a smooth Reproach in the end of it to intimate how much he is beholden to them he advances as follows Char. Now says he let suppose after a long Tranquility of this matchless Monarchs Râ—ign that the immediate Heir to his Crown and a part of his Bloud by the Sorceries of Rome is canker'd into a Papist His meaning is easily suppos'd by stabbing of the very Paper whenever he comes near him And to pursue this Landâ—hape suppose we see this once happy Flourishing Kingdom so far as in all Duty and Reason bound concern'd for themselves their Heirs and their whole Countries Safety till with an honest cautious prudent Fear they begin to inspect a Kingdoms Vniversal Health till weighing all the Symptoms of its State they plainly descry those Pestilential Vapours fermenting that may one day infect their Ayre and sicken their World and see that rising Eastern Storm engendring that will once bring in those more then Egyptian Locusts that will not only fill their Houses and their Temples but devour their Labours their Harvests and their Vintages Here 's a Period for an Apothecary The Inspectors I suppose of our Body politick may be Three or Four of our Anabaptistical Protestant Intelligencing VVater Casters of the State And these are the men that so plainly descry the pestilential vapours he speaks of which in effect are no other then the Breath of their own Lungs But is it an Eastern Storm that they see engendring why then the wind is turn'd I perceive for the Locusts of 40 and 43 came out of the North and did us all the mischiefs too of his Egyptian Locusts And now he has given us the State of our Disorder he is so kind as to prâ—scribe toward our Relief which is in a few words That the Nation like true Patriots do anticipate their woes with a present sense of the future miseries they foresee fol. 9. which is as much as to say Vp. and be dring Now again Char. VVhat is This Popish Heir in the Eye of England but perhaps the greatest and only Grievance of the Nation the Vniversal Object of their Hate and Fear and the Subject of their Clamours and Curses methinks he might afford the Kings Brother a little better Language at whose door lyâ—their Discontents and Murmurs but 't is murmurs so violent that they thrust in amongst their very Prayers So did Curse ye Meroz and become almost a part of their Devotions The Prophet Davids Curse is faln upon them Their Prayer is turn'd into Sin Murmurs so bold that they dare approach the very Palace nay Throne and Ear of Majesty fol. 10. Here 's a large step advanc'd upon the King himself but you shall see him come closer by and by Whenever says he the People of England reflect on this Heir as their King in reversion they have reason to look upon him as no better than Jupiter ' s Stork amongst the Froggs Yes notwithstanding all his former Glories and Conquests his whole Stock of Fame is so lost and bury'd in his Apostacy from the Religion and conseqnently the Interest of these Protestant Kingdoms that all his Services are Cancell'd and his whole Masse of Glory corrupted ibid. I find some People of Opinion that this King in reversion is of the same Perswasion at this day that he was when he acquir'd all those Glories But let that pass and see now what 's the sum of all this Flourish but a labour'd Piece of spiteful Art to render the Brother of his Sacred Majesty as odious as the soulest Character and Calumny can make him You shall fee presently that This Venom against the Duke will terminate in the King and that instead of a Christian and pious Zeal for Religion the end of it is to inflame a desperate Distemper in the State It is in short a Character of the worst of men adapted to a suitable Religion And expos'd to the World in an uncharitable account of things which he cannot possibly foreknow His next supposal is a Rhetorical Speculation and not without Reflexions bold enough upon the unchangeable affection of his Majesty to his Royal Brother What saith he can the consequence of this unhappy Friendship be but that the very Souls and Loyalties of almost a whole Kingdom are stagger'd at this fatal Conjunction till I am afraid there are too many who in detestation of that one Gangreen'd Branch of Royalty can scarce forbear how undutifully soever to murmur and revile even at that Imperial Root that cherishes it Ibid. What a strange Usurpation is this not only upon Majesty but Human Nature not to allow a Prince the freedom of those affections which he can no more put off than his Reasonable Being But this is the Loyalty of the Old Stamp that still gives the Sign with a Hail Master and a Kiss But how comes this Pamphlet to undertake for the sense of the whole Kingdom It is not that he finds them so much dis-affected but he endeavours to make them so by teaching and animating the Sedition that he would be thought to fear Nay so far is he from being afraid of the undutiful murmurs he seems to apprehend that it is scarce possible to do more toward the creating of them And look now how he grows upon His Majesty Those very Knees says he that but now would have bow'd into their very Graves to serve him grow daily and hourly so far from bending as they ought to a Crown'd Head till they are almost as stubborn as their Petitions and Prayers have been ineffectual What is this to say but in his way of intimation to insinuate what the Reader will easily understand though more than I am willing to express Char. Thus says he whilst a Popish Heirs extravagant Zeal for Rome makes him shake the very Throne that upholds him by working and encroaching on the affections of His Majesty for that Protection and Indulgence that gives birth and life to the Heart-burnings of a Nation what does he otherwise than in a manner stabb his King his Patron and his Friend in his tenderest part his Loyal Subjects hearts which certainly is little less than to play the more lingring sort of Parricide a part so strangely unnatural that even Salvages would blush at yet this Religion ncorrigible remorseless Religion never shrinks at Folio 10. It is worth observing that throughout this whole Character of a Popish Successor the Author of it lays more load upon the Heir than upon the Religion for he treats the Latter still in the terms of a fair and generous enemy but when he comes to the Other he shoots Poyson'd Arrows Parricide Gangreen'd and the like without any respect either to Modesty or Honour And what is the whole Tract indeed but an artificial Declamation without so much as one ill thing in 't bating the Perswasion that is either liable to a proof or possible for him to know And yet he does as boldly pronounce upon things to come as if he had
effect as have been by great Authority judg'd Competent for the Obviating of that Difficulty As to the Rest I will not deny but that it is a hard thing for a Prince to â—eize and persecute a People of his own Religion purely eo nomine for their being so And it is very Probable too that he will connive at men of that Perswasion in many Cases where the Law directs a Punishment And what is there more in this theâ— what has been done already more or less from the Date of the Statutes themselves to This very day and what is done by the Government it self toward the Non-Conformists at this Instant where is the great hurt now upon this Admittance in not punishing the Papists so long as the Protestants are not Persecuted Whereas the Fanatical Papists did not only in defiance both of Law and Gospel engross all Offices Benefits and Priviledges to themselves but without Mercy or Distinction destroy'd the rest of their Brethren Char. A very pretty Chimaera Which is as much as to make this Popish King the greatest Barbarian in the Creation a Barbarian that shall cherish and maintain the Dissenters from Truth and punish and condemn the Pillars of Christianity and Proselites of Heaven Which is no other then to speak him the basest of Men and little lesse then a Monster Beside at the same time that we suppose that King that dares not uphold nor encourage his own Religion we render him the most deplorable of Cowards a Coward so abject that he dares not be a Champion even for his God And how consistent this is with the Glory of a Crowned Head and what hope England has of such a Successour I leave all men of sense to judge Fol. 3. Behold here 's the upshot of this high-flown Paragraph A Popish Prince that puts the Laws in Execution for the punishing of Papists and for the protecting and countenancing of Protestants is little less then the basest of Monsters How comes it then that the Crown of France has not treated the Protestant Subjects there as this Picture-drawer pronounces that a Popish Successour would treat his Protestant Subjects here The Protestants have now and then been severely handled I know in France as the Papists upon some Junctures have been in England And now of late worse then usual All which has been Influenc'd well by Reasons of State as by Impulse of Religion But shall we Pronounce the most Christian King the greater Monster for his better usage of us If a potent Aversion to us in matter of Religion had transported the French King 's into so mortal a Detestation of us to all other purposes they would never have committed so many Eminent Charges both in Councells and in Arms to the Honour and Trust of Protestant Officers and Commanders But the Convenience and Utility of the State preponderated against Disagreements in Religion The Barbarisms of the Holy League were the Results of a Sanguinary Faction as well in Civil Government as Religion And one Egg is not Liker another then the League of these Dissenting Papists to the Covenant of our Jesuitical and Dissenting Pseudo-Protestants To come now to the Reason and Conscience of this Elaborate Padox Taking His Position for granted that a Popish Prince is bound by his Religion contrary to Oaths and Promises Honour and Justice the Dictates of Nature the Laws of Nations and the Bonds of Humane Society contrary to all This I say and to his Interest also to break Faith with Protestants and those Protestants his Subjects too He must be unman'd as well as Unchristian'd an Excomunicate to Humane Nature and excluded from all the Benefits and Offices of Mankind And yet we are not without many Instances in the French League and the Scottish Covenant of an abandon'd Perfidy even to this degree It must be a strange Digestion sure that can put over all other Impieties and turn the violation of all that is Sacred in Nature into a meritorious Virtue Char. Besides what mismatch'd incongruous Ingredients must go to make up this Composition a King His Hand and Heart must be of no Kin to one another He must be so Inhumane to those very darling Jesuites that like Mahomets Pidgeon infus'd and whisper'd all his Heavenly Dreams into his Ears that he must not only clip their wings but fairly Cage 'em too even for the Charming Oracles they breath'd him And at the same Minute he must leave the wide and open Ayr to those very Ravens that daily croak Abhorrence and Confusion to them and all their Holy Dreams and their false Oracles Thus whilest he acts quite contrary to all his Inclinations against the whole Bent of his Soul what does he but publikely put in force those Laws for the Protestant Service till in fine for his Nations Peace he ruines his own and is a whole Scene of War within himself Whilst his Conscience accusing his sloth on one side the Pope on the other Rome's continuall Bulls bellowing against him as an undutifull Son of Holy Mother-Church a Scandal to her Glory a Traytor to her Interest and a Deserter of her Cause one day accusing the Lukewarmnesse of his Religion another the Pusillanimity of his Nature all Roman-Catholick Princes deriding the Feeblenesse of his Spirit and the Tamenesse of his Arm till at long run to spare a Fagot in Smithfield he does little lesse then walk on hot Irons himself Thus all the pleasure he relishes on a Throne is but a kinde of Good-Fryday-Entertainment Instead of Royall Festival his Rioting in all the Luxury of his Heart to see Rome's Dagon worshipp'd Rome's Altars smoke Rome's Standard set up Rome's Enemies defeated and his victorious Mother-Church Triumphant his abject and poor-spirited Submission denyes himself the only thing he thirsts for and whilst the Principles he suck from Rome do in effect in the Prophets Words bid him Rise Slay and Eat his fear his unkingly nay unmanly fear makes him fast and starve Fol. 3. This Passage is only the same thing over again in a diversity of Words and Phrase But it is well enough to answer the Ends it was intended for the tickling of the Phansy and the moving of a Popular Passion without one syllable of weight to strike the Judgement My Reply upon the Last Paragraph shall serve for This too which I have not here Recited as requiring any Answer but to shew what pains he has taken with the Ornaments of his Rhetorique to supply the Defect of Argument I cannot liken it to any thing better then the Gaudy Glittering Vapour that Children are used to Phansy in a Cloud They 'l Phansy Lions Peacocks in it or what other Figures they Please but the first Breath of Ayre scatters the Phantastique Images and resolves the whole into its original Nothing And just so it is with this Character There are many things in it finely enough sayd to work upon a partial and an Easy Imagination and to mislead a body at first
Church of England as much as the Church it self hated the Mass. Whereupon the Pope gave him a Reward of Two Thousand Duccats for his Pains The matter of Fact is sufficiently clear'd and the Practise too Notorious to be deny'd As to the Influence that these Papists have under the notion of Dissenting Protestants upon the Unity of the Church and the Peace of the State But the Craft as they say lyes in the Catching of them For the Test of Oaths will never do the Business as we have found by their Swearing to so many Contrary and Inconsistent Purposes and Interests throughout the whole Course of our Late Troubles So that we have no other way left that I can Imagine of knowing a Disguised Jesuit from one that calls himself a Dissenting Protestant but by comparing their Principles which would infinitely conduce to the Credit and Advantage of the Conscientious sort of the Divided Party And without such a Test of Discrimination the Project of Uniting Dissenters seems to be utterly Impracticable unless to the Extream Hazzard of Authorizing the most pernicious sort of Popery and Incorporating a Jesuitical Leaven into our very Constitution according to the Method which Mr. Coleman himself had projected as the most probable Expedient for the Introducing of Popery into this Kingdom The Removal of this Difficulty will open a way to a General Accomodation to the Common Security both of our Religion and Government And this is only to be done by applying the Maxims of those that we suspect here for Jesuits to the Standard of those Detestable Principles which we so much abominate in the Church of Rome And where ever we find any Party of what Denomination soever that pretends either to Erect an Interest or to support a Claim upon the same Foundation it is but matter of Common Equity to presume and to conclude that Party to be acted and directed by a Jesuitical Spirit These Positions I shall Confront with a Counter-Part of which further in its proper place But in my way to 't I shall now pass to the Character it self The CHARACTER c. IT has been my Fortune to be a Subject and a Native of that part of the World where almost three years last past I have scarce heard any thing but the continual Noyse of Poperâ— and Plots with all the clamorous Fears of a Jealous Kingdom about my â—ars And truly I must plainly confess I am not so Ill a Common-Wealths-maâ— but that I am glad to see my Country-men disturb'd in a Cause where Religion Liberty and Property are at Stake Fol. 1. Hereâ—s the very Bourdon already of that Fatal Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom Dec. 15. 42. and only a short Paraphrase of the Preface to it God blesse us from the Omen The malicious Dâ—signs of the Popish Party the hazzard of Religion and great prejudice and Oppression of the Laws of the Kingdom and just Liberty of the People Exact Collections Pag. 2. That which follow'd upon this Popular Introduction did sufficiently evidence the Design You shall see now how Pat this Prologue runs Another way Mutatis Mutandis It has been my Fortune let Me say too to be a Subject and a Native where the Noise of Popery and Plots Jealousies and Fears and Affrights about Religion Liberty and Property as if All lay at Stake brought a pious and a Protestant Prince to the Block prostituted the Honour Dignity and Revenue of the Government Ecclesiastical and Civil to a Band of Seditious and Sacrilegious Usurpers Our Temples were Demolish'd our Alâ—ars Profan'd the Priestly Office Invaded by Mechaniques Swarms of Heresies and a Scandalous Schism in Exchange for Purity and Unity of Religion Of a Free-born People we became worse then Turkish Slaves Our Common-Wealths-men were glad also to see us Disturb'd and who but our Pretended Advocates and Patriots to be our Tyrants and Tormentors Char. But if their Jealousyes are Just and their Fears Prophetique in Gods name let them talk Every man ought to be so far from silencing any Reasonable Murmurs that 't is rather his Duty to bear a Part in a Choire so Vniversal And if we sâ—e the Great and Wise-men of our Nation like True English Patriots struggling and toyling to prevent our Threatning Calamities let us take delight to behold them Restless and Vneasie Rolling about our Troubled Sea like Porpoises against a Tempest to forewarn us of an Approaching Destruction Ibid. Let them talk on says he just to the Tune of Forty Two again God forbid says Mr. Pym that We should dishearten our Friends who come to assist us And this was when Ven and Manwaring forc'd the Passing of the Bill of Attainder in the Lords House by Tumults against the Earl of Strafford and his Sacred Majesty little better then Besieg'd in his own Palace by the Rabble What a blessed Harmony was there then among the Porters Car-men and Well affected Brethren in the Lobbyes crying out with one Voice no Bishops no Rotten Peers no Common-Prayer while the great and wise men in their Generation were Struggling and Toyling to Pack Parties Contrive Invectives against Authority perplexing the Multitude with Scruples enflaming of Passions and rolling about like State Porpoises not as a Forewarning but the Foreboding of a Tempest Char. But amids our Evident Danger we see another sort of People dayly flattering and deluding us into a False and Fatal Security And sure none are so little our Friends or indeed so void even of Humanity it self as those who would lull us asleep when Ruine is in View Ibid. There are some indeed that after Open Rebellions in Scotland horrid Assassinates Anathema's Denounc'd against his Majesty Declarations point blank against his Person and Government with an Indissoluble Confederacy of Brotherly Union in our own Bowels too by virtue of that Magical Seal of Reprobation the Diabolical Covenant there are some I saâ— that after all these Acts and Demonstrations of Violence and Conspiracy will yet bear the World down that the believing of our eyes is the shamming of the Plot and that there 's no Fear at all of a Storm from that Quarter As if a Jesuitical Practice or Principle were Consecrated in the Heart or Shape of a Presbyterian But says he since Zeal and Hypocrisie Naked Truth and Artificial Falshood have oftentimes alike Faces I cannot but think it the Duty both of a Christian and an English-man to unravel the Treachery of those Arguments which they raise to destroy us But since Zeal and Hypocrisie c. are so alike that we have seen Sacriledge and Heresy pass upon the People for Reformation Rebellion for Loyalty Perjury Blasphemy and Murthâ—r for Religion Regicide for the way to make a Glorious King Bondage for Freedom Rapine for â—ropriety the King 's the Churches and the Peoples Enemies for their Friends what can a man do better then to Unmask this white Devil and expose the Cloven-Foot of this Angel of Light to the View of
had a Bed for all Travellers but then he either cut them shorter or stretch'd them longer to fit them to it And is not this very charitably done now to imagine the worst things that either ever were or can be done Of a Prince admitting my Author's supposition whose Empire Safety Donions and the wel-fare of whose People are all dependent upon his good behaviour and justice So that he ventures his All on the one side to get nothing on the other Here is the fansie of remote and uncertain difficulties oppo'sd to our present security and well-being and after a Capital Sentence pronounced with a formality of Law upon an Imperial Prince as a Traytor to the Sovereignty of the People We are now opening the way to bring another Prince to the Scaffold For that 's the Scope of several Virulent Libels both printed and written that have at present their free course without controll These are the Incendiaries I speak of and no other Well says he again but if the publick Ministers of Justice betray the Liberty of the Subject The Subject may Petition for a Parliament to punish 'em for 't But what if he will neither hear one nor call the other who shall compel him This is a very artificial way of getting a shoot at the King through the Duke and to intimate the Exercise of an Arbitrary Power by this manner of supposing it It was by these very steps of accusing evil Councellours crying out for justice against them and for a Parliament to punish them that the Faction mounted the Government and strip'd his Majesty first of his Friends then of his Revenue next of his Liberty and lastly of his Life and all this was actually done for fear of no body knew what Ther 's no doubt says the Character but hee 'l find sufficient assistance from the Pope English Papists and Foreign Princes beside the Revenues of the Crown And then having but a prudent eye and a tenacious hand to manage his Exchequer we shall find hee 'l never call that People he shall never have need of fol. 8. He supposes here an assistance for a Prince in possession of his Crown But an assistance for what unless in case of a Rebellion Or is it an assistance to enable him to live without Parliaments As if Foreign Princes would be at that charge to be never the better sor't Or if he means a Military Assistance toward the settling of him in the Possession of an Absolute Power his Interest undoubtedly will be much greater in the supporting of him as an Heir than in advancing him as a Tyrant beside that for one English Man to serve him in such an unwarrantable design he will have an hundred in case of any unjust delusion to stand by him in the defence or recovery of an nndoubted Right This is only the quitting of one Pamphlet with another and to make use of that liberty my self which is allow'd to others But all this while says he the Pope is not Absolute There wants a Standing Army to Crown the Work And he shall have it for who shall hinder him Nay all his Commanders shall be present qualifi'd even by our Protestant Test for the employment We have not forgot the Time when one standing Army was Raised for fear of another and between Thirty and Forty Thousand Men kept in Pay for a matter of thirteen or fourteen years together when the War was over and not one Enemy left in the Field one King imprison'd and another in Banishment Taxes multiply'd The People peel'd to the very Bones and the Persons and Estates of Free-born English Men subjected to the most Scandalous Tyranny that ever was inflicted upon reasonable Creatures And what was the Ground and Foundation of this Calamity The Multitude were Buzz'd in the Head that the King was Popishly inclin'd and govern'd by Jesuitical Councels nothing but Papists about him and two or three Antichristian Bishops a Pack of Tories and Tantvies and a mighty noise there was of German Horse and the bringing of an Army up to Town to awe the City and the Parliament and the very fear alone of these shadows Transported them into the uttermost extremities of rage and confusion 'T is true there was no Plot afoot then as there is now but they made sufficient shift without it to do their own and the Kingdoms business You shall now see the Composition of his Popish Successor's Standing-Army He shall have enough Men of the Blade out of one half of the Gaming Houses in Town to Officer twice as many Forces as he shall want 'T is true they shall be men of no Estates nor Princples c. He should e'en have gone on when his hands were in and quarter'd his new Leveys in Lambeth House or Pauls as in the days of his Forefathers But is not this better yet than Spiriting away of Apprentices from their Masters decoying the poor Wenches out of their Bodkins and Thimbles and squeezing a Rebellion out of the Gospel We have seen an Army of pretended Saints to the value of Twenty or Thirty Thousand in a Body and as many Religions as Men every Article of the Creed call'd in question and the Lord's Prayer exploded as a stinting of the Spirit This and a great deal more and worse is true to the very Letter But forward And that this Army may be more quietly rais'd how many honourable pretences may be found fol. 9. Very right As the fetching of the King home to his Parliament the delivering of him out of the hands of Papists The defence of his person and just rights in the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion and all this in the Stile of his Majesties most humble and obedient Subjects Perhaps says he the greatest and most importunate preservation of the Kingdom shall call for 't and then upon second thoughts instead of defeating some Foreign Enemy they are opportunuely ready to cut our Throats at home if we do not submit and give all that this King shall ask bid This ingenuous Author has directly Translated the true History of the Rise and Advance of the late Rebellion into a Prophetical Computation of the Methods and Proceedings which the World is to expect from a Popish King Did not they seize those very Arms that the King had provided for the Relief of Ireland and employ them against his Majesties very Person at Edg-hil And were not those very Troops that were Raised as they swore for the defence of the City of London Quarter'd upon the Citizens to Ruine and Enslave them Char. Thus far says he we have given the Pourtraicture of a Popish King And now let us take a draught of his Features in his Minority that is while he is only a Popish Heir Apparent I.d. After the Preamble of an Imaginary Prince elevated to the height of a Generous and a glorious Character with a Supposal of a People too not unworthy of the blessing of such a Sovereign and
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
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
greater Plot upon England than the Execrable Bloud-shed of that Protestant Prince And yet he carries it one step higher A Plot of God he calls it and at the same time lays the Foundation of it in Hell and most Heroically opposes it From hence to the end both of the Page and Book there 's only more variety of flourish to the same purpose MY pretending to Answer this Discourse looks methink as if a Man should Reply upon an Almanâ—ck for several Years to come it runs altogether upon Phansys Suppositions Predictâ—ons c. And there 's no dis-proving of a Prognostication nor hardly any reasoning against it but so far as it is Calculated according to Rules of Art And wheresoever I have found any thing that looks like a Logical Connexion I have spoken to those Passages what I thought convenient But for the rest my business has been to encounter the drift of it and to expound the danger of these present Iealousies by referring People to the miserable effects of the same Jealousie in the Late Times It is an easie thing for People to foretel Calamities and Judgments of their own Contriving There is not any Man Living that more passionately desires the Ripping up of this Damâ—'d Hellish Plot to the bottom than my self but I must confess withal that I am for Suppressing the Malice of Popeâ—y as well as the Name and utterly against the Damning of any Position in a Papist that I practice my self The best way to discover a Jesuite is by his Principle for it is the Doctrine and not the Order or Dâ—nâ—mination that creates the Danger So that we are never the nearer for rocting out the One unless we purge our selves also from the Leagen of the Other Which will be the oâ—ly safe way of faciâ—itating a Comprehensive Union of those Conscientious Dissentâ—rs that wish well to the King and his Government And in Order to this Discrimination I shall give the Reader here a Taste of the Harmony and Agreement betwixt the Jesuites of the Society and those of the Covenant That is to say such other Jesuites as under the Cover of Dissenting Protestants take advantage of the Credulity and Weakness of the Common People toward the working of Distempers in the Nation Popish and Jesuitical PRINCIPLES DOminion is founded in Grace says the Romish Jesuite and upon That Principle Deposes Protestant Princes But the Covenanting Jesuite is even with him and upon the same Principle deposes Popish Princes as Knox and those of the Congregation in Scotland depos'd the Queen Regent Cambden ' s Eliz. An. 1559 Penry told the Lord President of Wales That without advancing the Presbyterian Discipline he could have no Commission to Rule there for having rejected Christ he was but the Lieutenant of Satan And our Character does pretty well too in ranking a Popish Prince with Nebuchadnezzar fol. 17. The Pope may deprive a King of his Royal Dignity for Heresie Schism c. B. of Lincoln's Popish Principles pag. 20. and after Excommunication says Mariana in case of Obstinacy the People may take away his Life Now says the Covenanting Jesuite All men as well Magistrates as Inferiors ought to be Subject to the Judgment of General Assemblies See Bishop Bramhal pag. 501. Ministers says Buchanan de Jur. Reg. page 70. may excommunicate Princes and when they have cast them into Hell they are not worthy to live any longer upon Earth Pius Quintus absolv'd the Subjects of Q. Eliz. from all their Oaths of Allegiance to her for ever And now says Knox to England and Scotland If Princes be Tyrants against God and his Truth their Subjects are Free from their Oath of Obedieâ—ce And our Jesuitical Covenanters did the same thing too with a Penalty in abolishing the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance and setting up their Covenant We command says the same Pius Quintus all the Peers People and Subjects of England not to pay any Obedieuce to the Queen her Commands or Laws And was not this the same thing that our Covenanting Jesuites did in commanding upon pain of Imprisonment and Sequestration not to obey the Kings Proclamations and in making it Death without mercy for any man that had taken the Coveâ—ant to go without a Pass into the Kings Quarters Pope PAVL 3d. Interdicted all publick Prayers for Henry 8. or his Adherents after his Denyal of the Popes Supremacy to the whole Nation And did not our Scottish Jesuites the same thing in refusing to to pray for the Mother of King James when she was in her Distress though the King desired it and did not our English Covenanting Jesuites make it Malignancy and Sequestration to pray for the King in their Churches If a Clergy-Man Rebel against the King it is no Treason says Emâ—nuel Sa because Clergy-Men art not the Kings Subjects The Jesuits of the Kirk told King James That He was an incompetont Iudge of Matters in the Pulpit wich ought to be exempted from the Iudgment and Correction of Princes And the Assembly brought off Gibson and Blake for Cursing and Railing at the King in the Pulpit upon the same Plea And the Late King had as little Remedy for Treason deliver'd in the Pulpits here The Papal Power says Sciopptus is Supream and the Pope has a Right to Direct and Câ—mpel and a Power of Life and Death And did not Our Jesuits in the Assembly and the Two Houses Practice the same Usurpations in 1642 Does not the Kirk in the Cases of Bloud Adultery Blasphemy c. take the Pardoning-Power out of the King's Hand Did not the Scottish Jesuits in 1638. Proteâ—t against Proclamations make void Acts of Parliament Levy Mâ—n Monies and Arms for the Glory of God and preservation of Relâ—gion Kings Declaration Pag. 415. Do they not claim Power to Abrogate and Abolish what Statutes and Ordinances they please concerning Ecclesiastical Matters See Bishop Brambal Fol. 497. c. And in short in ordine ad Spiritualia take into their Cognizance all matters whatsoever Snarez approves of a Subjects killing his Prince in his own defence and much more if it be in defence of the Publique Buchanad Seconds him and would have him rewarded for it as if he had kill'd a Wolf or a Bear For says he in his de jure Regni the People are as much above the King as he is above any one Person Which Our Jesuits have Translated into Singulis Major Vniversis Minor Does not our Assembly set up for Infallible as well as the Pope And have not Our Jesuites their pious Frauds as well as those of the Church of Rome their Dreams Visions and Revelations Where was there ever more Equivocation or mental Reservation then in their swearing to preserve the King with a Design to destroy him Where did the Pope himself ever take more upon him as to the Indicting of Assemblies abrogating Acts of Parliament and in the Exercise of all other the Ensigns of Royalty Does not our Assembly expect to be submitted to with as implicite a Faith and as blind an Obedience as the Pope himself We must â—â—sign up our Judgments says the Church of Rome our VVill and our Vnderstanding in a deferencé to our Superiors To which purpose as I find it in Lysimachus Nâ—canor page 48. Andrew Cant when he found he could give no reasons for subscribing the Covenant told his Congregation at Glascow that they must deny Learning and Reason and help Christ at a Lift and told them further upon the same occasion that he was sent to them with a Commission from Christ to bid them subscribe the Covenant which was Christs Contract and that he himself was come at a Wooer to them for the Bridegroom and called upon them to come to be Hand-fasted by Subscribing That Contract and told them plainly that he would not leave the Town till he had all their Names that refused to Subscribe and that he would complain on 't to his Master It would be endless to run out the Parallel at length so far as This Argument would carry a man But this will suffice I hope in some measure for a Caution that while we are running down of One Sort of Jesuites we do not Incorporate our Religion with Another The End Character Declarat Prot. of Lords and Commons to the Kingdom and the whole world Octob. 22. 1642. Exact Coll. pag. 664.