End agree with that of Popery which is to Exterminate Hereticks By the Law of Government we are Objects of Protection by the Law of Popery we are Subjects of Destruction The Prince receives from God and the Society a Power to protect his People but he receives from the Church his Mother an Order to destroy them as Condemn'd Hereticks And which of these two Orders think you shall prevail with a Popish King above the other Why thot in which he is most Concern'd and to which Eternal Recompences are inseparably annex'd And then in what a sad Condition were the Protestants of England in the Reign of the late King Thirdly Against 3. The Law of Royalty to which Popery in the Case suppos'd has an absolute Antipathy as will appear if you consider that all Royalty necessarily contains three Things viz. the Consent of the People engaging to obey the Consent of the King promising to protect and the Manner by which the King and People confirm their Promises which is a Religious Oath Now a Popish Prince that governs a Protestant People will be always wanting on his part of the Contract if he takes the Maxims of his own Religion for the Rule of his Government 'T is a Contradiction to believe he will act against his own Inclination or that he will cancel the Antecedent Obligation which he was under to the Church his Mother in preserving Hereticks that are not a People but a loose sort of Animals doom'd to Destruction Does the Prince break his Faith in not performing the Oath he took when Invested with his Kingly Authority and promis'd to protect his People No say the Directors of his Conscience The Oath was against the Laws of Holy Church therefore sinful and void Besides say they the Prince took the Oath with Intention to break it and the Intention must always govern the Action especially when it falls under the Church's General Rule of not keeping Faith with Hereticks 4. To dismiss this Argument Popery is particularly against the Laws of a Mix'd Monarchy such as England's is because the Prince believes he has a Right to treat Hereticks as he pleases and may lawfully take away their Lives and seize their Estates without doing them any kind of Injustice for being fallen from the Right of Society he can do them no Wrong Besides All Princes that attribute to themselves an Absolute Power think they owe an Account of their Actions to none but God and a Prince under the Circumstances that we have observed will never think he displeases God by destroying Hereticks * Durand a San. Port. quaest 5. utr sint tolerand that as their Writers say are Enemies to GOD and Man So that we see the Advancement of Popery in a Protestant Kingdom is a necessary Introduction of Tyranny and Intails a Law of Misery and Desolation upon all Protestants And such was King James's Design here Let no Man argue the Impossibility of Introducing Popery into this Kingdom because the Number of Papists are but small in respect of the Protestants for that will not render the Design Impracticable but rather make the Execution of it more cruel and barbarous A whole Nation upon the matter must be coâ—rupted from the Faith of the True Religion or be destroy'd You know what Progresses were made towards it by Tying all Preferments to Popery Unarming Protestants putting the whole Strength and Power of the Kingdom into the Hands of Papists and sending over Irish Soldiers to increase a needless and dangerous Army And what this might have grown to in time was easier to foresee than Remedy for an Ordinary Strength Unresisted might Assassinate a whole Nation Fifthly 5. In the Heat of the late King's Zeal and Fury to procure such a Parliament as might set up a Power and Interest agreeable to his Humour and destructive to the Kingdom Quo Warranto's like Bombs were thrown into Cities and Boroughs to destroy the Freedom of Elections which is the Foundation of Government for What will become of the Liberty of Parliaments without the Freedom of Elections And how can England enjoy their Privileges without the Freedom of Parliaments All which were to be violated at once by this Undermining Project and Persons must be imposed upon them for their Representatives in Parliament which were none of their Choice but Press'd by a Popish Court and solely at their King's Devotion Some are pleas'd to express themselves in very harsh Language against that which they call the Pentionary Parliament as more zealous for the Advantage of the Crown than the Welfare of the Kingdom But what dreadful Consequences might be predicted from a Parliament consisting both of Papists and Popish Pensioners if it had been possible for the late King to have accomplish'd his Designs are almost beyond the Power of Melancholy to suggest them in Figures black enough to express their Horrour The Choice of a Parliament that would do whatever he thought fit was the only thing wanting therefore all things were dispos'd and regulated after such a manner as might bring such a sort of Men together at Westminster as might gratifie his Popish Arbitrary Ends and Vote Protestants to be the main Grievance of the Nation 6. Another Intrigue of the late King 's was to Ruin the Kingdom by a Chain of Consequences and as the Destruction of the Liberties of England was the Overthrow of the Protestant Religion so he would make the Subversion of our Religion serve to destroy our Liberties This made him impatiently covet that Papists might be freed from the Penal Laws and Tests which were the Barriers to Defend the Nation from Romish Usurpation And this piece of Tyranny above all the rest is most notorious A Protestant Nation makes Laws to preserve themselves from being Victims of Popish Fury These Laws were necessary at all times but more especially under the Reign of a King that had been pleas'd to declare himself a Papist and yet these are the Laws that the late King would violate and not violate only but utterly * Non tam commutandarum sed evertendarum rerum cupidi Abolish and persecuted those who had a Zeal to preserve them Imprisoning some Destituting others and Threatning all without Exception that dar'd to gain-say it For this End he rais'd an Army kept it up in Time of Peace and put into it as many Irish as he could find of the Posterity of those who committed the Barbarous and Bloody Murthers and Massacres on the Bodies of English Protestants in 1641. and to do the like to us in England or force us to submit to the cruel Yoke of Slavery and Superstition 'T is natural for a Prince to Raise Forces for the Defence of his Dominions when he fears Enemies from abroad But to entertain an Army in Times of Peace only to Rob his People of their Laws and Privileges to Ravage his Universities and to put publick Destroyers into the Govent must surely pass for a manifest Tyranny Our
Laws do not only totally exclude Papists from Military Offices but injoin them to be Disarm'd also Notwithstanding James the Second did not only Arm them but put them into the First Employments of the Army and all other Stations And was so fond of them that no Consideration either of Quality Loyalty or Merit except he was a Papist could Recommend any Man to this King's Favour or give him Title to the common Kindness of a Civil Reception but all were Smil'd or Frown'd on as they were distinguish'd by their Religious Principles Men may live happily under a Government and yet be excluded from having any Office or exercising any Authority under it and therefore the late King's Fondness and the Papists Forwardness to thrust themselves into Employments gave a great Suspition that it was for no good End that he put Wise and Experienc'd Men out to make room for a sort of Raw Papists who being not us'd to Publick Business were not capacitated for it No Man can imagin that the late King made this bold Adventure in Employing Papists for nothing or that he would disoblige the Body of his People for their sakes only without designing some other Advantage to himself by it He must have some peculiar Service for these Unqualify'd Favourites to do in which the rest of the Nation would not inter-meddle The Contest was between the King 's Absolute Power on the one side and our Laws and Religion on the other And therefore to know what Work their King had for them to do and to what End he would have employ'd these Services here is but to see Vide State of Ireland under the Reign of the late King James what Use he put them to in Ireland and how they demean'd themselves towards Protestants where the Scene was open'd and all manner of Violences committed upon Protestants by his Authority He also corrupted the Exercise of Justice on which depends the Safety of the Nation and the Stability of the Throne The Judges were Tamper'd with and Admitted upon Condition of favouring and promoting the late King 's Arbitrary Power and the Popish Interest Those Judges were Depos'd who were fix'd in their Religion and Resolutely defended the True Interest of their Country and others put into their Places of no Honour Integrity or Capacity but known Temporizers or Papists who were excluded by the Laws of their Country Upon this follow'd very Arbitrary and Illegal Proceedings in the Courts of Judicature A Prosecution was carry'd on against Seven Reverend Prelates for Petitioning the King to Redress their Grievances and giving their Reasons why they could not obey his Arbitrary Commands Causes were Try'd in the Court of King's Bench that were only Cognizable in Parliament Partial Corrupt and Unqualify'd Persons were Return'd and Serv'd on Juries in Cases of High Treason that were not Free-Holders Great Bail requir'd of Persons Committed in Criminal Causes Excessive Fines Impos'd for small Offences Illegal and Cruel Punishments Inflicted without Example or Law to warrant them And for a finishing Stroke The late King was also pleas'd to Grant and Seal a Commission to several Unqualify'd Persons to Examine the Revenues and Search into the Foundations of all the Hospitals in the Kingdom and see to what Uses they were first given by their Benefactors And into the Estates that some time ago belong'd to Monks Friars and other Religious Orders of the Romish Church with Intent to Restore them to the Papists who complain'd to the late King that they were Wrongfully Depriv'd of them In brief Never any Prince in so short a time committed so many Irregularities and made such Inroads upon our All as James the Second did by his Dispencing Power in England his Absolute Power without Reserve in Scotland and his Actual and Absolute Destruction of the Liberties and Religion of the Protestants in Ireland To which if we add the more than seeming Probability of the late King 's Leaguing with France for the Extirpation of the Northern Heresie 't will compleat his Design and make the intended Ruin of England unavoidable for more Hands would have made lighter Work and Experienc'd Artists would have finish'd it sooner I will not urge this League as a plain and positive Truth tho' I am strongly inclin'd to believe it and therefore shall only produce my Reasons and leave them with the Reader to judge as he pleases Mr. Coleman who must be presum'd to know much of his Master's Mind being in the same Interest and the Tool he work'd with in all his Secret Practices gives great Suspicion of the Truth of this Combination in a Letter to Sir William Throgmorton Feb. 1. 1678. You well know saith he that when the Duke comes to be Master of our Affairs i. e. to be King of England the King of France will have Reason to promise himself All things that he can desire And in a Letter to Father Le Chaise Confessor to the French King he says That His Royal Highness was convinc'd that His Interest and the King of France 's were the same And whether he ever thought fit to change his Mind since his Accession to the Crown his own Actions will better declare than any Gloss of mine In this State of Amity Things continu'd between the French King and the Duke of York till he was King And when the Prince of Orange's Fleet was preparing for his Noble Expedition into England they seem'd to rest on the same Foot for Monsieur le Comte d' Avaux the French King's Ambassador at the Hague in a Memorial to the States General acquaints them That his Master knowing the great Preparations for War that their Lordships were making both by Sea and Land was not without some Design form'd answuerable to the greatness of those preparations and his Master believing that it threaten'd England he had Commanded him to declare on his part that the Bands of Friendship and Allyance between him and the King of Great Britain will oblige him not only to assist him but also to look upon the first Act of Hostility that shall be committed by your Troops or your Fleet against his Majesty of Great Britain as a manifest Rupture of the Peace and a Breach with his Crown To this Memorial the States of Holland gave Answer That they Arm'd after the Example of their Neighbours to be ready upon Occasion 'T is true the French Ambassador does not mention the League in express words yet he gives very shrewd Hints that there was some such thing as a League or an Equivilent between the two Crowns and so the States of Holland took it For in their Answer to the English * The Marquiss d'Arbaville Ambassadors's Memorial their Lordships tell him That they were long since fully convinc'd of the Allyance which the King his Master had treated with France and which has been mention'd by Mr. Le Comte d'Avaux in his Memorial The Industry and Care that has been us'd to stifle this League does also
they had Power made no use of it to free themselves by throwing off their Tyrannical Emperors Their Lots fell to them under an Absolute Government and they remain'd contented with the Dispensation of God's All-wise Providence But may I not be permitted to say their Natural Liberty to cast off their heavy Yoke was restrain'd by Christian Prudence The Church was yet in too narrow a Room but was intended by God Almighty to be spread thro' the other Parts of the World and therefore Rulers would have been far more averse from admitting the Propagators of it into their Territories if the Christians had contracted the Imputation of Turbulency by standing upon their Natural Right to defend themselves whereas their Lamb-like Deportment gave them an easier Access to all Places and Persons And if their Forbearance and Patience was the Fruit of this sole Prudential Consideration their Successors are not so much oblig'd to the same Course in those Countries where Crowns and Sceptres have submitted to the Cross and the Christian Religion has obtain'd a Civil Right of Protection and Immunity from Persecution for then they ought not they cannot relinquish this Right no more than they can destroy themselves or suffer Violence and Cruelty to destroy the Innocent And what is said of the Christian Religion in reference to Paganism holds also true between the Reform'd Religion and Popery But The great Objection which they call Unanswerable is yet behind viz. That a King in Scripture-Language is call'd a Father to honour a Father is the Fifth Commandment and therefore the Obedience of a Subject is as immutably fasten'd to him whatever his Miscarriages are as that of a Natural Son to a Vicious Barbarous Parent A powerful Objection which is always in their Mouths on a double Account But if I can prove that a Natural Father may lose his Claim to his Son's Obedience their King 's Right to our Obedience must fall with it and proves his Abdication Lawful which I shall attempt by giving these several Things in Answer all grounded upon no mean Authorities And First 1. The Appellation Father only describes the Nature of the Kingly Office which is the Tender Care and Studious Regard he ought to exercise for the Safety and Prosperity of his Subjects It tells not what he always is but what he always should be And while he carries it to his People as a Father it is no less than a Damnable Sin not to pay him a Filial Obedience But whether the late King James had any Claim to our Duty upon that Consideration I leave it to the Reader who by this time has had a Glimpse of his Conversation Secondly Our Obligation to obey Natural Parents must give place to our Endeavours to preserve our Country Cicero saw this by the Light of Nature and therefore says * Quid si Tyranidem aucâ—pare si patriam prodere conabitur Pater Selebitne filius Imo vero obsecrabit patrem ne id faciat si nihil proficiet accusabit minabitur etiam ad extremum si ad pernitiem Patriae res spectabit Patriae salutem anteâ—onâ—t saluti patris If a Father acts the part of a Tyrant and endeavours the Destruction of his Country the Son may lawfully oppose him and if he will not be reclaim'd and brought to Reason the Son may accuse him threaten him with Punishment or confine him being oblig'd to prefer the Safety of his own Country before the private Satisfaction of his Father Thirdly 3. A Natural Father by repeated Acts of Barbarity and Cruelty upon his Son alone may forfeit all Just Claims to his Son 's Filial Obedience Let us put the Case A Man who lives near the Sea harbours and cherishes in his Mind a perfect Hatred of his Son upon Contrariety in Religion or some other Cause and in the Heat of his Fury resolves to destroy him History will warrant this Supposition and therefore to prevent the Eye and Censure of the World privately binds him puts him in a Chest and carries him to the Sea-side at Low-Water Mark that the Returning Flood may carry him to his Death I also suppose that after the Son has floated a while in this helpless hopeless Condition a Ship or Boat coming by the Mariners take him up and save that Life which his Father Intentionally and Actually thought he had made away In this Case The Father can never have any Right to his Son's After-Obedience because he endeavour'd to destroy that Being wherein the Relation and Duty was founded And is a good Argument to oblige us to a Grateful and Dutiful Return to our Great Deliverer King William but utterly destroys the Pretence of a Paternal Right in the late King James after he had converted his Power of Preservation into a Power of Desolation and Destruction because he had destroy'd the Relation on which our Duty was Originally founded and without which he had no Claim to it In such and Easier Cases than now is put Wise Men for above a Thousand Years together have judg'd that such Cruel Fathers have lost all Just Title to their Abus'd Children as may be read in the Decrees of the Emperors Valentinianus Valens and Gratianus directed to Probus the Prefect Recorded by Justinianus Codicis liber octavus Tit. 52. and in the Decree of Justinian the Emperor directed to Demosthenes his Praetorian Prefect By all which it appears that a Man's exposing his own Child in a Box or Basket on the High-way at a Stranger 's Door or elsewhere where he is sure to perish unless some Charitable Hand by chance takes him up and preserves him amounts in Sound Judgment to the Forfeiture of his Claim to their future Obedience supposing their Casual Preservation notwithstanding the firm Tyes of Nature and Property All the great Interpreters of the Civil Law from Justinian hitherto have approv'd the afore-cited Judgment Baldus Salycetus and others have done it of old and the latter Swarms of Civilians Hermannius Vulteius Harpprectus c. have given their Assent to it All which I shall wave and only recite the Words of Hadrianus Saravia who tho' a Stranger was in respect of his great Learning preferr'd here by Queen Elizabeth He expresses the Sense of all the rest in his First Book de Imperandi Authoritate Christiana Obedientia in saying that * Qui recens natos Infantes abjiciunt feris devorandos aut a quovis tollendos omne jus paternum simul objeciunt Nihil enim genuisse promerentur nisi Natos educaverint Cap. 2. if Parents grow so unnatural and cruel to the Issue of their own Loins as to expose them to Wild Beasts or by other Cruelties endeavour to deprive them of their Lives they forfeit all kind of Paternal Right to and Authority over their Children because they had divested themselves of Humanity and not answer'd the End for which God and Nature design'd them which was to educate and preserve their Children but not do them any
the Designs of Ambitious Rival Princes His Rare and Distinguish'd Wisdom and Conduct has bless'd us with so happy a Change that even our Interest combines with our Duty and is complicated with it Blessed be God we have now a King that is a Defender of our Faith a Sovereign to whom it hath so far approv'd it self as he hath given the Nation all imaginable Security of our Religion Laws and Properties and that they shall never be again in danger of being depriv'd of them for the future in which all good Men Rejoice and Triumph and no Men doubt the Sincerity of it but those whose own Guilt renders them always Suspitious and Diffident of all Mankind Add hereto that as His Majesty's Personal Merits has engag'd our Obedience so are we also oblig'd to it by that Singular Providence that has still attended and Miracles of it guarded his Sacred Person through all the Fatigues and Dangers of War and set His Majesty on a steady Throne in Peace How Plain and Visible then is the Argument for Obedience to his Sovereignty in our Case And how effectually ought it to work upon this Generation when the greatest Favours and Kindnesses on Earth Invite and when Miracles from Heaven command our Duty and Obedience to him Thus are we oblig'd to obey King William for his own sake It remains also as a Duty upon us that we obey His Majesty for God's sake and that I hope will keep it firm in this wavering Generation I mean when our Subjection is founded where it truly ought to be viz. upon Reasons of Religion upon Principles of Conscience and Duty to God which St. Peter calls Submitting for the Lord's sake And I hope I need not dwell long upon this Head amongst Christians for if the plain Principles of the New Testament may be allow'd to be a Rule of Conscience and God's immediate Commands do lay any Obligations upon us then it is evident that Men are as immediately ty'd to the Duty of Obedience to their Prince in point of Conscience as to any other Duty whatsoever Let Conscience be as Free as Men assert it to be and Accountable to God only yet it cannot be dispenc'd withall in this Duty For if Government be God's Institution Kings his Vicegerents and that he hath charg'd all Men to be obedient to them and their Lawful Commands upon pain of Damnation and his highest Displeasure then I am sure if Conscience be an honest Respect to God and his Laws it must necessarily oblige all Men in this Instance If St. Paul and St. Peter understood the Obligation of Conscience or were able to direct the Obedience of it no more need be added on this Subject than to desire Men to open their Bibles and Read their Duty from those Apostles tho' if need were I might appeal to the Old Testament the Doctrine and Example of the Blessed Jesus in the New the Consonant Doctrine and Practice too of the Antient and Best Christians to Vouch the Truth of Obedience to Kings for the Lord's sake And therefore I shall close up this Discourse with my Hearty Wishes That God Almighty would please to Bless Preserve Protect and Keep King William that we may long enjoy him and all those Great and Invaluable Blessings which by him God has vouchsafed to us And that God would so Rule the Heart of his Chosen Servant William our King and Governour that he knowing whose Minister he is may above all things seek his Honour and Glory And that we and all his Subjects duly considering whose Authority he hath may faithfully Serve Honour and Humbly Obey him in God and for God according to his Blessed Word and Ordinance FINIS ADVERTISEMENT A True History of the several Designs and Conspiracies against His Majesty's Person and Government As they were continually carry'd on from 1688 to 1697. Containing Matters Extracted from Original Papers Depositions of the Witnesses and Authentick Records as appears by the References to the Appendix wherein they are Digested Publish'd with no other Design than to acquaint the English Nation that notwithstanding the present Posture of Affairs our Enemies are still so Many Restless and Designing that all Imaginable Care ought to be taken for the Defence and Safety of His MAJESTY and His Three Kingdoms By the same Author Sold by Abel Roper at the Black Boy against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street