for all his Cruelty dares act And when the enchantments of Rome have toucht his Tongue with a Coal from her Altars what do his Enthusiasms make him believe but that the most savage and most hellish Dooms his blinded zeal can pronounce are the immediate Oracles of God and all the Apology a poor Nation can expect from him is He cannot help it I but say the wisest Criticks we have met with yet if these be the dangers of a Popish King why have we not such strong such potent Laws made before this popish Heir come to the Crown that it shall be impossible for him ever to set up Popery though he should never so much endeavour it To this I answer To endeavour to set up Popery by Law even with the Laws that we have already against it is impossible and therefore the very supposition of the Projection that way is nonsence And on the other side to conclude he 'll endeavour to do it against Law and so to make new Laws on purpose for him to break them with their fellows is worse nonsence than t'other Besides Who shall call this King to question for breaking these Laws if he has the power and will to do it I fancy that the onely nearest illustration I can make upon this point in creating new Laws against Popery in case of a Popish Successor is as politick a piece of work in the kinde as building the Hedge to fence in the Cuckow 'T is true I will not deny but a Popish King may be totally restrain'd from all power of introducing Popery by the force of such Laws that 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 If a King of England were no more than a Stadt-holder in Holland or a Duke of Venice no doubt Popery would have little hopes of creeping into England which is in short he that is no King can be no Tyrant But what Monarch will be so unnatural to his own Blood so ill a Defender and so weak a Champion for the Royal Dignity he wears as to sign and ratifie such Laws as shall entail that