effect as have been by great Authority judg'd Competent for the Obviating of that Difficulty As to the Rest I will not deny but that it is a hard thing for a Prince to â—eize and persecute a People of his own Religion purely eo nomine for their being so And it is very Probable too that he will connive at men of that Perswasion in many Cases where the Law directs a Punishment And what is there more in this theâ— what has been done already more or less from the Date of the Statutes themselves to This very day and what is done by the Government it self toward the Non-Conformists at this Instant where is the great hurt now upon this Admittance in not punishing the Papists so long as the Protestants are not Persecuted Whereas the Fanatical Papists did not only in defiance both of Law and Gospel engross all Offices Benefits and Priviledges to themselves but without Mercy or Distinction destroy'd the rest of their Brethren Char. A very pretty Chimaera Which is as much as to make this Popish King the greatest Barbarian in the Creation a Barbarian that shall cherish and maintain the Dissenters from Truth and punish and condemn the Pillars of Christianity and Proselites of Heaven Which is no other then to speak him the basest of Men and little lesse then a Monster Beside at the same time that we suppose that King that dares not uphold nor encourage his own Religion we render him the most deplorable of Cowards a Coward so abject that he dares not be a Champion even for his God And how consistent this is with the Glory of a Crowned Head and what hope England has of such a Successour I leave all men of sense to judge Fol. 3. Behold here 's the upshot of this high-flown Paragraph A Popish Prince that puts the Laws in Execution for the punishing of Papists and for the protecting and countenancing of Protestants is little less then the basest of Monsters How comes it then that the Crown of France has not treated the Protestant Subjects there as this Picture-drawer pronounces that a Popish Successour would treat his Protestant Subjects here The Protestants have now and then been severely handled I know in France as the Papists upon some Junctures have been in England And now of late worse then usual All which has been Influenc'd well by Reasons of State as by Impulse of Religion But shall we Pronounce the most Christian King the greater Monster for his better usage of us If a potent Aversion to us in matter of Religion had transported the French King 's into so mortal a Detestation of us to all other purposes they would never have committed so many Eminent Charges both in Councells and in Arms to the Honour and Trust of Protestant Officers and Commanders But the Convenience and Utility of the State preponderated against Disagreements in Religion The Barbarisms of the Holy League were the Results of a Sanguinary Faction as well in Civil Government as Religion And one Egg is not Liker another then the League of these Dissenting Papists to the Covenant of our Jesuitical and Dissenting Pseudo-Protestants To come now to the Reason and Conscience of this Elaborate Padox Taking His Position for granted that a Popish Prince is bound by his Religion contrary to Oaths and Promises Honour and Justice the Dictates of Nature the Laws of Nations and the Bonds of Humane Society contrary to all This I say and to his Interest also to break Faith with Protestants and those Protestants his Subjects too He must be unman'd as well as Unchristian'd an Excomunicate to Humane Nature and excluded from all the Benefits and Offices of Mankind And yet we are not without many Instances in the French League and the Scottish Covenant of an abandon'd Perfidy even to this degree It must be a strange Digestion sure that can put over all other Impieties and turn the violation of all that is Sacred in Nature into a meritorious Virtue Char. Besides what mismatch'd incongruous Ingredients must go to make up this Composition a King His Hand and Heart must be of no Kin to one another He must be so Inhumane to those very darling Jesuites that like Mahomets Pidgeon infus'd and whisper'd all his Heavenly Dreams into his Ears that he must not only clip their wings but fairly Cage 'em too even for the Charming Oracles they breath'd him And at the same Minute he must leave the wide and open Ayr to those very Ravens that daily croak Abhorrence and Confusion to them and all their Holy Dreams and their false Oracles Thus whilest he acts quite contrary to all his Inclinations against the whole Bent of his Soul what does he but publikely put in force those Laws for the Protestant Service till in fine for his Nations Peace he ruines his own and is a whole Scene of War within himself Whilst his Conscience accusing his sloth on one side the Pope on the other Rome's continuall Bulls bellowing against him as an undutifull Son of Holy Mother-Church a Scandal to her Glory a Traytor to her Interest and a Deserter of her Cause one day accusing the Lukewarmnesse of his Religion another the Pusillanimity of his Nature all Roman-Catholick Princes deriding the Feeblenesse of his Spirit and the Tamenesse of his Arm till at long run to spare a Fagot in Smithfield he does little lesse then walk on hot Irons himself Thus all the pleasure he relishes on a Throne is but a kinde of Good-Fryday-Entertainment Instead of Royall Festival his Rioting in all the Luxury of his Heart to see Rome's Dagon worshipp'd Rome's Altars smoke Rome's Standard set up Rome's Enemies defeated and his victorious Mother-Church Triumphant his abject and poor-spirited Submission denyes himself the only thing he thirsts for and whilst the Principles he suck from Rome do in effect in the Prophets Words bid him Rise Slay and Eat his fear his unkingly nay unmanly fear makes him fast and starve Fol. 3. This Passage is only the same thing over again in a diversity of Words and Phrase But it is well enough to answer the Ends it was intended for the tickling of the Phansy and the moving of a Popular Passion without one syllable of weight to strike the Judgement My Reply upon the Last Paragraph shall serve for This too which I have not here Recited as requiring any Answer but to shew what pains he has taken with the Ornaments of his Rhetorique to supply the Defect of Argument I cannot liken it to any thing better then the Gaudy Glittering Vapour that Children are used to Phansy in a Cloud They 'l Phansy Lions Peacocks in it or what other Figures they Please but the first Breath of Ayre scatters the Phantastique Images and resolves the whole into its original Nothing And just so it is with this Character There are many things in it finely enough sayd to work upon a partial and an Easy Imagination and to mislead a body at first
again Char. Thus says he whilst the bonds of Faith Vows Oaths and Sacraments cannot hold a Popish Successor what is that in an Imperial Head but what in a private Man we punish with a Jail and Pillory whilst the Perjur'd Wretch stands the Vniversal Marque of Infamy and then is driven from all Conversation and like a Monster hooted from Light and Day Pray'e correct the Errata ' s of this passage thus For Popish Successor read Jesuitical Covenanter and for an Imperial Head read a Committee of Safety And then ye have the Mystery uncipher'd But the Pope he says and a Royal Hand may do any thing there 's a Crown in the case to guild the deeds his Royal Engines act This Pope and Royal Hand should have been their General Assembly and their Pretended Christ upon his Throne and then Gods Cause and according to the Covenant hallows the Sedition Et quod Turpe est Cerdoni Volesos Brutosque decebit One Verse more would have expounded the whole business Ille Crucem sceleris Pretium tulit Hic Diadema Char. They are still says he that adorable Sovereign Greatness we must kneel to and obey What if a little Perjur'd Villain has sworn a poor Neighbour out of a Cow or a Cottage Hang him inconsiderable Rogue His Ears deserve a Pillory But to VOW and COVENANT and FORSWEAR THREE KINGDOMS OVT OF THEIR LIBERTIES AND LIVES that 's Illustrious and Heroique There 's Glory in great Atchievments and Virtue in Success Alas a vast Imperial Nimroâ— hunts for Nobler Spoils flyes at a whole Nations Property and Inheritance A Game wâ—rthy a Son of Rome and Heir of Paradise And to lay the mighty scene of ruine secure he makes his Coronation-Oath and all his Royal Protestations those splendid Baits of premeditated Perjury the Cover and Skreen to the hidden fatal Toyl laid to ensnare a Nation fol. 7. Never were those Illustrious and Heâ—oick Vowers and Covenanters that for swore three Kingdoms out of their Liberties and Lives drawn so to the Life and five hundred Nimrods too upon the chase of our Property and Inheritance And it was a Game worthy of the Sons of Buchanan and if they may be their own Godfathers the Children of the Lord too under the Cover of their ambiguous Protestations and their Holy League-Bands of Confederacy they câ—nceal'd the Snare of that premeditated Perjnry which was follow'd with so many dreadful judgments upon the Nation He prosecutes his Subject with a Reply to the Objection that ' its impossible for a Popish Successor to introduce Popery into England That the Jesuits had such a design that the whole Party believ'd it practicable he evinces from the Plot and the prospect of a presumptive Popish Heir render'd them more confident of succeeding in it fol. 7. and 8. And yet four or five Lines further he represents the difficulties of restoring Popery into England to be almost insuperable and so with just reflections upon the Paris and Irish Massacres Villanies of Gun-powder Treasons Conflagratiens and Plots against Kings and Kingdoms He finishes that Paragraph I shall easily agree here to all the Ill that he says of the Seditious and pragmatical Papists without disputing one syllable of it And yet I think it very well worth our care to distinguish betwixt zeal and clamour and not over-hastily to give credit to That Sort of People whose method it is first to make Papists odious and then to make the Church of England Popish And this is not said neither to divert any man from a reasonable apprehension of the other danger There never was a greater noise of Popery than in the Prologue to the misfortunes of the late King And what was the Ground or what the Issue of it There was a Conspiracy to undermine the Government and no way but that to put the People out of their Wits and out of their Duties together and the Project succeeded to the actual subversion of the Government And when the Zelots had possessed themselves of the Quarry they shar'd both publick and private Revenues among themselves and fell afterward to the cutting of one another's Throats for the Booty without one word more of Popery In Brief to joyn in an Out-cry against Papists with those that Reckon Episcopacy to be Popery is to assist our Enemies toward the putting on of our own Shackles And it is gone so far too that the Libellers and their Dictators range them hand in hand already and you shall seldom see a Blow made at the Pope without a Lick at the Bishops But the Project begins now to open Char. Let us now rightly consider how far the first Foundations of Popery vix Arbitrary Power may be laid in England First then if a Papist Reign the Judges Sheriffs Justices of the Peace and all the Judiciary Officers are of the King's Creation and as such how far may the influence of Preferment on baser Constitutions cull'd out for his purpose prevail even to deprave the very Throne of Justice her self and make our Judges use even our Protestant Laws themselves to open the first Gate to Slavery We are just now upon a Preliminary to the Nineteen Old Propositions over again For fear of an Arbitrary Power the King was not to be trusted with the Choice of his own Officers But no though taken for the securing of the Government from Popular Tumults and Insurrections in case of lodging that trust in any other hand Beside the putting of the King into an incapacity of providing for the justice and security of the Government But he is so far however in the right that the perverting of that power may endanger the State And for that consideration it is a Trust not to be parted with lest it should once more be re-apply'd to the destruction of the King and People as it was before It is a certain Truth that a Prince by the abuse of his Power may prove a Tyrant But it is as certain again that there is not any form or temperament of Sovereignty imaginable that is not lyable to the same possibility For Tyranny it self is only the straining of the Essential and necessary powers of Government beyond their pitch We have experimented the worst effects of Usurpation and Corruption and of turning the Equity of the Law against the Letter of it nay of setting up the Laws themselves against the very authority that made them And all this would never have done the work neither if the faction had not supply'd the want of Laws for their purpose in some cases and superseded others that were against them by an Arbitrary Device of Votes and Ordinances So that the hazard is nothing so great as he represents it in the hand of a Prince for want of that power of Enacting and Repealing which the Faction possessed themselves of by an Usurpation But alas says he Pag. 8. The Laws in corrupted Iudges hands have been too often used as barbarously as the Guests of Procrustes who
a smooth Reproach in the end of it to intimate how much he is beholden to them he advances as follows Char. Now says he let suppose after a long Tranquility of this matchless Monarchs Râ—ign that the immediate Heir to his Crown and a part of his Bloud by the Sorceries of Rome is canker'd into a Papist His meaning is easily suppos'd by stabbing of the very Paper whenever he comes near him And to pursue this Landâ—hape suppose we see this once happy Flourishing Kingdom so far as in all Duty and Reason bound concern'd for themselves their Heirs and their whole Countries Safety till with an honest cautious prudent Fear they begin to inspect a Kingdoms Vniversal Health till weighing all the Symptoms of its State they plainly descry those Pestilential Vapours fermenting that may one day infect their Ayre and sicken their World and see that rising Eastern Storm engendring that will once bring in those more then Egyptian Locusts that will not only fill their Houses and their Temples but devour their Labours their Harvests and their Vintages Here 's a Period for an Apothecary The Inspectors I suppose of our Body politick may be Three or Four of our Anabaptistical Protestant Intelligencing VVater Casters of the State And these are the men that so plainly descry the pestilential vapours he speaks of which in effect are no other then the Breath of their own Lungs But is it an Eastern Storm that they see engendring why then the wind is turn'd I perceive for the Locusts of 40 and 43 came out of the North and did us all the mischiefs too of his Egyptian Locusts And now he has given us the State of our Disorder he is so kind as to prâ—scribe toward our Relief which is in a few words That the Nation like true Patriots do anticipate their woes with a present sense of the future miseries they foresee fol. 9. which is as much as to say Vp. and be dring Now again Char. VVhat is This Popish Heir in the Eye of England but perhaps the greatest and only Grievance of the Nation the Vniversal Object of their Hate and Fear and the Subject of their Clamours and Curses methinks he might afford the Kings Brother a little better Language at whose door lyâ—their Discontents and Murmurs but 't is murmurs so violent that they thrust in amongst their very Prayers So did Curse ye Meroz and become almost a part of their Devotions The Prophet Davids Curse is faln upon them Their Prayer is turn'd into Sin Murmurs so bold that they dare approach the very Palace nay Throne and Ear of Majesty fol. 10. Here 's a large step advanc'd upon the King himself but you shall see him come closer by and by Whenever says he the People of England reflect on this Heir as their King in reversion they have reason to look upon him as no better than Jupiter ' s Stork amongst the Froggs Yes notwithstanding all his former Glories and Conquests his whole Stock of Fame is so lost and bury'd in his Apostacy from the Religion and conseqnently the Interest of these Protestant Kingdoms that all his Services are Cancell'd and his whole Masse of Glory corrupted ibid. I find some People of Opinion that this King in reversion is of the same Perswasion at this day that he was when he acquir'd all those Glories But let that pass and see now what 's the sum of all this Flourish but a labour'd Piece of spiteful Art to render the Brother of his Sacred Majesty as odious as the soulest Character and Calumny can make him You shall fee presently that This Venom against the Duke will terminate in the King and that instead of a Christian and pious Zeal for Religion the end of it is to inflame a desperate Distemper in the State It is in short a Character of the worst of men adapted to a suitable Religion And expos'd to the World in an uncharitable account of things which he cannot possibly foreknow His next supposal is a Rhetorical Speculation and not without Reflexions bold enough upon the unchangeable affection of his Majesty to his Royal Brother What saith he can the consequence of this unhappy Friendship be but that the very Souls and Loyalties of almost a whole Kingdom are stagger'd at this fatal Conjunction till I am afraid there are too many who in detestation of that one Gangreen'd Branch of Royalty can scarce forbear how undutifully soever to murmur and revile even at that Imperial Root that cherishes it Ibid. What a strange Usurpation is this not only upon Majesty but Human Nature not to allow a Prince the freedom of those affections which he can no more put off than his Reasonable Being But this is the Loyalty of the Old Stamp that still gives the Sign with a Hail Master and a Kiss But how comes this Pamphlet to undertake for the sense of the whole Kingdom It is not that he finds them so much dis-affected but he endeavours to make them so by teaching and animating the Sedition that he would be thought to fear Nay so far is he from being afraid of the undutiful murmurs he seems to apprehend that it is scarce possible to do more toward the creating of them And look now how he grows upon His Majesty Those very Knees says he that but now would have bow'd into their very Graves to serve him grow daily and hourly so far from bending as they ought to a Crown'd Head till they are almost as stubborn as their Petitions and Prayers have been ineffectual What is this to say but in his way of intimation to insinuate what the Reader will easily understand though more than I am willing to express Char. Thus says he whilst a Popish Heirs extravagant Zeal for Rome makes him shake the very Throne that upholds him by working and encroaching on the affections of His Majesty for that Protection and Indulgence that gives birth and life to the Heart-burnings of a Nation what does he otherwise than in a manner stabb his King his Patron and his Friend in his tenderest part his Loyal Subjects hearts which certainly is little less than to play the more lingring sort of Parricide a part so strangely unnatural that even Salvages would blush at yet this Religion ncorrigible remorseless Religion never shrinks at Folio 10. It is worth observing that throughout this whole Character of a Popish Successor the Author of it lays more load upon the Heir than upon the Religion for he treats the Latter still in the terms of a fair and generous enemy but when he comes to the Other he shoots Poyson'd Arrows Parricide Gangreen'd and the like without any respect either to Modesty or Honour And what is the whole Tract indeed but an artificial Declamation without so much as one ill thing in 't bating the Perswasion that is either liable to a proof or possible for him to know And yet he does as boldly pronounce upon things to come as if he had
against Popery Yes As the Fellow united his Ratts he put them all into a Tub together and then they eat up one another View them well and you shall not find above three of four of them that have any consistence one with another And which are they nay that 's a Secret But if Popery be so dreadful because it is a Persecuting Religion why is not the Writer of this Character as sensible of 150 Persecuting Religions on the one side as of One Persecuting Religion on the other God preserve the Church of England I say from both Or if that bitter Cup be our Lot the Lord in his Mercy grant that we may not add Sedition to Persecution It were no Ill Embleme of the Original of our Late Troubles to phancy a Man in a Fright and leaping from a painted Lion upon a Wall into a Bed of Vipers And no better are the pragmatical part of the Revolters from our Communion while in the mean time Thousands and Thousands of the Credulous and Well meaning Multitude are by them inveigled to their destruction About the middle of the 17th Page the Character-Man is either laid down to take a Nap while some other less skilful hand supplys his place or else he writes on in his Sleep And it would have been well if all the rest too had been no more than a Dream There is a Finical Marchpane Spark here about the Town that takes a huge deal of pains to get himself suspected for the Author of this Book he makes me think of a little Gentleman in a Yellow Coat that would still be talking how rarely he plaid o' th' Organ and this poor Wretch phancied that he made all the Musique when it was his part only to draw the Bellows He has done some very pretty things they say upon Touzer But for this Character I dare venture to be his Compurgator at least to the middle of the 17th Page But further I dare not undertake for the next two rages and a half a Man may trace them upon the Hoof to the very Ink-pot His Story of Paris's Mother some body should have told him that it was Hecuba that dream'd she was deliver'd of a Fire-brand His Debate upon the Parallel betwixt the dis-inheriting a Private Popish Heir and a Popish Successor His Proposal of the Successors following Curtius into the Gulf the Third-bare Story of Damocles's Sword And then his Argumentum à fortiori These fragments might possibly be the Fruit of his own Minerva But now toward the bottom of the 19th Page we have the First Hand again Char. But to Sum up all says he if no reason must or shall prevail and that right or wrong a Papist must succeed when all the inseparable Cruelties of Pope and Popery shall surround us suppose the worst that may be that the dreadful approach of certain Slavery so opposite to the Free-Born Genius of England has exasperated them into a Spirit of Rebellion What is it but the Pestilential Ayer of Reigning Popery that bloats and swells them into that Contagion And if this Popish King Summons all his Thunder to punish them for 't what can the greatest Favourer of Rome make more on 't than that he warps them crooked and then breaks them to pieces because they are not streight Just as he serves his Popish Successor he draws ye the Picture of a Tyrant and then Deposes him And what 's the whole Sum of a Revolting Nation under a Popish Tyrant but using a violent Cure to expel an Universal Poyson Fol. 19. This Clause is only Buchanan Janius Brutus c. Translated into English and for brevity sake a fair hint toward a Rebellion and an Apology for it both in one As who should say If it must come to a Popish Successor the English Genius would never brook it and there 's no remedy but one that is to say a Revolt which they may e'en thank themselves for And then up goes Forty One again â— the Factions dismount the Government set up for themselves and so go on plucking down him still that is uppermost till they come from Reforming to Levelling and there is an end on 't I would he had not been so positive upon the Free born Genius of England for we have been inveigled actually into a slavery under Cobblers and Tinkers We that with so much Indignation at present oppose ourselves to the bare Possibility of a Royal Successor And that have Sacrificed three Kingdoms already to those degenerate fears Char. But here says he will some pretended Pious Objector say How shall we dare to Revolt Remember we are Christians and we must Obey or at least yield a Passive Obedience to our King be his Religion Principles or Government never so Tyrannique He is still the Lords Anointed and our Native Sovereign I would ask says he what this Lords Anointed is And who t is is our Native Sovereign When instead of being free-Subjects Pope and Tyranny shall rule Over us and we are made slaves and Papists That Person is the Lords Anointed who by Gods Providence and a Legal Succession of right to the Crown is the Supreme Magistrate whom if we may cast off for Popery and Tyranny we may depose at any time by saying That 's the Case For 't is but saying so to make it so Nay and he goes further yet For here 's a Prince Depos'd for fear he should be so without any allowance for intervening Contingences Or any Limits to the Extent of the Prospect So that 't is but the carrying on of our Jealousies to future times and without any more to do dissolve the Monarchy upon the self-same Contemplation It would be as pertinent a question now what are those Free Subjects as what is This Lords anointed If by this Freedom he would intimate an Exemption from the Law His Free-Subject is a palpable contradiction For in This Case he makes the Lords Anointed the Subject and his Free Subject the Lords Anointed Char. We are bound indeed says he by our Oaths of Allegiance to a constant Loyalty to the King and his lawful Successors Very Right By that Oath we are bound to be his lawful Successors Loyal Subjects but why his Loyal Slaves Or how is an Arbitrary Absolute Popish Tyrant any longer a Lawful Successor to a Protestant Established and bounded Government When lawfuly Succeeding to this limited Monarchy he afterwards violently unlawfully and Tyrannically overruns the due bâ—unds of Power dissolves the whole Royal Constitution of the Three Free-States of England and the Subjects Petition of Right whilst wholly abandoning those Reins of Government which were his Lawful Birth-Right and making New ones of his own Illegal Creation he makes us neither those Free-born Subjects we were when we took that Oath nor himself That King we swore to be Loyal to What have we here but a Jesuitical Dispensation for the breaking of an Oath and slipping our Necks out of the Collar of our Allegiance by
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
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
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
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
a Mental Reservation First We swear in this Oath as in all others to the Sense of the Authority that imposes it And can any body imagine that the Government impos'd this Test of Allegeance upon the People to leave them still at Liberty to play fast and loose with Reserves and Qualifications of their own And so to frustrate the main intent of the Oath by accommodating the Exposition of it for the serving of a Turn or a Faction The Oath binds them to Subjection and they absolve themselves of That Subjection by giving it the Name of Slavery And so every man is left at pleasure to take off his own Shackles But what if it were Slavery it self The Prince were to blame for straining his Authority but the Subjects nevertheless Criminal on the other side for withdrawing their Duty He has found a Loop-hole to evade This Oath by turning SVBIECTS into SLAVES But That will not do his business without turning a Lawful Successor to a Protestant Establisht and bounded Government into an arbitrary absolute Popish Tyrant In which supposition he holds forth This Doctrine to the People that in This Case there is a Forfeiture of the Government and that this is the very Case which we have now before us wherein contrary to Law Reason and the Fundamental Essentials of all Government he does as much as in him lyes authorize and incite the Multitude to a Sedition I answer that the Law is clearly against him for tho the Prerogative is bounded the Duty of the Subject is yet left unconditional there being no Law nor so much as the colour of any incase of the Kings passing his legal Limits to absolve the People of their Allegeance And it is not the Plea of Provocation or the exercise of a Tyrannical Power that will save the Subject from the Sentence oâ— the Law in case of any disloyal act of Assault or Resistance It is against Reason likewise that the Inferiour shall overrule the Superiour and invert the last Resort of Decision and Judgment from the Prince to the Subject It is lastly destructive of Government it self to suppose such a Reserve in a Political Constitution as carries the last Appreal to the People which is the case in this Proposition The King as a Trustee that abuses his power incurrs a Forfeiture as our Author will have it of that Trust and so all subordinate Trustees may incurr the like Forfeiture till all Communities are melted down again into the ridiculous conceit of the Original Soveraignty of the Multitude which is onely a Chaos of Anarchy and Confusion He is over again here with the Royal Constitution of the three free States of England which must be understood either of the Lords Spiritual Temporal and Commons or of the King Lords and Commons reckoning His Majesty to be one of the three Estates Take it the former way and instead of Your Majesty's Loyal Subjects the Lords and Commons in Parliament which was the style even of the last Rebellion it self the Petition should run t'other way and say The humble Petition of Charles the second to your Majesties the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons â—ssembled in Parliament Now take it as accounting the King to be one of the three Estates that Imaginary Câ—ordination leaves him at the mercy of the other two whensoever they please The Learned and the Right Reverened Bishop of Lincoln in his Discourse of Popery pag. 4. England says he is a Monarchy the Crown Impâ—rial and our Kings Supreme Governours and sole Supreme Governours of this Realm and all other their Dominions c. In our Oath of Supremacy we sweaâ— That the King is the Only Supreme Governour Supreme so none not the Pope above him and Only Supreme so none Coordinate or equal to him The Character brings in the Subjects Petition of Right for a further countenance to his pretension but what noise soever it makes in the cars of the people there is not one syllable in it that appears in his favour And yet once again upon the presumptions ascresaid he grounds this Assertion That in such a case neither is he the same King that we swore to nor we the same Subjects that took the Oath If this be not Rome against Rome and Popery against Popery I know not what is But at the worst it is but paraphrazing upon the Oath of Allegiance as they did upon the Covenant Give me leave now to retort the Argument His Popish Successâ—r will be a Tyrant he says for it is a Tyrannical Religion But after all the stress of â—rreverent Language upon his R. H. he cannot charge any thing in the worldupon him that looks that way in his inclination But yet here 's enough says he to conclude the Reason and the Necessity of his Seclusion The Compiler of this Character would take it ill now on the other side if a man should say that his very argument against the Duke holds as true against the Author of the Character For that Dominion is founded in Grace is the Principle both for which and by which he pretends to Supplant the Successor Now why may we not apprehend Sedition from the one as well as Tyranny from the other Nay and with more Justice too considering that there is but a bare Contemplation the One way and the Practice of an enflaming Discourse over and above that Contemplation the other Char. But alas says he that Bug-bear Passive obedeience is a Notion crept into the world and most Zealously and perhaps as ignorantly defended Fol. 20. This Period brings him well nigh to his Journeys end For till now he contented himself with only opposing the primitive Practices and the Common Principles of Christianity in justifying a Violence upon an Impulse of Religion But the making of Passive Obedience only a Bug-bear and the Defence of it an effect of Ignorance brings it home to the very person of our Saviour and to the Doctrine that was delivered by those Holy Lips So far says the Learned Prelate above mentioned Pag. 55. was St. Paul from believing those Popish Rebellious Principles Denying the Superiority of the Civil power and from Dissoyalty or Disobedience to that Imperial tho' Pagan Power under which he Lived that he publickly acknowledged and humbly submitted to it Nor was he only in his own Person Obedient and a Loyal Subject to the Emperor but writing to the Romans he did as an Apostle of Jesus Chrâ—st command them also to be Loyal and Obedient Let every Soul every man be Subject to the Higher the Supreme Powers c. And then he adds that they should render to them Tribute Custom Fear Honour and all their Duties By Supreme Power there he means men possessing Supreme power and the Supreme power under which He and the Romans then were was Nero a most Impious Pagan and Persecutor of Christ and Christians and yet every Soulq within his Empire even Peter as well as Paul was by the Law of
God and the Gospel to be Subject to Him to Fear Honour pay him Tribute and Legally obey him Nay the same reverend Prelate Pag. 54 in confirmation of this Doctrine cites the Precept of our blessed Saviour himself as well as St. Paul Our blessed Saviour Says he whose Vicar the Pope pretends to be does himself pay Tribute to Caesar Tho' a Pagan and Idolatâ—r leaving us an Admirable and most Pious Example of that obedience and Loyalty due even to Impious and Pagan Princes Nâ—r is this all for he further gives express Command that all should render to Cesar the things which are Cesars He acknowledgeth the Imperial rights of Câ—sar of which his Impiety and Idolatry did not deprive him Our Author said but just now that Passive Obedience was no more then a Bug-bear and a Doctrine groundless and only slipt into the world as by the By. But he tells us now Fol. 20. toward the bottom that in case of a Vow'd Allegiance to an Absolute and Arbitrary King a Passive Obedience was due But what 's this says he to a King of England With his leave I take it to be the same thing as to the Peoples Obedieâ—ce or Submission tho' in respect of the assuming and Exercising that Power the Case on the Kings side is greatly differing for the question is not whether the King does Well or Ill in forcing his Authority beyond the due hounds but whether the Tyranny on the one side will justify an undutiful behaviour on the other And the Law it self will easily determine This Controversy If the Subject be ty'd up by the Law to an Allegiance unconditional as aforesaid and without any Exception or qualification to discharge him of that Duty in any Cace whatsoever the Cause is clear against him And this is enough said to shew that under the Masque of a zeal to crush one Sort of Popery there is a design Carryed on for the introducing of another See now what he says of Monarchy Monarchy says he fol. 21. can be acquir'd but by two ways First By the Choice of the People who frequently in the beginning of the World out of a natural desire of Safety for the securing of a Peaceful Community and Conversation chose a Single Person to be their Head as a Proper Supream Moderator in all Differences that might arise to disquiet that Community Thus were Kings made for the People and not the People for Kings This Principle of Popular Liberty and placing the Original of Government in the People is highly derogatory to the Providence of God contrary to the express Letter of the Text and destructive of the very Being of Human Society First By implying Mankind to be cast into the World unprovided for Secondly It makes Magistracy which the Apostle tells us Rom. 13. 2. is the Ordinance of God to be of Human Institution or at best Nature's second Thought but in truth an effect either of Tumult or Chance according as Men were led to 't either by Choice or Necessity Thirdly in supposing Power to be radically in the People and the grant of it to be only an act of conveyance by common Consent and with a power of Revocation upon certain equitable Conditions either express'd or imply'd there goes no more than the Peoples recalling of their Power to the dissolving of all Commuâ—ities and Humane Society at this rate lyes at the Mercy of the Multitude But how this Revocation shall be notify'd unless by way of Advertisement in one of the True Protestant-Anabaptist-Mercurys I cannot imagine But then consider again That this Grant and Revocation must Pass with a Nemine Contradicente nay and a Nemine Absente too for one single Dissâ—â—â— or the want of one single Vote spoils all and makes void both the Original Grant and all that was done subsequent upon it for by reason of that defect it is no longer the act of the People It may put a Man in admiration to see what Credit this Phantastique and Impracticable Conceit has got in the World if he does not observe the Address in the Application of it and the use that is made of it All violent Motions of State we see are wrought and brought about by the Favour and Assistance of the People And there can be no readier way in the World to make them sure then either to calumniate or otherwise to lay open the Nakedness of the Government and to tell them that Princes are only Trustees for the Peoples good the Sovereignty in themselves and that if Governours break their Trust the People may resume their Power When the Multitude has once imbib'd this Doctrine the next work will be to set up for the recovery of their inheritance and when it comes to that once we need but look behind us to see the end on 't Our Author has already admitted upon this mistake of the Fountain of Power that the People may yet pass away their Original Right without power of Revocation Here indeed says he speaking of a Concession of Absolute Power a passive Obedience was due but what 's this to a King of England Now though the Doctrine of this Passage fol. 20. seems to clash with an Equity of Resumption reserved to the People in the last Paragraph above-recited fol. 21. I shall yet lay no hold of that implication but turn the force of his own allowance against himself If the Peoples alienation of their Power to a Prince without conditions shall stand good against them so shall the alienation of their Power also to a Prince under conditions stand every jote as good within the limits of those conditions And where shall we find those conditions but in the Establish'd Law which marks out the bounds both of King and People Now if the Law Pronounces the King to be Supream in all Causes and over all Persons c. and yet with some Limitations and Restraints upon his Prerogative Suppose he passes those Terms who shall judge him but God if he be Supream and has no other Power above him Or if the People have reserved in such a case any controuling Power to themselves how comes it that the Law takes no notice of it but on the contrary makes the Subjects accountable for any act of Disobedience or Violence to or upon the Person or Authority of the King upon what pretence soever So that under the colour of opposing or preventing an Arbitrary Power the Law is subverted here at a bâ—ow and a Foundation laid of the most pernicious and shameful sort of Tyranny He says that Kings were made for the People and not People for the Kings which is well enough if he means that Kings were made for the Government of the People which is the great Blessing of Mankind and not People for the Government of the King which turns Society into Confusion But after all these words to shew that Government Originally was not Popular I shall add a few more to prove the Institution of it to
greater Plot upon England than the Execrable Bloud-shed of that Protestant Prince And yet he carries it one step higher A Plot of God he calls it and at the same time lays the Foundation of it in Hell and most Heroically opposes it From hence to the end both of the Page and Book there 's only more variety of flourish to the same purpose MY pretending to Answer this Discourse looks methink as if a Man should Reply upon an Almanâ—ck for several Years to come it runs altogether upon Phansys Suppositions Predictâ—ons c. And there 's no dis-proving of a Prognostication nor hardly any reasoning against it but so far as it is Calculated according to Rules of Art And wheresoever I have found any thing that looks like a Logical Connexion I have spoken to those Passages what I thought convenient But for the rest my business has been to encounter the drift of it and to expound the danger of these present Iealousies by referring People to the miserable effects of the same Jealousie in the Late Times It is an easie thing for People to foretel Calamities and Judgments of their own Contriving There is not any Man Living that more passionately desires the Ripping up of this Damâ—'d Hellish Plot to the bottom than my self but I must confess withal that I am for Suppressing the Malice of Popeâ—y as well as the Name and utterly against the Damning of any Position in a Papist that I practice my self The best way to discover a Jesuite is by his Principle for it is the Doctrine and not the Order or Dâ—nâ—mination that creates the Danger So that we are never the nearer for rocting out the One unless we purge our selves also from the Leagen of the Other Which will be the oâ—ly safe way of faciâ—itating a Comprehensive Union of those Conscientious Dissentâ—rs that wish well to the King and his Government And in Order to this Discrimination I shall give the Reader here a Taste of the Harmony and Agreement betwixt the Jesuites of the Society and those of the Covenant That is to say such other Jesuites as under the Cover of Dissenting Protestants take advantage of the Credulity and Weakness of the Common People toward the working of Distempers in the Nation Popish and Jesuitical PRINCIPLES DOminion is founded in Grace says the Romish Jesuite and upon That Principle Deposes Protestant Princes But the Covenanting Jesuite is even with him and upon the same Principle deposes Popish Princes as Knox and those of the Congregation in Scotland depos'd the Queen Regent Cambden ' s Eliz. An. 1559 Penry told the Lord President of Wales That without advancing the Presbyterian Discipline he could have no Commission to Rule there for having rejected Christ he was but the Lieutenant of Satan And our Character does pretty well too in ranking a Popish Prince with Nebuchadnezzar fol. 17. The Pope may deprive a King of his Royal Dignity for Heresie Schism c. B. of Lincoln's Popish Principles pag. 20. and after Excommunication says Mariana in case of Obstinacy the People may take away his Life Now says the Covenanting Jesuite All men as well Magistrates as Inferiors ought to be Subject to the Judgment of General Assemblies See Bishop Bramhal pag. 501. Ministers says Buchanan de Jur. Reg. page 70. may excommunicate Princes and when they have cast them into Hell they are not worthy to live any longer upon Earth Pius Quintus absolv'd the Subjects of Q. Eliz. from all their Oaths of Allegiance to her for ever And now says Knox to England and Scotland If Princes be Tyrants against God and his Truth their Subjects are Free from their Oath of Obedieâ—ce And our Jesuitical Covenanters did the same thing too with a Penalty in abolishing the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance and setting up their Covenant We command says the same Pius Quintus all the Peers People and Subjects of England not to pay any Obedieuce to the Queen her Commands or Laws And was not this the same thing that our Covenanting Jesuites did in commanding upon pain of Imprisonment and Sequestration not to obey the Kings Proclamations and in making it Death without mercy for any man that had taken the Coveâ—ant to go without a Pass into the Kings Quarters Pope PAVL 3d. Interdicted all publick Prayers for Henry 8. or his Adherents after his Denyal of the Popes Supremacy to the whole Nation And did not our Scottish Jesuites the same thing in refusing to to pray for the Mother of King James when she was in her Distress though the King desired it and did not our English Covenanting Jesuites make it Malignancy and Sequestration to pray for the King in their Churches If a Clergy-Man Rebel against the King it is no Treason says Emâ—nuel Sa because Clergy-Men art not the Kings Subjects The Jesuits of the Kirk told King James That He was an incompetont Iudge of Matters in the Pulpit wich ought to be exempted from the Iudgment and Correction of Princes And the Assembly brought off Gibson and Blake for Cursing and Railing at the King in the Pulpit upon the same Plea And the Late King had as little Remedy for Treason deliver'd in the Pulpits here The Papal Power says Sciopptus is Supream and the Pope has a Right to Direct and Câ—mpel and a Power of Life and Death And did not Our Jesuits in the Assembly and the Two Houses Practice the same Usurpations in 1642 Does not the Kirk in the Cases of Bloud Adultery Blasphemy c. take the Pardoning-Power out of the King's Hand Did not the Scottish Jesuits in 1638. Proteâ—t against Proclamations make void Acts of Parliament Levy Mâ—n Monies and Arms for the Glory of God and preservation of Relâ—gion Kings Declaration Pag. 415. Do they not claim Power to Abrogate and Abolish what Statutes and Ordinances they please concerning Ecclesiastical Matters See Bishop Brambal Fol. 497. c. And in short in ordine ad Spiritualia take into their Cognizance all matters whatsoever Snarez approves of a Subjects killing his Prince in his own defence and much more if it be in defence of the Publique Buchanad Seconds him and would have him rewarded for it as if he had kill'd a Wolf or a Bear For says he in his de jure Regni the People are as much above the King as he is above any one Person Which Our Jesuits have Translated into Singulis Major Vniversis Minor Does not our Assembly set up for Infallible as well as the Pope And have not Our Jesuites their pious Frauds as well as those of the Church of Rome their Dreams Visions and Revelations Where was there ever more Equivocation or mental Reservation then in their swearing to preserve the King with a Design to destroy him Where did the Pope himself ever take more upon him as to the Indicting of Assemblies abrogating Acts of Parliament and in the Exercise of all other the Ensigns of Royalty Does not our Assembly expect to be submitted to with as implicite a Faith and as blind an Obedience as the Pope himself We must â—â—sign up our Judgments says the Church of Rome our VVill and our Vnderstanding in a deferencé to our Superiors To which purpose as I find it in Lysimachus Nâ—canor page 48. Andrew Cant when he found he could give no reasons for subscribing the Covenant told his Congregation at Glascow that they must deny Learning and Reason and help Christ at a Lift and told them further upon the same occasion that he was sent to them with a Commission from Christ to bid them subscribe the Covenant which was Christs Contract and that he himself was come at a Wooer to them for the Bridegroom and called upon them to come to be Hand-fasted by Subscribing That Contract and told them plainly that he would not leave the Town till he had all their Names that refused to Subscribe and that he would complain on 't to his Master It would be endless to run out the Parallel at length so far as This Argument would carry a man But this will suffice I hope in some measure for a Caution that while we are running down of One Sort of Jesuites we do not Incorporate our Religion with Another The End Character Declarat Prot. of Lords and Commons to the Kingdom and the whole world Octob. 22. 1642. Exact Coll. pag. 664.