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
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
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
which if he had accomplish'd he might easily have done And to do his Memory Justice he told me this Story with very great Inâ—â—ignation the Substance of which as I shall answer for it to God at the day of Judgment I have faithfully related to the best of my memory upon the Faith of a Christian man Now to 〈◊〉 his Point will not the very Name of a Republican Râ—formation which is at Present become the Theme of every Pamphlet warm Our Mud into Monsters again and raise Coblers and Tinkers to Colonels Draymen and Thimble-makers to be Kings Judges Wherefore Now or Never is his Majesty oblig'd if his Word Honour or Coronation-Oath be more then a Name if I may be pardon'd for speaking my Authours words after him to uphold the Protestant Interest which now lyes a bleeding in this Cause of the Church One Branch of the Coronation Oath being as follows I will preserve and maintain to You the Bishops and the Churches committed to your charge all Canonical Priviledges and due Law and Justice and I will be your Protector and Defender to my Power by the Assistance of God as every good King in his Kingdom â—n right ought to protect and defend the Bishops and Churches under theâ—r Government Then the King ariseth and is led to the Communion Table where he makes a Solemn Oath in sight of all the People to observe the Premises and laying his hand upon the Book saith The Oath The things which I have before promised I shall perform and keep So help me God and the Contents of this Book Char. But let us suppose we may have such a Roman Catholique King as shall discountenance Pope and Popery Cherish Protestantism and effectually deterr and punish all those that shall endeavour to undermine and supplant it And then let us examine what This King thus qualify'd must do Fol. 2. Here is a Supposition fairly propounded in appearance but yet without Expounding himself upon the Worâ—d Protestantism there 's no coming to an Issue upon 't If he means by Protestantism the Opions of the Outlyers that have leapt the pale and which are rather Phansies then Perswasions the Law it self animadverts upon those people as the Underminers of our Ecclesiastical Establishment And his Discountenancing of Separatists will amount to no more then a Legal Discharge of his Office But if by Protestantism he intends a practical Conformity to the Orders of the Church the Law provides as well for the upholding of the One as the suppressing of the Other And it would be a strange Oversight for any Prince that should mount the English Throne under the disadvantages of that Perswasion to put his Perogative upon the stretch of Enacting or Abrogating Laws without the Consent of his Parliament Char. First then In continuing the Ecclesiastique Jurisdiction Honours and Preferments in the hands of the Protestant Clergy he must confer his Favours and Smiles on those very men whom by the Fundamentals of his own Vncharitable Perswasion which dooms all that dy out of the Bosom of the Romish Church to a certain State of Damnation he cordially believes do preach and teach and lead his Subjects in the direct way to Hell And next at the same time he must not only punish and persecute but perhaps emprison and hang those very only Righteous men whom from the bottom of his Soul he believes can only open them the Gates of Paradice whilest in so doing he cannot but accuse himself of coppying the Old Jewish Cruelty Nay in One respect he outgoes their Crime for he acts that Knowingly which they committed Ignorantly For by the Dictates of Religion he must be Convinc'd that in effect he does little lesse then save a Barabbas and Crucify a Jesus Fol. 3. Here is First presented a dismal Prospect of a Popish Successour in the Life of a Protestant Prince and the present Government of that Protestant Prince troubled and distracted with Clamours and Jealousies for fear of a Popish one to come If Religion were really the business they would rather blesse God for the Peace and Happiness they enjoy and wait his further Pleasure with Thankfullness and Resignation then with Murmuring and Distrust to anticipate Future Evills and Prejudge Providences to come Or if Religion were All what 's the meaning of their hammering so much of late upon the Subject of Arbitrary Power and so many Models and Projects of a Common Wealth which were the very Method of our late Usurpers as to matter of Arbitrary Power the King has pass'd away so many Concessions already for the gratifying of his Subjects that if he had it in his Will his Majesty has not left it in his Power to be guilty of that which is so ungratefully Charg'd upon him Which makes it look liker a mockery then an Accusation And then for the New-fangled Device of a Free Common Wealth our Republican Agitators should do well to mind the People of England of the blessed condition they were in under the pretended Keepers of an Liberties The Sound of Freedom and Liberty brings the Multitude like Larks to the Glasse but not a word of the Net They say nothing of the Standing Army that must be kept afoot to support it nor of the bloudy Taxes that must be rais'd to maintain those Troops and Martial Law to make good all those Violences Why do they not tell them of their Charters Franchises Priviledges and Tenures which are all swallow'd up in that Gulph of Popular Tyranny And so are all other advantageous Dependences upon the Crown The Body of the Law must be new garbled and a Civil War with all the Miseries and Contingences of it must be the Prologue to the Opening of this Tragical Scene And if the Sedition fails of successe they bring themselves into the state again of a Conquer'd Nation And upon these Terms it is at best that they are to exchange a Condition of Peace Freedom and plenty for â—eggery Bondage and Confusion It was very well sayd of Grotius upon the NetherLanders delivering themselves from the 〈◊〉 of Spain We Fought says he to save the Tenth part of our Estates and now that we have got the day we have Compounded 〈◊〉 th' other Nine Here is a Criminal and a Dangerous but I hope an Impracticable Proposal set afoot But brought in God knows by Head and shoulders under the Countenance of Religion and Succession It is possible there may be no more in it then a Well-meaning mistake But there must be an Infinite Tenderness of Conscience and a most untainted Loyalty to justify the Authour But to return to my Character As to the Influence which a Popish Successour may have upon Ecclesiastical matters as in the Character there needs no more to be sayd in 't then this that the King hath been gratiously pleased to offer the Passing of any Bill for securing the Protestant Religion without barring or diverting the Succession And such Expedients have been also fram'd to that
the way I look upon Majesty as a Sacred Character and not to be handled but with Veneration Wherefore whether his Assumption be True of False I shall speak to it only as a Supposition He proceeds now to the ballancing of the matter If says he a Roman Catholique can break an Oath only for the Pleasure of Conquering which he knows is doing Ill Shall not a Popish Prince in England have ten times more Inclination to break an Oath for the Propagation of his own Faith which his Conscience tells him is meritorious I Answer that the breaking of an Oath out of a Lust of being Great is the Crime properly of an Ambitious Prince not of a Popish For he does not consult his Religion but only his Glory in the Committing of it And the same Thirst of Dominion with the same degree of Indifference as to the Businesse of Right or wrong in concurrence with the same Advantages of Power and Opportunity would have produced the very same essects in a Prince of any other Judgment Well but he does an Ill thing knowingly and so are most of the Ill things that are done in the World without any regard to the difference of Protestant or Papist But Then his Application of This Ill thing done to another Prince of the same Perswasion is only the cutting of One Diamond with another and nothing at all to our Case But much more will a Popish Prince in England says he c. Does it follow Here that because a man would rather forswear himself to bring a Good thing to pass then a Bad one though we are to do no evill at all that Good may come of it that therefore for the compassing of a good end a man will forswear himself Neither have I ever as yer heard of the Merit of propagating any Religion by Perjury Or that the Consciences of any sort of Christians could justifie them in a Crime which even Infidels themselves by the meer instinct of Nature have in extreme abhorrence And he follows the point yet further Char. He has Religion says he to drive the Royal Jehu on Religion that from the beginning of the world through all Ags has set all Nations in a Flame yet never confessed it self in the Wrong These are strange words to come from the mouth of a pretender to Scruples and a Protestant Advocate His Quarrel is not now so much to a Popish as to a Religious Successour Nor is it any longer Popery but Religion it self that he strikes at as the dangerous and Obstinate Incendiary Nay and since Religion was in the world it was never otherwise he says So that here is a very fair expedient hinted for the good of Christendom to exterminate this Spirit of Discord RELIGION from off the face of the Earth If he had said only the Pretext of Religion he might have Appeal'd either to the Clamour of his Brethren or to his own Papers For it is the Pretext that both Furnishes the Fewel and blows the Coal while Religion lies burning in the Furnace Char. Beside says he how can a Popish Prince in attempting to Establish his own Religion believe he does his Subjects an Injustice in that very thing in which he does God Justice or think he Injures Them when he does their Souls Right Fol. 6. This Pretense of doing God Justice and the Souls of men Right will entitle a Prince with a much more plausible Colour and a better Grace to the breaking in upon the Territories and Subjects of other Princes and States under Countenance of the same Design For in that case there 's no Bar of an Oath upon him whereas the same Violence upon his own Subjects renders him Guilty of a manifest Perjury But what does he mean by an Attempt to establish his own Religion If it be by way of Argument 't is well But if he makes use of any compulsive act of Authority contrary to his Oath he stands accountable to God for breach of Faith and does no Justice to God in it neither nor Right to the Souls of his People For where 's the justice to God in making use of his Name to an Imposture and in rendring him not only a Witness but in some sort a Party to a Cheat And where 's the Right to his Peoples Souls in forcing them to the Profession of a Religion with their Lipps which they abhor in their Hearts Or in fine how can a Popish Prince so much as pretend either to the one or the other against so clear a Light both of Scripture and Nature In short either he is indispensably bound to do the thing or at liberty whether he will do it or no If the former his Oath must be either a Nullity or a Fraud and if the other his antecedent Obligation has determin'd that liberty But Religious Phrenzy says he Fol. 7. leaves that eternal intoxication behind it that where it commits all the Cruelties in the World 't is never sober after to be sorry for 't How truly and how severely is this said Witness the impenitent Ends and Courses of all the Kings Murtherers both Dead and Living And now again Thus says he Whilst a Popish King sets his whole Kingdom in a Combustion how little does he think he plays a Second Nero Good Conscienti-Man not he Alas He does not Tune his Joys to the Tyrannick Nero's Harp but to David's milder and more sacred Lyre whilst in the height of his pious Extasy he sings Te Deum at the Conflagration ib. Turn but Popish King here into Popish Phanatical Faction and what an admirable illustration is this of the Brethrens Exultations and Thanksgivings for the Ruine of their Sovereign the Holy Church and Three Kingdoms Nay and the florid humour goes on with him still Thus says he with an Arbitrary unbounded Power what does his Licentious holy Thirst of bloud do less than make his Kingdoms a larger Slaughter-House and his Smithfield an Original Shambles Thus the Old Moloch once again revives to feast and riot on his dear human Sacrifice And whilst his fiery Iron hands crush the poor Victim dead the PROPAGATION of RELIGION and the GLORY of GOD as he calls it are the very Trumpets that deafen all the feeble Cryes of bloud and drown the dying Groans of what he Murthers Ibid. Can any Man read this Pathetical Figure of Tyranny and Desolation without turning the OLD MOLOCH into the GOOD-OLD-CAVSE and calling to mind the Glorious Sacrifices that were offer'd at White-Hall-Gate upon Tower-Hill Cheap-side Charing-Cross and in a word in all the Quarters of His Majesties Dominions to that Mercyless and Insatiable Idol To say nothing of those Whole-Sale Carnages at Edge-hill Newbury Marston-Moor Navesby c. where the blood of loyal Subjects and true Protestants was spilt like Water and the Priests of Baal all this while with the PROPAGATION of RELIGION and the GLORY of GOD in their Mouths celebrating in their Pulpits and Festivals these Barbarous Triumphs And yet
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
had a Bed for all Travellers but then he either cut them shorter or stretch'd them longer to fit them to it And is not this very charitably done now to imagine the worst things that either ever were or can be done Of a Prince admitting my Author's supposition whose Empire Safety Donions and the wel-fare of whose People are all dependent upon his good behaviour and justice So that he ventures his All on the one side to get nothing on the other Here is the fansie of remote and uncertain difficulties oppo'sd to our present security and well-being and after a Capital Sentence pronounced with a formality of Law upon an Imperial Prince as a Traytor to the Sovereignty of the People We are now opening the way to bring another Prince to the Scaffold For that 's the Scope of several Virulent Libels both printed and written that have at present their free course without controll These are the Incendiaries I speak of and no other Well says he again but if the publick Ministers of Justice betray the Liberty of the Subject The Subject may Petition for a Parliament to punish 'em for 't But what if he will neither hear one nor call the other who shall compel him This is a very artificial way of getting a shoot at the King through the Duke and to intimate the Exercise of an Arbitrary Power by this manner of supposing it It was by these very steps of accusing evil Councellours crying out for justice against them and for a Parliament to punish them that the Faction mounted the Government and strip'd his Majesty first of his Friends then of his Revenue next of his Liberty and lastly of his Life and all this was actually done for fear of no body knew what Ther 's no doubt says the Character but hee 'l find sufficient assistance from the Pope English Papists and Foreign Princes beside the Revenues of the Crown And then having but a prudent eye and a tenacious hand to manage his Exchequer we shall find hee 'l never call that People he shall never have need of fol. 8. He supposes here an assistance for a Prince in possession of his Crown But an assistance for what unless in case of a Rebellion Or is it an assistance to enable him to live without Parliaments As if Foreign Princes would be at that charge to be never the better sor't Or if he means a Military Assistance toward the settling of him in the Possession of an Absolute Power his Interest undoubtedly will be much greater in the supporting of him as an Heir than in advancing him as a Tyrant beside that for one English Man to serve him in such an unwarrantable design he will have an hundred in case of any unjust delusion to stand by him in the defence or recovery of an nndoubted Right This is only the quitting of one Pamphlet with another and to make use of that liberty my self which is allow'd to others But all this while says he the Pope is not Absolute There wants a Standing Army to Crown the Work And he shall have it for who shall hinder him Nay all his Commanders shall be present qualifi'd even by our Protestant Test for the employment We have not forgot the Time when one standing Army was Raised for fear of another and between Thirty and Forty Thousand Men kept in Pay for a matter of thirteen or fourteen years together when the War was over and not one Enemy left in the Field one King imprison'd and another in Banishment Taxes multiply'd The People peel'd to the very Bones and the Persons and Estates of Free-born English Men subjected to the most Scandalous Tyranny that ever was inflicted upon reasonable Creatures And what was the Ground and Foundation of this Calamity The Multitude were Buzz'd in the Head that the King was Popishly inclin'd and govern'd by Jesuitical Councels nothing but Papists about him and two or three Antichristian Bishops a Pack of Tories and Tantvies and a mighty noise there was of German Horse and the bringing of an Army up to Town to awe the City and the Parliament and the very fear alone of these shadows Transported them into the uttermost extremities of rage and confusion 'T is true there was no Plot afoot then as there is now but they made sufficient shift without it to do their own and the Kingdoms business You shall now see the Composition of his Popish Successor's Standing-Army He shall have enough Men of the Blade out of one half of the Gaming Houses in Town to Officer twice as many Forces as he shall want 'T is true they shall be men of no Estates nor Princples c. He should e'en have gone on when his hands were in and quarter'd his new Leveys in Lambeth House or Pauls as in the days of his Forefathers But is not this better yet than Spiriting away of Apprentices from their Masters decoying the poor Wenches out of their Bodkins and Thimbles and squeezing a Rebellion out of the Gospel We have seen an Army of pretended Saints to the value of Twenty or Thirty Thousand in a Body and as many Religions as Men every Article of the Creed call'd in question and the Lord's Prayer exploded as a stinting of the Spirit This and a great deal more and worse is true to the very Letter But forward And that this Army may be more quietly rais'd how many honourable pretences may be found fol. 9. Very right As the fetching of the King home to his Parliament the delivering of him out of the hands of Papists The defence of his person and just rights in the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion and all this in the Stile of his Majesties most humble and obedient Subjects Perhaps says he the greatest and most importunate preservation of the Kingdom shall call for 't and then upon second thoughts instead of defeating some Foreign Enemy they are opportunuely ready to cut our Throats at home if we do not submit and give all that this King shall ask bid This ingenuous Author has directly Translated the true History of the Rise and Advance of the late Rebellion into a Prophetical Computation of the Methods and Proceedings which the World is to expect from a Popish King Did not they seize those very Arms that the King had provided for the Relief of Ireland and employ them against his Majesties very Person at Edg-hil And were not those very Troops that were Raised as they swore for the defence of the City of London Quarter'd upon the Citizens to Ruine and Enslave them Char. Thus far says he we have given the Pourtraicture of a Popish King And now let us take a draught of his Features in his Minority that is while he is only a Popish Heir Apparent I.d. After the Preamble of an Imaginary Prince elevated to the height of a Generous and a glorious Character with a Supposal of a People too not unworthy of the blessing of such a Sovereign and
of it for an Enformation Why who says there 's any sin in 't And then there 's Guard and Guard People are said one way to be upon their Guard with their Swords in their hands and another way with their eies in their heads But I presume he speaks to the multitude and he speaks too in the Stile of Authority Let them stand upon their Guard says he as if he were giving Orders He might as well have said Let them stand to their Arms and his expression of all expedients expounds it so even allowing him to be his own Interpreter for the business is to keep out Popery and Tyranny And he makes it one expedient fol. 2. and an essential one too to act the Offensive part as well as the Defensive Provided still says he that we preserve the Sacred Succession in its right Line for that we are TOLD both King and People are oblig'd in Conscience to defend and uphold That same little word TOLD is a most Emphatical Mockery and then provided that the Succession be secur'd all other expedients are pronounced lawful Methinks he might have thought of a Proviso too for the securing of the Kings Honour Dignity Person Government and the Peace of his Dominions which are at the rate of his latitude of allowance all of them equally concerned in the danger with the Succession He proceeds now to debate the matter of Conscience And if we find him as Tender as he is Zealous as good a Christian on the Subjects side as on the Patriots as careful to uphold the Sacred Character of Majesty as to prevent the Excesses of Tyranny and finally as clear a Casuist as he is a powerful Orator there will be no contesting any further with him Char. First then saith he let us fancy we see this Popish Heir on his Throne and by all the most illegal and Arbitrary Means contrary to the whole Frame and Hinges of the English Government introducing Popery with that Zeal and Vigour till his inâ—atuatedâ— Conscience has perverted the King into a Tyrant What a phancy of a phancy is here that for want of fact and argument is fain to have recourse to Imaginations and Dreams And to what end is all this but by disgusting of the People at the ways of Providence set them a hankering after State-Wizzards again and Strange-Gods for the knowledge of things to come wherefore let me once again inculcate that of 27 Jer. Hearken not ye to your Prophets nor to your Diviners nor to your Dreamers which is the same with phansiers nor to your Inchanters nor to your Sorcerers which speak to you saying you shall not serve the King of Babylon Foâ— they Prophesie a Ly unto you to remove you far from your Land Let us for the Honour of our kind either live and act and reason like Men or else down upon all four and away into the Woods and Rocks and hunt and growl'd and tear one another to pieces like Beasts But we 'll discourse the matter a little Well! The English are certainly the Freest and the Happiest People upon the Face of the Earth Ay but we shall be all Slaves e're 't be long When 's that When the Popish Heir comes to the Crown Ay but when 's that again When the King is dead Well but when is the King to Dy Nay I cannot tell that How long has the Popish Heir to live I cannot tell that neither Will the Queen have any Children Nor that neither How long will the Queen live How should I know that Will the King survive her or not I cannot tell Will he Marry again if he does I cannot tell that neither Will he have any Children if he Marrys again Who knows But what if the Heir should not live to come to the Crown but it may be he may though And it may be he may not Ay but I PHANSY that he will Well! But suppose he should come to the Crown What then Why then he will set up Popery and Tyranny Not whether he can or no. Why how did Queen Mary She had the odds on her side for the Papists were then in a manner as the Protestants are now And yet coming in betwixt two Protestants Popery ye see went off as it came on But still there was a Persecution 'T is true there was but all Princes are not alike Q. Mary Persecuted the Protestants Henry the Fourth of France did not so And it is as good an inference from the instance of Henry IV. that the Popish Heir will not be a Persecutor as from that of Queen Mary that he will But where the Popes Authority intervenes both King and People are bound to obey And yet you see that for all the Power of the Pope and the Covenant of the Holy League to boot the People of France though Roman Catholiques would not submit to the Dis-possessing of a Protestant Successor neither did that generous Prince upon the Reconciling of himself afterward to the Church of Rome exercise any one act of Tyranny over his Protestant Subjects which is enough said upon this point Well but I PHANSY it will be Popery and Tyranny yet for all this Well! but to go a little further with you now suppose it should come to a down right Persecution Aye but we must stand upon our Guards to prevent it That would be more than ever the Primitive Christians did under the Ten Persecutions And we have not only their Example but their Express Doctrine against it And we are never the better Protestants for being the worse Christians So that here 's only Phansy set up in opposition to Religion Reason and Experience And That 's enough in all Conscience too For there needs no more then the Flames of a distemper'd Spleen to cause an Earth-quake in the Government What are Fears but Phansies What are Jealousies but Phansies What Original had they Phansies again And what was the Consequence of them Sum up the Sins and the Calamities of the worst of People and of Times Those Crimes and Those Miseries were the effect of Those Phansies They were Hag-ridden and Night-mar'd with Goblins and Apparitions and haunted in their Beds with the Images of those Visions and illusions which they had taken down from the Press and Pulpit waking The brave Strafford was a Sacrifice to the Phansy of Arbitrary Power and the Venerable Laud a Victim to the Phansy of Popery They Phansy'd AntiChrist in the Hierarchy the Rags of the Whore of Babylon in a Surplice Popery in the Common-Prayer the Sacrament of Baptism they phansy'd little better than an Exorcism the Lords Prayer well enough for a Christian Primer a School-boy Form that might do so so till People came to be better gifted When they had Phansy'd the Heads of these great men off their Shoulders the Bishops out of the House of Peers they went on Phansying still They Phansy'd Episcopacy out of the Nation and their Scotish Presbytery into it the Clergy out of
more gross than to talk of fighting for Religion or to pretend to the maintaining of that by Arms that is not liable to Violence Did ever any Man hear of a Religion that was either shot or cut Nor can there be any Confederacy or Association purely upon the score of Religion for how shall People agree to defend they know not what which is the very case when one Man undertakes for the Religion of another If our Religion be assaulted by Argument we may assert it by Redargution But when the Opposition advances into any over act the case is no longer Religion but Political Safety Beside that Government is Gods Ordinance for the common benefit of Human Society and of Pagans as well as of Christians without any regard to this or that Religion for Bedies Politique have no Consciences but every particular indeed stands or falls to his own Master I cannot but observe through what degrees the Character has advanced the Popish Successor First From the possibility of a good Man and then from bad to worse till he has made him fol. 14. a Corrupted Leprous Branch of Royalty and at next word a downright Traitor upon the Statutes of 23 and 13 of Queen Eliz. and another of Hen. 8. Fol. 15. This matter being as I am informed at present coram Judice I shall say no more to it than this that there are two Provisoes in the 5th of the Queen that make the Case somewhat different from what he has stated it As for Instance Provided alway that forasmuch as the Queens Majesty is otherwise sufficiently assured of the Faith and Loyalty of the Temporal Lords of Her High Court of Parliament Therefore this Act nor any thing therein contained shall not extend to compel any Temporal Person of or above the degree of a Baron of this Realm to take or pronounce the Oath abovesaid viz. of Supremacy nor to incur any Penalty limited by this Act for not taking or refusing the same c. II. Provided also that if any Peer of this Realm shall hereafter offend contrary to this Act or any Branch or Article thereof that in that and all such Case and Cases they shall be try'd by their Péers in such manner and form as in other Cases of Treasons they have used to be Tryed and by no other means It would be well if every Man that presses with this un-precedented rigour upon the Person here in question would lay his hand upon his heart and say if the King has pardoned me Teâ— Thousand times more than this comes to with what Reason or Conscience can I importune His Majesty thus bitterly against His Brother After all these Clamours about a Popish Successor I would fain know how it is possible for any Man to be other than a Papist in our present condition of Affairs A Church-of England-Man is a Papist to the Dissenters a Presbyterian and an Independent so one to another a Quaker to both and among the Eight Score several Sects of Heretiques and Schismatiques that Paget and others have reckoned up since Liberty of Conscience came in Fashion there are just so many sorts of Papists among them in the Opinion of one Sect or another He has a Paragraph fol. 15. where under the People of England he expounds himself to mean their Representatives which is a point I am not to touch upon Only I must confess he has drawn the Arrow to the Head in one expression in it Why should not they saith he the House of Commons be as active and vigorous for their own Royal Inheritance and Sacred Succession of Power as a King for His. What he means by this Royal inheritance and Sacred Succession of Power I shall remit to the Consideration of the Learned Bradshaw indeed pass'd a Sentence upon the Late King as a Traytor to the ROYALTY of the People But the strongest Argument for himself that I find in the whole Book is five or six Lines lower If ever a Papist mâ—unts this Throne says he then all their Murmurs their Petitions Protesting and Associating-Votes will be remembered to the purpose Now what can be a greater indignity to the Justice and Resolution of that Illustrious Body than to imagine that so narrow a thought could any way influence the Candour and Solemnity of their Debates He spends his sixteenth Page upon Instances out of Hen. VIII to prove the Succession of the English Crown to be wholly subjected to the Disposal Determinations and Limitations of Parliament How far his Assertion is right or wrong I shall not concern my self But however as he has ordered the matter it makes nothing at all for his purpose The Parliament he says 25 Hen. 8. settled the Crown upon the Heirs of that Kings body by Queen Ann and in the 28th Repealed that Act and Entailed the Succession upon the Heirs of his body by Queen Jane Mary and Elizabeth being declared Illegitimate And in Case he Died without Issue then the Parliament empowered him by the same Act to dispose of the Succession by his own Letters Patents or his Last Will. In the 35th Year of his Reign the Parliament granted the Succession to Edward and for want of Heirs of his Body to the Lady Mary and the Heirs of her body and for want of such Heirs to the Lady Elizabeth under certain Limitations and Conditions contained in that Act. From hence he infers that a Parliament may order and dispose of the Succession But whether they may or not here 's little or nothing prov'd from these Citations First under the ambiguity of the Word Parliament he would have this thought to be the single Act of the Lords and Commons when the Enacting Authority of it was solely in the King And yet he says expresly that Henry 8. was so far from submitting to Parliaments that he would never have complemented them with a power that was not their due If that power did belong to the Parliament what needed they the King's authority for the making of it good or to divest themselves of that power by transferring it to the King to dispose of the Reversion or Remainder of the Crown by his Will or Letters Patents to such person as he pleas'd Secondly These Statutes do not so properly transfer a Right as declare and notifie the persons for the prevention of disputes and competitions as appears by the Preamble to that of the 28th Wherefore We your most humble and obedient Subjects in this present Parliament Assembled calling to Our Remembrance the great Divisions which in Times past have been in this Realm by reason of several Titles pretended to the Imperial Crown of this Realm which some times and for the most part ensued by occasion of ambiguity and doubts then not so perfectly declared but that men might upon froward intents expound them to every mans sinister appetite and affection and posterity of the Lawful kings and Emperours of this Realm whereof hath ensued great effusion and destruction of Mans
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
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.