short view how these Princes carried it one towards the other None are Ignorant that the F. K. as soon as he apprehended that a pretended Zeal for Religion was the only way to advance his Ends and humor his Ambition but that he trumpt it up in all Courts where the same Religion was profess'd Religion was a Cloak to his Designs when he made an Incursion into the Spanish Netherlands and in the last Dutch War * Anno 1671. from whence We may date all our Misfortunes He in Conjunction with the King of Great Britain to destroy the States of Holland Intimated by his Ambassadors to the Pope to the Emperor of Germany and all other Princes whom he had a mind to deter from lending Assistance to the Dutch that they were a Nation fallen into Abominable Heresies and therefore all Christians were oblig'd in Conscience to War against them and rend in pieces that flourishing Republick and this furnish'd King James with the same Religious pretences against his own People At the very beginning of the late King's Reign the F. K. set him a Pattern at home and broke the inviolable Edict of Nants * Vid. Ed. Nants 1685. and King James in imitation of so pious an Example set up his dispencing Power in England violated his Oaths and Promises to his People and both under pretence of Zeal for Religion but all the Roman Catholick Princes were sensible to what eminent dangers that boasted Zeal had reduc'd them to for what Reverence what Veneration could they think those Princes had for the Name of Christian that made no Conscience of their Oaths that broke their Faith with Christians and leagu'd with Infidels who prefer'd the Crescent of Mahomet before the Cross of Christ and brib'd the Turks to begin a War against the Emperor * 1683. and Ruin that Capital City Vienna which is the Bulwork of Christendom against the Incursions of the Barbarians Who can think that Spiritual Things ever imploy'd the thoughts of that Monarch unless in order to Temporals that reflects with what violence he makes ostentation of his Zeal at home and at the same time espouses the Cause of the Protestants in Germany and Hungary perswading them to follow the Fortune of Count Teckeley and to joyn with the Turk to demand satisfaction for the violence offer'd to their Religion And this deceitful Artifice and Chichanery was the Cause that the Pope for some time resolutely refus'd to elect Fourbin into the Coledge of Cardinals As this affected Devotion of the F K. was subservient to his Ambition so James IId's Biggotry was early suspected to rise from the same Cause as the Earl of Shaftsbury declar'd before King Charles II. in a Speech * Shaftsbury's Speech State tracts Part 1. p. 463. in the House of Lords that the Duke of York had quitted his Religion that he might gain a powerful party to his Faction And this agrees with a Letter written about the same time and Recorded in the fifth Book of Collections wherein the Author tells the Duke of York that 't is the opinion of all Men that he Apostatiz'd from his Old and embrac'd a New Religon not as Charm'd by its Perfections but allur'd by the promises of an Absolute Monarchy and the blandishments of a Despotick Power which by this means would one time or other fall into his Hands Afterwards the same Letter admonishes the Duke to beware lest being dazled with the splendour of the French Monarchy he should endeavour to overthrow the best Government in the World since he seem'd to imitate King John who offer'd to turn Mahometan if the Emperor of Morocco would assist him with a Force to Revenge the Insolency of the Barons who vindicated their Liberties against the Encroachments of their King The Successes of France in War the intimate correspondence between the Duke of York and that King who manag'd England by the Politicks of Cardinal Richlieu and Mazarine at length induc'd the Duke of York to publish himself a Papist and knowing that thereby he hazarded the loss of the Church of England party he cajoll'd the Dissenters and heap'd his Favours upon them that they might be the Tools of his Ambition and also caress'd the Romanists both at home and abroad that they might be inclin'd for Religion sake to assist him But the Catholick Princes fathomed his design which was staged under the mask of Piety and joyn'd with the Interest of France and therefore Pope Innocent XI was not only incens'd with the French King and when he was drawing his last breath recommended his Emnity to the Cardinals that stood about him but also deliver'd it as his Judgment * Vindic. Gov. p. 44. that the designs of the late King James tended only to his own Ambition and his Brother 's of France and therefore did not receive the Earl of Castlemain his Ambassador with so much Honour as was due to such a magnificent and sumptuous appearance for his Holiness knew how all things were so manag'd by the Jesuits that every thing should be a Sacrifice to the Ambition of France and therefore as the Pope Complimented the late King James with a coolness of affection so he allways suspected him sometimes discover'd his Animosity and received the News * Vid. representat of Dangers in pol. tract par 2. p. 398. of his Abdication with transports of Joy and Gladness 'T is manifested the Emperor of Germany concurr'd in opinion with the Pope for after the late King's Abdication when he beg'd the Emperor's assistance in his misfortunes * Tracts of pol. col 12. vid. the Emp. of Ger. Letter and made use of his affection to the Romish Religion as a motive to encline him the Emperor return'd this Answer That the late King James 's Affairs had been now in a prosperous condition if he had hearkn'd to the advice of his Ambassador * Comitis de Kaknuits and not to the perfidy and flattery of the F King and had hindred by his Authority and Arms the F from violating the League and Peace whereof he was made Guarrantee by the Treaty of Nimeguen Now says the Emperor How can I assist you who must be forc'd to oppose the Forces of F and the Turk who did not doubt of the Fidelity and Assistance of England for the greatest injury that can be offer'd to our Religion is done by the F who is Confederated with the Turk the inveterate Enemy of Christianty So that the Jesuits that perswade the Roman Catholick Princes for their Religion sake to desert the Friendship of our Potent Monarch who has restor'd us to our Dying Liberties is just as if they should perswade the Confederate Princes to declare for those two Kings who not only design'd to enslave all Europe but also cherish'd the cause of the Infidels against the Christians and this brings me again into England And here it would be vain and impertinent in me to attempt to give a
Brackly was mended by the Addition of the Rich Parsonage of Burton on the Wold in the same County Nor did the Reward of this Service extend only to Sybthorp but slew a Cathedral Height for Dr. Abbot Archbishop of Canterbury refusing to License this Sermon to be Printed was soon after Suspended from his Bishoprick and Dr. Laud that did License it being then Bishop of St. Davids was Translated to London and afterwards to the Metropolitan See of Canterbury Nay so strong run the Tide of Preferment then in this Corrupted Channel that few Divines or Common or Civil Lawyers were preferr'd to any considerable Place either in Church or State that did not in the Pulpit and on the Bench vigorously maintain these Novel and Destructive Opinions to the Scandal of their Functions and intended Ruin of the Kingdom To this Doctrine must be ascrib'd the Mischiefs of all former and later Reigns under the Protection of which any King may play the Tyrant without Control tho' it often proves Fatal to him that lays the Train And so it happen'd to Charles the Second for no sooner had his Unlimited Power been so Strenuously Asserted that he was come to give the finishing Stroke but his Death seem'd Necessary and Seasonable to make way for the Duke of York to open the Execution of the Grand Design in a bare-fac'd Subversion of the Religion and Laws of England At the Beginning of the Restoration so great an Opinion was conceiv'd of His Highness the Duke of York that his partial Admirers would suffer no Man to Insinuate his being Reconcil'd to the Church of Rome but set him up under all the Noble Qualities that might render him Acceptable to a Credulous People not only as Merciful in his Temper Just in his Dealings and endu'd with all Gracious Inclination to our Laws and the Rights of the Subject but for one Orthodox in his Religion too and who would prove a Zealous Defender of the Doctrine Worship and Discipline of the Church as Establish'd by Law In this Persuasion they continu'd some Years and tho' he had at length withdrawn himself from all Acts of Fellowship with the Church of England Refus'd the Test injoin'd by Law for distinguishing Papists from Protestants had Resign'd his Office of Lord High Admiral stood Excluded from the House of Lords and that so many Parliaments had eadeavour'd to Exclude him from Succession to the Crown because he had Revolted to the See of Rome and thereby became Dangerous to the Establish'd Religion yet all this would make no Impression upon a Wilfully Deluded and Obstinate Sort of Protestants but in Defiance of all Means of Conviction they would persuade themselves that he was still a Zealot for our Religion and a great Patriot of the Church of England Nor could any thing undeceive them till upon his Brother's Death he openly declar'd himself to be a Papist and afterwards in the Fumes and Raptures of his Victory over the late Duke of Monmouth had discover'd and proclaim'd his Intentions to overthrow both our Religion and Laws Yea so closely had some seal'd up their Eyes against all Beams of Light and harden'd themselves against all Evidences from Reason and Fact that had Success attended the Duke of Monmouth's Arms the late King had gone off the Stage with the Reputation among them of a Prince tender of the Laws of the Kingdom and who notwithstanding his being a Papist would have preserv'd the Reform'd Religion and maintain'd the Church of England in all her Rights and Grandures And tho' his whole Life had been but one continu'd Conspiracy against our Civil Liberties and Privileges he had left the Throne with the Character and under the Esteem of a Prince that in the whole Course of his Government would have regulated himself by the Rules of the Constitution and the Statutes of the Realm Aditum nocendi perfido praestat fides Sen. in Oed. Act. 3. Scen. 1. So Simple Truth does her fair Breast Disarm And gives Base Treachery a Power to Harm King Charles being now Dead the late Duke's Expectations Answer'd and his Ambition gratify'd with a Crown at his first coming to it he endeavour'd to Confirm some and Gain other of his Subjects into a good Opinion of him and their own Happiness under his Government And therefore in his first Speech to the Parliament declar'd so much Tenderness for them and such a Dear Respect for the Preservation of their Liberties that the Cajoll'd Parliament from an Excess of Satisfaction shew'd as much Affection for him as ever Parliament did to a Prince of their own Religion and gave Money till he himself put a stop to the profuse and excessive Expressions of their Satisfaction It must be granted that the Lives of some Professors are not so bad as the Consequences of their Erroneous Opinions and it was charitably thought by the Parliament that the late King James tho' a Papist would not Govern so Arbitrarily as the Encourag'd Doctrines of the Age gave him Leave to do But when they saw their Errour and perceiv'd that Popery and Arbitrary Power were never to be parted that the Monks and Friars Enter'd to Act in their proper Habits that Seminaries were set up in several Places and Houses fill'd with these Religious Furies that the Laws being in the late Reign betray'd into his Hands he unmercifully Stabb'd and Dispatch'd them and that his Antecedent Oaths and Promises were all come to nothing how it fill'd them with Resentments for his having thus Abus'd their Credulity Deceiv'd their Expectations and Reproach'd their Gloryings and Boastings of him But alas it was then too late to seek a Remedy for those Evils that an Easie Belief and a Fond Compliance with Empty Popish Promises had brought upon us Now we Feel what we would not See and Prevent at a Distance Quid nobis certius ipsis Lucret. Sensimus esse potest quo vera ac falsa notemus And what thing can there be more sure than Sense By which we Truth discern from false Pretence We smarted under our own Rod and had plenty of miserable Occasions for the Religious Exercise of that fatal Duty Passive Obedience Our Satisfactions in our New King were vanish'd and the Hopes of living happy Subjects under him were sunk into Apprehensions of Approaching Slavery A general Consternation fell upon the whole Body of the People and the very Tools that assisted the late King in subverting their own Religion and the Civil Rights of their Brethren were afraid in so Universal a Calamity that themselves should also feel the sad Effects of that Thunder with which they had Arm'd their Tyrant In how happy a Condition was James the Second before he violalated his Oaths and Promises and so might have continu'd if he could have prescrib'd any Limits to his Desires of Reigning more Absolutely than the Laws of the Constitution would allow him He had all things at pleasure to make him Great among his own Subjects
Laws do not only totally exclude Papists from Military Offices but injoin them to be Disarm'd also Notwithstanding James the Second did not only Arm them but put them into the First Employments of the Army and all other Stations And was so fond of them that no Consideration either of Quality Loyalty or Merit except he was a Papist could Recommend any Man to this King's Favour or give him Title to the common Kindness of a Civil Reception but all were Smil'd or Frown'd on as they were distinguish'd by their Religious Principles Men may live happily under a Government and yet be excluded from having any Office or exercising any Authority under it and therefore the late King's Fondness and the Papists Forwardness to thrust themselves into Employments gave a great Suspition that it was for no good End that he put Wise and Experienc'd Men out to make room for a sort of Raw Papists who being not us'd to Publick Business were not capacitated for it No Man can imagin that the late King made this bold Adventure in Employing Papists for nothing or that he would disoblige the Body of his People for their sakes only without designing some other Advantage to himself by it He must have some peculiar Service for these Unqualify'd Favourites to do in which the rest of the Nation would not inter-meddle The Contest was between the King 's Absolute Power on the one side and our Laws and Religion on the other And therefore to know what Work their King had for them to do and to what End he would have employ'd these Services here is but to see Vide State of Ireland under the Reign of the late King James what Use he put them to in Ireland and how they demean'd themselves towards Protestants where the Scene was open'd and all manner of Violences committed upon Protestants by his Authority He also corrupted the Exercise of Justice on which depends the Safety of the Nation and the Stability of the Throne The Judges were Tamper'd with and Admitted upon Condition of favouring and promoting the late King 's Arbitrary Power and the Popish Interest Those Judges were Depos'd who were fix'd in their Religion and Resolutely defended the True Interest of their Country and others put into their Places of no Honour Integrity or Capacity but known Temporizers or Papists who were excluded by the Laws of their Country Upon this follow'd very Arbitrary and Illegal Proceedings in the Courts of Judicature A Prosecution was carry'd on against Seven Reverend Prelates for Petitioning the King to Redress their Grievances and giving their Reasons why they could not obey his Arbitrary Commands Causes were Try'd in the Court of King's Bench that were only Cognizable in Parliament Partial Corrupt and Unqualify'd Persons were Return'd and Serv'd on Juries in Cases of High Treason that were not Free-Holders Great Bail requir'd of Persons Committed in Criminal Causes Excessive Fines Impos'd for small Offences Illegal and Cruel Punishments Inflicted without Example or Law to warrant them And for a finishing Stroke The late King was also pleas'd to Grant and Seal a Commission to several Unqualify'd Persons to Examine the Revenues and Search into the Foundations of all the Hospitals in the Kingdom and see to what Uses they were first given by their Benefactors And into the Estates that some time ago belong'd to Monks Friars and other Religious Orders of the Romish Church with Intent to Restore them to the Papists who complain'd to the late King that they were Wrongfully Depriv'd of them In brief Never any Prince in so short a time committed so many Irregularities and made such Inroads upon our All as James the Second did by his Dispencing Power in England his Absolute Power without Reserve in Scotland and his Actual and Absolute Destruction of the Liberties and Religion of the Protestants in Ireland To which if we add the more than seeming Probability of the late King 's Leaguing with France for the Extirpation of the Northern Heresie 't will compleat his Design and make the intended Ruin of England unavoidable for more Hands would have made lighter Work and Experienc'd Artists would have finish'd it sooner I will not urge this League as a plain and positive Truth tho' I am strongly inclin'd to believe it and therefore shall only produce my Reasons and leave them with the Reader to judge as he pleases Mr. Coleman who must be presum'd to know much of his Master's Mind being in the same Interest and the Tool he work'd with in all his Secret Practices gives great Suspicion of the Truth of this Combination in a Letter to Sir William Throgmorton Feb. 1. 1678. You well know saith he that when the Duke comes to be Master of our Affairs i. e. to be King of England the King of France will have Reason to promise himself All things that he can desire And in a Letter to Father Le Chaise Confessor to the French King he says That His Royal Highness was convinc'd that His Interest and the King of France 's were the same And whether he ever thought fit to change his Mind since his Accession to the Crown his own Actions will better declare than any Gloss of mine In this State of Amity Things continu'd between the French King and the Duke of York till he was King And when the Prince of Orange's Fleet was preparing for his Noble Expedition into England they seem'd to rest on the same Foot for Monsieur le Comte d' Avaux the French King's Ambassador at the Hague in a Memorial to the States General acquaints them That his Master knowing the great Preparations for War that their Lordships were making both by Sea and Land was not without some Design form'd answuerable to the greatness of those preparations and his Master believing that it threaten'd England he had Commanded him to declare on his part that the Bands of Friendship and Allyance between him and the King of Great Britain will oblige him not only to assist him but also to look upon the first Act of Hostility that shall be committed by your Troops or your Fleet against his Majesty of Great Britain as a manifest Rupture of the Peace and a Breach with his Crown To this Memorial the States of Holland gave Answer That they Arm'd after the Example of their Neighbours to be ready upon Occasion 'T is true the French Ambassador does not mention the League in express words yet he gives very shrewd Hints that there was some such thing as a League or an Equivilent between the two Crowns and so the States of Holland took it For in their Answer to the English * The Marquiss d'Arbaville Ambassadors's Memorial their Lordships tell him That they were long since fully convinc'd of the Allyance which the King his Master had treated with France and which has been mention'd by Mr. Le Comte d'Avaux in his Memorial The Industry and Care that has been us'd to stifle this League does also
TYRANNY DETECTED AND THE Late Revolution Justify'd BY THE LAW of GOD the LAW of NATURE AND THE PRACTICE of All NATIONS BEING A History of the Late King JAMES's Reign and a Discovery of His Arts and Actions for Introducing Popery and Arbitrary Power and the Intended Subversion of the Protestant Interest in the Three Kingdoms AND How that Design affected all EUROPE WHEREIN All the Arguments against the REVOLUTION are fairly Propounded and Candidly Answer'd the Pretended Reasons against the Present SETTLEMENT Recited and Modestly Refuted and Obedience to King WILLIAM and his Government Legally and Religiously Asserted By RIC. KINGSTON LONDON Printed for John Nutt near Stationers Hall MDCXCIX To the Right Honourable WILLIAM Earl of Portland Viscount Woodstock in the County of Oxon Baron of Cirencester in the County of Gloucester Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter One of the Lieutenant-Generals of His Majesty's Forces Groom of the Stole First Gentleman of the King's Bed-Chamber One of the Lords of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy-Council c. May it please your Lordship MY vast Obligations to your Lordship's Goodness exceeding all possibility of Retaliation and a private Acknowledgment being too faint a Testimony of the Gratitude of my Mind I have presum'd on this Method to make my Thankfulness extend beyond the Limits of my Life and acquaint the World that His Majesty's Bounty and your Lordship's Favours have not been thrown away upon an Ungrateful Person but bestow'd upon a Dutiful Subject who hath hitherto and as long as God affords him Life will express his Duty to your Lordship in the Sincerity of his Service to His Majesty's Government and that I know will be more acceptable to your Lordship than tedious Harangues or elegant Expressions where the greatest I can make is the least that I acknowledge to be due to your Lordship from me The following Discourse my Lord shews the Lawfulness of our late happy Revolution and might justly command my Obliging the World with an Account of your Lordship's extraordinary Merits in that and all other Occasions for England's Safety But when I consider your Lordship is better pleas'd in deserving than hearing an excellent Character and that your Lordship being one of those Pillars that under His Sacred Majesty support the Weight of Publick Transactions I cannot hope the Great Affairs of your Eminent Station should afford you Time to Read a longer Dedication and therefore dare not give my self the Liberty of writing so much as a short Elogy upon a Subject that is able to justifie the largest Panegyrick Now That your Lordship may enjoy a long and happy Life exalted in your Prince's Favour and prosperous in all your Negotiations to the Encouragement of true Piety Loyalty and Vertue shall be the Incessant Prayers of My Lord Your Lordship 's Most Humble and Entirely Devoted Servant RIC. KINGSTON The PREFACE Reader THis small Treatise that now salutes your Hands and is submitted to your Censure is the Tenth I have Writ and Publish'd on the Government 's Behalf since the happy Revolution and for some Reasons being forc'd to conceal my Name some of the Scribling Tribe have been pleas'd to call themselves the Authors of them and have stolen Rewards from Publick Hands for what were only my Productions therefore seeing most of those Books are Sold off and as soon as a Work of another Nature is Compleated that has been long under hand I shall Collect them all into one entire Volume Publish it with my Name to it and leave the Usurpers to prove their Titles to what they have so unjustly claim'd In relation to the Subsequent Discourse I must acknowledge the Path has been already trod by others but whether in Brevity and Perspicuity they have made the Way so plain to every Understanding your self not I must now determine However since large Volumes neither correspond with the Purses nor Leisure of the Generality of English Readers and that our Enemies talk this Subject as leudly now as at the Beginning of the Revolution I have accommodated our Friends with an Antidote against that Infection at a Price and in a Volume that will neither burthen the Reader 's Memory waste his Time nor disoblige his Pocket and yet furnish him with Reasons to answer all Objections in favour of James the Second or those advanc'd against our Legal Establishment Vale. Tyranny Detected AND THE Late REVOLUTION JUSTIFIED c. WHoever has an Inclination to satisfie himself or others that the Attempt of the late King in Subverting the Protestant Religion and Introducing and Establishing Popery in these Kingdoms was no Design of a late Invention nor only owing to the Caprichio of his own Bigotry in the Romish Persuasion to go no further backward must take his Aera from the Restoration of Charles the Second who was Imbark'd in the same Enterprize tho' for fear of Travelling again as he was pleas'd to phrase it he was unwilling to divulge it till he was leaving the World and thought it Inconsistent with his future Estate any longer to conceal the Secret To the Banishment of the Royal Family and their sitting loose in the Principles of that truly Catholick Religion in which they were Educated must be ascrib'd this fatal Change Their Exile and other Inconveniencies laid 'em open to many Temptations The Allurements and Promises of those Popish Princes on whom they must necessarily have some kind of Dependance smooth'd the Way and the Caresses and Incessant Importunities of their Mother assisted by the Crafts and Treachery of Priests and Jesuits who know how to improve every Advantage at length prevail'd upon the Unsteady Royal Brothers to Abjure the Protestant and Espouse the Popish Religion Their Example Influenc'd many that had either Dependance on them or Expectation from them to Write after * Quicquid Principes faciunt praecipere videntur Quint. â—la 4. their Copy and so the King and Duke were early furnish'd with a Sett of Men Ready Prepar'd to execute what was subservient to the Great Design of Subjecting England's Obedience to the Triple Crown Nor can any Rational Man at this time of day doubt but that Charles the Second Liv'd and Dy'd a Papist who hath either heard what he both Said and Did when under the Prospect of approaching Death and past hope of Acting a Part any longer or who have Read the two Papers left in his Strong Box publish'd to the World and Attested by the late King James to be Genuine No less have we Reason to doubt but Setting up Popery and Arbitrary Power was his Darling-Project since the whole Course of his Reign was but one Entire Confirmation of those Destructive Machinations And tho' with the Highest Asseverations and Dreadful Imprecations he often deny'd both making us believe what he was not by Inveighing against what he really was yet the Actions of Princes that speak louder and convince more effectually than feign'd Declarations or Proclamations Evidently shew'd he did but