AN ANSWER To a late Pamphlet; Entitled, A CHARACTER OF A Popish Successor, AND WHAT ENGLAND May Expect from such a One.  
Virtus repulsae nescia sordidae,  
Incontaminatis fulget Honoribus.  
Nec ponit aut sumit secures,  
Arbitrio Popularis aurae;  
Virtus negata tentat Iter via.  Hor. 
LONDON, Printed by Nathaniel Thompson, and are to be sold at his House next the Cross-Keys in Fetter-Lane, Anno Domini, 1681.   

AN ANSWER TO THE CHARACTER OF A Popish Successor.  
HAving intended to make some slight Reply, (such as my own weakness could produce, and my Adversaries did require,) to a late Pamphlet, called, The Character of a Popish Successor: I thought I was bound to do him so much Justice as to let our Reader know, that however incoherent and contradictory his Discourse or his Reasonings are, yet his Principles are not so; but that they are quite through the same, and maintain a most exact and close agreement between themselves. This will appear by considering how truly the parts of his whole Book correspond to one another, to represent (as in a Picture) the late Rebellion, to which it bears the exactest Resemblance; For like that it gins (in the very first Page,) with Fears and Jealousies, of Religion, Liberty and Property; and like that too it continues, (p. 16) to Murmur and Revile the Imperial Root, and not only to stiffen the knees that would bow to a Crowned head, but also to arm against it the hands that should defend it, by exhorting the people (p. 34.) not to be subdued like less than English- mwn, but to Resist and Repel a King under the Name of an Invader. And like that too would it end, if these men who appear so Jealous and so Fearful could either prevail upon the Credulity of the Vulgar so far as to make their Jealousies appear Just, or could themselves bring to pass all their own Fears, that so they might be indeed (as our Author supposes them) Prophetic. For truly in this sense they are likest to be so, and our State Prophets will appear like Nostradamus' his Son, (a pretender to his Father's Art) of whom the Story goes, that he was caught one night a Firing that City which He himself had Prophesied should be Burnt. And yet these are the Wise, and these are the Great, whom our Author would have us take delight to behold the restless and uneasy rolling about our troubled Sealike Porpoises to forewarn us of a Tempest. But is not our Author mistaken in his Simile? Alas these are not the forewarning Porpoises, but the Leviathans themselves, that sport and take their pastime in our troubled deep, whose restless and uneasy rolling does not foretell, but is itself the Storm. A Storm which once more is ready to shatter this (Royal Vessel the British Kingdom) into pieces; O navis referent in mare Te novi fluctus. These O England are the same Disturbers of thy Calm Waters, which the second time are like to raise the Waves so high as to break all thy Anchors, loosen all thy Cables, and force thee our again into that Red Sea of Blood in which so lately thou hast suffered Shipwreck; unless in the cause of its Image here on Earth, the Majesty of Heaven itself hasts to our assistance; unless He, (as himself speaks to his Servant Job,) Put a hook into the Jaws of these Leviathans, and draw them out; unless He exert those Two mighty effects of his Divine Power, which the Psalmist joins together as the highest proofs of his Omnipotence, viz. Unless he stills the rage of the Sea, and the madness of the People.  
And amidst this our evident danger, I must needs confess with our Pamphleteer, that I cannot choose but account those persons very little our Friends, nay indeed void of Humanity itself, that would lull us asleep in the sight of approaching ruin and destruction. But on the other hand I can by no ways approve of those for our Physicians who use such violent means to wake us out of our Security, as if there were no Cure for a Lethargy but casting us into a Raving Frenzy. And indeed such has been the Physic of our State Mountebanks; and since they have possessed the people with so desperate a madness, and raised such dismal apprehensions in the minds of the undiscerning multitude; I thought it the duty both of a Christian and an Englishman, to use the most effectual means of restoring us once more to our Wits again, and to rescue, (if possible,) the Nation, out of that most miserable condition which David has reckoned among the grievousest Plagues of the wicked, of whom he says, They were afraid where no fear was: In order to which, I shall rally again those Arguments which some have raised to save us, and which our Author has to his power confuted to destroy us.  
P. 2. As first they say, Why should we stand in fear of Popery, when in the present Temper of England 'tis impossible for any Successor to introduce it? Ay why indeed? The Gentleman is at a stand, and is loath to venture his Serpent's Teeth against the File; so leaves this Argument and away to the next. Though I can't see why the same man, who presently after has the courage to undertake the proving that the four Cardinal Virtues are more dangerous in a Prince than their four opposite Vices, should here want the same fool-hardiness to justify the fears even of impossible things.  
The next Argument (which he undertakes to overthrow, and which yet stands firm and unshaken by all his empty batteries and airy assaults,) is drawn from the consideration of the Personal Excellencies inherent in that Prince, whom God and Nature, and the Laws of the Land have pointed out to Us as the unquestionable Lawful Successor of the Crown and Virtues of his Royal Brother. And if these are such, and so many as neither his Friends can express, or his Enemies deny; If the Royal Blood, (as often as his King or Country's Honour or Safety have called upon him,) has been as dangerously and as freely exposed as that which fills the Veins of the vilest Plebeian; If his Success has been so equal to his Courage, that his Arms when (employed abroad,) have ever been the love and wonder; and when at home (for such to him was once the British Ocean) the Dread and Terror of the neighbouring World; If his Friendships have ever been as firmly maintained as they were judiciously chosen; If his Mouth and his Heart have always been so true to one another, that his Word has ever been as inviolate as the Oaths of others; And if this Noble Constancy of Truth has been in him the effect as much of his Honour as his Conscience; And if in a Lie he has ever thought as much to be detested as the Baseness of a Coward, as the Impiety of a Villain; If his Justice has been acknowledged almost Divine, in this especially, that it has never excluded all those milder Virtues that might adorn a Crown, and make Majesty as amiable as it is Great: If all this be true, as none of his Adversaries can deny, and some of his most inveterate Enemies have been forced even to confess; I hope I shall be excused by my Readers, if I have so just a value for them, as to think that it would be an Affront in me to suspect their Judgements, so much as to spend time in evincing to them how improbable a thing it would be, how contradictory to reason and common sense, that the difference of a man's Opinion about some few disputable matters of Faith, and not very material Ceremonies of Divine Worship, should on a sudden ruin and efface all those good Characters of Magnanimity and Justice, of Generosity and Goodness, not slightly traced, but deeply engraven in his breast, so early engraven by Nature itself, that like Letters cut in the tender Bark, they have not been worn out, but rather enlarged by the growth of the Tree, nor are ever likely to disappear till the Trunk itself that they adorn shall be no more. And yet if we will be pleased to believe our little Impertinent Rhetorician, all this and much more must necessarily follow; When Popery has got the Ascendant, and Rome has once stamped him her Proselyte. For what then signify all the great past Actions of a Prince's Life? And how little an Impression will all the recorded Glories leave behind them? (p. 2.) No tract of 'em it seems is left, all his Virtues are fled; or which is worse, if they still remain, There is not one of 'em that shall not be a particular Instrument of our Destruction. Now in the name of all that is good, what does our Scribbler mean; do Virtues themselves turn Vices in a Roman Catholic? And do they become so really, even in contradiction of our senses and experience that tells us to the contrary? This is such a Miracle as would stagger even a Popish Faith: such an absurdity as would make a Priest Blush; and which equals, if not outgoes, even Transubstantiation itself, the Scripture therefore has a peculiar denunciation of Judgement against the Coiners of such false notions, and loudly cries out, woe unto those that call evil good, and good evil. But to espouse a while the cause of the injured Virtues, all which our false witness is ready to Swear into the Plot of our destruction; let us examine whether we have not much greater reason to rely upon them as our only Bulwark and defence when they are placed in that Prince to whom he is pleased out of his excess of bounty to grant them all, because he could not deny him one, than to look upon them as dangerous and pernicious, and as his own Evidence against them runs, The Instruments of our destruction. Let us therefore allow him Fortitude, that which is the first in the rank of all the Virtues, and which stands there boldly in the front, as if designed for the Protection of all the rest; and without which a Prince is as contemptible in himself, as he is useless to his People: Can a Nation be more blest than in the security which the matchless Valour of such a Prince ought in all reason to create, or can any man that has the least share of understanding entertain so vain an imagination, as to think that that invincible Courage which he has so often and so eminently exerted in the defence of the English, when they were his Fellow-Subjects, and when but his own single share of Glory redounded to himself, should otherwise employ it when advanced to a Throne, when all those that he protects are his own people; when all the Renown shall be wholly His, when every Subject's Honour that he vindicates shall increase the lustre of his own; and every Englishman he saves, add to the largeness of his Empire.  
But because our Author maliciously suggests that this Virtue may be employed in making him more daring for the Cause of Rome; I would advise him to consider whether the Virtue of Fortitude in his Ethics, (if he has ever read any,) be not as equally distant from Temerity and Rashness, as from Fear and Cowardice; and than whether the attempts of an impossible thing, (which as yet by his silence he has allowed the introducing of Popery to be,) done't wholly overthrow that Virtue on which this very Supposition is built. He might also have been informed that all the Virtues have so close an Affinity between themselves, and so near a dependence upon each other, that not one can act without the allowance of all the rest; so that whatever is against Justice cannot be the object of Fortitude. If then he be a Man of Justice, this still should produce in Us the greater assurance that his Courage shall be no otherwise exercised but for their Safety and Honour, to whom all his endeavours by all the Laws both Humane and Divine are most due; This will make him maintain the Just Rights of his people, to which by his Oath he will then be most solemnly and strictly obliged, much more inviolably than that imaginary Right of the Pope, which none can be certain that he allows, and to which it is most certain he has no such obligation, or ever was Sworn. Then if he be a Master of Temperance, what is that but a bridle upon all his Excesses, a perpetual bosom Monitor that will withhold his hand, and allay his heat, that will curb the very first motions of Cruelty or Revenge, which the malice of his opposers might else have some grounds to fear? This is that Virtue to which we own Pardons and Acts of Oblivion, This is that which will make him ascend the Throne, though never so much injured, with the same Moderation and Clemency as did his Brother before him. Lastly, if he has Prudence, that will teach him not to exasperate a people of so stiff a neck, not to lose the hearts of his Subjects for their difference of Opinion; that will lay before him the many useful examples of those Princes that have unhappily strove to change the ancient Laws of their Government, who endeavouring to remove the Old Landmarks, have lost their whole Possessions; who striving to alter the building of the State to their own Humour, have brought down the whole Fabric upon their heads, and perished in the ruin of their falling Kingdoms. Thus I think I have in some measure justified the four Moral Virtues from the severe charge of their being Instruments of our Destruction, not without some wonder and indignation too, that any man should speak so ill of things he did not understand, or treat strangers so uncivilly: For indeed such they are to our Author. Had he any Courage he would have scorned to insult over the present misfortune of the bravest of Men; had he any Justice he would not have appeared so earnest against that Succession which is grounded upon all the Laws of God and Man; had he any Temperance, he would have spared his Malicious Invectives; and had he any Prudence, he would have burnt his Book, and saved the Hangman a labour. But stay, let us be as favourable to him as we can, let us try if we can excuse him his ill treatment of the Virtues; perhaps he railed at them only to bring in his Quibble, and because Cardo is Latin for a Hinge, therefore the Cardinal Virtues were to be the Hinges to open the Gates to Popery, or what if his Picque against them be their having some Name-sakes in the Church of Rome, since his Friend Merry Andrew in that excellent piece of Smithfield Drollery, The Rehearsal Transprosed, has been pleased to call them, The Red-hatted Virtues. Well, whatever his quarrel be, I am sure His Royal Highness has reason to be not a little satisfied to see that the defence of the Duke of York, and of Virtue itself is the same cause, and that whoever opposes the Justice of his Succession, must forfeit his Morality as well his as Allegiance.  
But then the Notion of such a Popish Successor, such a one as shall maintain the Constitution of the present Government, (and in that the public Worship of the Church of England is included) without any alteration, puzzles the Gentleman strangely; Nor can he make it consist with reason, no not he, nor with the least shadow of possibility. And where is the difficulty? where is the unreasonableness? Why forsooth, he must suppress the potent and dangerous enemies that would destroy the Protestant Worship, Peace and Interest: And the Wisdom of several successive Monarches, and a whole Nations unanimous prudence has declared Popish Priests to be these potent and dangerous enemies. Have they so? then there are Laws to secure us against them, then why are we in such fear? Then what is left to any Monarch that succeeds, but to execute the Laws he finds? derived down to him to maintain and preserve together with his Crown and Dignity? And since by the prudent zeal of both our Kings and People, our Religion has so strong a fence built round about it, since this Vine is so hedged in, that neither the Wild Boars out the of Wood can root it up, nor the little Foxes devour it; why do we torment ourselves with any further disquiet, why do we not rather sit down under the shadow of it; and bless him whose right hand has planted it? But alas, under the Reign of an English Papist, the case will not be the same; But we shall be in much greater danger, by reason of the multitude of their Roman Emissaries, and those too emboldened by hopes of Connivance and Mercy; and if ever the Protestant Religion want a Defender, it will be then.  
Truly I am so far from thinking that the Reign of a Popish King can be any way advantageous to the designs of the Jesuitical Instruments, that I rather believe it will of necessity be the greatest occasion of their destruction; especially since it is in the Power of every Subject in the three Kingdoms to be a Defender of the Protestant Religion if it want it. And if people shall think so, as naturally than they will, to be sure no Information, no Conviction of Recusants, no Administration of Tests or Oaths to the least suspected shall be wanting, no diligence spared which is backed by the Laws of the Land, which then more than ever will be wakened against them, and which can't be dispensed withal, must needs be effectual to the utter ruin of the whole party. This our Author himself seems to be sensible of, and to allow; and this is one of his pretty Chimara's, and mismatched incongruous, Ingredients; as he elegantly Phrases it, that must go to make up the Composition of a Popish King; and can He then, or the most violent opposers of the Church of Rome, desire any thing beyond this to gratify their utmost malice upon the Members of that Church, than to be assured that a Prince of that very Religion shall be the cause of their destruction, suis & ipsa Roma viribus ruet. For indeed all this a Popish King must do, or suffer to be done, and all his Apology to them must be what the Phamphleteer says, We must expect to be made to us, He cannot help it, (p. 20.) He cannot help it, that is, if the Law will have it so, his duty is to see that the Law have its course, and whatever his private opinion may be, whatever tenderness he may bear to the very persons, he shall punish; yet to remember his obligation to the public, so far as to give them up to the hands of Justice, with the same constancy of mind, with the same applause of the present, and commendation of all succeeding Ages; that the immortal Brutus delivered up his darling Sons to the Rods and Axes of the Lectors. This, had our Author considered, he would not have so far betrayed his Morals, as to have styled a Prince, in every thing else brave to admiration, (abject and deplorable Coward,) for not daring to undertake either unlawful or impossible exploits, nor been so out of his Politics, as to call governing by Law, sneaking on a Throne. But alas! good man he has a fit of kindness on the sudden come upon him, he is infinitely concerned for that Scene of war, and restless inquietudes such a Prince must have within himself, who to spare a Fagget at Smithfield, must walk on hot Irons himself, and have only Good Friday entertainments on a Throne; and with such like, no doubt prevailing pieces of Rhetoric, would persuade us, that a Crown to him would be so uneasy a thing, that he had better be without it. Alas! he would not have the Duke undergo that torment for all the world, not he; but this is only a flourish of his stile, in imitation I suppose of a Brother Sir Formal of his, who Laboured as much as he could, to prove that the Bill was for the Duke's good, and undertook by dint of Argument to make it appear that the Exclusion of his Royal Highness, was an act of Grace.  
Let us come now to an Argument of some moment, and consider what weight so solemn a Protestation and so sacred an Oath as a King of England is obliged at his Coronation to take, is likely to have with a Prince that has any sense at all either of Honour or Religion: Why truly our Characterizer says none at all, and tells us, That some can give us smart reasons for it: He gives us but one, which we will examine and try, if we can produce as smart ones against it. If he keeps his Oath, says he, we must allow that the only motive that prompts him to keep it, is some obligation that he believes is in an Oath; Yes, we will allow it, there is a double obligation of Nature and of Religion. Well what then? But considering he is of a Religion that can absolve Subjects from their Allegiance. And are you sure he is of such a Religion? We hear the Roman Catholics Protestations against that Doctrine daily sounded in our Ears; we are told by many of them that they abominate the Position, and must needs be convinced, that granting many of the Doctors of their Church to be of that opinion; yet it is a Doctrine never universally received, and that even they who believe, do not preach to all, and therefore very unlikely it is if they hid it from any; that it should be used as a Bait for the Conversion of any Prince, from whom in all probability they would studiously conceal such a point, as would put him in danger of the loss of his Kingdoms, as often as his holy Father the Pope should be tasty, or call him Heretic. Well, but considering him to be of such a persuasion, why may not his Religion release a King from his Faith to an Excommunicated and Heretical People? Ay! there's the mischief on't, these Absolutions, and Dispensations, and Jesuitical Loopholes can do any thing. But now let us a little consider and weigh the probability of these poor shifts and evasions, ever being made use of to our prejudice by his Royal Highness: Can it be believed that He who only out of the Conscience that he made of an Oath, and the Obligation that he thought was in it, has already parted with the places of the greatest Honour & Profit in the Kingdom, is ever likely to have a less Veneration for that most Religious one that he then must take? Or can we imagine, that if he thought any power whatever could absolve him from such a tye, he would ever have scrupled at the swallowing that which he could with so much ease have disgorged again? Especially when such a proceeding had removed all Suspicions and Jealousies concerning his Religion, and facilitated his way to the Throne, wherein he might establish it before the people had warning enough to make any opposition. Had this been his Principle, than had been the time to make use of it, and the easy ascent thereby to a Throne had been the best plea for his breach of Faith, then if ever it was necessary; for, si violandum est jus regnandi causa violandum est. But to strengthen this Argument our Author will give the World an instance of the power of an Oath with a Roman Catholic King. And that is, His most Christian Majesty, (the Famous Gentleman on the other side the water) who contrary to his Oath upon the Sacrament, has Invaded Flanders. And must all of that Religion be Vow-breakers and Perjured, because one Ambitious Prince has violated at once his Oath and his Religion too? Besides, how far this Perjury of his is to be imputed to the Romish Faith, and how Zeal us a Son he is of that Church, his quarrel even at this instant on foot with the Pope, is sufficient to inform us. If a man has born in him those Seeds of Ambition, and that Lust of being Great, 'tis not the fault of the Religion that he professeth, but the Viciousness of his Nature that makes him sacrifice his Conscience to his pride. If a man be naturally inclined to Virtue or Vice, let his Faith be what it will, his Morality will be the same; and he that has learned from the great Law of Nature how Sacred the tye of an Oath ought to be, let him be in what Church he will, shall very hardly be brought to think that this Gordian knot can be untied by every juggling Priest. Again, if Oaths will not bind Papists, if they come up as easily as they go down; why do we betray our folly so palpably as to think to secure ourselves by administering them to Roman Catholics? Why are the Allegiance and Supremacy Oaths tendered to them? and why do they refuse them? Why are new Tests devised that may be taken as harmlessly with a Dispensation in the Pocket; as the Mountebank does poison with his Antidote by? Why is the Wisdom of the whole Nation thus arraigned, and the High Court of Parliament itself accused of the Goatham Policy, in building the Hedge to fence in the Cuckoo: For this must be the very top of their sage forecast, if they did not think that these Oaths did clip their wings, as well as build the hedge about them: And that if they can do, not only the little suck-egg Cuckoo Priest, but the Imperial Eagle itself may be kept within the Fence.  
I designed (in pursuance of my first undertaking) to be on the Defensive part only, and not to have at all meddled with the opposite Faction: The Tale of Forty One and Forty Eight hath been long enough the Theme to be better made use of than it is. But here's an unlucky harangue of our Author's, against Religion, immediately follows, that is enough to make the Old Rebellion rise again, even out of its Grave of the Oblivion Act. I will therefore join with him in his railing at that desperate Incendiary of all Nations, Religion: (I hope he means honestly, and understands the pretence and mask of it by that Name) as hearty as himself; I will bring him in my share of ends of Verse, and Say of Philosophers; I'll muster all Lucretius' scraps against it; I can tell you of Tantum Religio, and Religio peperit sceterosa atque impia facta; and all this I can make out too; Religion was the Gospel-trumpet that first sounded to Battle, and whetted our Fears and Jealousies into Courage and Rebellion; Religion that first kindled the Flame, maintained it with Fuel; The Fight against the Lords Anointed began still with a Psalm, and ended in a Hymn; Religion was the Song; Religion was the burden of the Holy Ballad-singers, when the Scots came tweedling it over, with the praise of God in their mouths, and a Two edged-sword in their hands. No matter then, if we must be ruined, whether St. Ambrose's or Robert Wisdom's Te Deum be sung for the Victory, whether the holy Io Paean goes to David's or to Nero's Harp, to the Church-Organ or the Scotch-Bagpipe. And see, our Author is already at it; he's sounding a Parliament-Armies Epinicium, or rather holding forth in a Thanksgiving-Sermon, and in the insulting Language of the prosperous villainy of the late times crying out, To vow and Covenant, and with a Solemn League forswear three Kingdoms out of their Liberties and Lives, that's Illustrious and Heroic: There's Glory in great Achievements, and Virtue in Success: Come on then! Let us the mighty Nimrods' hunt for Nobler Spoils, and fly at a whole Nation, Property and Inheritance. That is as he explains himself in the 29 page. Let us never leave, till we have hunted the Imperial Lion down. But now he's out of breath, and his Glass is run, and therefore so much for this time.  
But now to the main Objection: Some people will tell us, (says he) That 'tis wholly impossible for any Popish Successor, by all his Arts and Endeavours whatsoever, to introduce Popery into England. Yes indeed will they tell you so again; For if you remember they told you so already, in the second page of your Pamphlet, and indeed I am of opinion that it ought then to have been considered; for till you had removed this great bar of impossibility out of the way, I see but very little hopes of making any further progress, that you could reasonably have. This argument lay before you just as you set out; and being sensible that this must be o're-passed before you could proceed in your journey, you came on indeed with very great briskness and assurance, as if you designed to have leapt the Ditch; but your heart failed, and made the Cowardly Rhodian buggle just upon the brink: But now, since you are forced to it, and necessity has given you courage to take the leap, it is some pleasure to the standers by to see you fallen in the midst of it, and so plunged in the mire, as not to be in any visible likelihood of getting out. But let us see how the poor foundered Jade struggles to work itself out of the Bog. If he's a Papist that says so, he knows he belies his Conscience; For our late Hellish Plot is a plain demonstration that their whole party believed it possible. Now the sport of it is, this flouncing does but make him stick the faster. For what if he that says so be as good a Protestant as the Author, as I am sure a great many are that both say and believe so too? why than they may even say so, and believe so still for all him: He has nothing to say to the contrary, unless they are Papists that say so; and for them, mark how shrewdly he is provided. First he gives them the Lie, and justifies it thus; Their whole Party believed it possible, and therefore it was possible, for so he must infer, if he means to prove any thing against the foregoing Argument. And is it so then Mr. Characterizer? because they believed it possible, therefore was it so? Come, come, you are a dangerous Man, and I wish people knew you, that they might have a care of you: You, forsooth, (under the notion of running down a Popish Succession) are proving the verity of the Popish Faith, and asserting every thing to be true that's believed by a Papist. Well, I am glad I have found out our Scribbler, for none could sure have written such stuff, but a disguised Priest, or at least, a Papist in Masquerade. But after all, granting the Belief of a Roman Catholic, that the introducing of Popery was so feasible, according to our Author's opinion, to be a certain argument that it was so, and that this was once the Belief of the whole Party, yet how does it follow that it is so still? If they be that cunning and politic People as he soon after says they are, I am sure they have very little reason to think that that Design, which was in so hopeful a forwardness, as never since Queen Mary's days could be boasted of, carried on with all the Art and Contrivance, all the Secrecy and Cunning of a most diligent and active Party, favoured by several of the greatest Persons of the Kingdom, and those most eminent for their Riches and Interest, to support the Cause, the universal security of the whole Nation, that then not so much as dreamt of the Mine that was ready to take Fire, conspiring together with those Sons of darkness, in the great work of our Destruction; and yet, after all this, was brought to nought, should ever at all (or at least in this Age) be effected, when all their measures are broken, and all their wicked contrivances laid open, and the whole Scene of that Religious Villainy displayed to public view, when the whole Nation is still kept awake with continual Fears, and fresh Alarms against them, while the very meanest of the people are as diligent in this cause, as the great ones that descend to join with'em in it and when (to prevent any surprise from the Pope or the Gaul) there's not a Goose but cackles for the preservation of our Capitol. Alas! such projects as these, when once discovered, are for that age defeated; and when so great a design is to be hatched anew, it ripens as slowly as China does, that must be buried an Age under ground before it come to perfection, and then too is very often as brittle as that, and as easy to be dashed in pieces. Thus we see how impossible a thing it is, that in the temper which now runs quite through the whole English Nation, that Idolatrous Superstition should ever be here reestablished, which by so unanimous a consent of so many of our wisest Princes, and all our people, has been rooted out from among us. But is not the people of England highly beholding to our Author, that in this seeming difficulty has found an expedient for the introducing of it again? This Sir Pol of ours is a notable Head-piece, let him alone, and we shall see as shrewd a piece of contrivance, as the bringing over an Army that shall cross the Narrow Seas dryfoot by the help of Cork-shoes. Let us see this project of setting up Popery; Why, first the Foundation of it must be laid, o' my word that's but reasonable, and the first Foundation of Popery is Arbitrary Government. Ay marry Sir, now he says somewhat, only make this an Arbitrary Government, a small piece of business, a trifle that; and then Popery follows as naturally as the Fox's body did, when he had got his head in at the hole.  
But how must this be done? Why, Would be shall tell you. If a Papist reign, we very well understand that the Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace, and all the judiciary Officers are of the King's Creation. Yes; and are they not so when a Protestant reigns? Yet even such a Prince whose Religion does not in the least render him obnoxious to his people, but whose consent with them in the first and chiefest duty of humane Life, the Divine Worship, should rather make both Prince and People of one Soul, and one Mind; Let him have all the advantages, not only which a Papist must of necessity lose, but which a Protestant may wish or imagine, would find it so difficult a task to set up for this Arbitrary way of Government, which our Author makes so easy a piece of business, that I shall not need to tell the consequence of such an Attempt, since the impossibility of succeeding in it will never suffer it to be made. If then Arbitrary Power be the Foundation of Popery, there is very little fear of ever seeing that great Idol reared, whose Basis can never be laid. And of this we shall be so much the surer under the Reign of a Popish King, by how much less opportunities he will have to set up this new Model, and by how much greater opposition, and indefatigable diligence, and watchful suspicion, the whole Nation will employ, lest this vast Trojan Horse, Arbitrary Government, big with Popery and our utter Destruction, should first make us break down our Walls to let it in, (for the Gate of the Law is too narrow for its reception,) and afterwards admit it into the Palace.  
'Tis not in the power of Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace, or of Judges, let them be as corrupted, or of as base a constitution as our Author would have 'em, to work so extraordinary a change: For if they are of base constitutions, as he phrases it, the hopes of preferment on one hand shall not work upon 'em so far as the fear of punishment on the other; nor will they be like to use the Laws with the Cruelty of Procrustes, who must needs by experience be assured that our Country does not want those  Patriots, who with the Justice & Strength of Theseus can make 'em suffer by their own Barbarity. Nay, how great an influence this fear of disobliging the people, has over low Spirits, even in the highest Offices, we have very fresh instances; When by some of 'em, even Justice has been denied, where it might give distaste to the Representatives of the Nation.  
This is indeed an action very unaccountable, but sufficient to make it appear to the world how much stronger the People's Interest and Party is, than any Popish Princes can ever be, by how much more formidable that is than this, even to the Tribunal of Justice itself which should never fear. If this than will not do the work, and the Pope is not absolute, there wants a standing Army to Crown the work: And he shall have it? Shall he so Sir? o' my word we are much obliged to you for granting a standing Army; but stay, he comes off with, who shall hinder him? Nay that's another matter; then pray Mr. Bayes be pleased to inform us where is this standing Army, is it in disguise? and does it lie concealed as your t'other did at Knightsbridge? Indeed, indeed that's dangerous, for an Army in disguise is full as bad, nay much worse than a Papist in Masquerade. But yet I have some hopes, that since this Popish Successor has not travelled the Road so much as others, has not been so great a Journey-taker about England, nor made so many Western Progresses, the Innkeepers will not be so much his Friends as to hid all his Horse and Foot, and Ammunition, and other odd things that go with an Army; and then all this great Project is like to be defeated, and fall to nothing. Or if this Army is not yet raised, and don't lie hid in the place we were talking of, or in the Cellar in Worstershire, how shall it be raised: You know you have told the Popish Successor that he shall have a standing Army, and I'll assure you he will expect you should be as good as your word. Why then if you would have this Army quietly raised some honourable pretences must be found: Truly that is well thought on, for if that had been forgot, and Drums had beat up through the City for Volunteers to set up Arbitrary Power and Popery, it is ten to one but all the Fat had been in the Fire. Well let us get a pretence then, and when we have one, if it be only a pretence, though never so Right Honourable, Suppose the people should smell it out, and be very unwilling to be raised for any thing but their own defence: This were indeed somewhat like Rebelling, but not quite so improbable, but that a wise Prince would foresee and avoid it, and we may very well suppose it. Suppose? quoth, a, I am not at all mortified at your suppose, not I Sir, I tell you if we have a Popish Successor, he shall bring in a standing Army, and that standing Army shall bring in Aribitrary Power, and Arbitrary Power bring in Popery; and than what becomes of your Suppose? Suppose quoth a?— Mr. Bays, I beg your pardon for offending you, I am convinced, I yield, and must own, that though you have introduced Popery with so much ease, you are the only man in the world that could have so brought things about, and deserve to be General at least of that Army which you have been at the whole trouble of raising.  
But enough of this trifling, let us be a little Serious, and leave off our Laughter, which could not be avoided in Discourse with this Impertinent, grave conceited Politico, this florid Oratorical Buffoon, with his Ragioni det Stato of Sr. Poll, dressed up in the Eloquence of Sir Formal. There is none can be so great a Stranger to the Affairs of this Country, as not to see how strong the Tide runs against Popery; a Tide so impetuous, so strengthened and swelled up with the flowing in of almost all Interests against it, that it can never be stemmed by the small resistance that the most vigorous Prince can make in the head of so ruined, so weak and inconsiderable a party; 'twere folly to attempt it, and extreme madness to hope to effect it. So young as the Reformation was in the Reign of Q. Marry, it might indeed with some ease be plucked up e'er is had taken root, or spread itself over half the Kingdom: The number of Papists in those days being equal at least if not exceeding that of Protestants, and they (as in all reason we must allow) all longing for the restoration of their Religion: But now that this Idolatrous Superstition has been so long worn off of the minds of the people, and the Reformation so deeply and so strongly rooted in the reigns of four most Religious and prudent Princes; the Church of England so firmly established, and that as much by the purity of its Doctrine, the decency of its Discipline, and the Innocency of its Principles, as by the Authority of the public, and the Laws of the Land. The Romish Church so detested both for the dangerous Innovations of its Doctrines, and the Idolaty of its Ceremonies, and so odious in the eyes of the people for its pernicious principles expressed in the Villainous practices of its Professors, in Massacres and Plots all detected, and at last defeated to their utter confusion that engaged in them: Things I say being in this state, it would be a greater Miracle than the most Romantic Legends of that Church has yet to boast of, should it ever be restored in the English Nation. And this our Author himself well enough knows; for though he would persuade the people all along that Popery is just coming in, yet this false satire can blow cold and hot with the same Breath, and can't help owning, That the stubborn English Genius will not bend to the Superstitions of Rome. (p. 39)  
Thus far our Author tells you, he has given you the Portraiture of a Popish King; and indeed it is well he tells you so, for he has drawn such a horrid Figure, so Monstrous and disproportioned a piece, that it was but reason that he should write under the Picture, This is a Popish King, that we might know what to make of it. And now he is for taking a draught of his Features in his Minority, whilst he is only Heir apparent; and this he performs with such fine touches and masterst-roaks, that you may easily perceive it to be the same hand.  
And here for three or four pages we have him only Imagining then, and Imagining likewise, and Supposing now, and Supposing likewise, and supposing moreover, at so extravagant and wild a rate, that his Brain must be very hot that can keep pace with him in his mad career of Fancy. We may only observe that in his overhasty zealous fits of imagination, he forgets himself often, so far as to betray the very grand secret of the party, the ground of all their Popular railing at Popery, and that is no other than their being weary of Monarchy. This is the colour for all the cry against Kingly Government and Right Succession; and as he tells you, this is that makes the Subject's knees so stiff and so stubborn; this makes them in studying to prevent Tyranny, grow jealous of Monarchy; this is that which makes them so far from supplying the real and most pressing necessities of His Majesty, that they triumph in his greatest wants, even when his nearest Safety (mark that) calls for their Assistance; And this is that which in the Language of the late Address gives pretence to that Insolent Threat of breaking the whole Chain of Royal Succession in pieces, (p 23.) So that 'tis plain, though the triple Mitre is struck at, the three Crowns is their aim, nor would they be so violent against Popery, which they can have no ground to be afraid of, unless by very fresh experience, they knew that that was the powerful charm to bring in the people to the ruin of Monarchy, which by this only means is to be destroyed; knowing the multitude to be not unlike the Beasts or Cattle in the Hold of a Ship, which in any Storm that is raised, if they are made apprehensive of the Vessels sinking on one side, run immediately with such a violent panic fear to the other, that they over-set the Ship, and quite overwhelm both themselves and it in ruin and destruction.  
Come we now to the next Argument, which he says a Critic will make use of. Suppose this Popish Heir undoubtedly believes, that there is no way to Heaven but his own, should any consideration upon earth make him to renounce his Principles of Christianity? Why truly I am so far of this Critics mind, as he calls him, that I should think it very unreasonable that the Prince alone should not have the benefit of Liberty of Conscience, which every Subject in his Dominions takes very ill to have denied to himself. But he goes on, And then if all the grievances of a Kingdom lie at his door, 'tis his unhappiness, and not his fault. Very right if some Factious Spirits set the Nation on a flame, and then first cry out Fire, and convey their Fire-Balls into his Pockets, if they make us miserable, and then lay it at his door, 'tis his unhappiness indeed, but not his fault. But see what use our Author makes of this: And so says he, When this Popish Heir comes to the Crown, And promotes the Romish Interest with all the Severity, Injustice, Tyranny and Religious Cruelty can invent— Hold hold, not so fast: You are an excellent Disputant, whose strongest Argugument is begging the Question. You take for granted that all this Severity, and Injustice, and Tyranny, and Religious Cruelty shall be then exercised, and are forsooth chief employed in finding out an excuse to put into this Prince's mouth for doing so; and you have furnished him with a notable one; His answer will be, he cannot help it. Come, come, speak your Conscience, do you really believe this will be his Answer? Yes; a Prince who can do all these mighty things, and act with so Arbitrary and unbounded a power as must be necessary to enable him to all this, after all his Severity, and Injustice, and Cruelty, shall cry Peccavi to his people, with the School Boys Apology, Indeed I could not help it. But such stuff as this may be allowable to our Mr. Bays, that seems to have very little knowledge of any Kings but those of Branford.  
Well, but to make us amends, we have him immediately exercising his Talon in a most Pathetic piece of Rhetoric against Merit, and truly he is in the right of it: For Merit I am sure is never like to do him a kindness; and then presently follows as sharp a fit of Railing at the Romish Religion, a Topick that I can't choose but confess myself extremely delighted with, especially when handled by our Author, who manages it so dextrously, that all his Invectives against that, fall as heavy upon the turbulent fanatics, and so wounds two of our most dangerous enemies at once. For thus he describes Popery, (shall I say) or Presbytery! A Religion that does not go altogether in the old fashion, Apostolical way of Preaching, and Praying, and Teaching all Nations, but scourging, and wracking, and broiling them in the fear of God: A Religion that for its own Propagation will at any time authorise its Champion to divest themselves of their humanity, and act worse than Devils to be Saints. If a man were to transverse this Character of Religion, could he do it more appositely than in these Lines of Hudibras.  
'Twas Presbyterian true Blue,  
For he was of that stubborn Crew,  
Of Errand Saints, whom all men grant,  
To be the true Church Militant.  
Such as build their Faith upon  
The Holy Text of Pike and Gun:  
Decide all Controversies by  
Infallible Artillery.  
And prove their Doctrine Orthodox,  
By Apostolic Blows and Knocks.  
Call Fire and Sword, and Desolation,  
A godly-throw-Reformation  
Well, after this short breathing himself, upon a subject, which he, nor any body else can ever want some fine shrewd thing or other to say, he proceeds thus; I, but (say the wisest Critics we have met with yet) if these be the dangers of a Popish King, why have we not such strong, such potent Laws made before this Popish Heir come to the Crown, that it shall be impossible for him ever to set up Popery, though he should never so much endeavour it?  
Indeed I am mightily rejoiced at our Author's unexpected civility, in allowing this to be the expedient of the wisest Critic he has met with yet, for 'tis no less a Person than His most Sacred Majesties own Proposal and gracious Offer to his two Houses of Parliament, in those several Declarations that he has made to 'em, of his most vigorous assistance in this wise provision for the good of Posterity: An Act becoming both the Justice and the Goodness of such a King, that will neither debar his Brother from that Right by which himself reigns, not leave his people in danger of the loss of their dearest and most sacred Birthrights, their Liberty and Religion. But let us hear what our Politician says to this: I answer (says he) To endeavour to set up Popery by Law, even with the Laws that we have against it, is impossible, p 21. But if you remember Sir, no further off than the 13th. page; You were afraid that even the Protestant Laws themselves might be made to open the first Gate to Slavery, and so to Popery, by the help of those Procrustese's that you were there talking of. And granting this, it would not be so impolitic a piece of work to make such other Protestant Làws, that should not be possibly shortened or stretched by e'er a Procustes of 'em all, and then this projection will not deserve to be accused of Nonsense. Nay we have yourself presently confessing, That a Popish King may be totally restrained from all power of introducing Popery, by the force of such Laws as may be made to tie up his hands. And who is so unreasonoble as to desire any more? Surely Rome's Dagon (as elsewhere you phrase it) will not be so formidable, when like that Egyptian one of old, both its hands shall be broken off, and the power of hurting the true Israelites, the Church of England, wholly taken away. Ay, but then these Laws must be such as must ruin his Prerogative.  
This does not necessarily follow, and I believe His Majesty (in His own Princely Wisdom, and by His Councils Advice) was well enough satisfied that such Laws might be made, as might not quite ruin the Prerogative of his Successor, tho' they might abate much of his Power, in matters relating to the Protestant Religion.  
Besides, granting even thus much, what you infer from this is doubly ridiculous. First, That no Monarch would thus entail that effeminacy on a Crown, as shall render the Imperial Majesty of England but a Pageant, a mere Puppet upon a Wire. For these Laws that bind up a King so strictly, suppose him a Popish King, such only being to be restrained; This is not therefore an entailed Effeminacy, but rather a short eclipsing of the full Splendour of a Crown, which in the next Protestant Successor is to shine forth with the greater Lustre for its former obscurity. And secondly, considering none but a Popish King, is thus to be limited, Is it not foolish enough that you should here be offended at the smallness of his power that would have him utterly debarred the Throne, and so have no power at all.  
As for this Statute, that seems to make such a bluster, with the Tall Capital-Letters at the top, it is as little to his purpose as any thing that he says; For even the strictnéss of that reaches none but those that are lawfully Convicted, and therefore concerns not his R. H. or if it did, the dispute being about the Right of Succession, and no Succession to the Crown being possible till after the Death of the Predecessor, this at that time can be no obstacle to the next Heir, when (according to the whole tenor of the Law) all Attainders cease. Therefore, to urge more forcibly the Exclusion of the Duke, he is insinuating to the people, That if ever a Papist mounts this Throne, than all their Petitions, Protesting and Association-Votes will be remembered to purpose. That is exactly Catiline: The ills that we have done cannot be safe, but by attempting greater. But I am sure there are some men have reason to remember that a King that has had the greatest opposition has been the most gracious Prince that ever reigned, and been so far from remembering to purpose the Traitors that opposed him, that he has forgot'em, even by Act of Parliament. So far is it from being generally true what he says, That he who has gone a long and tiresome journcy through Brakes and Briars, to a splendid Palace, will be sure to send out to root'em up. That the last instance that we have had of such a case makes it appear, that even those little pliable Brambles and Briars that bend and yielded to every blast, let it blow from what quarter it would; and those Brakes and Thorns that stuck so sharply in the sides of Majesty, have not only been retrieved from their due fate of being utterly rooted up, but been admitted into the Palace itself, and made to vie with, and indeed almost to over-top the tallest Cedars themselves, that with unshaken constancy partook in the sufferings of the Royal Cause, and without bending, withstood the force of the whole Storm.  
But now follows a very wise Discourse against the Right of Succession; and to prove that not to be so inviolable as some vehemently assert, we are referred to our own Chronicles. Remember Sir what 'tis you are discoursing of; the Right of Succession, as I take it, and then you shall refer me whither you please. Well then, I take up my Chronicle and fall a reading, and there indeed I find some Kings Murdered and some Deposed, the true Heir sometimes deprived of his Succession by the power of a more prevailing Pretender to the same Right, the Crown bandied about between the Factions of two Houses, laying equal claim to it, and scarce ever firmly settled for any considerable date of years. But all this while I am learned to distinguish between matter of Fact and matter of Right, and know that they are very often opposite to one another; and that no precedent can alter the Nature of an unjust Action, or make it allowable now, because contrary to right it was done some hundred years ago. I am sure the known Statutes of the Land ought to be the Rule of our Duty and Allegiance, rather than our Chronicles; men being to be governed by Law, and not by History, And as for those Acts of Parliament which we find ordering and disposing of the Succession, we shall see how little they make for the purpose for which they are produced. We must therefore note that all these Acts of Parliament, both of Henry VIII. and of Queen Elizabeth, are not made at all to alter the Right of Succession: far from it; nay, rather to establish it; for they are only designed to declare in whom this Right of Succession was, and therefore were indeed necessary both in the times of H. VIII. (whose often Marriages and Divorces, and attainder of his Wives, might make this Right disputable among his Children) and in Queen Elizabeth's time, who being without Issue, had several others that pretended to the Right of succeeding her. These Acts of Parliament (I say) were absolutely necessary, when the Title to the Crown might be dubious, but for the same reason very ridiculously and weakly urged, when it is clear to the blindest Apprehension, who is the true Successor.  
After this no table bout of Law, and a few Statutes and Acts of Parliament, borrowed from some Case-splitter or another; for his stile (for all its dulness) is too florid for a Lawyers; He is flushed enough to think that he may venture to fall upon that which he calls the strongest Argument for Succession. If the Son of a private Gentleman, tho' a Papist, shall inherit, and quietly possess his Hereditary Estate, is it not hard, nay barbarous Injustice, that the Son of a King, and the Heir of a Crown, should lose his Patrimony of three Kingdoms for being a Papist? Indeed I must confess that in my opinion it is very hard, barbarous and unjust, especially when such provision shall be made that we may not be in danger of suffering any thing by his Opinion. But our Author says we are in danger of this; and I say No; and so I find this is at the bottom no more than the former Argument concerning the possibility of Arbitrary Government and Popery ever coming in upon us. And this I think has sufficiently been considered in its place.  
I can't choose but smile at the next undertaking of our Sir Formal, who I perceive has the vanity to believe his Rhetoric can do any thing: He has therefore spun out a most fine Harangue, to persuade the Duke to quit (of his own accord) his pretensions to a Crown, and indeed as to that I have little to answer, but must leave it to be as his Royal Highness and he shall agree upon the matter: Only I must by the way take notice of one o the Arguments he makes use of to this purpose, and try if I can make it as serviceable to another. If then (p. 30.) the little disparity of their years be considered, and the distance and uncertainty of the Duke's ever coming to the Crown duly weighed, surely those men are highly culpable, nay, the greatest Enemies of the public good that can be imagined; who thus for an uncertainty ruin a Kingdom's Peace and Prosperity, and make us run into those ills which we are sure to suffer, in avoiding those which we neither know, or are certain we shall be ever so much as in danger of.  
There is another very remarkable passage in this last Discourse, which (for its extraordinary quaintness of expression, and delicacy of stile) ought by no means to escape us. It is a story of a Noble Roman, who, by the description that he makes of him, can be the pattern of no other than the most deservedly beloved Darling of the People, and who might, for aught we know, do our Nation as much service in the same kind as the other did: He is thus therefore described in blank Heroic Metre, as the dignity of this Subject required.  
When along Plague had reigned in Rome, an Earthquake  
Had opened a prodigious Gulf in the  
Midst of the Forum; their consulted Oracle  
Told'em, That neither should the Plague be stopped,  
Nor the breach closed, till the most Noble Victim  
In Rome appeased their angry Deity.  
When Curtius, a Noble Youth of Rome,  
O' th' best and highest Roman Quality,  
Princely adorned, and mounted gallantly  
On Horseback, with a look so gay, so cheerful,  
More like a Bridegroom than a Sacrifice,  
Amidst a thousand wondering tender Eyes  
Of all his Friends, the Rabble round about him,  
Road headlong down into the yawning Pit.  pag. 19 
Whoever can guests by this lively description of the Authors, who our English Curtius, this Charmer of the People, this Gallant Person so bravely mounted, and so like a Bridegroom is, would do very well to use what Interest he can to persuade him to do as noble an Action as the Roman Curtius did, and try whether by his being a Sacrifice, our Plague that reigns among us would cease: But if this Curtius can't be found out, to be even with our Author I will tell him a story somewhat like his; and tho' possibly not in such exactness of Metre, yet as true, and of as good Authority as that, desiring him and his Friends to consider of it, because I have a fancy that Moses, in this case, is likely to give as good Instruction as Livy. There were certain turbulent Spirits among the Children of Israel, that had stirred up the people to rebel against their Guide Moses, and their Highpriest Aaron, which was then all their Church and State: Upon this the Earth opened a prodigious Gulf in the midst of their Tents; but here one single Victim would not satisfy, neither would the mouth of the Earth (that was opened) be content with less than the Ringleaders of the Sedition, with all that adhered unto 'em, who together went down quick into the Pit; (Numb. 16. v. 30.) and so as the Psalmist says, The Earth opened, and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the Congregation of Abiram.  
And now I think we are at last come to that which is indeed Ratio ultima, and find our Author justifying the Rebellion of Subjects against their Prince: An Argument which I take the public Ministers of Justice more concerned to answer than myself; for he who done't know who the Lords Anointed is, and who it his Native Sovereign, (p. 31.) in my opinion ought not otherwise to be convinced. But because at last he is for summing up all, (p. 34.) Let us fee what is the utmost strength of his reasons for Rebellion; why that is this, That a Popish King is guilty of a greater sin in bringing in Popery and Tyranny, than the People that take up Arms against him, (p. 34) Is not this excellent arguing; supposing even this Proposition to be true? Because a Prince is guilty of a sin, must the people be guilty of another? Ay, but he is guilty of a greater than they: Suppose then a Prince should commit Incest, may his people by this be warranted to commit Adultery or Fornication, because their sin is not as big as his? Or to our purpose, if a Prince be enticed into the Witchcraft of Rome, as our Author elsewhere calls it, will this Authorise the People's Rebellion, which the Scripture tells us is mighty like that very sin, the sin of Witchcraft? This is so absurd and so foolish a defence of so abominable and pernicious a Position, as deserves both the Rods and Axes of the Magistrate, the Rod for the Fools back, and the Axe for the Traitor's head, if it be not too great an Honour.  
And now because the writer of the Popish Character has had the boldness to Address his Libel to You the most Noble Lords and Worthy Patriots of the two Houses of Parliament; I likewise at last take the Confidence to throw this Answer of mine at your Feet, with my humble Petition in the behalf of almost a whole Distracted Nation: That in your great Wisdom you will take such moderate courses as may once more make us a happy people, that you would secure us against Popery without destroying Monarchy, or which is the same thing, making this an Elective Kingdom, which has ever been Hereditary; that you would take care of that Church which is so miserably beset with enemies on both sides, and which is so firm a friend to the State, that they have ever both risen and fallen together. Lastly I must conjure you by the Spirits of all those Englishmen, that in our last unnatural Wars fell on both sides, by the Heroes of Edgehill, of Naseby, of Worcester, and of all those Fatal Fields that were then Fought, by the Cries of the Widows which then were made, and the Curses of those Mothers which that Cruel Scene made to be so no more, by all the Miseries we remember, and all that we can fear or expect: And lastly, by the blood of that Royal Martyr, whose memory we to this day celebrate, I conjure you as you expect to answer it to God and a whole Nation, to take care above all things that we have not a Civil War entailed upon us, to sweep away what the former has left: that we may never more run into that extremity of Madness, which not long since made one of the most Powerful and Happy Kingdoms in the World, the pity and contempt of all the Nations round about her.  
And having made this most humble Address to your Honourable Assembly, I shall take my leave of my Reader, in an Ode of Horace to this purpose, a very little altered; 'Tis his 17 th'. Epod to the people of Rome, his Countrymen, dehorting 'em from engaging in a Civil War twice in one Age, where by the easiness of the application of it to our present times and Nation, we may find that the people of England have learned somewhat else from Rome besides its Religion, which is at least even as destructive as that.  


Ad Populum Anglicanum detestatio Belli Civilis. Hor. Ep. 7.  
QVo, quo scelesti ruitis? aut cur dexteris  
Aptantur enses conditi?  
Parumne campis atque Neptuno super  
Fusum est Britanni Sanguinis?  
Non fastuosas invidae Lutetiae  
 Anglus arces ureret,  
Iterumve Rex ut Gallicus descenderet  
Nostris Catenatus viis,  
Sed ut, secundum vot a Gallorum, suâ  
Gens haec periret dexterâ.  
Neque hic lupis mos nec fuit leonibus  
Vnquam, nisi in dispar, feris.  
Furorne caecus, an rapit vis acrior?  
An culpa? Responsum date.  
Tacent & ora pallor albus inficit  
Mentesque perculsae stupent.  
Sic est: Acerba fata Brittones agunt,  
Scelusque Regiae necis.  
 immerentis pegma tinxit Caroli  
Sacer nepotibus cruor.   

To the People of England; A Detestation of Civil War, out of Horace's 7th Epod.  
OH! Whither do ye rush, and thus prepare?  
To rouse again the sleeping War?  
Has then so little English-Bloud been spilt  
On Sea, and Land with equal guilt?  
Not that again; we might our Arms advance,  
To check the insolent Pride of France.  
Not that once more we might in Fetters bring  
An humble Captive Gallic King:  
But to the wish of the insulting Gaul,  
That we by our own hands should fall.  
Nor Wolves nor Lions bear so fierce a mind;  
They hurt not their own Savage kind  
Is it blind Rage, or Zeal, more blind and strong,  
Or Gild, yet stronger, drives you on?  
Answer; but none can answer; mute and pale  
They stand; Gild does o'er Words prevail.  
'Tis so: Heavens Justice threatens us from high;  
And a King's Death from Earth does cry;  
 since the Martyrs Innocent Blood was shed,  
Upon our Fathers, and on Ours, and on our children's head.    
FINIS.