Chuse which you will Liberty or Slavery OR An Impartial Representation of the Danger of being again Subjected to A POPISH PRINCE LONDON Printed for R. Stafford 1692. Chuse which you will Liberty or Slavery c. ADVERTISEMENT THE JACOBITE CONVENTICLE A Poem is just Published Price 6 d. THE CHARACTER OF A Bigotted Prince c. IT has been the great unhappiness of the Kingdom of England for some Years last past to be troubled with two very Different sort of Persons of quite contrary Tempers the one Party of so very Costive a Faith that they could believe nothing and the other of so easy a Belief that they could swallow every thing the first of these could not see the Sun of Truth in its brightest Meridian and even Mathematical Demonstration signified nothing in order to persuade them they could not or at least would not see their Native Country hurried to the very Jaws of Ruine and imitated Nero in his stupidity who could unconcernedly Tune his Harp when Rome was in Flames every thing about em seem'd pleasant and gay they never suffered their minds to be rufled with anxious Thoughts for the Future so they enjoy'd the present and observ'd in the Literal but corrupted sence the command of our Saviour to take no care for the Morrow the most surprizing Relations mov'd them not a jot and they gave as equal a Credit to an Information or Confession upon Oath as they would have allow'd to a Chapter in Rablais his History of Garagantua The other were of a quite different stamp they could credit the most improbable Stories and the most far fetcht Lyes were with them esteem'd as Oracles they were ever at Coffee-houses or places of such resort still listning to every idle Pamphleteer's Discourse with more Attention than to a Sermon they could not see a Chimney on Fire but immediately some Treachery they believ'd was in agitation and a Drunken Midnight Quarrel in the Streets Allarm'd their Thoughts into the Belief of a Massacre they had nothing in their Mouths but Plots and Designs and Holy Writ it self stood upon the same bottom in their Creed with some Witnesses Depositions their Imagination hag-rid with Suspicions and Fears daily presented them with such frightful Scenes that they were not only uneasy to themselves but likewise to all about them which render'd their Days unpleasant and their Nights unquiet insomuch that some of them durst not go to Bed for fear next Morning they should wake and find their Throats Cut. From these two very corrupt Humours in the late times were produced those two odious Characters of Whigg and Tory which were handed about so long in Jest that they soon turn'd Earnest and he was thought either a Knave or a Blockhead who would not suffer himself to be Dignified or Distinguished by one of those Titles This Humour continued for some Years with great Violence and Disorder during the latter end of the Reign of K. Charles the Second in all which time t is obvious whoever wore the Crown a great Person then at Court manag'd Affairs at the Helm That great Prince who had seen both the Extreams of a Prosperous and an Adverse Fortune by his Death Yeilded the Throne to his only Brother in the beginning of whose Reign the two Discriminating Names before mention'd seem'd to have been utterly forgotten the former in seeing a Prince the Darling of their thoughts and wishes now become a Monarch and the latter in their mistaken apprehensions of his unexpected Clemency in affording them Liberty of Conscience The Storm was now abated and Mens Tempers grew more compos'd the Virtues of the Soveraign fill'd every Mouth with His Praises His Goodness His Justice and His Piety was the Theme of common Discourse and nothing but the Name of James the Just heard in the most ordinary Conversations It does not become a Subject too nicely to inquire into the Miscarriages of a Crown'd Head but this must be confest very ill things were done even to the Alteration of the fundamentals both of our Religion and Government and this must be own'd by every one whose Ears are not stopt by invincible Prejudice or Partiality 'T would be vain labour to descend to particulars in a Discourse which is design'd to be of another Nature The Jewish Feast of Tabernacles tho' long time Abrogated by the coming of our Saviour hinders not nor forbids me to reflect on the Dangers I escap'd in the Wilderness I may Lawfully I think select such Days in the Year to consider how Corporations were Regulated Bishops Imprison'd and other Irregularities committed in the late Reign without assembling a Conventicle and there in some lewd Harrang swell every Miscarriage to a prodigious greatness The Actions of Princes Evil ones especially are their own proper Heralds and every one of his Subjects carries some short Remarks of his Reign in their Memories I do not believe that History can parallel the Joys and Triumphs of any Nation upon their Deliverance from Oppression with the universal Triumphs of the English upon the never to be forgotten late Revolution they seem'd like Men kept a long time in Durance and now were blest with the sweets of Liberty nay even some of our present Murmerers themselves were most forwardly Active to shew their Zeal for the then Prince of Orange who by his coming seem'd to open the Scene of a new World and restore the English to the Poet's time of the Golden Age again But like true Israelites we long again for the Onions and Garlick of Egypt and would fain be under our old Task-masters once more the Wound which was seemingly Heal'd is now broke out again and what we lost in the Antient Tory we find reviv'd in the Modern Jacobite We were told in a Prophetick Discourse some years since what Treatment we were to expect if a Prince of the Romish Communion should settle upon the Throne the effects of which every one who is not wilfully Blind must acknowledg Did he not drive Jehu-like in a full Carreer to Rome Were not his Emisaries in every great Town in England Regulating Corporations and Poisoning the Minds of the People with Popish Doctrins Were not all places of Trust both Civil and Military fill'd up with those of the Romish Faith or others whom he made use of for his own ends Were they not come to an excessive hight of Impudence both in their Sermons and Discourses Was not the Torrent swell'd so high that they hourly expected the Deluge Were not the Fences of the Law the Security of the Subject attempted to be broke down And Magna Charta when in Opposition to the Princes will be valued no more than a cancell'd Deed of Conveyance Was not an Embassador sent to Rome and a Nuntio Entertain'd here to settle the Protestant Religion no doubt and a thousand other Practices committed as directly opposite to the Interest of the English Nation as Fire is contrary to Water Was all this done in a
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 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 fort 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 Vnited 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 a 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
corner Were not their Actions as barefaced as the Sun And after all this and the Deliverance we Enjoy must we go into the House of Bondage again and put on those Fetters we so lately shook off Let the seeming warmth of this Parenthesis be a little excus'd yet I must confess such considerations as these are almost valid enough to justify a Passion and make Anger appear no Fault for were the Roman Catholicks the only Asserters of the Rights of the late King James the wonder would be little bodies often Sympathise at a distance and they by several Obligations are bound to wish him Success and while they terminate in empty Hopes let them still regale themselves with their airy Diet I pity the deluded Creatures but cannot blame them because they Act upon their own Principles and 't would be as unnatural for them not to Pray for his Return as for a Cardinal in hopes of the Popedom to wish success to the Protestant Forces or a Calvinist to Drink a Health to Monsieur Catinat But when a sort of Men guided as they pretend by the Dictates of an unerring Conscience shall at this time of day openly declare for an exploded Interest and these Protestants too Men no ways leven'd with Popery or any of her Doctrin's but Zealous Maintainers of the Church of England Devout and Pious Charitable and Just in the chief Employments of the Church and the Brightest of the Golden Candlesticks For these so openly to declare their Aversion to this Present Government and their Fondness for the Last is what does not a little elevate and surprise to use an Expression of Mr. Bays and comes almost as near to a Miracle as Transubstantiation A late very Eminent Doctor of the Church when the Prosecution was Violent against the Dissenters wrote a most Learned Tract concerning the Nicety of a Scrupulous Conscience wherein he very curiously Anatomizes the several Meanders and turnings of that invisible Operation and Proves that Humour Discontent and Interest do frequently wear the Livery of Conscience How nice soever some may be in point of Religion I wish these Gentlemen could acquit themselves from the forementioned Disguise with which they masquerade their Political Conscience One would wonder what strange bewitching Sophistry the Church of Rome makes use of to blind the Understandings of her Votaries to that degree that they are continually mistaking their own Interest and tamely to deliver up their Bodies Souls Reputation and Fortunes for the Reversion of Purgatory hereafter only for the slight gratification of their humours here and I appeal to the greatest asserter of King James his Interest if they can produce any Crown'd Head in England since the Conquest who was half so Infatuated and Bigotted to the Interest of the See of Rome as the late King Indeed we Read of a Religious Edward and a Pious Devout Henry but our English History cannot afford us one Instance of a Prince who would Sacrifice his own Honour his Kingdoms Safety his Interest Abroad and the Love of his Subjects at Home meerly out of a mistaken Zeal to the Advancement of the Romish Faith the most solemn Oaths and Protestations esteem'd do more than words of Course and that which was held Sacred amongst all mankind valued as nothing in competition with a Command from the Apostolick Chair The old Lady at Rome with all her Wrinkles has still some Charms to subdue great Princes and tho she has Abus'd Depos'd and Murther'd so many of her Lovers yet she finds every day some new Admirers who are proud of her Charms a Practice which comes as near a Miracle as any that Church in her Legends can boast of and I hope some passages in the late Reign are not so forgotten but they may serve to justify the truth of the Assertion Indeed for our amusement we were once told by a popular Pen That allowing a King upon the English Throne Principled for Arbitrary Government and Popery yet he was Clog'd and Shackl'd with Popular and Protestant Laws that if he had ne're so great a mind to 't there was not a Subject in his Dominions would dare to serve him in his Design How true this Assertion has since prov'd let any indifferent person judge the late King himself both dar'd and found no small number of his Subjects as resolute as their Master to alter the whole Frame of the English Government he found not Men only of his own Communion but Men of all Religions or rather of no Religion at all whose desperate Fortunes push't 'em on to the most daring Enterprises ' his single Command added Life to their Motions and no wonder he found Tools to Work withal when all the Obligations of Law were shrunk into the small compass of a Princes Will and the musty Lines of Magna Charta dwindled to a Sic volo sic jubeo Several other artifices were us'd to let us conceive a Popish Prince no such terrible Bugbear as common Fame represents him as that the Idolatrous Superstition of the Church of Rome was by a long series of time so worn off the minds of the People and the Reformation so strongly Rooted the Church of England so firmly Establish'd the Romanists so detested for their Innovations in Doctrin and Absurdity in Ceremonies c. that it was impossible ever to fix Popery here But alas 't was meer Delusion we quickly saw through the Juggle and the State-Quacks discover'd their Leigerdemain tricks too openly and had not Almighty God by a most surprising and almost unparllel'd Providence Deliver'd us I know not by this time but that the Name Protestant had been as odious in England as the Term of Hugonot is now in France and the Dominicans and Franciscans left their Cells in Lincolns-Inn-Fields and the Savoy to have Sung their Regina Coelorum in all the Cathedrals in England I am not Ignorant how some Persons do still Magnifie the Merits of the late King as to his Private Virtues as his being Descended of the Blood Royal his Inviolable tenderness for his Friend the exact Correspondency of his Mouth and Heart his Courage against the Dutch c. but these were glimmering Rays of his which shin'd upon some few only for when he came to his Meridian they chang'd their Nature and the scorching Beams of his Zeal for his Religion got the Ascenednt of all his other Accomplishments which so clouded his discerning Faculties that he mistook his Friends for his Enemies and his Enemies for his Friends the most sage and deliberate Advices given him in opposition to beloved Jesuits were censur'd as intrenchments upon his Prerogative and the single Ipse Dixit of Father Peters valued above the Joynt Council of the Realm the Colledges of Oxford and Cambridg esteem'd as Nurseries of Hereticks and the President and Fellows of Magdelen Colledg most illegally Ejected from their just Rights to receive upon the Foundation a sort of Sparks who were neither Schollars nor Gentlemen Priviledg
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 unles 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 lest 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 beforè 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 Dominaring 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