the Book of Fate in his Pocket He charges the Successor here with encroaching upon the Kings Affections It was a little while agoe only the invincible tenderness of His Majesty but it is now turn'd into the working and insinuation of his Brother who stabbs the King says the Character-Writer in the Hearts of his Loyal Subjects But what if it should happen that the King should be here stabbed thorough the Duke It was at this rate that Laud and Strafford stabb'd the late King too And what was the end on 't but that when the Kings Friends were remov'd under the Character of his Enemies his Sacred Majesty left naked and defenceless those Hypocrites that had nothing in their Mouths but Loyalty and Religion those were the very Men that stabb'd him themselves This is the plain Historical Fact without either amplifications or colours But if you 'll see a figure upon the Stretch observe his next fancy where he makes the Duke a Parricide for killing the King in the hearts of his People by his applications and respects to His Maiesty And a Parricide as he phrases it so strangely unnatural too that even Pagans would blush at it Is this Jest or Earnest now is it a pang of Duty and Conscience Or is it not rather the Luxuriancy of a high-flown thought How comes it to be so flagitious a crime for one brother to love another that Humane Nature must be startled at it Or that a Prince may not presume to venture upon the Duties of Christianity Natural Affection Friendship Honour and Humanity for fear of being call'd to account for 't in a Pamphlet Well! but he tells us of the Heart-burnings of the Nation at this conjunction and for that reason he expects it seems that His Majesty shall relinquish his Brother But what if a Man should ask him First How he knows this to be the sence of the Nation Secondly What Commission he has to tell the World so And Thirdly How he comes so positively to assert that it is so when it is clear on the contrary that it is not so For the Peoples quarrel is to the Religion only whereas the Authors is principally to the Duke But let us give him these Heart-burnings for granted and see how far a concession upon that point will carry us at last First The Duke Marches off and then the Kings Ministers back after him and then goes the Militia and so in course the Bishops the Revenue c. To the end of the Chapter of Forty Eight and all this to gratify one longing after another till in the conclusion another Government turns up Trump Plato Redivivus has the whole Scheme of the Project ready cut and dry'd This was the very Method of our Ruine and the name of Religion led the way to 't A Covenanted and in his own Words an incorrigible reâ—orseless Religion But why these Heart-burnings now the Duke is out of the Kingdom unless they would him out of the World too And that would not serve neither for so long as there is a Service-Book a Surplice or a Canonical Habit in the Kingdom and this Humour kept a foot there shall never want Popery to work upon The next clause speaks the plainest English we have had yet Char. The Nation in studying to prevent Tyranny grew jealous of Monarchy and for fear of their Moneys going the wrong way they will give none at all but rather triumph in His Majesty's greatest wants even when his glory nay possibly when his nearest safety calls for their assistance Fol. 11. This way of saying that they will not give Money which is more yet than he knows carries the force of an Advice that they should not which is the thing that this passage manifestly intends and designs So that is the rest of the Nation were of his mind the French King might have this Kingdom for the asking for both King and People upon these terms are manifestly abandon'd as a sacrifice to this jealousie Toward the bottom of the same page he brings in a Deliberation to this effect This Popish Prince cannot either help his Persuaasion or relinquish it nor is it a thing to be exacted from him that he should The Grievances of the Kingdom may be his unhappiness and not his fault for he is onely passive and lives to himself without meddling to encourage or favour Popery in the least But how does it follow says he Fol. 12. that if we do not plainly see him act that he does not act But how does it follow on the other side say I that he does act if no body can prove it It is the rule of Christian Charity in doubtful cases ever to judge the best but the Author of this Character does not think fit to walk by this rule for first he casts with himself what is the worst that can happen and then he improves the far-fetch'd possibility of that worst of Events into a Prediction that certainly that thing shall come to pass And then he considers how mean and wicked it is possible for Flesh and Bloud to be and those Vices and Imperfections jumbled together are the Ingredients that make up his Character Char. But to the Objection says he the Grievance of a Nation may be his unhappiness and not his Fault c. That is in short He cannot help it Very right And so when This Popish Heir comes to the Crown and promotes the Romish Interest with all the severity Injustice and Tyranny that Religious Cruelty can invent His Answer will be He cannot help it or at least cannot withstand those irresistable Motives that prompt him to their Execution which is the same thing Will he have it then that our Actions and our Thoughts are bound up alike under a determinate and insuparable necessity of our doing this or that as well as of thinking so or so Or will he call those motives irresistible that do only prompt and invite us to the doing of any thing He has screwed up Tyranny and injustice here to the highest degree of cruelty and terrour And now if this barbarous rigour be so inseparable from the Genius of the Religion how comes it that a French Popish King should be better natur'd to his Subjects of the Reform'd Religion then he will allow an English Popish King capable of being toward his Protestant Subjects The same impulse of Conscience he sayes that makes a man a Roman Catholique will make him Act like one when opportunity serves Ibid. That 's very Right but I cannot yet think that any Party of men will pretend explicitely to authorize the putting of Christians to death purely upon a Consideration of Religion and Conscience in order to the propagation of the Gospel And yet I know the Jesuits of both Churches have gone a great way towards it Cursed be he says Case in the late Rebellion that witholdeth his Sword from Bloâ—d that spareth when God saith strike c. The Papist he says is
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
subscribitur Will. Gogor Methinks this Specimen of an Enthusiastick Zeal should make men wary how they deal with these guilded Pills after so damn'd an operation And it is not to say that this is the transport of a mad man but it is the effort of the very Principle and the whole strain of them that has been taken off by the hand of Justice not for treasonous words neither but actual rebellions have so behaved themselves at the last cast as if the whole Schism were upon a vie who should damn bravest These stories are no Mealâ—tub Shams Death and Damnation are past â—oolling But how comes it that we that wear Christ in our Foreheads should carry Antichrist in our Hearts and under the name of Christians walk so contrary both to the Doctrine and to the Example of our suffering Saviour As if the mere Profession of the Gospel did not onely make void the Scope and Precepts of it but extinguish in us the very Dictates of right nature and then as Protestants under the pretended abomination of Popery to set it up that is to say upon impulse of Religion to do in any sort whatsoever a manifest wrong Let the end be never so good it must yet upon the score of Conscience be warranted by lawful means and with such a regard to Prudence too that the means we make use of toward a good end may not be imployed to a bad one One man wishes a Reformation in the Government another skrews himself in under the same Pretence but to destroy it It would be endless and nauseous to farce up a Pamphlet with Citations in a case where the whole Story of the World is so full of Precedents How came it that Hen. 8 when he was suspected to be more than half a Protestant proceeded so quietly and without Opposition in Declaring and Limiting the Succession and then that the Lady Elizabeth his Daughter being a profess'd Protestant and the Major Party of the People Papists came to the Crown without any considerable Objection to her Religion We do not find notwithstanding the Branded Apostacy of Jeroboam that made Israel to Sin that his People yet laid hold of any pretence to Rebel against him We do not read in the Story of Ethelbert King of Kent upon his being Converted to Christianity by Angustin the Monk that his Subjects though Pagans ever took up Arms against him for 't Nor that the Pagan Subjects of any of the Other Saxon Kings in their Heptarchy opposed their Sovereigns for Change of Religion neither was there any Persecution on the King's Side for matter of Religion Bonos principes says Tacit. Hist. Lib. 4. Voto expetere debemus c. We are to pray to God for Good Kings but to submit to them whatever they are Tertullian Apolog. 30. Christianus nullius est hostis c. The Christian says he is no Mans Enemy much less the Emperors for knowing that he Governs by Gods Appointment he cannot but Love Reverence Honour and Wish him well with all that belong to him and therefore we pay that Veneration to him that belongs to him as being next immediately under God what he has is from God and God is only his Superiour c. And so far were the Primitive Christians from opposing their Superiours that they would not allow so much as a dis-respectful word to be given them There was no turning of Princes in those days a grazing with Nebuchadnezzar among the Beasts no calling of them Gangreen'd and Corrupted Leprous Branches of Royalty But the very Apostles Canons provided against those rude indecencies that reflect not only upon his Popish Successor but upon all the Crowned Heads of Christendom of that Perswasion Quisquis Imperatorem c. says the Canon Whosoever shall speak ill of the Emperor or of the Magistrate let him be punsh'd If a Clergy-Man Depos'd if a Lay-Man Excommunicated But what needs this recourse to the Examples and Judgments of Antiquity for the clearing of Christianity in a case where the common Principles of Human Nature are sufficient to set us right First There is the violation of a Gospel-Precept in doing evil that good may come of it As certainly the divesting of a Prince of his right in an unwarrantable way of doing it is a very ill thing I speak all this while to the Character of a Popish Successor which pushes on the People hand over head to the end without that regard to the Means which the Cause I think does require But after this when a lawful Authority intervenes the state of the Question is quite another thing for it is no longer Religion but Policy that will be the Subject then in consideration Secondly The admittance of this Position does in a Complement to Christianity overthrow all Religion and puts all Christians into a state of Hostility for there are some particulars undoubtedly of all Perswasions that do firmly believe themselves to be in the Right And then consequently every divided Party is that to the other which a Popish Successor is to the Author of the Character And at this rate Christians are in the worst condition of all Mortals by making it a point of Conscience to Enter worry one another To say nothing of the Scandal they bring upon the Gospel by erecting this Rigorous and Sanguinary Doctrine upon the Foundations of Meekness Charity and Peace And this Position does not only confound the Harmony that ought to be among the Disciples of Jesus Christ but superinduces an utter Subversion of the Fundamentals of Government and Obedience For to say that a Prince of another Faith may be Deposed or Secluded for his Religion does not only Authorize but provoke a Prince of another Perswasion to render the same measure to his People and it absolves both the One and the Other from the obligation of that mutual Correspondence which is necessary betwixt them for the conservation of the Community Nor is it all that the Maxim it self is pernicious which many times is the ill hap of a fair intention but there is so gross a Partiality in the Conduct of this Character that a Man must have a great deal more Charity than appears in the Author of it to allow it so much as the possibility of a good meaning Here 's a Clamour advanc'd in the Name of the English Protestants against a Popish Successor But upon what ground Because it is a Persecuting Religion Well! and what Religion is it in a Successor that would please them The Protestant Religion But the Religion of the Church Protestants will not please the DISSENTING PROTESTANTS and then 't is impossible for the Dissenting Protestants to please one another and as impossible for a Successor of any one Religion to please them all But now which of these Protestant Religions must he be of for there are a matter of Two Hundred Divided Sects that list themselves under that denomination Well! but if they be True Protestants they 'll Vnite
the Nation Char. As First Says my Authour why should we stand in fear of Popery when in the present Temper of England 't is impossible for any Successour whatever to introduce it And First say I too what fear of Phanaticism and a Common-wealth under the present Settlement of Episcopacy and Kingly Government Char. And next amids our groundless Fears says the Anthor of the Character by way of supposal let us consider what that Prince is that appears so dreadful a Gorgon to England A Prince that upon all Accounts has so Signally ventur'd his Life for his King and Country a Heroe of that faithfull and matchless Courage and Loyalty A Prince of that Vnshaken Honour and Resolution that his Word has ever been known to be his Oracle and his Friendship a Buâ—wark whereever he vouchsafes â—o place it with such an infinite Mass of all the Bravery and Gallantry that can adorn a Prince Why must the Change of his Religion destroy his Humanity or the advance to a Crown render his Word or Honour lesse Sacred or make him a Tyrant to that very people whom he hath so often and so chearfully Defended Why may there not be a Popish King with all these Accomplishments that whatever his own Private Devotions shall be yet shall Publiquely maintain the Protestant Worship with all the Present Constitution of Government Vnalter'd And next say I let us consider those Covenanting and Republican Spirits that appear so dreadfull to us a Party that so signally ventur'd their Lives â—or the Kingâ— Authority in the Two Houses against his Person in the Field nay of that matchlesse Courage and Loyalty that they hazzarded their Souls as well as their Bodyes to make him a Glorious Prince by sending him to Heaven before his time A Party of that unshaken Honour and Resolution that their words were Oracles their Protestations Oaths and Covenants ever bearing a double and an equivocal meaning their Friendship a Bulwark only the Guns were turn'd upon all that ever Trusted them And of so great Bravery that they charged thorough Heaven and Hell without Fear either of God or Devil and trampled under foot all Laws both Divine and Humane for the Accomplishing of their Ends. 'T is true that of Papal they are become Phanatical Jesuits and why should the Change of their Profession now destroy their Nature Or their word and Honour be lesse Sacred if they get the Power into their Hands once again then we have formerly found it They eas'd us of our Laws Lives Liberties and Estates and why should they become Tyrants Now that were so Mercyfull to us before Why may they not be such Covenanters and Common-wealths-men as whatever they be in Private will yet in Publique maintain the Monarchy and Episcopacy unalter'd Especially after that famous Instance of their Indulgence to his Majesty at Holdenby when they kept him a Prisoner without Allowing him the Benefit so much as of a Chaplain or a Common-Prayer-Book And now he proceeds Char. But alas what signifie all the great past Actions of a Princes Life when Popery has at last got the Ascendent All Virtues must truckle to Religion and how little an Impression will all his Recorded â—lorys leave behind them when Rome has once Stampt him Her Proselyte But since unlikely things may come to passe let us seriously examine how far the Notion of such a Popish Successour consists with Reason Fol. 2. Alas Alas What are the Good-Old-Cause-men the better for their Crown and Church-Lands Sequestrations Plunders Decimations Directories Classical Congregational Presbyterys when Monarchy and Episcopacy have at last got the Ascendent All Virtues must Truckle to Religion as they did when Rebellion Sacriledge Oppression and Murther were hallow'd and Authorized in the Pulpit for the Propagation of the Gospel But since unlikely things may come to pass â—â—t us see how far the Notion of a Phanatical Popery consists with the Discipline and Government by Law establish'd Char. Fol. 2. If to maintain and defend our Religion 〈◊〉 any more then a Name it is in possible for any man to act the true Defensive Part without the Offensive too And he that would effectually uphold the Protestant Worship Peace and Interest is bound to suppress all those potent and dangerous Enemies that would destroy them for all other Defense is but Disguise and Counterfeit The States-men of Forty One that defended the Protestant Religion with Sword and Cannon and our Liberties Properties and Persons at the same rate were extreamly well read in this Offensive way of Defence And our Authour is much in the Right that the way to uphold it is to suppress those that would destroy it That is to say to suppresse those that enter into Protestations Oaths and Covenants against Episcopacy Root and Branch All other Defence as he says is but Disguise and Counterfeit The Remonstrants of Forty Two declar'd it to be far from Their purpose to let loose the golden Reins of Discipline and Government in the Church which was only a Political Cheat as it is here expounded for our Churches were turn'd into Stables our Clergy hunted like Partridges in the Mountains our Pulpits Stuff'd with Blasphemy and Blew Aprons and in the Conclusion a hundred Heresyes let loose among us for one Orthodox Religion Char. Fol. 2. If then the Wisdom of several Successive Monarchs with the whole Nations Vnanimous Prudence and indefatigable Care for the Protestant Preservation has determin'd that those Papist Priests who have sworn Fealty to the See of Rome and taken Orders in Foreign Seminarys are the greatest Seducers of the Kings liege People and the most notorious Incendiaries and subverters of the Protestant Christianity and Loyalty and for that Cause their several Laws declare them Traytors by Consequence these are the Potent and dangerous Enemies which in defense of the Protestant Cause this Popish King is oblig'd to suppress and Punish and these the very Laws he is bound to Execute Fol. 2. As the Wisdom of Successive Monarchs has provided for the Protestant Preservation by necessary Severitys against known Priests and Jesuits on the One hand so have they likewise on the Other hand against Separatists of another Denomination where we find the same Principles couch'd under other Names And these are a kind of Protestant Jesuit The Pope Deposes Heretical Princes the Fanatique Deposes Popish And as Ill manners produce Good Laws the Lewd Practises on Both hands put the State upon Provisions that look both Ways The Schism here among us brake loose but once since the Reformation And what a Deluge of Hypocrisy Bloodshed Oppression Athiesm and Prophaneness flow'd in upon it But that we may not Cavil upon the Word Protestant let the Law expound it which does expressly provide for the securing of Conforming Protestants against the danger of Dissenters So that we have Potent Enemies it seems on both sides Now if a Phanatique Interest should get Head it is as improbable on this side as it is
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-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
fight into an Opinion that there may be something of weight and Substance in it but upon a second Thought it seems to be only a plausible Strain of Words which the Authour has as well Colour'd yet as the matter will bear It serves however in English well enough for an Incentive and Appeal to the Multitude But if it should happen to be turn'd into French or Latin it would become as ill as Office to the Protestants abroad as it is here to the Government For what could be of a more pernicious Consequence from an unknown and private Pen then for one of the Reform'd Communion to tell the French King that if he suffers one Protestant Subject to live in his Dominions he is all those Vile Impious and Abject things that the Authour has here bundled up in the Character of his Popish Successour But for this Popish Successour of his which is a Figure that has no Being in Nature but in his own Brain what if I should match it now in Flesh and Bloud But it must be then among the Jesuiteâ— Successour of Knox and Buchanan and the Spawn of that King-killing Race There are mismatch'd Ingredients in abundance Christ upon his Tribunal as they prophanely ascribe to their General Assembly authorizing Bloudshed Schism and Disobedience a Treaty with the King at Breda and the Murther of the Brave Mâ—ntrosse both in a breath Were ever hand and heart lesse Akin then when they subscrib'd Loyalty and Obedience with the One and at the same time meditated and Resolved Treason with the Other Then when they Extirpated what they Swore they would only Reform and utterly destroy'd that Freedom and Property which they Pretended to preserve Then when instead of advancing Purtity of Doctrine and the Kingdom of Christ they fill'd the Pulpits with Jugglers that imposed upon the People the directions of their Standing Tables or the Close Committee as the Dictates of the Holy Ghost and in place of the Prophets words Rise Slay and Eat cry'd out Cursed be They that keep back their Sword in this Cause You know the Story of Gods Message unto Ahab for letting Benhadad go upon Composition Stricklands Thanksgiving Sermon Nov. 5. 1643. De Justice to the Greatest says Herle before the Commons Nov. 5. 1644. Sauls Sons are not spar'd no nor may Agag or Benhaded though themselves Kings Zimri and Cozbi through Princes of the People must be persu'd into their Tents This is the way to Consecrate your selves to God And what was the Ground of all this Fiercenesse but a Popish King though the Glory of the Reformation for want of a Popish Successour The Kings Counsels and Resolutions are so engaged to the Popish Party they say for the Suppression and Extirpation of the True Religion that all Hopes of Peace and Protection are Excluded and it is fully intended to give satisfaction to the Papists by alteration of Religion and to the Cavaliers and other Soldiers by exposing the Wealth of the Good Subjects especially of This City of London to be Sack'd Plunder'd and Spoyl'd by them And then again His Majesty endeavoured to keep off all Jealousies and Suspicions by many fearfull Oaths and Imprecations concerning his purpose of maintaining the Protestant Religion c. Ib. pa. 665. This is enough to convince the world that the very Sound of Popery will do the businesse as well Without a Ground as With it And whoever goes about to allarm the People upon This Desperate point had need give very good Security for his Allegeance But if it should prove to be the work of some Good-Old-Gausâ—â—â—n the very fact it self is not Clearer then the Designe But however it is the Authour has endeavour'd to prevent any such Conjeeture by a Complement upon the Memory of the Father to make the better way to the venting of his spleen against the Successor here in question If there can be a Son of that Royal Martyr Charles the First says he a Prince so truly pious that his very Enemies dare not asperse his Memory or Life with the least Blemish of Irreligion A Prince that Seal'd the Protestant Faith with his Bloud who in his deplorable Fate and Ignominious Death bore so near a resemblance to That of the Saviours of the world that his Sufferings can do no lesse then Seat him at the Right hand of Heaven If I say there can be a Son of that Royall Protestant of that Vncharitable Faith who by the very Tenets of his Religion dooms for deems I suppose all that die without the Bosome of their Church irreparably damned Then Consequently he must barbarously tear up his Fathers Sacred Monument brand his Blessed Memory with the Name of Heretique and to compleat the horrid Anathema he most impiously execrates the very Majesty that gave him Being Fol. 11. The Authour has wrought up This Phansy to a high Pitch as well in respect of the Father as of the Son and he has shew'd his skill in 't too for the more he advances the Reputation of the One the more scope he has upon the Opposition to depresse the Esteem of the Other I would charitably believe that he means good Faith in the Honourable Mention he makes of that Venerable Martyr But yet there are some passages in this Discourse that would make a man half suspect This Flourish upon the Last King to be intended as a Blind to give him Opportunity of getting a fairer Marque at This. For heâ—s here upon a subject where 't is a Common thing to have the Heart and the Hand as far as Heaven and Earth asunder Witnesse the Close of the Declaration before-mentioned Pag. 666. We do here Protest before the Ever-Living God that the Chief End of all our Councels and Resolutions is to secure the Persons Estates and Liberties of all that joyn with us and to procure and establish the Safety of Religion and Fruition of our Laws and Libertyes in This and all Other his Majesties Dominions without any Intention or desire to hurt or injure his Majesty either in his Person or JUST Power Let any man consider that at This very time they were destroying the Church In Arms against the King Plundring and Imprisoning those that would not joyn with them and lastly that they order'd this Declaration to be forthwith Printed and Read in all Churches and Chappels in England and Wales calling Heaven and Earth to Witnesse the Integrity of their Souls under all these Gross and Scandalous Contradictions Now to the Latter part of his Paragraph First he lays down a false Supposition and then he raises out of it a most uncharitable Consequence For the very Position that there is no Salvation out of the Church is qualifyed yet with an Exception in case of an Invincible Perswasion But if this be so lew'd a Principle in One Religion why is it not so in Another There is not a fouler Character in Hell then he has drawn here of a Popish Successor and he founds it
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
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
Nay and so sacred is the Providence of Order that Notwithstanding all the fulminations of the Pope and the Numbers as well as the dangerous Practices of the Papists on the one hand and the Impetuous Clamours and Importunities of dissenting Protestants on the other Charging both her self and her Ministers with Popish practices and designs This steady Queen did yet I say preserve her Princely dignity and the Reputation of her People both at home and abroad and at the same time maintain her ground against two potent Factions by standing firm to the Rules and Methods of her Ecclesiastical Discipline And it is Remarkable that the state has still been more or less at ease in measure as That Discipline has been either upheld or Relaxed In Forty and Forty one this fence was thrown down and I need not say after the overturning of that Bank what Monsters were bred out of the Mud upon that Innuundation In the 14th of his Majesties Reign and after his blessed Restauration This Uniformity was re-inforc'd and in the 16th follow'd an Act for suppâ—â—ssing Sedicious Conventicles And now you shall see how much it behoves us to stand by our Protestant Tenure and how far our Religion Lives and Liberties are concerned in so doing The Reformed or Protestant Religion both in Doctrine and Discipline as it is settled by Law is the Protestant Tenure here in question And what Party soever enterprizes upon the worship here Establish'd usuiâ—ps upon this Protestant Tenure It has been the wisdom of the Government from time to time to require an Vniformity in the manner and circumstances of our Worship and upon what motives and apprehensions they were induced to observe those measures will best appear from the Acts themselves To begin with the Act of 1 Ed. 6. it was intended for the gaining of an Vniform godly and quiet Order 35. Eliz. There was a Provision made for the preventing and avoiding such great inconveniences and perils as might happen and grow by the wicked and dangerous practises of Seditious Sectaries and Disloyal Persons c. Where it was made penal so much as to be present at a Conventicle In the same year of the Queen there was an Act against wicked and seditious persons who termed themselves Catholicks and being indeed Spies and Intelligencers not only for her Majesties foreign Enemies but also for Rebellious and Trayterous Subjects born within her Highnesses Realms and Dominions and hiding their most detestable and devilish purposes under a fair pretext of Liberty of Conscience do secretly wander and shift from place to place within this Realm to corrupt and sâ—ouce her Sajesties Subjects and to stir them to Sedition and Rebellion c. 3 Jac. An Act for discovering and repressing Popish Recusants 14 Car. 2. The intent of this Act was the settling the Peace of the Church and allaying the present distempers which the indisposition of time had contracted Many People in the late Troubles having béen led into Factions and Schisms to the great decay and scandal of the Reformed Religion of the Chnrch of England and to the hazzard of many Souls And lastly 16 Car. 2. An Act for suppressing Conventicles providing for further and more spéedy Remedies against the growing and dangerous Practices of seditious Sectaries and other disloyal persons who under pretence of tender Consciences do at their Méeting contrive Insurrections as late Experience hath shewed c.. From these Citations we may collect both the intent and the necessity of an Vniform Worship and upon what Considerations these Acts were made and it appears undenyably from those Outrages that follow'd upon the Peoples breaking loose from this restraint that the Lawmakers were not deceived in their foresight Nor could any other be expected but a liberty of practice after a licence of profession and that after a dissolution of the Law there should be no longer any regard had to Religion or Manners But what do we talk of Religion in a Tune The sounds of things and empty words when they come once to be followed with flagitious actions and execrable effects Was the Venom of the Covenant ever the less Diabolical for the holy Style of it Will Your Majesty's most humble and obedient Subjects attone for the robbing and the murdering of their Soveraign Christ and his Truths is every jot as good a Claim as a Protestant Tenure And yet I 'le shew you here the Contumacy of Lucifer himself under that Mask and the very Soul of their Hands-up-lifting Covenant which tho under the name of Cargils Covenant is the Old Covenant still onely a little rank with keeping The last Speech and Testimony of WILL. GOGOR one of the three desperate and incorrigible Traytors executed at the Grass Market in Edinburgh March 11. 1681 for disowning His Sacred Majesty's Authority and owning and adhering to these bloudy and murdering Principles contained in that execrable Declaration at Sanquhat Cargils Traitorous Covenant and Sacrilegious Excommunicating of the KING by that Arch Traytor Cargil and avowing of themselves to be bound in Conscience and by their Covenant to murder the KING and all that serve under him being Armed the time they were apprehâ—nded for that purpose Men and Brethren THese are to shew you that I am come here this day to lay down my Life for owning Christ and his Truths and in so much as we are caluminiated and reproached by lying upon our Names and dreadful upbraiding of us with saying That we are not led by the Scriptures and say We have taken other Rules to walk by I take the Great God to be witness against all and every one of them that I take the Word of God to be my Rule and I never designed any thing but honesty and faithfulness to Christ and for owning of Christ and the Scriptures this day I am murder'd for adhering to the born-down Truths I am condemned to die and I also leave my Testimony and bear witness against all the Apostate Ministers this day that have taken favour at the Enemies hands The onely thing they take away my Life for is because I disowned all those bloudy Traytors not to be Magistrates which the Word of God casts off and we are bound in Conscience and Covenant to God to disown all such as are Enemies to God and which they are avowed and open Enemies to Christ And they have made void my word saith the Lord. Say what ye will Devils say Wretches say Enemies say what ye will we are owning the Truth of Christ and his written Word and condemn me in my Judgment who will I leave my Bloud on one and all that say we are not led by the Scripture I leave my Bloud upon you again to be a Witness against you and a Condemnation in the great day of Judgment I have no more to say I think this may mitigate all your rage and so forth I leave his Enemies to his Curse to be unished into everlasting wrath for now and ever Amen Sic
Protestant notwithstanding of all the whole Scarlet-Robe he had been her only Champion was so barbarously persecuted by her that being first degraded then imprison'd and tortur'd for his Religion the Cruelty of his Torments was so savage that with his own hand he made himself a way to escape ' em And well might the violence of his Despair testifie his Sufferings were Intolerable when he fled to so sad a Refuge as Self-Murther for Deliverance Fol. 5. 6. See how he Confounds himself here in his way of Reasoning Because Q. Mary was not so good as her Word therefore No Popish Prince values himself upon his Honour 'T is true she brake her Promise with Norfolk and Suffolk as he Reports it that gave her the First Lift toward the Crown But it is more then he can justifie to make it a premeditate Perfidy as he renders it For it is the Opinion of our best Writers that she was rather wrought upon ex post facto to that Violation But a Violation it was however and there 's no Excuse for 't And it was a mean Ingratitude to the Generous Loyalty of those People whom under favour she did not treat worse then Others but she did ill in not using them better As to what concerns the matter of Title the Lady Mary claiming to the Crown upon a Statute of 35. Hen. 8. and Edward the Sixth being prevail'd upon afterward in his Death-sicknesse contrary to the Intent and direction of that Statute to transfer the Succession by Will to the Lady Jane Grey in favour of a Faction that labour'd the Disinheriting of the Ladyes Mary and Elizabeth all the Judges subscribed to the Disinherison of the Sisters save only Sr. James Hales Justice of the Common Pleas who refused upon a Conscience of the Right without any regard to the Person of the Lady Mary This same Sr. James Hales for giving a Charge afterward Derogatory to the Supremacy of the Pope was commited to Prison but received Good Words and fair usage some time after He Fell however into a deep melancholly and in the Conclusion Drown'd himself But I see no warrantable Authority for the Report of his being put to the Torture only the Authour of the Character finds it convenient to have it so for the better grace of his Story But we need not trouble our selves to look so far back for Instances of Breach of Faith this Last Age having made us Famous for Perjurious Practises beyond all that ever went before it Witness the whole Tract of our Late Troubles But now comes Another Objection of his own with His Reply upon it Char. Suppose says he that the Conservation of a Nations Peace the Dictates of a Princes Glory and all the Bonds of Morality cannot have any Influence upon a Popish Successour yet why may there not be that Prince who in veneration of his Coronation-Oath shall defend the Protestant Religion notwithstanding all his Private regret and inclinations to the Contrary When rather then incur the infamous Brand of Perjury he shall ty himself to the Performance of That which not the force of Religion it self shall violate And Then how can there be That Infidel of a Subject after so Solemn an Oath that shall not believe him Why truly I am afraid there are a great many of those Infidells says he and some that will give smart Reasons for their Infidelity For if he keeps his Oath we must allow that the only Motive that Prompts him to keep it is some Obligation that he believes is in an Oath But considering he is of a Religion that can absolve Subjects from their Allegeance to an Heretical Excommunicated Prince nay Depose him and take his very Crown away Why may it not much more release a King from his Faith to an Excommunicated Heretical People by so much as the Tyes of Vassals to Monarchs are greater then those of Monarchs to Vassals By the Obligation of an Oath I presume he means the Religious Obligation of it because he speaks of That Obligation from which the Pope pretends a power to absolve him Now if this be his Mind That Obligation is not as he says the only Motive to the keeping of his Oath but there is a Super-Additional Reason of State and Political Contemplations over and above Take that for granted once that there 's no Trusting to the Oath of a Roman Catholique Prince and ye cut the very Ligaments of Society and Commerce There 's an End of All Treatyes and Alliances amicable and mutual Offices betwixt Christian Princes and States Nay in One word erect but This Maxim you turn Europe into a Shambles and put Christendom without any more ado into a State of War For where there 's no Trust there can be no Security And then we know upon Experience that the Outrages of Jelousy for the Preventing of Imaginary Evills are actually the most dreadfull of Real ones themselves This Opinion makes us a Scorn and a Prey to Infidels and Strips us of all that is Divine and Reasonable in us together I am nor ignorant yet either of the Doctrine or of the Practice of several Profligate Wretches of the Roman Communion in This Impious Particular But they are such then as are wholly lost in Brutality and Blindnesse and I neither do nor can believe all Papists to be equally susceptible of That Unchristian Impression It is a Position that may be made use of at a Dead Lift to serve a Political Turn And the Trick will not passe neither but upon some Enthusiastique Sick-headed Zealot that takes all his Dreams for Visions and the Vapours of his Distemper for Revelations We have had of these Romish Dispensations and Absolutions in abundance among our Own Fanatical Jesuites and not only the Doctrie asserted but the Duty also of abjuring our Oaths of Allegiance and Canonical Obedience inculcated and press'd upon the pain of Imprisonment Plunder and Damnation Yet God forbid that the Acts of the Conclave of a Close Committee and the Determinations of an Ignatian Assembly of Divines the True Counter-Part of the Holy Society the Lord forbid I say that This Cabal of audacious Extravagants that took upon them to Discharge us from the Obligations of the Ten Commandements as well as of the Laws of the Land should reflect a Scandal upon the whole Body of our Communion as if Their Warrant were a Legitimation of Perjury and Rebellion and the Doctrine of King-killing and Violence were the Dictate of our Profession He touches a little lower upon the French Kings breaking in upon Flanders contrary to his Oath All the Motives says he that could provoke him to the Breach of his Oath were only his Ambition a Lust of being Great c. Fol. 6. So that he has now found out a Popish Prince it seems that sacrifices his Conscience to his Glory though but a little before he made it the Character of a Popish Successour to sacrifice his Glory to his Religion Now by
the way I look upon Majesty as a Sacred Character and not to be handled but with Veneration Wherefore whether his Assumption be True of False I shall speak to it only as a Supposition He proceeds now to the ballancing of the matter If says he a Roman Catholique can break an Oath only for the Pleasure of Conquering which he knows is doing Ill Shall not a Popish Prince in England have ten times more Inclination to break an Oath for the Propagation of his own Faith which his Conscience tells him is meritorious I Answer that the breaking of an Oath out of a Lust of being Great is the Crime properly of an Ambitious Prince not of a Popish For he does not consult his Religion but only his Glory in the Committing of it And the same Thirst of Dominion with the same degree of Indifference as to the Businesse of Right or wrong in concurrence with the same Advantages of Power and Opportunity would have produced the very same essects in a Prince of any other Judgment Well but he does an Ill thing knowingly and so are most of the Ill things that are done in the World without any regard to the difference of Protestant or Papist But Then his Application of This Ill thing done to another Prince of the same Perswasion is only the cutting of One Diamond with another and nothing at all to our Case But much more will a Popish Prince in England says he c. Does it follow Here that because a man would rather forswear himself to bring a Good thing to pass then a Bad one though we are to do no evill at all that Good may come of it that therefore for the compassing of a good end a man will forswear himself Neither have I ever as yer heard of the Merit of propagating any Religion by Perjury Or that the Consciences of any sort of Christians could justifie them in a Crime which even Infidels themselves by the meer instinct of Nature have in extreme abhorrence And he follows the point yet further Char. He has Religion says he to drive the Royal Jehu on Religion that from the beginning of the world through all Ags has set all Nations in a Flame yet never confessed it self in the Wrong These are strange words to come from the mouth of a pretender to Scruples and a Protestant Advocate His Quarrel is not now so much to a Popish as to a Religious Successour Nor is it any longer Popery but Religion it self that he strikes at as the dangerous and Obstinate Incendiary Nay and since Religion was in the world it was never otherwise he says So that here is a very fair expedient hinted for the good of Christendom to exterminate this Spirit of Discord RELIGION from off the face of the Earth If he had said only the Pretext of Religion he might have Appeal'd either to the Clamour of his Brethren or to his own Papers For it is the Pretext that both Furnishes the Fewel and blows the Coal while Religion lies burning in the Furnace Char. Beside says he how can a Popish Prince in attempting to Establish his own Religion believe he does his Subjects an Injustice in that very thing in which he does God Justice or think he Injures Them when he does their Souls Right Fol. 6. This Pretense of doing God Justice and the Souls of men Right will entitle a Prince with a much more plausible Colour and a better Grace to the breaking in upon the Territories and Subjects of other Princes and States under Countenance of the same Design For in that case there 's no Bar of an Oath upon him whereas the same Violence upon his own Subjects renders him Guilty of a manifest Perjury But what does he mean by an Attempt to establish his own Religion If it be by way of Argument 't is well But if he makes use of any compulsive act of Authority contrary to his Oath he stands accountable to God for breach of Faith and does no Justice to God in it neither nor Right to the Souls of his People For where 's the justice to God in making use of his Name to an Imposture and in rendring him not only a Witness but in some sort a Party to a Cheat And where 's the Right to his Peoples Souls in forcing them to the Profession of a Religion with their Lipps which they abhor in their Hearts Or in fine how can a Popish Prince so much as pretend either to the one or the other against so clear a Light both of Scripture and Nature In short either he is indispensably bound to do the thing or at liberty whether he will do it or no If the former his Oath must be either a Nullity or a Fraud and if the other his antecedent Obligation has determin'd that liberty But Religious Phrenzy says he Fol. 7. leaves that eternal intoxication behind it that where it commits all the Cruelties in the World 't is never sober after to be sorry for 't How truly and how severely is this said Witness the impenitent Ends and Courses of all the Kings Murtherers both Dead and Living And now again Thus says he Whilst a Popish King sets his whole Kingdom in a Combustion how little does he think he plays a Second Nero Good Conscienti-Man not he Alas He does not Tune his Joys to the Tyrannick Nero's Harp but to David's milder and more sacred Lyre whilst in the height of his pious Extasy he sings Te Deum at the Conflagration ib. Turn but Popish King here into Popish Phanatical Faction and what an admirable illustration is this of the Brethrens Exultations and Thanksgivings for the Ruine of their Sovereign the Holy Church and Three Kingdoms Nay and the florid humour goes on with him still Thus says he with an Arbitrary unbounded Power what does his Licentious holy Thirst of bloud do less than make his Kingdoms a larger Slaughter-House and his Smithfield an Original Shambles Thus the Old Moloch once again revives to feast and riot on his dear human Sacrifice And whilst his fiery Iron hands crush the poor Victim dead the PROPAGATION of RELIGION and the GLORY of GOD as he calls it are the very Trumpets that deafen all the feeble Cryes of bloud and drown the dying Groans of what he Murthers Ibid. Can any Man read this Pathetical Figure of Tyranny and Desolation without turning the OLD MOLOCH into the GOOD-OLD-CAVSE and calling to mind the Glorious Sacrifices that were offer'd at White-Hall-Gate upon Tower-Hill Cheap-side Charing-Cross and in a word in all the Quarters of His Majesties Dominions to that Mercyless and Insatiable Idol To say nothing of those Whole-Sale Carnages at Edge-hill Newbury Marston-Moor Navesby c. where the blood of loyal Subjects and true Protestants was spilt like Water and the Priests of Baal all this while with the PROPAGATION of RELIGION and the GLORY of GOD in their Mouths celebrating in their Pulpits and Festivals these Barbarous Triumphs And yet