of their Instruction and for Direction of their Conscience to such Casuists as their own Men say have Dishonour'd Christian Religion with their Abominable Lessons She feeds them with a dry Communion and bids them obey Jesus Christ and the Pope if they will be Saved She hath also her Bishops Priests Masses Monks Monasteries but such as have nothing almost common with those of the Primitive times save only their Names In brief with all possible Artifices she labours to keep her poor Laity Hoodwinckt in Ignorance for Blind Men are more Tractable and Obedient unto their Leaders She tells them it is Creed enough for them to believe only the Catholick Church that is to Resign up to her self their Understanding but if any of them be farther Curious to know more Especially if they will be Prying into that Dangerous Book the Bible she sends them into the Inquisition to be there better Catechised Thus she deals with her own But for all Us that are in her Opinion Hereticks if her power were answerable to the Malignity of her desires no Remedy we should all pass through the Inquisition into Hell To go from a safe Church as Ours is wherein there is a Certainty of Salvation to such a Dangerous Church as the Roman is wherein there is but a meer Possibility of it is a wilder and more unaccountable Errour or oversight than if a Man that was to Sail in a Rough Dangerous and Tempestuous Sea full of Rocks and Sands should refuse a stout and well built Ship that had Skilful Careful and Honest Pilates and chuse one that is Crasy and full of Leaks or Breaches to let in the angry and devouring Billows and is steered by such Pilates as are either Treacherous or Careless Ignorant or Knavish His Royal Highness then had no reason to change his Religion upon this account his Eternal Happiness and Salvation being certain and undoubted by his stay in our Church that is by believeing and living as it teaches and requires all its Members to believe and lead their lives But exceeding doubtful and hazardous no more than possible in the Romish Communion And being neither for his Interest in this nor his Happiness in the other World to turn Papist his Royall Highness could have no just Motive or Inducement to do it These Arguments as they prove the Duke ought not so they will Oblige all that consider them to question whether he hath changed his Religion for being a wise Prince how can he be Guilty of so Deplorable an Errour as to do that which is against his interest now and his Happiness for ever that will make him Inglorious whilst he lives and Miserable when he is Dead and gone But the Excluders will say this is to doubt whether the Sun Shines when he appears in Subsect 5. his highest or noon day Glory to question matter of Fact for did not his Royal Highness refuse the Oaths and Subscription against Popery and do not Colemans Letters speak of his Zeal for the Romish Church and Religion and if he be not a Papist why doth he not declare himself and satisfy the Nation that he is of the Establish'd Religion these things they say make it Evident to all that will not shut their Eyes that the Duke is a Papist As for the first his Refusing the Oaths and Subscription against Popery That is no evidence of his being a Papist because he might have reasons for that Refusall He might think it a dishonour to him being a Prince of the Blood and next Heir to the Crown to take the Oaths and make the Subscription which every Justice of the Peace and every Captain in the Militia and persons inferiour to these were by that Law Obliged to do Is there any thing that a brave generous Prince such as his Royal Highness is Is more tender of than his Honour And would it not have been a lessening and impairing of that a descending from his greatness a stooping much below himself to take those Oaths and Subscribe as every person that hath any Office Civil or Military is by that Law required to do Sure there is some difference to be put and some distinction to be made between a Prince and Men of lower degree between a Son of the late and a Brother the only Brother of this present King and other Subjects 'T is true indeed the Duke whilst the King lives is but a Subject but then he is the highest the greatest Subject next to the King both in Blood and Dignity and hath such a property and capacity as no other Subject hath and therefore what may be Honourable enough for other Subjects to do may look meanly in him and be in his own Apprehension if not in the Opinion of others a lessening his Esteem and impairing his Honour The Dukes Refusal too might proceed from a just dislike and aversion to the great Contriver and Promoter of that Law which requir'd the taking those Oaths and the making that Subscription a Man Popular Ambitious Busy and Designing and as since appears most Trayterous and Disloyal who had misbehaved himself towards his Royal Highness and without any Provocation was become his Enemy and openly profess'd or declared himself so to be the Duke I say might justly hate the Child for the Fathers sake refuse to observe a Law Contriv'd and Promoted by his open Enemy to comply with and do those things at the Motion of Such an One being both dishonourable in it self and that which would encourage the Man to more and greater rudeness and sauciness towards him and set his invention a work to frame new Impositions and lay greater Burthens upon him there being no end of some mens Projects and Impertinencies and if they be humour'd in one thing they will demand an hundred and grudg if they be not satisfied and if you do not let them lead you by the Nose as long and as far as they please your first complyance is Slighted or Contemn'd as a thing of no worth nor merit and therefore the best way to be freed from such Troublesome and Imposing persons is to withstand or give them a repulse at the first for if they find a Man resolute and not to be wrought upon they will be discouraged and in time give over their Impertinent and Saucy attempts Besides the Dukes taking the Oaths and Subscribing could not have acquitted him from the Suspition of Popery with them that were desirous he should be reputed that they might treat him as a Papist for so long as his Holiness pretends a power to grant Dispensations and is willing to exercise or put that power into practice which he will do as long as he hath any Zeal for the Catholick cause or any Concern for his own gain and profit so long they that love to brand others with the hatefull name of Papists will think or call them so notwithstanding all the Oaths they can take and the Subscriptions they can make
Vertues they are fitter for our silent Admiration than our imperfect and unequal Praises never any Mortal approach'd nearer to Him who was more than Man even God manifest in the Flesh whilst he Lived he was a Saint upon Earth and dying was number'd amongst the prime Saints in Heaven His Enemies were such as are always Enemies to God and all goodness that is the Devil and his Agents and they that deposed and took away his precious Life would have done the same execrable Violence and Injury to the Son of God himself if he had fallen into their Barbarous and Bloody Hands And our present most Gracious Soveraign is equal to any of his Renowned Ancestors in the Princely Vertues of Wisdom Fortitude Justice Mercy Peacefulness and the admirable sweetness and goodness of his Temper So that I may Challenge all the World to shew me four such Princes one after another in any Elective Monarchy so Zealous Defenders of the true Religion so Tender of their Subjects Welfare such Bountiful Patrons and Benefactors to them that they did what they could to preserve them in Peace Piety and Plenty And if in any of their Reigns any of the People Suffer'd and were Miserable it was not the Princes Injustice that made them so but either their own or their fellow Subjects Stubbornness Disobedience and Turbulent or Ungovernable Temper that brought Calamity and Ruin upon them And seeing Elective Princes have more and greater Temptations to Oppress and Injure their Subjects than those that are Successive the Elective must needs be the worst sort of Monarchy And it is so Secondly because exposed to manifold Factions Discontents Quarrels and Dangers We see to what Heats Factions and Disorders far inferiour Elections are subject that they who are to chuse a Parliament Man for a County or a Burgess for a Corporation cannot all Agtee or Fix upon a Person but Run into Parties and Factions one side being fierce and eager for one Man and the other for another till they grow angry and inraged hate and revile one another proceed from words to blows and would break out into open Hostility were there not a Superiour Authority to which they are accountable for such disorders and therefore stand in awe of How much more apt to Feuds and Quarrels to Factions and Discontents may they be reasonably supposed to be that have the Disposal of such a Jewel as a Crown and whose Votes are of that moment and concern as to confer so precious and by all admired a Treasure as a Kingdom and have none to awe or pacifie them the Electors during the Interregnum being the chief and most courted Persons of the Kingdom and may unless limited by Law Protract or Spin out the Election as long as they please and accordingly as they are Byassed by Affection or Interest which may be of Dangerous Consequence to the Kingdom For if any Neighbouring Prince prompted either by his Ambition or provoked by Injuries formerly receiv'd take that Opportunity to Invade them whilst they are debating and quarrelling amongst themselves who shall be King they are in all probability surpris'd and ruin'd for either they must agree and finish the Election presently which the Prince that invades may easily prevent by bribing some of the Electors or else they must imploy some great Person to defend the Kingdom till they have done it He if he succeeds in his Expedition and beats the Invader out if he be not Elected King calls them Ungrateful thinks himself affronted his good Service slighted or contemned having the Army under his Command may easily work upon them by gifts at present and promises of doing great things for them afterwards to afford him their Assistance to make him King by which means the Kingdom is imbroyl'd stain'd with the Blood made miserable by the Slaughter and Destruction of the Inhabitants by the Ruin of Cities and Vastation or Spoyl of Provinces But if on the other side the Electors chuse him King then the other Grandees are discontented and think they have the greatest injury done them every one of them in his own Opinion esteeming himself at least as deserving or worthy of a Crown as the Prince Elected and therefore to revenge the contempt put upon them either break out into Rebellion or invite the Invader to return with offer of their assistance to possess him of the Kingdom So that between Forreign Force and Domestick Ambition and Discontent the poor People endure all the Calamities of War and linger out a tedious Life made so by frequent Oppressions Terrours and Discontents And as the People are miserable in Elective Monarchies so the Prince is unsafe for there is nothing that great Spirits are more Ambitious of than a Crown and the Cardinals cannot possibly be more weary of a long Lived Pope than most of the Grandees in an Elective Kingdom hate a long lived Prince the reason is plain because the Crown not being peculiar or appropriate to any one Family the more frequent Vacancies there are the greater hopes they have of being Elected which is a mighty Temptation to Ambitious and Designing Men to use all the Villanous and Accursed Arts they can by Poyson and other secret ways to Destroy or Take off the Prince that they may fill his Throne whom they have by the basest and most perfidious cruelty deprived of his Life and Kingdom The last King of Poland lay under great Fears and Apprehensions that he should be Poyson'd and his Suspitions of it were so strong and vehement that all the Arguments his Friends could use could not put them out of his Thoughts what reason he had for those fears I know not nor can I tell whether his Death was procured by such detestable means or no but sure I am that many think such execrable things lawful Regnandi causa to possess themselves of Empire and Soveraignty and there is the greatest temptation to practice them in Elective Monarchies because upon the decease of the Prince Reigning every great Person in the Kingdom flatters himself with hopes of Succeeding him But the Successive Monarchies are freer from all these Evils and Dangers for upon the Death of the Royal Father his Son if he have any or else the next of the Family is King which makes our Law say the King never Dies because upon the Decease of one the next Heir is immediately King the Ceremonies of Crowning and Anoynting do not confer the Royal Dignity upon him but only declare him to be what he was as soon as his Predecessor was dead that is King are no more but signs expressing to the People that he is the person ordain'd by God to Govern or Rule over them and to whom he requires them to pay all due Honour Loyalty and Obedience By this immediate Succession all those Factions are avoided which often prove mischievous and Ruinous to the People so are all the Dangers Miseries which attend an Interregnum that may happen in the
not worse fears suggest and would it not be Egregious Knavery for some of the Mariners to cast the Pilate overboard because they have a wild Suspition that he will run the Ship upon a Rock on purpose to sink himself and them Besides though every man be allow'd to do all that is just and innocent for his own Preservation yet there are some Persons that must not have any injury or violence done them for any cause whatsoever because the great Author of the Law of Nature forbids it saying Touch not mine Anoynted No Provocation can ever make it Lawful for a Son to assault his Father nor for a Subject to resist his Prince because that is contrary to Nature this destructive to Civil Society of which he is born a Member and which he is indispensably obliged by the Law of Nature to preserve The Jews were full of Projects and had their Grand Expedient to save their Nation It is Expedient St. John 11. 50. for us saith Caiaphas that one man should dye for the People and that the whole Nation Perish not The Nation was in no Danger at all no Storm nor Shipwrack approaching no more Fear of the Romans than at other times only a danger feigned that they might have a poor pretence to Destroy an Innocent Person to Murder the Holy Jesus And what was the event of this Politick Expedient did it answer their expectations contribute any thing to their Safety or Security No no! instead of saving it sunk the Ship turn'd their so craftily pretended into a real danger involv'd their whole Nation in the greatest and most deplorable Ruin or Destruction and that by the Romans that ever any People Suffer'd or any History Related thereby warning all Kingdoms and Nations to take heed of such wicked Expedients never to do any unjust thing for the avoiding any danger how great or real soever or to seek the Publick Safety by oppressing or injuring any Innocent Person for God is Righteous and will be sure to Punish the wrong-doers So that the Bill of Exclusion is contrary to the Law of Nature as well as to the Law of Christ and as this forbids so that condemns it and therefore it cannot be agreable to Natural Justice unless they mean that of Mr Hobs who represents the Humane to be as savage and barbarous as the Brutish Nature and affirms that Men have no obligations upon them to do justly but what humane Laws lay upon them but that all Men have a natural Right to do every thing they please and that to all Persons for which and all his other lewd and impious Assertions he hath been sufficiently reproved and bafled by divers learned and excellent Persons The Bill of Exclusion may be acknowledg'd if that be any honour to it to be agreeable to this Wild and Atheistical Justice but Christianity condemns and Right Reason abhors it This is the true Character and real Nature Subsect 5. of your so much admired Project of Exclusion I have done it no injury laid no false colours upon to render it more deformed and odious than it is and deserves to be but have only examin'd it by the just and holy Laws of Christ and the Dictates of Right Reason that seeing what your fears of and Zeal against Popery would not then give you time to consider the high Injustice and great Impiety of it you may be ashamed and repent of it which with all humility I conjure and beseech you to do by all that is dear to you and which you have the greatest Reasons and most pressing Motives to perswade you to The Offence you have commited against God For doth not he love righteousness and hate iniquity and require that all men especially Magistrates do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with him But this Device of yours is a manifest contradiction to all these 'T is to oppress and rob an innocent person of his Right to offer him that hard Measure which you would by no means have done to your selves and therefore to do unjustly 'T is to treat an erring person for such his Royal Highness is if he be a Papist with the greatest rigor or severity to ruin or make him miserable in this because he is become as you believe a Proselyte to that Church which he if he be of it thinks though erroneously will guide him safely to the Eternal Glory and Happiness of the other World and therefore is most unmerciful If any man Err from the truth Charity prompts and obligeth us to endeavour his Conversion and to restore him in the Spirit of meekness with all mildness and gentleness to shew him his mistake and represent to him the evil and dangerous consequences of it that he may hate and forsake it But your attempt to Exclude the Duke doth not design his Conversion but Destruction leaves him no place for Repentance but intends his Ruin and therefore is Cruel not Charitable Amongst the many praises they adorn'd it with some of the Admirers of it I remember commended this Device for the mercy of it An Elogium destitute of all shadow or appearance of Truth because the punishment it would inflict is worse than Death for a brave and valiant Prince as his Royal Highness is had rather dye than survive the loss of a Crown which is his Right by Birth if he survive his present Majesty than to be degraded from and unjustly depriv'd of the highest Dignity and Honour upon Earth to see another leap over his Head get into that Throne wear the Royal Diadem and possess the Kingdoms he was born to must needs be a continual grief trouble and vexation to him and make him weary of his Life Such Iniury and Disgrace would be intolerable and cause him to dye daily to linger out a tedious Life but Death would soon put a period to all his miseries and conduct him to that blessed place where they that suffer wrongfully here shall be greatly rewarded when a Man hath no just claim to any thing that the World admires and calls great or glorious the want of it cannot reasonably create him any trouble or discontent but he is as well pleas'd with and thinks himself as happy in his low condition as others are in the highest and most honourable stations upon Earth but to be deposed or cast down from that Empire or Soveraignty which his Illustrious Ancestors enjoy'd before him and not suffer'd to Inherit the Throne of his Fathers to be laid aside as unworthy to possess the Kingdom he was born to this must needs be an Hell upon Earth the greatest or most perfect misery any Man living can endure that hath nothing to comfort or support to sweeten or ease it and therefore must needs be most rigorous and cruel If this be mercy God deliver every Man from it And being a contradiction to that Justice and Mercy he requires it cannot possibly be consistent with the other great duty the walking humbly
The Grand Expedient FOR Suppressing POPERY EXAMINED OR The PROJECT of EXCLUSION Proved to be contrary to Reason and Religion By Robert Clipsham Canon of Chichester To the Excluders Are your minds set upon Righteousness O ye Congregation and do ye judg the thing that is Right O ye Sons of Men Ps 58. 1. LONDON Printed for William Freeman over against the Devil-Tavern by Temple-Bar in Fleetstreet 1685. To the Honourable Sir John Farrington Knight one of his Majesties Justices of the Peace for the County of Sussex SIR THat I have prefix'd your Honour'd Name to this Discourse will not I am confident be displeasing to you for as much as in it I plead that Cause for which you have express'd so great a Concern When the Enemies of the Royal Family were at the highest puff't up with the vain hopes of gaining their so much desired Point the Exclusion of his Royal Highness When they reviled and treated the Opposers of that wicked Project at their pleasure even then as became a Person of Eminent Courage and Loyalty you declared your just Indignation against and condemn'd it as a most impious Device And seeing one great design of this Discourse is to prove the Bill of Exclusion to be as unjust as you have always thought it to whom with greater Reason can this that I have writ address it self for protection than to a Person of such known and unquestion'd Loyalty you being One of those Brave and Loyal Persons that truly honour and heartily desire the Felicity of the King and his most Glorious Family and this in so high a degree that you have suffer'd for it been most unjustly deprived of a considerable part of your Birth-right for no other cause at all but your Devotion to your Prince and Zeal for his Service But hereby you will be no looser in the end because God Almighty I am sure will bless and prosper you and all good men do and will love and honour you Besides your good opinion of this Discourse that it will be serviceable to the Great Ends I writ it for encouraged me to make it publick and to put it into the World under your Patronage not doubting but you will accept that which you were pleased to entertain such favourable thoughts of Hereby also I have an opportunity openly to acknowledg my great obligations to you and beseech you to receive this as a Testimony of my Gratitude for the many and undeserved civilities with which you have treated me which if you please to do I shall ever own it an high favour to him that hath the greatest reason to Subscribe himself Sir Your most humble and devoted Servant Robert Clipsham To the READER WHat Entertainment the following Discourse will find with Two sorts of Men is no hard matter to foretell They will Cast all the Contempt and Reproach they can upon It and the Author Muster up all the Calumnies and Slanders Attaque me with all the Wrath Bitterness Clamours and rude Language which they that reprove Mens Errours though for no other end but that they may be perswaded to reform them are commonly assaulted with One of the Factions will call me Heretick the Other Jesuite or Papist at the least That will be angry and revile me for declaring against the Errours of the Church of Rome This will be inraged and rail at me for charging some of the same crimes upon it especially for Condemning that they admire and are so fond of their beloved Bill of Exclusion But the great Searcher of hearts will I am sure acquit me from both those hateful Imputations because he knows me to be neither Heretick nor Papist though I confess indeed with St. Paul that after the way which they of the Church of Rome call Heresy and those of the Seperation as falsly call Popery so Worship I the God of my Fathers I am that is of the Excellent Religion by Law Establish'd amongst us and by the help of God resolve to live and die in it and therefore can be neither Heretick nor Papist and shall laugh rather than be troubled at them that call me either Though I have given neither of the Factions just cause to call me so because I have done them no wrong but fairely represented their Opinions and faithfully shew'd them their Errours that as becomes men calling themselves Catholicks and Christians they may reform them and therefore they ought rather to thank me for my charity than be angry with me They are to be blamed for running into such Errours and doing such evil things not I for proving them so to be If Rome be a dangerous Church for men to venture such a Treasure as their Souls in I did not make it so but only call upon all that please to read me to chuse a safer that they may be sure to obtain that Immortal glory and happiness the hope of which is the great joy of our Life and our only comfort and support when we are to dye and the enjoyment of it so desireable and unspeakable a good that none but the most foolish and the most faithless men can be careless and unconcern'd about it And if the Bill of Exclusion be unjust therefore contrary to the Excellent Laws of Christ the Authors Promoters and Admirers of it are to be blamed for fixing upon such a sinful Expedient not I for proving it so to be That God who hath done it hitherto is still able to protect our Gracious King and Excellent Religion from the designes of all their Enemies and it is mine and every good mans daily Prayers he will be pleased to do it Why then should any so far distrust his goodness as to do an unworthy thing to secure them which are as safe already under the shadow of his protection as they can possibly be And if this Project of Excluding his Royal Highness be unjust as I suppose I have proved it if it were put in practise it would rather deprive them of the safety they have already than procure them any more this being to renounce the Providence and the Defence of the Almighty which are endear'd and assured by Righteousness and to make Sin our Refuge which as he forbids so it must needs highly provoke him For my part I bear no hatred nor ill will to the persons in either of the Factions but wish them all happiness and shew them the way to obtain it that is by renouncing their Errours and all those Practises that are therefore Dangerous because Contrary to sound Doctrine and common Honesty Nor was it an itch after vain glory or a desire to be in Print that prompted me to write this Discourse I had no such mean inducements in my thoughts when I resolv'd upon this Subject for if that had been my design I could have chose one less obnoxious to censure and misunderstanding The Truth is I saw the King endanger'd for refusing to pass this unjust Bill the Kingdom miserably divided and
apprehended to be endanger'd they hope God will not be extream to mark what they do amiss for the safegard and defence of them These seem to be the sentiments or opinions of the Authors and Promoters of the Bill of Exclusion otherwise they would never have fix'd upon this as the only Expedient to obviate and disappoint the black and bloody design of the Church of Rome An Expedient so highly and apparently unjust so dishonourable and reproachful to our Religion that tended to blast and brand it with eternal infamy and make it the scorn of all the wise and honest world Blessed God! Whither do pale and gastly fears and blind or furious zeal hurry Men Had not our Nation incurr'd shame and contempt enough from Men as well as the dreadful displeasure of God by the barbarous murder and untimely fall of that incomparable Prince King Charles the First who was deposed and murdered and hurryed to an hasty grave by the Fears Jealousies and Suspicions of Popery which the Enemies of his Royal Vertues and Greatness buzz'd into the ears and minds of his People For what moved them to leave their quiet dwellings to loath the peace and plenty they injoy'd What drew them into the field of War but Fear of and Zeal against Popery They were told by those who they thought would not deceive them that the King was turning Papist that the Queen ruled all that most of the Ministers of State and the great Men at Court were Popishly affected and waited for a change and if they let them alone the Romans would come and take away their Place and Nation An accusation though as false as the Devil and such as had nothing to colour or make it seem probable yet all that wise and good Prince could do to confute the slander to wipe off such an odious and lying imputation all his excellent declarations shewing his High Esteem his Royal Affection his Prudent Zeal for the Protestant Religion his frequent and learned disputations with some of the most Eminent Papists who to their astonishment found themselves silenced and confuted by him and unable to defend their Church against the mighty and convincing Arguments with which this incomparable disputant shattered and beat it down not his solemn protestation before a great concourse of People at his receiving the most Blessed Sacrament nor any thing else he could either say or do could clear him from the suspicion of Popery or satisfie Multitudes of his People that he was not gone off from the Reformed Religion but so deep root had the calumny took in their hearts that they persisted in the belief of it and that excited their rage and so inflamed their zeal that in defiance to God and his Law they offer'd themselves as freely to fight for the Faith as the Christians did in the Primitive times to suffer Martyrdom for it and would not lay down their Rebellious and Unchristian Arms till they had beat him in the Field seiz'd his Royal Person and by the Mockery of Justice condemned him to die But when they heard him in his last words and dying speech profess and declare himself a Protestant that being no time to dissemble either with God or the World then tho too late all of them that had any remains of honesty or fear of God perceiv'd their errour and said in the bitterness of their Souls what have we done How have we been cheated into Rebellion by Fears Jealousies and Rumours of Popery stain'd our impious hands with Royal and Innocent Bloud Wicked men Sons of Belial have blasphemed and slandered the Lords Anointed accused him to us as a Papist and an enemy of the true Religion and we were so wicked and credulous as to believe them and contribute our accursed endeavours to depose and destroy him After such an horrid crime and tremendous wickedness as this had rendred our Nation and Religion odious and contemptible to the World and we had endeavoured to make some reparation for it by our impatient desires and longings for the return of our present most Gracious Soveraign by Congratulating his arrival with the loudest acclamations and expressions of joy by doing justice upon those execrable wretches that were the prime actors in that black Tragedy and with solemn penitence beg'd Pardon of and reconcil'd our selves to God so that hereby we began to recover our lost honour and the good opinion of our neighbour Nations After all this I say to return to our vomit again to be so frighted out of our Wits and our Religion by the news of Popery and the discovery of the Cursed and Cruel design of the Papists to destroy our King and Church as to overlook and despise all lawful means of safety and to resolve upon a wicked and barbarous Bill of Exclusion as the only Preservative or Expedient to save them What is this but to rave and be mad again To brand our selves with new Infamy and Reproach To proclaim the Injustice and Impiety of our Nation To draw the eyes and curses and Arms of all the Christian World upon us Nay to defie Heaven it self and all the Thunder Bolts of the Almighty or as the unjust judg confess'd of himself neither to fear God nor regard Man Sure this Popery is some horrible monster a dreadful bugbear that it can at every turn thus fright our English People out of their Wits prompt them to the wildest and most unreasonable practices That the very suspicion of it could exasperate and inrage them so against their lawful King who had the Devotion of an Angel the Piety and Innocence of a Saint and more then humane Mercy and Goodness as to bring them to that Impious Resolution which the Jews took up against our Blessed Lord and Saviour we will not have this man rule over us And if not that yet a probability of his being a Convert to the Romish Church should provoke our Commons and some few of our Peers in so high a degree as to put them upon disinheriting and excluding a Son of such a Father and forgetting all the Vertues and Glories of his Renowned Ancestours treat him as a publick Enemy and take from him all possibility as far as a Law could do it of wearing the Crown that encircled and adorn'd their Wise and Royal Heads Such premises as these must needs infer one or or both of these conclusions That Popery is a vile thing or they exceeding wicked men that seek to prevent and block up its passage to us with such Rampires and Bulwarks of Injustice with the greatest Wrong and Robbery and Oppression For my part I am no advocate either for Popery or them that make such wicked and unchristian use of it but renounce and abominate them both That 't is certain is an evil and impious thing but yet the fears and apprehensions of it must not ought not to provoke or instigate our People to do any unjust or sinful thing to keep it out because this
Diminution and therefore he must offer no Injury to any Man nor attempt to Dispossess or Deprive him of any thing that belongs to him Every Man would have others deal fairly and sincerely keep their word and promise with him not Circumvent nor deceive him with Id. Instit Theol lib. 4 pa. 249. lies fraud or falsehood pay him what is due to him or if he owe another any thing he would not have him be rigorous or severe with him but forbear or allow him some time till he be able to pay him if he be in any Want or Misery he would be Relieved and Assisted by the Counsel Help Comfort and Prayers of others and therefore is obliged to do all these things to others And this Rule extends to all Orders and Degrees of Men Superiours Equals and Inferiours They that have any Superiority over others expect from them the Honour and Obedience due to them and therefore must pay the same Respect and Submission to those that are possess'd of an higher Station Every Man looks for Friendship and Fidelity from his Equals and consequently must be Kind and Faithful to them They that are Inferiour to and have any Dependence upon others would Injoy their Favour Clemency and good Will and Receive from them Help Relief and Counsel in their need and therefore must afford the same to those that are Below and Depend upon them He that is a Magistrate if he were a a Private Person would be protected both in his Life and Estate have no Man suffer'd to do him Wrong or Violence with Impunity and therefore must so discharge his Office and behave himself to all Men that come to him for Justice So that this one Rule gives us full and sufficient Direction how to Order all our Intercourse and Dealings with Men that they may be Just and Equal And if the greatest Zealots for and Admirers of it will please to Compare their Project of Exclusion with this Excellent Rule or Law of Christ they will soon perceive the High and Horrid Injustice of it Do they Treat or do to his Royal Highness as they themselves would be done to Would any one of them be content to be depriv'd of his Birth-right meerly upon the Account of his Religion No so far are they from being willing to be so used themselves that to prevent or take away all possibility of it they would deprive the Duke of his Inheritance They Love themselves so well that they would not Suffer at all have no Harm nor Danger happen to them their Hatred to his Royal Highness is so Cruel and Implacable that they would make Him Suffer the greatest Wrong and Dammage To make a true Judgment in the Case Mutanda est Persona the Person must be changed Let then the Fiercest and most Zealous of the Excluders suppose himself in the Dukes Place that he was Heir to such a Jewel as a Crown to so Rich and Valuable an Inheritance as three Kingdoms are and that he had done nothing which either by any Divine or Humane Law yet extant made a Forfeiture of that Right and Inheritance and that those whom he had never Injured or offer'd any Just Offence to were Confederate against him and contended with all their Zeal and Industry to have a Law made to Bar his Claim and Deprive him of the Possession of it if it should by course of Nature descend to him how would he take such usage What would he think of them that Treated him so would he not fill Heaven and Earth with his Complaints Cry out that Justice and Honesty had left the World and Appeal to Heaven for Succour saying with the Royal Prophet Help me Lord for there is not one Godly Man left for Ps 12. 1 the Faithful the Just and Honest are minished from among the Children of Men Surely thou hast seen it for thou beholdest Ungodliness and Wrong That thou mayest take the matter into thy Ps 10. 15 16 Hand the Poor committeth himself unto thee for thou art the helper of the Friendless Wilt thou have any thing to do with the stool of Wickedness Ps 94. 20. which imagineth mischief as a Law Suffer me not Oh Lord to be Oppress'd and Ruin'd by the Counsels and Combinations of Wicked Men and Unjust but stir up thy strength and come and help me And if these would be his Thoughts and Resentments of such usage when offer'd to himself how abominably Wicked and Unjust is it for him and his Brethren to offer it to the Duke This is apparently to Contemn and Violate this most equal and therefore excellent Law of Christ to do that to another which they would be most impatient of if done to themselves Our Laws indeed Punish all sorts of Recusants but then the Punishments they Inflict are Moderate intended to Reform not Ruin them they deprive none of them of their Birth-right and all their Possessions but only of some part of them and those Punishments are Just and agreeable to this Rule because they offer that Contempt and Disturbance to the Government which if they were in Authority they would not have others do to them 'T is certain that neither Popery nor Presbytery where they are Establish'd will give Toleration to any that Dissent from them and if they will grant none to others with what Face can they expect it themselves Besides t is Evident that both these Factions both formerly and of late have practis'd against the State been guilty of horrid Treasons and Seditions Murder'd the Glorious Father to go no higher Plotted the Death and Destruction of the most Excellent Son our present most Gracious Soveraign which is the highest Violation of this Sacred Law of Christ for would any of them if he was King of these Nations be content to be so used as they Treat their Prince would he be willing to have his Subjects take Arms against and Conspire his Death when he had given them all manner of Demonstrations of his Love and Care of them sought to Oblige Indear them by a Just Merciful Peaceable Government would he take it well to see them requite his high Affection with deadly Hatred his tender care with contempt his Royal Mercy Justice with Barbarous Cruelty Villany yet these things this hard measure have both the Papists Fanaticks offer'd to their Prince and therefore the Punishments which our Laws inflict upon them are Just they have no Cause of complaint against the Government because it Corrects them with Mercy and Moderation Punishes them less than their Crimes Deserve 't is Death indeed by our Law for any of the Romish Priests and Jesuits to be found in England but that Punishment is not inflicted on them for their Religion but for their Irreligion and Wickedness their frequent and execrable Treasons their restless attempts against their Lives and Government awaken'd and made it necessary for our Kings by Capital Punishments to deter such Traytors