overthrow and that their Projects were permitted so far to succeed as might discover the malicious Intentions of their Authors and convince us that our Ruin was by them concluded yet were they blasted before they attain'd their desired maturity What could effect this What could snatch a Prey out of the Jaws of Destruction but the powerful hand of Heaven Providence was likewise seen in that wonderful Christian Patience then exercised by the Subjects in general notwithstanding such manifest and important Provocations as when an illegal Army was constantly insulting over them their Charters pull'd and commanded from them when all hopes of Justice were excluded when such Persons were put into all places of Trust whether Sacred Civil and Military as had combin'd to set up a Power and introduce a Religion which must inevitably and speedily confound all As none but God alone could bestow such a wonderful Patience so nothing but this Patience could have preserv'd them for a Revolution for the least Offence given the Hereditary Title had changed to that of Conquest When all had been lost as our Enemies desired and expected this Patience did suppress Choler though not Fear it kept the Tongue from reviling though not the Heart from trembling the Hand quiet tho the Ear was daily alarm'd Such admirable Patience such modest Submission would have turn'd the Heart of any Father to the Children had not the cruel Jesuit prepossessed it and to prevent all opportunities of doing Justice and shewing Mercy successfully advis'd against tolerating Addresses Man's Extremity is usually Heaven's Opportunity and when among us all humane Help failed then did he that sitteth in Heaven and also ruleth in the Kingdoms of Men stand up to help these meek and oppressed Kingdoms It was from God that counsel came seeing the present Possessor inexorable to apply to the next Heir who stood bound in Conscience to appear in Their Assistance who were both Christians and part of his Inheritance nor could he possibly connive at their waste and ruin unless resolv'd upon his own Dishonour and Damage To his R. H. therefore the Nobles and Gentry of each Degree and Quality speed away their Humble Petition such a large Description of so many various and intollerable Sufferings as they were constrained to give set his Heroick Blood on fire His own particular danger was not so much considered as our timely Preservation and he resolutely and generously undertakes the just Defence of the Forlorn and them that had no Helper Who doubts the Hand of the Almighty in this blessed Revolution Who else could incline the Dutch a People naturally jealous of their Liberty and Interest a People highly disoblig'd by Acts of Hostility and open Wars by our unkind deserting them in their necessity to put forth the utmost of their Strength under the Princes Conduct in order for our Relief It was the Righteous God who would not suffer the Debt contracted in the days of Q. Elizabeth to be longer unpaid Farther When these were Landed what became of the Courage of the Standing Army Who fill'd them with that Consternation as to turn back in the day of Battle Did not their Guilty Consciences apprehend these Succours to be as the Armies of the Living God against whom it was in vain to make Resistance What more just Proposals could a Prince so highly concern'd after so great Advantages obtain'd offer Than that all Matters might be accomodated by the great Council of the Nation a Parliament free from all manner of Corruption and Prejudice Father Peters had Christned their cruel bloody and unjust doings by the Name of Doing God good Service But now the Man whose Eyes this unexpected help had opened saw how Religious soever Holy Mother Church might style them yet they were not justifiable and therefore so dreaded the Examination that he judg'd it greater Prudence to Abdicate the Realm than be detected The Flock is in great Danger when the careless Shepherd deserts it but in greater when he angrily devotes it to the Ravenous Wolf And that we were not a Prey the greatest Thanks are due to Heaven for sending us so seasonable a Deliverance As for Moderation What greater could be shewn in every Transaction than what was at this time common Especially if we regard how desperate our Case was neither the Person of the late K. J. nor any of his Attendants suffered the least Violence more than what the present Circumstances of which they knew the Authors made necessary or their own indiscreet stiffness pull'd upon them When a blind Zeal and boundless Ambition shall change the Hearts of Princes so that they have no regard no pity no care or concern for the Safety and Well-being of their People these Transports render them uncapable of continuing their Government This was once the Judgment of Crowned Heads when they were consulted in the Case of Portugal whose King became so frenzical as to kill his Subjects in sport and without due Process of Law What greater Madness can a Prince possibly be guilty of Than to destroy and waste his People to rob them of their Antient and Lawful Priviledges to bear that mortal hatred to their Religion though by Laws established as to Sacrifice the Professors to extinguish the Profession The Government of England is certaily Feodatory and the Solemn Oaths taken by our Kings at their Coronation to Govern according to Law has so much more than a Ceremony that from thence rises the Subjects Homage and Fealty Who knows not that one part of the Covenant being broken all Obligations of keeping the other ceases No Reason to cry out There is Treachery O Ahaziah when he that exclaims is to himself the greatest Traytor This Revolution in the main depended upon the Divine Pity and Commiseration the outward Causes thereunto moving were The Change of Religion Violation of Laws Deserting the Throne repairing to the professed Enemy of the State seeking and employing Foreign Force to enslave a Free People Had not these things been K. J. might have now been at Whitehall and have been Lord of all true English Hearts and Affections But what Heart can truly love or Hand fight for that Governor that they are sure will destroy them We have better Eyes and cannot like Mocks adore that Light which will e're long consume us 3. The Advantages attending this Revolution are both as great and as many as either our Necessities require or our Curiosity can invent In short Religion with which no worldly Consideration is worthy to stand in Competition is by secured to us and our posterity The King that now Reigns is not only flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone and so our Natural Liege Lord but of our Religion also and so he ought to be the more dear as we are the more safe Our Laws are once more Sacred our Priviledges allow'd our Rights asserted and could we be so happy as to be reconciled to God by an hearty Repentance and an honest Reformation
COUNSEL TO THE True English OR A WORD OF ADVICE TO THE JACOBITES By a True Member of the Church of England as by Law Establish'd In a Letter to a Friend Licensed May 22. 1691. LONDON Printed for S. Manship at the Black Bull in Cornhill M DC XCI COUNSEL TO THE True English OR A WORD OF ADVICE TO THE JACOBITES In a Letter to a Friend SIR YOU are pleas'd to desire my Opinion in reference to the Times in answer whereunto I am the freer to impart my sentiments that if true and just they may be improved to the reforming the erroneous Judgments of others and if I should in any circumstance be unhappily mistaken your kind Information may minister to my Conviction In plain terms the Face of England is very Squalid and Uncomfortable and from her frequent Flushings and from the many Contractions therein visible it is easie to guess some strange malignity hath infected the Body and that she is thereby much out of order suddain Startings wild and extravagant Talking panick Fears and Consternations secret Susurrations and Whisperings are infallible symptoms of an evil habit and under these our Dear Mother at this present Juncture sorely laboureth All which are imputed to the late Revolution and as if so suddain a turn had brought upon her a Vertigo many of her Children are giddy some stagger and not a few are fallen from their best Resolutions It is my Opinion That if this great Transaction were well considered and understood what was not prevented might be yet amended it is but common that strange things should raise admiration but where an Extasie or Distraction follows the levity of Mens minds is blameable The way I have thought expedient to raise the lapsed and confirm the unstable is to consider 1. The Occasion requiring 2. The Means introducing 3. The Advantages depending upon this Change The former will shew us our Ruin Misery and Desolation intended In the next we may perceive Providence justly gently and seasonably assisting And in the last if we are wise we may behold our Honour Peace and Happiness restored and setled upon sure and lasting Foundations 1. The Occasion requiring and urging this Revolution It is too unpleasing a subject for the entertainment of any generous mind nor shall my Pen describe the least Scene of our Misery with any such intention to reflect upon the person of a King which all Nations acknowledg as Sacred The Mischances or Errours of Government may with Moderation be considered apart from the Person in whose Reign they hapned and truly at that unhappy time which ought never to be forgotten Religion the one thing needful was fallen below indifferent and it was more commendable to profess none than the true Vast Treasures Mountains of Wealth and Rivers of humane Blood have been sacrific'd in defence of Protestantism which now became an unpardonable Crime to own especially in such as stood Candidates for any Promotion and what by the means of the foregoing vitiousness and looseness together with the prevalency of Interest many did so degenerate that the favour of the Prince weighed down both the Love and Dread of God and his Commission was of more force than Gods Commands yet these were the happy days which some nominal Protestants so heartily wish for again it is no hard matter to guess their Zeal for the Truth from their fond adhering to its Adversary I would willingly ask those Irreligious Loyalists what good what comfort to Mind or Body they could reasonably promise themselves or posterity quatentis Protestants from a Government which had brought it self under the unhappy necessity of introducing Popery a Government which was oblig'd either to suppress the most pleasing hopes of an unlimited Power or else to set up Idotry for its Support This alone would quickly have been fatal to Realm for we cannot be ignorant how Jealous God is of his Honour how severely he punished Israels deviations from the True Worship What Miseries what Plagues what Shame what Captivity did their Spiritual Fornication bring upon them And would not the same Means have produced the same Effects here as in Judea How could any of us have hoped for the longer continuance of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ among us who must having embraced the Romish Superstition detract from and impair his Merits by admitting the Servants into Co-partnership with the Master in the great Work of the Mediation and so deprive the Son of God of great part of his Honour to give it to the Children of Men Have so many Laborious and Learned Wise and Pious Volumes by Gods Blessing and Mens Travail been wrote to defend and justifie our Religion and must these without detection of the least Error be condemned to Flames as False and Erroneous Have those Holy Fathers who offered up their Lives to Fire and Sword rather than comply with the unjust and impious Impositions of Rome been honoured with the glorious name of Martyrs and will their ungrateful Posterity now prophanely Curse that Title and call them Hereticks and Rebels to the Spouse of Christ Yet this we must have come to had Heaven tolerated the former Government longer What has rob'd Truth of its Beauty and put so charming a Vizard on Error that our Arms are open for its Reception Why should Christians become weary of Gods Reigning over them by his Spirit of Grace and of a sudden choose to submit themselves to the wiles lusts and passions of sinful and miserably mistaken men yet this they must do that will call back the late Government Tell me you that are sick of this Revolution with what kind of Arguments do you justifie to your selves the false blasphemous and ungodly Doctrins of Rome What Arts what Devices can you think sufficient to perswade those Souls which know themselves freed by the Blood of Christ to serve him in Righteousness and Holiness to practise such a voluntary Humility as to subject themselves in all their Concerns as well Spiritual as Temporal to the Superstition and Idolatry to the Pride and sinful Traditions of the Man of Sin Have you had your Bibles too long and now grow weary of them and so out of Policy for your ease would let in that Religion which must in its own defence take them from you Are you so angry with Prayers because Common and in your Mother Tongue that you long for such as are strange and in an unknown Tongue such as the Priest alone and sometimes not he neither understands Have two Sacraments been thought too many and burdensome by some of you and will seven be lighter But such of you as have a due Veneration for both how will you approve it when you shall see them Celebrated contrary to their Primitive Institution Instead of being used as Conduits of Grace they are made Instruments of Rebellion Blood and Cruelty You that are now asham'd to acquaint your loving your grave and pious Pastor with the sins which gall and
trouble your Consciences how will you like it when compell'd to confess all even the smallest infirmity to a cunning Priest who shall make Merchandise of your Guilt and Tyrannize over you from the knowledge of your weakness Yet thus must you have put your Heads under their Girdles had not this happy Revolution reliev'd you You who think it much to joyn with the Publick in an humble and penitent Confession and together with them receive the benefit of Absolution how will you take it to be sent on tedious Pilgrimages leaving in the mean while your dearest concerns a prey to their Will who shew you so little mercy How will you like of building Hospitals while your own Houses are ready to drop upon your Heads Will it please you to give the Sweat of your Brows and the hard labour of your Hands to fatten and pamper your Ghostly Father and in the mean while see your Children starve and yet in this expectation they were come over How will you like it to have those Wives upon whom you fear the publick Examples are too prevalent to be opportunely conversant with persons whose Religion prohibits lawful but tolerates unlawful enjoyments Who declare a Priest may not Marry but yet may keep a Whore and so they do where-ever they come How will it please you to see your Sons which might have grown up as Plants the Strength and Ornament of their Country seduced into Monasteries Where nursed up in Ignorance Plenty and Idleness they become fitted for all manner of wickedness How will you like it to see your Daughters cooped up in Nunneries than which Seraglio's have been more Chaste where instead of being like polish'd Corners of the Temple shining in Knowledge Grace and Vertue they serve as Pillars for the wanton Priests to hang the Trophies of their Lusts upon You now have the Word in season and out of season you have the Touchstone in your hands to try the Spirits of the Prophets by then you must expect but little of this nature peradventure a recital of some pretended Saints Life taken out of the Legend And as for the truth of all things your short and easie way must be without further examination to believe as the Church believes Thus you must have pinn'd your Faith upon the Priests Sleeve had the Abdicated King continued Consider the horrid Cruelties of the Inquisition peruse the Martyrologies call to mind the frequent and bloody Massacres made by this Religion You that are so fond to live under a Popish Government hear what you must then expect And yet to all these things we were condemned Was not this therefore occasion sufficient to wish and pray for the time of our Redemption to believe and speak honourably of this Revolution Yet have I not related the one half of those insufferable Grievances in respect of Religion under which we must have lingred out a most miserable Life He must be a Papist inwardly notwithstanding all his specious pretences who admires speaks and wishes for such an administration again Another occasion requiring and urging forward this Revolution was the Violation of our Laws Nothing more fully demonstrates the Wisdom Piety and Justice of a Nation nor redounds more to the honour of a Prince than the enacting and executing of good and wholsome Laws These are the Cement which preserves not only smaller Bodies but the Universe from dissolution The Goods of Nature and Fortune All the Comforts of Life are no longer pleasant to their possessors than the Laws are had in Veneration It is one of the greatest Plagues of War that it drowns the Voice of the Law What then can we say in excuse for the late notorious Violation of them What could be expected less than an inundation of miseries when the Fence was demolished and Mens Lusts and Passions ran so high To that pass were things brought that those very Laws which gave the greatest security to our Religion and Liberty to our Lives and Fortunes were upon Repealing and they lay under the Censure of Prophane and Disloyal who did not with the greatest Industry seek and propose their Abolishing That humane Laws should be thus trampled on was but a Natural Consequence to that boldness offered the Divine Amongst the many Laws of England none more notable or at least our dreadful Circumstances did so represent it than such as prohibit a standing Force to be raised by the Prince without the Consent and Concurrence of his Parliament And have not our Eyes seen this snapt as Love Was not a Body of Men rais'd and disciplin'd after such a manner that they were much fitter to be the Agressors than Defenders of their Country to destroy than guard the Peace and Liberty of the Nation If our Throats must be Cut better by our Enemies than Fellow-Subjects Our Laws have made provision not only for the Princes Royal Prerogative but likewise for Subjects just Right yet how strangely was the later swallowed up of the former and the bare pleasure of the late King signified to the All-complying Judges was of power to disseise the Subject of his Birth-right 'T is as good to have nothing as no Right to what we have The Laws of England prescribe due Limits to the Regal Power but in our days as if the Throne had been sick of a Tympany all Bounds and Measures grew so uneasie that the reasonable and modest way of Addressing if it suited not with the Designs of Court was termed Disloyal and so bad a Name was next door to hanging It is hard to bear Oppression but most severe not to be allow'd the liberty of declaring and by honest and lawful means seek a redress They must be perversly ignorant of the Constitutions of England who dare to justifie an unlimited Power and Arbitrary Proceedings These persons destroy both the Nature and End of Government Self-preservation first induc'd the associating of private Persons and Families who agreed upon one common Interest and upon a joynt Defence against the Pride and Ambition of their encroaching Neighbours who were too potent for them single and divided and this Mother-Wit was so well approved that in process of time it occasioned the Uniting and Incorporating of greater Companies which deliberately chose themselves by way of stipulation a Chief expecting from him Defence and Protection engaging to him Honour Tribute and Preheminence It was not long since that in the Title of the English Kings might have been read in room of Jure haereditario electione populi which I suppose was erased to make way for a strange gloss upon the Doctrins of Passive Obedience and Non resistance They that pretend to absolute Monarchy destroy as well the End as Original of Power For whereas the good of the governed is thereby chiefly intended these Men have nothing further in their eye than gratifying the Will Lust and Pleasure of the person governing This is a state so intolerable that such as plead most earnestly for it did they wisely
could we unite and agree among our selves we are blest with a King who by his Prowess Wisdom Justice and Goodness will make us as Great as Glorious as Happy and as Dreadful as ever Some there are whose supposed numbers are not so dreadful as their practices Hellish which are industrious to perswade weak and unthinking persons into a belief of glorious times to succeed the Restoration of the Abdicated King and by cunning and fair words they do beguile some unstable persons and draw them from their proper and safer Allegiance I would beg the seduced or they that are in danger so to be to consider the Vanity of these Proposals by reflecting on the persons who prefer them Observe how they exult upon every advantage of the French and are never better pleased than in the danger of their Native Country It is plain they are of a servile Nature and fitted for the Yoke and the case properly in their esteem is not so much whether King W. or J. shall be King as that the King of France may become our Master Pitiful spirited Wretches that sell their Liberty their Country for a little Gold to a Monstrous Tyrant It is notoriously known how disaffected the Subject is in general to all thoughts of a voluntary recalling a King whose Ambition Wrath and Cruelty have been so dreadful When re-invested with Power what shall prevent a sharp Revenge If our Metropolis was sacrific'd in Flames to gratifie the Pride and Envy of aspiring Rome nothing less than enslaving the Land a Confiscation of Estates and a general Victim of poor Protestants can attone the Wrath which now is incens'd Which of all the Advocates for so desperate a Cause dare say the late King's Zeal for Popery is abated that his Thirst for an unlimited Power is asswag'd that he has wean'd himself from the influence of Jesuitical Counsels that Justice and Equity Truth and Mercy that the good Honour and Welfare of the Realm is any more his delight than ever so short if any Voyage rarely makes such an happy alteration especially on them who Travel where they see no Presidents to rectifie their former misapprehensions Since therefore so little hope of a return is to be expected from the abus'd Affection of his People by what other means can he force his re-entry except the French assistance And it is probable Lewis will with great Gallantry plead this Cause till such time as he shall see opportunity to set up his own but should we suppose that Generosity in that extravagantly ambitious King that he would but clear the way unto the Throne and then draw off yet must we believe so great a Charge shall be demanded as the wholâ— Wealth of the Kingdom cannot answer Sure it were better Policy for us to unite aid and assist him with a moyety who will preserve the rest by keeping such Enemies out and cherishing and protecting us within our dear and native Country It is sufficient to make the Jolliest Heart to bleed to forethink such troubles as must naturally follow should some wicked mens hopes be compleated Our Religion must truckle to Popery our Liberty must be exchang'd into Slavery our Rights and Priviledges into Courtesie our Law must be Nero's Will our Country and Trade must be a prey to Foreigners our Wives the subject of their Lust our Children dasht against the Stones humane Blood must wash the Streets and cleanse the Land and if Cruelty shall be weary before a thorough depopulation the surviving will serve for Drudges and Laughing-Stocks Nor let any flatter themselves of greater security in that they have been bred Sons of Rome or that they have lately conform'd to that Religion The fear of a Relapse shall sentence the last and want of Zeal and action in the Cause shall be the formers Doom besides to support a sinking Cause to animate Cruelty and Barbarism all the Estates Lands and Livings of this Realm are devoted as an Oblation to the Church or a Reward to the Soldier High time is it therefore for all English Men to consider while they have Hands and Hearts Power and Strength couragiously to Assert and Defend the Justice of this Revolution and in all thankfulness to God and Loyalty to their Majesties King William and Queen Mary to unite and strengthen themselves against the common Enemy They are incited by the Royal Example they are encouraged by their own good and safety they are compell'd to it for Hannibal is now at the Gates FINIS