a Pestilent Heresie To this end tended the Erecting of Chappels for Popish Devotion and Publick Schools for Popish Education Was it for nothing that an Ambassador was resident at Rome And a Nuncio publickly entertained here for a constant Correspondence between England and Rome Why were all the Protestant Nobility and Gentry turned out of all places either of Honour Profit or Trust and Papists put in their Rooms What could be the design of that ducoy of Liberty of Conscience at a time when since the first beginnings of those unhappy divisions of Protestants here at home there was never less need of it When not any Protestant Party amongst us did so much as Petition for it when the Generality of Dissenters were so well satisfied with the Church of England that there were never fairer hopes of perfect Unity amongst us But this was the matter the division of Protestants amongst themselves would weaken the whole Body of them and render them the more capable of an easie overthrow a design which the wiser sort of Dissenters quickly saw and even the generality of them in a short time were satisfied in For since it 's as easie for the Arctick and Antarctick Poles to meet together or for the East and West to be in Conjunction as to reconcile Infallibility of one Religion with a Toleration of all the necessity of Extirpating all Hereticks with a Connivance at all Heresies all were easily convinced what such a Toleration tended to and none were entrapped in the Snare or trepanned with the Cheat but a few hot-headed Zealots ready to Sacrifice all to Ambition and Revenge What could be the design of putting Papists in for Heads of Houses Masters and Fellows of Colleges in our famous Universities What could be the design of Erecting a High Commission Court for Ecclefiastical Causes for the suspending and depriving of Bishops and Clergy which was justly termed the New Inquisition of England Why was that ensnaring Declaration so violently and yet so unnecessarily prest upon the Clergy to be read in Churches and Seven Bishops imprisoned and the whole Clergy of the Kingdom threatned with Deprivation for Non-Compliance If these things and a great many more will not satisfie men That there was a real Design of subverting our Religion I know not what will. Yet to demonstrate this matter to the full consider only the mighty endeavours that were used to abrogate the Penal Laws and Test in which the King used so much industry that he truly took methods too much below Royal Dignity to effect it What a mean office for a King to become an earnest Sollicitor of his Subjects to that which they could not in Conscience nor Honour yield to and then a disobliger of all his Kingdom for removing them from all places upon so necessary a refusal The design must be mighty great when Arts both so mean and so harsh were used to accomplish it But this was it The Papists had then stood upon even ground with all other Subjects and the great advantage of Authority on their side would quickly have raised their Ground above us the doors of both Houses of Parliament had been set wide open to them whence the House of Peers might quickly have been filled with new Creations and the House of Commons as quickly made Popish by Force or Fraud in Elections Corporations being framed and regulated agreeable to the design and what could be then expected but a sudden Establishment of Popery The whole Nation did see this Project so clearly that the greatest part of the Dissenters were so sensible of the mischief that though they had smarted somewhat hardly under the Lash of the Penal Laws but a little while before yet they would rather venture the Continuance of them than run the hazard of ruining the substance and being of the Protestant Religion amongst us nor could all the virulent Pamphlets thrown about to exasperate them by a Tragical Commemoration of their former Suffering by the Penal Laws ever perswade them so far out of their Senses as not to be fully assured that the Little Finger of the Popish Inquisition would be heavier upon them than the Loins of all the Penal Laws made since the Reformation against them And indeed to the Fidelity of that Party at that Critical time are we to ascribe a great share of the disappointment the Popish Party met with being much chafed that the Grand Cheat of the Toleration had no better success And as all these plain matters of fact are more than sufficient to convince us of the Mischievous Design of subverting the Established Religion in these Kingdoms so are they a plain and evident proof that there was certainly a Private League between the Late King James and the French King for bringing this to pass tho there were nothing else to evince is For it could never be hoped that the Popish Party here in England could do it their Strength and Interest were not sufficient to accomplish such a Design There was a fine Army indeed but most of them Protestants who would hardly be commanded by Popish Officers to ruine their Religion for men must certainly fight very faintly when the edge of their Swords is turned against themselves and their success is certain desolation to their Country From whence one of these two things must follow either that King James had no Resolution to change the Religion of this Nation the contrary of which appears by what hath been said and besides to say so is to put the greatest affront and dishonour upon the Late King that can be and calls his Wisdom and Discretion highly in question in the conduct of his Affairs that he should do all these mean harsh and suspitious things before alledged for no other end but to bring an obloquy upon himself to render his Government uneasie fearful and suspected and to disoblige all the three Kingdoms But if it cannot be admitted that a person of any common seuse or reason should be guilty of so much Indiscretion that might in the end prove so fatal to himself then we must acknowledge that some Foreign Power was certainly to be made use of since no reasonable man proposeth to himself any end but withall he proposeth means proportionate to that end in order to the acquiring of it and now we would fain learn what other Force can so much as come under the Probability of being made use of but the French And now that which makes this Design abundantly the more inexcusable in it self and the more insupportable to us is this That this Church and the Religion professed in it run such a great hazard from a Prince from whom the Members of that Church and Professors of that Religion had all the reason in the world to expect much kinder usage For I am sure never any Prince could be more highly obliged by Subjects than King James was by the Members of the Church of England both before and after he was King. Not
upon Protestants Estates to make up the pretended Damages they have sustained their ignorant and blind Zeal for a rooted Superstition are too much to convince us with what Intentions they must invade us and what are like to be the Effects of their barbarous Cruelty In a word it's Papists are certainly to be employed to do this grand Feat who will be sure to give the Protestants that shall be so unwise as to assist them the same Thanks that Queen Mary gave those of Suffolk that the King of France hath given his Protestants and that the late King James did so lately give the Church of England they will find at last to their Cost the Effects of that unalterable Maxim amongst them That no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks But then how is it possible for us without the highest concern in the World to represent to our selves the Consequences of such a Change with relation to their present Majesties and the Princess Ann of Denmark I am very loth to insist too long upon this it s so extreamly Tragical Is this the Gratitude we owe to the most magnanimous couragious and charitable Undertaking that ever was to rescue three Nations out of the Jaws of Popery and Slavery Can we find in our Heart to expose our great Deliverer to so much Danger in his Person and Ruine in his Fortune who so readily ventured Life and Fortune for our Good Can we so willingly deprive our selves of all our Hopes reposed in these Protestant Branches of the Royal Family as for ever to render them uncapable of doing us any further Kindness or affording us any further Protection Have we so little sense of the most steadfast Constancy and the unmovable Fidelity of these great Persons to the Religion and Interest of these Nations which could never be byaffed by the Authority of a King and Father nor shaken by the violent Temptations and Assaults upon their Constancy Who by their fixed Resolutions to adhere to our Interests had the worst of Arts used to deseat them of their just Rights for would they have but complyed with the Designs projected against us I dare say neither they nor we had ever been troubled with a Prince of Wales Can we expect in another Deluge of Misery to have another Prince of Orange so successfully and miraculously to draw us out of it No no it 's to be hoped the Nation will never be prevailed upon to incur the Guilt of such Ingratitude to Persons we owe our Religion Laws and Liberties to We will never do that which will so justly expose us to the Censures of the World and render us unworthy in any Circumstances of any Foreign Assistance so utterly inconsistent with the Safety of those who afford it In a Word we will be so just to our Selves as not to entail Popery and Bondage to our Posterity for if we lose these great Persons where can we fix our hopes of any Relief Can we likewise without Astonishment think upon the Condition of Lords and Commons in this present Parliament in case of any such Change of Affairs without Horror Have we chosen so many worthy Patriots to represent us there only to expose them to the greatest Mischiefs Have they been so faithful to re-settle us into a most happy Condition by securing our Religion Laws and Liberties to be left at last to the Fury and Malice of Popish Vengeance Did the Famous Nobility and Generous Gentry of this Kingdom venture all for the Security of the Nation to no other purpose than to lose Honour Estate Life and all for their Zeal to their Religion and Love to their Country Surely as we cannot but believe that this must be the Consequence of such an unhappy Change with relation to the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom so it 's not to be doubted but that all England will conceive a just Indignation against such Ingratitude and will apprehend themselves obliged to espouse their Interest cordially and unanimously who have so wisely and with so much Courage secured to us all Things capable of our utmost Esteem In a word when we seriously consider the great Danger the Protestant Interest is exposed to all over Europe that nothing less is intended than the rooting out of that vile pestilent Northern Heresy as the Enemies of our Holy Religion are pleased to call it I hope we will think more than once upon it before we contribute so highly to the utter Subversion of the Protestant Religion in general every where as the cutting off of these three Kingdoms from it must necessarily occasion It 's well known that these Churches of Great Britain and Ireland and more particularly that of England have been justly look'd upon as the Bulwark of the Protestant Religion in general and therefore the Papists have used their utmost Fraud in undermining of her and their utmost Violence in raising up their Batteries against her assuring themselves if they could but once gain this Bulwark they would quickly and with Ease make themselves Masters of the whole Fort it 's well known that the French King durst never have used his Protestant Subjects as he both perfidiously and barbarously did if England had had the liberty to have espoused their Interest and it was justly look'd upon as a wonderful Thing that the King of England should be declaring himself so much for Liberty of Conscience here and yet on the other side of the Water the French King should be using all sorts of Cruelties upon those of our Religion wholly to extirpate it and yet King James should never become their Intercessor nor declare to that King his just Resentments of his Acting so contrary to his constant Principles especially when his using his Subjects so could not but strike all his own English Subjects into an Alarm and put them upon sadly divining what in all probability was like to be their own Fate in time Why have the Protestant Princes and States entered into so strong a Confederacy looking upon their present Majesties as the Chief support of it but upon the certain knowledg they had of a Design on Foot to ruin them and thus it may be easily conjectured what must be the Danger of the Protestant Religion abroad if England be rendred uncapable of giving Assistance to its Professors nay more if the strength of England be made use of to promote their Destruction But it s obvious this must be the result of the return of Popery and Slavery amongst us so that upon the whole Matter if ever such a Judgment from Heaven should overtake us as the return of this unclean Spirit of Popery and its Usher Slavery among us we cannot but expect that not only Seven but a Legion of Miseries worse then we have felt must return with it sufficient to make our last Case worse then our first The Case being so plainly thus is it possible that Men can ever be in love with such Miseries as these not only upon
since they would never be suffered to do us good and in all probability could not fail in doing us much harm The Case is quite altered now as is obvious at first sight our Religion hath the greatest Security our Bishops and Clergy the greatest Protection our Vacant Bishopricks are filled with the most wise and learned of the Clergy Colledges are restored to their proper Owners the Idolatry of Popery dare not shew it self any where the Wind hath blown these Locusts of Priests Jesuits c. beyond the Seas to their former Lurking-Places every one sits safe under his own Vine enjoying securely the Liberty of an Englishman the Property he is possest of our Councils Navies Armies Magistrates are Protestants and a Security to our Religion dearer to us than our Lives our Judges are as at the first and our Counsellors as at the beginning Pray Gentlemen recount with your Selves What was our greatest Hope our only Comfort on Earth in those Days of our Dustress What was it that sustained our Spirits and delivered us from utter Dispair What did we discourse of every-where to one another as the sole Foundation of our Hopes of Freedom and Relief Was it not that the King was a Mortal Man and after him we had a Reserve of the Prince and Princess of Orange for our Security How often then did we cast our Eyes and Hearts upon the Belgick Shore trusting that at last the Providence of God would whaft over that blessed Pair to the lasting Joy of this British Island The Papists knew this very well and could never think themselves safe till these Princes Interests were defeated and thereby as they thought all our Hopes frustrate But God that brings Good out of the greatest Evil by his infinite Wisdom and Power converted that Project by which they intended to perpetuate the Slavery of these Nations to an accelerating or hastening our Deliverance sooner than ever we hoped for it for never was there a juster Cause given any Prince to quarrel with a Possessor than was given the Prince of Orange when he saw not only all our Laws violated and the People of England enslaved but likewise his just Interest in the Crown in Right of his Princess the immediate Heir so violently invaded without any Satisfaction given usual in such Cases of the Sincerity of that Affair of the pretended Prince of Wales in which not only this whole Nation was violently suspicious upon very great Grounds but likewise the intended Fraud was the Discourse of Europe This Matter hath been sufficiently written of and for my part if there were no more to create a Diffidence in me not possible of receiving any Satisfaction this would be more than sufficient that I never heard of any Satisfaction given to the Great and Vertuous Lady the Princess Ann of Denmark in this whole Affair and yet it was highly just she should have received it in respect of her Proximity to the Crown and likewise in regard of that Fruitful Womb God hath been pleased to bless her Highness with whose Children have a very fair Prospect to the Royal Inheritance it had been likewise very easy to have done it because her Highness was perpetually upon the very place where the Scene was acting just till the time of its finishing and then it was most necessary she should have been there and it 's impossible to imagine had it been a real Thing care would have been taken that she should have been present but on the other Hand if it was not real then it was altogether necessary that of all Persons she should be out of the way and such care was accordingly taken And as her Satisfaction was both just and easy so it would have been of mighty advantage to the convincing of the Nation of the Truth of it her Highnesse's Evidence would have been of more weight than all those at Council-Board in respect none will bear witness against their own Interest especially in a matter of so great Moment unless it be very true All the answer ever I could hear to this most material ground of Suspicion is either that there was no Obligation to give any such Satisfaction or that the Princess did not desire it and was not curious of being satisfied To which this is only fit to be said by way of Reply that the first is a desperate and the second a senseless Answer Is it not then a great Favour of God to us that the Deliverance we so earnestly wished and the Persons on whom our Eyes were fixed are thus come to our Deliverance our very Enemies hastening it sooner than ever we looked for it Is it not the Joy of all good Men who love the Prosperity of our Sion and pray for her Peace to see a Protestant King and Queen in England a Happiness Britain hath not been favoured with since the Death of Queen Ann the Wife of King James the First We have no Dalilah in the Bosom of our Sampson to allure him to betray his own and the Nations Strength that we may be the easier Prey to the Philistines The Marriage of our Kings to Ladies of the Popish Persuasion hath been so plain a Cause of the Nations Misery that we have great cause to rejoice in so happy a sight as both King and Queen to be of the same Religion and that which is the professed and established Religion of their Kingdoms and it s greatly to be hoped the Wisdom of our Parliament will make it no small part of their Care to prevent the Mischiefs that have so constantly attended our Kings being so unequally yoked Our King and Queen draw not now several Ways their Principles are the same as they are in Bed and at Board one so it 's our great Comfort to see them repair to the same Churches exercised in the same Devotions addressing to the same Altar in a word of the same Faith and Religion to the great encouragement of their Subjects to follow so pious so great an Example So that there are no hopes now of the Philistines plowing with Sampson's Heifer The Royal Interest is now absolutely the same with that of the People for their Majesties and their People are more surely tyed together by the Bonds of that Religion for which both have an equal Zeal than by any Political Obligations whatsoever so that now both rejoice in the mutual Prosperity of each other their Majesties rejoicing in their Peoples Security and they again in the Royal Protection as in all Things so chiefly in that which is the best of all Things Religion Neither are we to neglect the Consideration of that which deservedly makes his present Majesty the Darling of these three Kingdoms nay like another Titus the Delight of Mankind viz. that the King the Prince of Orange had no such great matters to look for as to his own Interest to move him to encounter so great Dangers to undergo so much Trouble He was considerably great in the Low-Countries
THE ADVANTAGES OF THE PRESENT SETTLEMENT AND THE GREAT DANGER OF A RELAPSE LICENSED July 4. 1689. J. Fraser LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXIX THE ADVANTAGES OF THE Present SETTLEMENT c. THE wonderful Revolution that hath fallen out in the Island of Great Britain since September last 1688. is justly at present the discourse and amazement of all Europe but chiefly in the three Kingdoms of Scotland England and Ireland whose Inhabitants are the Parties most concerned in it and no wonder since a greater Deliverance more unexpected and that hath plainer Characters of a Divine Contrivance and Conduct hath neither been heard of nor seen in any place of the World in any of the former Ages of it But there is a greater Wonder now to be observed amongst us than the Deliverance we have received if any thing can be greater viz. That there are many of us who seem to be much discontented with it and express themselves in such a manner as if they were offended with Heaven it self for being so propitious to us and seem ungratefully to envy his Honour whom God made the great Instrument of our Deliverance Strange that another Change should come under the desires of reasonable men which must of absolute necessity occasion a fatal Relapse into the same Miseries we were so deeply plunged and likewise occasion the inevitable and lasting ruine not only of our potent Deliverer but also of all those Royal Branches of the Royal Family in whose prosperity all the hopes of England's Happiness are certainly reposed While I frequently hear such Murmurings and Whisperings as tend to such a fatal End I cannot but be surprized both with astonishment and grief astonishment it being wonderful men should be displeased with their own Safety and Happiness and grief it being easie to apprehend those ill Consequences to the Publick that usually attend such Discontents and undutiful Murmurings so maliciously and industriously promoted And though I am very sensible of my own utter unfitness for so great an undertaking as the allaying of those Heats and Animosities that so much disturb the quietness and peace we have in our hands if we would but embrace it and be contented to enjoy it yet I hope I shall be forgiven of all even of those who perhaps may have an aversion to this Discourse for the very sincerity of my Intention for the Author assures his Reader that his Condition is so obscure his Acquaintance in the World so narrow and as you will easily perceive by this Pamphlet both as to the matter and style of it which falls so much below the dignity of the Subject and is so rude and unpolisht his Habitation is somewhat solitary and in a manner rural and thereforefore it cannot be imagined that Self-interest should share in his Design no suffer him only quietly to put in his poor mite into the Treasury and if he in any measure contribute to the Publick Peace and Happiness of that Church of which he glories to be a Member even that of England as it is now by Law established and of that Kingdom which he accounts it the greatest part of his civil happiness to be a Subject in he is sufficiently satisfied which design he is sure no man can possibly blame I would therefore as an Introduction to what follows ask but this question of those Persons that seem so discontented with our present Tranquility Gentlemen what is it you would be at what do you desire If they speak plainly and give a round answer to this question it must be this We would have King WILLIAM and Queen MARY dethroned again and have them either voluntarily to return back from whence they came or else to be sent back again by force we would have King JAMES the Second restored to his Crown and Dignity and reinstated in his Throne and Government This must be the Answer or else I cannot imagine what some men keep such a noise for Fair and soft Sirs This is a demand of the greatest consequence and importance that ever England heard I assure you it 's not likely to be yielded to without very mature and serious deliberation and I am very confident would men suffer their Reason to act freely without the strong Biass of Interest or Passion they would see it as unfit to be asked as they certainly must despair of having it granted For upon the whole the yielding to the Proposal would be a fatal Relapse into all those Miseries under which we so lately groaned and as it is in the case of a Relapse into the same Distempers from which Patients seemed almost to be freed their last condition is much more dangerous than their first so undoubtedly it would be with us And this will the more clearly appear upon a serious consideration of these three things 1. What condition we were in before the happy arrival of their present Majesties 2. What condition we are now in by this happy Revolution 3. What a miserable condition we must of necessity fall into upon such a second Revolution as would satisfy some mens desires As to the first of these it 's to be hoped that you will not take it ill if upon your proposal we make a review of that state you would reduce us to I assure you we are as sorry even for King JAMES's sake that the reflection is so unpleasant as possibly you can be yet if we find it to be a miserable Condition you will I hope excuse us if we be not willing desperately to rush our selves into it again Now I know not what in all the World is dear to a reasonable Creature that was not as our Circumstances were in the greatest hazard of being utterly lost For what is it that is most dear to us as Christians Religion What is most dear to us as English men The enjoyment of our Liberties and Properties secured to us by the Laws of the Land. What is most dear to us as individual single persons The safety and protection of our Lives Persons and Families Now I dare appeal to all unprejudiced men whether in any Nation under Heaven that was so firmly in the possession of all these as we were a few years ago they were ever in greater danger of being utterly lost than they were here in England so that the preservation of them is next to a Miracle That there was a Design to subvert the established Religion of this Church and Kingdom I hope no man will so much as question King JAMES did quickly let us see what was so much feared by many before he came to the Crown That it was great folly to imagine that a Prince so great a Zealot for his own Persuasion would not think it his Duty to use that Power God had given him to the promoting of that Religion he was so Zealous for which could never be without the Extirpation of the Established Religion accounted by him