forgiven in this World nor in the World to come By all which 't is evident that as Contradictories can never be both true so there can be but one Lawful King in England which makes all others but meer troublesome Scare-Crows and Impostors But since I am fallen upon the word Impostor I must not tho much pressed in time pass by without mentioning the grand One I mean little Mahomet or Him whom not a few as well Protestants as Papists call and deem the True Prince of Wales Now that the World may see that men when they please can be far more wilful than Mules and deafer also than an inchanted Adder I will here give my Reader a smack or taste of some of the wise Arguments with which the Musselmen or Tories defend the Paradox and then I 'll shew in six words for Truth hates Meanders and Ambages how the Loyal can like Hercules himself tear open young Cacus's Den and so with one Pull expose the mighty Thief in all his Shapes and Colours First Those odd Jacobites ask in what Region or Age was such a Hocus-Pocus-Trick ever yet played Nay omitting the Authors of Cassandra Grand Cyrus and men in that Classe of Fancy they demand whether Bays durst for shame venture on a Plot founded on this Impossible Supposition That a Great Queen living publickly and after her usual manner in a thronged prying and suspicious Court was not only to carry a fictitious Great Belly Nine Months undiscovered but was also with the like success to be brought to Bed in a Chamber crowded with Persons of both Sexes and many of them utter Enemies to Her and Hers. Secondly That tho this might pass muster at the Antipodes or in Terra Incognita yet how could it be effected in England when there would be in spite of Fate Great Men and Women that must be Spectators and Actors too in the Play not only of different Interests and Factions but that hated both Papists and Popery as much as Calvin and Luther ever did and Persons also to whom the Discovery would infallibly have been much more Advantageous than the Concealment Thirdly Was it possible for King James of whose Morality most Men had a good Opinion not only to put by and with such hazard too both his Daughters which had received such Constant marks of his Tenderness but to Disinherit by a Supposititious Brat any Son that he might chance to have by this Queen who was still Young or by a New One if she died nor could his constant Hunting or other manly Exercises but assure every body of his still remaining Vigour Fourthly They ask whether the Practic part were not yet if possible more Impossible than what has been already hinted For say they there must have been at least three or four Women procured of the utmost Fidelity and all with Child and of the same Reckoning who when they came near their Time must be also taken from their Friends and Acquaintance which could not but occasion strange talk and disorder to be put in secret places near the Court for one or two besides Accidents might bring forth Daughters and if they were all to be Delivered in their respective Dwellings the Cheat would not be concealed two hours Fifthly after all these unexpressible Difficulties New ones they say 〈◊〉 greater must follow For upon the first Womans being in Labour the Queen must presently be so too where-ever she were and if that Child happen'd to be a Female the whole Seene must be re-acted i. e. deferr'd till the next Woman cry'd out Now when fortune should bring a Boy it must be carry'd with all its After-Birth c. thro a Court which would have in it for certain many Curious Eyes do what they could into the Queens Bed either before she were lay'd or after If before then the Query is whether a Child were he not in that strange impossible pickle could lye under the Cloathes for three or four hours and neither be stifled nor cry If the famous Warming-Pan were brought in afterwards then the Chamber must be necessarily as it was full of Men and Women And how could they place the Creature a thing to be done with wonderful gentleness and care in a Bed if not in the presence of Men yet in the open view and sight of God knows how many Ladies and Women that encompass'd the Queen and still the Child notwithstanding Her Majesties many turnings and seeming throes was neither to be smother'd nor to cry Sixthly they say let all this also pass and let my Lady Sunderland her self be mistaken that swore She forwarded the Birth with her hand but how can a Child after so long a stay come out of the Bed reeking like one newly Born as so many Protestant Doctors themselves swore Nay they depos'd that the Blood came from the very Navel-string when they cut it which they gave the Child for a Medicine against Convulsions Lastly Well then cry they for once we 'll suppose the present Loyal people of England turn'd Papists that is to say Persons that will maintain any Impossibility if Religion and Interest commands it as also that the Countesses of Peterborow Sunderland Roscommon Lady Bellasis and other great Protestant Peeresses and of the Bed-Chamber will Dispence with an Oath tho' the Dispensing Power be now Null and Void by Law VVe will suppose too continue they that my Lady Wentworth Mrs. Bromley Dawson with the rest of the Dressers once known to be most Zealous against Popery will now rather forswear themselves than that Popery should not be secur'd Add besides to this that a crowd of Protestant Doctors Apothecaries Surgeons and other necessary people are to go to the Devil for Company But how came it roar they out higher than Stentor and Moreland that the Princess of Denmark whom the Cheat so much concern'd both as to Religion and Interest could neither perceive it all along with her own Eyes nor with those of her Faithful Ladies If she did the Difficulty they say is harder for 't was impossible that she would be silent and mealy-mouth'd that had the Courage and Piety in Defence of Religion and Property to forsake her Fathers house and to Head an Army against his Wicked Councellors as we all know But further proceed they in the like tone Is it not beyond Comprehension if things had been but suspicious and much more if really so that William and Mary who hazarded their All for the Gospel and Common Justice should upon the Childs Birth send Monsieur Zulestein as their Embassadour to Congratulate with the King and Queen to Visit and Complement him as Prince of Wales and which is yet stranger to Insert him in the Collect of the Royal Family and consequently Pray for Him thus in their own public Chappel◠Now as an assuredly compleating blast which blows away every Corn of Doubt They stretch their voice and cry Tho all these unaccountable Blots were overseen formerly why did both King William and the Parliament join in a manner with these Clancys and Fourbs by their present silence which makes the Cheat if it had been one not only victorious but invincible Nay a Parliament also that had all the Reason in the World to take the Business in hand both for our future Quiet and for the confounding of all King James's Party since the fiercest of them would upon this proof have granted that nothing could be said against him that was false Thus reason these extravagant Men. But now let us hear how all is answered as I said in six words by these Loyal Wise and Conscientious men that have contributed so much to our Deliverance and helpt to put us in our present happy and flourishing condition Was not a Prince of Wales answer they for the Advantage of the Papists are they not a restless Party and is there any thing they will not do or venture for the advancement of their Religion all men know what Dispensations they have and howindefatigable they are in propagating their Cheats and how subtly they always endeavour'd to amuse and confound poor Protestants Tho piety of the King and Queen is apparent who wave the blackening of a Father as such secret actions must do when publick to the World and what is more ridiculous and below a Parliament than in time of great business to debate and then vote 't is day at Noon Rex Regina beati Quid agitur in Anglia consulitur de Religione non de Partu FINIS
The ENGLISH-MAN's Allegiance OR Our Indispensable Duty by Nature by Oaths and by Law to our Lawful King Ante leves ergo pascentur in aethere Cervi Et freta destituent nudos in littore Pisces Quam nostro Illius labatur pectore Vultus Virg. BEing as fully sensible as any Man breathing how much we OWE to the late Pious and Disinterested Undertaking of the Matchless Prince of Orange now our declar'd True and Lawful Soveraign And being also as intirely convinc'd as the best of my Fellow-subjects of his Wonderful PRUDENCE ever since which renders him we must confess Worthy of the Crown were his TITLE questionable as having put the whole Nation in the present happy State nay fixt besides our Liberties and Religion the Monarchy it self on a most firm and a durable Foundation I say being fully sensible and intirely convinc'd of all This and finding besides by the sober cool and well-temper'd Votes of our Loyal and most Legal Parliament I mean those of the House of Commons That all Persons whether Men or Women above the Age of Sixteen are to take the Oaths of Allegiance or be Imprison'd without Bail or Mainprize I thought it an incumbent Duty being a known Patriot and yet walk ever Incognito to cast in my Mite that is in other terms to do something and what considering some Circumstances can I do more for if I cou'd I would do it without fail than advise Loyalty to others as well as practise it my self Therefore in this small Treatise I shall shew to the World even to all that have their Eyes as the usual Phrase is upon our World That as following a River is a most certain way for a young Virtuoso to find out the Sea so the breaking Allegiance is the ready and Infallible Road to the Devil Now seeing what I am to Discuss is a very difficult and nice Point and who in manners and good breeding can call that Easie which has many hard and wilful Antagonists I intend to handle it in exact form and like a Grave School-man or perchance a School-Boy and so must tell my Reader as well what I am not as what I am First Negative I am not a Quaker for I can swear and have both sworn Allegiance and am also very fully resolv'd to keep it as firmly believing that whoever makes a Vow I will require it at his hands says the Lord. Secondly I am no Commonwealths-man and therefore had far rather hear the Dutch whose Wit and Language I strangely fancy call an English-man-of-War the Constant Prater than our own people stile an English-Grown-man the Constans Speaker Nor do I by any means admire a Duke of Venice unless it be in the Morea or some other pâ—rt of Turkey Thirdly Affirmative I am and three or thrice bring generally most men as well as Poets to the point Nay it distinguishes a Christian from an Infidel and makes even Dogs according to Plutarch to Syllogize and find out a Hare without smelling and truly I love three Things or three Persons with all my heart as I guess my Reader will tho I am about Oaths presently Believe without an Oath I say Thirdly Affirmatively I am one Born and Bred in the Church of England that extremely lov'd Plumb-Broth when Porredge was out of Fashion that Eat many a Mince-Pye in Defiance of the Directory and that still daily says We have Err'd and stray'd like lost Sheep Besides I am of the long Robe especially when I put on a Night-gown and ready therefore secundum Artem to give iâ— under my hand that Abdicating is a far less English Law-Term than Dispensing In my Family for want of a Chaplain I say Grace my self and then heartily pray according to the Ancient Rubricks and Canons for both Their Majesties and the Prince that is in the words at length for King Queen and Prince of Denmark and doubtless this last pâ—tition is most decent and just for if we consider that Hero in himself he is certainly a Great Man but when we Reflect upon the present Courtesie of England by which Men precede their Wives he is a kind of an Heir apparent Now had this been Law in other places Jack in the Old Tale of Rushy Coat who ran away with the Kings Daughter would have been the True King and she in her own Kingdom only Hoyty Toyty and Nominal but all Legislators are not of the same opinion as the Hebrew Proverb has it So much then for the Porch or Preliminaries now for the Main Body of the Fabrick and thence to the Penetralia and innermost Recesses of the very Oracle For to speak the plain Truth after Puns and Witticisms of that Nature I love plain dealing and therefore was from Youth tho it may seem at first dash a Bull much inclin'd to Riddles and to Doat on Enigma's and Hieroglyphicks which still makes me think Sphinx the greatest She-Philosopher among the Ancients and yet I acknowledge I shall never willingly follow her Example should any Ingenious and Egiptiacally-Abstruse Meaning of mine be found out But certainly no way of Speaking and of Writing also can be more proper for our Refin'd Age and Nation since we have so many rare men so many Oedipus's nay greater than he among us Sparks that to serve a Turn can Kill a Father without rubbing an Eye and would Lye too with their Mother out of a meer Experiment or Joke JOCASTA Mr. Bays JOCASTA Pray remember that happy jest and particularly what a Bob in your own way I have given to Tottenham-Court or as some now write it Totteridge alias Tottering-Court and then confess I have out-done you a whole Bar and a half But to the business and first for Definitions Axioms or common receiv'd Opinions A Promissary Oath or Vow Terms here Synonimous is not only a Declaration That as sure as God is or has a Being I will make good my Word but also a sincere Supplication and Wish That he would if I fail in it both eternally deprive me of his blessed sight and throw me headlong into Hell All Oaths lawfully injoyn'd are ever to be taken in the sense and meaning of the Imposer seeing otherwise a Cardinal might possibly without breach of Principles take the Oath of Supremacy which possibility Enervating the whole Drift and Intent of the Oath renders the Action a sin in it self for who without sin can take Gods Name in Vain To wit considerately use it to no purpose These Oaths are ever to be Impos'd by Lawful Authority that is to say by those that have Right to do it for else they oblige no more than if a Filoux a Highway-Man or any other Atheistical Russian should by Invading or setting upon us on the Road or any place else force us to swear Nay the bare compliance in taking such an Oath tho upon Compulsion may chance to be a sin to be repented of with many Tears especially if we have already taken the contrary by lawful
I go on further to let the Reader fully understand who and what the said Stephen was He was it seems Nephew to the former King and if we credit some Historians a kind of Son in Law also He had a Feud in France and upon that account was called Earl or Prince of Bologne a little Inconsiderable thing in an out Province of that Kingdom which as to its Yearly value was even Inferiour to Sheffield and several other Mannors in our Nation Nay if I mistake not He had been for some time Commander in chief of the Armies of the Earls of Flanders who were then the most considerable of any in the whole Low Countrys This Stephen who well knew it seems how to forswear and break an Oath for advantage having now as I said Usurp'd the Throne and many Enormities being found to be sure in the preceding Reign no body more pertly asserts His Right than the Paultry Bishop of Salisbury one as all our Writers have it that was wholly obscure of himself and beholden altogether to Fortune and good hitts one false and Treacherous by Nature and which made it beyond Cure that thought it Wit to be so one that had formerly received much Countenance and Favour from the late King and one also that more than once swore the forementioned Oath which again particularly oblig'd him to a true and steady Allegiance to his Prince and Lawful Successour and yet now ran counter to it as well by distinctions and insinuating discourses as by the shameful and overt Act. Yet not to make the Devil uglier than he is tho it be the new mode to Blacken even Angels of Light This precious Divine notwithstanding his several Idle Sophisms had more sense than to bolt out the least Argument in favour of a Conquest And to speak truth how was it possible for a Man that had any regard to himself to pretend to so silly a thing seeing Stephen had never fought for the Crown nor ever directly or indirectly stood upon any Right of Force but took and received the Government upon the sole conscientious invitation and Agreement of our Great Men. Besides since petty Principalities or Royalties the former Gifts of Emperours and Kings to deserving Men are Estates that may be bought by any mean Banker and we know 't is frequently done to this very day in Germany and elsewhere therefore the Civil Law or Law of Nations look upon these Toparchs tho Absolute enough among their Vassals with another sort of Eye and place them in another Class than they do those who are truly stiled Soveraign Princes so that if these should chance Sculkingly to Invade the other they might if taken be Legally prosecuted and punished as Pilferers and the like Lastly Stephen being as I said before a Servant and Subject for a General that receives Wages is as much so as any common Souldier had he by War and Battle brought England under his Power yet this Acquist must have been as all Civilians tell us his Masters not his own But perchance I excuse our worthy Bishop too much for 't was not it may be truth that hindered him from insisting on the ridiculous Title of Conquest but common Prudence as reasonably apprehending that a Doctrine that takes away all Freedome and Property from every Englishman might well deserve some remarkable censure in Parliament and Parliaments in former daies were by fitts as hot as those that lately ruined poor Sibthorp and Manwaring for a Tenet not half so foolish not half so dangerous nor half so scandalous as this For were this truly so every Gallant that gets in a Factious time the Crown and perchance Monsieur Blood among the rest especially if some Men want an argument will presently forsooth claim the almighty Title And let me again tell my Reader that not only all we possess belongs really to a Conquerour but should he pass an Act or two in favour of the Subject who knows the Equitable Plea of having been deceived in his Grant may not come into his thoughts and then Arma Tenenti c. the Lord have mercy upon us all Cursed therefore be the wretch that dares call any Man Conquerour of England But still a great Patriot a Man of God is exempted and far out of the reach of this wish tho in his Arcadia or Pastoral he stands highly upon a Conquest for every one that can Read his A B C knows that besides his usual Tropes and Figures he has a pretty way of his own and therefore only means I 'll engage that the Victory of the most potent William was over our Hearts and not our Lands and Purses To proceed If then the Advancing of Stephen were a horrid Perjury and truly the Remarks of Baker are not I see always impertinent for he tells us That many as well of these Bishops as the other Lords came afterward for this grand Villany to an ill End or at least to many Calamities before their End I say if this were a horrid Perjury how black and unexcusable must the Breach Now be when our Religion is so pure when the Oath is so Declaratory against any Evasion or double Meaning when the Statute-Law a Law not so well known to our Ancestors has in express Terms taken away all pretences for Rebellion and lastly when We have so often and upon so many accounts openly in the presence of God and Man disown'd all power in Pope or Devil of hurting as well the Rights as the Person of our Lawful Soveraign Now seeing there 's neither If nor And in this Oath and seeing the Oath it self was purposely made as I said to Remember us of and to stir and keep us up to our Duty in times of Troubles and Affliction for Kings want no Body's Duty but then it cannot be but pleasant and the Arguments also are much to be heeded to hear a man upon the Successes of a Rebellion or the like gravely to Phâ—losophize and positively to Assert That we are absolv'd from our Oath Nor is it less agreeable when we ask the Reason Why to have this excellent one palm'd upon us because forsooth the King cannot Protect us to which I answer Then we ought to Protect him For I am sure this was the Imposers meaning at the giving of the Oath as hoping thereby to prevent the being deserted his subjects Tho the Devil be God's Ape and therefore some Usurpers have some times imposed their Oaths also yet Ours here in England have seldom or never done it in general For we read not of any thus required by the aforesaid Stephen by Hen. 4 or by Rich. 3. nay honest Cromwell like Gallio cared for none of those things And certainly they were all in the Right and far Wiser than to think that those whom their former Oaths could not keep true to their respective Lawful Kings would be obliged now to Them by any tie of that nature They know too that it makes out of pity as