Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A41189
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A second dialogue between the Pope and a phanatick, concerning affairs in England by the author of the first, who is a hearty lover of his prince and country.
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Hearty lover of his prince and country.; Ferguson, Robert, d. 1714.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing F758; ESTC R17988
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8,027
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18
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against the Collective Wisdom of a Nation to term the Actions of an Heroick House of Commons Irregularities Miscarriages illegal and unwarrantable Proceeding this is too high an Affront to be forgotten For tho we printed our Votes and discover'd our Secrets on purpose to inflame the little Sisters yet for the King to expose the Pudenda or Nakedness of the Peoples Members in Churches and Markets to be observ'd and scoff'd at by Crowds of Tories this was uncivil and immodest nay about two years ago I would have call'd it Impudence But that which added to my Vexation was the Prelatical order for reading of it in the Pulpit if it had been denounc'd below the Mount in the despis'd Service-Desk it would have had no Impression or Solemnity but being publish'd from the Sanctum Sanctorum of the Pulpit that most Sacred Seat of Oracles this made it pass for Jure Divino and because the Voice came from the Pulpit some silly People were apt to think that the Declaration was made in Heaven This was a Metropolitan Stratagem and shall be recorded for the first Article against William the Second Pope But I am inform'd that there was an Use of Consolation in the conclusion of that Declaration wherein the King promis'd the People the Favour of frequent Parliaments Phan. In my opinion that is not so great a Favour except we can sit again next door to Hell where we may correspond with our old Familiars But however Frequent Parliaments suppose frequent Dissolutions and one Good old fashion'd Long Parliament were worth 500 frequent ones Pope But I hope you do not despond and give up the common Cause as desperate Phan. I will never despair as long as you have a Being in the World for I yet find there is an infallibility in your Name the crying Pope and Popery is still the surest stratagem and there could be no successful Plot without that infallible Noise But that which most supports my hopes is the King's want of Money The Fort Royal is defended by so many Cannons and Regular Fortifications that there is no way to take it but starving And to this end we have by a Solemn Vote made it Treason against the Parliament for the King or his Friends to supply his need without the consent of his Enemies For if it be in the power of Zeal Money or Perjury we will send him such Commons as shall never grant him a penny except he stake his Crown or some of the Jewels of it Pope I would have you declare in all the High Courts of Shops and Coffee-houses that a Parliament is as necessary to raise Money in England as a Purgatory at Rome But I am afraid your Church of England Tories have no more regard to Votes than you have for Proclamations And you have so alarm'd them by your late Arbitrary Proceedings that I am jealous that they should rather think it their Interest to make an honourable and timely Composition with the Crown by some considerable Benevolence than run the Adventure to be plunder'd by your Troops and sequester'd by your Committees I do allow your indisputable Maxim that the Poverty of the King is the interest of a Presbyterian House of Commons And you have wisely ordain'd that though the King should be reduc'd to the straitest Exigencies yet he must not so much as ask an Alms and if Necessity should teach him the common impudence to be a Beggar yet you have politicly resolved that it shall be a Crime to be charitable to the Crown without the leave of the Commons those High Almoners of England But Brother the Mischief is that you did once contribute your Money and Plate to carry on the War against the King without a Statute of Parliament Now this may become an unlucky Precedent and if ever the Cavaliers come to be considering Animals they may chance to conclude That they may as freely give their Gold to support the hands of Moses as you did to make the Golden Calf of a Commonwealth And that it were more Religion and Loyalty in their Prince's Extremity to contribute their money without a Parliament to preserve the King and Monarchy than it was for you to destroy them both by an Arbitrary Contribution Now this being the fatal Crisis of our Cause be sure you maintain with all possible confidence That for any one to cast in his Free-will-offerings into the Treasury or Corban of the Crown is Will-worship and Popery and as Antichristian a Superstition as Alms and Charity I wonder you have so long allow'd the King that Imperial Prerogative to be the sole Lord of the Mint it would have been a mighty Policy and Advantage if you could have shared in that Authority and Enacted that the Coin of England should have had the Image of the King stamp'd on one side and the Superscription of the Common-wealth on the other This would have been a Demonstration that he could never have had any Money without you There is an Apocryphal passage in the Gospel that would make us believe that Christ and St. Peter should pay Tribute to Caesar without the consent of the Sanhedrim and should tell the Jews they were oblig'd to do so too because the Money had the Image and Superscription of Caesar which did suppose their subjection to him and his intire Authority over them And I observe that Charles the Second in his English Coin is stamp'd more Romano and his Image looks like the Ancient Figure of Caesar Augustus I wish this be not ominous Phan. Peter's calling the King Supreme and his Example and Paul's Command of paying Tribute to Emperours because they are God's Ministers and upon the account of their care in Government does no way concern you or me for you know there were no Popes nor Parliaments in those dayes of Primitive Christianity Pope You have answer'd like an Oracle But suppose the Cavaliers should be such Fools as to shut their Purses till you cut them open and keep their Money till they lose their Lands though they should not present their Oblations yet the unwilling Sacrifices of our Estates which will be drawn from us by the Cords of Penal Laws will help to inrich the Crown and which is worst of all will give the King the Advantage to answer our Clamors of Arbitrary Power by destroying of us both according to Law Phan. I hope to prevent all these Mischiefs in the next Session of Parliament Pope But I am afraid that your Elect Members have been so often Reprobated by Prorogations and Dissolutions that they should be weary of appearing And if ever the King by any crafty Stratagem procure a Cavaliering Parliament who are Bigots for the Monarchy and Hierarchy of England both you and I are ruin'd and we are sure not to have one Friend in the three Estates Such a pack of Tories would restore the Use of Convocations and damn the Lay Committee for Religion they would contrive such Persian Laws that should
obviate your Elections to 〈◊〉 and cut off your Succession to the Chair Nay perhaps they would Resolve to burn the Votes and Journals of the two last Houses that your braver Affronts and oppositions to Princes may be no Advantage or Precedent to Posterity Phan. Sir I know the warm Temper of my own Members and that they have such a prurient Lust after Madam Respublica that they have a State Priapism and will stand as long as the Lower House is open and they shall never want the provocatives of Aurum Potabile for I will contribute as freely to raise a Parliament against the King as ever I did to levy Arms against him for I cannot well do this without the other Pope Truly Brother I begin to fear that the King will out-wit us both with all our Cabals and Cardinals That the Duke of York is a Romish Bigot is not so infallibly resolv'd at Rome as it is in Westminster What would you say if after all our noise the D. of Y. should declare to be no Papist and your D. of M. prove a decoy Protestant and that the Popery of the one and the Compliance of the other was onely an Intrigue to betray us both What 's the matter Phan. A little Faint Sir Pope Ho' Staffiere fetch me quickly some Elixir Libertatis Proprietatis Come what cheer now Phan. This will recover me But truly you conjur'd up such a Formidable Apparition that though I knew it to be but an Vmbra yet it had such a horrid Aspect that it almost frighted me into a Deliquium Pope I wish it may be onely a Phantom but what would you do if it should prove a Reality Phan. Why such a Miracle of Policy might perchance work another Wonder as great as that and convert me to Loyalty and Obedience but if my nature render such a Change impossible there were no living under so great a Sham and therefore when the Duke of York deserts you and the Duke of Mon forsakes me I will take the liberty to hang my self and so I shall yet live and dye in an Arbitrary way and both in Life and Death affront the Government Pope But what think you of sending the D. of Y. into Scotland Phan. I wish he were banish'd out of your Dominions and ours and yet I think you challenge a Jurisdiction over all the Kingdoms of the Earth besides the Territories of Purgatory I would you had him upon the Scala Santa at Rome or we upon a Scaffold on Tower-hill any where so he were not upon the same Terra Firma My Scottish Brethren say that he is posted like the threatning Angel at the Gates of Eden with a flaming Sword that turns to North and South and was planted there on purpose to stop their Passage and prevent their Return to Paradise Pope But do you really design to enthrone your D. of M. and ever trust that Lord of the Sun Tavern with the Chariot and Ranies of Government Phan. No Truly We know the natural Sons of Princes are begotten in an Arbitrary way against the Proceedings of Law and Property and therefore they are commonly born with an unhappy Inclination to unlimited Government and it is not Empire but Common-wealth that we are designing But you and I must have lost our ancient Politick if we cannot embroil one Monarchy by the divided names of two opposite Dukes Pope What think you of the Condition of Tangier In my Opinion the King 's securing that place without your Aid and against your Will was a mighty instance of his Power and Policy His gallant Fleet in the Mediterranean his victorious Arms at Tangier have made his name glorious in the Levant and I believe the Emperour of Morocco tho one of the Heads of the Dragon yet dare not address to him with so much Rudeness as the Tail of a House of Commons Phan. The preserving Tangier from the Assault of the Moors was one of the blackest Misfortunes that ever befell us for our Confederates in Africa intrench'd before that Town in a very Critical Juncture and if they had carried the place while my House of Comets were blazing it would have given us a brave Advantage to have storm'd the Throne for then we would have clamor'd against the King and charg'd him with the Ruine of our Levant Trade we would have brought the Loss of that Town into the Popish Plot and accus'd some Romish Officers for betraying the place to Infidels This would have so much lessen'd the King's Reputation both at home and abroad and so much serv'd our Interest in the promoting of popular Complaints that we could not have wish'd a happier Event but to preserve the place and to triumph too was so great a Disappointment that I begin to fear the old Prince of the Blacks will deceive us Indeed there was a time when we would have annex'd that Place to the Crown for fear it should have been remov'd into the Exchequer but to speak San's Complement I had rather Tangier should have been annex'd to the Crown Imperial of Morocco than to the Crown Imperial of England Pope Before we part I thing my self oblig'd to give you my Thanks for some late eminent Services First For your vigorous Pursuit of the excluding Bill There were some hundreds of years from the first Date of Anno Domini which are commonly call'd the first four Centuries when you and I had not a Being in the World In those days the Plain Christians kept themselves to the old fashion'd Modes of Primitive Christianity and observ'd the meaner Habits of Meekness Humility and Patience with a tame Subjection to secular Powers and tho sometimes they had the Command of Forts and Castles and valiant Armies yet they were so silly as to truckle to a Pagan Successor and suffer him to ascend the Throne without any Affront or Disturbance But you and I have learn'd braver Principles and taught the World that Dominion is founded in Grace that is in your Favour and Mine Now if like these Primitive Fools you had left the Throne to the Right and Descent of Law and Nature and to the quiet disposure of Providence then I am confident if the Duke had surviv'd the King that he would never have render'd his short Reign uneasie by removing the Boundaries of an establish'd Religion and Government but would have thought himself oblig'd in Generosity to have been Defender of that Faith and of that People who had never given him the least Disquiet I am not yet assur'd that the Duke is a Zealot in my Religion but you do well to report him to be so and you have taken a Course to make him one and I thank you for that That which next merits my Thanks is your Bill for uniting Protestants for you have so ingeniously contriv'd the Project that it will equally serve your Interest and mine for you only exclude the Roman Tongue but in others allow a Confusion of Languages and suffer every Division to enjoy their own Dialect and yet by an Almighty Vote resolve that ninety and nine Divisions shall be but one single Unite and the same Idiom Brother if ever you can effect this I will grant you to be a greater Conjurer than I and that you have out-done the mystery of Transubstantiation This politick Stratagem would introduce so great a Confusion into the Church of England that many wiser men would come over to Rome and think it the better Babel of the two In my opinion your uniting Device does far exceed a Toleration for that would leave the Church of England to enjoy it's distinct Order and Establishment but this cunning Contrivance and mystical Union would confound the Glory and Discipline of that Church which is the greatest Envy of Rome and Geneva I have yet no hopes to repeal the 23. but I thank you for your endeavours of repealing the 35th of Eliz. That Fundamental establishing Law of rank Protestant Religion I do dispence with your observing of Queen Elizabeth's day and the pompous burning of my Effigies so you will but damn the Statutes of Jesabel for that was her ancient Title among yours and mine I hope next Parliament tho you meet in a new place you will pursue your old Votes and Resolutions Phan. We call it Popery to confess an Error and scorn the Superstition of Repentance we have already offended beyond the hopes of Oblivion and have no other method to secure our Indemnity but by proceeding to higher Crimes Pope Well dear Brother I must leave you a while to divert your melancholy Thoughts with the pleasant Prospects of the Frescati I have appointed a Consult with my Cardinals about the Liberties of the Gallican Church and the Regalities of Franee and I will leave it to your Care to undermine the Prelacy and Prerogatives of the Church and Monarchy of England FINIS The Pope's Countrey-House Villages where the Pope and Cardinals have their Country Houses