which the Jacobites shew another Instance in the Case of Mr. George Sheals a Clergy-Man who will not Swear but Read the Liturgy of the Church of England in his own House and did not Deny some Devour People who sometimes came thither the benefit of Joyning in the Common-Prayers of the Church For which Fault alone he was Fin'd a Hundred Marks which being much above his present Ability for he is Depriv'd and has nothing where-withal to Subsist a Wife and Parcel of Young Children he Lay Three Monthes in Newgate for his Fine Add to this the Imprisonment of Arch-Deacon Fitz Gerrald Mr. Collier and Mr. Newton Three Non-Swearing Clergy-Men this last Summer without having any thing to lay to their Charge And Dr. Bryand Sent to the Gate-House for Reading the Common Prayers The several Lords and Gentlemen Committed without any Information upon Oath contrary to Law has been brought before the Parliament Many more Instances the Jacobites offer to give of the like Usage from us and they desire a List of all whom we have Pardon'd since the Revolution who have come under the Lash of the Law to teach them by our Mercy to return our Kindness They likewise mind us That the Refusal of the Oaths was not at first thought so Heinous a Matter but that the Parliament Allowed Twelve of the Clergy who should Resuse it the Third of their Bishop-ricks or Livings during Life and it was left to K. William's Clemency to Name which Twelve of the Depriv'd Bishops or Clergy he Pleas'd But he was Pleas'd with none of them And their Successors whom the Jacobites call Intruders follow say they the Example of his Charity and keep all they can get to themselves They the No-Swearers hope to Live say you ibid. to see the Swearing Bishops and Priests the Contempt of Princes and People This does not shew say the Jacobites that they are Greedy of Life For they may see that every Day they go into the Streets The Turne of the Clergy this Revolution has made them in a Literal Sence the By-word of the People O but their great Grief is That if we had a Jacobite Parliament they would make no Scruple to Declare the Legitimacy of the Prince of Wales p. 18. That need not say the Jacobites for he is Legitimate by all the Laws in the World without their Declaration unless you think that Three or Four Foolish Ballads and Drunken Songs Laught at now by those who made them for they have serv'd the Turn for which they were intended can Disinherit a Prince or any other Man of his Birth-Right For there is no other Evidence against the P. of Wales no one Information of any Person whatsoever no Sentence of any Court nor has even the present Parliament said one Word against his Legitimacy There is a Terrible Discovery in the Words following viz. They would take care for new Jacobite Tests to Renounce and Abhor all the several Hypotheses and Principles of Government which have been Vrg'd to Justify our Submission and Allegiance to their present Majesties These Jacobites are a Cruel sort of People It is Ten to One but they might do all this And then we must be saying and un-saying all over again But they who have done it twice or thrice will find it easier and easier they will never want Distinctions And Shame is over But besides the Jacobites say it is impossible for them to Reproach you more than you do one another Even the chief Top-Men of your Party For Example When K. James lost the Boyn then Dr. Sherlock thought it would never be Day He Immediately cry'd up Success as Divine Right And upon that Point he Staked down his Soul to all Eternity and all theirs who would be perswaded by him Vide Dedication to his Book of Judgment and of Death 'Twixt these two he only found Conversion But since that the Whore Success has been Courting that Handsom Portly French King Waited upon him at Mons Namure Steenkirk the Rhine Savoy Dixmuyd and Furnes and we know not where it will End Therefore it is good to look about and Damn that Doctrine of Success in time before it be made use of against us For this Great Work Tillotson is set up to pull down what Sherlock had so Artificially built And he does it Effectually but not with so great Respect to his old Friend in his Thanks giving Sermon before quoted p. 30. where he tells us that The Cause must be first Manifetly Jast before Success can be made an Argument of GOD's Favour to it and Approbation of it Meer Success is certainly one of the worst Arguments in the World of a Good Cause and the most Improper to Satisfy Conscience And yet does in a very Odd but Effectual way satisfy the Consciences of a Great many Men by shâ—wing them their Interest And p. 17. Knowledge and Skill to Devise Mischief and Power to Effect it are the true Nature and Character of the Devil and his Angels What Jacobite could have Damn'd the Doctrine of Events more Effectually And when they see such Great Doctors fall out among themselves in the Method of Satisfying their Consciences as to this Revolution it is a mighty Scandal to them and a Tentation to think that having forsaken their old Foundation they are yet to seek where to settle upon true or certain Principles Meer Success says Sherlock is Divine says Tillotson it is the Devil and his Angels And each Ventures his Soul upon the Truth of his Hypothesis because an Error in this Involves them in Rebellion which both of them do Confess to be a Damnable Sin But as to this Principle of Doctor Tillotson's I must tell you that the Jacobites are very well pleas'd with it viz. That the cause must be first Manifestly Just before Success can be made an Argument of GOD's Favour to it or Approbation of it And they hope now to come soon to a Good Conclusion the Case being thus Stated upon its True Bottom Therefore we must suppose that it was Manifestly Just to Plot against K. James while he was upon the Throne and to assist the P. of Orange against him otherwise the Success of this Revolution can be made no Argument of GOD's Favour to it or Approbation of it The Great Terror before us was Popery and the most popular pretence for what we have done was Securing the Protestant Religion And whether Religion be a Manifestly Just Cause for taking Arms against our Natural Prince the Jacobites say is as Manifestly Decided as any principle of the Church of England or any Act of Parliament in our Statute Book They say moreover that this same Dr. Tillotson her gone a length in this beyond whatever the Church of England own'd in her highest Altitude of Passive-Obedience Which is to make it Unlawful even to Preach the Gospel without leave of the Civil-Magistrate unless we can prove our Mission by Miracles as the Apostles did This you will find
and all places Ecclesiastical Civil and Military were put into the papists hands In K. James's time the Protestants were two hundred to one papist and he could never have got a Popish Parliament The K. of Spain was then as Formidable to England as the French King is now and had much greater pretence He was Married to our Queen and all our Acts of Parliament were in his name he was stil'd King of England There were great Objections against Q. Mary's Title to the Crown The validity of K. Henry the VIII's Marriage with her Mother was disputed all over Christendom and the whole Nation was Sworn by Act of Parliament to adhere to the Issue of Queen Ann who was Mother to the Princess Elizabeth 26 Hen VIII C. 2. Yet all this notwithstanding neither did that Protestant Princess pretend to the Crown neither did the Protestants contend for her during her Elder Sisters Life tho' it was given out That there was a Design of imposing a False Son upon the Nation to Cut off the Princess Elizabeth's Succession who was next Heir to the Crown Publick Thanksgivings having been thro' the Nation for Queen Mary's being with child and some foolish Friars even in their Sermons giving out before hand That it must be a Prince of Wales which their Pryaers had obtain'd to prevent a Protestant Successor c. But none of these things had any Witch-craft then in that sober age of Protestancy to prevall with the Protestants to lift up a hand against the Right of Queen Mary tho' a Bill of Exclusion had past against her in her Fathers time and the Nation had sworn to adhere to the Princess Elizabeth the next Protestant Heir But they did not think their Oaths ought to bind them against the Right and notwithstanding that Queen Mary did plainly and without any Disguise endeavour to Defeat her Sister Elizabeth's Succession to the Crown having first got an Act of Parliament to Establish her own Legitimacy and consequently to throw off her Sister as Illegitimate But secondly She had sent her Sister Elizabeth to the Tower in order as was generally believ'd to Cut off her Head Speed tells That a Warrant was once Sign'd for her Execution Yet not to Rescue her nor to Assert her Right of Succession nor for any other cause whatsoever wou'd our Loyal Protestant Fore-Fathers take Arms against the Popish Queen either in behalf of this Princess Elizabeth or of Queen Jane another Protestant against whom they Fought to set up Queen Mary And thought they consulted best in so doing for the preservation of the Protestant Religion by asserting its Principles tho' to the Loss of its Legal Establishment and all other visible worldly Advantages These things the Jacobites urge And they Glory in the wonderful protection which GOD at that time shew'd towards these Protestants in their Faith and Dependance upon Him turning all the whole Scheme to the Protestants advantage taking away Q. Mary without their Guilt and giving her Condemn'd Sister Forty Four years Possession of her Throne to Establish Adorn and make Glorious that poor despis'd and persecuted Principle of Non-Resistance They tell us likewise of the Case of Theudas and Judas of Galilee Act. 5.36,37 who took Arms against the Romans in Defence both of their Religion and their Property It was against the grievous Taxing which was then impos'd by the Romans that Judas rose in Arms and Drew away much people after him They say That all the Declamations in this Letter to a Friend against the Jacobites will hold as strongly against the Protestants in Q. Mary's time But much more strongly against Gamaliel and other Jews who Condemn'd Theudas and Judas in behalf of their Lawful Governours the Romans who were profest Heathens Idolaters Despisers and Persecutors of the Law of Moses yet Fighting against them tho' in Defence of the True Faith was inferr'd to be Fighting against God Act. 5.39 And Christ would not be Defended by Resisting a Heathen Magistrate The same do the Jabobites think of fighting for a Religion in a Case which that Religion does not allow to be a Good Cause of fighting for it They think this to be fighting against that Religion On the other hand If we should fight to the visible prejudice of the outward profession and Legal Establishment of our Religion in pursuance of a Principle of that Religion This the Jacobites would call a fighting for our Religion That is To Maintain Assert and Honour the Principles of our Religion which only are the spiritual part of Religion tho' to the Loss of Temporal advantages and outward ornament which are but the Out-side and Trappings of Religion Therefore they go not upon the Outward advantages but upon the Justice of their Cause for the love of which they have forsaken all their Outward Advantages Upon the whole they say That unless you can prove their Principles to be Vnjust all you Argue against them is against the Law of God against Justice against Reason and all Christian Religion And that Humane politicks are too weak to over-ballance all these Nay they pretend that even Humane policy and the Good of the Nation is on their side That K. James's Tyranny suppose it as bad as you will would not have Cost the Nation so many Lives so much Money nor been so hard to be Redrest after his Death as the present Revolution Now they complain That all this is not sufficiently Answered in this Letter to a Friend where it sayes page 28. which is all the Answer given to it in that Letter that If they the Jacobites say they would fight for him K. J. I give them over sayes the Letter as profess'd Enemies to the True Religion and the Liberties of Man-kind And This I hope sayes the Letter may satissy the Non-swearers that they are not bound in Conscience to Fight for the late King c. Now these perverse Jacobites do say That they can see no Reason why the Author of this Letter 's Giving them over should be a Satisfaction to their Consciences They call this Scolding instead of Answering Whereas they pretend that their Principle is pursuant to the True Religion and most for the Good and Liberties of Man kind to Save men from the Great Destruction of Civil-War and Rebellion which they say is infinitely of more mischief to man kind than any Tyranny ever was in the world And that Religion loses more Ground and lessens more in the Opinion of man-kind by a change of principles which have been long profess'd than by suffering persecution in Defence of those Principles These things they think a full and sufficient Answer to all this whole Letter to a Friend And therefore do insult and rejoyce that no Answer is possible to be given to them since this Best Answer which is yet come out has not one word against the Truth or Honesty of their Principles only argues from Inconveniencies that may attend them which is incident to the
onely about the Rights of other Princes but of his Father and Vncle And if he can catch his Crown too it shall be his own And if he did this for Religion why may not the French King do the same for his Religion and see to get King William's Crown if he can Is the one more Impious than the other King William gives it for one Reason of his War with France to Restore the Hugonets and other the French Subjects to their Rights by Law To Re-settle their Parliaments in their Ancient Authority free from the Encroachments which have been made upon them by their Kings c. And he has the same Grounds of War against Denmark and Sweden Let them look to it Now say the Jacobites if it be Lawful for Princes thus to look into one anothers Kingdoms and take upon them to redress what they find amiss in the Governments of other Nations why do we blame the French King to indeavour to Re-settle King James having the Laws of England to plead on his side Dr. Sherlock himself in his Recantation allows King James to have still the Legal Right and upon that Ground a Right to Regain the Crown if he can Why should the French King Rectifie the Incroachments of our Parliaments against our Kings as well as we take upon us to Rectify his Incroachments against his Parliaments We shall make a fine World of it when every Prince must Govern his Neighbours Country or as a Modern Author Words it when one Prince must Interpose 'twixt another Prince and his Subjects when he uses them Cruelly If Loss of all we have and frequent Imprisonments contrary to Law without Information upon Oath if double Taxes and Twenty other such Treatments be Cruel Usages Then by this Argument say the Jacobites the French or any other King may interpose 'twixt K. William and his Subjects And they appeal to you or any Man in the World whether making the Refusal of an Oath which is against a Mans Conscience to be a Premanire as it is in Ireland be not some Degrees worse than any French Dragooning as it is Painted to the Worst And then Imposing this upon all Women as well as Men above eighteen Years of Age may be Aggravated say the Jacobites upon these Principles to Provoke all Kings and States to Interpose 'twixt these Subjects and their Prince Good Sir I beseech you to Dis-ingage the Government from these Intanglements which its Convert Advocats and False Friends have brought upon it But by none more than your self Sir in this Letter to a Friend p. 28 29. Where speaking of the Oath to K. William and Q. Mary you expound Faith and Allegiance to the lowest Sense that possibly can be supposed even by Jacobites and you make it to exclude under the Guilt of Downright Perjury any Attempt against their Persons or Crowns to whom we have Sworn or to hold any Correspondence with or to give any Assistance to their Enemys This you did to deter the Swearers to K. William and Q. Mary from Countenancing the French Invasion or to Assist the Late King in Recovering the Throne But did you foresee Sir That this Rule you set down will Involve all those in Down-right Perjury according to the very lowest Sense of Allegiance that can possibly be made even by Williamites who held Correspondence with the P. of Orange or Assisted him in this Revolution Sir you are one who Turn'd late And to save your own Credit and new Hypothesis would make Perjur'd Miscreants of all who came into this Revolution before your self Now the Fish is Caught you come in for a Snack but give all those to the Devil who provided Hooks or Nets Sir I am not now Personating the Jacobite I speak plainly in behalf of those who had a Hand and Glory in it in bringing about this Wonderful Revolution They cannot think their Part to be wholly Diabolical in the Contrivance and Effecting of that which must be all over Divine to you in the Enjoyment of their Labours and Dangers You cry that K. James went no doubt as was determined of him But to them by whom he was Betray'd And yet you will take a Share in the Price for which he was Sold. Besides if it was such a Damn'd Design in them to bring in the P. of Orange his Highnesses's Design could not be very Heavenly But you are content to make a Rogue of him too to save your own Bacon Sir this deserves some Animadversion from the Government For all your skil will never perswade plain Honest English-Men that it was Knavery and Down-right Perjury in all the Subjects of England who Plac'd the P. of Orange upon the Throne And yet when he is there by such Wicked Act of theirs that this can give him Divine Authority and their own Wicked Act Absolve them from their former Lawful Oaths and Oblige them in Conscience to Maintain and Defend their said Wicked Act and to Swear never to Return from it This all Men will call Swearing never to Repent And to give such an Account of our Revolution by one who sets up now for the Chief Advocate of it is Betraying it and Exposing it more than all Jacobites or Profest Enemys can say It shews us to stand upon such Ridiculous Foundations as must Nauseat all who pretend to Common Sense And it Confirms the Jacobites Irrecoverably in what they think to be Loyalty while they see us Defend our selves like Fools and Mad-Men by Arguments which evidently Destroy our Cause And Sir you needed not have done this you might easily have avoided these sort of Stumbling Blocks Therefore I advise you to avoid Excursions March on straight your Road Tread warily say no more than you must And do not go out of your way for the pleasure of Lashing the French King himself for it does not alwaies turn to Advantage p. 23. You pursue him to the Boyne to Athlone to Agrim to Limrick and say we Beat him in all these Places and in a Word say you we Beat him out of Ireland And have now got a Habit of Beating the French This indeed Sir with all due Deference to your Judgment is horribly Ridiculous Or you speak without Book and know not what you say for it is most certain that at Athlone at Agrim at Limrick there were not above Forty or Fifty French in the whole Irish Army And there were more than Twenty times as many in K. William's Army Therefore to cry we have Beat him the French King that we have got a Habit of Beating the French If you had a mind to have Beaten K. Lewis you should have sought him in Flanders not in Ireland where he never was how very Comical do you think would this Passage of your Letter look to him if he saw it Would he not desire you to remember Namure and Steenkirk and ask you how you came to forget your Habit there Do not Mistake me as if I did in the
Leave from her Majesty who does not doubt of Receiving from you and your Brethren this Publick Mark of your Duty I am Your most Humble Servant Nottingham To the Mayor of Bath Forbidding to pay such Respect to her Royal Highness as is usually paid to the Royal Family looks like another P. of Wales Discovery say the Jacobites as if People had leave given them to Doubt whether she were of the Royal Family or so near as is believed to the Crown Why else say they should the Respects which are usually paid to the Royal Family be Deny'd to her And the Secretary himself forgets her Stile of Royal Highness that every one may have a Pluck at her Plain Highness must serve her Turn till she Learn better Manners The Executioner gave K. Charles I. the Stile of his Majesty when we was going to Cut off his Head Can the Queens Displeasure forfeit the Princess Title and Quality which she has by being K. James's Daughter Or must she have the Stile of Late added to her Royalty like her Father And the Bishop of London say the Jacobites who Run away with the Princess in his Jack-Boots and Sword Drawn to be the Man pitch'd upon after her Late Royal Highness Return to London from the Bath to give Orders to Dr. Birch of St. James's Church in which Parish she had taken a House to Live in not to pay her any of the Respects usually paid to the Royal Family such as sending her the Text to wait for her Coming or make any Obeisance to her But no doubt it is all for the good of the Protestant Religion And it is hard say the Rogues of Jacobites if when these fall out some Honest Men do not come by their Rights Sir it had been much to be Wish'd for the Honour of the Government That this Civil War of the Royal Sisters had not been so Expos'd And it had not been of less Importance at least to her Majestys Rep. if the Extraordinary Greatness and Intimacy she has of Late Contracted with the Countess of D. had not been altogether so Notorious The Jacobites Laugh in their Sleeves and make Observation That our Godly Queen who for the sake of Religion has Forsaken her Father should at the same time Caress the Great Instrument of his Sin and his Shame Who to Testify her Repentance makes it her Common-Practice to Rail at K. James Condesending even to call him Names and the Billings-Gate Rethorick And to disown all Obligations from him And for a Penance she Submits to a Scandalous Office of an Informer to Betray his Secrets and his Friends who Trusted her And because she does every thing to the Utmost she spares not to shew her Wit at Invention where she wants Truth to fill up an Accusation For these Good Works she is allowed now out of the Secret-Service-Money Five Hundred pounds a Week Paid her by Hen. Guy Secretary to the Treasury And is to have an Order for Ten or Twelve Thousand pounds Arrears of a Grant given her from King James of Thirty Five Hundred pounds a Year out of the Quit-Rents of Ireland Besides the Extraordinary Presents from B. in a Corner which no Body must know For all which she is so Greatfully Good Natur'd as to Bragg in her Cabals how Dextrously she can Manage this Government that as her Phrase is and that not over Privately she can make what she Please pass upon them and as an Instance has Sold them a Treasurer to Secure her own Payments Sir E. S. that Good Man Who never was Unconstant to his Principle of Changing to the Sunny side This is not out of her Disaffection to the Government But some you know would rather loose their Friend than their Jest That Sund. should be a Pentioner of this Government and so own'd by King William in the List of Pentioners given into the Parliament cannot be more Explanatory of his Declaration say the Jacobites than Queen Marys choosing Lady D. for her Confidant is a Demonstration of the true Figure of her Holiness But that Father Simon alias Patrick should be pitch'd upon for Confessor and Guide of this Holy Confederacy seems strangly Consequential to all the Devotional Tracts Written in Covent-Garden And the Education of the Young Lady K. D. in the Protestant Religion being the pretence of this Kindness on the Sudden that he should perform this Charge so Carefully that besides the Example of her Mothers Vertue she has the Instruction of two other Penitents in the same Trade Ladies of Skill and Famous through the Whole Town that we need not Name them who are both Roman Catholicks and Daily Guests at the Countesses Table Not that her Ladyship retains the least Test of her former Conversation but only in Zeal to make Converts of them too For this is a Reforming Age And Generously like Lot would rather Expose her own Daughter to Learn all the Vices of Sodom than fail in her Hospitality to these two Angles who are come under her Roof But as the Bishop of L. say the Jacobites who thought he had Cemented the two Sisters unalterably by making them Quit their Father to meet one another has yet liv'd to be made an Instrument in their Quarrel the late Bishop of E. may have the same luck in good time with the Third Sister who is now put into his Hands And the Jacobites desire us to consider That this Child may come in her Turn to the Crown For she is onely not next in Blood And what Great Matter is that so it be kept in the Royal Family The Succession goes on still tho' she should Usurp in her Sisters Life time And if that shou'd be for the Good of Religion Therefore her Education ought to be a Parliamentary Concern at least a Christian not to leave an Innocent Child where she can see nothing but what may Corrupt her And if there can be any Cause sufficient to Warrant undutifulness to a Parent this Lady has more to Plead than either of her Sisters For it must be Confess'd on all Hands That her Mother is not the best Company for her in the World And it would be an Advantage to her if she could forget that she had such a Mother And to the Government especially to her Pious Majesty that such a Cabinet Councellor had not yet come within White-Hall Sir I cou'd heap up Instances of this Nature upon you of which the Jacobites have Catalogues Upon which singly tho' the least stress is laid yet by their Number they acquire a Weight And in drawing up the Forces of the Jacobites we must not only shew you their Goliahs such as De-Wit Gler-Coe Grandval Koin c. each of which single is an Army of Objections against us But I must likewise lead out the Setters and Small-Fry Fuller Young Blackhead Aaron Smith and Lady D. for these tho' not so Glorious are as useful as the other The Lyon cannot hunt without his Jackall Sir I
your Wit which could Search so Deep as to find Reasons why Wives may Leave their Husbands and Subjects Abdicate their Prince at their Pleasure And nothing is so Surprizing as these Reasons which you produce for this viz. Because a Wife may be Ravished and forc'd from her Husband therefore it is Lawful for her to yield to an Adulterer Nay to invite him to come and Drive away her Husband to Intrigue with this Gallant under-hand Contrive and Assist him to Frighten her Husband out of his House to save his Life and then to make a Present of it together with her self to her Deliverer And then it is Justly and Legally their own for What made him Run away and leave his House And his Wife holds still Faithful to her Matrimonial Vow she only Change the Object she is for Matrimony still And therefore by her Vow to her First Husband she is bound to the Second She only Transferrs her Allegiance And therefore it is the same Allegiance still All this the Jacobites think is the Consequence of Comparing this Revolution with the Conquest of the French King in Flanders c. p. 7. Because they are Ravished and Forc'd from their Natural King therefore you would Insinuate that your Case is the same who Invited over a Foraign Prince Intrigu'd with him under hand did Assist him to Frighten away our Natural and Lawful King to Save his Life and then made a Present of his Crown together with your Selves to your New Deliverer from the Slavery of an Old Husband And all his Possessions are now Justly your own for What made him Run away and Leave his Kingdom We are still Faithful to our Oath of Allegiance we only Change the Object we are for Monarchy still and therefore by our Oath of Allegiance to K. James we are bound to K. William which is a Topick taken up in Soloman and Abiathar and several of our late Pamphlets for say they we only Transferr our Allegiance and therefore it is the same Allegiance still c. And the Jacobites desire you to remember that Marriage is a Mutual Contract and there is a Due Benevolence and Duty on both sides which if either Party the Husband as well as the Wife shall Neglect or be Guilty of Male Administration why should he not be Depos'd Propter Inutiâ—… Imperium and Good-Womam have the leave to choose another Husband And yet our severe Law will not allow it If you say there are Divorces in Marriage and why not in Government They will answer That for the Case of Adultery only Divorce is Allowed in Scripture and Consequently in our Law But that neither Scripture nor our Law Allows of any Case wherein it shall be Lawful for Subjects to take Arms against their King but on the Contrary Declares it to be unlawful upon any Pretence whatsoever And they make use of this as a strong Argument against us For say they The Law of God and of the Land would have made Exceptions in the one as well as in the other if they had thought it Reasonable And therefore that we must not make Exceptions against the Laws both of God and Man But to come close to the Matter without Smiles or Innuendo's They Desire your Answer whether if Dixmuyde and Furnes had Invited the French to come thither and had Betray'd these Towns into their Hands whether this could in Justice and Good Conscience have excus'd their Transferring their Allegiance and Swearing Oaths to the French King If you do not speak plainly to this they say you do not come up to the Case in hand Unless you will say as some of late have done that the P. of Orange has Conquered England as much as the French King has Dixmuyde c. And that tho' he does not at present set up the Title of Conquest for what Cause he thinks fit yet that he has it in 's Sleeve and may justly set it up when he Pleases For which Gilbert's Pastoral and several other Licensed Pamphlets have already made way And then we all hold our Lives Estates and Liberty only at his Good Pleasure I cannot Imagine why the Parliament does not take Notice of these sort of Pretenders to Politicks who would make them all absolute Slaves under the Arbitrary and Despotick Power of a Conqueror You say in the same place p. 7. That the Principle of Rights of Hereditary Kings to their Crowns being Sacred and Inviolable is Dangerous to the Vnfortunate because it lays a Necessity upon the Conqueror to take away his Life if he can as well as his Throne since he cannot lose his Throne without losing of his Life This say the Jacobites is the very Reason which Frightned K. James away for he Observed in his Father's Words that there are but few Steps 'twixt a Prince's Prison and this Grave And tho' some Kings have been suffered to Live some time in Prison as Edward the Second and Richard the Second c. Yet it still ended in their Murther Therefore K. James the Second had no mind to stay any longer in Prison least he might have made another of the Number But it often falls out that the Murther of one will not Secure the Usurpers Title And therefore Richard the Third Murther'd all he could get who stood 'twixt him and the Crown as did Athaliah O. P. c. And there are many Examples of the like in History And these Jacobites do think that this Consideration should rather Operate against such Bloody Attempts which cannot stop in one or two single Murthers but Run often to the Destruction of whole Families and even Nations rather than against the Right of Succession in Hereditary Princes The Preservation of which would have stopt these Oceans of Blood which have Drown'd many Great and Wealthy Nations for their Violating of this Sacred and Inviolable Right But you say Sir p. 8. That if this be so Princes have no Remedy against the Injury of Neighbour Princes for it is only the fear of Conquest and losing their Crowns that can keep Princes in Awe and bring them to Just and Equal Terms This the Jacobites say is too great a Reflection upon Kings as if there were ne're a Just King in the World And your putting it in these General Terms without an Exception they say Discovers you to be no Friend to Monarchy But even as to the Argument Have Princes no Remedy against the Injury of their Neighbour Princes but taking their Crowns from them Does every Injury deserve so great a Reparation When a King Grants Letters of Mart is not that some Remedy short of Dethroning his Neighbour Prince who has Injur'd him If I owe you a Penny it is Just to take a Thousand Pounds for it It will be Convenient Sir to Explain this a little further Page 9. You shew the Necessity of Swearing to a Conqueror because the whole Nation cannot Run away Answer If the whole Nation were against him there wou'd be no
in his Sermon upon Josh 24.15 § 2. p. 11. Preached before K. Charles II. at White-Hull 2. April 1680. And that this Doctrine might be thorowly Instill'd and Propagated he Instructed the House of Commons in a Strain even beyond this in his Sermon Preached before them 5. Nov. 1678. upon Luke 9.55,56 where he Inferrs that Religion is good for nothing but Temporal Respects and that chiefly to prevent Rebellion And that Rebellion is worse than Atheism or Infidelity For let any Man says he p. 20. say worse of Atheism and Infidelity if he can And for God's Sake What is Religion Good for but to Reform the Manners and Dispositions of Men to Restrain Humane Nature from Violence and Cruelty from Falsehood and Treachery from Sedition and Rebellion Better it were there were no Reveal'd Religion than to be Acted by a Religion that is continually Supplanting Government Teaching the Lawfulness of Deposing Kings Such a Religion as this is as bad or worse than Infidelity and no Religion p. 21. and a Great deal more to the same purpose which makes it more Eligible to Renounce Christ and all Reveal'd Religion than to allow of the Lawfulness of taking Armes against our King upon the Account of Religion I hope he will think it worth his while to Explain these Matters for the sake of others as well as the Jacobites for in Truth Sir they carry a very strange Aspect and Stumble very Well-Meaning Men. Together with his Letter to Lord Russel and Prayer on the Scaffold with his Lordship which are so Notorious I need not Repeat them As likewise these Passages in Doctor Sherlock's Sermon upon the Discovery of the Phanatick and Republican Plot at Rye-House Printed Anno. 1683. Where after Disproving the pretence of Rebelling for Liberty and Property he proceeds to the Grand pretence of Religion The Libertyes and Propertys of the Subject says he p. 2. is an Admirable Pretence to Deprive the Prince of his Libertys and Propertyes and those who have any Liberty or Property to loose seldom gain any thing by this For when you have secur'd their Liberties and Properties against their Prince it is a much harder Task to secure themselves from their Fellow-Subjects But let us hear him as to Religion Page 2. It is a dangerous way for Men to Rebel to save their Souls when God has threatned Damnation against those who Rebel But this is as Vain a Pretence as Liberty and Property for no Men Fight for Religion who have any Religion is a Quiet Peaceable Governable thing it Teaches Men to Suffer patiently but not to Rebel Page 6. How do Men Abhor a Religion which is Nourish'd with Blood Page 7. It was sufficient to prove any man a Papist who durst own it possible for such Good-Men to Rebel or Plot against the King and Government We had been more secure from the Popish Plot than for ought I know we may be yet had not these Men abused Peoples Fears and Dangers of Popery to the Disturbance of the Government and to the carrying on their Antimonarchical and Fanatick Designs And thus the poor Church of England which has escap'd the Rage and Fury of Rome had like to have been Sacrificed to a True Protestant Zeal How things proceeded after this to the Disturbance of the publick Peace and the Interruption of the Ordinary Courts of Justice you all know as well as I and Wise Men quickly Saw and Honest Men could not forbear Warning the People whither those things Tended And they met with a good Reward for it they were all Papists in Masquerade and especially the Loyal Clergy were Loaded with all the Contempt and Ignominy which an Inrag'd and Envenom'd Zeal and some Witless Scriblers could cast on them Whole Vollies of Phamplets flew about to poison the people with Lewd and Seditious principles But to Talk or Write or Preach about Obedience to Government or patient Suffering for a Good Cause was to Betray the Protestant Interest and to Invite a Popish Successor to Cut our Throats And what all this ends in thanks be to God we now see and I hope time enough to prevent it Page 11. There is nothing more expresly contrary to the Reveal'd Will of God than Treasonable Plots and Conspiracies against Soveraign Princes And tho God does many times Permit those things to be done which He has forbid to be done or else no Man could ever be Guilty of any Sin yet his forbidding of it is a plain Argument that he does not Approve it that He will not Countenance it nay that he will not Permit it but where He sees Great and Wise Reasons to do so The Doctor has Recanted this in this Case of Allegiance and taken away the Distinction 'twixt Gods Permission and his Ordering of Evil it would not serve this Turn Therefore he says now that God not only Permits but is the Author of all the Good or Evil which Happens either to Private Persons or Publick Societies c. Case of Allegiance p. 12. But let us go on with his Sermon Page 13. Christian Religion requires us to Obey our Superiours in all Lawful things and Quietly to Submit and Suffer when we can't Obey He the Blessed JESVS Liv'd in Obedience to the Civil Powers and tho' the Jewish Nation which was a Free People the Lot and Inheritance of God Himself were then in Subjection to the Romans yet he would not give them the least Encouragement to shake off the Yoak but Commands them to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars Page 14. Christianity Defended it self only by a Resolute and Patient Suffering for the Name of Christ This is the true Temper and Spirit of Christianity Under the most Barbarous and Persecuting Emperors no Christian ever Suffer'd as a Rebel Papists Plot and Conspire the Death of a Protestant Prince to bring in Popery And profess'd Protestants it seems do the same thing to keep out Popery Page 15. If the Consciences of Subjects will serve them to Rebel for Religion it seems a very hard Case if the Conscience of the Prince must not allow him to Hang 'em for their Rebellion The Truth of this is Readily own'd when it is apply'd to the Papists Page 18 19. The Church of England her self has been a Martyr for Loyalty Page 19. the life of our King King Charles II. and the Ruin of his Government was laid in a mighty Zeal against Popery and for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion Page 20. Tho' few Men dare own it yet the Actions of too many Sufficiently Proclaim that they think they may Strain a point and Dispence with Strict Duty when it is to serve a Good Cause when the Honour of God and the Interest of Religion is Concern'd Thus it is too often seen that Men who begin with a Zeal for Religion slip Insensibly into State-Factions and are Engag'd Vastly beyond what they first Design'd and Engag'd so far that they cannot Retreat with Safety or Honour
but must either Conquer or be Conquered Page 21. I doubt not but many Men have Dy'd Rebels and Suffer'd as Traytors who at first did as much Abhor the thoughts of Treason and Rebellion as any of us can Thus I doubt not but it was in our Late Troubles and thus I believe it is at this Day Page 23. We saw all the Zeal and all the Intrigues of Forty and Forty One return again and yet it was an Unpardonable Crime for any one to say so or for any Man to look as if be thought so Page 26. Let us Bless God and let us Honour our King and Receive him with Joy and Thanksgiving as a New Gift and Present from the Hands of God Page 2â— A true Christian Zeal will not Suffer us to Transgress the strict Bonds of our Duty to God or of our Duty to Men especially to Kings and Princes whatever Flattering prospect of Advantage it may have To Lie to For-swear our Selves To Reproach and Libel Governours in Church or State to Stir up or Countenance with the least thought any Plots Seditions or Rebellions against the King is not a Zeal for GOD nor for Religion Thus Dr. Sherlock Excellently Now then to come to our Application All this must be false if it was Lawful to Plot against K. James and Joyn with the P. of Orange for the Preservation of our Religion Liberty Property or whatever other Pretence Secondly say the Jacobites if it was unlawful to Plot against K. James while he was upon the Throne then the present Revolution notwithstanding it's Success must still Remain Wicked because as Dr. Tillotson has said The Cause must be Manifestly just before Success c. And thus he proves it to be in the present Case in the Words immediately following viz. If the Cause of True Religion and the necessary Defence of it against a False and Idolatrous Worship be a Good Cause Ours is so If the Vindication of the Common Liberties of Mankind against Tyranny and Oppression be a Good Cause than Ours is so And this needs not be proved it is so Glaringly Evident to all the World Thus the Dr. And it is every Word of the Proof he brings in all that Sermon and is Answer'd in what goes before The â—ame Hand and say nothing This say the Jacobites is the Ultimate Resolve of the Letter to a Friend which is our present Subject and is taken Notice of before viz. That he will Dispute with none who do not feel the Force of his Argument at the first Hearing that they are Stupid Senseless Slaves c. Letter p. 26. And now the proof is That it is Glaringly Evident to all the World This say the Jacobites the Dr. meant for a Joque for he knows all the World is not of his Mind And a Glaring Light is the falsest Light can be it Strikes one Blind But they tell him of a Glaring Comet hangs over these Nations which he Mistakes for the Sun and because it Lighted him over to Lambeth he is resolv'd to see by no other Luminary least it should shew him the way back again It was this say the Jacobites Glared in his Eyes that he could not see what the Poorest Dablers in Divinity have at their Fingers ends and it is one of the first Principles Taught among the Casuists viz. That not only the Cause must be Good but the Means That a Good Cause will not Justify Wicked Means That we must not Lye for GOD that their Damnation is Just who do Evil that Good may come of it Therefore there was something more to be said besides the Cause being True Religion which is all the Doctor Urges We know that all Pretences are Good For if a thing were not Good it could not be a Pretence No Man Pretends to do Wickedly And the better the thing is it makes the better Pretence therefore Religion is the General Pretence for Rebellion But as before is said Religion must not be serv'd by Means which that Religion does forbid that would be to Destroy Religion to please GOD by breaking His Commandments to take Service with the Beelzehub for the Cause of CHRIST We have no Dispute with the Protestant Jacobites but concerning the Means of Preserving our Religion They say the Means we take are not Justifyable And for you Sir to say nothing at all to this but that it is Glaring The Jacobites think was because your Understanding was Dazled and they take it as a Yielding of the Cause But besides they say that by this you 〈◊〉 Absolutely Declar'd that Protestant Religion you now Profess to be worse than Infidelity and no Religion And that without Debating particulars or at the first Hearing as you now would have it And that all this follows unavoidably from your own Words in the 'bove quoted Sermon upon the 5. Nov. p. 21. where only putting in your now Doctrine of Resistance instead of the Word 〈◊〉 which the Jacobites think but two Names for the same thing then these are your own Words viz. We will at present admit Resistance to be the True Religion and their Doctrine of the Lawfulness of Deposing Kings as in Truth it is the Doctrine of this Religion In this Case I would not trouble my self to Debate Particulars but if in the Gross and upon the whole Matter it be Evident that such a Religion as this is as bad or worse than Infidelity and no Religion this is Conâ—…tion enough to a Wise Man and as Good as a Demonstration that this is not the True Religion and that it cannot be from GOD. These are the Doctors Words And he says all this of Popery only upon the Account of its containing the Doctrine of Resistance But he makes a Notable Discovery p. 24. Where he tells us That many have all along held and believ'd these Doctrines of Deposing Kings and of Absolving their Subjects from Obedience to them and have frequently put them in Execution though they have not thought it so Convenient at all Turns to make Profession of it It is a certain sort of Engine says he which is to be Scru'd up or let down as occasion serves and is commonly kept like Goliah's Sword in the Sanctuary but yet so that the High-Priest can Lend it out upon an Extraordinary Occasion These are the Doctor 's own Words And the Jacobites leave the Application to himself And hope they need not fear now that he has got the keeping of our Goliah's Sword Let him take care to whom he Lends it All the Dissenters but those of the Church of England are Sueing for it The Socinians want not hopes that it will come to their Turn at last But if another Turn come first then says your Letter to a Friend p. 19. Those who in the Late Reign were the Great Advocates of the Protestant Cause will be Disgrac'd at Court Threatned into silence their Authority Weakned and their Persons Reproac'd both by Papists and Jacobites The Jacobites