Firebrand that should one day set their Troy in flames immediately upon this the afflicted King as a true Father of his Country notwithstanding all the compunctions of Nature and tyes of Blood was so far from cherishing even his own Race and a Branch of himself that he ordered the Infant to be brought up amongst Swains as the Son of a Shepherd where divested of all his Princely Fortunes and ignorant of his own high Blood he should end his days in ignoble obscurity And all this out of the prophetick horror but of a dream that seemed to threaten the peace and safety of his Kingdom And how much more reason has the present power of England for effectually opposing Popery by disinheriting a Popish Successor when under a Popish Monarch our Troynovant has the undeniable assurance of being put into a flame when Priams fear was but a Dream How fabulous soever this Story may appear yet I am certain we have too much reason to esteem the Moral of it Oraculous And surely our present greatest Sticklers for an unbroken Succession of the Crown must of all Mankind set but a very little price upon their Countrey and conclude our England the most inconsiderable part of Christendom when the interest of one man shall outweigh that of Three Kingdoms with the whole safety of Religion itself and the Glory of God to fill up the Ballance But indeed they are resolved to be positive and be the next of Blood a Papist or a Mahumetan yet if he be born to it let him Govern us And truely I cannot forbear to repeat one of their commonest Arguments and as they think strongest which is If the Son of a private Gentleman though a Papist shall inherit and quietly possess his hereditary Estate is it not hard nay barbarous Injustice That the Son of a King and the Heir of a Crown should lose his Patrimony of Three Kingdoms for being a Papist Though this Argument as Argumentum à Fortiori has mighty sound in 't yet how feeble will it appear when the Analogy shall be examin'd The Papist Gentleman that 's born to an Estate may peaceably inherit it yes and with some reason for it For he 's a Subject of a Protestant Kingdom and as such has Protestant Laws to rule him He can neither force his Neighbour or his Tenant to Mass or imprison or burn 'em for Hereticks nor seize their Estates as forfeited to Rome whilst he is a Papist His Religion is only to himself and if he takes any violent or unlawful course to propagate his own Perswasion he 's not so big but he may be brought into Westminster-hall to answer for it Nay possibly the Papist Subject under a Protestant Government may sometimes behave himself as a more harmless and quiet Common-wealths-man than a Protestant himself if for no other than his own preservation as not daring to awaken that Justice that may inflict the penal Statutes against him for his Recusancy But how directly contrary to all this is the influence of a Romish Heir when there is not one of all these destructive qualities of which a private man can ne're be guilty that he on the other side shall not vigorously and undoubtedly put in execution when once the acquisition of a Crown has Enabled him for it as we have at large discoursed before And if the Princely Popish Heir be disinherited when a private Gentleman escapes 't is not for his Religion for that may be alike in both but for his uncontrolable power of establishing that Religion which a Royal station will inevitably give him Alas the Protestant strength is above the fear of any little Popish Beasts of prey It only behoves their safety to hunt the Imperial Lyon down If then the English Blood boils so high and the access of a Papist to a Throne must necessarily meet a passage so difficult with all these solid Bars between if his Religion were as Honourable as 't is invincible what deathless Fame and what eternal Trophies might a Popish Heir atchieve if the welfare of a King and Kingdoms could so far influence him as freely of himself to make the union of King and people a work of his own creation by slacking the fatal strength of a too generous Brothers over-violent Friendship and so rendring our universal peace his inclination and not necessity I remember in the old Roman History when a long Plague had reigned in Rome and an Earthquake had opened a prodigious Gulph in the middle of the Forum their Consulteo Oracle told 'em that neither the Plague should be stopt nor the breach closed till the most noble Victim in Rome had appeased their angry Deity When Curtius a Noble Youth of Rome of the best and highest Roman quality most princely adorn'd and most gallantly mounted on Horseback with a look so gay and so cheerful more like that of a Bridegroom than a Sacrifice amidst a thousand wondering tender eyes around him rode headlong into the yawning pit Thus falling unterrified at so dreadful a precipice for his Countries deliverance he extorted the promise of the Oracle for the Pestilence ceased and the closing Earth sealed up his Grave The voluntary resignation of a Popish Heir would be no less a signal National service in the present exigence of England than that of Curtius in Rome only 't is attended with milder circumstances Our State as dangerous as it is does not require any Sanguinary Sacrifice The Cure he might make to all our plagues would be only the easier oblation of quitting the doubtful prospect of a remote and Craggy Throne and that too to refix a shaking Crown to regain the hearts of a whole Nation and build himself that Pyramid of Honour which would outshine the wearing a Diadem Besides let Plotting but once end and the Pendant Sword which like that of Damocles hangs but by a Hair o're our Soveraigns Head be safely sheath'd and give Nature fair play the little disparity of their years considered the resigning of a Crown in all humane probability would not appear at so much distance and such uncertainty altogether so extravagant an offering especially when 't is made for a King and Brothers safety and glory a Kingdoms peace and prosperity nay indeed the whole repose of Christendom when the concordance of the King and Parliament is the greatest means for strengthening those Forreign Alliances that may give check to the fatal growth of France Nay above all this what Immortal Glory would it bring even to the Romish Religion it self when a Prince so immediately Allied to a Crown shall voluntary lay aside the hopes and pretensions to a Temporal Diadem for an Immortal one And how many more at least more Hearty Converts would so transcendent an example of piety make beyond the utmost severer influence of a Throne Nay I may even without flattery say the deed would make him so adorable that for losing a Crown he would almost raise himself an Altar But Rome
and not his fault More especially provided he is onely passive and that we plainly see that during his being this Popish Heir he acts nothing that may encourage or favour Popery in the least Pray by the way How must it follow that if we do not plainly see him act that therefore he must not act Does no man act but he that publickly treads the Stage Does no man sit at the Helm but he that visibly holds the Rudder Does no wind stir the troubled Sea into a Tempest but what the poor Mariners both hear and feel no Storm but that which lightens in their Eyes and thunders in their Ears to warn 'em 't is a coming Alas alas the greatest Hurricanes are onely made by subterranean Winds A secret silent underground-working Mine of Ruine which never bursts out till it destroys and which no man hears or sees till he is lost But to return to the Objection 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 irresistible motives that prompt him to their execution which is the same thing The injunctions of his Conscience make him as active now in the ruining a Kingdoms peace as he was passive in it before For who can be so void of common sense as not to know that the same impulse of Conscience that makes a man a Roman Catholick will make him act like one when opportunity serves And what greater opportunity to establish Popery than for a Papist to wear a Crown And tho' perhaps the stubborn English Genius will not easily bend to the Superstition of Rome yet since his Almighty Friend the Pope the undisputed Keeper of the Keys of Paradise will no doubt assigne him no common Diadem in Heaven for so glorious a Task as a Nations Conversion who then will not make that sacred Work the study of years which cannot be accomplisht in a day for such a Reward Especially when he has these two infallible Arguments to spur him on in so godly a Cause First then he is of a Religion that makes humane Merit the path to Salvation Merit the Roman Catholick Exchequer Rome's bottomless Golden Mine Merit that makes the frighted dying sinner starve his own Blood and pawn his Estate to redeem his Soul Merit that drains the Wealth of Nations into the priestly Coffers and makes the Luxury of a World the pamper'd riotous Church-mans Inheritance Merit that can make a Loretto-Chappel vie with a Venetian Arsenal and Rome's Altars Cloysters and Covents rise so high so rich so numerous and so magnificent tho' the impoverisht Widows groans and the naked Orphans cryes do little less towards the building than a second Amphion Nay Merit that can consecrate Daggers and kill Kings Thus whilst he has the Wonder-working Merit for his Tutor what greater and more meritorious act to canonize him a Saint of the first magnitude than the converting of an Apostatized Heretical Kingdom And then next he is of a Religion that does not go altogether in the old-fashion Apostolical way of preaching and praying and teaching all Nations c. but scourging and wracking and broiling 'em into the fear of God A Religion that for its own propagation will at any time authorize its Champions to divest themselves of their humanity and act worse than Devils to be Saints And thus whilst neither the cries of Blood can deter him on the one side and so no Tyranny come amiss to him and next that he has the undeniable assurance of the greatest blessings of Eternity to encourage him on the other with these advantages who would not be as active as a second Romulus and with all his utmost vigour and pride build up his Romes new Walls tho' he made his nearest nay the Nations dearest blood their Cement And thus what is a Popish Heir but the most terrible and the most dangerous of Englands Enemies and of all our Foes has the most inflexible invincible Enmity Nay the very outrages of Thefts Murders Adulteries and Rebellions are nothing to the pious Barbarities of a Popish King The Murderer and Adulterer may in time be reclaimed by the precepts of Morality and the terrours of Conscience The Thief by the dread of a Gallows may become honest Nay the greatest Traytor either by the fear of Death or the apprehensions of Hell may at last repent But a Papist on a Throne has an unconfutable vindication for all his proceedings challenges a Commission even from Heaven for all his Cruelty dares act And when the enchantments of Rome have toucht his Tongue with a Coal from her Altars what do his Enthusiasms make him believe but that the most savage and most hellish Dooms his blinded zeal can pronounce are the immediate Oracles of God and all the Apology a poor Nation can expect from him is He cannot help it I but say the wisest Criticks we have met with yet if these be the dangers of a Popish King why have we not such strong such potent Laws made before this popish Heir come to the Crown that it shall be impossible for him ever to set up Popery though he should never so much endeavour it To this I answer To endeavour to set up Popery by Law even with the Laws that we have already against it is impossible and therefore the very supposition of the Projection that way is nonsence And on the other side to conclude he 'll endeavour to do it against Law and so to make new Laws on purpose for him to break them with their fellows is worse nonsence than t'other Besides Who shall call this King to question for breaking these Laws if he has the power and will to do it I fancy that the onely nearest illustration I can make upon this point in creating new Laws against Popery in case of a Popish Successor is as politick a piece of work in the kinde as building the Hedge to fence in the Cuckow 'T is true I will not deny but a Popish King may be totally restrain'd from all power of introducing Popery by the force of such Laws that may be made to tye up his hands but then they must be such as must ruine his Prerogative and put the executive power of the Laws into the hands of the People If a King of England were no more than a Stadt-holder in Holland or a Duke of Venice no doubt Popery would have little hopes of creeping into England which is in short he that is no King can be no Tyrant But what Monarch will be so unnatural to his own Blood so ill a Defender and so weak a Champion for the Royal Dignity he wears as to sign and ratifie such Laws as shall entail that
he believes can onely open them the Gates of Paradise whilst in so doing he cannot but accuse himself of copying the old Jewish Cruelty Nay in one respect he out-goes their Crime for he acts that knowingly which they committed ignorantly For by the Dictates of his Religion he must be convinc'd that in effect he does little less than save a Barabbas and crucifie a Jesus 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 Proselytes of Heaven Which is no other than to speak him the basest of Men and little less than a Monster Besides 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 Crown'd Head and what hope England has of such a Successour I leave all Men of Sense to judge Besides What mis-match'd incongruous Ingredients must go to make up this Composition of a King His Hand and Heart must be of no Kin to one another He must be so inhumane to those very darling Jesuits that like Mahomet's 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 Air to those very Ravens that daily croak Abhorrence and Confusion to them and all their holy Dreams and their false Oracles Thus whilst he acts quite contrary to all his Inclinations against the whole bent of his Soul what does he but publickly 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 Romes continual Bulls bellowing against him as an undutiful unactive 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 Lukewarmness of his Religion another the Pusilanimity of his Nature all Roman Catholick Princes deriding the feebleness of his Spirit and the tameness of his Arm till at long run to spare a Faggot in Smithfield he does little less than walk on hot Irons himself Thus all the Pleasure he relishes on a Throne is but a kind of Good-Fryday Entertainment In stead of a Royal Festival his rioting in all the Luxury of his Heart to see Romes Dagon worshipp'd Romes Altars smoak Romes Standard set up Romes Enemies defeated and his victorious Mother Church triumphant his abject and poor-spirited Submission denies himself the only thing he thirsts for And whilst the Principles he sucks 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 However if there be such a King in Nature as will not defend his own Religion because he dares not but sneaks upon a Throne and in obedience to his Fear shrinks from the Dictates of his Conscience and the Service of his God If like Jupiters Log such a King can be and Fate has ordain'd us for a Popish Prince pray Heaven shrowd the Imperial Lion in this innocent Lambs-skin But I am afraid we shall scarce be so happy and I shrewdly suspect that all those cunning Catholick Trumpetters who in all Companies found the Innocence of a Popish Successour and flatter us with such a hopeful harmless peaceful Prince in a Papist have a little of the Romish Mental Reservation in the Promises they make us and no small Jesuitical Equivocation in the Airy Castles they build us But I have heard some say Why may there not be a zealous Prince of any Religion who still out of the meer Principles of Morality shall have that tenderness and sense of his Peoples Peace as to trouble himself about Religion no farther than concerns his own Salvation and therefore continue the Administration of Laws and Devotion in the same Channel he found them And all this his meer Morality shall do Alas alas If he 's a Bigot in Religion all his Morals are Slaves to his Zeal Nay grant him to be the most absolute Master of all the Cardinal Vertues there 's not one of them that shall not be a particular Instrument for our Destruction As for Example allow him Fortitude suppose him a Prince of matchless Courage So much the 2worse what does that but make him the more daring and more adventurous in pushing on the Cause of Rome and with a more undaunted and manly patience bear all the Oppositions he meets in the way If he be a Man of Justice that still makes for Rome for whilst he believes the Pope to be Christ's Lawful Vicar and that that Office includes the Ecclesiastical Supremacy no doubt but he 'll think it as much the Duty of his Cstristianity to give the Pope his Right as to take his own And in Christ's own Words that give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar 's and unto God those things that are God's he 'll certainly judge the Popes Restoration as great a piece of Justice as his own Coronation Then if he be a Master of Temperance in the properest sense of this Moral Vertue viz. a Man that can govern his Passions that 's still as bad For he that has the most bridled Passions has always the firmest and steadiest Resolutions Who so renown'd for Constancy so fixt in his Resolves and so unalterable in his determin'd Purposes as that Philip of Spain who was never heard to rage or scarce seen to frown Nay History gives this Character of him That after the discovery of his Queens Adultery with his own Son at the same minute that he order'd her a Bowl of Poyson he did not so much as change his Look or Voice either to his treacherous Son or his incestuous Wife And what so fit a Pillar for Popery as such Constancy in a King But if we take Temperance in its larger signification viz. the self-denial of a Man's Worldly Appetites still worse and worse For a Riotous Luxurious Monarch bounds his Ambition wholly in the Pleasures of a Crown resigns his Reins to his Charioteers and leaves the Toil of Power to his Subordinate Magistrates like the Work of Fate to Second Causes whilst his Intemperance so slackens his Zeal that it unbends those very Nerves which otherwise might be more strenuously wound up for our Destruction And lastly If he has Prudence that 's worst of all That 's his onely winning Card the onely leading Vertue that manages his Policies and Conduct with that Care and Art till he effects the Business of
Rome and ripens that mighty Work to a perfection which otherwise an overforward fool-hardy Zeal by ill management might destroy Thus his very Cardinal Vertues are the absolute Hinges that open the Gates to Rome Alas where Superstition rules the day all Moral Vertues are but those lesser Lights that take their Illumination from that greater Orb above ' em And thus what boots it in a Popish Heir to say he 's the truest Friend the greatest of Heroes the best of Masters the justest Judge or the honestest of Men All meer treacherous Quicksands for a People to repose the least glimpse of Safety in or build the least Hopes upon But I have heard a great many say It cannot enter into their thoughts that a Popish Successour will ever take such an inhumane and so unnatual a Course to establish Popery it being so absolutely against the English Constitution that it can never be introduced with less than a Deluge of Blood Surely his very Glory should withold him from so much Cruelty considering how much more it would be for his Immortal Honour to have the universal Prayers than the Curses of a Nation And one would think a King would so much more endeavour to win the Hearts than the Hatred of his People that certainly in all probability this excentrick Motion this disjoynting the whole Harmony of a World should be so ungrateful to him that no Religion whatever should put such a thought into his Head And all this his Glory shall do His Glory The Glory of a Papist A pretty Airy Notion How shall we ever expect that Glory shall steer the Actions of a Popish Successour when there is not that thing so abject that he shall refuse to do or that Shape or Hypocrisie so scandalous he shall not assume when Rome or Romes Interest shall command nay when his own petulant Stubbornness shall but sway him As for example For one fit he shall come to the Protestant Church and be a Member of their Communion notwithstanding at the same time his Face belies his Heart and in his Soul he is a Romanist Nay he shall vary his Disguises as often as an Algerine his Colours and change his Flag to conceal the Pyrate As for instance Another fit for whole Years together he shall come neither to one Church nor th' other and participate of neither Communion till ignobly he plays the unprincely nay the unmanly Hypocrite so long that he shelters himself under the Face of an Atheist to shrowd a Papist A Vizor more fit for a Banditto than a Prince And this methinks is so wretched and so despicable a Disguise that it looks like being asham'd of his God Besides If Glory could have any Ascendant over a Popish Successour one would think the Word of a King and the Solemn Protestations of Majesty ought to be Sacred and Inviolable But how many Precedents have we in Popish Princes to convince us their strongest Engagements and Promises are lighter than the very Breath that utters ' em As for Examples sake How did their Saint Mary of England promise the Norfolk and Suffolk Inhabitants the unmolested continuation of the Protestant Worship calling her God that God that saw the falseness of her Heart to witness That though her own Persuasion was of the Romish Faith yet she would content her self with the private Exercise of her own Devotion and preserve the then Protestant Government with all her Subjects Rights and Priviledges uninjur'd Upon which those poor credulous honest deluded Believers on the security of such prevalent Conjurations led by the mistaken Reverence they paid to a protesting Majesty laid their Lives at her Feet and were the very Men that in that Contest of the Succession plac'd her on a Throne But immediately when her Soveraign Power was securely established and his pious Holiness had bid her safely pull the Vizor off no sooner did Smithfield glow with Piles of blazing Hereticks but Chronicles more particularly observe that no People in her whole Kingdom felt so signal Marks of her Vengeance as those very Men that raised her to a Throne Her Princely Gratitude for their Crowning her with a Diadem Crown'd them with their Martyrdoms But since we have mentioned her Princely Gratitude 't will not be amiss to recollect one Instance more of so exemplary a Vertue In the Dispute betwixt hers and the Lady Jane Grays Title to the Crown it was remarkable that all the Judges of England gave their unanimous Opinions for the Lady Janes Succession except one of them only that asserted the right of Mary But it so fell out that this Man proving a Protestant notwithstanding of all the whole Scarlet Robe he had been her only Champion was so barbarously persecuted by her that being first degraded then imprison'd and tortur'd for his Religion the cruelty of his Tormentors was so savage that with his own hand he made himself away to escape ' em And well might the violence of his Despair sufficiently testifie his Sufferings were intolerable when he fled to so sad a Refuge as Self-murder for a Deliverance But here says another Objection Suppose that the Conservation of a Nations Peace the Dictates of a Princes Glory and all the Bonds of Morality cannot have any influence over a Popish Successour yet why may there not be that Prince who in veneration of his Coronation Oath shall defend the Protestant Religion notwithstanding all his private regret and inclinations to the contrary When rather than incur the infamous brand of Perjury he shall tie himself to the performance of that which not the force of Religion it self shall violate And then how can there be that Infidel of a Subject after so solemn an Oath that shall not believe him Why truly I am afraid there are a great many of those Infidels and some that will give smart Reasons for their Infidelity For if he keeps his Oath we must allow that the only Motive that prompts him to keep it is some Obligation that he believes is in an Oath But considering he is of a Religion that can absolve Subjects from their Allegiance to an Heretical Excommunicated Prince nay depose him and take his very Crown away why may it not much more release a King from his Faith to an Excommunicated Heretical People by so much as the Ties of Vassals to Monarchs are greater than those of Monarchs to Vassals But 't will not be amiss for strengthning this Argument to give the World an Instance of the power of an Oath with a Roman Catholick King There is a famous Gentleman on the other side the Water whom we all very well know pray Heaven we live not to be better acquainted with him than we desire that once took the strongest of Oaths the Sacrament That he would never invade nor make war upon Flanders But whether or no his Confessour found some Jesuitical Loop-hole from that Sacrament or that the Body and Blood of Christ could not hold him we see that
Flanders of late years has not liv'd so merrily nor so peaceably as so Royal a Voucher one would have thought might have assured them they should And now let us a little balance the difference between the Breach of his Oath and that of a Popish Princes in England All the Motives that could provoke him to the breach of his Oath was only his Ambition a Lust of being Great And at the same time that he is an Invader of his Neighbouring Princes his Conscience must tell him his Conquests are at best but so many glorious Robberies and all his Trophies but shining Rapines Was it not the sense of this that made Charles the Fifth who may be also called Great after all his Victories retire from a Throne into a Cloyster out of meer remorse for all the Streams of Blood he had shed to make the last part of his Life an Attonement for the Faults of the first And then if a Roman Catholick can break an Oath only for the pleasure of Conquering which he knows is doing ill shall not a Popish Prince in England have ten times more inclination to break an Oath for the propagation of his own Faith which his Conscience tells him is Meritorious For besides the specious flattery That Kings can do no ill and That all Crimes are cancelled in a Crown he has Religion to drive the Royal Jehu on Religion that from the beginning of the World thro' all Ages has set all Nations in a Flame yet never confesses it self in the wrong Besides how can a Popish Prince in attempting to establish his own Religion believe he does his Subjects an Injustice in that very thing in which he does God Justice or think he injures â—hem when he does their Souls right Alas no When Rome by her insinuating Witchcrafts has lifted the full Bowl of her Inchantments to his Lips what will his holy enthusiastick Rage do less than the hot-brain'd drunken Alexander All his best Friends and every honest Clytus that dares but thwart his Frenzy is presently his Frenzies Sacrifice only with this difference the frantick Alexander after his drunken Fit was over in his milder and more sensible Intervals with all the compunctions of penitence could mourn and groan for what his blinder Rage had murder'd But Religious Frenzy leaves that eternal Intoxication behind it that where it commits all the Cruelties in the World 't is never sober after to be sorry for 't Thus whilst a Popish King sets his whole Kingdom in a combustion how little does he think he plays a second Nero Good consciencious Man not he Alas he does not tune his Joys to the Tyrannick Nero's Harp but to David's milder and more sacred Lyre whilst in the height of his pious Ecstasie he sings Te Deum at the Conflagration Thus with an Arbitrary unbounded Power what does his licencious holy thirst of Blood do less than make his Kingdom a larger Slaughter-house and his Smithfield an Original Shambles Thus the old Moloch once again revives to feast and riot on his dear Humane Sacrifice And whilst his fiery Iron Hands crush the poor burning Victime dead the propagation of Religion and the Glory of God as he calls it are the very Trumpets that deafen all the feeble Cries of Blood and drown the dying Groans of what he murders Thus whilst the Bonds of Faith Vows Oaths and Sacraments can't hold a Popish Successour what is that in an Imperial Head but what in a private Man we punish with a Gaol and Pillory whilst the perjur'd Wretch stands the universal Mark of Infamy and then is driven from all Conversation and like a Monster hooted from Light and Day But the Pope and a Royal Hand may do any thing there 's a Crown in the case to gild the Deeds his Royal Engins act Et quod Turpe est Cerdoni Volesos Brutosque decebit They are still that adorable Sovereign Greatness we must kneel to and obey What if a little perjur'd Villain has sworn a poor Neighbour out of a Cow or a Cottage hang him inconsiderable Rogue his Ears deserve a Pillory But to Vow and Covenant and forswear three Kingdoms out of their Liberties and Lives that 's Illustrious and Heroick There 's Glory in great Atchievements and Vertue into Success Alas a vast Imperial Nimrod hunts for Nobler Spoils flies at a whole Nations Property and Inheritance A Game worthy a Son of Rome and Heir of Paradise And to lay the mighty Scene of Ruine secure he makes his Coronation Oath and all his Royal Protestations those splendid Baits of premeditated Perjury the Cover and Skreen to the hidden fatal Toil laid to insnare a Nation But now to their main Objection Some People will tell us That 't is wholly impossible for any Popish Successour by all his Arts or Endeavours whatever to introduce Popery into England To this I answer If he 's a Papist that says so he knows he belies his Conscience for our late Hellish Plot is a plain Demonstration that their whole Party believed it possible For did not the late Secretary St. Coleman's Records tell us That the pestilent Northern Heresie was to be rooted out and that now they had as much hopes of accomplishing that Sacred Work of Rome as they had in Queen Marys days Could any thing be plainer than that the subtle Jesuits had formed a Design to effect it For it is contrary to Reason and even Nature it self as bloody as their Principles are to think they aim'd at the Life of their King and would play the Regicides only to commit the blackest of Murders for meerly Murders sake No They had the assurance under a presumptive Popish Heir of making a National Conversion and how little privy soever he might possibly be to their principal and hellish Blow yet they had that perfect in-sight into the very Soul of a Papist that they were satisfied that under that Notion it was impossible for him to be otherwise than a Man of Romes right stamp and their Hearts own liking And if under such a Successour their hopes of a Nations Conversion were equal to those in Queen Marys time no doubt the converting Means must have been as Bloody or Bloodier than hers For if after the short Infancy of seven years Reformation under the Protestant Edward the Sixth's Reign there wanted Fire and Faggot to restore the Pope how much more will he want them for his Restoration after an Exclusion of almost Seven-score years together with all the necessary Difficulties of regaining his Empire where his Throne has been so long demolish'd Nay in Edward's Days the only detestation of the Fopperies Idolatries and Superstitions of Rome was all that went to make a Protestant Reformation Alas the Beast was then but young But his Horns are since grown stronger and his Teeth and Tallons sharper For since that we have had the notorious Paris and Irish Massacres when at one riotous Festival above 100000 bleeding Protestant Hearts were all gorged by
thrust in amongst their very Prayers and become almost a part of their Devotions Murmurs so bold that they dare approach the very Palace nay Throne and Ear of Majesty And whenever 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 Frogs Yes notwithstanding all his former Glories and Conquests his whole Stock of Fame is so lost and buried in his Apostacy from the Religion and consequently the Interest of these Protestant Kingdoms that all his Services are cancell'd and his whole Mass of Glory corrupted Suppose likewise this Popish Heir for many happy years so blest in the Tenderness and Friendship of the best of Kings that there is not that Favour or Honour within the reach or wish of Majesty that he has not made it the Study of his whole Reign to confer upon him whilst his Greatness and Lustre have been so much his dearest darling Care as if the promoting his Interest had been the Support of his own till in short he has had so large a share in the Bosom of this Royal Pylades this kindest and most gracious of Princes as if one Soul had animated them both On this Foundation as great Affections are not easily removed and Sympathy is that Bond which Humane Power can ne'er dissolve suppose moreover that this inseparable Tie continues so long notwithstanding all the Changes of Principles and Religion a Byass so heavy that it almost overturns a Kingdom Yet still the force of Nature and Friendship surmounts them all and stands that zealous unshaken Bulwark for the protection and safety of this dearest part of himself till at length he does little less than act so over-fond a Pelican that he exhausts even his own Vitals to cherish him Thus whilst the long and lawful Fears of a drooping Nation have fully and justly satisfied them that the kindest and most favourable Aspect of Majesty that smiles on England thro' the defence and Interest of a Popish Heir shines but like the Sun thro' a Burning-glass whose gentlest morning Vernal Beams thro' that fatal Medium do but burn and consume what otherwise they would warm and cherish what can the Consequence of this unhappy Friendship be but that the very Souls and Loyalties of almost a whole Kingdom are staggered at this fatal Conjunction till I am afraid there are too many who in detestation of that one gangren'd Branch of Royalty can scarce forbear how undutifully soever to murmur and revile even at that Imperial Root that cherishes it Insomuch that those very Knees 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 Thus whilst a Popish Heir's extravagant Zeal for Rome makes him shake the very Throne that upholds him by working and incroaching on the Affections of 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 stab 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 lingering sort of Parricide a part so strangely unnatural that even Savages would blush at yet this Religion incorrigible remorseless Religion never shrinks at Thus whilst the Universal Nerves of a whole strugling Nation bend their united force against the Invasion of Pope and Popery in studying to prevent Tyranny they grow jealous of Monarchy And fearing lest their Loyal Aid to the Father of their Country should unhappily contribute to the strengthning of the Subverters of their Peace and Liberty instead of that Tributary gold which once they so cheerfully shower'd at their dread Soveraign's feet now on the contrary the protection of a Popish Successor makes them so far from supplying the real and most pressing Necessities of Majestie that they are rather well-pleased and triumph in his greatest wants and that perhaps when his Glory nay possibly when his nearest Safety calls for their Assistance Thus what does this Popish Heir in tying up the hands of a whole Nation from their just devotion to their King but onely this In return for the accumulated Honours heaped upon him he most inhumanely starves the very hand that fed him An Ingratitude that even an Infidel would be ashamed of But this Religion incorrigible remorseless Religion never blushes at Besides if there can be a Son of that Royal Martyr Charles the First a Prince so truly pious that his very Enemies dare not asperse his Memory or Life with the least blemish of Irreligion a Prince that seal'd the Protestant Faith with his blood who in his deplorable Fate and ignominious Death bore so near a resemblance to that of the Saviour's of the World that his Sufferings can do no less than seat him at the right hand of Heaven If I say there can be a Son of that Royal Protestant of that uncharitable Popish Faith who by the very Tenets of his Religion dooms all that die without the bosome of their Church irreparably damn'd then consequently he must barbarously tear up his Fathers sacred Monument brand his blessed memory with the name of Heretick and to compleat the horrid Anathema he most impiously execrates the very Majestie that gave him being Then in fine provided and granted that we have an Heir to the Imperial Crown of England perverted to the Romish Faith and consequently of that depraved constitution and principles that he has neither charity for the Stock from whence he sprang concern or care for the safety peace glory or prosperity of the best of Patrons Friends and Kings nor lastly any remorse for all the Groans of an afflicted Kingdom What promises can we give our selves of his future Reign when we have all these fatal Prognosticks before-hand Ex pede Hercules Or is it likely he will have greater care and tenderness for a Nations peace when he shall be seated on a Throne and have more power to take it from them But says a Critick to all this Suppose this Popish Heir undoubtedly believes as a Papist must do that there 's no way to Heaven but his own should he so far comply with the glory or interest of his King though a Father or a Brother on the one side and the quiet and safety of a Nation on the other as to renounce his principles of Christianity and conform to theirs What were that but to purchase their peace with his own damnation and to sacrifice his own Soul for their worldly interests And certainly neither Duty nor Allegiance nor any Tye whatever ought to extort that from him And then if all the grievances of a Kingdom lie at his door alas the worst can be said of him is That if he be any occasion of it 't is his unhappiness
Heaven knows has other work in hand she 'll have no proselytes of that kind of Creation her rode of Conversion I assure you lies quite another way Besides her Champions are not made of so pure and so refin'd an Oar their Minerals are more course and more allay'd Her Saints in spight of all their Heavenly Contemplations have still so much of Earth about them that like the feet of Daniels Image they are a mixture between Iron and Clay But to sum up all If no reason must or shall prevail and that right or wrong a Papist must succeed when all the inseparable Cruelties of Pope and Popery shall surround us suppose the worst that may be that the dreadful approach of certain slavery so opposite to the free born genius of England has exasperated them into a spirit of Rebellion what is it but the pestilential Air of reigning Popery that bloats and swells them into that Contagion And if the Popish King summons all his Thunder to punish 'em for 't what can the greatest favourer of Rome make more on 't than that he warps them crooked and then breaks 'em to pieces because they are not straight And what 's the whole sum of a revolting Nation under a Popish Tyrant but using a violent cure to expel an universal poyson But here will some pretended pious Objectors say How shall we dare to Revolt Remember we are Christians and we must obey or at least yield a passive obedience to our King be his Religion Principles or Government never so Tyrannick he is still the Lords Anointed and our native Soveraign I would ask what this Lords Anointed is and who 't is is our Native Soveraign when instead of being free Subjects Pope and Tyranny shall rule over us and we are made Slaves and Papists We are bound indeed by our Oaths of Allegiance to a constant Loyalty to the King and his lawful Successours Very right by that Oath we are bound to be his lawful Successours Loyal Subjects but why his Loyal Slaves Or how is an Arbitrary absolute Popish Tyrant any longer a lawful Successour to a Protestant establisht and bounded Government when lawfully succeeding to this limited Monarchy he afterwards violently unlawfully and tyrannically over-runs the due bounds of power dissolves the whole Royal constitution of the Three Free States of England and the Subjects Petition of Right Whilst wholly abandoning those Reins of Government which were his lawful birthright and making new ones of his own illegal creation he makes us neither those Free-born Subjects we were when we took that Oath nor himself that King we swore to be Loyal to But alas that Bugbear passive obedience is a notion crept into the world and most zealously and perhaps as ignorantly defended There never wanted the authority even of Holy Writ itself on all occasions to vindicate every thing and there 's scarce a precedent in the oldest Historick part of the Bible that shall not by an extorted Application be appropriated even to the duty and necessity of all ages places and constitutions of the world For example They 'll tell you that the Prophet Samuel makes this answer to the Jews that desired a King That he would make their Sons and Daughters Slaves and give their Fields their Vineyards and their Olive-yards c. to his Servants and all this and much more they must expect from a King c. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your King that you have chosen and the Lord will not hear you in that day Which was as much as if the Prophet had said If a King shall as he may do this you have no redress but to your Prayers for his conversion and they perhaps too shall not be hear'd He does not tell them they might revolt or rebel to redress themselves no Heaven forbid he should For what was the King they desired but like those of the Nations about them And what were those Kings but Absolute In their own breath lay the voice of the Laws and Sic volo sic Jubeo was a Decree or Statute and if they voluntarily submitted and vowed Allegiance to a King so absolute and so Arbitrary as such they ought to obey him And as they freely would run all risks of whatever might follow it was their own choice and Volenti non fit Injuria Here indeed a passive obedience was due but what 's this to a King of England 'T is not here Sic volo sic Jubeo here 't is first sic vult populus and then comes sic jubet Rex Here all our Laws and Decrees by which we are govern'd are of the peoples choice first made by the Subject and then confirm'd by the King Here a King cannot take our Sons and Daughters or our Fields and Vineyards away unless we please to give him them If the Three States of England which we suppose the whole Body of England lawfully convened in Parliament shall submit to such an Arbitrary Majesty to have their Magna Charta abolisht their Religion and Liberties destroyed and to have Popery and Arbitrary power set up and yield to have the Right of Lords and Commons extirpated and all devolve into the King so that like the old Kings of Israel he may set up Idols and molten Calves and make us bow down and worship 'em if they will do all this then indeed we are his lawful Slaves and as such 't is our duty to pay him an entire undisputed obedience I would only beg the world seriously to consider how Monarchy itself is acquired and founded and then the duty of Subjects will be more easily discern'd Monarchy can be acquired but Two ways First by the choice of the People who frequently in the beginning of the World out of the natural desire of Safety for the securing a peaceful Community and Conversation chose a Single Person to be their Head as a proper Supream Moderator in all differences that might arise to disquiet that Community Thus were Kings made for the people and not the people for the King The other acquisition of Monarchy was by Conquest The glory and pleasure of Reigning grew so tempting that especially in later Ages they spur'd on Ambitious Minds to obtain that by Force which in the Infancy of Time and the first Original of Nations appears to be generally the People's Choice and not Compulsion However whether Choice or Compulsion yet after possession and the Peoples Submission the Right of Kings is Sacred Now Conquest is Twofold The first sort is where the Conquerour wholly over-runs a Nation or People and like those that take Towns by Storm destroys and depopulates kills or enslaves and then establishes Religion Rights and Laws solely at the will of the Conquerour The other kinde is when the vanquisht come to Capitulate before they yield and only Surrender upon terms Such was our last Norman Conquest when the Inhabitants of Kent and the Bishops of London upon a Parley prevailed with him
as our Records attest to confirm their Customs and Rights establish'd and granted them by Edward the Confessour whilst the Lenity of the Conquerour contenting himself with no larger a Prerogative than their last Saxon King had possest before him submitted to make their own Native Common Laws of England the Standard of his Justice and the continuation of their Antient Priviledges the Cement of their new Allegiance In this milde Channel ran the English Monarchy till in the Reign of Henry the Third the Magna Charta was Confirm'd which indeed was but a Monumental Register of the Liberties and Immunities of Englishmen enjoyed before tho' not so fixt in their pious Edward's Reign In this state has the Majesty of England the Dignity of Parliaments and the Liberty of the People bating their former Servility to Rome continued ever since And if now at last Popery must and shall come in as by Law it cannot and consequently must be restored by Arbitrary Power If a new Monarchy then a new Conquest and if a Conquest Heaven forbid we should be subdued like less than Englishmen or debar'd the Common Right of all Nations which is to resist and repel an Invader if we can But to sum up all this I must say the most vehement Disputants against the Peoples Right of defending themselves must at least acknowledge thus much that whenever a Popish King shall by Tyranny establish the Pope's Jurisdiction in England undoubtedly in the Eye of God he is guilty of a greater Sin than that people can be that with open Arms oppose that Tyranny For by introducing Popery by Tyranny by one unjust Power he establishes another as unjust and by one ill defends a worse Whereas the People of England in taking Arms against that Tyranny defend a just Right viz. their Religion Lives and Liberties Thus when a Popish Monarch shall subvert all Right and violate all Laws till oppressing a wretched Nation more like a Lupus Agri than Pater Patriae he so wholly perverts the Duty of his great Office and defaces in himself the nearest Image of a Deity by so falsly representing his Vice-gerent Imagine on the other side a persecuted deplorable People even abandon'd by God and so exasperated by Injustice till they struggle against the Yoak and the Horrour of this Gorgon in spight of all their Native Duty has hardned 'em into disobedience and then what can a poor Nation expect but Vengeance and Destruction If this be our Rod of Iron this the King ordain'd to Rule over us What signifies all our long pudder about a Plot Give the Papists that point and allow them all they dare ask that there neither is nor has been any Popish Plot That the Evidence are perjur'd and that Coleman's Letters Godfrey's Murder and Bedlow's dying Attestations c. are nothing to the purpose Grant this and twice as much more yet allowing at the same time that Providence has decreed us a Papist and a Bigot for a King no matter then for Plotters Jesuits or Russians The very essence of a Popish Successor is the greatest Plot upon England since the Creation A Plot of God himself to scourge a Nation and make three Kingdoms miserable As for the other Plot what was it but a secret Confederacy between a handful of feeble Villains the Limbs of the Roman Hydra But alas With all their Designs they were but Men and as such we have seen them both detected and defeated But if we are predestined for a Romish Government that 's a Plot indeed a Designe form'd by the irresistible Decrees of Heaven either for our Sins or what cause to it self best known to lay a groaning Country in ruine Nay the Ruine is so universal we must give it no bounds For upon the Supposition of a Popish Heir we must not conclude that 't is only the poor distressed Protestants that shall feel the smart and stand the mark of Slavery and Martyrdom A Popish King has that pestilential Influence that he blasts even the very party he smiles upon and entails a Curse upon his dearest darling Favourites As for Instance if after this King's Reign steps up a Protestant Prince for surely the whole Royal Blood must not all follow his Apostacy and degenerate in secula seculorum then what becomes of the Popish Interest in the next Generation and all that flourishing party whom either the Witchcrafts of Rome or the Contagion of Regis ad exemplum has nurst up for mine 'T is the greatest toyl of the next King's Reign to make those severer Statutes for future Ages to suppress the Insolencies and Follies of the past whilst those very Idols that were Saints but yesterday are now crusht and dasht to pieces Thus a Popish King undoes at once the Heretick party in his own Reign and the Roman Catholick in the next And then who is it that he either does or can make happy Why nothing but an Atheist he that believes there is no God and so makes the name of the most fashionable Religion the Bawd to his Pleasures and Preferments or at best that Latitudinarian Believer that can kneel to a Crucifix to day and burn it to morrow This and this onely Principle can be safe under a Papist and these are the only men that in their right wits ought to be unconcern'd at the danger of a Popish Successour FINIS