Church of England as much as the Church it self hated the Mass. Whereupon the Pope gave him a Reward of Two Thousand Duccats for his Pains The matter of Fact is sufficiently clear'd and the Practise too Notorious to be deny'd As to the Influence that these Papists have under the notion of Dissenting Protestants upon the Unity of the Church and the Peace of the State But the Craft as they say lyes in the Catching of them For the Test of Oaths will never do the Business as we have found by their Swearing to so many Contrary and Inconsistent Purposes and Interests throughout the whole Course of our Late Troubles So that we have no other way left that I can Imagine of knowing a Disguised Jesuit from one that calls himself a Dissenting Protestant but by comparing their Principles which would infinitely conduce to the Credit and Advantage of the Conscientious sort of the Divided Party And without such a Test of Discrimination the Project of Uniting Dissenters seems to be utterly Impracticable unless to the Extream Hazzard of Authorizing the most pernicious sort of Popery and Incorporating a Jesuitical Leaven into our very Constitution according to the Method which Mr. Coleman himself had projected as the most probable Expedient for the Introducing of Popery into this Kingdom The Removal of this Difficulty will open a way to a General Accomodation to the Common Security both of our Religion and Government And this is only to be done by applying the Maxims of those that we suspect here for Jesuits to the Standard of those Detestable Principles which we so much abominate in the Church of Rome And where ever we find any Party of what Denomination soever that pretends either to Erect an Interest or to support a Claim upon the same Foundation it is but matter of Common Equity to presume and to conclude that Party to be acted and directed by a Jesuitical Spirit These Positions I shall Confront with a Counter-Part of which further in its proper place But in my way to 't I shall now pass to the Character it self The CHARACTER c. IT has been my Fortune to be a Subject and a Native of that part of the World where almost three years last past I have scarce heard any thing but the continual Noyse of Poperâ— and Plots with all the clamorous Fears of a Jealous Kingdom about my â—ars And truly I must plainly confess I am not so Ill a Common-Wealths-maâ— but that I am glad to see my Country-men disturb'd in a Cause where Religion Liberty and Property are at Stake Fol. 1. Hereâ—s the very Bourdon already of that Fatal Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom Dec. 15. 42. and only a short Paraphrase of the Preface to it God blesse us from the Omen The malicious Dâ—signs of the Popish Party the hazzard of Religion and great prejudice and Oppression of the Laws of the Kingdom and just Liberty of the People Exact Collections Pag. 2. That which follow'd upon this Popular Introduction did sufficiently evidence the Design You shall see now how Pat this Prologue runs Another way Mutatis Mutandis It has been my Fortune let Me say too to be a Subject and a Native where the Noise of Popery and Plots Jealousies and Fears and Affrights about Religion Liberty and Property as if All lay at Stake brought a pious and a Protestant Prince to the Block prostituted the Honour Dignity and Revenue of the Government Ecclesiastical and Civil to a Band of Seditious and Sacrilegious Usurpers Our Temples were Demolish'd our Alâ—ars Profan'd the Priestly Office Invaded by Mechaniques Swarms of Heresies and a Scandalous Schism in Exchange for Purity and Unity of Religion Of a Free-born People we became worse then Turkish Slaves Our Common-Wealths-men were glad also to see us Disturb'd and who but our Pretended Advocates and Patriots to be our Tyrants and Tormentors Char. But if their Jealousyes are Just and their Fears Prophetique in Gods name let them talk Every man ought to be so far from silencing any Reasonable Murmurs that 't is rather his Duty to bear a Part in a Choire so Vniversal And if we sâ—e the Great and Wise-men of our Nation like True English Patriots struggling and toyling to prevent our Threatning Calamities let us take delight to behold them Restless and Vneasie Rolling about our Troubled Sea like Porpoises against a Tempest to forewarn us of an Approaching Destruction Ibid. Let them talk on says he just to the Tune of Forty Two again God forbid says Mr. Pym that We should dishearten our Friends who come to assist us And this was when Ven and Manwaring forc'd the Passing of the Bill of Attainder in the Lords House by Tumults against the Earl of Strafford and his Sacred Majesty little better then Besieg'd in his own Palace by the Rabble What a blessed Harmony was there then among the Porters Car-men and Well affected Brethren in the Lobbyes crying out with one Voice no Bishops no Rotten Peers no Common-Prayer while the great and wise men in their Generation were Struggling and Toyling to Pack Parties Contrive Invectives against Authority perplexing the Multitude with Scruples enflaming of Passions and rolling about like State Porpoises not as a Forewarning but the Foreboding of a Tempest Char. But amids our Evident Danger we see another sort of People dayly flattering and deluding us into a False and Fatal Security And sure none are so little our Friends or indeed so void even of Humanity it self as those who would lull us asleep when Ruine is in View Ibid. There are some indeed that after Open Rebellions in Scotland horrid Assassinates Anathema's Denounc'd against his Majesty Declarations point blank against his Person and Government with an Indissoluble Confederacy of Brotherly Union in our own Bowels too by virtue of that Magical Seal of Reprobation the Diabolical Covenant there are some I saâ— that after all these Acts and Demonstrations of Violence and Conspiracy will yet bear the World down that the believing of our eyes is the shamming of the Plot and that there 's no Fear at all of a Storm from that Quarter As if a Jesuitical Practice or Principle were Consecrated in the Heart or Shape of a Presbyterian But says he since Zeal and Hypocrisie Naked Truth and Artificial Falshood have oftentimes alike Faces I cannot but think it the Duty both of a Christian and an English-man to unravel the Treachery of those Arguments which they raise to destroy us But since Zeal and Hypocrisie c. are so alike that we have seen Sacriledge and Heresy pass upon the People for Reformation Rebellion for Loyalty Perjury Blasphemy and Murthâ—r for Religion Regicide for the way to make a Glorious King Bondage for Freedom Rapine for â—ropriety the King 's the Churches and the Peoples Enemies for their Friends what can a man do better then to Unmask this white Devil and expose the Cloven-Foot of this Angel of Light to the View of
Bloud as well of a great number of the Nobles as of other the Subjects and especially Inheritours in the same And the greatest occasion thereof hath been because no perfect and substantial provision by Law hath been made within this Realm of it self when doubts and questions have been moved and proponed of the certainty and legallty of the Succession and Posterity of the Crown c. Now so far is the intent of this Act from diverting the Succession that the express end of it was the setting of it right by the avoidance of a former Settlement upon the nullity of the Marriage And afterward 26th of the same King cap. 2. the Act here before mentioned is called The Act for the Establishment of the Succession of the Heirs of the King's Highness in the Imperial Crown of this Realm Now there 's a great deal of difference betwixt translating the Succession from the wrong to the right and the diverting of it from the right to the wrong Thirdly this change and disposition of Settlement tho it pass'd all the formalities of Bill and Debate yet the first spring of it was from the certain knowledge of the Kings pleasure to have it so without which they durst never have ventur'd upon such a Proposition Fourthly Matter of Fact in this case is no proof of Right and especially a Fact accompanied with so many circumstances of Cross-Capers and Contradictions as the pronouncing of the same persons to be both illegitimate and legitimate c. And a man cannot imagine without a scandal to that grave and wise Assembly that the levity of those Counsels and that humour of Swearing and Counterswearing could be any other than the caprice of their new Head and Governour Fifthly with reverence to the Utility and Constitution of good and wholesom Laws it is not presently to cite a Statute and say There 's a Precedent for those Laws that are repugnant to the light of Nature and common Right are Nâ—llities in themselves Lastly he brings instances here to prove that a Parliament may divert the Succession but he shews withall that there can be no security even in that exclusion in shewing that what one Parliament does another may undo So that we are now upon equal terms of security or hazard either in the exclusion of the Successor or in the restraining of him For if he be tied up by one Parliament another may set him at liberty and if he be excluded by one Parliament another may take him in again But he that shapes his own Premises may cut out what Conclusions he pleases Char. If then says he which no man in his right wits can deny our Religion Lives and Liberties are onely held by a Protestant Tenure and the Majesty of Englfnd not onely by the force of his Coronation Oath but by all the Tyes whatever ought to be the Pillars and Bulwark of the Protestant Faith and at the same time granting that we have a Popish Prince to inherit the Imperial Crown of England he ought certainly in all justice as little to ascend this Throne as Nebuchadnezzar ought to have kept his when the immediate Blast of Heaven had made him so uncapable of Ruling as a King that he was only a Companion fit for Brutes and Savages fol. 17. It is true that we hold the exercise of our Religion by a Protestant Tenure with a respect to a political union but every man holds the Religion it self that he ventures his Soul upon not on the Tenure of Laws and Constitutions Humane but on the Tenure of the divine will and pleasure Providence having dealt so graciously with Mankind that albeit in our Bodies and Estates which are only corruptible and temporary we lye exposed to Torments Persecutions Violence and the Iniquities of Times and Seasons Our Nobler Part is yet exempt from the Outrages either of Men or Beasts and our faith hope and charity treasur'd up where neither Rust nor Moth doth corrupt and where Thieves do not break through and steal As for our Lives and Liberties we hold them by the Common Tenure of Government the Common Right of men bound up in a Civil Society and under the Protection of such and such Laws and Provisions for the Common Benefit and Security of the Whole and Every part And all this clearly abstracted from this or that Religion In the cases of Treasons Felonies Riots false Oaths Forgeries Scandals and other Misdemeanours that endanger the Publick peace I do not find that the Law puts any Difference betwixt Criminals because they are of several Religions The Protestant Tenure of the King's Judges signify'd no more in the eye of the Law than if they had been Powder-Plot Jesuites But to come now to his Protestant Tenure and to close with him upon it too But as a Supposal not to be supposed If he means by this Protestant Tenure the Protestant Religion of the Church of England as Established by Law and that it is by this Tenure that we hold our Religion Lives and Libertiers it will concern us to support this Tenure but in such manner yet as the Law directs For to set up a Tenure without a Law or to assert a Tenure against a Law will not be for the credit of our Authors Pretensions If he means the Dissenting Protestant Tenure He removes the Very Basis of all our Laws and sets up the Title of the Multiude against that of the Government And further this Protestant Tenure of his cannot be understood barely of the Doctrine of the Church of England as in Our Nine and Thirty Articles for first there are several points of them that are opposed and rejected by the Men that value themselves upon this Character And Secondly Our Laws fall not shorter in any thing perhaps of so great Importance than in the point of Competent Provisions for the Suppressing and Punishing of Heretical and Blasphemous Doctrines So that this Protestant Tenure must of Necessity have a Regard to the Vniformity of worship according to the Forms Rights and Ceremonies by the Law in that case provided And in this sence I must confess that our Lives Liberties and the Religion of the Government tho' not directly yet in a most Rational Consecution of dangerous Probabilities lye all at stake Wherefore again and again I say let us joyn with our Author in the maintaining of this Protestant Tenure For tho' the intent of it be only to intimate a Jelousy of Popery to the multitude we shall yet find it upon Examination to have a Loyal Aspect toward the Government Here is an Vniformity prescrib'd which is neither a New thing to us nor an Vnnecessary Not a New one for it has descended to us from the time of Edward the Sixth and it was the only Expedient that Queen Elizabeth could find out for the safety of her Person and Dominions That Excellent Queen Elizabeth as our Author says fol. 17 Vnder whose long and gracious Reign England was so highly blessed
Nay and so sacred is the Providence of Order that Notwithstanding all the fulminations of the Pope and the Numbers as well as the dangerous Practices of the Papists on the one hand and the Impetuous Clamours and Importunities of dissenting Protestants on the other Charging both her self and her Ministers with Popish practices and designs This steady Queen did yet I say preserve her Princely dignity and the Reputation of her People both at home and abroad and at the same time maintain her ground against two potent Factions by standing firm to the Rules and Methods of her Ecclesiastical Discipline And it is Remarkable that the state has still been more or less at ease in measure as That Discipline has been either upheld or Relaxed In Forty and Forty one this fence was thrown down and I need not say after the overturning of that Bank what Monsters were bred out of the Mud upon that Innuundation In the 14th of his Majesties Reign and after his blessed Restauration This Uniformity was re-inforc'd and in the 16th follow'd an Act for suppâ—â—ssing Sedicious Conventicles And now you shall see how much it behoves us to stand by our Protestant Tenure and how far our Religion Lives and Liberties are concerned in so doing The Reformed or Protestant Religion both in Doctrine and Discipline as it is settled by Law is the Protestant Tenure here in question And what Party soever enterprizes upon the worship here Establish'd usuiâ—ps upon this Protestant Tenure It has been the wisdom of the Government from time to time to require an Vniformity in the manner and circumstances of our Worship and upon what motives and apprehensions they were induced to observe those measures will best appear from the Acts themselves To begin with the Act of 1 Ed. 6. it was intended for the gaining of an Vniform godly and quiet Order 35. Eliz. There was a Provision made for the preventing and avoiding such great inconveniences and perils as might happen and grow by the wicked and dangerous practises of Seditious Sectaries and Disloyal Persons c. Where it was made penal so much as to be present at a Conventicle In the same year of the Queen there was an Act against wicked and seditious persons who termed themselves Catholicks and being indeed Spies and Intelligencers not only for her Majesties foreign Enemies but also for Rebellious and Trayterous Subjects born within her Highnesses Realms and Dominions and hiding their most detestable and devilish purposes under a fair pretext of Liberty of Conscience do secretly wander and shift from place to place within this Realm to corrupt and sâ—ouce her Sajesties Subjects and to stir them to Sedition and Rebellion c. 3 Jac. An Act for discovering and repressing Popish Recusants 14 Car. 2. The intent of this Act was the settling the Peace of the Church and allaying the present distempers which the indisposition of time had contracted Many People in the late Troubles having béen led into Factions and Schisms to the great decay and scandal of the Reformed Religion of the Chnrch of England and to the hazzard of many Souls And lastly 16 Car. 2. An Act for suppressing Conventicles providing for further and more spéedy Remedies against the growing and dangerous Practices of seditious Sectaries and other disloyal persons who under pretence of tender Consciences do at their Méeting contrive Insurrections as late Experience hath shewed c.. From these Citations we may collect both the intent and the necessity of an Vniform Worship and upon what Considerations these Acts were made and it appears undenyably from those Outrages that follow'd upon the Peoples breaking loose from this restraint that the Lawmakers were not deceived in their foresight Nor could any other be expected but a liberty of practice after a licence of profession and that after a dissolution of the Law there should be no longer any regard had to Religion or Manners But what do we talk of Religion in a Tune The sounds of things and empty words when they come once to be followed with flagitious actions and execrable effects Was the Venom of the Covenant ever the less Diabolical for the holy Style of it Will Your Majesty's most humble and obedient Subjects attone for the robbing and the murdering of their Soveraign Christ and his Truths is every jot as good a Claim as a Protestant Tenure And yet I 'le shew you here the Contumacy of Lucifer himself under that Mask and the very Soul of their Hands-up-lifting Covenant which tho under the name of Cargils Covenant is the Old Covenant still onely a little rank with keeping The last Speech and Testimony of WILL. GOGOR one of the three desperate and incorrigible Traytors executed at the Grass Market in Edinburgh March 11. 1681 for disowning His Sacred Majesty's Authority and owning and adhering to these bloudy and murdering Principles contained in that execrable Declaration at Sanquhat Cargils Traitorous Covenant and Sacrilegious Excommunicating of the KING by that Arch Traytor Cargil and avowing of themselves to be bound in Conscience and by their Covenant to murder the KING and all that serve under him being Armed the time they were apprehâ—nded for that purpose Men and Brethren THese are to shew you that I am come here this day to lay down my Life for owning Christ and his Truths and in so much as we are caluminiated and reproached by lying upon our Names and dreadful upbraiding of us with saying That we are not led by the Scriptures and say We have taken other Rules to walk by I take the Great God to be witness against all and every one of them that I take the Word of God to be my Rule and I never designed any thing but honesty and faithfulness to Christ and for owning of Christ and the Scriptures this day I am murder'd for adhering to the born-down Truths I am condemned to die and I also leave my Testimony and bear witness against all the Apostate Ministers this day that have taken favour at the Enemies hands The onely thing they take away my Life for is because I disowned all those bloudy Traytors not to be Magistrates which the Word of God casts off and we are bound in Conscience and Covenant to God to disown all such as are Enemies to God and which they are avowed and open Enemies to Christ And they have made void my word saith the Lord. Say what ye will Devils say Wretches say Enemies say what ye will we are owning the Truth of Christ and his written Word and condemn me in my Judgment who will I leave my Bloud on one and all that say we are not led by the Scripture I leave my Bloud upon you again to be a Witness against you and a Condemnation in the great day of Judgment I have no more to say I think this may mitigate all your rage and so forth I leave his Enemies to his Curse to be unished into everlasting wrath for now and ever Amen Sic
the Nation Char. As First Says my Authour why should we stand in fear of Popery when in the present Temper of England 't is impossible for any Successour whatever to introduce it And First say I too what fear of Phanaticism and a Common-wealth under the present Settlement of Episcopacy and Kingly Government Char. And next amids our groundless Fears says the Anthor of the Character by way of supposal let us consider what that Prince is that appears so dreadful a Gorgon to England A Prince that upon all Accounts has so Signally ventur'd his Life for his King and Country a Heroe of that faithfull and matchless Courage and Loyalty A Prince of that Vnshaken Honour and Resolution that his Word has ever been known to be his Oracle and his Friendship a Buâ—wark whereever he vouchsafes â—o place it with such an infinite Mass of all the Bravery and Gallantry that can adorn a Prince Why must the Change of his Religion destroy his Humanity or the advance to a Crown render his Word or Honour lesse Sacred or make him a Tyrant to that very people whom he hath so often and so chearfully Defended Why may there not be a Popish King with all these Accomplishments that whatever his own Private Devotions shall be yet shall Publiquely maintain the Protestant Worship with all the Present Constitution of Government Vnalter'd And next say I let us consider those Covenanting and Republican Spirits that appear so dreadfull to us a Party that so signally ventur'd their Lives â—or the Kingâ— Authority in the Two Houses against his Person in the Field nay of that matchlesse Courage and Loyalty that they hazzarded their Souls as well as their Bodyes to make him a Glorious Prince by sending him to Heaven before his time A Party of that unshaken Honour and Resolution that their words were Oracles their Protestations Oaths and Covenants ever bearing a double and an equivocal meaning their Friendship a Bulwark only the Guns were turn'd upon all that ever Trusted them And of so great Bravery that they charged thorough Heaven and Hell without Fear either of God or Devil and trampled under foot all Laws both Divine and Humane for the Accomplishing of their Ends. 'T is true that of Papal they are become Phanatical Jesuits and why should the Change of their Profession now destroy their Nature Or their word and Honour be lesse Sacred if they get the Power into their Hands once again then we have formerly found it They eas'd us of our Laws Lives Liberties and Estates and why should they become Tyrants Now that were so Mercyfull to us before Why may they not be such Covenanters and Common-wealths-men as whatever they be in Private will yet in Publique maintain the Monarchy and Episcopacy unalter'd Especially after that famous Instance of their Indulgence to his Majesty at Holdenby when they kept him a Prisoner without Allowing him the Benefit so much as of a Chaplain or a Common-Prayer-Book And now he proceeds Char. But alas what signifie all the great past Actions of a Princes Life when Popery has at last got the Ascendent All Virtues must truckle to Religion and how little an Impression will all his Recorded â—lorys leave behind them when Rome has once Stampt him Her Proselyte But since unlikely things may come to passe let us seriously examine how far the Notion of such a Popish Successour consists with Reason Fol. 2. Alas Alas What are the Good-Old-Cause-men the better for their Crown and Church-Lands Sequestrations Plunders Decimations Directories Classical Congregational Presbyterys when Monarchy and Episcopacy have at last got the Ascendent All Virtues must Truckle to Religion as they did when Rebellion Sacriledge Oppression and Murther were hallow'd and Authorized in the Pulpit for the Propagation of the Gospel But since unlikely things may come to pass â—â—t us see how far the Notion of a Phanatical Popery consists with the Discipline and Government by Law establish'd Char. Fol. 2. If to maintain and defend our Religion 〈◊〉 any more then a Name it is in possible for any man to act the true Defensive Part without the Offensive too And he that would effectually uphold the Protestant Worship Peace and Interest is bound to suppress all those potent and dangerous Enemies that would destroy them for all other Defense is but Disguise and Counterfeit The States-men of Forty One that defended the Protestant Religion with Sword and Cannon and our Liberties Properties and Persons at the same rate were extreamly well read in this Offensive way of Defence And our Authour is much in the Right that the way to uphold it is to suppress those that would destroy it That is to say to suppresse those that enter into Protestations Oaths and Covenants against Episcopacy Root and Branch All other Defence as he says is but Disguise and Counterfeit The Remonstrants of Forty Two declar'd it to be far from Their purpose to let loose the golden Reins of Discipline and Government in the Church which was only a Political Cheat as it is here expounded for our Churches were turn'd into Stables our Clergy hunted like Partridges in the Mountains our Pulpits Stuff'd with Blasphemy and Blew Aprons and in the Conclusion a hundred Heresyes let loose among us for one Orthodox Religion Char. Fol. 2. If then the Wisdom of several Successive Monarchs with the whole Nations Vnanimous Prudence and indefatigable Care for the Protestant Preservation has determin'd that those Papist Priests who have sworn Fealty to the See of Rome and taken Orders in Foreign Seminarys are the greatest Seducers of the Kings liege People and the most notorious Incendiaries and subverters of the Protestant Christianity and Loyalty and for that Cause their several Laws declare them Traytors by Consequence these are the Potent and dangerous Enemies which in defense of the Protestant Cause this Popish King is oblig'd to suppress and Punish and these the very Laws he is bound to Execute Fol. 2. As the Wisdom of Successive Monarchs has provided for the Protestant Preservation by necessary Severitys against known Priests and Jesuits on the One hand so have they likewise on the Other hand against Separatists of another Denomination where we find the same Principles couch'd under other Names And these are a kind of Protestant Jesuit The Pope Deposes Heretical Princes the Fanatique Deposes Popish And as Ill manners produce Good Laws the Lewd Practises on Both hands put the State upon Provisions that look both Ways The Schism here among us brake loose but once since the Reformation And what a Deluge of Hypocrisy Bloodshed Oppression Athiesm and Prophaneness flow'd in upon it But that we may not Cavil upon the Word Protestant let the Law expound it which does expressly provide for the securing of Conforming Protestants against the danger of Dissenters So that we have Potent Enemies it seems on both sides Now if a Phanatique Interest should get Head it is as improbable on this side as it is
their Livingâ— the King himself and his Loyal Subjects out of their Lives Liberties and Estates the Crowns Churches and the Peoples Monies into their own â—ockets the House of Peers into a Cypher or Nullity the House of Commons into a Secret Committee the Monarchy into a Republick the Laws into Votes and Ordinances their Committe into a Rump-Assembly That Rump into a Protector and that Protector again into a Committee of Safety And all this was done by the Power of Imagination and a strong phansy of Tyranny and Popery And why may not all this he phansy'd over again But pray let me Phansy a little on the other side Let us Phansy his Majesty to Survive his Brother Let us Phansy an Heir Apparent either by her Majesty in being or by the providence of a Second Marriage or the Successor to be a person of Honour Conscience or Prudence whatever his Religion be And that in Honour and Conscience he will govern himself by the Tyes of his Word and his Duty and that in Prudence he will not venture upon a Project so impracticable as an attempt of Subverting the Religion and Government when every mans Neck shall lye at stake that shall but dare to assist him in 't which might be sufficiently provided for by some previous Act that saving the Kings Prerogative in the Case might secure their not being pardon'd in That particular We shall now Counterpoise Dangers to Dangers Here is a present opposed to a future a Certainty to a Possibility a Greater to a Less and a Protestant King to a Papist The Present danger is the probable Effect of these Intoxicating Methods to the People If Phansy was Poyson to the Multitude under the late King the same Phansy in a larger Dose and with less Corrective to it will be at least as strong a Poyson to the People under This. If the Fact on the one side be true the Reason on the other side is not to be deny'd The dismal Calamities that ensu'd upon it I have â—et forth already Now what is there in the future to weight against the Life of the King the Safety of the Church the Law and the Government the Peace of the Kingdom There may possibly be a Popish King and there may probably not And that King may Possibly have a Will to change the Government but probably not in respect of the very Immorality of Inclining to such a Violation of his Trust and Word But all most certainly not in regard of so manifest an Inability to bring it to pass When I say a Certainty I mean only a Natural Train of Events in the Application of Actives to Passives which in a high degree has taken place already For the People are almost Raving mad at the apprehensions of these Stories the Feaver encreases upon them and they grow every day Hotter and Lighter-headed than other So that we are in Forty times a greater danger of a Sedition at hand than of a Popish Successor at a Distance As to the Ballance of a greater danger and a Less we 'l e'en take the matter as they suppose it A King upon the Throne that 's Principled for Arbitrary Government and Popery But so clogg'd and shackl'd with Popular and Protestant Laws that if he had never so great a mind to 't there is not a Subject in his Dominions that would dare to serve him in his Design But on the other hand there 's no King at all no Church no Law no Government no Magna Charta no Petition of Right no Property no Liberty c. PROBATVM Beside that the Phansy comes to no more in Effect than if the sky fall we shall catch Larks But once again yet Here 's a Protestant Prince expos'd for fear of a Popish one Is the Chimera of a future danger of more value to us then the Conscience of an incumbant and indispensable Duty shall we take pet at God Almighties providence and not go to Heaven at all unless we may go our own way Shall we Level a shot at the Duke at a distance if there be no coming at him but through the Heart of our Sovereign shall we actually break in upon the Protestant profession which stands or falls with the Church of England because the Author of the Character phansies the hazard of a Popish Religion in the Moon and by the unavoidable Consequence of a Misgovernment under this apprehension draws the very plague upon us that we pretend to fear While we thus go on exposing both our Temporal and Eternal peace for shadows The Writer of the Character had most Rhetorically amplifi'd in his Calculations upon his Popish Successor but so Oversiz'd the figure that when ever the people come to their wits again they will look upon the story of Garagantua as not much the less Credible of the Two For his dangers are all out of Ken his Thunderâ—s in the Clouds and the Multitude are all turn'd Star-Gazers and gaping after ill-boding Conjunctions and malevolent influences while with him in the Fable They are tumbling into a Precipice as deep as Hell and take no notice of it Here is a danger suggested and such a means intimated for the prevention of it as makes the Remedy worse than the Disease for the very Expedient undermines the Government But first a word of the dangers on the other side There are several ways started for the disappointing of this inconvenience One by Attainder upon 23. 13. of Eliz. Another by a Bill in Parliament for diverting the Succession And some of the Libellers fall down right upon a Third Proposal of the peoples preventing the Succession though without or against Law And Fourthly either to expel the Successour or to keep him out in case of Survivorship To the first of these ways I shall speak when the point comes on As to the second which is matter of Parliamentary Cognizance I reckon it my duty to acquiesce in the Legal Issue of their Debates as an Authority to which I have ever paid a Duty and a Veneration This only I shall take the freedom to say that there is a vast difference betwixt their Deliberations that purely regard the prospect and interest of both Church and State in what concerns the Popish and Protestant Religion and the passionate excursions of private men on the wrong side of the Parliament Doorâ— that thrust themselves into the Controversie rather out of envy to the Person and fame of the Successour than to promote the more important cause of Religion like men that crow'd into a Church for company to pick a pocket and this to without any respect to the King himself in the person of his Brother or to the measures of duty to the Government Now as to the two last ways of proposal which are eiher for prevention or exclusion I have this to say If there be danger from a popish Successour during his expectancy within the Kingdom the danger is infinitely greater if he be driven
be purely Divine which opinion in truth needs not any other Support than the Authority of the Holy Scriptures By me Kings Reign c. I have made the Earth the Man and the Beasts that are upon the Ground by my great Power and my Outstretched arm and have given it to whom it seemed meet unto me Jer. 27. 5. That which we now call Kingly Government was at first called Paternel and after that Patriarchal c. And we find by the Powers they exercised as Life and Death War and Peace c. that their Paternal Power did Then extend to all the Acts of our Regal Power The Objection is could there be a King without a People Which is all one with the Supposal of a Father without a Son But This does not at all conclude that Adam had not both a Regal and a Paternal Power before he had either People or Children actually to govern and exercise it upon It being a thing so consonant also to the Methods of the Divine Wisdom to supply him previously with all needful Abilities and Authorities for the Discharge of his Fatherly and Governing Office The whole Race of his Posterity lying open even before they had any Existency in Nature to the Omniscience of God with whom there is no PAST or FUTVRE but all things always PRESENT Again if Adam did not bring his Authority into the World with him when did he receive his Commission Or if he had none at all how could he justifie the Arbitrary Rule he exercis'd over those People that were only his Fellow Subjects under the same God and without any Subordinate Ruler over them Or if Adam was vested with a Right of exerting the Power he exercis'd how came our Authors Imaginary Multitude to chuse a Governor of their own in opposition to the appointment of Providence Or who absolved them from the Bonds of their filial and primary Duty and Obedience What he says afterward of Conquest which he calls his Other Acquisition of Monarchy serves only for an occasion to tell us that our Last Norman Conquest was little more than a Composition which is an error and nothing at all to the point here in hand which refers only to the constitution and Settlement of the Government as now it stands without any respect to the manner of acquiring it But he is now drawing to a conclusion Char. If now at last says he 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 subdu'd like less than English-men or be debar'd the Common Right of all Nations which is to Resist and Repel an Invader if we can fol. 21. This is spoken upon the supposition of a Popish Successors coming to the Crown whom he calls an Invader though qualifyed with a Legal Title and he incourages Violence against him tho' in this case the Law pronounces him a King and this Resistance to be made like English-men too that is to say English-men of the late stamp So that there goes no more I perceive to the destruction of a Lawful Prince but to say that he either is or will be this or thaâ— And the King himself stands in as much danger upon the admittance of this Principle as his Royal Brother But before Subjects proceed to these terms which without a legal Authority are criminal in any case whatsoever Malice it selâ— will not deny but that there ought to be an infallible certainty of the Inconvenience whereas as I have said before this is a case lyable to many disappointments the prospect of it remote the expedient unwarrantable and the danger it self at last not so mortal as it is represented He supports his presumption upon this ground for granted that a Popish King must do whatsoever the Pope will have him do and subject his people to the Tyranny as well as the Religion of the Church of Rome What does he say to the French Kings Pyramid then and the vindication of himself and his people in divers other cases from the Insults of Rome and to several other instances already given in this particular Char. But to summ up all this says he I must say the most vehement Disputants against the Peoples right of defending themselves must at length acâ—nowledge thus much that whenever a Papist King shall by Tyranny establish the Popes 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 Fol. 22. This is a clause of double consolation First to the Author that this Popish King shall be damn'd the deeper of the two And Secondly to the People that they shall go to the Devil in good company Char. The very Essence he says 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 This must be a very great Plot if it be the greatest Plot that we have seen even in our days a Plot upon our Laws and it subverted them upon the Church and it destroyed it root and branch upon our Estates and it took them away by violence upon our Liberties and it enslav'd us upon our Lives and it was made death to do our Duties It was a Plot that left us no other choice in many cases but Death or Damnation If I had ask'd my revenues says the late King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sect 24. my power of the Militia or any one of my Kingdoms it had been no wonder to have been denied in those things where the evil policy of men forbids all Restitution lest they should confess an injurious Usurpation But to deny me the Ghostly comfort of Chaplains seems a greater rigour and barbarity then is ever used by Christians to the meanest Prisoners and greatest Malefactors whom tho' the Justice of the Law deprives of worldly Comforts yet the Mercy of Religion allows them the benefit of their Clergy as not aiming at once to destroy their Bodyâ— and to Damn their Souls But My Agony must not be Reliev'd with the Presence of any one Good Angel for such â—account a Learned Godly and Discreet Divineâ— such I would have all Mine to be They that envy my being a King are loth I should be a Christian while they Seck to deprive Me of all things else they are aâ—â—aâ—d I should save my soul. Has the Author of the Character heard of this Un-Christian Barbarity toward a Prince of the most Exemplary Goodness and Piety one of them that ever liv'd And how he was yet after all this Murther'd on a Scaffold in the Name and under the pretended Sovereignty of the People of England How has he then the hardness of Heart to set up that Regicidal Principle afresh and to pronounce the Government of a Popish Successor to be a
of a Religion that makes humane merit the Path of Salvation and so he passes into a very florid descant upon the Abuses in the Church of Rome of this wonder-working merit And our dissenting Papists in the late times came not one jote behind them in making it the dayly Theme of the Pulpit to Preach Salvation to all that di'd in the Cause Char. And then again Popery is 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 racking 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 These are dreadful Cruelties but if this fierceness arise from any principle of rigour in the System of their Faith methinks they should treat all alike for if it be upon an Impulse of Conscience it becomes a Duty The Jesuits here in our Covenant Persâ—cution were pretty good at this way of Discipline too There was no scouâ—ging racking and broiling 't is true but there was plundering sequestering starving imprisoning poisoning in Gaols and refusing the Holy Communion to Anti-Covenanters upon their Death bed There was a general Massacre propounded of all the Cavaliers that had been in arms which I am well assur'd was carried but by one voice in the negative There were upward of a hundred sequester'd Ministers crowded into a prison where they knew there was a raging Plague and as I am credibly inform'd there was not a thirtieth part of them came off alive And for these Diabolical Actions the Persecutors were enroll'd into the number of the Saints Char. Nay says he the very outrage of Thefts Murthers Adulteries and Rebellions are nothing to the pious Barbarities of a Popish King The Murtherer and Adulterer may in time be reclaim'd by the Precepts of Morality and the Terrors of Conscience The Thief by the dread of a Gallows may become honest Nay the greatest Traitor either by the fear of Death or the Apprehensions of Hell may at last Repent But a Papist on a Throne has an unconsutable Vindication for all his Proceedings Challenges his Commission even from Heaven for all his Cruelty he dares Act and when all the Inchantments of Rome have touch'd 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 fol. 13. If it had not been for Popish King Papist and Rome I should have taken this last Paragraph for the Picture of a Kirk-Conclave For first though there was Theft Murther and Rebellion abundantly in their proceedings yet so Transcendent was the wickedness of their blasphemous Bands and Associations so horrid the Forms of their Calling the Searcher of all hearts with hands lifted up to the most high God c. to witness the joyning of themselves in a holy Covenant unto the Lord which holy Covenant was yet in the very first conception and intent of it a premeditate Complottery to destroy That in Effect which in Terms they swore to defend All other sins I say were as nothing in the Ballance against this Catilinary and bloudy Sacrament And so remarkable was the Reprobated Impenitence that follow'd upon it as if the Devil himself had come in to the Signing and Sealing of that Religious Mockery both upon God and Man and turn'd the Hypocritical Covenant into a Magical Contract As for those that took it with good meaning or perhaps out of weakness and surprise though I my self was none of the number I make no doubt but that God hath given to many of them a true sence of their mistake but for those that designingly and frankly leagu'd themselves in that Combination I am at a loss even according to the largest allowances of Christian Charity where to find three Converts the Living persisting still in the obligation of that Oath and those that were taken off by the hand of justice asserting it to the Death I bear my Testimony says Kid that was Executed in Scotland as a Rebel Spirit of Popery fol. 7. to the Solemn League and Covenant as it was profess'd and sworn in Scotland England and Ireland in 1643. c. And again Ibid Prelacy as it is now Establish'd by a pretended Law is destructive downrightly to the sworn Covenants yea not only Prelacy Popery Malignancy and Heresie but Supremacy and every thing Originally upon and derivate from it And further fol. 17. The Three Kingdoms are Marry'd Lands so I die in the faith of it that there will be a Resurrection of Christs Name Cause and Covenant And so likewse King that was Executed in Scotland too Id. fol. 42. I bear my witness Testimony to our Covenants National and Solemn League betwixt the Three Kingdoms which Sacred and Solemn Oath I believe cannot be dispensed with nor loosed by any Person or party upon Earth And fol. 43. I bear witness against the Ancient Christian Prelacy c. and against all Oaths and Bonds contrary to our Covenaâ—t and Engagement especially that Oath of Supremâ—cy c. And so Mitchel Weir c. See Ravillac Redivivus They do all of them sing the same Note Now take all together the deliberate wickedness of their first Resolve upon the Covenant their prophane and daring Hypocrisie in the very Frame and wording of it the counterfeiting of Gods Authority for Sacrilege and Rebellion in pursuance of it and lastly the maintaining and defending of all their impieties to the last Gasp. A man may defie all the Story of the world sacred and prophane to shew any other Party of Men that weâ—e ever lost under so dreadful a derâ—liction But yet there is something of a perverse Bravery in renouncing it at last and after all their â—ndignities put upon the Gâ—d of Truth in making some conscience yet of keeping Touch with the Spirit of Delusion And now to finish the Parallel betwixt our Dissenting Papists and his Jesuitcal We have our Enthusiasts too that vent their Dreams and Vapours for Oracles But to shorten the matter Bayli'es Disswasive will abundantly satisfie the Reader upon this Subject He passes from hence to a reply upon a supposition that such Laws may be made before-hand as will make it impossible for a Popish King to set up Popery in England But that says he would be like hedging in the Cuckow c. for who shall call this King to question for breaking these Laws if he has the power and will to do it This Question fol. 13. might serve for a piece of an Answer to a Contradiction he puts upon himself fol. 20. which we shall handle in course If the Law has put it out of his power there is no longer any place for the supposal of a power unless by Foreign Force which would presently improve a private
Jealousy of Religion into the publick Rupture of a National Quarrel to the almost inevitable and irreparable Loss of his Reputation his Friends and his Dominions together Now the other way in case of his being injuriously excluded it would be forty times more easy for Him to recover his Pretensions from abroad by a Foreign Assistance in concurrence with such an English Interest as a generons Compassion to his Wrong a Respect for his Person and the Justice of his Title would certainly create him than to erect an absolute Power against the Wills and Hearts of his People and contrary to all the measures of Equity and Prudence And to do all this too while he might live and reign easily and comfortably to himself and his Subjects within the limits of a Legal Administration And if he can never expect to gain this point by calling in Auxillaries from beyond the Seas much less will he be able to do it upon the bottom of his own Interest and within himself For there must go a great many more hands than his own to such a work And to say that he may do it by his Officers or Ministers by the force of Gratifications Pensions or the Promises and Hopes of Preferment and Advantage That Objection may be easily obviated For it is a thing of clear and easy prospect the Forming of such a Scheme of Laws for securing the Bounds of the Government as no man that has either a Neck or a Fortune to lose will dare to violate But the bare Power if he had it would signify nothing neither unless the VVill as he says goes along with it Now if he may WILL he may NILL too So that he is left at Liberty to make his Election either of the One or of the Other which has in a great measure discharg'd him of the pretended Impulse of Religion and translated the Exception from the Papist to the Person Founding the apprehension upon a pretended Foresight of Tyranny and double Dealing in That Princes Character which being a thing that is only to be seen with His Spectacles and a Prognostick Peculiar to His way of Calculation wee 'l go to the next I will not deny says he ibid. but a Popish King may be totally restrein'd from all Power of Introducing Popery by the Force of such Laws as 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 This shift does not at all either weaken or avoid my Assertion for the Kings hands are sufficiently ty'd in holding the hands of his Ministers And This may be done so far as is necessary for This purpose without any Diminution to his Royal Dignity If the transferring of the Executive Power to the People that is to say Deposing of him would do the Job the Character will shew us by and by how That may be done without need of New Laws and in spite of Old Ones But what Monarch says he will be so unnatural to his bloud So ill a Defender and so weak a Champion for the Royal Dignity he wears as to sign and ratify such Laws as shall entail That Effeminancy and that Servility on a Crown as shall render the Imperial Majesty of England but a Pageant a meer Puppet upon a wire He does well to presume that a Prince will not Unking himself but he would do better yet to keep himself clear from such Propositions and Principles as lead to that Dâ—posing End For whatsoever strikes at the Crown in a Papist falls upon the Rebound on the Royal Authority in a Protestant But says he ib. If no King will assent to make Laws to do it this way and no Laws can do it t'other all Laws against Popery in case of a Popish Successor are as I told you before but building the Hedge c This Author seems to scrupulize more then needs upon the fear 〈◊〉 Cramping the Prerogative For he himself will shew us by and by how to do that without a Law which he despairs of ever seeing done by one If he had thought of what the King has lately parted with out of his Prerogative for the begeting of a Plenary Trust and Confidence in his People he would not have despair'd of any Condescension from his Majesty for the securing of his Subjects in their Properties and Religion after so much more done for them already than that which is here propounded amounts to He tells us fol. 14. of the danger of the Popâ—s Supremacy and I must tell him that within the Kings Dominions the Supremacy of the Kirk is every jote as dangerous Wherefore let us look to our selves both ways as well against those Papists that did murther the Last King as those other Papists that are in the Plot to destroy This. No doubt Says he but the Fire that burns the Heretique Law-makers shall give their Laws the same Martyrdom If they have power 't is probable enough that they will But their 's a great difference in the case betwixt a Prince and his own Subjects and the Pope and Stranger Hetiques The one destroyes his Enemies the other his Friends The Pope is in One Barque the Heaetiques in â—onother and the one may Sink and the other Swim now the King being in the same bottom with his People if he runs the Vessel upon a Rock they are all cast away together Châ—r With this certain prospect both of the ruine of their Estates Lives and Liberties where lies the Sin in the Commons of England to stand upon their Guard against a Popish Successor Aye a Gods name let them stand upon their Gaurds and use all expedients to keep out Popery and Tyranny provided still that we preserve the sacred Succession in its right line for that we are told both King and People aâ—e obliged in conscience to defeâ—d and uphold This clause has both more and less in it than a body would imagine and a man hardly knows either how to meddle with it or how to let it alone He begins with the assumption of a thing certainly prov'd though without any colour that I can find of makeing it out to be so much as probable and barely possible is the mosâ— that I can make on 't Nay and it is not that neither without imputing more of Rancâ—ur and Implacable Virulency of Nature to his Popish Successor than ever any Man yet discovered either before â—r beside the Author of this Character But however upon that substratum he takes up the Quarrel as he would have it understood of the Commons of England Where lies the sin says he in the Commons of England to stand upon their Guard against a Popish Successor This is only a Gin set for a Woodcock under the Equivoque of the Commons of England so that if a Man speaks only to the Multitude and he applys it to the Representative there may be matter pickt out