I am your King was a Supersedeas to all manner of humble Petitions and Remonstrances his Priests those fatal Scorpions he so hugg'd in his Bosom were the chief Incendiaries and contrary to our known Laws swarm'd over from Doway and St. Omers greedily gaping after Preferments which they needed not have wanted could his Will alone have placed them in Ecclefiastical Dignities they must be humbly content with Titular and Imaginary Bishopricks in Nubibus till the stubbern Hereticks who Enjoy'd 'em would at once part with their Reasons and their Livings together But the greatest occasion of his Arbitrary Government and the Aera from whence he may date all his late Misfortunes was his Friendship with the French King a right Son of Ishmael whose Hand is lifted up against every Man's and every Man 's against his a Man who has not one single Virtue to counterballance that prodigious stock of Vices which harbour in his Breast a Man who has built a Reputation upon the Ruins of his Neighbours Kingdoms and yet with this Gallick Nimrod did the Uunfortunate King James contract a most lasting Alliance I perceive I am stopt in my Assertion and a little Dabler in Politicks challenges me to prove the Contract 'T is true we cannot shew the Original Deed with their Signets and Names affixt to it but he must surely be Delivered over to Unbelief who cannot credit such Circumstances as serve to clear the matter from all doubt or hesitation Who Promoted the Marriage of the Duke with the Princess of Modena Who Defraid the Charges of her Journy and Paid the greatest part of her Fortune but the French King If this will not satisfie pray examine Coleman's Letter to Sir William Throgmorton the Duke 's then agent at the French Court where he tells him That when the Duke comes to be Master of our Affairs the King of France will have all reason to promise himself all that he can desire for according to the Dukes mind the Interest of the King of England the King of France and his Own are so closely bound up together that 't is impossible to separate them one from the other without the ruin of them all three but being joyned they must notwithstanding all opposition become Invincible There are other Letters between Mr. Coleman and Father le Chaise which carry such undeniable Marks of a Contract between King James when Duke of York and Louis le Grand that none but those Devested of common Sense can have reason to doubt it If this is not throughly convincing let any one consult the Memorial given in by Monsieur d' Avaux the French Embassador at the Hague Sept. 9th 1688 which if the curious Reader desire to see at length I refer him to the 1st Vol. of Mercurius Reformatus or the New Observator No. 5. wherein the Ingenuous Author of that Paper does prove it beyond all possibility of Contradiction There are several other Arguments as unquestionable as the former which for brevity's sake I omit And now 't is time to breath a while and consider what are the those Regal Virtues of which if a Prince has not a share he will hardly answer the expectations of his People nor the ends of Government they are generally recon'd to be Piety Prudence Justice and Valour but if his Piety degenerates into Biggottism his Prudence into unsteady Timerousness his Justice into acts of Cruelty and Severity and his Valour into Rashness and Obstinacy what ever his Flatterers may say of him yet certainly he is unfit to Govern Let the Reader apply the Character where he pleases and find a Crown'd Head whereon to fix these four Vices by another name call'd Virtues How much of the Comparison may fall to the King's share we know not but of his Bigottry Zeal or what other Name you please to his Religion I believe by this time the World wants not to be convinc'd for if for Arguments sake we should allow what we cannot believe viz. a Merit in Religious Actions certainly the late King has bid the fairest for Cononization after his Death of all the Crown'd Heads who have liv'd these two Centuries who would Sacrifice three Kingdoms to the Capricios of a Priest but be it unto him according to his Faith and indeed it is but just he should expect a Crown in Heaven if for its sake he has lost one on Earth This in a few Lines we have given the Character of a Bigotted unfortunate Prince But leaving him at his Devotions let us a little return homewards and observe a sort of Men who are so very Impatient under this Government that their very Looks express their Discontent they are as uneasy tho in the Sun-shine of Liberty as the Slaves at Algeirs are with their Chains they cannot take an Oath to a Government that will Protect 'em and nothing will ever satisfy them but the Return of their Old Master Good God! to what stupidity is Mankind arriv'd To dislike the most easy Government in the World to Espouse that which is the most Barbarous in its Nature A Government that in measures of Cruelty exceeds ev'n the most Savage Communities on the Coast of India A Government so debauch'd with false Religion that considering the Interest of Mankind and the ill usage it exposes Mens Persons and Fortunes to it could be almost wisht that such a Religion had never been known in the World In the name of Wonder what would these Gentlemen have They were many of them at least many pretended to be uneasy under the last when Popery and Arbitrary Government seem'd to come as an Armed Man and now they are almost beyond the possibility of such Fears they Murmur Of what Mercurial Temper are the English compos'd that they can never be setled Popery was once their Terrour and now that is remov'd they fear they know not what like Men in Feavers they are Restless in this Bed and when remov'd to another are as uneasy in that I appeal to any of them if the pressures that gawl their Shoulders either in their Persons or Fortunes was not brought upon themselves by their own perverse Obstinacy for which Conscience is still the pretence the Government would have them Live easy and enjoy their Estates and Preferments both Civil and Ecclesiastical nor would molest them while quiet they might sit under their Vines and under their Fig-Trees but they will not and if Men will turn themselves out of all in compliance to a humour who can help it It must be confest that when once the Persons of Kings grow Contemptible or little in the Eyes of their Subjects their smallest Miscarriages are Magnified to that degree as very often Terminates in their Ruin But there is an Errour on the other hand when the worst Actions of Princes shall be thought Innocent for according to some persons Creed a King can do no wrong and the belief of Passive Obedience is carried so high that even his Arbitrary Proceedings shall
be winkt at This is to exceed even the Arts of the Turkish Policy who pay not a greater Veneration of their Grand Signiors than some of our Zealots do to the late King they solemnly drink his Health upon their Knees and Pray for him in their Private Devotions affectionately nor do they forget him in the Publick Liturgies of the Church for every one knows the secret Mystery of Bless and Protect the King our Governour To be short nothing will serve them but his Return to Redeem them out of their imaginary Bondage for this they Wish for this they Pray Nay the Jews themselves do not at this day with greater impatience and mistaken Zeal expect the coming of the Messias than these kind of Men do for the Restauration of King James to his Crown and Dignity Let us therefore a little examin what specious Pretences they have for such an Ambition and tho indeed they are as shy of Revealing the Secret as they would be of a Fairy Treasure yet by some expressions occasionally dropt in Conversation 't is not very hard to Conjecture some of them As first they are great pretenders to Moral Justice they say King James had a great deal of Wrong done him and being their Soveraign Prince they are Obliged to see him Righted Are they so but who gave them the Commission Their Conscience they will tell you but their Conscience is so great a Riddle that it will never be Expounded their Conscience would have King James in his Throne again tho never so much Bloodshed and Miseries might ensue their fondness to his Person closes their Eyes and stops their Ears to all the Calamities their fellow Subjects must necessarily suffer by such a Revolution nay this very Conscience of theirs was one of the chief occasions which prompted the late King to commit those Arbitrary Actions in his shortliv'd Reign they told him he might do what he pleas'd and for his Actions was accuntable to none but God tho he should turn upside-down our Laws Religion and Liberties and that we were tamely to submit our Necks to the Blow when ever he should Command it in spite of Laws tho it were in the Power of our Hands to save our selves by a just Defence No wonder then upon such considerations as these and prompted by the Native Cruelty of his own Religion he permitted those unaccountable Actions to be committed and he is as much beholding to those fiery sticklers for the loss of his Crown as he was to Father Pretre's and other Jesuetick Advice It is the Nature of Mankind to covet Liberty and to have all things about them easy and free Now I would ask these Gentlemen what greater Freedom they can expect were their beloved Prince Reinstated in his Throne again than what they now Enjoy Are not their Fortunes secur'd to them by the best Laws in the World Who goes about to Invade their Properties or devest them of their Estates Yes they Reply some Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Persons have lost their Livings and Means of Subsistence because Yes the Because is very well known because they cannot take the Oaths It would have been wisht that those Reverend Persons would have Inform'd the World with the Reasons of their Non-compliance which might have regulated the unthinking minds of some of their Bigotted Followers who out-do even the Votaries of the Church of Rome in an Implicit Faith and believe 't is not Lawful for them to Swear to the Government because Dr. such a one refuses the Oaths A very pretty conclusion but allowing it to be Conscience in their own acceptation I believe when Humour Prejudice and some other niceties are separated from it the thing call'd Conscience will appear in this Case but an Airy Notion Some of the most Moderate of them I confess who are great Lovers of the late King could wish him here again without the Assistance of the French but if their Faith was but as strong and powerful as their Hopes they might certainly remove Mountains and joyn the Alps to St. Michaels-Mount in Cornwall but these are Wishes as Improbable as they are Impossible to be Effected for you may as easily separate Heat from Fire or Moisture from Water as divide the Interests of King James from those of Lewis the Fourteenth no no like Hippocrates his Twins they must Live and Dye together and therefore these sort of Men deserve rather our Pity than our Laughter But there are another sort who will have their Old Master return again though by never such indirect Means and are as glad when they hear of the Success of the French Arms as they would be to Receive the News of the Death of some Decrepid Relation of theirs who by his Exit leaves them a plentiful Estate And let Mons and Flanders Savoy and all the Confederate Countries be reduc'd to heaps of Ruins so their Dear King may come to his Throne again though he Enter'd the City of London with Luxemburgh and Boufflers at the Head of fifty Thousand French Dragoons These are hopeful Protestants i'faith blessed Reformers and Defenders of the Christian Church fresh Straw and a dark Chamber cooling Purges Leeches and Blood-letting are only fit for such as these they are Mad beyond the cure of Hellebore But because it is necessary sometimes to Answer a Fool according to his Folly Let us ask 'em what mighty Mischiefs have the Dukes of Savoy and Bavaria the Electors of Brandenburgh Mentz and Cologne the Emperour of Germany the King of Spain and the United Provinces done these Gentlemen that they are so mighty Angry with them and could wish the Sculls of all their Subjects were to Pave the way for King James his Accession to ae forfeited Throne how came these involv'd in the Quarrel must King James his supposed Right like Pharoah's Lean Kine swallow up all other Princes Properties What has he done to be so much the Darling of Mankind that other Mens Glories must be Ecclips'd to make his Glimmering Rays shine the Brighter Are great Britain France and Ireland to be the only Goshen and must there be Darkness all over Europe besides These Men are a most strange sort of Political Predestinarians who will allow no Peace nor Plenty to any but their Master and his Friends and it is hard to be determin'd whether Folly or Madness has the greatest share in the Composition of their Hopes All Pity and Humanity to their fellow Creatures is laid aside and they seem to exceed the Indian Cannibals in acts of Cruelty for how severe they may be to Strangers they yet seldom Devour those of their own Tribe no Man that hears 'em Discourse can certainly keep within the bounds of Moderation for who ever has the patience to hear their Arguments will certainly expect better Reasons in Bedlam from the Lucida Intervalla of a Lunatick The Love of ones Country was ever by the most Polite Nations esteem'd as the Characteristical mark of a Noble
Soul and Vincit Amor Patriae seem'd to be Written in indelible Marks upon their Breasts for this the ancient Greeks and Romans were Famous Remarkable to this purpose is the Relation Livy gives us of Curtius a Noble Roman who when the Earth was sunk with a wide Gap in the Middle of the Forum and it was told it would not come together again unless some Prime young Nobleman were put into it he to Deliver his Country mounted on Horse-back Rode into the Gaping Chasma But we on the contrary have a sort of Men amongst us who would gladly see their Native Soyl over-run with a knot of Villains to gratifie one Mans Lust of Power on the one hand and their unaccountable Humour on the other I would fain ask them supposing the possibility of such Success whether the French Arms are so well bred as to distinguish them from the rest of the English Sufferers by such a Revolution to which that of the Goths and Vandals in Italy was but a civil Visit I fear like Tarpeia the Vestal Virgin who Covenanted with the Sabines to betray the Capitol to them for what they wore on their left Arms but when they were Entred into of Bracelets which she intended they threw their Targets upon her and Pressed her to Death so would these very Men Suffer in the Common Calamity for the French as well as other Nations agree in this That though they Love the Treason they Hate the Traytors To Invert a little the Words of Mr. Dryden to the Reader before his Poem of Absalom and Achitophel Every Man is a Knave or an Ass on the Contrary Side and there 's a Treasury of Merits in Sam 's Coffee-House as well as in Richard's at the Temple but the longest Chapter in Deuteronomy has not Curses enough for well-wishers to the French It was the Speech of a Moderate Gentleman in the Long Parliament when the Faction in the House of Commons was high against the Bishops and the Establish'd Church Gentlemen says he let us see the Model of your New intended Superstructure before you pull down the Old one If we should ask some of these Fiery Bigots for the Interest of the late King what Advantages they can propose to themselves by his Return unless like the unrewarded poor expecting Caviliers at the Restauration of King Charles the Second they can be content to be Loyal and Starve for if the latter end of King James his imaginary Reign should be of a piece with his first real beginning he will still neglect his truest Friends and stick close to Flattering Enemies With so deep a Root has the Advice of a Chancellor about the year 1660 still remain'd in the Breasts of the Princes Oblige your Enemies and your Friends will be true to your Interest But I have wandred from my Subject by a long but I hope not very Impertinent Digression and therefore asking my Reader 's Pardon return to my Subject or rather the Applicatory part of it We have seen the Character of the Prince and his Bigotted followers And as all things are best set off by Examples let us now draw a Parallel or Landscape of the two different Complexions of the Reigns of King William and Queen Mary and King James and what we are unavoidably to Expect should Almighty God in the Course of his Providence for our Punishment and the gratification of some restless Spirits bring King James to his Throne again Of the Ease and Tranquility of the first we are certain but of the Horrour of the latter the most terrible Ideas we can form of it in our Imaginations will come short of the Life for as the safety we now enjoy almost exceeds our Hopes so the Stripes we must then feel will transcend our very Fears In the Person of the King we have a Prince who is truly what the Historian says of Titus Humani generis Deliciae who has centred in his Person all the Valour and Wisdom of his Ancestors A Prince so truly Great that those Lawrels which add such Lustre to anothers Brow look but faintly on His He needing no additional Varnish to set off His Native Goodness A Prince Born to be the Arbiter of Christendom whom all the Crown'd Heads and States of Europe Adore as the only Person who must break the Jaws of the French Leviathan Not the greatest Dangers which so terrify pusilanimous minds can at all move Him who caring not for an inactive inglorious Greatness expos'd his Sacred Person to Rescue these ungrateful Kingdoms from the moct insupportable Tyranny of Arbitrary Power since which in Ireland he gave most Invincible Proofs both of his Courage and Conduct the United Force of Europe could not concert their Measures against France till his Presence Influenced their Counsels at the Hague to which he went through a thousand Perils at Sea after a short Return He is now gone again to Flanders to head that Prodigious Army Victory seems to accompany him in Attempts of War and his worst Enemies must own him to have the very Soul of Courage In the Person of the Queen we have a Second Queen Elizabeth but with respect to her Sacred Ashes we may say the Copy far exceeds the Original Never did a Crown'd Lady shew more Conduct and Magnanimity than when the French Fleet was upon our Coast when her Illustrious Husband was Fighting in Ireland A Princess whose thousand Charms make her fit to Rule and Command even Respect from her very Enemies if any such there are her Majesty is Temper'd with so much Mildness that at the same time she neither invites nor forbids Access the Glory of her own Sex and the Admiration of ours Under these two Illustrious Persons is England c. at this time Govern'd by the most exact Laws that ever were made the Prerogative of the King not Dominating over the Priviledges of the People the Church of England Flourishes not withstanding the Peevishness of some of her Votaries and the Dissenters enjoy their Liberty of Conscience without Design The great Blessing of this Nation viz. the Parliament does frequently Meet and their Votes are Unanimous for Supplies for the Nations Good The Taxes by them Levied are excepting by some few discontented Spirits willingly Paid and the People satisfied that their Mony is Employ'd for the uses intended not Lavishly and Unaccountably thrown away on Pensioners c. every Man enjoys his Plentiful or Competent Fortune with all the freedom Imaginable no Tricks are made use of to Decoy us into Slavery from the very Prospect of which the King designs by his utmost Endeavours to free us by appearing himself in Person at the Head of the Confederate Army in opposition to the Power of France He designing to Rescue the Glory of the English Nation from that Stupidity the Luxury and Effeminacy of the late Reigns had obscur'd it with and we have nothing to render us unhappy but our own groundless Fears and Jealousies in which