the help of those Procrustese's that you were there talking of And granting this it would not be so impolitick as piece of work to make such other Protestant Laws that should not be possibly shorten'd or stretch'd by e're a Procustes of 'em all and then this projection will not deserve to be accus'd of Nonsense Nay we have your self presently confessing that a Popish King may be totally restrain'd from all power of introducing popery by the force of such Laws as may be made to tie up his hands And who is so unreasonable as to desire any more Surely Romes Dagon as elsewhere you phrase it will not be so formidable when like that Aegyptian one of old both its hands shall be broken off and the power of hurting the true Israelites the Church of England wholly taken away Ay but then these Laws must be such as must ruine his Prerogative This does not necessarily follow and I believe His Majesty in His own Princely Wisdom and by His Councils Advice was well enough satisfied that such Laws might be made as might not quite ruine the prerogative of his Successor tho' they might abate much of his power in matters relating to the protestant Religion Besides granting even thus much what you infer from this is doubly ridiculous First That no Monarch would thus entail that effeminacy on a Crown as shall render the Imperial Majesty of England but a pageant a meer puppet upon a Wire For these Laws that bind up a King so stricctly suppose him a popish King such only being to be restrained This is not therefore an entail'd Effeminacy but rather a short eclipsing of the full Splendor of a Crown which in the next protestant Successor is to shine forth with the greater Lustre for its former obscurity And secondly considering none but a Popish King is thus to be limited Is it not foolish enough that you should here be offended at the smalness of his power that would have him utterly debarr'd the Throne aed so have no power at all As for this Statute that seems to make such a bluster with the Tall Capital-Letters at the top it is as little to his purpose as any thing that he says For even the strictness of that reaches none but those that are lawfuly Convicted and therefore concerns not his R. H. or if it did the dispute being about the Right of Succession and no succession to the Crown being possible till after the Death of the predecessor this at that time can be no obstacle to the next Heir when according to the whole tenour of the Law all Attainders cease Therefore to urge more forcibly the Exclusion of the Duke he is insinuating to the people That if ever a papist mounts this Throne then all their petitions protestings and Association-Votes will be remembred to purpose That is exactly Catiline The ills that we have done cannot be safe but by attempting greater But I am sure there are some men have reason to remember that a King that has had the greatest opposition has been the most gracious Prince that ever reign'd and been so far from remembring to purpose the Traytors that oppos'd him that he has forgot 'em even by Act of Parliament So far is it from being generally true what he says That he who has gone a long and tiresom journey through Brakes and Briars to a splendid pallace will be sure to send out to root 'em up That the last instance that we have had of such a case makes it appear that even those little pliable Brambles Briars that bent and yielded to every blast let it blow from what quarter it would and those Brakes and Thorns that stuck so sharply in the sides of Majesty have not only been retriev'd from their due fate of being utterly rooted up but been admitted into the palace it self and made to vie with and indeed almost to over-top the tallest Cedars themselves that with unshaken constancy did partake in the sufferings of the Royal Cause and without bending withstood the force of the whole Storm But now follows a very wise Discourse against the Right of Succession and to prove that not to be so inviolable as some vehemently assert we are referred to our own Chronicles Remember Sir what 't is you are Discoursing of the Right of Succession as I take it and then you shall refer me whither you please Well then I take up my Chronicle and fall a reading and there indeed I find some Kings Murther'd and some Depos'd the true Heir sometimes depriv'd of his Succession by the power of a more prevailing Pretender to the same Right the Crown bandied about between the Factions of two Houses laying equal claim to it and scarce ever firmly settled for any considerable date of years But all this while I am learnt to distinguish between matter of Fact and matter of Right and know that they are very often opposite one to another and that no precedent can alter the Nature of an unjust Action or make it allowable now because contrary to right it was done some hundred years ago I am sure the known Statutes of the Land ought to be the Rule of our Duty and Allegiance rather than our Chronicles men being to be governâ—d by Law and not by History And as for those Acts of Parliament which we find ordering and disposing of the Succession we shal see how little they make for the purpose for which they are produced We must therefore note that all these Acts of Parliament both of Henrie VIII and Queen Elizabeth are not made at all to alter the Right of Succession far from it my rather to establish it for they are only design'd to declare in whom this Right of Succession was and therefore were indeed necessary both in the times of H. VIII whose often Marriage and Divorces and attainder of his Wives might make his Right disputable among his Children and in Queen Elizabath's time who being without Issue had several others that pretended to the Right of sucsceding her These Acts of Parliament I say were absolutely necessary when the Title of the Crown might be dubious but for the same reason very ridiculously and weakly urged when it is clear to the blindest Apprehensions who is the true Successor After this notable bout of Law and a few Statutes and Acts of Parliament borrow'd from come Case-splittor or another for his stile for all its dulness is too florid for a Lawyers He is flusht enough to think that he may venture to fall upon that which he calls the strongest Argument for Succession If the Son of a private Gentleman tho' a Papist shall inherit and quietly possess his Hereditary Estate is it not hard nay barbarous Injustice that the Son of a King and Heir of a Crown should loss his Patrimony of three Kingdoms for being a Papist Indeed I must confess that in my opinion it is very hard barbarous and unjust especially when such provision shall be made
let us be as favourable to him as we can let us try if we can excuse him his ill treatment of the Virtues perhaps he rail'd at them only to bring in his Quibble and because Cardo is Latin for a Hinge therefore the Cardinal Virtues were to be the Hinges to open the Gates to Popery or what if his Picque against them be their having some Name-sakes in the Church of Rome since his Friend Mirry Andrew in that excellent piece of Smithfield Drollery The Rehearsal Transprosed has been pleased to call them The red-hatted Virtues Well whatever his quarrel be I am sure His Royal Highness has reason to be not a little satisfied to see that the defence of the Duke of York and Virtue it self is the same cause and that whoever opposes the Justice of his Succession must forfeit his Morality as well as his Allegiance But when the Notion of such a Popish Successor such a one as shall maintain the Constitution of the present Government and in that the publick Worship of the Church of England is included without any alteration puzzles the Gentleman strangely Nor can he make it consist with reason no not he nor with the least shadow of possibility And where is the difficulty where is the unreasonablenesse Why forsooth he must suppresse the potent and dangerous Enemies that would destroy the Protestant Worship Peace and Interest And the Wisdom of several successive Monarchs and a whole Nations unanimous prudence has declar'd Popish Priests to be these potent and dangerous enemies Have they so then there are Laws to secure us against them then why are we in such fear Then what is left to any Monarch that Succeeds but to execute the Laws he finds derived down to him to maintain and preserve together with his Crown and Dignity And since by the prudent zeal of both our Kings and People our Religion has so strong a fence built round about it since this Vine is so hedged in that neither the Wild Boars out of the Wood can root it up nor the little Foxes devour it why do we torment our selves with any further disquiet why do we not rather sit down under the shadow of it and bless him whose right hand has planted it But alas under the Reign of an English Papist the case will not be the same But we shal be in much greater danger by reason of the multitude of their Roman Emissaries and those too embolden'd by hopes of connivance and mercy and if ever the Protestant Religion want a Defender it will be then Truly I am so far from thinking that the Reign of a Popish King can be any way advantagious to the designs of the Jesuitical Instruments that I rather believe it will of necessity be the greatest occasion of their destruction especially since it is in the power of every Subject in the three Kingdoms to be a Defender of the Protestant Religion if it want it And if people shal think so as naturally then they will to be sure no Information no Conviction of Recusants no Administration of Tests or Oaths to the least supected shal be wanting no diligence spar'd which is backt by the Laws of the Land which then more then ever will be waken'd against them and which can't be dispens'd withal must needs be effectual to the utter ruine of the whole party This our Author himself seems to be sensible of and to allow and this is one of his pretty Chimaera's and mismatched incongruous Ingredients as he elegantly Phrasis it that must go to make up the Composition of a Popish King and can He then or the most violent opposers of the Church of Rome desire any thing beyond this to gratifie their utmost malice upon the Members of that Church than to be assured that a Prince of that very Religion shal be the cause of their destruction suis ipsa Roma viribus ruet For indeed all this a Popish King must do or suffer to be done and all his Apology to them must be what the Pamphleteer says We must expect to be made to us He cannot help it p. 20. He cannot help it that is if the Law will have it so his duty is to see that the Law have its ccurse and whatever his private Opinion may be whatever tendernesse he may bear to the very persons he shal punish yet to remember his obligation to the publick so far as to give them up to the hands of Justice with the same constancie of mind with the same applause of the present and commendation of all succeeding Ages that the immortal Brutus deliver'd up his darling Sons to the Rods and Axes of the Lectors This had our Author consider'd he would not have so far betrayed his Morals as to have stil'd a Prince in every thing else brave to admiration abject and deplorable Coward for not daring to undertake either unlawful or impossible exploits nor been so out of his Politicks as to call governing by Law sneaking on a Throne But alas good man he has a fit of kindnesse on the suddain come upon him he is infinitely concern'd for that Scene of war and restless inquietudes such a Prince must have within himself who to spare a Fagget at Smithfield must walk on hot Irons himself and have only Good Friday entertainments on a Throne and with such like no doubt prevailing pieces of Rehtorick would perswade us that a Crown to him would be so uneasie a thing that he had better be without it Alas he would not have the Duke undergo that torment for all the world not he but this is only a flourish of his stile in imitation I suppose of a Brother Sir Formal of his who Laboured as much as he could to prove that the Bill was for the Duke 's good and undertook by dint of Argument to make it appear that the Exclusion of His Royal Highness was an Act of Grace Let us come now to an Argument of some moment and consider what weight so solemn a Protestation and so sacred an Oath as a King of England is obliged at his Coronation to take is likely to have with a Prince that has any sense at all either of Honour or Religion Why truly our Characterizer says none at all and tells us That some can give us smart reasons for it He gives us but one which we will examine and try if we can produce as smart ones against it If he keeps his Oath sayes he we must allow that the only motive that prompts him to keep it is some obligation that he believes is in an Oath Yes we will allow it there is a double obligation of Nature and of Religion Well what then but considering he is of a Religion that can absolve Subjects from their Allegiance And are you sure he is of such a Religion We hear the Roman Catholicks Protestations against that Doctrine daily sounded in our Ears we are told by many of them that they abominate the Position
and must needs be convinc'd that granting many of the Doctors of their Church to be of that opinion yet it is a Doctrine never universally received and that even they who believe do not preach to all and therefore very unlikely it is if they hide it from any that it should be used as a Bait for the Conversion of any Prince from whom in all probability they would studiously conceal such a point as would put him in danger of the loss of his Kingdoms as often as his holy Father the Pope should be teasty or call him Heretick Well but considering him to be of such a perswasion why may not his Religion release a King from his Faith to an Excommunicated and Heretical People Ay! there 's the mischief on 't these Absolutions and Dispensations and Jesuitical Loopholes can do any thing But now let us a little consider and weigh the probability of these poor shifts and evasions ever being made use of to our prejudice by his Royal Highness Can it be believed that He who only out of the Conscience that he made of an Oath and the Obligation that he thought was in it has already parted with the places of the greatest Honour and Profit in the Kingdom is ever likely to have a less Veneration for that most Religious one that he then must take Or can we imagine that if he thought any power whatever could absolve him from such a tye he would ever have scrupled at the swallowing that which he could with so much ease have disgorged again Especially when such a proceeding had removed all Suspitions and Jealousies concerning his Religion and facilitated his way to the Throne wherein he might establish it before the people had warning enough to make any opposition Had this been his Principle then had been the time to make use of it and the easie ascent thereby to a Throne had been the best plea for his breach of Faith Then if ever it was necessary for si violandum est jus regnandi causa violandum est But to strengthen this Argument our Author will give the World an instance of the power of an Oath with a Roman Catholick King And that is His most Christian Majesty the Famous Gentleman on the other side the water who contrary to his Oath upon the Sacrament has Invaded Flanders And must all of that Religion be Vow breakers and Perjur'd because one Ambitious Prinâ—e has violated at once his Oath and his Religion too Besides how far this Perjury of his is to be imputed to the Romish Faith and how Zealous a Son he is of that Church his quarrel even at this instant on foot with the Pope is sufficient to inform us If a man has born in him those Seeds of Ambition and that Lust of being Great 't is not the fault of the Religion that he professeth but the Viciousness of his Nature that makes him sacrifice his Conscience to his Pride If a man be naturally inclin'd to Virtue or Vice let his Faith be what it will his Morality will be the same and he that has learnt from the great Law of Nature how Sacred the tye of an Oath ought to be let him be in what Church he will shall very hardly be brought to think that this Gordian knot can be unty'd by every jugling Priest Again if Oaths will not bind Papists if they come up as easily as they go down why do we betray our folly so palpably as to think to secure our selves by administring them to Roman Catholicks Why are the Allegiance and Supremacy Oaths tendered to them and why do they refuse them Why are new Tests devis'd that may be taken as harmlesly with a Dispensation in the Pocket as the Mountebank does poison with his Antidote by Why is the Wisdom of the whole Nation thus arraigned and the High Court of Parliament it self accused of the Goatham Policy in building the Hedge to fence in the Cuckow For this must be the very top of their sage forecast if they did not think that these Oaths did clip their Wings as well as build the hedge about them And that if they can do not only the little suck-egge Cuckow Priest but the Imperial Eagle it self may be kept within the Fence I design'd in pursuance of my first undertaking to be on the Defensive part only and not to have at all meddl'd with the opposite Faction The Tale of Forty One and Forty Eight hath been long enough the Theme to be better made use of than it is But here 's an unlucky harrangue of our Author's against Religion immediately follows that is enough to make the Old Rebellion rise again even out of its Grave of the Oblivion Act. I will therefore joyn with him in his railing at that desperate Incendiary of all Nations Religion I hope he means honestly and understands the pretence and masque of it by that Name as hearrily as himself I will bring him in my share of ends of Verse and sayings of Phylosophers I 'll muster all Lucretius's scraps against it I can tell you of Tantum Religio and Religio peperit sceterosa atque impia facta and all this I can make out too Religion was the Gospel-trumpet that first sounded to Battel and whetted our Fears and Jealousies into Courage and Rebellion Religion that first kindled the Flame maintained it with Fuel The Fight against the Lords Anointed began still with a Psalm and ended with a Hymn Religion was the Song Religion was the burden of The Holy Ballad singers when the Scots came tweedling it over with the praise of God in their mouths and a Two edged sword in their hands No matter then if we muâ—t be ruined whether St. Ambrose's or Robert wisdom's Te Deum be sung for the Victory whether the holy to Peean goes to David's or to Nero's Harp to the Church Organ or to the Scotch Bagpipe And see our Author is already at it he 's sounding a Parliament-Armies Epinicium or rather holding forth in a Thanksgiving-Sermon and in the insulting Language of the prosperous villany of the late times crying out To vow and Covenant and with a Solemn League forswear three Kingdoms out of their Liberties and Lives that 's Illustrious and Heroick There 's Glory in great Atchievements and Virtue in Success Come on then Let us the mighty Nimrods hunt for Noble Spoils and fly at a whole Nation Property and Inheritance That is as he explains himself in the 29 page Let us never leave till we have hunted the Imperial Lyon down But how he 's out of breath and his Glasse is run and therefore so much for this time But now to the main Objection Some People will tell us says he That 't is wholly impossible for any Popish Successor by all his Arts and Endeavours whatsoever to introduce Popery into England Yes indeed will they tell you so again For if you remember they told you so already in the second page of your Pamphlet
and indeed I am of opinion that it ought then to have been considered for till you had remov'd this bar of impossibility out of the way I see but very little hopes of making any further progress that you could reasonably have This argument lay before you just as you set out and being sensible that this must be o're-passed before you could proceed in your journey you came on indeed with very great brisknesse and assurance as if you design'd to have leapt the Ditch but your heart fail'd and made the Cowardly Rhodian boggle just upon the brink But now since you are forc'd to it and necessity has given you courage to take the leap it is some pleasure to the standers by to see you fallen in the midst of it and so plung'd in the mire as not to be in any visible liklyhood of getting out But let us see how the poor sunder'd Jad struggles to work it self out of the Bog If he 's a Papist that says so he knows he believes his Conscience for our late Hellish Plot is a plain demonstration that their whole party believed it possible Now the sport of it is this flouncing noes but make him stick the faster For what if he that says so be as good a Protestant as the Author as I am sure a great many are that both say and believe so too why then they may ev'n say so and believe so still for all him He has nothing to say to the contrary unlesse they are Papists thâ—â— say so and for them mark how shrewdly he is provided First he gives them the Lie and justifies it thus Their whole party believe it possible and therefore it was possible for so he must infer if he means to prove any thing against the foregoing Argument And is it so then Mr. Characterizer because they believed it possible therefore was it so Come come you are a dangerous Man and I wish people knew you that they might have a care of you You forsooth under the notion of running down a Popish Succession are proving the verity of the Popish Faith and asserting every thing to be true that 's believ'd by a Papist Well I am glad I have found out our Scribler for none could sure have written such stuff but a disguised Priest or at least a Papist in Masquerade But after all granting the Belief of a Roman Catholick that the introducing of Popery was so feasible according to our Author's opinion to be a certain argument that it was so and that this was once the Belief of the whole party yet how does it follow that it is so still If they be that cunning and politick People as he soon after says they are I am sure they have very little reason to think that that Design which was in so hopeful a forwardnesse as never since Queen Maries days could be boasted of carried on with all the Art and Contrivance all the Secâ—eâ—y and Cunning of a most diligent and active Party favoured by several of the greatest Persons of the Kingdom and those most eminent for their Riches and Interest to support the Cause the universal security of the whole Nation that then not so much as dreamt of the Mine that was ready to take Fire Conspiring together with those Sons of darkness in the great work of our Destruction and yet after all this was brought to nought should ever at all or at least in this Age be effected when all their measures are broken and all their wicked contrivances laid open and the whole Scence of that Religious Villany displayed to publick view when the whole Nation is still kept awake with continual Fears and fresh Allarms against them while the very meanest of the people are as diligent in this cause as the great ones that descend to joyn with 'm in it and when to prevent any surprise from the Pope or the Gaul there 's not a Goose but cackles for the preservation of our Capitol Alas such projects as these when once discover'd are for that age defeated and when so great a design is to be hatcht a new it ripens as slowely as China does that must be buried a Age under ground before it comes to perfection and than too is very often as brittle as that and as easie to be dashed in pieces Thus we see how impossible a thing it is that in the temper which now runs quite through the whole English Nation that Idolatrous Superstition should ever be here re-established which by so unanimous a consent of so many of our wisest Princes and all our people has been rooted out from among us But is not the people of England highly beholding to our Author that in this seeming difficulty has found an expedient for the introducing of it again This Sir Pol of ours is a notable Head-piece let him alone and we shal see as shrewd a piece of contrivance as the bringing over an Army that shal cross the Narrow Seas dry-foot by the help of Cork-shoes Let us see this project of setting up Popery Why first the foundation of it must be laid O' my word that 's but reasonable and the first Foundation of Popery is Arbitrary Government Ay marry Sir now he says somewhat only make this an Arbitrary Government a smal piece of business a trifle that and then Popery follows as naturally as the Fox's body did when he had got his head in at the hole But must this be done Why Wou'd be shal tell you If a Papist reign we very well understand that the Sheriffs Justices of the Peace and all the Judiciary Officers are of the King's Creation Yes and are they not so when a Protestant reigns Yet even such a Prince whose Religion does not in the least render him obnoxious to his people but whose consent with them in the first and chiefest duty of humane Life the Divine Worship should rather make both Prince and People of one Soul and one Mind Let him have all the advantages not only which a Papist must of necessity lose but which a Protestant may wish or imagine would find it so difficult a task to set up for this Arbitrary way of Government which our Author makes so easie a piece of businesse that I shal not need to tell the consequence of such an Attempt since the impossibility of succeeding in it will never suffer it to be made If then Arbitrary Power be the Foundation of Popery there is very little fear of ever seeing that great Idol rear'd whose Basis can never be laid And of this we shall be so much the surer under the Reign of a Popish King by how much less opportunities he will have to set up this new Model and by how much greater opposition and indefatigable diligence and watchful suspicion the whole Nation will imploy 〈…〉 Horse Arbitrary Government big with Popery and our utter is too narrow for its reception and afterwards admit it into the Pallace 'T is not in the power of
Imagining likewise and Supposing now and Supposing likewise and supposing moreover at so extravagant and wild a rate that his Brain must be very hot that can keep pace with him in his mad carreer of Fancie We may only observe that in his over-hasty zealous fits of imagination he forgets himself often so far as to betray the very grand secret of the party the ground of all their Popular railing at Popery and that is no other than their being weary of Monarchy This is the colour for all the cry against Kingly Government and Right Succession and as he tells you that is that makes the Subjects knee so stiff and so stubborn this makes them in studying to prevent Tyrrany grow jealous of Monarchy this is that which makes them so far from supplying the real and most pressing necessities of His Majesty that they triumph in his greatest wants even when his nearest Safety mark that calls for their Assistance And this is that which in the Language of the late Addresse gives pretence to that Insolent Threat of breaking the whole Chain of Royal Succession in pieces p. 23. So that 't is plain though the triple Mitre is struck at the three Crowns is their aim nor would they be so violent against Popery which they can have no ground to be afraid of unlesse by very fresh experience they knew thatthait was the powerful charm to bring the people to the ruine of Monarchy which by this only means is to be destroyed knowing the multitude to be not unlike the Beasts or Cattle in the Hold of a ship which in any Storm that is rais'd if they are made apprehensive of the Vessel sinking on the one side run immediatly with such a violent panick fear to the other that they over-set the Ship and quite overwhelm both themselves and it in ruine and destruction Come we now to the next Argument which he sayes a Critick will make use of Suppose this Popish Heir undoubtedly believes that there is no way to Heaven but his own should any consideration upon earth make him to renounce his Principles of Christianity Why truly I am so far of this Criticks mind as he calls him that I should think it very unreasonable that the Prince alone should not have the benefit of Liberty of Conscience which every Subject in his Dominions takes very ill to have deny'd to himself But he goes on And then if all the grievances of a Kingdom lye at his door 't is his unhappiness and not his fault Very right if some Fâ—ctious Spirits set the Nation on a flame and then first cry out Fire and convey their Fire-Balls into his Pockets if they make us miserable and then lay it at his door 't is his unhappiness indeed but not his fault But see what use our Author makes of this And so sayes he When this Popish Heir comes to the Crown and promotes the Romish Interest with all the Severity Injustice Tyranny and Religious Cruelty can invent Hold hold not so fast You are an excellent Disputant whose strongest Argument is begging the Question You take for granted that all this Severity and Injustice and Tyranny and Religious Cruelty shall be then exercised and are forsooth chiefly employed in finding out an excuse to put into this Princes mouth for doing so and you have furnisht him with a notable one His Answer will be he cannot â—â—ly it Come come speak your Conscience do you really believe this will be his Answer Yes a Prince who can do all these mighty things and act with so Arbitrary and unbounded a power as must be necessary to enable him to all this after all his Severity and Injustice and Cruelty shall cry Peccavi to his people with the School-Boys Apology Indeed I could not help it But such stuff as this may be allowable to our Mr. Bayes that seems to have very little knowledge of any Kings but those of Branford Well but to make us amends we have him immediatly exercising his Talent in a most Pathetick piece of Rhetorick against Merit and truly he is in the right of it For merit I am sure is never like to do him a kindness and then presently follows as sharp a fit of Railing at the Romish Religion a Topick that I can't choose but confess my self extreamly delighted with especially when handled by our Author who manages it so dexterously that all his Invectives against that fall as heavy upon the turbulent Fanaticks and so wounds two of our most dangerous enemies at once For thus he describes Popery shall I say or Presbytery A Religion that does not go altogether in the old fashion Apostolical way of Preaching and Praying and Teaching all Nations but scourging and wracking and broiling them in the fear of God A Religion that for its own Propagation will at any time authorize its Champion to divest themselves of their humanity and act worse than Devils to be Saints If a man were to transverse this Character of Religion could he do it more appositly than in these Lines of Hudibras 'T was Presbyterian true Blew For he was of that stubborn Crew Of Errant Saints whom all men grant To be the true Church Militant Such as build their Faith upon The Holy Text of Pike and Gun Decide all Controversies by Infallible Artillery And prove their Doctrine Orthodox By Apostolick Blows and Knocks Call Fire and Sword and Desolation A goodly-throw-Reformation Well after this short breathing upon a Subject which he nor any body else can ever want some fine shrewd thing or other to say he proceeds thus 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 Indeed I am mightily rejoyced at our Author 's unexpected civility in allowing this to be the expedient of the wisest Critick he has met with yet for 't is no less a Person than His most Sacred Majesties own Proposal and gracious Offer to his two Houses of Parliament in those several Declarations that he has made to 'em of his most vigorous assistance in this wise provision for the good of posterity An act becoming both the Justice and the Goodness of such a King that will neither debar his Brother from that Right by which himself reigns nor leave his people in danger of the loss of their dearest and most sacred Birth-rights their liberty and Religion But let us hear what our Politician says to this I answer sayes he To endeavour to set up Popery by Law even with the Laws that we have against it is impossible p. 21. But if you remember Sir no further off than the 13th page You were afraid that even the Protestant Laws themselves might be made to open the first Gate to Slavery and so to Popery by