therefore he will not resist him and to Love his Religion and for that Reason he will not help to destroy it He hath been taught in the same Acts to Fear God and to Honor the King by yielding Passive where he cannot yield Active Obedience Therefore if he shall ever fall under a King that shall set up Popery he neither helps forward the work nor resists the Powers but commits himself to Him who governs the Kingdoms upon Earth which of old was called the Faith and the Patience of the Saints Now when these stand Neuter it is utterly impossible that the Papist Party should ever do any thing by Arms upon the numerous Body of Dissenters Indeed if Dissenters prepare or begin a resistance or if at any time they take up Arms against the King the case is quite altered for then the King and all Loyal Subjects whom these Parties all brand for Papists are equally indangered and then we are bound to defend both our King and our selves against fellow Subjects who have no Authority to disturb us Now suppose we fall under so nice and trying a case that we conceive we cannot defend our King but we must enable Him to inslave our selves and Enemies together yet however we must do our Duty and leave the event to God For we are not to sin our selves that thereby we may prevent others from doing so You cry Popery is coming and therefore Rebel now we do not see the Popery but we see the Rebellion we cannot tell whether that will ever come but we see the other is come already Now we are to take the safest side but if we joyn with you we may be gull'd into a needless War as many were in the time of the late King whereas by a Rebellion the Powers the Government and every private Interest are indangered Moreover if we run on your side we are sure to be undone which way soever the Victory falls for if you are overcome we perish with you as Malefactors but if you do overcome we are ruin'd by you and if we sit still you destroy us and our King together Therefore in such a case as duty commands so safety presses us to defend our selves and King at once without considering Him as such but simply as our King and therefore whether he be this or that which is agreeable to the voice of God both in Nature and Revelation too And indeed if we allow any Liberty of resistance we bring confusion into the World set all Government upon Hinges and make a gap for all manner of Villanies to creep in at Whence St. Paul discours'd like a Polititian as well as a Divine when he commanded the Romans to submit and not to resist the Powers even when Nero was their Emperor who was justly branded for the Monster of Mankind Therefore unless Dissenters by their Rebellions give such advantages to Popery it cannot in our time come in by our own Arms. Nor 2. By Foreign Aids For 1. If a King shall make use of such He takes the readiest course imaginable to disoblige His Protestant Subjects Especially since these Aids must be supposed to come from France against whom the English have the greatest antipathy of any People in the World 2. In case the French King come at all he must come with very numerous Forces and consequently leave himself weak at home and thereby would draw all Neighbor Princes upon him not only for the recovery of what he hath lately taken from them but also to hinder his farther growth whereby he may set up himself an Universal Monarch over this part of the World By which means he would soon be drawn off to save his own at home 3. We cannot in Reason think the King of England will ever call in those who if too weak loose Him His Crown and if strong enough will take it from Him For hereby he would bring Himself into a certain ruine either by His Subjects at home or His Aids from abroad Look into the World and tell me where Protestant or Papist Princes either in this or in former Ages use to sell their Kingdoms into the hands of any for the sake of forcing their Subjects to a Religion they could not otherwise oblige 'em to Honor and secular Interest cause Princes of the same Religion to War one upon another At this very time the Emperor the King of Spain the French King and Italian Princes though all Roman Catholicks are either in a War or upon their Guards every one waiting but till another strikes Queen Mary while settling Popery at home lost the last of the English Conquests on the Continent of France And can we think that the King of England will tread counter to all the Kings upon Earth That he alone had rather have no Subjects than not have them in all points such as himself could wish Judg by your selves and you will believe there is no Man so mad as rather to have no Estate than not have a few incumbrances with it Indeed when Subjects are contending for the Government they usually call in Foreign assistance for when once it comes to this point that they must have such Aids or fall it is easie determining what to do For by such means they may reach their end however they can but fall and they think better fall under a Foreigner who by their means may gain the whole than under the Powers they would have dispossess'd for the former may give 'em Life the latter the Gallows Thus our True Protestant Rebels called in the Scots And a piece Entituled The growth of Knavery tells you by what Lord they desired the French King to be ready in case they should Pray his Aids And this at that very time too when they were charging the late King with Foreign Correspondencies it being ever their way to charge those Evils on the Government which they are Acting their own selves as again in this case because they may not Act Arbitrarily in chusing Sheriffs contrary to the Law and usage of this City for many Ages before us and contrary to their own Order in the Reign of King Charles the first they cry out of Arbitrary Power as if they could never make Persons and things appear so odious as by putting them in their own Livery Their Brethren the True Protestants in Hungary having Rebelled against their Emperor call in the Turk and are shuting out the Bible by the Alcoran But as Kings may fall but cannot rise so they are very jealous of their Interest both at home and abroad and industriously careful that they give none an advantage against them And certainly none could have thought such a thing of His Royal Highness was it not for Coleman's Letter which as His Royal Highness did deny to be writ by His order or knowledg so we have all the Reason in the World to believe Him not only from the unreasonableness of the Hypothesis as before but farther 1. From Coleman's
Established by Law whence it is not to be imagined they will in our time at least be any way induced to Elect a Papist or one that shall seem Popishly affected if ever we fall under a Prince that may be suspected to look any whit that way For though nothing is more shallow and unconstant than the People first in determining what is Popery branding now this and presently that Catholick Doctrine and Practice for such while Popery in many instances goes unsuspected and gives the denomination of a True Protestant and then in selecting Methods of Exclusion which are now one presently another and somtimes the very way to let it in as throwing open and pulling down the Church which is the best Fence and Bulwark against it Yet great is their constancy in opposing what they take to be Popery and though they mistake in some particulars yet they will easily see when it is coming in the full Body upon ' em And especially at such a critical time they will be incomparably nice and curious in their Elections Indeed People may perhaps run into another extream in Electing Persons who by an over-hasty zeal precipitant Councels and a fearful flying as they think the farthest from Popery may give it real advantages but what it gains this way is not from design but by accident not from direct Laws but by Consequence And indeed this is the Road in which she hath travel'd and gain'd ground upon us even under those Men who we doubt not design'd her utter Extirpation And how serviceable People may be to the ends of Popery in this way we fear but do not suspect they will Elect such that shall introduce it by a Law Nor can we in Reason be affrighted at the instance under Queen Mary because the condition of things is quite different now from what it was then For in those times the Reformation was weak and in it's Infancy these Paths were uncouth and strange and few minds heartily reconcil'd to 'em great part of the Nation lay disaffected and stood Non-conformists to Protestant Establishments and the rest of the People a few only excepted having really no Religion in them were for this or t'other and therefore ready upon a change to return to the old way in which they were born and their Fathers before ' em Hearty Protestants were very few Papists still made the multitude It was therefore perhaps more easie for her to restore the Popish Religion than to continue the Reformation and things seem'd rather to return than to be brought to their former state But now the Protestant Religion hath flourish'd so long amongst us that it hath taken deep Root and is grown into a Tree whose top reaches Heaven and whose Branches are extended to all the corners of the Land in her Boughs the Fowls of the Air do build and under her shade the Beasts of the People rest Men have been so terrified with Popish Hags and Furies and night-mared with Monks Priests and Jesuits that they think there is no Monster in Africa nor Evil in the World like these Your Adamites who are shameless as Naked Truth and Sweet-Singers who close their services with promiscuous mixtures and the Muggletonian whose Divine Discourses are the deepest Blasphemies will unite against this This Sect no sooner hears mention of a Pope but it falls a quaking for fear it should loose it 's own Infallibility and be forced to transfer it to another whilst that drunk with Venner's Wine flies to his Sword and Musquet lest the Vicar coming should keep out 's master The Atheist will Swear not by his God for he hath none but by the Heavens and the Ranter by him that made him they will have no Popery lest they should be bound to some Religion The late Divine who turns from Coat to Gown from Gown to Coat again like amphibious Animal or water Rat that lives in this or t'other Element and now contrary to the Antipendium way stands with Brazen head and Silver Screw fast set into all Sects at once will for ever turn tail on Rome lest he should be injoyn'd too hard a Pennance Those whose hungry Titles have eat up all their Grace and Honor with the whole Tribe of True Protestants who matter no Religion are however against this and he that would not give a Groat for continuance of the Gospel is yet ready to venture his life against Popery So disparate and unlike are our present things to what Queen Mary found that we must not think what was easie then to be possible to a Papist Prince now and consequently those expedients that would not have been sufficient in her days might yet have been sufficient in ours It is not likely then that Popery should in our days at least come in by Law Nor yet 2. By Arms for if so it must be either by our Arms alone or in conjunction with Foreign aids But 1. Not by our own Arms alone For most of the Nobility and many considerable Gentry are Interested in Abby-Lands or Impropriations which things alone will ingage them against it Religion moves but slow against secular Interest and present Advantages And whereas it may be pleaded that such shall be recompens'd out of the Estates of Protestants let it be considered 1. That Men will not easily part from an Estate in certain for one in hopes only with all Men present possession goes far 2. Many of these will be suspitious that themselves may be the Protestants out of the other part of whose Estates some Sons of Rome must be rewarded 3. There are so many that have already and will yet suffer for the Popish Interest before this day can be supposed to come who must be first considered that they must needs think there will be but little if any thing left for them Therefore this Objection can be allowed but little or no strength to the ends for which it is made Whence consider that the Body of our Nobility and Gentry are Protestants the Papists being but like a few exceptions from a general Rule and some of that Body that some may think possible to be sway'd are strengthned and seeured by Interest How few then are there that are like to appear promoters of this Cause 2. It doth appear upon all publick occasions that the People are so far prejudiced against this way that they are truly Impoysoned and instead of promoting the Papal are ready to promote another Interest to the ruine of all present Establishments So far are they transported with a blind and precipitant zeal against it that they are ready to commit those very Treasons Rebellions Murthers c. for the keeping it out which themselves say others would have done for the bringing of it in 3. The Loyal Church-man who never made the Bible speak Treason nor Religion the Patroness of Murther but draws his Principles from precepts and examples of Scripture and from all Primitive Practice hath learn'd to love his King and
whilst they are all endeavouring to promote every Man his Way and Party above the rest they do hinder and pull back one another till they all fall together by the ears Therefore such Popular Associations have War Liberty and Confusion their inseparable adjuncts Which things do give the greatest advantage to Popery For which cause Oats tells you the Jesuits were stirring up the Scots against the Bishops and in defence of their Covenant and the spring following they did rise and declare accordingly and Fitz-Harys who was an Irish Papist made a disturbance the very design of that Libel for which he suffered Nor doth the same Oats say any less of a Tolleration but speaks it a great advance to the Popish Interest And Coleman in his long Letter saith that the next Session of Parliament They viz. the Papists design'd the procuring a Liberty of Conscience which saith he if we gain will be half our point In which last are many Authorities for he was a Man that understood the sense of that Party as much as any and consequently we have herein not his private Sentiments only but the Judgment of the Jesuits who were ever acknowledged well seen in Politicks And truly they had both Reason and Observation to support this confidence 1. Reason pleads that an Universal Toleration must be much more advantagious to the Papists than to Dissenters because the Papists are kept clear and firm to their Principles and lie in no danger of receiving any thing contrary to the Doctrine of their Church but Dissenters being kept to no Rule run into all extravagancy and receive any wild conceptions that are suggested to them therefore while Dissenters are multiplying Opinions changing and opposing Parties the Papists are gathering Proselytes from amongst them all Therefore if such Toleration be advantageous to Dissenters which yet they presume and therefore received it so joyfully that Wild returns a Ballad of Thanks and his Wise was so transported she leaves her Gridiron and runs with an Herring tail hanging out at her mouth to hear the news it must needs be much more advantageous to the Romanists and therefore considerably so But suppose such Liberty Exclude the Papists yet it matters not much For these creep into every Party and under disguises of Mechanicks and gifted Men will have Liberty of maintaining old and inventing what new Opinions they please Among which they promote especially 1. Such as set every Party against every one and incline them as much as may be to the destroying one another 2. Such that dispose Men for the receiving the Romish Faith in which the Jesuit hath went very far already as in Doctrines of Resistance Infallibility c. which former Dissenters have practiced beyond example and the latter they as really attribute to their own Teachers and Parties as any Papists do to the Pope and the Church Now keep these Notions abstractedly and change but the Persons to whom they are attributed that is your Teachers for the Pope your Parties for the Church c. and the work is none Therefore under such a Liberty the Jesuite either moves such Parties to weaken one another till himself becomes able to deal with them all or else carries them on to a conceited Perfection to sit above Ordinances to dream of Visions and Revelations and a Light within 'em which supersede and exclude the Scriptures By which means every Man becomes a Guide and a Rule to himself and being beat off from all Religions he is ready to receive that which alone seems to promise him sure footing and a quiet repose and to which certain Opinions already received do dispose him Then 2. Observation and Experience shew that de facto it hath been so already for the last Rebellion Vsurpation and Liberty that did accompany each brought us so near the Gates of Rome that we cannot imagine what in those Circumstances could have stoped our course but the expedient Mercy gave us viz. His Majesties Restauration Popery never made such advances from the first of Queen Elizabeth to the beginning of that Rebellion as she did from the Rebellion to the end of the Vsurpation nor had she been near so considerable as now was it not for the strength she gain'd then Therefore the Association or any Popular Exclusion which necessarily introduces a War and Toleration both is the very Bait the Romanists have been laying for us the Game they would fain have us at and consequently had these Men design'd to turn all to Arbitrary Power and Popery at once they could not possibly have cut out apter Methods that way than an Association is Whence the Nation must justly suspect either the Wisdom or good intentions of such Men however their Friends who are Factors for another Rebellion would persuade us they are True Protestants and the King 's most Loyal Subjects Whereas while we keep to the Right of Succession we enjoy our Peace our Liberties Laws and Religion which every Wise and sober Man will hold while he can and not throw them away in a pet because some Politick Pates that would fain be making their own Markets would persuade us to do so And for the future there are so many hazards between His Royal Highness and the Crown from infectious Diseases which seize the strong and healthful from decays of Nature which the weak as well as age are under and from the many accidents which the most careful and reserved are expos'd to especially Persons of generous and braving Souls as His Royal Highness is Besides Men's ignorance of his present sentiments and the changes that time Reasonings and Observation may make upon the best and most knowing Persons that it is very highly uncertain whether he ever come to the Crown such as is here represented But suppose he should yet it is not in any Reason to be imagined that it should be possible for him to settle Popery amongst us Indeed when Men look upon the thing in the gross they huddle up a thousand difficulties together and make nothing of 'em but when they come to consider the particular means and ways relation being had to the State and Circumstances of things whereby it must be done if ever it be done they will soon find their confidence broken and themselves at a loss in shewing it fairly probable For if it be done at all it must be either by Law or Arms but by neither of these ergo not at all 1. Not by Law because all our Laws are against Popery Nor are any new ones like to be made in our times in favor of it For in all our last Elections of Representatives let but a sly Knave set the Brand of Papist on the most known and Loyal Protestant and the People fly him as a Basilick that is said to kill with sight or breath notwithstanding we are blessed with a Prince who so constantly declares both by His Words and Conduct for the preservation of the Protestant Religion as it is now