I am your King was a Supersedeas to all manner of humble Petitions and Remonstrances his Priests those fatal Scorpions he so hugg'd in his Bosom were the chief Incendiaries and contrary to our known Laws swarm'd over from Doway and St. Omers greedily gaping after Preferments which they needed not have wanted could his Will alone have placed them in Ecclefiastical Dignities they must be humbly content with Titular and Imaginary Bishopricks in Nubibus till the stubbern Hereticks who Enjoy'd 'em would at once part with their Reasons and their Livings together But the greatest occasion of his Arbitrary Government and the Aera from whence he may date all his late Misfortunes was his Friendship with the French King a right Son of Ishmael whose Hand is lifted up against every Man's and every Man 's against his a Man who has not one single Virtue to counterballance that prodigious stock of Vices which harbour in his Breast a Man who has built a Reputation upon the Ruins of his Neighbours Kingdoms and yet with this Gallick Nimrod did the Uunfortunate King James contract a most lasting Alliance I perceive I am stopt in my Assertion and a little Dabler in Politicks challenges me to prove the Contract 'T is true we cannot shew the Original Deed with their Signets and Names affixt to it but he must surely be Delivered over to Unbelief who cannot credit such Circumstances as serve to clear the matter from all doubt or hesitation Who Promoted the Marriage of the Duke with the Princess of Modena Who Defraid the Charges of her Journy and Paid the greatest part of her Fortune but the French King If this will not satisfie pray examine Coleman's Letter to Sir William Throgmorton the Duke 's then agent at the French Court where he tells him That when the Duke comes to be Master of our Affairs the King of France will have all reason to promise himself all that he can desire for according to the Dukes mind the Interest of the King of England the King of France and his Own are so closely bound up together that 't is impossible to separate them one from the other without the ruin of them all three but being joyned they must notwithstanding all opposition become Invincible There are other Letters between Mr. Coleman and Father le Chaise which carry such undeniable Marks of a Contract between King James when Duke of York and Louis le Grand that none but those Devested of common Sense can have reason to doubt it If this is not throughly convincing let any one consult the Memorial given in by Monsieur d' Avaux the French Embassador at the Hague Sept. 9th 1688 which if the curious Reader desire to see at length I refer him to the 1st Vol. of Mercurius Reformatus or the New Observator No. 5. wherein the Ingenuous Author of that Paper does prove it beyond all possibility of Contradiction There are several other Arguments as unquestionable as the former which for brevity's sake I omit And now 't is time to breath a while and consider what are the those Regal Virtues of which if a Prince has not a share he will hardly answer the expectations of his People nor the ends of Government they are generally recon'd to be Piety Prudence Justice and Valour but if his Piety degenerates into Biggottism his Prudence into unsteady Timerousness his Justice into acts of Cruelty and Severity and his Valour into Rashness and Obstinacy what ever his Flatterers may say of him yet certainly he is unfit to Govern Let the Reader apply the Character where he pleases and find a Crown'd Head whereon to fix these four Vices by another name call'd Virtues How much of the Comparison may fall to the King's share we know not but of his Bigottry Zeal or what other Name you please to his Religion I believe by this time the World wants not to be convinc'd for if for Arguments sake we should allow what we cannot believe viz. a Merit in Religious Actions certainly the late King has bid the fairest for Cononization after his Death of all the Crown'd Heads who have liv'd these two Centuries who would Sacrifice three Kingdoms to the Capricios of a Priest but be it unto him according to his Faith and indeed it is but just he should expect a Crown in Heaven if for its sake he has lost one on Earth This in a few Lines we have given the Character of a Bigotted unfortunate Prince But leaving him at his Devotions let us a little return homewards and observe a sort of Men who are so very Impatient under this Government that their very Looks express their Discontent they are as uneasy tho in the Sun-shine of Liberty as the Slaves at Algeirs are with their Chains they cannot take an Oath to a Government that will Protect 'em and nothing will ever satisfy them but the Return of their Old Master Good God! to what stupidity is Mankind arriv'd To dislike the most easy Government in the World to Espouse that which is the most Barbarous in its Nature A Government that in measures of Cruelty exceeds ev'n the most Savage Communities on the Coast of India A Government so debauch'd with false Religion that considering the Interest of Mankind and the ill usage it exposes Mens Persons and Fortunes to it could be almost wisht that such a Religion had never been known in the World In the name of Wonder what would these Gentlemen have They were many of them at least many pretended to be uneasy under the last when Popery and Arbitrary Government seem'd to come as an Armed Man and now they are almost beyond the possibility of such Fears they Murmur Of what Mercurial Temper are the English compos'd that they can never be setled Popery was once their Terrour and now that is remov'd they fear they know not what like Men in Feavers they are Restless in this Bed and when remov'd to another are as uneasy in that I appeal to any of them if the pressures that gawl their Shoulders either in their Persons or Fortunes was not brought upon themselves by their own perverse Obstinacy for which Conscience is still the pretence the Government would have them Live easy and enjoy their Estates and Preferments both Civil and Ecclesiastical nor would molest them while quiet they might sit under their Vines and under their Fig-Trees but they will not and if Men will turn themselves out of all in compliance to a humour who can help it It must be confest that when once the Persons of Kings grow Contemptible or little in the Eyes of their Subjects their smallest Miscarriages are Magnified to that degree as very often Terminates in their Ruin But there is an Errour on the other hand when the worst Actions of Princes shall be thought Innocent for according to some persons Creed a King can do no wrong and the belief of Passive Obedience is carried so high that even his Arbitrary Proceedings shall
THE CHARACTER OF A Bigotted Prince c. THE CHARACTER OF A Bigotted Prince AND WHAT ENGLAND May Expect from the Return of such a One. Licensed May the 9th J. F. 1691. LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin at the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-lane 1691. THE CHARACTER OF A Bigotted Prince c. IT has been the great unhappiness of the Kingdom of England for some Years last past to be troubled with two very Different sort of Persons of quite contrary Tempers the one Party of so very Costive a Faith that they could believe nothing and the other of so easy a Belief that they could swallow every thing the first of these could not see the Sun of Truth in its brightest Meridian and even Mathematical Demonstration signified nothing in order to persuade them they could not or at least would not see their Native Country hurried to the very Jaws of Ruine and imitated Nero in his stupidity who could unconcernedly Tune his Harp when Rome was in Flames every thing about 'em seem'd pleasant and gay they never suffered their minds to be rufled with anxious Thoughts for the Future so they enjoy'd the present and observ'd in the Literal but corrupted sence the command of our Saviour to take no care for the Morrow the most surprizing Relations mov'd them not a jot and they gave as equal a Credit to an Information or Confession upon Oath as they would have allow'd to a Chapter in Rablais his History of Garagantua The other were of a quite different stamp they could credit the most improbable Stories and the most far fetcht Lyes were with them esteem'd as Oracles they were ever at Coffee-houses or places of such resort still listning to every idle Pamphleteer's Discourse with more Attention than to a Sermon they could not see a Chimney on Fire but immediately some Treachery they believ'd was in agitation and a Drunken Midnight Quarrel in the Streets Allarm'd their Thoughts into the Belief of a Massacre they had nothing in their Mouths but Plots and Designs and Holy Writ it self stood upon the same bottom in their Creed with some Witnesses Depositions their Imagination hag-rid with Suspicious and Fears daily presented them with such frightful Scenes that they were not only uneasy to themselves but likewise to all about them which render'd their Days unpleasant and their Nights unquiet insomuch that some of them durst not go to Bed for fear next Morning they should wake and find their Throats Cut. From these two very corrupt Humours in the late times were produced those two odious Characters of Whigg and Tory which were banded about so long in Jest that they soon turn'd Earnest and he was thought either a Knave or a Blockhead who would not suffer himself to be Dignified or Distinguished by one of those Titles This Humour continued for some Years with great Violence and Disorder during the latter end of the Reign of K. Charles the Second in all which time 't is obvious whoever wore the Crown a great Person then at Court manag'd Affairs at the Helm That great Prince who had seen both the Extreams of a Prosperous and an Adverse Fortune by his Death Yeilded the Throne to his only Brother in the beginning of whose Reign the two Discriminating Names before mention'd seem'd to have been utterly forgotten the former in seeing a Prince the Darling of their thoughts and wishes now become a Monarch and the latter in their mistaken apprehensions of his unexpected Clemency in affording them Liberty of Conscience The Storm was now abated and Mens Tempers grew more compos'd the Virtues of the Soveraign fill'd every Mouth with His Praises His Goodness His Justice and His Piety was the Theme of common Discourse and nothing but the Name of James the Just heard in the most ordinary Conversations It does not become a Subject too nicely to inquire into the Miscarriages of a Crown'd Head but this must be consest very ill things were done even to the Alteration of the fundamentals both of our Religion and Government and this must be own'd by every one whose Ears are not stopt by invincible Prejudice or Partiality 'T would be vain labour to descend to particulars in a Discourse which is design'd to be of another Nature The Jewish Feast of Tabernacles tho' long time Abrogated by the coming of our Saviour hinders not nor forbids me to reflect on the Dangers I escap'd in the Wilderness I may Lawfully I think select such Days in the Year to consider how Corporations were Regulated Bishops Imprison'd and other Irregularities committed in the late Reign without assembling a Conventicle and there in some lewd Harrang swell every Miscarriage to a prodigious greatness The Actions of Princes Evil ones especially are their own proper Heralds and every one of his Subjects carries some short Remarks of his Reign in their Memories I do not believe that History can parallel the Joys and Triumphs of any Nation upon their Deliverance from Oppression with the universal Triumphs of the English upon the never to be forgotten late Revolution they seem'd like Men kept a long time in Durance and now were blest with the sweets of Liberty nay even some of our present Murmerers themselves were most forwardly Active to shew their Zeal for the then Prince of Orange who by his coming seem'd to open the Scene of a new World and restore the English to the Poet's time of the Golden Age again But like true Israelites we long again for the Onions and Garlick of Egypt and would fain be under our old Task-masters once more the Wound which was seemingly Heal'd is now broke out again and what we lost in the Antient Tory we find reviv'd in the Modern Jacobite We were told in a Prophetick Discourse some years since what Treatment we were to expect if a Prince of the Romish Communion should settle upon the Throne the effects of which every one who is not wilfully Blind must acknowledg Did he not drive Jehu-like in a full Carreer to Rome Were not his Emisaries in every great Town in England Regulating Corporations and Poisoning the Minds of the People with Popish Doctrins Were not all places of Trust both Civil and Military fill'd up with those of the Romish Faith or others whom he made use of for his own ends Were they not come to an excessive hight of Impudence both in their Sermons and Discourses Was not the Torrent swell'd so high that they hourly expected the Deluge Were not the Fences of the Law the Security of the Subject attempted to be broke down And Magna Charta when in Opposition to the Princes will be valued no more than a cancell'd Deed of Conveyance Was not an Embassador sent to Rome and a Nuntio Entertain'd here to settle the Protestant Religion no doubt and a thousand other Practices committed as directly opposite to the Interest of the English Nation as Fire is contrary to Water Was all this done in a corner Were not their Actions as
Soul and Vincit Amor Patriae seem'd to be Written in indelible Marks upon their Breasts for this the ancient Greeks and Romans were Famous Remarkable to this purpose is the Relation Livy gives us of Curtius a Noble Roman who when the Earth was sunk with a wide Gap in the Middle of the Forum and it was told it would not come together again unless some Prime young Nobleman were put into it he to Deliver his Country mounted on Horse-back Rode into the Gaping Chasma But we on the contrary have a sort of Men amongst us who would gladly see their Native Soyl over-run with a knot of Villains to gratifie one Mans Lust of Power on the one hand and their unaccountable Humour on the other I would fain ask them supposing the possibility of such Success whether the French Arms are so well bred as to distinguish them from the rest of the English Sufferers by such a Revolution to which that of the Goths and Vandals in Italy was but a civil Visit I fear like Tarpeia the Vestal Virgin who Covenanted with the Sabines to betray the Capitol to them for what they wore on their left Arms but when they were Entred into of Bracelets which she intended they threw their Targets upon her and Pressed her to Death so would these very Men Suffer in the Common Calamity for the French as well as other Nations agree in this That though they Love the Treason they Hate the Traytors To Invert a little the Words of Mr. Dryden to the Reader before his Poem of Absalom and Achitophel Every Man is a Knave or an Ass on the Contrary Side and there 's a Treasury of Merits in Sam 's Coffee-House as well as in Richard's at the Temple but the longest Chapter in Deuteronomy has not Curses enough for well-wishers to the French It was the Speech of a Moderate Gentleman in the Long Parliament when the Faction in the House of Commons was high against the Bishops and the Establish'd Church Gentlemen says he let us see the Model of your New intended Superstructure before you pull down the Old one If we should ask some of these Fiery Bigots for the Interest of the late King what Advantages they can propose to themselves by his Return unless like the unrewarded poor expecting Caviliers at the Restauration of King Charles the Second they can be content to be Loyal and Starve for if the latter end of King James his imaginary Reign should be of a piece with his first real beginning he will still neglect his truest Friends and stick close to Flattering Enemies With so deep a Root has the Advice of a Chancellor about the year 1660 still remain'd in the Breasts of the Princes Oblige your Enemies and your Friends will be true to your Interest But I have wandred from my Subject by a long but I hope not very Impertinent Digression and therefore asking my Reader 's Pardon return to my Subject or rather the Applicatory part of it We have seen the Character of the Prince and his Bigotted followers And as all things are best set off by Examples let us now draw a Parallel or Landscape of the two different Complexions of the Reigns of King William and Queen Mary and King James and what we are unavoidably to Expect should Almighty God in the Course of his Providence for our Punishment and the gratification of some restless Spirits bring King James to his Throne again Of the Ease and Tranquility of the first we are certain but of the Horrour of the latter the most terrible Ideas we can form of it in our Imaginations will come short of the Life for as the safety we now enjoy almost exceeds our Hopes so the Stripes we must then feel will transcend our very Fears In the Person of the King we have a Prince who is truly what the Historian says of Titus Humani generis Deliciae who has centred in his Person all the Valour and Wisdom of his Ancestors A Prince so truly Great that those Lawrels which add such Lustre to anothers Brow look but faintly on His He needing no additional Varnish to set off His Native Goodness A Prince Born to be the Arbiter of Christendom whom all the Crown'd Heads and States of Europe Adore as the only Person who must break the Jaws of the French Leviathan Not the greatest Dangers which so terrify pusilanimous minds can at all move Him who caring not for an inactive inglorious Greatness expos'd his Sacred Person to Rescue these ungrateful Kingdoms from the moct insupportable Tyranny of Arbitrary Power since which in Ireland he gave most Invincible Proofs both of his Courage and Conduct the United Force of Europe could not concert their Measures against France till his Presence Influenced their Counsels at the Hague to which he went through a thousand Perils at Sea after a short Return He is now gone again to Flanders to head that Prodigious Army Victory seems to accompany him in Attempts of War and his worst Enemies must own him to have the very Soul of Courage In the Person of the Queen we have a Second Queen Elizabeth but with respect to her Sacred Ashes we may say the Copy far exceeds the Original Never did a Crown'd Lady shew more Conduct and Magnanimity than when the French Fleet was upon our Coast when her Illustrious Husband was Fighting in Ireland A Princess whose thousand Charms make her fit to Rule and Command even Respect from her very Enemies if any such there are her Majesty is Temper'd with so much Mildness that at the same time she neither invites nor forbids Access the Glory of her own Sex and the Admiration of ours Under these two Illustrious Persons is England c. at this time Govern'd by the most exact Laws that ever were made the Prerogative of the King not Dominating over the Priviledges of the People the Church of England Flourishes not withstanding the Peevishness of some of her Votaries and the Dissenters enjoy their Liberty of Conscience without Design The great Blessing of this Nation viz. the Parliament does frequently Meet and their Votes are Unanimous for Supplies for the Nations Good The Taxes by them Levied are excepting by some few discontented Spirits willingly Paid and the People satisfied that their Mony is Employ'd for the uses intended not Lavishly and Unaccountably thrown away on Pensioners c. every Man enjoys his Plentiful or Competent Fortune with all the freedom Imaginable no Tricks are made use of to Decoy us into Slavery from the very Prospect of which the King designs by his utmost Endeavours to free us by appearing himself in Person at the Head of the Confederate Army in opposition to the Power of France He designing to Rescue the Glory of the English Nation from that Stupidity the Luxury and Effeminacy of the late Reigns had obscur'd it with and we have nothing to render us unhappy but our own groundless Fears and Jealousies in which