Doctrine daily sounded in our Ears we are told by many of them that they abominate the Position and must needs be convinc'd that granting many of the Doctors of their Church to be of that opinion yet it is a Doctrine never universally received and that even they who believe do not preach to all and therefore very unlikely it is if they hide it from any that it should be used as a Bait for the Conversion of any Prince from whom in all probability they would studiously conceal such a point as would put him in danger of the loss of his Kingdoms as often as his holy Father the Pope should be teasty or call him Heretick Well but considering him to be of such a perswasion why may not his Religion release a King from his Faith to an Excommunicated and Heretical People Ay! there 's the mischief on 't these Absolutions and Dispensations and Jesuitical Loopholes can do any thing But now let us a little consider and weigh the probability of these poor shifts and evasions ever being made use of to our prejudice by his Royal Highness Can it be believed that He who only out of the Conscience that he made of an Oath and the Obligation that he thought was in it has already parted with the places of the greatest Honour Profit in the Kingdom is ever likely to have a less Veneration for that most Religious one that he then must take Or can we imagine that if he thought any power whatever could absolve him from such a tye he would ever have scrupled at the swallowing that which he could with so much ease have disgorged again Especially when such a proceeding had removed all Suspitions and Jealousies concerning his Religion and facilitated his way to the Throne wherein he might establish it before the people had warning enough to make any opposition Had this been his Principle then had been the time to make use of it and the easie ascent thereby to a Throne had been the best plea for his breach of Faith then if ever it was necessary for si violandum est jus regnandi causa violandum est But to strengthen this Argument our Author will give the World an instance of the power of an Oath with a Roman Catholick King And that is His most Christian Majesty the Famous Gentleman on the other side the water who contrary to his Oath upon the Sacrament has Invaded Flanders And must all of that Religion be Vow-breakers and Perjur'd because one Ambitious Prince has violated at once his Oath and his Religion too Besides how far this Perjury of his is to be imputed to the Romish Faith and how Zeal us a Son he is of that Church his quarrel even at this instant on foot with the Pope is sufficient to inform us If a man has born in him those Seeds of Ambition and that Lust of being Great 't is not the fault of the Religion that he professeth but the Viciousness of his Nature that makes him sacrifice his Conscience to his pride If a man be naturally inclin'd to Virtue or Vice let his Faith be what it will his Morality will be the same and he that has learnt from the great Law of Nature how Sacred the tye of an Oath ought to be let him be in what Church he will shall very hardly be brought to think that this Gordian knot can be unty'd by every jugling Priest Again if Oaths will not bind Papists if they come up as easily as they go down why do we betray our folly so palpably as to think to secure our selves by administring them to Roman Catholicks Why are the Allegiance and Supremacy Oaths tendered to them and why do they refuse them Why are new Tests devis'd that may be taken as harmlesly with a Dispensation in the Pocket as the Mountebank does poison with his Antidote by Why is the Wisdom of the whole Nation thus arraigned and the High Court of Parliament it self accused of the Goatham Policy in building the Hedge to fence in the Cuckow For this must be the very top of their sage forecast if they did not think that these Oaths did clip their wings as well as build the hedge about them And that if they can do not only the little suck-egge Cuckow Priest but the Imperial Eagle it self may be kept within the Fence I design'd in pursuance of my first undertaking to be on the Defensive part only and not to have at all meddl'd with the opposite Faction The Tale of Forty One and Forty Eight hath been long enough the Theme to be better made use of than it is But here 's an unlucky harrangue of our Author's against Religion immediately follows that is enough to make the Old Rebellion rise again even out of its Grave of the Oblivion Act. I will therefore joyn with him in his railing at that desperate Incendiary of all Nations Religion I hope he means honestly and understands the pretence and masque of it by that Name as heartily as himself I will bring him in my share of ends of Verse and Sayings of Phylosophers I 'll muster all Lucretius's scraps against it I can tell you of Tantum Religio and Religio peperit sceterosa atque impia facta and all this I can make out too Religion was the Gospel-trumpet that first sounded to Battel and whetted our Fears and Jealousies into Courage and Rebellion Religion that first kindled the Flame maintained it with Fuel The Fight against the Lords Anointed began still with a Psalm and ended in a Hymn Religion was the Song Religion was the burden of the Holy Ballad-singers when the Scots came tweedling it over with the praise of God in their mouths and a Two edged-sword in their hands No matter then if we must be ruined whether St. Ambrose's or Robert Wisdom's Te Deum be sung for the Victory whether the holy Io Paean goes to David's or to Nero's Harp to the Church-Organ or the Scotch-Bagpipe And see our Author is already at it he 's sounding a Parliament-Armies Epinicium or rather holding forth in a Thanksgiving-Sermon and in the insulting Language of the prosperous villany of the late times crying out To vow and Covenant and with a Solemn League forswear three Kingdoms out of their Liberties and Lives that 's Illustrious and Heroick There 's Glory in great Atchievements and Virtue in Success Come on then Let us the mighty Nimrods hunt for Nobler Spoils and fly at a whole Nation Property and Inheritance That is as he explains himself in the 29 page Let us never leave till we have hunted the Imperial Lyon down But now he 's out of breath and his Glass is run and therefore so much for this time But now to the main Objection Some people will tell us says he That 't is wholly impossible for any Popish Successor by all his Arts and Endeavours whatsoever to introduce Popery into England Yes indeed will they tell you so again For if you
now he is for taking a draught of his Features in his Minority whilst he is only Heir apparent and this he performs with such fine touches and masterst-roaks that you may easily perceive it to be the same hand And here for three or four pages we have him only Imagining then and Imagining likewise and Supposing now and Supposing likewise and supposing moreover at so extravagant and wild a rate that his Brain must be very hot that can keep pace with him in his mad carreer of Fancy We may only observe that in his over-hasty zealous fits of imagination he forgets himself often so far as to betray the very grand secret of the party the ground of all their Popular railing at Popery and that is no other than their being weary of Monarchy This is the colour for all the cry against Kingly Government and Right Succession and as he tells you this is that makes the Subjects knees so stiff and so stubborn this makes them in studying to prevent Tyranny grow jealous of Monarchy this is that which makes them so far from supplying the real and most pressing necessities of His Majesty that they triumph in his greatest wants even when his nearest Safety mark that calls for their Assistance And this is that which in the Language of the late Address gives pretence to that Insolent Threat of breaking the whole Chain of Royal Succession in pieces p 23. So that 't is plain though the triple Mitre is struck at the three Crowns is their aim nor would they be so violent against Popery which they can have no ground to be afraid of unless by very fresh experience they knew that that was the powerful charm to bring in the people to the ruine of Monarchy which by this only means is to be destroyed knowing the multitude to be not unlike the Beasts or Cattle in the Hold of a Ship which in any Storm that is raised if they are made apprehensive of the Vessels sinking on one side run immediatly with such a violent panick fear to the other that they over-set the Ship and quite overwhelm both themselves and it in ruine and destruction Come we now to the next Argument which he says a Critick will make use of Suppose this Popish Heir undoubtedly believes that there is no way to Heaven but his own should any consideration upon earth make him to renounce his Principles of Christianity Why truly I am so far of this Criticks mind as he calls him that I should think it very unreasonable that the Prince alone should not have the benefit of Liberty of Conscience which every Subject in his Dominions takes very ill to have deny'd to himself But he goes on And then if all the grievances of a Kingdom lye at his door 't is his unhappiness and not his fault Very right if some Factious Spirits set the Nation on a flame and then first cry out Fire and convey their Fire-Balls into his Pockets if they make us miserable and then lay it at his door 't is his unhappiness indeed but not his fault But see what use our Author makes of this And so says he When this Popish Heir comes to the Crown And promotes the Romish Interest with all the Severity Injustice Tyranny and Religious Cruelty can invent Hold hold not so fast You are an excellent Disputant whose strongest Argugument is begging the Question You take for granted that all this Severity and Injustice and Tyranny and Religious Cruelty shall be then excercised and are forsooth chiefly employed in finding out an excuse to put into this Princes mouth for doing so and you have furnisht him with a notable one His answer will be he cannot help it Come come speak your Conscience do you really believe this will be his Answer Yes a Prince who can do all these mighty things and act with so Arbitrary and unbounded a power as must be necessary to enable him to all this after all his Severity and Injustice and Cruelty shall cry Peccavi to his people with the School Boys Apology Indeed I could not help it But such stuff as this may be allowable to our Mr. Bayes that seems to have very little knowledge of any Kings but those of Branford Well but to make us amends we have him immediatly exercising his Talent in a most Pathetick piece of Rhetorick against Merit and truly he is in the right of it For Merit I am sure is never like to do him a kindness and then presently follows as sharp a fit of Railing at the Romish Religion a Topick that I can't choose but confess my self extreamly delighted with especially when handled by our Author who manages it so dextrously that all his Invectives against that fall as heavy upon the turbulent Fanaticks and so wounds two of our most dangerous enemies at once For thus he describes Popery shall I say or Presbytery A Religion that does not go altogether in the old fashion Apostolical way of Preaching and Praying and Teaching all Nations but scourging and wracking and broiling them in the fear of God A Religion that for its own Propagation will at any time authorize its Champion to divest themselves of their humanity and act worse than Devils to be Saints If a man were to transverse this Character of Religion could he do it more appositly than in these Lines of Hudibras 'T was Presbyterian true Blew For he was of that stubborn Crew Of Errant Saints whom all men grant To be the true Church Militant Such as build their Faith upon The Holy Text of Pike and Gun Decide all Controversies by Infallible Artillery And prove their Doctrine Orthodox By Apostolick Blows and Knocks Call Fire and Sword and Desolation A godly-throw-Reformation Well after this short breathing himself upon a subject which he nor any body else can ever want some fine shrewd thing or other to say he proceeds thus 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 Indeed I am mightily rejoyced at our Author 's unexpected civility in allowing this to be the expedient of the wisest Critick he has met with yet for 't is no less a Person than His most Sacred Majesties own Proposal and gracious Offer to his two Houses of Parliament in those several Declarations that he has made to 'em of his most vigorous assistance in this wise provision for the good of Posterity An Act becoming both the Justice and the Goodness of such a King that will neither debar his Brother from that Right by which himself reigns not leave his people in danger of the loss of their dearest and most sacred Birth-rights their Liberty and Religion But let us hear what our Politician says to this I answer says he
To endeavour to set up Popery by Law even with the Laws that we have against it is impossible p 21. But if you remember Sir no further off than the 13th page You were afraid that even the Protestant Laws themselves might be made to open the first Gate to Slavery and so to Popery by the help of those Procrustese's that you were there talking of And granting this it would not be so impolitick a piece of work to make such other Protestant Là ws that should not be possibly shorten'd or stretch'd by e're a Procustes of 'em all and then this projection will not deserve to be accus'd of Nonsense Nay we have your self presently confessing That a Popish King may be totally restrain'd from all power of introducing Popery by the force of such Laws as may be made to tie up his hands And who is so unreasonoble as to desire any more Surely Romes Dagon as elsewhere you phrase it will not be so formidable when like that Egyptian one of old both its hands shall be broken off and the power of hurting the true Israelites the Church of England wholly taken away Ay but then these Laws must be such as must ruine his Prerogative This does not necessarily follow and I believe His Majesty in His own Princely Wisdom and by His Councils Advice was well enough satisfied that such Laws might be made as might not quite ruine the Prerogative of his Successor tho' they might abate much of his Power in matters relating to the Protestant Religion Besides granting even thus much what you infer from this is doubly ridiculous First That no Monarch would thus entail that effeminacy on a Crown as shall render the Imperial Majesty of England but a Pageant a meer Puppet upon a Wire For these Laws that bind up a King so strictly suppose him a Popish King such only being to be restrained This is not therefore an entail'd Effeminacy but rather a short eclipsing of the full Splendor of a Crown which in the next Protestant Successor is to shine forth with the greater Lustre for its former obscurity And secondly considering none but a Popish King is thus to be limited Is it not foolish enough that you should here be offended at the smalness of his power that would have him utterly debarr'd the Throne and so have no power at all As for this Statute that seems to make such a bluster with the Tall Capital-Letters at the top it is as little to his purpose as any thing that he says For even the strictnéss of that reaches none but those that are lawfully Convicted and therefore concerns not his R. H. or if it did the dispute being about the Right of Succession and no Succession to the Crown being possible till after the Death of the Predecessor this at that time can be no obstacle to the next Heir when according to the whole tenour of the Law all Attainders cease Therefore to urge more forcibly the Exclusion of the Duke he is insinuating to the people That if ever a Papist mounts this Throne then all their Petitions Protestings and Association-Votes will be remembred to purpose That is exactly Catiline The ills that we have done cannot be safe but by attempting greater But I am sure there are some men have reason to remember that a King that has had the greatest opposition has been the most gracious Prince that ever reign'd and been so far from remembring to purpose the Traytors that oppos'd him that he has forgot'em even by Act of Parliament So far is it from being generally true what he says That he who has gone a long and tiresom journcy through Brakes and Briars to a splendid Pallace will be sure to send out to root'em up That the last instance that we have had of such a case makes it appear that even those little pliable Brambles and Briars that bent and yielded to every blast let it blow from what quarter it would and those Brakes and Thorns that stuck so sharply in the sides of Majesty have not only been retriev'd from their due fate of being utterly rooted up but been admitted into the Palace it self and made to vie with and indeed almost to over-top the tallest Cedars themselves that with unshaken constancy partook in the sufferings of the Royal Cause and without bending withstood the force of the whole Storm But now follows a very wise Discourse against the Right of Succession and to prove that not to be so inviolable as some vehemently assert we are referred to our own Chronicles Remember Sir what 't is you are discoursing of the Right of Succession as I take it and then you shall refer me whither you please Well then I take up my Chronicle and fall a reading and there indeed I find some Kings Murder'd and some Depos'd the true Heir sometimes depriv'd of his Succession by the power of a more prevailing Pretender to the same Right the Crown bandied about between the Factions of two Houses laying equal claim to it and scarce ever firmly settled for any considerable date of years But all this while I am learnt to distinguish between matter of Fact and matter of Right and know that they are very often opposite to one another and that no precedent can alter the Nature of an unjust Action or make it allowable now because contrary to right it was done some hundred years ago I am sure the known Statutes of the Land ought to be the Rule of our Duty and Allegiance rather than our Chronicles men being to be govern'd by Law and not by History And as for those Acts of Parliament which we find ordering and disposing of the Succession we shall see how little they make for the purpose for which they are produced We must therefore note that all these Acts of Parliament both of Henry VIII and of Queen Elizabeth are not made at all to alter the Right of Succession far from it nay rather to establish it for they are only design'd to declare in whom this Right of Succession was and therefore were indeed necessary both in the times of H. VIII whose often Marriages and Divorces and attainder of his Wives might make this Right disputable among his Children and in Queen Elizabeth's time who being without Issue had several others that pretended to the Right of succeeding her These Acts of Parliament I say were absolutely necessary when the Title to the Crown might be dubious but for the same reason very ridiculously and weakly urged when it is clear to the blindest Apprehension who is the true Successor After this no table bout of Law and a few Statutes and Acts of Parliament borrow'd from some Case-splitter or another for his stile for all its dulness is too florid for a Lawyers He is flusht enough to think that he may venture to fall upon that which he calls the strongest Argument for Succession If the Son of a private Gentleman tho' a Papist shall inherit and quietly possess
his Hereditary Estate is it not hard nay barbarous Injustice that the Son of a King and the Heir of a Crown should lose his Patrimony of three Kingdoms for being a Papist Indeed I must confess that in my opinion it is very hard barbarous and unjust especially when such provision shall be made that we may not be in danger of suffering any thing by his Opinion But our Author says we are in danger of this and I say No and so I find this is at the bottom no more than the former Argument concerning the possibility of Arbitrary Government and Popery ever coming in upon us And this I think has sufficiently been considered in its place I can't choose but smile at the next undertaking of our Sir Formal who I perceive has the vanity to believe his Rhetorick can do any thing He has therefore spun out a most fine Harangue to perswade the Duke to quit of his own accord his pretentions to a Crown and indeed as to that I have little to answer but must leave it to be as his Royal Highness and he shall agree upon the matter Only I must by the way take notice of one o the Arguments he makes use of to this purpose and try if I can make it as serviceable to another If then p. 30. the little disparity of their years be considered and the distance and uncertainty of the Duke 's ever coming to the Crown duely weighed surely those men are highly culpable nay the greatest Enemies of the publick good that can be imagined who thus for an uncertainty ruine a Kingdoms Peace and Prosperity and make us run into those ills which we are sure to suffer in avoiding those which we neither know or are certain we shall be ever so much as in danger of There is another very remarkable passage in this last Discourse which for its extraordinary quaintness of expression and delicacy of stile ought by no means to escape us It is a story of a Noble Roman who by the description that he makes of him can be the pattern of no other than the most deservedly beloved Darling of the People and who might for ought we know do our Nation as much service in the same kind as the other did He is thus therefore described in blank Heroick Meetre as the dignity of this Subject required When along Plague had reign'd in Rome an Earth-quake Had open'd a prodigious Gulph in the Midst of the Forum their consulted Oracle Told'em That neither should the Plague be stopp'd Nor the breach clos'd till the most Noble Victim In Rome appeas'd their angry Deity When Curtius a Noble Youth of Rome O' th' best and highest Roman Quality Princely adorn'd and mounted gallantly On Horseback with a look so gay so cheerful More like a Bridegroom than a Sacrifice Amidst a thousand wondring tender Eyes Of all his Friends the Rabble round about him Rode headlong down into the yawning Pit pag. 19. Whoever can guess by this lively description of the Authors who our English Curtius this Charmer of the People this Gallant Person so bravely mounted and so like a Bridegroom is would do very well to use what Interest he can to perswade him to do as noble an Action as the Roman Curtius did and try whether by his being a Sacrifice our Plague that reigns among us would cease But if this Curtius can't be found out to be even with our Author I will tell him a story somewhat like his and tho' possibly not in such exactness of Meetre yet as true and of as good Authority as that desiring him and his Friends to consider of it because I have a fancy that Moses in this case is likely to give as good Instruction as Livy There were certain turbulent Spirits among the Children of Israel that had stirred up the people to rebel against their Guide Moses and their High-Priest Aaron which was then all their Church and State Upon this the Earth opened a prodigious Gulph in the midst of their Tents but here one single Victim would not satisfie neither would the mouth of the Earth that was opened be content with less than the Ring-leaders of the Sedition with all that adhered unto 'em who together went down quick into the Pit Numb 16. v. 30. and so as the Psalmist says The Earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and covered the Congregation of Abiram And now I think we are at last come to that which is indeed Ratio ultima and find our Author justifying the Rebellion of Subjects against their Prince An Argument which I take the publick Ministers of Justice more concerned to answer than my self for he who don 't know who the Lords Anointed is and who it his Native Soveraign p. 31. in my opinion ought no otherwise to be convinc'd But because at last he is for summing up all p. 34. Let us fee what is the utmost strength of his reasons for Rebellion why that is this That a Popish King is guilty of a greater sin in bringing in Popery and Tyranny than the People that take up Arms against him p. 34 Is not this excellent arguing supposing even this Proposition to be true Because a Prince is guilty of a sin must the people be guilty of another Ay but he is guilty of a greater than they Suppose then a Prince should commit Incest may his people by this be warranted to commit Adultery or Fornication because their sin is not as big as his Or to our purpose if a Prince be enticed into the Witchcraft of Rome as our Author elsewhere calls it will this Authorize the Peoples Rebellion which the Scripture tells us is mighty like that very sin the sin of Witchcraft This is so absurd and so foolish a defence of so abominable and pernicious a Position as deserves both the Rods and Axes of the Magistrate the Rod for the Fools back and the Ax for the Traytors head if it be not too great an Honour And now because the writer of the Popish Character has had the boldness to Address his Libel to You the most Noble Lords and Worthy Patriots of the two Houses of Parliament I likewise at last take the Confidence to throw this Answer of mine at your Feet with my humble Petition in the behalf of almost a whole Distracted Nation That in your great Wisdom you will take such moderate courses as may once more make us a happy people that you would secure us against Popery without destroying Monarchy or which is the same thing making this an Elective Kingdom which has ever been Hereditary that you would take care of that Church which is so miserably beset with enemies on both sides and which is so firm a friend to the State that they have ever both risen and fallen together Lastly I must conjure you by the Spirits of all those English-men that in our last unnatural Wars fell on both sides by the Heroes of Edgehill of Naseby of Worcester and of all those Fatal Fields that were then Fought by the Cries of the Widows which then were made and the Curses of those Mothers which that Cruel Scene made to be so no more by all the Miseries we remember and all that we can fear or expect And lastly by the bloud of that Royal Martyr whose memory we to this day celebrate I conjure you as you expect to answer it to God and a whole Nation to take care above all things that we have not a Civil War entailed upon us to sweep away what the former has left that we may never more run into that extremity of Madness which not long since made one of the most Powerful and Happy Kingdoms in the World the pity and contempt of all the Nations round about her And having made this most humble Address to your Honourable Assembly I shall take my leave of my Reader in an Ode of Horace to this purpose a very little alter'd 'T is his 17 th Epod to the people of Rome his Countrey-men dehorting 'em from engaging in a Civil War twice in one Age where by the easiness of the application of it to our present times and Nation we may find that the people of England have learnt somewhat else from Rome besides its Religion which is at least even as destructive as that Ad Populum Anglicanum detestatio Belli Civilis Hor. Ep. 7. QVo quo scelesti ruitis aut cur dexteris Aptantur enses conditi Parumne campis atque Neptuno super Fusum est Britanni Sanguinis Non fastuosas invidae Lutetiae Vt Anglus arces ureret Iterumve Rex ut Gallicus descenderet Nostris Catenatus viis Sed ut secundum vot a Gallorum suâ Gens haec periret dexterâ Neque hic lupis mos nec fuit leonibus Vnquam nisi in dispar feris Furorne caecus an rapit vis acrior An culpa Responsum date Tacent ora pallor albus inficit Mentesque perculsae stupent Sic est Acerba fata Brittones agunt Scelusque Regiae necis Vt immerentis pegma tinxit Caroli Sacer nepotibus cruor To the People of England A Detestation of Civil War out of Horace 's 7 th Epod. OH Whither do ye rush and thus prepare To rouze again the sleeping War Has then so little English-Bloud been spilt On Sea and Land with equal guilt Not that again we might our Arms advance To check the insolent Pride of France Not that once more we might in Fetters bring An humble Captive Gallic King But to the wish of the insulting Gaul That we by our own hands should fall Nor Wolves nor Lyons bear so fierce a mind They hurt not their own Savage kind Is it blind Rage or Zeal more blind and strong Or Guilt yet stronger drives you on Answer but none can answer mute and pale They stand Guilt does o're Words prevail 'T is so Heavens Justice threatens us from high And a King's Death from Earth does cry E're since the Martyrs Innocent Bloud was shed Upon our Fathers and on Ours and on our Childrens head FINIS