of a Religion that makes humane merit the Path of Salvation and so he passes into a very florid descant upon the Abuses in the Church of Rome of this wonder-working merit And our dissenting Papists in the late times came not one jote behind them in making it the dayly Theme of the Pulpit to Preach Salvation to all that di'd in the Cause Char. And then again Popery is 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 racking 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 These are dreadful Cruelties but if this fierceness arise from any principle of rigour in the System of their Faith methinks they should treat all alike for if it be upon an Impulse of Conscience it becomes a Duty The Jesuits here in our Covenant Persâ—cution were pretty good at this way of Discipline too There was no scouâ—ging racking and broiling 't is true but there was plundering sequestering starving imprisoning poisoning in Gaols and refusing the Holy Communion to Anti-Covenanters upon their Death bed There was a general Massacre propounded of all the Cavaliers that had been in arms which I am well assur'd was carried but by one voice in the negative There were upward of a hundred sequester'd Ministers crowded into a prison where they knew there was a raging Plague and as I am credibly inform'd there was not a thirtieth part of them came off alive And for these Diabolical Actions the Persecutors were enroll'd into the number of the Saints Char. Nay says he the very outrage of Thefts Murthers Adulteries and Rebellions are nothing to the pious Barbarities of a Popish King The Murtherer and Adulterer may in time be reclaim'd by the Precepts of Morality and the Terrors of Conscience The Thief by the dread of a Gallows may become honest Nay the greatest Traitor either by the fear of Death or the Apprehensions of Hell may at last Repent But a Papist on a Throne has an unconsutable Vindication for all his Proceedings Challenges his Commission even from Heaven for all his Cruelty he dares Act and when all the Inchantments of Rome have touch'd 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 fol. 13. If it had not been for Popish King Papist and Rome I should have taken this last Paragraph for the Picture of a Kirk-Conclave For first though there was Theft Murther and Rebellion abundantly in their proceedings yet so Transcendent was the wickedness of their blasphemous Bands and Associations so horrid the Forms of their Calling the Searcher of all hearts with hands lifted up to the most high God c. to witness the joyning of themselves in a holy Covenant unto the Lord which holy Covenant was yet in the very first conception and intent of it a premeditate Complottery to destroy That in Effect which in Terms they swore to defend All other sins I say were as nothing in the Ballance against this Catilinary and bloudy Sacrament And so remarkable was the Reprobated Impenitence that follow'd upon it as if the Devil himself had come in to the Signing and Sealing of that Religious Mockery both upon God and Man and turn'd the Hypocritical Covenant into a Magical Contract As for those that took it with good meaning or perhaps out of weakness and surprise though I my self was none of the number I make no doubt but that God hath given to many of them a true sence of their mistake but for those that designingly and frankly leagu'd themselves in that Combination I am at a loss even according to the largest allowances of Christian Charity where to find three Converts the Living persisting still in the obligation of that Oath and those that were taken off by the hand of justice asserting it to the Death I bear my Testimony says Kid that was Executed in Scotland as a Rebel Spirit of Popery fol. 7. to the Solemn League and Covenant as it was profess'd and sworn in Scotland England and Ireland in 1643. c. And again Ibid Prelacy as it is now Establish'd by a pretended Law is destructive downrightly to the sworn Covenants yea not only Prelacy Popery Malignancy and Heresie but Supremacy and every thing Originally upon and derivate from it And further fol. 17. The Three Kingdoms are Marry'd Lands so I die in the faith of it that there will be a Resurrection of Christs Name Cause and Covenant And so likewse King that was Executed in Scotland too Id. fol. 42. I bear my witness Testimony to our Covenants National and Solemn League betwixt the Three Kingdoms which Sacred and Solemn Oath I believe cannot be dispensed with nor loosed by any Person or party upon Earth And fol. 43. I bear witness against the Ancient Christian Prelacy c. and against all Oaths and Bonds contrary to our Covenaâ—t and Engagement especially that Oath of Supremâ—cy c. And so Mitchel Weir c. See Ravillac Redivivus They do all of them sing the same Note Now take all together the deliberate wickedness of their first Resolve upon the Covenant their prophane and daring Hypocrisie in the very Frame and wording of it the counterfeiting of Gods Authority for Sacrilege and Rebellion in pursuance of it and lastly the maintaining and defending of all their impieties to the last Gasp. A man may defie all the Story of the world sacred and prophane to shew any other Party of Men that weâ—e ever lost under so dreadful a derâ—liction But yet there is something of a perverse Bravery in renouncing it at last and after all their â—ndignities put upon the Gâ—d of Truth in making some conscience yet of keeping Touch with the Spirit of Delusion And now to finish the Parallel betwixt our Dissenting Papists and his Jesuitcal We have our Enthusiasts too that vent their Dreams and Vapours for Oracles But to shorten the matter Bayli'es Disswasive will abundantly satisfie the Reader upon this Subject He passes from hence to a reply upon a supposition that such Laws may be made before-hand as will make it impossible for a Popish King to set up Popery in England But that says he would be like hedging in the Cuckow c. for who shall call this King to question for breaking these Laws if he has the power and will to do it This Question fol. 13. might serve for a piece of an Answer to a Contradiction he puts upon himself fol. 20. which we shall handle in course If the Law has put it out of his power there is no longer any place for the supposal of a power unless by Foreign Force which would presently improve a private
which if he had accomplish'd he might easily have done And to do his Memory Justice he told me this Story with very great Inâ—â—ignation the Substance of which as I shall answer for it to God at the day of Judgment I have faithfully related to the best of my memory upon the Faith of a Christian man Now to 〈◊〉 his Point will not the very Name of a Republican Râ—formation which is at Present become the Theme of every Pamphlet warm Our Mud into Monsters again and raise Coblers and Tinkers to Colonels Draymen and Thimble-makers to be Kings Judges Wherefore Now or Never is his Majesty oblig'd if his Word Honour or Coronation-Oath be more then a Name if I may be pardon'd for speaking my Authours words after him to uphold the Protestant Interest which now lyes a bleeding in this Cause of the Church One Branch of the Coronation Oath being as follows I will preserve and maintain to You the Bishops and the Churches committed to your charge all Canonical Priviledges and due Law and Justice and I will be your Protector and Defender to my Power by the Assistance of God as every good King in his Kingdom â—n right ought to protect and defend the Bishops and Churches under theâ—r Government Then the King ariseth and is led to the Communion Table where he makes a Solemn Oath in sight of all the People to observe the Premises and laying his hand upon the Book saith The Oath The things which I have before promised I shall perform and keep So help me God and the Contents of this Book Char. But let us suppose we may have such a Roman Catholique King as shall discountenance Pope and Popery Cherish Protestantism and effectually deterr and punish all those that shall endeavour to undermine and supplant it And then let us examine what This King thus qualify'd must do Fol. 2. Here is a Supposition fairly propounded in appearance but yet without Expounding himself upon the Worâ—d Protestantism there 's no coming to an Issue upon 't If he means by Protestantism the Opions of the Outlyers that have leapt the pale and which are rather Phansies then Perswasions the Law it self animadverts upon those people as the Underminers of our Ecclesiastical Establishment And his Discountenancing of Separatists will amount to no more then a Legal Discharge of his Office But if by Protestantism he intends a practical Conformity to the Orders of the Church the Law provides as well for the upholding of the One as the suppressing of the Other And it would be a strange Oversight for any Prince that should mount the English Throne under the disadvantages of that Perswasion to put his Perogative upon the stretch of Enacting or Abrogating Laws without the Consent of his Parliament Char. First then In continuing the Ecclesiastique Jurisdiction Honours and Preferments in the hands of the Protestant Clergy he must confer his Favours and Smiles on those very men whom by the Fundamentals of his own Vncharitable Perswasion which dooms all that dy out of the Bosom of the Romish Church to a certain State of Damnation he cordially believes do preach and teach and lead his Subjects in the direct way to Hell And next at the same time he must not only punish and persecute but perhaps emprison and hang those very only Righteous men whom from the bottom of his Soul he believes can only open them the Gates of Paradice whilest in so doing he cannot but accuse himself of coppying the Old Jewish Cruelty Nay in One respect he outgoes their Crime for he acts that Knowingly which they committed Ignorantly For by the Dictates of Religion he must be Convinc'd that in effect he does little lesse then save a Barabbas and Crucify a Jesus Fol. 3. Here is First presented a dismal Prospect of a Popish Successour in the Life of a Protestant Prince and the present Government of that Protestant Prince troubled and distracted with Clamours and Jealousies for fear of a Popish one to come If Religion were really the business they would rather blesse God for the Peace and Happiness they enjoy and wait his further Pleasure with Thankfullness and Resignation then with Murmuring and Distrust to anticipate Future Evills and Prejudge Providences to come Or if Religion were All what 's the meaning of their hammering so much of late upon the Subject of Arbitrary Power and so many Models and Projects of a Common Wealth which were the very Method of our late Usurpers as to matter of Arbitrary Power the King has pass'd away so many Concessions already for the gratifying of his Subjects that if he had it in his Will his Majesty has not left it in his Power to be guilty of that which is so ungratefully Charg'd upon him Which makes it look liker a mockery then an Accusation And then for the New-fangled Device of a Free Common Wealth our Republican Agitators should do well to mind the People of England of the blessed condition they were in under the pretended Keepers of an Liberties The Sound of Freedom and Liberty brings the Multitude like Larks to the Glasse but not a word of the Net They say nothing of the Standing Army that must be kept afoot to support it nor of the bloudy Taxes that must be rais'd to maintain those Troops and Martial Law to make good all those Violences Why do they not tell them of their Charters Franchises Priviledges and Tenures which are all swallow'd up in that Gulph of Popular Tyranny And so are all other advantageous Dependences upon the Crown The Body of the Law must be new garbled and a Civil War with all the Miseries and Contingences of it must be the Prologue to the Opening of this Tragical Scene And if the Sedition fails of successe they bring themselves into the state again of a Conquer'd Nation And upon these Terms it is at best that they are to exchange a Condition of Peace Freedom and plenty for â—eggery Bondage and Confusion It was very well sayd of Grotius upon the NetherLanders delivering themselves from the 〈◊〉 of Spain We Fought says he to save the Tenth part of our Estates and now that we have got the day we have Compounded 〈◊〉 th' other Nine Here is a Criminal and a Dangerous but I hope an Impracticable Proposal set afoot But brought in God knows by Head and shoulders under the Countenance of Religion and Succession It is possible there may be no more in it then a Well-meaning mistake But there must be an Infinite Tenderness of Conscience and a most untainted Loyalty to justify the Authour But to return to my Character As to the Influence which a Popish Successour may have upon Ecclesiastical matters as in the Character there needs no more to be sayd in 't then this that the King hath been gratiously pleased to offer the Passing of any Bill for securing the Protestant Religion without barring or diverting the Succession And such Expedients have been also fram'd to that
again Char. Thus says he whilst the bonds of Faith Vows Oaths and Sacraments cannot hold a Popish Successor what is that in an Imperial Head but what in a private Man we punish with a Jail and Pillory whilst the Perjur'd Wretch stands the Vniversal Marque of Infamy and then is driven from all Conversation and like a Monster hooted from Light and Day Pray'e correct the Errata ' s of this passage thus For Popish Successor read Jesuitical Covenanter and for an Imperial Head read a Committee of Safety And then ye have the Mystery uncipher'd But the Pope he says and a Royal Hand may do any thing there 's a Crown in the case to guild the deeds his Royal Engines act This Pope and Royal Hand should have been their General Assembly and their Pretended Christ upon his Throne and then Gods Cause and according to the Covenant hallows the Sedition Et quod Turpe est Cerdoni Volesos Brutosque decebit One Verse more would have expounded the whole business Ille Crucem sceleris Pretium tulit Hic Diadema Char. They are still says he that adorable Sovereign Greatness we must kneel to and obey What if a little Perjur'd Villain has sworn a poor Neighbour out of a Cow or a Cottage Hang him inconsiderable Rogue His Ears deserve a Pillory But to VOW and COVENANT and FORSWEAR THREE KINGDOMS OVT OF THEIR LIBERTIES AND LIVES that 's Illustrious and Heroique There 's Glory in great Atchievments and Virtue in Success Alas a vast Imperial Nimroâ— hunts for Nobler Spoils flyes at a whole Nations Property and Inheritance A Game wâ—rthy a Son of Rome and Heir of Paradise And to lay the mighty scene of ruine secure he makes his Coronation-Oath and all his Royal Protestations those splendid Baits of premeditated Perjury the Cover and Skreen to the hidden fatal Toyl laid to ensnare a Nation fol. 7. Never were those Illustrious and Heâ—oick Vowers and Covenanters that for swore three Kingdoms out of their Liberties and Lives drawn so to the Life and five hundred Nimrods too upon the chase of our Property and Inheritance And it was a Game worthy of the Sons of Buchanan and if they may be their own Godfathers the Children of the Lord too under the Cover of their ambiguous Protestations and their Holy League-Bands of Confederacy they câ—nceal'd the Snare of that premeditated Perjnry which was follow'd with so many dreadful judgments upon the Nation He prosecutes his Subject with a Reply to the Objection that ' its impossible for a Popish Successor to introduce Popery into England That the Jesuits had such a design that the whole Party believ'd it practicable he evinces from the Plot and the prospect of a presumptive Popish Heir render'd them more confident of succeeding in it fol. 7. and 8. And yet four or five Lines further he represents the difficulties of restoring Popery into England to be almost insuperable and so with just reflections upon the Paris and Irish Massacres Villanies of Gun-powder Treasons Conflagratiens and Plots against Kings and Kingdoms He finishes that Paragraph I shall easily agree here to all the Ill that he says of the Seditious and pragmatical Papists without disputing one syllable of it And yet I think it very well worth our care to distinguish betwixt zeal and clamour and not over-hastily to give credit to That Sort of People whose method it is first to make Papists odious and then to make the Church of England Popish And this is not said neither to divert any man from a reasonable apprehension of the other danger There never was a greater noise of Popery than in the Prologue to the misfortunes of the late King And what was the Ground or what the Issue of it There was a Conspiracy to undermine the Government and no way but that to put the People out of their Wits and out of their Duties together and the Project succeeded to the actual subversion of the Government And when the Zelots had possessed themselves of the Quarry they shar'd both publick and private Revenues among themselves and fell afterward to the cutting of one another's Throats for the Booty without one word more of Popery In Brief to joyn in an Out-cry against Papists with those that Reckon Episcopacy to be Popery is to assist our Enemies toward the putting on of our own Shackles And it is gone so far too that the Libellers and their Dictators range them hand in hand already and you shall seldom see a Blow made at the Pope without a Lick at the Bishops But the Project begins now to open Char. Let us now rightly consider how far the first Foundations of Popery vix Arbitrary Power may be laid in England First then if a Papist Reign the Judges Sheriffs Justices of the Peace and all the Judiciary Officers are of the King's Creation and as such how far may the influence of Preferment on baser Constitutions cull'd out for his purpose prevail even to deprave the very Throne of Justice her self and make our Judges use even our Protestant Laws themselves to open the first Gate to Slavery We are just now upon a Preliminary to the Nineteen Old Propositions over again For fear of an Arbitrary Power the King was not to be trusted with the Choice of his own Officers But no though taken for the securing of the Government from Popular Tumults and Insurrections in case of lodging that trust in any other hand Beside the putting of the King into an incapacity of providing for the justice and security of the Government But he is so far however in the right that the perverting of that power may endanger the State And for that consideration it is a Trust not to be parted with lest it should once more be re-apply'd to the destruction of the King and People as it was before It is a certain Truth that a Prince by the abuse of his Power may prove a Tyrant But it is as certain again that there is not any form or temperament of Sovereignty imaginable that is not lyable to the same possibility For Tyranny it self is only the straining of the Essential and necessary powers of Government beyond their pitch We have experimented the worst effects of Usurpation and Corruption and of turning the Equity of the Law against the Letter of it nay of setting up the Laws themselves against the very authority that made them And all this would never have done the work neither if the faction had not supply'd the want of Laws for their purpose in some cases and superseded others that were against them by an Arbitrary Device of Votes and Ordinances So that the hazard is nothing so great as he represents it in the hand of a Prince for want of that power of Enacting and Repealing which the Faction possessed themselves of by an Usurpation But alas says he Pag. 8. The Laws in corrupted Iudges hands have been too often used as barbarously as the Guests of Procrustes who
their Livingâ— the King himself and his Loyal Subjects out of their Lives Liberties and Estates the Crowns Churches and the Peoples Monies into their own â—ockets the House of Peers into a Cypher or Nullity the House of Commons into a Secret Committee the Monarchy into a Republick the Laws into Votes and Ordinances their Committe into a Rump-Assembly That Rump into a Protector and that Protector again into a Committee of Safety And all this was done by the Power of Imagination and a strong phansy of Tyranny and Popery And why may not all this he phansy'd over again But pray let me Phansy a little on the other side Let us Phansy his Majesty to Survive his Brother Let us Phansy an Heir Apparent either by her Majesty in being or by the providence of a Second Marriage or the Successor to be a person of Honour Conscience or Prudence whatever his Religion be And that in Honour and Conscience he will govern himself by the Tyes of his Word and his Duty and that in Prudence he will not venture upon a Project so impracticable as an attempt of Subverting the Religion and Government when every mans Neck shall lye at stake that shall but dare to assist him in 't which might be sufficiently provided for by some previous Act that saving the Kings Prerogative in the Case might secure their not being pardon'd in That particular We shall now Counterpoise Dangers to Dangers Here is a present opposed to a future a Certainty to a Possibility a Greater to a Less and a Protestant King to a Papist The Present danger is the probable Effect of these Intoxicating Methods to the People If Phansy was Poyson to the Multitude under the late King the same Phansy in a larger Dose and with less Corrective to it will be at least as strong a Poyson to the People under This. If the Fact on the one side be true the Reason on the other side is not to be deny'd The dismal Calamities that ensu'd upon it I have â—et forth already Now what is there in the future to weight against the Life of the King the Safety of the Church the Law and the Government the Peace of the Kingdom There may possibly be a Popish King and there may probably not And that King may Possibly have a Will to change the Government but probably not in respect of the very Immorality of Inclining to such a Violation of his Trust and Word But all most certainly not in regard of so manifest an Inability to bring it to pass When I say a Certainty I mean only a Natural Train of Events in the Application of Actives to Passives which in a high degree has taken place already For the People are almost Raving mad at the apprehensions of these Stories the Feaver encreases upon them and they grow every day Hotter and Lighter-headed than other So that we are in Forty times a greater danger of a Sedition at hand than of a Popish Successor at a Distance As to the Ballance of a greater danger and a Less we 'l e'en take the matter as they suppose it A King upon the Throne that 's Principled for Arbitrary Government and Popery But so clogg'd and shackl'd with Popular and Protestant Laws that if he had never so great a mind to 't there is not a Subject in his Dominions that would dare to serve him in his Design But on the other hand there 's no King at all no Church no Law no Government no Magna Charta no Petition of Right no Property no Liberty c. PROBATVM Beside that the Phansy comes to no more in Effect than if the sky fall we shall catch Larks But once again yet Here 's a Protestant Prince expos'd for fear of a Popish one Is the Chimera of a future danger of more value to us then the Conscience of an incumbant and indispensable Duty shall we take pet at God Almighties providence and not go to Heaven at all unless we may go our own way Shall we Level a shot at the Duke at a distance if there be no coming at him but through the Heart of our Sovereign shall we actually break in upon the Protestant profession which stands or falls with the Church of England because the Author of the Character phansies the hazard of a Popish Religion in the Moon and by the unavoidable Consequence of a Misgovernment under this apprehension draws the very plague upon us that we pretend to fear While we thus go on exposing both our Temporal and Eternal peace for shadows The Writer of the Character had most Rhetorically amplifi'd in his Calculations upon his Popish Successor but so Oversiz'd the figure that when ever the people come to their wits again they will look upon the story of Garagantua as not much the less Credible of the Two For his dangers are all out of Ken his Thunderâ—s in the Clouds and the Multitude are all turn'd Star-Gazers and gaping after ill-boding Conjunctions and malevolent influences while with him in the Fable They are tumbling into a Precipice as deep as Hell and take no notice of it Here is a danger suggested and such a means intimated for the prevention of it as makes the Remedy worse than the Disease for the very Expedient undermines the Government But first a word of the dangers on the other side There are several ways started for the disappointing of this inconvenience One by Attainder upon 23. 13. of Eliz. Another by a Bill in Parliament for diverting the Succession And some of the Libellers fall down right upon a Third Proposal of the peoples preventing the Succession though without or against Law And Fourthly either to expel the Successour or to keep him out in case of Survivorship To the first of these ways I shall speak when the point comes on As to the second which is matter of Parliamentary Cognizance I reckon it my duty to acquiesce in the Legal Issue of their Debates as an Authority to which I have ever paid a Duty and a Veneration This only I shall take the freedom to say that there is a vast difference betwixt their Deliberations that purely regard the prospect and interest of both Church and State in what concerns the Popish and Protestant Religion and the passionate excursions of private men on the wrong side of the Parliament Doorâ— that thrust themselves into the Controversie rather out of envy to the Person and fame of the Successour than to promote the more important cause of Religion like men that crow'd into a Church for company to pick a pocket and this to without any respect to the King himself in the person of his Brother or to the measures of duty to the Government Now as to the two last ways of proposal which are eiher for prevention or exclusion I have this to say If there be danger from a popish Successour during his expectancy within the Kingdom the danger is infinitely greater if he be driven
Church of England as much as the Church it self hated the Mass. Whereupon the Pope gave him a Reward of Two Thousand Duccats for his Pains The matter of Fact is sufficiently clear'd and the Practise too Notorious to be deny'd As to the Influence that these Papists have under the notion of Dissenting Protestants upon the Unity of the Church and the Peace of the State But the Craft as they say lyes in the Catching of them For the Test of Oaths will never do the Business as we have found by their Swearing to so many Contrary and Inconsistent Purposes and Interests throughout the whole Course of our Late Troubles So that we have no other way left that I can Imagine of knowing a Disguised Jesuit from one that calls himself a Dissenting Protestant but by comparing their Principles which would infinitely conduce to the Credit and Advantage of the Conscientious sort of the Divided Party And without such a Test of Discrimination the Project of Uniting Dissenters seems to be utterly Impracticable unless to the Extream Hazzard of Authorizing the most pernicious sort of Popery and Incorporating a Jesuitical Leaven into our very Constitution according to the Method which Mr. Coleman himself had projected as the most probable Expedient for the Introducing of Popery into this Kingdom The Removal of this Difficulty will open a way to a General Accomodation to the Common Security both of our Religion and Government And this is only to be done by applying the Maxims of those that we suspect here for Jesuits to the Standard of those Detestable Principles which we so much abominate in the Church of Rome And where ever we find any Party of what Denomination soever that pretends either to Erect an Interest or to support a Claim upon the same Foundation it is but matter of Common Equity to presume and to conclude that Party to be acted and directed by a Jesuitical Spirit These Positions I shall Confront with a Counter-Part of which further in its proper place But in my way to 't I shall now pass to the Character it self The CHARACTER c. IT has been my Fortune to be a Subject and a Native of that part of the World where almost three years last past I have scarce heard any thing but the continual Noyse of Poperâ— and Plots with all the clamorous Fears of a Jealous Kingdom about my â—ars And truly I must plainly confess I am not so Ill a Common-Wealths-maâ— but that I am glad to see my Country-men disturb'd in a Cause where Religion Liberty and Property are at Stake Fol. 1. Hereâ—s the very Bourdon already of that Fatal Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom Dec. 15. 42. and only a short Paraphrase of the Preface to it God blesse us from the Omen The malicious Dâ—signs of the Popish Party the hazzard of Religion and great prejudice and Oppression of the Laws of the Kingdom and just Liberty of the People Exact Collections Pag. 2. That which follow'd upon this Popular Introduction did sufficiently evidence the Design You shall see now how Pat this Prologue runs Another way Mutatis Mutandis It has been my Fortune let Me say too to be a Subject and a Native where the Noise of Popery and Plots Jealousies and Fears and Affrights about Religion Liberty and Property as if All lay at Stake brought a pious and a Protestant Prince to the Block prostituted the Honour Dignity and Revenue of the Government Ecclesiastical and Civil to a Band of Seditious and Sacrilegious Usurpers Our Temples were Demolish'd our Alâ—ars Profan'd the Priestly Office Invaded by Mechaniques Swarms of Heresies and a Scandalous Schism in Exchange for Purity and Unity of Religion Of a Free-born People we became worse then Turkish Slaves Our Common-Wealths-men were glad also to see us Disturb'd and who but our Pretended Advocates and Patriots to be our Tyrants and Tormentors Char. But if their Jealousyes are Just and their Fears Prophetique in Gods name let them talk Every man ought to be so far from silencing any Reasonable Murmurs that 't is rather his Duty to bear a Part in a Choire so Vniversal And if we sâ—e the Great and Wise-men of our Nation like True English Patriots struggling and toyling to prevent our Threatning Calamities let us take delight to behold them Restless and Vneasie Rolling about our Troubled Sea like Porpoises against a Tempest to forewarn us of an Approaching Destruction Ibid. Let them talk on says he just to the Tune of Forty Two again God forbid says Mr. Pym that We should dishearten our Friends who come to assist us And this was when Ven and Manwaring forc'd the Passing of the Bill of Attainder in the Lords House by Tumults against the Earl of Strafford and his Sacred Majesty little better then Besieg'd in his own Palace by the Rabble What a blessed Harmony was there then among the Porters Car-men and Well affected Brethren in the Lobbyes crying out with one Voice no Bishops no Rotten Peers no Common-Prayer while the great and wise men in their Generation were Struggling and Toyling to Pack Parties Contrive Invectives against Authority perplexing the Multitude with Scruples enflaming of Passions and rolling about like State Porpoises not as a Forewarning but the Foreboding of a Tempest Char. But amids our Evident Danger we see another sort of People dayly flattering and deluding us into a False and Fatal Security And sure none are so little our Friends or indeed so void even of Humanity it self as those who would lull us asleep when Ruine is in View Ibid. There are some indeed that after Open Rebellions in Scotland horrid Assassinates Anathema's Denounc'd against his Majesty Declarations point blank against his Person and Government with an Indissoluble Confederacy of Brotherly Union in our own Bowels too by virtue of that Magical Seal of Reprobation the Diabolical Covenant there are some I saâ— that after all these Acts and Demonstrations of Violence and Conspiracy will yet bear the World down that the believing of our eyes is the shamming of the Plot and that there 's no Fear at all of a Storm from that Quarter As if a Jesuitical Practice or Principle were Consecrated in the Heart or Shape of a Presbyterian But says he since Zeal and Hypocrisie Naked Truth and Artificial Falshood have oftentimes alike Faces I cannot but think it the Duty both of a Christian and an English-man to unravel the Treachery of those Arguments which they raise to destroy us But since Zeal and Hypocrisie c. are so alike that we have seen Sacriledge and Heresy pass upon the People for Reformation Rebellion for Loyalty Perjury Blasphemy and Murthâ—r for Religion Regicide for the way to make a Glorious King Bondage for Freedom Rapine for â—ropriety the King 's the Churches and the Peoples Enemies for their Friends what can a man do better then to Unmask this white Devil and expose the Cloven-Foot of this Angel of Light to the View of
on the Other that they should agree to Suppresse Phanaticism in Favour of Episcopacy and put the Laws in Execution against themselves Or would they not rather 〈◊〉 us over again with Plunders Imprisonments Vows Negative Oaths Abjurations as they did before Char. And though perhaps till the Discovery of the late Plot for several Ages we have not seen that Severity inflicted on Popish Priests as the Laws against them require And why Because the flourishing Tranquillity of the English Church under this King and his Fathers Reign render'd them so inconsiderable an Adversary that the natural Tenderness of the Protestant People of England not delighting in Blood did not think it worth their while either to detect or prosecute them and therefore has not made them the Common marque of Justice Fol. 2. 'T is True that till the Discovery of the Late Plot the Laws against Priests and Jesuits have not been put in Execution to the Utmost Rigour But he is much mistaken certainly in the Reasons he gives for that Lenity and Moderation Does he call it the Tranquillity of the English Church c. when for eighteen years together the very Form Discipline and members of it Suffer'd a more then Pagan Persecution And then does he make the Popish Party so Inconsiderable that was able to move such Broyls and Confusions which the Kings Wittnesses declare with one mouth to have been the work of the Jesuits and Finally to accomplish their Devilish End in the Bloud of the best of Kings and the most Faithfull of Subjects the ensâ—aring of the â—reest and the Happyest of People and the total Subversion of a most glorious Church and State And we are now again at this Instant upon the very Steps of the Preface to our Late Troubles and in a fair way to that blessed Condition of Tranquillity whereupon the Penner of the Character passes so notable a Remarque This was the Tenderness and the Protestant People he speaks of were the Instruments of our Desolation Which as the Oracles of our Age do abundantly enform us were only Jesuits of another Colour It is worth a note that still as the bare-fac'd Papist has attaqu'd us one way the Papist in Disguise falls to Sapping and undermining of us Another and both of them equally contributing to our Destruction Char. But under the Reign of an English Papist when the Fraternity of Religion shall encourage the Pope to make his working Emissaryes ten times more Numerous when if not the hope of publique Patronage yet at least their Considence of Private Indulgence Connivence and Mercy emboldens the Missive Obedience of his Jesuitical Instruments whilst the very name of a Popish Monarch has the Influence of the Sun in Aegypt and dayly warms our Mud into Monsters till they are become our most threatning and most formidable Enemyes And if ever the Protestant Religion wanted a Defender t is then If the Word Honour or Coronation Oath of a King be more then a Name 't is Then or never he is oblig'd to uphold the Protestant Interest and actually suppresse its most apparent and most notorious Enimies Ibid. I do here make this publique Profession to the world that I have as little minde to be under the Reign of an English Papist as any mortal and I would do all that I could justifie as a Christian and an Honest man to avoid it But since so it is that I can no more chuse my Governour then my Father and that I may as well renounce the One upon the score of Religion as the Other I am resolved to pay the Duty of a Subject to what Prince soever Almighty God in his Over-ruling Providence shall be pleas'd to set over me and at the worst patiently to suffer where I cannot conscienciously Obey It is a remarkable Chapter that of the Prophet Jeremy where God doth not only stile Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon his Servant but over and over inculcates Obedience to him Hearken not you says the Text v. 9. 10. to your Prophets nor to your Diviners nor to your Dreamers nor to your Inchanters nor to your Sorcerers which speak unto you saying you shall not serve the King of Babylon For they Prophesie a Lye unto you to remove you from your Land and that I should drive you out and you should perist And then v. 15. I have not sent them saith the Lord yet they Prophesie a Lye in my Name c. Now to proceed I shall not dispute the Consequences of his Supposition the One way if he will but allow the same Consequences to lye as fair for my purpose the Other Will not a Scottish Fraternity of Papists endanger England as well as a Romish Have they not already given proof of their Conspiracy by their Actions But I hope God will preserve his Majesty from an Axe on the One hand as well as from a Dagger on the Other And have not the Kirk-Iesuits their Emissaries as well as the Society See The Spirit of Popery a Book written with great Judgement Sobriety and Caution and Addressed to the English Dissenters Fol. 7. There was a Project of a Jesuitical Nature attempted by some of your Principals about four or five years ago when some of your Ministers and Others Caball'd together aâ—out reducing the Presbyterians whether over England only or over all the Three Nations I do not well remember into the same sort of Policy by which the Jesuites are governed over all the World The Nation was to be Divided into Districts or Provinces every District was to have its Provincial and over all the Provinces was to be appointed one General to reside constantly as I remember in London and the First who was to have the Honour of that Office like the Founder of the Jesuites had been a Soldier and a great Malefactor and is also fit to be a General of an Army and presided in that Consult He is a Gentleman whom you all know and makes a great part of a late Narrative wherein the Impudent Narrator Implicitely calls you the most sober and considerable Protestants of the Land The Provincials in their several Districts were to take an account of the Growth or Decay of the Party to note their Friends and Enemies to receive their Contributions and give an Account of all to the General who was to supervise for the good of the whole This account with which I am confident I do not surprize some of you was told me upon condition of Secresie by a very honest and peaceable but rigid Presbyterian Minister our Countryman who having got notice of the Consult brake it in the beginning by telling the Projectors how he abhorred it and threateniâ—g to discover it if they did not desist observe here that this Presbyterian Minister though a Rigid one refused to joyn in so Jesuitical a Project He told me also that he believed the Project came first from the Designed General who intended by that means to raise his broken Fortunes
effect as have been by great Authority judg'd Competent for the Obviating of that Difficulty As to the Rest I will not deny but that it is a hard thing for a Prince to â—eize and persecute a People of his own Religion purely eo nomine for their being so And it is very Probable too that he will connive at men of that Perswasion in many Cases where the Law directs a Punishment And what is there more in this theâ— what has been done already more or less from the Date of the Statutes themselves to This very day and what is done by the Government it self toward the Non-Conformists at this Instant where is the great hurt now upon this Admittance in not punishing the Papists so long as the Protestants are not Persecuted Whereas the Fanatical Papists did not only in defiance both of Law and Gospel engross all Offices Benefits and Priviledges to themselves but without Mercy or Distinction destroy'd the rest of their Brethren Char. 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 Proselites of Heaven Which is no other then to speak him the basest of Men and little lesse then a Monster Beside 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 Crowned Head and what hope England has of such a Successour I leave all men of sense to judge Fol. 3. Behold here 's the upshot of this high-flown Paragraph A Popish Prince that puts the Laws in Execution for the punishing of Papists and for the protecting and countenancing of Protestants is little less then the basest of Monsters How comes it then that the Crown of France has not treated the Protestant Subjects there as this Picture-drawer pronounces that a Popish Successour would treat his Protestant Subjects here The Protestants have now and then been severely handled I know in France as the Papists upon some Junctures have been in England And now of late worse then usual All which has been Influenc'd well by Reasons of State as by Impulse of Religion But shall we Pronounce the most Christian King the greater Monster for his better usage of us If a potent Aversion to us in matter of Religion had transported the French King 's into so mortal a Detestation of us to all other purposes they would never have committed so many Eminent Charges both in Councells and in Arms to the Honour and Trust of Protestant Officers and Commanders But the Convenience and Utility of the State preponderated against Disagreements in Religion The Barbarisms of the Holy League were the Results of a Sanguinary Faction as well in Civil Government as Religion And one Egg is not Liker another then the League of these Dissenting Papists to the Covenant of our Jesuitical and Dissenting Pseudo-Protestants To come now to the Reason and Conscience of this Elaborate Padox Taking His Position for granted that a Popish Prince is bound by his Religion contrary to Oaths and Promises Honour and Justice the Dictates of Nature the Laws of Nations and the Bonds of Humane Society contrary to all This I say and to his Interest also to break Faith with Protestants and those Protestants his Subjects too He must be unman'd as well as Unchristian'd an Excomunicate to Humane Nature and excluded from all the Benefits and Offices of Mankind And yet we are not without many Instances in the French League and the Scottish Covenant of an abandon'd Perfidy even to this degree It must be a strange Digestion sure that can put over all other Impieties and turn the violation of all that is Sacred in Nature into a meritorious Virtue Char. Besides what mismatch'd incongruous Ingredients must go to make up this Composition a King His Hand and Heart must be of no Kin to one another He must be so Inhumane to those very darling Jesuites that like Mahomets 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 Ayr to those very Ravens that daily croak Abhorrence and Confusion to them and all their Holy Dreams and their false Oracles Thus whilest he acts quite contrary to all his Inclinations against the whole Bent of his Soul what does he but publikely 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 Rome's continuall Bulls bellowing against him as an undutifull 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 Lukewarmnesse of his Religion another the Pusillanimity of his Nature all Roman-Catholick Princes deriding the Feeblenesse of his Spirit and the Tamenesse of his Arm till at long run to spare a Fagot in Smithfield he does little lesse then walk on hot Irons himself Thus all the pleasure he relishes on a Throne is but a kinde of Good-Fryday-Entertainment Instead of Royall Festival his Rioting in all the Luxury of his Heart to see Rome's Dagon worshipp'd Rome's Altars smoke Rome's Standard set up Rome's Enemies defeated and his victorious Mother-Church Triumphant his abject and poor-spirited Submission denyes himself the only thing he thirsts for and whilst the Principles he suck 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 Fol. 3. This Passage is only the same thing over again in a diversity of Words and Phrase But it is well enough to answer the Ends it was intended for the tickling of the Phansy and the moving of a Popular Passion without one syllable of weight to strike the Judgement My Reply upon the Last Paragraph shall serve for This too which I have not here Recited as requiring any Answer but to shew what pains he has taken with the Ornaments of his Rhetorique to supply the Defect of Argument I cannot liken it to any thing better then the Gaudy Glittering Vapour that Children are used to Phansy in a Cloud They 'l Phansy Lions Peacocks in it or what other Figures they Please but the first Breath of Ayre scatters the Phantastique Images and resolves the whole into its original Nothing And just so it is with this Character There are many things in it finely enough sayd to work upon a partial and an Easy Imagination and to mislead a body at first
Bloud as well of a great number of the Nobles as of other the Subjects and especially Inheritours in the same And the greatest occasion thereof hath been because no perfect and substantial provision by Law hath been made within this Realm of it self when doubts and questions have been moved and proponed of the certainty and legallty of the Succession and Posterity of the Crown c. Now so far is the intent of this Act from diverting the Succession that the express end of it was the setting of it right by the avoidance of a former Settlement upon the nullity of the Marriage And afterward 26th of the same King cap. 2. the Act here before mentioned is called The Act for the Establishment of the Succession of the Heirs of the King's Highness in the Imperial Crown of this Realm Now there 's a great deal of difference betwixt translating the Succession from the wrong to the right and the diverting of it from the right to the wrong Thirdly this change and disposition of Settlement tho it pass'd all the formalities of Bill and Debate yet the first spring of it was from the certain knowledge of the Kings pleasure to have it so without which they durst never have ventur'd upon such a Proposition Fourthly Matter of Fact in this case is no proof of Right and especially a Fact accompanied with so many circumstances of Cross-Capers and Contradictions as the pronouncing of the same persons to be both illegitimate and legitimate c. And a man cannot imagine without a scandal to that grave and wise Assembly that the levity of those Counsels and that humour of Swearing and Counterswearing could be any other than the caprice of their new Head and Governour Fifthly with reverence to the Utility and Constitution of good and wholesom Laws it is not presently to cite a Statute and say There 's a Precedent for those Laws that are repugnant to the light of Nature and common Right are Nâ—llities in themselves Lastly he brings instances here to prove that a Parliament may divert the Succession but he shews withall that there can be no security even in that exclusion in shewing that what one Parliament does another may undo So that we are now upon equal terms of security or hazard either in the exclusion of the Successor or in the restraining of him For if he be tied up by one Parliament another may set him at liberty and if he be excluded by one Parliament another may take him in again But he that shapes his own Premises may cut out what Conclusions he pleases Char. If then says he which no man in his right wits can deny our Religion Lives and Liberties are onely held by a Protestant Tenure and the Majesty of Englfnd not onely by the force of his Coronation Oath but by all the Tyes whatever ought to be the Pillars and Bulwark of the Protestant Faith and at the same time granting that we have a Popish Prince to inherit the Imperial Crown of England he ought certainly in all justice as little to ascend this Throne as Nebuchadnezzar ought to have kept his when the immediate Blast of Heaven had made him so uncapable of Ruling as a King that he was only a Companion fit for Brutes and Savages fol. 17. It is true that we hold the exercise of our Religion by a Protestant Tenure with a respect to a political union but every man holds the Religion it self that he ventures his Soul upon not on the Tenure of Laws and Constitutions Humane but on the Tenure of the divine will and pleasure Providence having dealt so graciously with Mankind that albeit in our Bodies and Estates which are only corruptible and temporary we lye exposed to Torments Persecutions Violence and the Iniquities of Times and Seasons Our Nobler Part is yet exempt from the Outrages either of Men or Beasts and our faith hope and charity treasur'd up where neither Rust nor Moth doth corrupt and where Thieves do not break through and steal As for our Lives and Liberties we hold them by the Common Tenure of Government the Common Right of men bound up in a Civil Society and under the Protection of such and such Laws and Provisions for the Common Benefit and Security of the Whole and Every part And all this clearly abstracted from this or that Religion In the cases of Treasons Felonies Riots false Oaths Forgeries Scandals and other Misdemeanours that endanger the Publick peace I do not find that the Law puts any Difference betwixt Criminals because they are of several Religions The Protestant Tenure of the King's Judges signify'd no more in the eye of the Law than if they had been Powder-Plot Jesuites But to come now to his Protestant Tenure and to close with him upon it too But as a Supposal not to be supposed If he means by this Protestant Tenure the Protestant Religion of the Church of England as Established by Law and that it is by this Tenure that we hold our Religion Lives and Libertiers it will concern us to support this Tenure but in such manner yet as the Law directs For to set up a Tenure without a Law or to assert a Tenure against a Law will not be for the credit of our Authors Pretensions If he means the Dissenting Protestant Tenure He removes the Very Basis of all our Laws and sets up the Title of the Multiude against that of the Government And further this Protestant Tenure of his cannot be understood barely of the Doctrine of the Church of England as in Our Nine and Thirty Articles for first there are several points of them that are opposed and rejected by the Men that value themselves upon this Character And Secondly Our Laws fall not shorter in any thing perhaps of so great Importance than in the point of Competent Provisions for the Suppressing and Punishing of Heretical and Blasphemous Doctrines So that this Protestant Tenure must of Necessity have a Regard to the Vniformity of worship according to the Forms Rights and Ceremonies by the Law in that case provided And in this sence I must confess that our Lives Liberties and the Religion of the Government tho' not directly yet in a most Rational Consecution of dangerous Probabilities lye all at stake Wherefore again and again I say let us joyn with our Author in the maintaining of this Protestant Tenure For tho' the intent of it be only to intimate a Jelousy of Popery to the multitude we shall yet find it upon Examination to have a Loyal Aspect toward the Government Here is an Vniformity prescrib'd which is neither a New thing to us nor an Vnnecessary Not a New one for it has descended to us from the time of Edward the Sixth and it was the only Expedient that Queen Elizabeth could find out for the safety of her Person and Dominions That Excellent Queen Elizabeth as our Author says fol. 17 Vnder whose long and gracious Reign England was so highly blessed
be purely Divine which opinion in truth needs not any other Support than the Authority of the Holy Scriptures By me Kings Reign c. I have made the Earth the Man and the Beasts that are upon the Ground by my great Power and my Outstretched arm and have given it to whom it seemed meet unto me Jer. 27. 5. That which we now call Kingly Government was at first called Paternel and after that Patriarchal c. And we find by the Powers they exercised as Life and Death War and Peace c. that their Paternal Power did Then extend to all the Acts of our Regal Power The Objection is could there be a King without a People Which is all one with the Supposal of a Father without a Son But This does not at all conclude that Adam had not both a Regal and a Paternal Power before he had either People or Children actually to govern and exercise it upon It being a thing so consonant also to the Methods of the Divine Wisdom to supply him previously with all needful Abilities and Authorities for the Discharge of his Fatherly and Governing Office The whole Race of his Posterity lying open even before they had any Existency in Nature to the Omniscience of God with whom there is no PAST or FUTVRE but all things always PRESENT Again if Adam did not bring his Authority into the World with him when did he receive his Commission Or if he had none at all how could he justifie the Arbitrary Rule he exercis'd over those People that were only his Fellow Subjects under the same God and without any Subordinate Ruler over them Or if Adam was vested with a Right of exerting the Power he exercis'd how came our Authors Imaginary Multitude to chuse a Governor of their own in opposition to the appointment of Providence Or who absolved them from the Bonds of their filial and primary Duty and Obedience What he says afterward of Conquest which he calls his Other Acquisition of Monarchy serves only for an occasion to tell us that our Last Norman Conquest was little more than a Composition which is an error and nothing at all to the point here in hand which refers only to the constitution and Settlement of the Government as now it stands without any respect to the manner of acquiring it But he is now drawing to a conclusion Char. If now at last says he Popery must and shall come in as by law it cannot and consequently must be restored by Arbitrary Power If a new Monarchy then a new Conquest and if a Conquest Heaven forbid we should be subdu'd like less than English-men or be debar'd the Common Right of all Nations which is to Resist and Repel an Invader if we can fol. 21. This is spoken upon the supposition of a Popish Successors coming to the Crown whom he calls an Invader though qualifyed with a Legal Title and he incourages Violence against him tho' in this case the Law pronounces him a King and this Resistance to be made like English-men too that is to say English-men of the late stamp So that there goes no more I perceive to the destruction of a Lawful Prince but to say that he either is or will be this or thaâ— And the King himself stands in as much danger upon the admittance of this Principle as his Royal Brother But before Subjects proceed to these terms which without a legal Authority are criminal in any case whatsoever Malice it selâ— will not deny but that there ought to be an infallible certainty of the Inconvenience whereas as I have said before this is a case lyable to many disappointments the prospect of it remote the expedient unwarrantable and the danger it self at last not so mortal as it is represented He supports his presumption upon this ground for granted that a Popish King must do whatsoever the Pope will have him do and subject his people to the Tyranny as well as the Religion of the Church of Rome What does he say to the French Kings Pyramid then and the vindication of himself and his people in divers other cases from the Insults of Rome and to several other instances already given in this particular Char. But to summ up all this says he I must say the most vehement Disputants against the Peoples right of defending themselves must at length acâ—nowledge thus much that whenever a Papist King shall by Tyranny establish the Popes Jurisdiction in England undoubtedly in the eye of God he is guilty of a greater sin than that People can be that with open Arms oppose that Tyranny Fol. 22. This is a clause of double consolation First to the Author that this Popish King shall be damn'd the deeper of the two And Secondly to the People that they shall go to the Devil in good company Char. The very Essence he says of a Popish Successor is the greatest Plot upon England since the Creation a Plot of God himself to scourge a Nation and make three Kingdoms miserable This must be a very great Plot if it be the greatest Plot that we have seen even in our days a Plot upon our Laws and it subverted them upon the Church and it destroyed it root and branch upon our Estates and it took them away by violence upon our Liberties and it enslav'd us upon our Lives and it was made death to do our Duties It was a Plot that left us no other choice in many cases but Death or Damnation If I had ask'd my revenues says the late King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sect 24. my power of the Militia or any one of my Kingdoms it had been no wonder to have been denied in those things where the evil policy of men forbids all Restitution lest they should confess an injurious Usurpation But to deny me the Ghostly comfort of Chaplains seems a greater rigour and barbarity then is ever used by Christians to the meanest Prisoners and greatest Malefactors whom tho' the Justice of the Law deprives of worldly Comforts yet the Mercy of Religion allows them the benefit of their Clergy as not aiming at once to destroy their Bodyâ— and to Damn their Souls But My Agony must not be Reliev'd with the Presence of any one Good Angel for such â—account a Learned Godly and Discreet Divineâ— such I would have all Mine to be They that envy my being a King are loth I should be a Christian while they Seck to deprive Me of all things else they are aâ—â—aâ—d I should save my soul. Has the Author of the Character heard of this Un-Christian Barbarity toward a Prince of the most Exemplary Goodness and Piety one of them that ever liv'd And how he was yet after all this Murther'd on a Scaffold in the Name and under the pretended Sovereignty of the People of England How has he then the hardness of Heart to set up that Regicidal Principle afresh and to pronounce the Government of a Popish Successor to be a
greater Plot upon England than the Execrable Bloud-shed of that Protestant Prince And yet he carries it one step higher A Plot of God he calls it and at the same time lays the Foundation of it in Hell and most Heroically opposes it From hence to the end both of the Page and Book there 's only more variety of flourish to the same purpose MY pretending to Answer this Discourse looks methink as if a Man should Reply upon an Almanâ—ck for several Years to come it runs altogether upon Phansys Suppositions Predictâ—ons c. And there 's no dis-proving of a Prognostication nor hardly any reasoning against it but so far as it is Calculated according to Rules of Art And wheresoever I have found any thing that looks like a Logical Connexion I have spoken to those Passages what I thought convenient But for the rest my business has been to encounter the drift of it and to expound the danger of these present Iealousies by referring People to the miserable effects of the same Jealousie in the Late Times It is an easie thing for People to foretel Calamities and Judgments of their own Contriving There is not any Man Living that more passionately desires the Ripping up of this Damâ—'d Hellish Plot to the bottom than my self but I must confess withal that I am for Suppressing the Malice of Popeâ—y as well as the Name and utterly against the Damning of any Position in a Papist that I practice my self The best way to discover a Jesuite is by his Principle for it is the Doctrine and not the Order or Dâ—nâ—mination that creates the Danger So that we are never the nearer for rocting out the One unless we purge our selves also from the Leagen of the Other Which will be the oâ—ly safe way of faciâ—itating a Comprehensive Union of those Conscientious Dissentâ—rs that wish well to the King and his Government And in Order to this Discrimination I shall give the Reader here a Taste of the Harmony and Agreement betwixt the Jesuites of the Society and those of the Covenant That is to say such other Jesuites as under the Cover of Dissenting Protestants take advantage of the Credulity and Weakness of the Common People toward the working of Distempers in the Nation Popish and Jesuitical PRINCIPLES DOminion is founded in Grace says the Romish Jesuite and upon That Principle Deposes Protestant Princes But the Covenanting Jesuite is even with him and upon the same Principle deposes Popish Princes as Knox and those of the Congregation in Scotland depos'd the Queen Regent Cambden ' s Eliz. An. 1559 Penry told the Lord President of Wales That without advancing the Presbyterian Discipline he could have no Commission to Rule there for having rejected Christ he was but the Lieutenant of Satan And our Character does pretty well too in ranking a Popish Prince with Nebuchadnezzar fol. 17. The Pope may deprive a King of his Royal Dignity for Heresie Schism c. B. of Lincoln's Popish Principles pag. 20. and after Excommunication says Mariana in case of Obstinacy the People may take away his Life Now says the Covenanting Jesuite All men as well Magistrates as Inferiors ought to be Subject to the Judgment of General Assemblies See Bishop Bramhal pag. 501. Ministers says Buchanan de Jur. Reg. page 70. may excommunicate Princes and when they have cast them into Hell they are not worthy to live any longer upon Earth Pius Quintus absolv'd the Subjects of Q. Eliz. from all their Oaths of Allegiance to her for ever And now says Knox to England and Scotland If Princes be Tyrants against God and his Truth their Subjects are Free from their Oath of Obedieâ—ce And our Jesuitical Covenanters did the same thing too with a Penalty in abolishing the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance and setting up their Covenant We command says the same Pius Quintus all the Peers People and Subjects of England not to pay any Obedieuce to the Queen her Commands or Laws And was not this the same thing that our Covenanting Jesuites did in commanding upon pain of Imprisonment and Sequestration not to obey the Kings Proclamations and in making it Death without mercy for any man that had taken the Coveâ—ant to go without a Pass into the Kings Quarters Pope PAVL 3d. Interdicted all publick Prayers for Henry 8. or his Adherents after his Denyal of the Popes Supremacy to the whole Nation And did not our Scottish Jesuites the same thing in refusing to to pray for the Mother of King James when she was in her Distress though the King desired it and did not our English Covenanting Jesuites make it Malignancy and Sequestration to pray for the King in their Churches If a Clergy-Man Rebel against the King it is no Treason says Emâ—nuel Sa because Clergy-Men art not the Kings Subjects The Jesuits of the Kirk told King James That He was an incompetont Iudge of Matters in the Pulpit wich ought to be exempted from the Iudgment and Correction of Princes And the Assembly brought off Gibson and Blake for Cursing and Railing at the King in the Pulpit upon the same Plea And the Late King had as little Remedy for Treason deliver'd in the Pulpits here The Papal Power says Sciopptus is Supream and the Pope has a Right to Direct and Câ—mpel and a Power of Life and Death And did not Our Jesuits in the Assembly and the Two Houses Practice the same Usurpations in 1642 Does not the Kirk in the Cases of Bloud Adultery Blasphemy c. take the Pardoning-Power out of the King's Hand Did not the Scottish Jesuits in 1638. Proteâ—t against Proclamations make void Acts of Parliament Levy Mâ—n Monies and Arms for the Glory of God and preservation of Relâ—gion Kings Declaration Pag. 415. Do they not claim Power to Abrogate and Abolish what Statutes and Ordinances they please concerning Ecclesiastical Matters See Bishop Brambal Fol. 497. c. And in short in ordine ad Spiritualia take into their Cognizance all matters whatsoever Snarez approves of a Subjects killing his Prince in his own defence and much more if it be in defence of the Publique Buchanad Seconds him and would have him rewarded for it as if he had kill'd a Wolf or a Bear For says he in his de jure Regni the People are as much above the King as he is above any one Person Which Our Jesuits have Translated into Singulis Major Vniversis Minor Does not our Assembly set up for Infallible as well as the Pope And have not Our Jesuites their pious Frauds as well as those of the Church of Rome their Dreams Visions and Revelations Where was there ever more Equivocation or mental Reservation then in their swearing to preserve the King with a Design to destroy him Where did the Pope himself ever take more upon him as to the Indicting of Assemblies abrogating Acts of Parliament and in the Exercise of all other the Ensigns of Royalty Does not our Assembly expect to be submitted to with as implicite a Faith and as blind an Obedience as the Pope himself We must â—â—sign up our Judgments says the Church of Rome our VVill and our Vnderstanding in a deferencé to our Superiors To which purpose as I find it in Lysimachus Nâ—canor page 48. Andrew Cant when he found he could give no reasons for subscribing the Covenant told his Congregation at Glascow that they must deny Learning and Reason and help Christ at a Lift and told them further upon the same occasion that he was sent to them with a Commission from Christ to bid them subscribe the Covenant which was Christs Contract and that he himself was come at a Wooer to them for the Bridegroom and called upon them to come to be Hand-fasted by Subscribing That Contract and told them plainly that he would not leave the Town till he had all their Names that refused to Subscribe and that he would complain on 't to his Master It would be endless to run out the Parallel at length so far as This Argument would carry a man But this will suffice I hope in some measure for a Caution that while we are running down of One Sort of Jesuites we do not Incorporate our Religion with Another The End Character Declarat Prot. of Lords and Commons to the Kingdom and the whole world Octob. 22. 1642. Exact Coll. pag. 664.