before by the Dignity of the Person against whom it is committed and by the Transcendent Worth or Value of the Right or Property you would so Unjustly Rob or spoyl him of This great evil you do that good may come therefore if you will believe the Apostle without Repentance your Doom is Damnation the Dreadful but yet as he calls it Just Sentence which you are to expect from the Righteous Judg who is no respecter of Persons but perfectly hates and will severely Punish all Wilful and Presumptuous Sin in all the Actors of it be they Publick or Private Persons in Authority or not whatever they be if they do Unjustly the Vengeance of God will be sure to pursue and overtake them The Distinction of Papist and Protestant make no difference in the Case if a Papist do any Wicked or Unjust thing invade the Estate Assasinate or take away the Life of any Protestant as an Heretick though it be done with an Intention that good may come or accrue to the Catholick cause by it still he is a Thief and a Murderer and therefore the Just God will Inflict the most Dreadful Punishment or Damnation upon him And if on the other side any Protestant or Company of Protestants for the preventing of Popery do Injury to or Unjustly deprive any Papist of his Right and Property as an Idolater that or those Protestants notwithstanding the good end they propound to themselves in it are Injurious and Oppressors and must look that the Vengeance of God will come upon them here and that without Repentance their Portion will be amongst the Unjust hereafter And if there be any odds in the guilt it is on the Protestants side such an one thus offending being more inexcusable than a Papist because he hath better means of Instruction for he hath the Holy Scriptures in a Language he understands to shew him the Right Pathes the ways of Justice and Honesty and he acknowledges them to be the sole Rule by which he is to order and conduct his Life and Actions and therefore if he do any Unjust thing he hath no Apology nor Excuse for it But most Papists are deprived of this advantage they have not the Scriptures in a Language they understand and therefore are not so well Instructed in the Duty that God requires of them neither do they own them to be their Rule without Traditions or the Unwritten Word of God which their Guides have both the Keeping and Expounding of and therefore they may easily be Impos'd upon told that is Just or a Part of their Duty which is quite contrary to it and so offend Ignorantly which doth something extenuate or lessen their Guilt Supposing then what you take for granted that your Bill to set aside the Duke would be for the good of the Nation yet it being absolutely Unjust and Sinful it is to do evil that good may come and therefore if St. Paul say true justly Damnable But what if you be mistaken What if it be not for the good but the injury and hurt the mischief and Ruin of the Nation If thus then you do Evil no good comes of it commit a great Sin to your own Eternal and the Peoples Temporal Ruin and Destruction so that instead of Blessing Praising they will have Just Cause to Revile and Curse you for it For let us suppose your Bill of Exclusion passed into a Law and his Royal Highness thereby deprived as far as that can do it of his Right Will he sit down patiently under so great an Injury I believe him so Brave and Just a Prince that such a Wrong though it would be a mighty Temptation could not provoke him to cast off either his Affection or Allegiance to the King but yet if the Duke be as you suppose him a Papist it would exasperate all the Roman Catholicks against the King excite their Rage prompt them to Revenge the Injury done to a Prince of their Religion make them Desperate watch all Opportunities try all ways to Assasinate and Destroy him We see to our Horrour and Amazement how the Kings most Just Refusal to consent to that Impious Project of Exclusion hath Irritated the Zealous Faction blown up their Rage and Malice to that Damnable height that they had design'd a more Dreadful Exclusion to send the King himself and his Royal Brother out of the World by a most Cruel and Barbarous Death that what their Wicked Votes could not their Murdering Bullets should Effect had not the Watchful Providence and the Adorable Goodness of our God Preserved the Royal Victims appointed for the Slaughter and by a mighty hand Rescued them from the Snare and the Ruin laid for them and I take his Majesties Deliverance from this Hellish Conspiracy as a Remarkable Token of Gods Approbation and Reward of his Royal Justice and Integrity in Refusing the Bill And if the Kings just denying his assent to it could so provoke and inrage the admirers of it against him how would the passing of it have Irritated and Rows'd the Romish Faction Would they not have fill'd Heaven and Earth with Complaints of and Outcries against it Have Publish'd Invectives and Proclaim'd the Wickedness of it to all the Christian World to the perpetual Reproach and Dishonour of our Nation nay have meditated Revenge enter'd into the most Dangerous Confederacies and took Counsel together to Destroy the King for to such Black and Cursed attempts as these they are God knows too Prone and Inclin'd when they have no Just Provocation given them to Instigate or Prompt them thereunto But this in their Apprehension would have Justifi'd all manner of Treasons and Conspiracies made them not only Lawful but in the highest Degree Meritorious they would have thought they did God the best and most acceptable Service when they cut off so Unjust a Prince who was so Cruel and Injurious as to deprive his own nay his only Brother of so great and undoubted a Right 'T is certain this would have put them upon frequent Treasons and Attempts against the King and who knows but it might have provoked that God who Loveth Righteousness and hateth Iniquity or Unjust Dealing if not more yet at least as much in Princes as other Men to withdraw his Watchful Providence and Gracious Protection from him to dismiss that Guard of Angells which have hitherto Defended his Sacred Person and most Precious Life from all those Bloudy Villains of what Sect or Profession soever that have Ventured to Attempt any thing against it So that your Bill of Exclusion instead of Preserving would have Indangered the King instead of being a Safe-guard and Defence to him would have exposed his most Sacred Majesty to Popish Rage and Cruelty nay which is Infinitely more Dreadful to the Divine Anger or Displeasure And being not for the Safety of the King it cannot be for the good of the People Besides as it would be the Mother of Secret Conspiracies so in all Probability
Vertues they are fitter for our silent Admiration than our imperfect and unequal Praises never any Mortal approach'd nearer to Him who was more than Man even God manifest in the Flesh whilst he Lived he was a Saint upon Earth and dying was number'd amongst the prime Saints in Heaven His Enemies were such as are always Enemies to God and all goodness that is the Devil and his Agents and they that deposed and took away his precious Life would have done the same execrable Violence and Injury to the Son of God himself if he had fallen into their Barbarous and Bloody Hands And our present most Gracious Soveraign is equal to any of his Renowned Ancestors in the Princely Vertues of Wisdom Fortitude Justice Mercy Peacefulness and the admirable sweetness and goodness of his Temper So that I may Challenge all the World to shew me four such Princes one after another in any Elective Monarchy so Zealous Defenders of the true Religion so Tender of their Subjects Welfare such Bountiful Patrons and Benefactors to them that they did what they could to preserve them in Peace Piety and Plenty And if in any of their Reigns any of the People Suffer'd and were Miserable it was not the Princes Injustice that made them so but either their own or their fellow Subjects Stubbornness Disobedience and Turbulent or Ungovernable Temper that brought Calamity and Ruin upon them And seeing Elective Princes have more and greater Temptations to Oppress and Injure their Subjects than those that are Successive the Elective must needs be the worst sort of Monarchy And it is so Secondly because exposed to manifold Factions Discontents Quarrels and Dangers We see to what Heats Factions and Disorders far inferiour Elections are subject that they who are to chuse a Parliament Man for a County or a Burgess for a Corporation cannot all Agtee or Fix upon a Person but Run into Parties and Factions one side being fierce and eager for one Man and the other for another till they grow angry and inraged hate and revile one another proceed from words to blows and would break out into open Hostility were there not a Superiour Authority to which they are accountable for such disorders and therefore stand in awe of How much more apt to Feuds and Quarrels to Factions and Discontents may they be reasonably supposed to be that have the Disposal of such a Jewel as a Crown and whose Votes are of that moment and concern as to confer so precious and by all admired a Treasure as a Kingdom and have none to awe or pacifie them the Electors during the Interregnum being the chief and most courted Persons of the Kingdom and may unless limited by Law Protract or Spin out the Election as long as they please and accordingly as they are Byassed by Affection or Interest which may be of Dangerous Consequence to the Kingdom For if any Neighbouring Prince prompted either by his Ambition or provoked by Injuries formerly receiv'd take that Opportunity to Invade them whilst they are debating and quarrelling amongst themselves who shall be King they are in all probability surpris'd and ruin'd for either they must agree and finish the Election presently which the Prince that invades may easily prevent by bribing some of the Electors or else they must imploy some great Person to defend the Kingdom till they have done it He if he succeeds in his Expedition and beats the Invader out if he be not Elected King calls them Ungrateful thinks himself affronted his good Service slighted or contemned having the Army under his Command may easily work upon them by gifts at present and promises of doing great things for them afterwards to afford him their Assistance to make him King by which means the Kingdom is imbroyl'd stain'd with the Blood made miserable by the Slaughter and Destruction of the Inhabitants by the Ruin of Cities and Vastation or Spoyl of Provinces But if on the other side the Electors chuse him King then the other Grandees are discontented and think they have the greatest injury done them every one of them in his own Opinion esteeming himself at least as deserving or worthy of a Crown as the Prince Elected and therefore to revenge the contempt put upon them either break out into Rebellion or invite the Invader to return with offer of their assistance to possess him of the Kingdom So that between Forreign Force and Domestick Ambition and Discontent the poor People endure all the Calamities of War and linger out a tedious Life made so by frequent Oppressions Terrours and Discontents And as the People are miserable in Elective Monarchies so the Prince is unsafe for there is nothing that great Spirits are more Ambitious of than a Crown and the Cardinals cannot possibly be more weary of a long Lived Pope than most of the Grandees in an Elective Kingdom hate a long lived Prince the reason is plain because the Crown not being peculiar or appropriate to any one Family the more frequent Vacancies there are the greater hopes they have of being Elected which is a mighty Temptation to Ambitious and Designing Men to use all the Villanous and Accursed Arts they can by Poyson and other secret ways to Destroy or Take off the Prince that they may fill his Throne whom they have by the basest and most perfidious cruelty deprived of his Life and Kingdom The last King of Poland lay under great Fears and Apprehensions that he should be Poyson'd and his Suspitions of it were so strong and vehement that all the Arguments his Friends could use could not put them out of his Thoughts what reason he had for those fears I know not nor can I tell whether his Death was procured by such detestable means or no but sure I am that many think such execrable things lawful Regnandi causa to possess themselves of Empire and Soveraignty and there is the greatest temptation to practice them in Elective Monarchies because upon the decease of the Prince Reigning every great Person in the Kingdom flatters himself with hopes of Succeeding him But the Successive Monarchies are freer from all these Evils and Dangers for upon the Death of the Royal Father his Son if he have any or else the next of the Family is King which makes our Law say the King never Dies because upon the Decease of one the next Heir is immediately King the Ceremonies of Crowning and Anoynting do not confer the Royal Dignity upon him but only declare him to be what he was as soon as his Predecessor was dead that is King are no more but signs expressing to the People that he is the person ordain'd by God to Govern or Rule over them and to whom he requires them to pay all due Honour Loyalty and Obedience By this immediate Succession all those Factions are avoided which often prove mischievous and Ruinous to the People so are all the Dangers Miseries which attend an Interregnum that may happen in the
which horrid Conspiracy being by the goodness of God discover'd the Church party to preserve the King their Religion their Lives and Estates from the Rapine Oppression and Cruelty of that Faction slighting all other means of safety should resolve upon this as the only sure Expedient for that end to Exclude the Fanatick Successor In this Case he by becoming their Convert intended only to save his Soul or go the right way to Heaven but the wicked Faction thinking they should never have such an opportunity again to set up their Discipline and way of Worship took encouragement though he meant to give them none from his joyning himself to them to Plot the Death of the King and the Destruction of the Church I demand then if it would be just for this reason to Exclude this Prince How would the Faction take it Would not their mouthes be Open'd and their pens Sharpen'd against the Authors and Promoters of such a Bill of Exclusion Would they not Fill Heaven and Earth with complaints and cries against such Injustice and Injury done to a Prince of their Perswasion no doubt they would why then do they offer that hard measure to a Prince of another that they would not have done to one of their own Church For if it be unjust to Exclude the Fanatick it must be equally so to Disinherit the Popish Successor because he no more intended by turning Papist to encourage his Party to Conspire against the King than the other by turning Fanatick design'd to animate his Party to the like wicked attempt So that to Exclude his Royal Highness for this reason because his being as they suppose a Papist hath encouraged the Papists to conspire the destruction of our King and Church is most unjust because as I observ'd before it is to punish and that most severely the Innocent for the Guilty to ruin one man for the Sins of others For that he intended by turning Papist if he be so to encourage that Faction to attempt such execrable things as it cannot be proved because 't is known to none but the great searcher of Hearts so it is the highest and most horrid uncharitableness to suppose that the Duke in defiance to God common Honesty natural Affection every thing that is Great Good and Just should turn Papist on purpose to prompt and exite that Faction to murder his Royal Brother that he might Fill his Throne They that harbour such black thoughts of a Prince so Just in all his other actions and so great a lover of the King as he is known to be must needs be odious to God his Angels and Saints in Heaven and to all good Men upon Earth and without such a purpose or intention their taking Encouragement from his being a Convert to their Church to conspire the Destruction of the King and our Religion doth not cannot make him justly punishable Their other Pleas and Arguments for this Project of Exclusion I have Consider'd in the Discourse it self and given I suppose full and rational answers to them If any where my pen hath slipt I hope Reader thou wilt be either so ingenious as to pass it by or so charitable as to shew me my mistake that I may reform it for I am none of those stiff and obstinate people that resolve to adhere pertinaciously to their own Sentiments or Opinions be they right or wrong but shall ever account it a greater glory to amend an Errour than to be able to defend it One favour more I beg of all my Readers which they cannot well deny me that they will please to read the whole Discourse before they pass Sentence upon it because that which may look like an Objection in one place may be answer'd or taken off in another I have no more to add but my hearty Prayers to Allmighty God that he will graciously please to lead us all into the Pathes of Peace Piety and Loyalty that we may be happy now and blessed for ever Amen The Grand Expedient FOR Suppressing POPERY Examined OR The PROJECT of EXCLUSION Proved to be contrary to Reason and Religion WHen great and extraordinary dangers steal upon People and give them no notice or warning at all of their approach they produce in them strange Disorder and Confusion of Mind a mighty Tumult or Hurry of Thoughts then as the Psalmist speaks of men tossed in an angry and tempestuous Sea they are at their Wits ends and know not what to do fain they would according to the dictate and inclination of nature preserve themselves decline the impending evil and the danger which approacheth them with an Aspect so menacing or full of terrour and thâ— first Act of their mind upon the apprehension of it is to decree and determine that it must be avoided this is so great an evil that we cannot bear it if it comes we are undone it doth certainly bring ruine and destruction along with it therefore we must and will if it be possible prevent or stay its approach block up all the avenues and ways by which it may make its passage to us Whilst they thus resolve every thing that offers it self as a means of safety and comes with fair pretences of security is welcome and receiv'd with all expressions of love and joy they applaud and hug it as their Friend and Deliverer and their minds are so pleased transported with it that they are not at leisure to consider whether it be just and lawful whether God and his law allow them to preserve themselves by such means to enquire whether the safety it offers them at present be not attended with more and greater dangers hereafter Whether that which they resolve upon as a means to save them now be not inconsistent with their eternal happiness and such as will ruine or destroy them for ever For if either Reason or Religion might be heard they would satisfie and convince men what a wild attempt it is to decline temporal dangers by such ways as lead to eternal miseries to make use of such Arts to save them from suffering here as will expose them to the wrath and vengeance of God hereafter that no evil unjust or wicked thing is to be done though according to the rules of humane policy it might preserve and secure us at present because it is of infinite hazard to our Souls and will be their eternal undoing When we can by fair and innocent ways provide for our safety we are unjust to our selves if we do it not but when these fail and we are reduced to a sad necessity either to Sin or Suffer if we chuse rather to sin then suffer we are prophane and wicked have no Religion nor Fear of God But in great dangers there is no room for such thoughts or considerations as these but every thing by some People is accounted good and lawful or however excusable that promiseth safety and security and when their Religion their Lives and Estates either are or are
fifth Commandment taught that it is their Duty to Honour and Obey the King and all that are in Authority under him Every time they come to Prayers the Loyal Supplications Intercessions and upon special occasions Thanksgivings of our excellent Liturgy for the King and the Royal Family and the Inferiour Magistrates remind the People of the true Obedience and Subjection they owe and must pay to them and humbly beseech Almighty God to give them Grace to do it If they read the Pious and Venerable Homilies of our Church there theâ— Divine Original and Institution of Kings is fully proved the necessity of Obedience demonstrated the horrid guilt the dreadful mischiefs the woful Calamities of Rebellion explicated and detected the heavy Wrath and Vengeance of God upon Rebels and Traytors in this World and the horrible Damnation that attends them when they pass from hence Faithfully represented and described in a most Lively manner that all who Read them may Heartily abhor and carefully avoid so execrable a wickedness Nor doth the Loyalty of our Church lye Dead in the Books and Writings of it but Lives and Reigns in the Hearts of all the true Members of it and exerts or shews its Life and Vigour in their undaunted Courage Resolution and readiness to stand by and defend the Sacred Person Honour and Authority of their Prince against all that dare be so impudent and wicked as to assault the first to impair the second or to infringe the third I challenge all the World to shew me one true Member of our Church that so long as he continued so was found guilty of any Disloyal Practices No so far are they from that that the numbers cannot soon nor easily be told that have Sacrifiz'd their Lives Estates every thing that was dear to them in the Cause and Service of their Prince His and their Enemies could and did in the late times Deprive them of their Liberty Plunder them of their Goods Sequester their Estates strip them of all things else but their Loyalty they could not take from them this they preserv'd pure and untainted in the midst of all the Oppressions Cruelties and ill Usage they endured and when they were permitted to Live no longer to give any farther Testimonies of it bequeath'd it as the Choicest and Richest Legacy to their Off-spring Descendents nay by their true Christian Patience and Undaunted Courage at their Death a Glorious Death to them to which they were Condemn'd for serving their Prince did Recommend it to many that came to see them Dye A Loyalty not Limited or Conditional that Dyes if it be not cherish'd and kept alive by the Princes peculiar Favour and Bounty and continues no longer then he Pleases and Humours them but absolute and inconditional that cannot be shaken nor removed by any wrongs or ill usage but is the same when he Frowns upon as when he Favours them If he Oppress them in their Estates they Submit if he cause the Sentence of Death to be unjustly pass'd upon them they refuse not to Dye nay do it with the Meekness Patience and Charity of the Primitive Martyrs they will not lift up their Hands nor open their Mouths against him let him use them as he pleaseth The Fires of Queen Mary could not consume nor burn up their Loyalty nor scare them from their Allegiance she had never gain'd the Crown if the Loyal Protestants had not assisted her and the great Opposer of her Advancement to the Royal throne was the Duke of Northumberland who though he pretended to be a Protestant yet was really a Papist for so he declared himself to be upon the Scaffold at his Death Such a People make a Prince happy are his greatest Safety and Security and nothing but a guard of Angels from Heaven can be a better defence to him which by their Pious and Holy Prayers they are careful to call down to Protect him that no harm nor danger may happen to him And being sure by continuing in our Church to have such a Loyal Obedient People if the Crown should descend to him what Reason Motive or Inducement could his Royal Highness have to forsake it and joyn himself to the Papists People that are Infamous all the World over for Killing Kings Plotting Treasons Raising Seditions and Rebellions against them That are Obedient to their Prince no longer then he is a Slave to the Pope for how often did they Mutiny make Insurrections and Rebellions against King Henry the Eighth for renouncing and casting off the Popes Usurped Authority and resuming the Supremacy which belong'd to him by Divine Right as a Soveraign Prince Though he was a Zealous Professor and maintainer of the Romish Religion yet he was Alarum'd by frequent Tumults and Seditions and his owning that could not keep the Catholicks so they call themselves in Obedience to him unless he would be altogether a Slave to him that pretended to be the prime Minister of it And though a Prince Study to Please and Humour them all he can yet their Loyalty must needs be very fickle and precarious because the People of the Romish Communion have a mighty Dependence upon and are wholly at the Devotion of the Clergy and the Clergy are exempted from the Princes Jurisdiction and Sworn Subjects to the Pope The People are wholly at the Devotion of the Clergy who manage and govern them at their Pleasure and they must needs be so because they believe they can forgive their Sins absolutely whilst they Live and pray them out of Purgatory when they are Dead by forcing them to come to Confession they have Opportunity to know all their Errours Sins and Follies nay all their Thoughts Purposes and Intentions which renders them very Subject and Dependent Their Power also of Inflicting Penances and denying them Absolution if they do not please humour them keeps the People in great Slavery to their Priests because they think God will not if they do not forgive them so that the People are absolute Slaves to them and do every thing they require of them And the Clergy that thus Govern the People are wholly at the Popes Devotion they own him for their Lord and Master Swear Obedience to and depend upon him as their great Patron and Benefactor all their Preferments being if not in his Donation yet such as depend upon his Approbation and Confirmation so that if they do not receive them from his Bounty yet they Injoy them by his Favour which is Tantamount This makes them flatter and adore him as the chief if not sole Monarch and despise their Prince as an underling or meer Cypher that signifies nothing And at every little quarrel or disgust between his Holiness and him the Prince is sure to feel the sad effects of their Power with the People either in the Disturbance they cause in the State or the attempts they make upon his Person for if they cannot run him down with the pretence and
the most Moderate Pious and Conscientious Men but despise censure and withdraw from the strict Conformists as violent and Superstitious Persons Popishly Affected but when they all agree or joyn in the Observation of them not only speak the same thing preach the same doctrine profess the same Faith Worship God with the same Prayers the Holy Prayers of our Incomparable Liturgy use the same Rites Gestures Vestments in the Administration of the Blessed Sacraments all their Holy Offices walk all of them by the same Rule This will satisfie the People of their Unity or Agreement and convince them of the Innocency and Lawfulness of the things which so many Learned Grave and Pious Men concur in the Practice of But then all Wise or Intelligent Persons will readily apprehend that this general Conformity will very difficulty if at all be effected unless the Clergy be put into such a Condition as to have no Dependance upon the People for their Maintenance and Support Many of the Clergy by reason of the poorness of their Benefices are greatly tempted if not constrain'd to humour and comply with the People to Preach such things as they Love to hear and to omit such as they dislike that they may not loose their Benevolence and Contributions without which they cannot Live nor is this the Condition of some Country Villages only but also of great and Populous Towns in which there are Swarms of People that Dissent from and are Enemies to the Church of England and such a poor Stipend for the Clergy the Tyths being impropriare and in Lay Hands that they are forced in a manner to turn the Church Assemblies into Conventicles and the poor Vicar or Curate dares not for his Ears Read all the Prayers nor wear the Surplice nor which is abundantly worse reprove the Irreverence and Rude Behaviour they are guilty of in the House and Service of the great God nor shew them the Sinfulness of their Schism nor the Wickedness of their Murmurs Complaints and Tumults against the Government nor Preach up Loyalty put them in mind fully and effectually to be Subject or Obedient to the King and all that are in Authority under him all that the most Couragious Person under such unhappy Circumstances dares venture to do in these great and for the present Age most necessary points is but to touch at them in transitu as he passes to other things as I have heard some do in London it self or as the Dogs at the River Nilus only lap and away for fear of being snap'd by the Crocodiles for if these things be press'd and insisted on the Preacher disobliges the Fanatick party and drys up all the Streams and Emanations of their Bounty they will not receive him into their Houses nor bid him God Speed and 't is well if he scape so do not feel the weight of their Protestant Flayls This is a great Injury both to the Church and State abates the Honour and Esteem of the Clergy and renders them less Serviceable to the Government than they must would be if they had a Liberal and Honourable maintenance and such as depends not upon the pleasure and Benevolence of the People but such as they may demand of them as their Right not receive as their Almes which they may give them if they please and deny them if they think fit These things in my Judgment which I humbly submit to all those great and wise Persons that are in Authority added to the Just Correction which the Laws inflict upon them would in a short time awaken and reduce those of our People that are gone out from us effect such a Blessed change in them that they would return to their Loyalty to the King and to the Communion of the Church And seeing all the true Members of the Church of England are Eminently Loyal already and those of our People that are otherwise at present may in time by these means be made so 't is against the Dukes Interest and Happiness if the Crown devolve upon him to be a Papist because this would be to exchange good Subjects for bad a Loyal People that own no Prince but him for such as have been guilty of frequent Treasons and are profess'd Subjects to a Forreign Power And next to his own honour safety and happiness Subsect 3. all that a Prince can desire in this World is the Welfare and Felicity of his People And then it is well with any People and they are happy when they Live in Piety and Peace and Safety are encouraged and required to profess and practice the true Religion and to Worship God Aright that is according to the the Scriptures When they are protected in their Estates from Rapine and Oppression and in their Persons from Violence and Cruelty Blessed are the People that are in such a Case And it is both the Duty and Glory of the Prince to provide or take Care that this be the Condition of his People or Subjects His Duty because this is the great end of Government and the prime Reason of Gods Investing him with the Royal Authority When David was Psalm 78 71. chosen by God to be King of Israel it is said That he took him to feed Jacob his People and Israel his Inheritance To seed that is protect and preserve them from mischief and Injury not to Worry or Devour to Destroy or Hurt but to Defend them from harm and violence And because he had been so to them and they hoped he would have Lived long to be so to them still they bitterly lamented the Death of good King Josiah saying The Breath of our Nostrils the Anoynted of the Lord was Lamen 4. 20. taken in their Pits of whom we said under his shadow we shall Live among the Heathen he was a shadow and defence to us under his protection we were safe and guarded from all our Enemies This is also asserted by St. Paul Rulers are not a Terrour to good works but to the Rom 13. 3 4. Evil They are not so in the purpose or intention of God were not instituted or ordain'd by him for such an evil unjust and unworthy end to Injure Punish and Destroy good Men they have no such Power from him and if they do it they abuse their Authority and go beyond their Commission A Terrour they may and must be but it is not to the good but to the Evil-doers Wilt thou then not be affraid of the Power Do that which is good and thou shalt have Praise of the same for he is the Minister of God to thee for good The Prince or Ruler is imploy'd by God to protect and defend the good and this is or ought to be the great Design or Intention of all his Laws that they be a safeguard and security to such and a terrour or restraint to the Evil and Injurious And if the Prince must not suffer others to wrong his People to be
of their Instruction and for Direction of their Conscience to such Casuists as their own Men say have Dishonour'd Christian Religion with their Abominable Lessons She feeds them with a dry Communion and bids them obey Jesus Christ and the Pope if they will be Saved She hath also her Bishops Priests Masses Monks Monasteries but such as have nothing almost common with those of the Primitive times save only their Names In brief with all possible Artifices she labours to keep her poor Laity Hoodwinckt in Ignorance for Blind Men are more Tractable and Obedient unto their Leaders She tells them it is Creed enough for them to believe only the Catholick Church that is to Resign up to her self their Understanding but if any of them be farther Curious to know more Especially if they will be Prying into that Dangerous Book the Bible she sends them into the Inquisition to be there better Catechised Thus she deals with her own But for all Us that are in her Opinion Hereticks if her power were answerable to the Malignity of her desires no Remedy we should all pass through the Inquisition into Hell To go from a safe Church as Ours is wherein there is a Certainty of Salvation to such a Dangerous Church as the Roman is wherein there is but a meer Possibility of it is a wilder and more unaccountable Errour or oversight than if a Man that was to Sail in a Rough Dangerous and Tempestuous Sea full of Rocks and Sands should refuse a stout and well built Ship that had Skilful Careful and Honest Pilates and chuse one that is Crasy and full of Leaks or Breaches to let in the angry and devouring Billows and is steered by such Pilates as are either Treacherous or Careless Ignorant or Knavish His Royal Highness then had no reason to change his Religion upon this account his Eternal Happiness and Salvation being certain and undoubted by his stay in our Church that is by believeing and living as it teaches and requires all its Members to believe and lead their lives But exceeding doubtful and hazardous no more than possible in the Romish Communion And being neither for his Interest in this nor his Happiness in the other World to turn Papist his Royall Highness could have no just Motive or Inducement to do it These Arguments as they prove the Duke ought not so they will Oblige all that consider them to question whether he hath changed his Religion for being a wise Prince how can he be Guilty of so Deplorable an Errour as to do that which is against his interest now and his Happiness for ever that will make him Inglorious whilst he lives and Miserable when he is Dead and gone But the Excluders will say this is to doubt whether the Sun Shines when he appears in Subsect 5. his highest or noon day Glory to question matter of Fact for did not his Royal Highness refuse the Oaths and Subscription against Popery and do not Colemans Letters speak of his Zeal for the Romish Church and Religion and if he be not a Papist why doth he not declare himself and satisfy the Nation that he is of the Establish'd Religion these things they say make it Evident to all that will not shut their Eyes that the Duke is a Papist As for the first his Refusing the Oaths and Subscription against Popery That is no evidence of his being a Papist because he might have reasons for that Refusall He might think it a dishonour to him being a Prince of the Blood and next Heir to the Crown to take the Oaths and make the Subscription which every Justice of the Peace and every Captain in the Militia and persons inferiour to these were by that Law Obliged to do Is there any thing that a brave generous Prince such as his Royal Highness is Is more tender of than his Honour And would it not have been a lessening and impairing of that a descending from his greatness a stooping much below himself to take those Oaths and Subscribe as every person that hath any Office Civil or Military is by that Law required to do Sure there is some difference to be put and some distinction to be made between a Prince and Men of lower degree between a Son of the late and a Brother the only Brother of this present King and other Subjects 'T is true indeed the Duke whilst the King lives is but a Subject but then he is the highest the greatest Subject next to the King both in Blood and Dignity and hath such a property and capacity as no other Subject hath and therefore what may be Honourable enough for other Subjects to do may look meanly in him and be in his own Apprehension if not in the Opinion of others a lessening his Esteem and impairing his Honour The Dukes Refusal too might proceed from a just dislike and aversion to the great Contriver and Promoter of that Law which requir'd the taking those Oaths and the making that Subscription a Man Popular Ambitious Busy and Designing and as since appears most Trayterous and Disloyal who had misbehaved himself towards his Royal Highness and without any Provocation was become his Enemy and openly profess'd or declared himself so to be the Duke I say might justly hate the Child for the Fathers sake refuse to observe a Law Contriv'd and Promoted by his open Enemy to comply with and do those things at the Motion of Such an One being both dishonourable in it self and that which would encourage the Man to more and greater rudeness and sauciness towards him and set his invention a work to frame new Impositions and lay greater Burthens upon him there being no end of some mens Projects and Impertinencies and if they be humour'd in one thing they will demand an hundred and grudg if they be not satisfied and if you do not let them lead you by the Nose as long and as far as they please your first complyance is Slighted or Contemn'd as a thing of no worth nor merit and therefore the best way to be freed from such Troublesome and Imposing persons is to withstand or give them a repulse at the first for if they find a Man resolute and not to be wrought upon they will be discouraged and in time give over their Impertinent and Saucy attempts Besides the Dukes taking the Oaths and Subscribing could not have acquitted him from the Suspition of Popery with them that were desirous he should be reputed that they might treat him as a Papist for so long as his Holiness pretends a power to grant Dispensations and is willing to exercise or put that power into practice which he will do as long as he hath any Zeal for the Catholick cause or any Concern for his own gain and profit so long they that love to brand others with the hatefull name of Papists will think or call them so notwithstanding all the Oaths they can take and the Subscriptions they can make
but that they suffer in their Posterity too those that descend from them not being permitted to enjoy their Estates but that they be Vagabonds and Miserable in the Earth thar others may see and fear and not dare to do so Wickedly as to Rebel or Conspire against their Prince There are in all Ages all Places of the World some desperate Villains that can be content to venture their own Lives if they can but Imbroyl Kingdoms and Assassinate or Murder Princes and therefore it is Just that not only Death but Forfeiture of Estates and all their Possessions be the Punishment of Traitors because this will many times Restrain those from such Detestable Practices which that cannot deter them from for they that are so mad as not to care for their own Lives will yet be tender of their Innocent Children take heed how they Ruin them Thefts then and Murders and Treasons are such Errours in Practice as Forfeit both the Lives and Properties of those that commit them because these Crimes are so pernicious that if they be not Punish'd with such Severity they will Ruine or Destroy any State or Society for no Man could enjoy his Life or Estate there would be no Peace nor Government but continual Oppressions Wars Murders Tumults Seditions which must needs Ruin or lay any Kingdom Waste And if these be all the Crimes that Forfeit Mens Rights and Properties his Royal Highness cannot have Forfeited his Right of Succession because he is so Innocent from all these that his greatest Enemies the Excluders themselves have not laid any of them to his Charge Supposing then the Duke to be a Papist that is an Erring Christian yet that making no Forfeiture of his Right To take it from him is to Oppress and Ruin an Innocent Prince and therefore the highest and most execrable Injustice To Rob a mean Person of his Right is Theft and Knavery to Deprive a Prince in Defiance of all the Laws of Heaven and Earth of God and Men of such a Treasure as a Crown of such an Inheritance as a Kingdom nay as three Kingdoms is so great an Injury or Oppression that I want words to express it To say the Bill of Exclusion is Cautionary or Preventive design'd to Disable a Popish Prince from doing the Mischiefs which as such he may do if he gets into the Throne instead of mending the matter makes it worse this being to Punish a Prince with great if not the highest Severity not for doing things meriting such a Punishment but for fear he should do them which is a new sort of Justice and such as was never before heard of in the Christian World and can be no where match'd unless it be amongst the Turks where the Custom is for the new Sultan to strangle his Brothers for fear if they were suffer'd to Live they should Conspire against and Attempt to take the Empire from him This sort of Justice if it was pursued to all the purposes to which it equally serves would make mad work in the World fill it full of Violence and Cruel Practices for by the same Reason they may deprive Honest Men of their Rights their Estates and Possessions not because they have already but because they may hereafter put them to Ill and Dangerous uses The old Justice is a dull and slow thing in Compare with this That stays till Men have Offended or Committed things worthy of Punishment and then it Strikes but This is so Quick and Expeditious that it Punishes before they have Transgress'd Draws out the Destroying Sword not only before a Man be Convicted but before he be Guilty than which way of Proceeding nothing can be more Impious and Unrighteous and consequently more to be Abhor'd Execrated Avoided by every one that pretends either to Common Honesty or Christian Piety For to say as the Men of the New Morals do That a bare Suspicion of Injury from another makes it Just or Lawful to disable the Person so suspected to do it is to expose the Lives and Estates of the most Innocent Persons to the Avarice and Cruelty of every Suspitious Villain that hath Power or Opportunity to invade them For the more Wicked any Man is the more Suspicious he must needs be That being the inseperable Companion of Guilt And if this Maxime be admited it will Animate him that receives it to the most Savage Practises Encourage him with Solomons Mad-man to cast Fire-Brands Arrows and Death to Murder this Rob that Man and Undo a third and to repeat such Outrages as often as he can and all this because he is such a Rogue as to Suspect without any Ground or Reason at all that the first will kill the second rifle the third ruin him Upon this Principle a Prince may seize the Estates and cut the Throats of all his Subjects whom he suspects to be Disaffected to him and the People Beggar and Butcher one another as often as they please And then 't is in vain to talk of Government or Laws or humane Society This being a perfect state of War to lay aside that Mercy and Justice which are both the Ornament and Happiness of Men and to put on the Fierceness and Barbarity of the most Savage Beasts 'T is not then injury Suspected but Acted the having Done wrong to another not his Fear or Apprehension that it will be done that makes a Man justly Punishable And I cannot more Effectually shame and Subsect the 3d. reprove this new Justice than by Comparing it with some of the Principles of the Christian Religion of which we all make Profession deliver'd to us by our Lord and his Apostles With that great Precept of Justice All things whatsoever ye would that Men should do St. Mat. 7. 12. unto you do ye even so to them This is so excellent and equal a Rule for us to act by in all our Intercourse and Dealings with others that it was admir'd and applauded by the very Heathens the Emperour Severus was so pleased with it that he had it often in his Mouth Reverenc'd the Christian Religion and the Glorious Author of it for the sake of this Precept Had our Lord said do all things that are Just he had given indeed a General Rule Comprehending all the Special Precepts of the Law of Nature but he had said nothing by which we Espiscopius in locum might have certainly known what in all Affairs and Transactions is Just but when he said All things whatsoever ye would that Men should do unto you do ye even so to them he gave us such a Rule by which in every Case and Circumstance we may be sure what is Just for as we cannot doubt what we would have others do to us so neither can we doubt what we our selves ought to do to others Every Man in his Wits would receive no Injury or Wrong from others but Injoy his Life and Estate all his Rights and Properties without Dammage